Fabulous May

     Another month has come and gone. We enjoyed the warm weather and we have been busy helping Grandma put in her garden and working on our new house. Grandma and my aunt Lora found a little kitten that they rescued and my girls love going over there to hold that kitten and feed the neighbors goats. We have been keeping busy. Music class at the library ended so now we are looking forward to the summer reading program at the library. We are also done with preschool for the year. The girls have been playing with their dress-up clothes a lot lately. They can play for hours and keep themselves entertained really well. It has been a great month.

     We went to a park with my sister Heather and her kids and the kids had a blast playing on the playground equipment, eating a picnic lunch and playing in the splash pad. Even Kyla liked playing in the water. It took Anna a while to get in the water. She seemed to prefer to watch or to play on the slides. I can't blame her since that water was cold.

     Since Joel has been so busy with the house I have had to take over the job of looking after the chickens so we have all been spending lots more time outside. The kids love to play on the trampoline, swing, and dig in the dirt for worms. Brynlee learned how to swing on her own and she has been swinging all the time. I love that she can do it by herself. We had lots of cotton from our cottonwood trees that kept blowing on our trampoline so it looked like there was snow on it for a while. The kids loved jumping on it then but Kyla kept trying to eat all the cotton and the sticks.

      At  our new house, we just finished pouring the foundation and will begin framing sometime this week. There were lots of hard lava rocks that Joel had to dig out of the way and he had to drive all the way to Post Fall, Idaho to pick up the foam blocks he wanted to use for our foundation. That is a 7 hour drive one way so he left at 3am on a Friday morning, loaded up the blocks and then drove home and unloaded them around 7:30 that night. It was a long day of driving. Someone from the ward volunteered to watch my girls so I could go and help him put the blocks together the next day. It was kind of fun; almost like putting together legos. The kids were all happy and the baby fell asleep so Joel took me on a drive in his truck (this was the first time I ever got to ride in it. It is a windy ride.) so we could get home more parts that we needed. Then he bought me some ice cream and made it like an official date. I had lots of fun. I even got to help him pour concrete, but we had several other people come over to help so I don't think her really needed my help. Our new neighbor even came over and helped. The kids and I have been over there a lot in the evenings helping Joel to pick up garbage and keep things cleaned up. It has been hard to have all of Joel's free time spent at the house but it should be worth it in the end.

Quotes from the Kids

The funny quotes just keep coming. Here are the latest funny quotes and stories from Brynlee and Annalyn.

     When I took Kyla in for her last check-up (her 9 month) Brynlee and Anna both came with me. They had to poke Kyla's foot for an iron check and as soon as Brynlee found out about that she freaked out and started crying; begging the doctor not to hurt her sister. She ran and hid in the corner of the office crying. Kyla didn't cry for the poke at all and Brynlee was super impressed with her and eventually came out of her hiding place to check on Kyla.

     At that same doctor's visit, Dr. Bennett asked Brynlee about starting kindergarten next year and she mentioned that mom would probably cry when Brynlee had to start school. Brynlee looked incredulously at her. "Cry? Why would my mom cry? Anna and Kyla will stay home with her." "That is true," Dr. Bennett said, "but moms seem to always cry when their oldest and youngest kids go to kindergarten and when then graduate from high school. That is just the way it works." Brynlee then started talking about how she was the oldest, Anna was in the middle, and Kyla was the youngest. "Yes, for now that's the way it is," Br. Bennett said. "Maybe your mom will have another baby." Yeah," Brynlee replied, "my mom is going to have a baby boy." I was quick to add "umm, yeah maybe someday we will have another baby and it might be a boy." "Yeah, it is going to be a boy," says Brynlee. "When I grow up I am going to marry my baby brother."

     When we cut Brynlee's hair we decided to give her an A-line, where the hair is a little bit shorter in the back. The first thing Brynlee asked me the next morning after she got her hair cut was, "mom how does my hair look? Is the line A-line still there?

     Lately Brynlee's stories have gotten more and more unbelievable. If I ask her a question about what she did that day or what she learned at preschool I seem to get some truth woven into this really long drawn out crazy story. For Example...

     We went to the mall a few weeks ago and my mom went to help Brynlee try on some pants. Apparently Brynlee had a little rip in her panties. When my mom asked her how she got that rip Brynlee told her this: "I was holding a baby tiger and the baby tiger scratched me with her claws right on my panties and the tiger ripped my panties a little bit."

      I asked Brynlee if she wanted pizza the other night and she cheered with excitement before she told me, "Yeah mom, I just only want the kind that comes in a box. I don't want the kind that you make." Gee, thanks Brynlee.

     They changed my visiting teaching route a few months ago and when we went to go visiting teaching and Brynlee found out that we weren't going to visit Sister Hellewell anymore she started crying and yelling. "This is so stupid. I hate this!"

     In primary a few weeks ago they were having a conversation about cleaning up rooms and the question was asked about what would happen if you didn't clean your room. One child talked about how your mom could trip and fall on some of your toys. Brynlee then shouted out, "Yeah and if your mom is walking out in the garden she could fall and trip over a Worm!" All the older kids seemed to just shake their heads but Brynlee and the kids in the four year old class all laughed. Then another kid in Brynlee's class had to one up Brynlee and say that their mom could trip over a snake. Brynlee and her friend laughed so hard at that while the teacher who was teaching just ignored them and kept right on teaching. Four Year Olds.

     Brynlee found some worms outside and made them a little home in the house. She really wanted to feed them so I told her she could give them some of the lettuce from our fridge. She brought it to me and asked, "Do you think the worms would like some Ranch with their lettuce; or no?"

     Brynlee was looking through my baby calendar when she looked at me and asked, "Mom, did an Eagle bring you to your family?" I was confused until Brynlee showed me the book. There was a picture of a stork to  depict the day I was born. I tried to explain that to Brynlee and she just nodded her head and said, "Oh, I guess they just didn't want to show you mom's tummy because it was naked."

     Lately Brynlee has been asking people all kinds of embarrassing questions. She told my grandma she didn't think she should be shoveling the dirt to plant some flowers because she was old. She asked someone with a tattoo why they had written on their hand. She asked someone that was wearing a sports bra to exercise if they were wearing their underwear. She asked me in front of someone who was overweight why people have big booties. We have been working on appropriate questions.

     Brynlee and Annalyn have both been obsessed with listening to music in the van and they like to sing along with the radio. Brynlee likes to pretend that the radio is her voice. Her favorite song was the "Cool Kid" song by Echosmith. I let her watch some YouTube videos of the song and she has been singing it for weeks. She also keeps asking people if they are cool kids. I was talking to one of our neighbors and Brynlee even asked her if she was a cool kid. The questions this girls thinks of. Oh My.

     Another day after riding in the van Brynlee kept singing, "Hungry like you do, Hu Hu Hungry like you do," over and over again. I finally realized she was singing the song we had heard in the van but the words were really "Hold me like you do," Brynlee just thought they were singing Hungry like you do. Haha!

     The neighbor's dog came into our yard one day and didn't seem to want to leave. The dog is really friendly and we know the dog's name is Lucy. As soon as it looked like that dog was going to stay, Brynlee got really excited. "I guess we have a dog now. I can't believe this. I am going to name her LuLu. Come here LuLu." She was disappointed when the dog went back home.

     Joel was talking to someone after church one Sunday and his wife (sis. Law) came up to him. Brynlee asked sister Law if that was her boyfriend. She chuckled and told her that was her husband and that he was her sweetie pie. Brynlee gave her the best grin.

     I took the kids for a walk a while ago. The plan was to put the baby in the moby wrap and to push the girls in the stroller but Brynlee really wanted to ride her bike and promised she could keep up. Kyla is getting pretty big for the moby wrap so that seemed like an easier solution. I kept asking Brynlee if she wanted to turn back around but she insisted on going further. We were about five minutes from our house when Brynlee decided she couldn't go any more. Annalyn wanted to ride Brynlee's bike but she still has a hard time with the pedals and she kept getting stuck and we were going really slow. At that point Kyla decided she was ready to get out and she started screaming. I got her out and held her, put Anna back in the stroller, and threw the bike on top of the stroller. It was not an easy way to walk but we made it back home in one piece. We are not doing that again.

     My girls loves oranges and they are constantly asking me to peel them. I learned the hard way that they do not like it when I take off all of the white part on the outside of the orange. The first time I peeled an orange and took that off they refused to eat it because they didn't want to get juice on their hands. Without the white part, the orange is too juicy to eat. 

     Last time we went out to watch Joel work on our house Brynlee came crying hysterically to me because she had found some little red ants. At least she told me they were little red ants. I told her that they wouldn't bite her and to stop crying and go play but to leave them alone. Brynlee wanted more assurance that they wouldn't bite her and I promised they wouldn't. The next thing I know she is screaming and then Annalyn starts screaming. Those girls were playing with the big red ants and they got bit. Brynlee got bit on her leg and Anna got bit on her arm and her back. Brynlee was really mad since I told her they wouldn't bite. I took the kids home to doctor them up and the whole way home Brynlee kept crying while saying, "I hate those ants. I am never going to play with those ants ever again." I think not playing with them is a wise choice on her part. For a while she didn't want to move to that house because of the ants but I told her we would get rid of them so she is fine with that.

     For family night one day we decided to play soccer as a family. Brynlee really impressed me with how good she was. She really got into it and is a pretty good little players. She figured out what to do and was really involved in the game. Annalyn pretty much cried through our entire game. Every time anyone took the ball from her, got in her way, or even came close to her and looked like they would take the ball, she would cry and grab the ball with her hands. She didn't want anyone to take away her ball. We let her have the ball a few times and she got to score a goal and then she was happy but she refused to pass the ball or let anyone else get near her. Anna is not very fun to play with.

     Annalyn loves to talk to people on the phone. The other day I was trying to call customer service for my cell phone and Annalyn kept begging to talk to the sales person. Later that day her dad called and Anna begged to talk to him. The first she she said was "dad, we are all out of chocolate milk. We need to go to the store and buy some more."

     Annalyn has been obsessed with braces lately. We were out running some errands one day when Annalyn walked up to a teenage girl, stared at her mouth, and then smiled at her and said, "Hey, I lub your braces."

     Annalyn still struggles with her speech. An s sound is usually pronounced as a b sound. The other day she kept asking me if we could make a "booby" I was really confused until she brought me the blender. She wanted to make a smoothie. She can't say the F sound either. For the word fish she says "bits" and it sounds like she is saying a bad work every time. She was telling her dad she wanted to catch a "bits" the other day and he was shocked. I had to explain that she meant fish.

     We were at my grandma's house the other day and she sent Annalyn home with a bag of Jelly beans to share with everyone. We then stopped by our house to take Joel his dinner and Annalyn told Joel he could have some of her Jelly Beans. She was very clear that he couldn't eat them all so Joel saved her five little Jelly Beans. When Annalyn saw that there were only five left she was disgusted. She could not believe that her dad only saved her five jelly beans. And the worst part was that there was only one pink Jelly bean left. She was mad at him for a long time for eating those. It was several days later when I was talking to my grandma on the phone that Anna begged to talk to her. As soon as she got the phone she told my grandma, "Grandma, my daddy at all of my Jelly Beans. He ate all of them." She even got all sniffly while she was talking to her. The next time we went to visit grandma she gave Annalyn two bags of jelly beans so she could give Joel his own bag. Anna loves visiting grandma Verna. Lately she makes Grandma carry her to the van when we leave and buckle her seatbelt.

     Someone sent me a few pictures of the girls one day at an activity that they went to. Annalyn was super excited to see the pictures. The last picture was a picture of Brynlee sitting in a circle with several other girls. "Where are you in this picture?" I asked Anna. She started to panic a little wondering where she was. She begged me to turn the picture around so she could see herself. I explained that she just wasn't in the picture since she was on the other side of the room. Anna got really mad. "Why am I not in that picture. That is so stupid!"

     Annalyn has had lots of extreme melt down lately over the strangest things. The other day she cried for like an hour because she wasn't in mine and Joel's wedding picture that she found. She kept crying over and over, "I don't want you to marry dad. I never want you to marry dad." On another day she cried and cried about her tent that she broke several months ago. Brynlee and Anna tried to put the tent up without me and they thought they were helping when the cut the string out of the poles. Annalyn wanted me to fix them. This girl has been hard to keep happy but she sure is cute.

Mother's Day

     I have been blessed with an amazing mom. She was always there for me when I need her. She has spent lots of time helping me when I needed help and talking to me when I needed her. Because of this I have always looked forward to the day when I would be a mom. I love kids and took every chance I had to baby sit when I was younger.

     Being a mom sure has been a blessing in my life. There is just something so amazing and miraculous about holding a tiny newborn baby that is yours. The feeling just can't be accurately described. There are lots of struggles that come with motherhood but the blessing are numerous. Motherhood has been challenging so I was really looking forward to Mother's day this year. Joel has been working a lot now that we are trying to build a house so I didn't have super high expectations but I wanted breakfast in bed and most importantly, a morning to sleep in. Joel was asked to give a talk on Mother's day so he informed me that the whole breakfast thing would not happen since Sunday morning would be the only time he would have to write a talk. I was pretty bummed but I tried to make the best of things. My sister Alesha came home that weekend so we decide to take my mom and grandma out to dinner on Saturday with our sister Heather. My dad agreed to babysit but then at the last minute by brother Josh decided he didn't want to come to dinner with us so my dad had him watch my girls. Kyla was covered in an Oreo when I came home but everyone was happy so he did a fine job at babysitting. The biggest surprise for me what that Joel made me breakfast in bed Saturday morning. I was so excited. It was just eggs and toast with some fruit but it sure meant a lot to me. He also gave a great talk about motherhood on Sunday and he talked about what a great mom I am. It made me get a little teary. Joel is a great support to me. It is so much easier to be a good mom when I have a good husband to support me. Thanks Joel.

      I really am grateful for my mom and for Joel's mom. They are both great examples to us and they made so many sacrifices for us. Now that I am a mom I especially appreciate them because I know how hard being a mom can sometimes be. Some days I am just so tired and my girls just keep crying for no logical reason. I am sure I did the same thing to my mom when I was little. Thanks for putting up with me mom. I am also super thankful for my grandma. I am lucky to live close to her and she is always inviting us over to play, feeding us, and taking care of my kids. My girls are blessed with three really good grandmothers. I am also so thankful for my three girls that made me a mom. I love all of their hugs, their sweet cuddles, and their unconditional love.

Building a House

Last Friday Joel officially started working on our house. The paperwork has been finalized, the permits have been pulled, the hole for our house is dug, and we are ready to roll. All that paperwork stuff took a lot longer to take care of than I expected. It is finally starting to hit me how much work this is really going to be. Joel has been really busy working so we have hardly gotten to see him but for a few minutes a day. The girls and I spent a few evenings out visiting and "helping" Joel out. We brought him dinner and the girls had a blast helping him measure things and they really enjoyed playing in the dirt. I sure have missed Joel's help getting the kids in bed and they have missed him too but I think we are starting to get used to things. Our goal is to be moved into this house before Christmas so we have a little over seven months to build this house. This is going to be a great adventure.

Kyla - 11 Months

My baby girl is growing up. She is only one month away from her first birthday. Recently I have had several people comment that she is starting to look more and more like a toddler instead of a baby. That makes me kind of sad but she has really been so fun lately. This little girl has got so much personality. I am loving it. She has been such a great addition to our family. Taking her monthly photo was a challenge this month because she did not want to lay still on the blanket. She kept crawling away. 

 

     This baby really loves it when we go outside and she especially loves to jump on the trampoline. As soon as we are about to go outside her little legs start kicking like crazy and her hands go up and down in excitement. As soon as she is on the trampoline she tries to jump and it is adorable. 

      We finally moved Kyla out of our room. Right now her porta crib is in Brynlee's room. Brynlee was really excited to have her sleep in there but she does not like that Kyla naps in there so now Brynlee can't go in her room for part of the day. All of Kyla's clothes are in Anna's room so it isn't the best arrangement but it seems to be working. Kyla sleeps in Brynlee's room much better than she did in our room. I can't rock her to sleep anymore either. She falls asleep so much better if I just put her in her bed. I have been putting her to bed around 9:30 and she has been waking up around 5 in the morning and then goes to bed for another hour after I feed her. Her naps have been longer as well with only two a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon with an occasional one in the evening.

This girl has been super mischevious lately. If I tell her not to do something she laughs and does it anyways. If I want her to come back to where I am or something, she will crawl the other way really fast, all the while laughing with glee. She reminds me a lot of little Anna. She can be super sweet and cuddly but if she wants somthing, don't try to stop her. She is pretty stubborn and persistent. I am going to be in trouble. She loves to go in the bathroom and she heads straight for the toilet brush. She also loves toothbrushes and begs to brush her teeth like the big girls. She likes to empty things and play in the garbage. Good thing she is so cute.

This girl loves playing with her sisters, playing outside, looking at books, listening to music and dancing, sucking on her thumb, being held by mom, and seeing her dad when he comes home from work (the reaction she has when dad come home is really just the best.) This girl hates wearing shoes, wearing hats, my parent's dog Gunnar, getting her diaper changed, and being left out.

     Kyla pretty much eats everything we eat. She loves drinks and begs for our cups every time she sees one. She can even hold a cup without a lid and drink out of it pretty well. She likes to stick her hands in those cups though. Especially if there is ice in the cup. She loves ice. She is great with straws and can drink out of straws easily. She has only had juice maybe twice, usually I just give her water. She really liked the juice. My grandma gave her a drink of her soda one day. I don't think she knew what to think of that stuff. She seems to prefer sweet stuff so she fits right in with the rest of our family.  

     Kyla is crawling all over the place and cruising along all the furniture. She loves to hold onto my hands and walk around the house. She just needs to hold onto one of my hands and she can walk all over the place. I can tell she really wants to walk but she doesn't have the balance down yet. I have no doubt that she will be walking soon. Kyla also loves to climb up on her sisters' beds and play on there. The only problem is that once she crawls up she can't safely get down. If I hear her fussing at me from Anna's room it is usually because she wants help getting down from the bed. Lately she crawls back to Brynlee and Annalyn's room as soon as we put them in bed and she tries to climb in bed and play with them. She thinks she is just so funny.

     Kyla learned how to clap this month and it is the cutest thing ever. She claps all the time with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. Whenever something exciting happens, she claps. The other day she stood up all on her own for several seconds and she clapped the whole time she did it. As soon as she fell over she looked at me with this huge grin on her face. She was so proud. She also learned how to dance. As soon as she hears music, even if it is just me singing the kids to sleep, she starts clapping, waving her arms all around, and bouncing up and down. I love it so much. She is one fun little baby. 

     Kyla got two more teeth last month for a total of four teeth. Two on the top and two on the bottom. She was pretty fussy during her teething period so I am really glad they are up. She looks so much older with those two top teeth. She can say lots of fun new sounds and phrases lately. She likes to try and repeat the sounds we make and it sounds like she is really talking sometimes. I keep trying to get her to do sign language but so far she just stares at me.

This girls has seriously been so much fun lately. She really has been such a happy and easy going baby. She is pretty content to just let me hold her. She is starting to get some stranger anxiety around other people but she loves other kids and babies. She has had this little bump on the back of her neck for a while and recently it got really red and huge, but other than that she has the softest skin. She is finally getting more hair but it is coming in so slow. At least she still lets me put headbands on her head. I was surprised how much she hated the hats I tried to put on her. She is a great little baby and a joy to be around.