Annalyn is THREE

     Little Annalyn has officially turned three this month. She sure is getting big. Her hair is getting long and it is starting to lose some of its curl. Anna loves to let me fix her hair and to get dressed up all fancy. She loves when I put braids or buns in her hair. She loves wearing make-up and painting her toes. She dresses herself and wants to buckle her car seat without any help. She has these rubber polka dot boot that she loves to wear with every outfit, even dresses or skirts. Those shoes are getting a hole in them and she is really concerned about that. Anna still loves to eat candy and all things sweet. She loves to be babied and cuddled. She loves animals and has been playing lots of pretend with Brynlee lately. She has been super demanding and bossy lately but is is also very compassionate and helpful. She plays really well by herself. She sure is a sweet girl and we all love her.

I asked Anna a few questions about some of her favorite things and this is what she told me.

Facts About Annalyn:
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Movie: The Pink Dinosaur Movie
Best Friends: Josie, Snow White, and Anna (from Frozen)
Favorite Thing to do: Play with mom and Kyla and Aunt Joanna
Favorite Thing to do Outside: Play on the Trampoline
Favorite Food: Eggs
Favorite Song: Jesus Walked Away From None
Favorite Toy: Bear Toy
Favorite Game: Going on a Bear Hunt (the song)
Favorite Book: The Baby Bear book
Favorite Animal: Elephant
Favorite thing to do with Family: Play Hide and Seek
What she want to be when she grows up: An Elephant
Height: 37.8 in. (58%)
Weight: 34 lbs (75%)

      Lately her favorite toys are all of the cupcakes, the fake ice cream, and the other fake cookies and stuff from her kitchen set. She would carry them in her purse everywhere we went for a while. She had a hamburger patty she called a brownie and a fake apple pie turnover that she called licorice. She really loves to play with pretend animals. She has several plastic animals that she loves to line up and then she makes them have pretend conversations. There is a baby and a momma of each one and she likes the babies the best. She still loves babies. She likes the dinosaurs, bears, hippos and the elephants the best of all the animals. She likes to play with her stuffed animals as well, especially the care bears. She loves watching movies about animals too. She still loves the Land Before Time as well and Ice Age, and Dumbo. She really likes to color and could sit and color or paint for a long time. She always lasts much longer than Brynlee.

     Anna has been going through this weird phase where she is terrified of all kinds of things. It first started when we were playing outside and an airplane flew overhead. She started screaming and would not come back outside. She was convinced there were monsters in the plane and that they would jump down on her. Then the next day a tractor drove by and she freaked out and would not go outside. She saw a fly and grandma Hirtle's house and she could not be calmed down until Grandpa squished it. She has stayed really close to me when we are outside for fear of an airplane flying overhead or a fly landing on her. She is also scared of bumblebees. Then she went to preschool at Katianna's house and she found a crack on their ceiling and it terrified her. I had to go and pick her up and she kept talking about the scary crack all week. She did go to preschool next week after we examined the crack and decided it was safe. Hopefully this is just a phase and she will grow out of it soon.

Annalyn loves band-aids and tries to put one on every cut or sore. She is really concerned when others have owies too and is quick to give them kisses and band-aids. Lately Anna cries whenever she doesn't get her way and she is super persistent and stubborn. She is also a really great helper. She likes to put her shirts on the hangers after I do laundry and then she lines all of her shirts along the living room. She also likes to help me change my laundry from the washer to the dryer and her favorite part is to push the button to make it start. She is getting better at cleaning up her messes but most of the time she avoids doing them and she seems to somehow convince Brynlee to help her. As soon as Brynlee starts helping, Anna heads off and lets Brynlee do all the work. Brynlee hasn't fallen for that tactic lately.

On some days Annalyn loves playing with Kyla but on other days she gets really annoyed with her. For the most part she loves both of her sisters. She plays well with Brynlee's friends but mainly she likes to have them baby her and take care of her. She copies Brynlee a lot and likes to do whatever Brynlee does. She doesn't seem to get along with kids her own age. Mainly because she doesn't like to share.

Anna talks a lot and most of the time I can understand her perfectly but other people have a hard time understanding her. She likes to sing and has a pretty good memory for songs. She can count to 19 but she still skips a few numbers every time she counts. She can sing her ABC and she knows that her birthday is in March. Just don't ask her how old she is. Her response is usually "Old. Old and Old." She will sometimes hold up three fingers when I ask her that question but most of the time she will tell me she is ten or seven or five. She never says three. Annalyn know the full name of everyone in our family and she likes to call us by them all the time. Lately she has been going by my name. She tells everyone to call her "A-lit-uh."

Annalyn is really just my little buddy and I couldn't imagine life without her. She loves to sit on my lap and cuddle with me. She is calm and usually happy. We all love her to pieces. Annalyn really has changed so much in the last three years. I am going to leave you with a few pictures so you can compare how much she has grown.

Kyla - 9 Months

     My little baby is not really a little baby anymore. She weighs 19 lbs. (65%) and she is 28 in. (65%) with a head circumference of 17.5 in. (68%). She is crawling all over the place, getting into things, and she is even starting to eat real big people food. She already has two little teeth in her mouth. Her left bottom tooth popped up first and the right one followed three weeks behind so for a while she only had one tooth down there. 

     Kyla seemed to just start crawling one day right after she turned eight months and as soon as she figured it out she was off. There is no stopping her now and she is quite fast. She loves to follow her sisters and me all around the house. She really loves that she can be involved in playing with her sisters. Now that she can crawl Brynlee keeps picking her up and moving her around which makes Kyla really mad. Right after Kyla learned to crawl she also learned to pull herself up to stand. Brynlee was in the bathroom with her the first time she did it and Brynlee started calling us to come and see since we wouldn't believe it. Kyla was standing against the bathtub. As soon as Joel got there to witness it Kyla fell and hit her head on the door. She got herself a nice little bruise. 

     I finally decided I had to sleep train little Kyla. She got sick and had a fever for about a week last month. I took her to the doctor thinking maybe she had an ear infection but it must have just been some kind of virus. She woke up so much during the night and even when she got better she kept waking up. I was so tired. She was still in our room but I still decided to do the sleep training with her one night. I don't think Joel was ver thrilled since he was up half of the night listening to her cry and he had to work the next day. It took a while but eventually she went to sleep. It took about two more nights of her waking up but then we had over a week where she didn't wake up at all. She did wake up last night though. Mostly because Brynlee came into our room after having a bad dream and she woke Kyla up. Then Kyla figure out how to pull herself up to stand on the side of her porta crib and she just stared at me and cried. I held firm and didn't pick her up. I just had to lay her back down several times. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. 

Kyla is seriously so observant and she is completely content when I just hold her. She will still fall asleep in my arms during church and during the day but most of the time she falls asleep and naps in her bed. Her naps are very unpredictable. She will get tired and fall asleep while I feed her only to wake up a few minutes later and refuse to sleep again. She likes to hold onto my fingers and walk around the house and is starting to get some good balance. She is getting so grown up and we sure do love watching her learn and discover new things. (I took some pictures of her in one of my old dresses that I wore when I was her age.) 

February Love

     The weather was nice again this month so we enjoyed playing outside. We celebrated Valentine's Day, had fun with Preschool and we spent lots of time looking at places to build a house and trying to figure out all of the money stuff that comes with it. We found a place where we want to build and we have a house plan drawn up that we like. There are still several more details to work out but hopefully we can buy a lot and start building a house soon.

     The girls and I made heart and butterfly shaped sugar cookies for Valentines day this year. Then we hid them in our tent and sent Joel on a treasure hunt to find them. Bryn and Anna were seriously so excited about it. Joel bought balloons and a heart rose for the girls to find in the morning and they were super thrilled about that. For me Joel had a beautiful plant and there was a piece of paper attached to it. It was a cell phone contract. I looked at it for a long time and finally had to wake Joel up and ask him, "what does this mean?" We talked about getting new phones for a long time but we never did and now that we are wanting to build a house I thought it would be a few more years until we got new phones. It took a few weeks for us to set up the phones but we now have the ability to send and receive text message and we don't have to watch and be careful that we don't go over our minutes. It was a huge surprise. So if you text me now I can actually respond. I am really excited about being able to take picture on my phone too. Joel and I never did go on a date that night but we took the girls out to a chinese buffet place the weekend before and we enjoyed that.

     It was kind of a simple low key month. Kyla is becoming a fast little crawler and she loves to follow her big sisters and me around the house. Although she likes to be with her sisters the most. Brynlee keeps picking her up and walking around the house with her and Kyla does not appreciate that.

     Annalyn loves to get her hair fixed and to get dressed up. She can't wait for her birthday that is coming up in March. She is almost three. She loves to play and is so much fun. She loves to sing songs and she keeps our life entertaining.

     Brynlee loves playing with her friends and had lots of fun play dates this month. Her hair seems to be getting much darker and thicker and her head has been really sensitive. She cries when I try to brush it no matter how gentle I am and she hates getting it washed. She only wants me to fix her hair "straight down." She also only wants to wear short sleeved shirts and pants lately.

Some Funny Stuff

     Here is another post of all the things that have made me laugh lately. I hope you enjoy.

     For a while our girls kept waking up in the middle of the night and sneaking into our room. There were a few nights when we would wake up with all three girls in our bed. That was during the week when Kyla was sick and the girls had colds. There was one night that week that Brynlee came into our room late at night and Joel was obviously dreaming about flying trusses at work. They had been flying trusses that day. Brynlee tried to snuggle up to her dad and Joel yelled at her, "Get out of here Brynlee! It isn't safe. We are flying these trusses and I don't want them to fall on you. Get out of here Now, before you get hurt!" Brynlee didn't get out right away, she just started crying which only made Joel worry more about her safety. He yelled some more incoherent sentences about how dangerous it was for Brynlee to be in our bed. I just started laughing. I carried her back to bed and Joel could only vaguely remember what had happened the next day.

    After church a few Sundays ago Brynlee and I were asking Annalyn about what she did in Nursery. I was asking her if she played with one of the new little girls that just moved in. Brynlee didn't know her so she asked Anna,
Bryn: "Anna, what color dress was she wearing?"
Anna: "White"
Bryn: "What color was her hair?"
Anna: "Brown."
Bryn: What color were her eyes?
Anna: Pink.
Bryn: What color was her skin?
Anna: Orange!

     Another Sunday at church we were walking through the halls when Annalyn stopped, bent down low, and then she went up to a lady and pulled on her dress. When the lady acknowledged her Anna bent down on the ground again and started petting this ladies shoes telling her how much she liked them. "I lub your shoes. I don't have shoes like that."

      Annalyn: "I can't drive. I is just a liddle gurl. I am going to drive when I grow up and get big Big BIG!"

     We were at my grandma's house and my cousin Ryder took his shoe and flung it off of his foot. His mom and grandma both got onto him and told him not to throw his shoe. Brynlee looked at Ryder and told him, " I can throw my shoes at my house. My mom doesn't see me."I guess I need to start watching her more.

     Another day at church on our way out the door Brynlee noticed that one of the primary teacher had the same keychain on her bag that Brynlee has at home.
Brynlee: Hey, I used to have one of those when I was a little girl.
Teacher: Oh, you had one when you were a little girl huh.
Annalyn: Yeah, I am going to get one when I get Big Big Big.
Brynlee: Did you know that you are old and someday you are going to die?
Oh kids. Sometimes they are so embarrassing.

     At grandma's house one day Annalyn came up to my grandma and asked her if she wanted to see her panties. "No Anna" I said "we shouldn't show people our panties."
Anna: Yeah, I just want to show you.
Grandma: How about if you just tell me what kind you have?
Anna: Just watch.
Grandma: I know are they Cinderella?
Anna: No
Grandma: How about Frozen? A princess? Green ones? Batman?
Anna: No no no. Let me show you.
Me: Anna don't pull your pants down.
Anna: Look
Me: Annalyn! Where are you panties?
Anna: See, I didn't want to wear panties today.
Yeah, We would not have guessed that.

     My dad had a birthday earlier this month and Brynlee decided she wanted to give him a present. She wrapped up one of her singing stuffed animals in a gift bag and was all ready to bring it to him. Then Annalyn got two of her most favorite swimming suits and her "dinosaur movie" and put them in a gift bag for my dad. I tried to convince Annalyn to keep those at home and instead we made a card for my dad and we put the picture in a gift bag. I put the movies away but then Anna got really mad and insisted that she was going to give those presents to her grandpa. We were meeting my dad for lunch at Idaho Pizza but I told the girl to leave the presents in the van and we would give the presents to him later. We were running kind of late so when they started to throw a fit I just let it slide and they ran in the restaurant and had given my dad those presents before I was even done paying for our food. I think my dad was just thrilled to get two Annalyn sized swimming suits, Anna's favorite movies, and one of Brynlee's toys. At least we all had a good laugh. A few days later Annalyn realized what a mistake she had made when she wanted to watch her movies. "I don't want to give those movies to grandpa!" She cried over and over again. Every time she brought the movie up and I would tell her that the movie was at grandpa's house she would yell at me. She did not want those movies to be at grandpa's house. I tried to talk to her about what a nice gesture it was but she just wanted it back. My dad ended up giving those things back to Annalyn and he told her to keep them at her house. She was pretty excited to get them back.

     Annalyn asked me to make her a "Cinderella dun" in her hair the other day. She wanted a bun so I made her one. As soon as it was done she had to go potty. I came to check on her and make she she wasn't destroying the bathroom and she told me, "I is just pooping like Cinderella with my dun."

     We were eating hamburgers at my mom's house when Annalyn started crying. Their dog Gunner ate her hamburger. When my mom heard what happened she asked Annalyn how Gunner got ahold of her hamburger. This is what Anna told her, "I was just trying to feed him my lettuce, but then, he ate the whole thing. Even the meat!"

     My girls decided they wanted some banana bread one night. I told them we could make some later that day. I was trying to finish dinner when I discovered that they had already started to make banana bread. They had about seven or eight bananas mashed up and They were getting out the other ingredients and all of the utensils they would need. They ended up mixing up a bath of banana bread right in the middle of our kitchen floor. I helped them a little by telling them how much of everthing they would need but they did it all on their own and I am pleased to report that they made some pretty tasty banana bread. I sure do love my three crazy girls.

Kyla 8 Months

     I am having a hard time believing that this little baby is already eight months old. She is now rolling all over the place, scooting on the floor, and is so close to crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks and can crawl/inch forward a few feet. She can go from sitting to a crawl position and then back to a sitting position. I am sure she will really take off any day now. She has been much more content to just play on the floor now that she can get things to play with but I hate this stage when she has to put everything she finds in her mouth. I have already had to fish several things out of her mouth. The thing I find most often are those little plastic hair rubber bands. (Now that I am finally getting around to posting this, Kyla is really crawling all over the place. It didn't take her long.)

      This month Kyla got her first tooth. Her left bottom one came up a few weeks ago. Kyla also got RSV and she was really sick and miserable feeling with the RSV at the same time she was teething. Neither of us got any sleep for about a week. The only way I could get her to sleep was to hold her or to let her sleep in our bed. I am hoping we can move her to her own room soon and then we will have to get her to sleep better on her own. Even for her nap this baby sleeps really well while I hold her but she will only take a really short nap in her bed. She got spoiled while she was sick since I just held her while she slept. We are working on breaking her of that habit. I just hope she finishes teething soon.

     When Kyla gets tired she will start to fuss and will resist letting me hold her and cuddle her at first. As soon as she puts her thumb in her mouth, I know we are golden. Then she just snuggles right into my arms and closes her eyes. She seems to be good after only a short cat nap and then she wants down for another round. She rarely falls asleep after I nurse her.

     Kyla is making lots more sounds and she even said mama! Bynlee is trying to get her to say Bryn since I told her that Brynlee would be hard for Kyla to say and Annalyn is still working on Anna.

     Kyla got to try lots of new foods and so far I really haven't found anything that she won't eat. She was not a huge fan of the avocados or the rice cereal I gave her but she ate it. We feed her at the table with us, (she sits in the high chair) at least twice a day for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is trickier but I try to give her some kind of fruit in the morning. Usually it is a little bit of a banana. I need to start giving her more rice cereal. I have given her lots of mashed up fruits and veggies that she can feed herself but I have to be careful because she chokes really easily. She does all right with things likes peas and green beans but I have to smash them up first. 

     Kyla is finally growing some hair and her bald spot in the back is almost gone. Her eyes are looking more and more like they are going to be a dark blueish hazel color. She sure is a cute and cubby little baby. I think she is gorgeous. 

     Kyla got to go outside a few times during her last month of life but I don't think she really knew what to think of the whole thing. She was so unsure about the grass. I sat her down in the grass and she cried and would not let her hands touch the stuff at all. She just whined and waited for me to come and get her. Once I sat by her and played with the grass she seemed to calm down and relax around it but she didn't want anything to do with it. She loved the swing and she had a good time watching the chickens. 

     Kyla is such an inquisitive and observant baby. She loves to watch her big sisters and she giggles with glee every time they pay attention to her. She really puts up with a lot of being packed around and picked on and she takes it really well.

     Lately this baby seems pretty calm, laid back, content, and easy. Except for the whole not sleeping thing; she has been a dream. When I take her places she is happy to just let me hold her. She still goes to other people but she shows a strong preference for her family members, namely me and then her dad. I have loved getting to hold and snuggle this cute little baby. She sure is a sweet little girl. 

January 2015

     It's a brand new year full of all kinds of new possibilities. We are all looking forward to what this new year will bring. We started out the year by making some new year's resolutions. Joel and I both want to lose some weight and we want to build a house. We are a little uncertain about the future of Joel's job but I think we are just going to go on faith and move forward with our plan to build. The only thing we need now is some land to build on. Joel has been bringing home a whole bunch of leftover materials from the job sites he works at and he bought some industrial commercial heavy duty carpet for our future house. It has a wild design on it so I was a little worried about using it in our whole house. I think it would work in a bonus room or something though. We are thinking about building in a subdivision where the land is cheaper. Then we will live in the house for a few year and sale it so we can make some money. 

     Brynlee's goal for the new year is to learn how to swim and Annalyn wants to learn how to ride a horse and a baby bear. Haha, I don't know how she will accomplish the bear thing. As for Kyla, I suppose she just wants to learn how to crawl, walk, and talk. She has almost got the crawling thing down so she is well on her way.

     Brynlee got to go to the CTR 4 class at church and she was so excited to get a CTR ring. For days after she got it she would tell me how much her ring was helping her to choose the right. A few times she would tell me something like... "Mom, I almost hit Anna but then I saw my ring and that reminded me to Choose the Right so then, I didn't hit her!" Anna has one more year in nursery. I am still teaching primary with my mom but since our class is so much smaller they are having us take turns teaching and then going to relief society. It is kind of nice to get to attend relief society again but it has taken some getting used to. I would really rather just teach the class by myself but at least now my mom can take the baby when it is my turn to teach.

     We started doing preschool again and I even got brave and signed the girls up for music class at the library. Brynlee has been asking if she could do it again and so far they have all been pretty good and they really enjoy going.

     All of my girls got colds this month. Kyla got hers when Brynlee and Anna seemed to be over them and she was miserable. She was also getting some teeth at the same time but I spent almost an entire night up with a crying baby one night. She also sounded really wheezy so I took her to the pediatrician and it was confirmed that she had RSV. There was nothing they could do for her since it is just a virus. Her oxygen levels were fine so I just had to watch her. We spent several more night up with her just being miserable. It is also very contagious for other babies so we didn't go anywhere for a week and a half. We had to cancel preschool and I had to stay home from church with her. I am so glad she is feeling better. One of her teeth broke through and hopefully the other one comes up soon so that she will sleep through the night again. She really has been such an easy baby lately. I got lucky with her.

     There was a little bit of snow at the beginning of the month and the girls had fun building a snowman. It was a small one. Now they are ready for it to be summer so they can go swimming. The month ended with some really nice weather and we had fun playing outside but it is still jacket weather.

     We went and got our picture taken at JCPenneys so that we could put more pictures in the picture frame Joel made me. I still need at least one more picture but I like how it turned out. 

I have been wanting to do something different with my hair for a while but I still wanted to keep it long. My sister Heather has been wanting to put some color in my hair for a while so I finally let her. I really like it. She just did some subtle strands of color so it is just a small change.

     My girls still get into lots of mischief but they have been obsessed with watching movies. I usually let them watch one after they finish up all of their chores and then they are pretty good. I don't like them watching so much television but it is hard to not let them watch at least one show a day. They still play a lot and we have lots of friends over to play all the time. We put the tent up again and they have had a blast playing in there. Their latest favorite thing to do is to play hide and go seek. They are constantly trying to get me to play with them. I am not allowed to find them right away either. I have to look in at least five other places before I can find them. Annalyn giggles so much during that game. I love it.

 We spent lots of time playing games, reading books, playing with toys, and spending time with family. We really are loving life and we can't wait to see what this new year will bring.