Pumpkins

     The Monday before Halloween Joel took the night off and we went to my grandma's house to decorate our pumpkins and we decorated some sugar cookies that grandma made. Grandma even fed us dinner. Joel was sick the weekend before and his back was really sore so I think he really needed a break from working on the house. We had a lot of fun. My grandma, aunt Lora, and my cousin came along with my parents and my brother Brian and his wife.

     Annalyn painted two pumpkins pink and then my dad helped her to carve a face in a pumpkin. She also decorated several cookies and ate them.

     Brynlee wanted a bat on her pumpkin so her dad helped her to carve a bat. She also decorated several different cookies.

     Kyla really got into the whole painting thing. Everytime she saw me with the camera she would look at me and say "cheese." She painted for a long time. Then she decorated some cookies. Mostly she just put lots of reese pieces and chocolate chips on her cookie and then she would take them right off and eat them.

Joel spent a long time and carved a cool fancy face on his pumpkin. The picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see all of the intricate designs that are on the back and sides of his pumpkin.

     I helped with all of the decorating and took lots of pictures. It was such a fun night. It was just fun for me to enjoy watching my kids have fun.

     We had a lot of pumpkins at our house this year. I love how they all turned out. I love these girls.

Joel Turns 30

     Joel turned 30 during the month of October. I don't know how I feel about that. Mainly because that means I will be turning 30 in just a few short weeks. To celebrate the girls and I got Joel a few fun gifts including a movie, some candy, and lots of gatorade. We made him a pretty cool ice cream cake but I didn't even think to take a picture. Oops. I keep taking my camera with me but then I don't take any pictures. Joel's birthday was on a Sunday but since we planned on celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving on that Sunday we celebrated a little early. I made Joel come home early from working on our house on Saturady and we celebrated his birthday with his favorite dinner, cake, and presents. It was a fun day and some much needed time spent together.

     We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with Joel's family. His mom cooked a turkey and we had a good meal with pie and a birthday cake for Joel for dessert. Joel's mom put a huge forty on the cake for Joel. She thought he was turning 40. I am glad he isn't that old yet. I think that helped him not to feel too old.

     I think Joel has accomplished a lot of great things in the last 30 years. We sure do think he is great. Here's to 30 more great years spent with this guy.

September

     I started this post forever ago but things have been so busy around here that I am just now getting around to finishing this post. Here is what happened back in September. I hardly took any pictures this month but we were plenty busy. We still have a lot of work left to do on our house and December it getting close. I really hope we can meet our deadline and be moved in before Christmas. Part of the hold up is that Joel decided to do a lot more of the work than he originally planned. They were going to charge us $3,500 in labor to put up the siding so Joel decided he would do the siding himself. The insulation is also going to cost more than we expected so Joel is going to do the insulation. We still accomplished quite a bit on the house this month.

     Joel finally got the electrical passed and running. After the first inspection the inspector left a list of things to fix that was 25 items long. Joel fixed everything pretty quickly and the next time there were only four items that Joel was able to fix and it passed the next time. The heating and cooling guys came in and did all of the heating and cooling stuff. They put the fireplace in and all of the vents are in. I nailed a piece of board over all the vent holes so they won't get full of dirt. My job has been to clean up around the house. I have swept, vacuumed with the shop vac, and thrown lots of wood and garbage into the garbage trailer. It is an important job.

     Joel got all the siding put up on the house pretty quickly. He even found some shutters from work that they weren't going to use and he put them up on our house. My dad came over and did most of the caulking. My brothers and my sister in law came and helped a little too. It was huge blessing that we got the siding up in time; some help showed up right when we needed it. The next Saturday we had all kinds of help and we got the whole house painted. I think it looks pretty good. Now Joel just has to do a few more things and then hopefully the house will pass the framing inspection and then we can start insulating.

     The kids and I spent lots of time playing outside. Me and the little girls would play outside while we waited for Brynlee to get off the bus and Brynlee loves playing outside so we would usually let her play for a few minutes before we went back into the house. They love swinging, playing on the trampoline, and collecting mushrooms and other treasures.

      Brynlee is still loving school. She loves riding the bus and sitting by her friend Athena. She has made several new friends that she enjoys playing with, and she is learning a lot. She likes to teach Anna what she learns. she can read us some of the paper books she brings home and she is constantly singing the songs she learns. Brynlee also started doing TaVaci this month which is kind of like a show choir. They learn songs, sing, and learn some acting skills. Bryn really likes it especially since two of her really good friends are doing it and sometimes she goes to play dates at their house after it is over. She is a little bit disappointed that I didn't let her do ballet because that is what she really wanted to do but she loves the costume she got and I think she is going to really like it in the end. Brynlee also did her part in the primary program this month. She said, "Jesus was baptized by immersion." She said it nice and clearly with no help and then that same Sunday I helped her give a talk in primary. She sure is growing up.

     While Brynlee went to TaVaci, I would sometimes take Anna and Kyla over to the park to play while we waited for Brynlee. They loved that. They miss Brynlee when she is gone but we have found lots of things to do to keep busy. We have been going to the music class at the library again. Brynlee comes with us when she is home but when she is at school it is just me and the little two. Going to the grocery store with only two kids has been a breeze. Usually Annalyn is my challenge at the store but when she is the oldest one she gets to be my helper and she takes her job very seriously and is a great helper. She loves to help me with whatever task I am working on. She has found lots of things to keep her busy. I miss Brynlee when she is gone but I am enjoying the quiet moments I get to spend with Annalyn when Kyla is sleeping. Kyla gets really jealous of Annalyn lately and has been a real momma's girl. I sure do enjoy spending my days with these girls.

     I had Jury Duty toward the end of the month which required me to call into the courthouse every day at 5 to see if I was needed. They put me on stand-by on Friday and I had to call in. They made me call twice and then they still weren't sure if I would have to come in but in the end they called and told me I wasn't needed. Thank goodness. I really didn't want to drive all that way to the courthouse and I was really worried about leaving Kyla because she had been teething, super fussy, and she had the runs so I was changing several poopy diapers a day. My grandma volunteered to watch my kids but I am glad she didn't have to watch them in the end. It was a little stressful for me because I don't like the unknown of what I have to do with my day.

     We went to stake conference, I took Brynlee and Kyla in for their check-ups and found out that Kyla had Impetigo on her thumb and under her nose so she had to be on antibiotics to get rid of it. That girl hated that medicine. She really fought taking it.

     My girls have been begging to put up Halloween decorations all month. They have them up in all of the stores. I finally let them put a few decorations up the last week of the month. My mom gave them some pumpkins and Annalyn decided to paint them so we spent the last day in September painting pumpkins. Kyla loves painting just as much as the other kids. We painted those pumpkins for a long time. Anna's was mostly painted pink. Brynlee painted a cute face on hers and Kyla just had fun painting. I guess overall it was a pretty good month. The house is really coming along pretty well. I just can't wait for it to be done so I can have my husband back.

Annalyn is 3 and 1/2

     Miss Annalyn is now officially three and a half. She sure is a sweet and cuddly girl. She loves to be held and rocked whenever I will rock her. She is great at playing with and entertaining herself and she loves playing with Brynlee and misses her so much when she is at school. She is learning to play with Kyla but does not like when Kyla messes up her stuff and she will sit on her or push her away. We are working on that. She loves pretending to be a princess and she loves dressing up like a lady bug and playing with her animals. She loves to color and she can spend a lot of time drawing or coloring a picture. She likes to take her time when she does things. She insists on buckling her own seat belt, putting on her own shoes, and getting things that she wants all on her own but she takes forever when she does it. Annalyn is really the best little helper and such a hard worker. She likes to come and see what I am doing all the time and is constantly offering to help fold the laundry, make dinner, or change Kyla's diaper. She has been good at helping Joel to clean up and work at our new house. She hands him things he needs and likes to help sweep up the floors. She sure is a sweet little girl.

     A few days ago Annalyn asked about when her birthday was coming up and I told her it was almost her half birthday. She talked about her half birthday that was coming up for weeks. I told her there were no presents or cake but I let her help me make cupcakes. We made cupcakes with pink frosting and lots of M&Ms to celebrate Annalyn's half birthday. She made sure everyone knew it was her half birthday that day. HaHa. I think it was a good excuse to make some cupcakes.

     Annalyn still struggles a little with her speech but I think she is getting a lot better. Most of the time when we are out with Brynlee, Annalyn is just content to let Brynlee do all of the talking. She talks a lot at home and I can almost always understand her. Annalyn loves having long hair and is constantly having us look at how long it is. She loves to let me fix it in braid and fancy ponytails. Her favorite thing is to look on pinterest for new hair ideas. She finds a do she likes and I try to replicate it. I have really enjoyed fixing her hair but I am not that great at it. Good thing she doesn't know it yet. She loves animals and she likes to hold the cat at grandma's house. I did find her putting the cat in a little butterfly net and carrying it around the house one day so the cat doesn't usually stick around anymore when it sees Anna.

     Annalyn has been struggling at night time and does not want to sleep in her bed. She keeps coming out with all kinds of excuses and she complains every time I make any kind of noise. There were a few times when she would sneak out on the carpet and lay in the hallway where she didn't think I could see her and she would fall asleep there. I would just carry her to bed before I went to sleep.

     Annalyn has all of these little wart like things all over her neck and there are some on her stomach, bum, ankles, and elbows. Mostly there are a lot on her neck. She had one on her neck and she picked at it and it spread all over her neck. Apparently it is something called molluscum contagiosum and it should go away on its own. She had had them there for at least 7 or 8 months.

     Annalyn sure is a fun and happy addition to our family. I have really enjoyed having more time to spend with her while Brynlee goes to school and Kyla naps. Annalyn is really just a content kid. She is good with going where I want to go and doing what other people want to do. She is fine with staying home all day and just happily plays with her toys and does her own thing. I so am glad this little girl is mine. I tried to make a video with Annalyn telling me some of her favorite things but Kyla ended up waking up from her nap right before we started making the video. Sometimes it is hard being the  middle child. Here is the video we came up with.

Quotes and Funny Stuff

     Here are some of the latest quotes and funny stories that have happened recently. Most of these are from miss Brynlee but there are a few from Annalyn.

Bryn: "Mom, guess what song we sang in church today. It goes like this Our Door is Always Open. Isn't that so terrible? They are going to get so many flies."

Bryn: "Dad said he is going to get me some candy."
Me: "Do I get candy too?"
Bryn: "I think he will get You some candy because you are his sweetheart."

     Brynlee came in singing this song the other day "shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your booby. Shake your boobies." She was even shaking her chest while she was singing.

      We went and got some snow cones this summer and they came with a spoon that turned colors when they got cold. Brynlee decided she was going to keep hers. "I better hide this from my friends," she remarked on the ride home. "They are going to be so jealous."

     At church a few Sundays ago they were talking about miracles and the teacher brought in a dead plant to illustrate her point. Brynlee raised her hand and told everyone, "we have dead plants at out house." Thanks for telling everyone. We really don't have any dead plants that I can think of so I am not sure what she was talking about.

     Our home teachers came over a few months ago and they were teaching us about the wise man and the foolish man. (There is a song he was talking about where the wise man builds his house on a rock while the foolish man builds his house on the sand. The house on the sand washes away in the end.) He asked Brynlee what a wise man builds his house on and Brynlee was quick to respond "concrete." Joel was pretty proud of her.

     We went to grandma Hirtle's house one day after church and Annalyn walked in the kitchen and saw that grandma was cooking corn. She gasped and happily exclaimed, "Corn! I was dreaming about corn!"

     I told Brynlee her friend Lachlan would be at the church party we were going to a few months ago and she said, "Oh good. Lachlan is my boyfriend." I gasped and she looked at me and said. "Don't worry mom. We are not going to get married yet. Not until we get big."

     Brynlee: "mom guess what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a ballerina or a gymnastics girl, or maybe Sister Whiting" (she is the music leader in primary.)

     Brynlee had a kindergarten screening before school started. They asked her all of these questions to see what she knew. She came out of the room when it was over and said, "I knew everything mom. I could do everything they asked me."
"Good," I replied. "Did you even remember your address?"
"Yup. Kuna, Idaho."
"How about your phone number?"
"Uh, actually I couldn't remember that one."
"Did you write your last name?"
"I remember the H and the I and the R but I couldn't remember what came after that."
Yup Bryn. It sounds like you knew everything.

     We were playing outside and Brynlee didn't have her shoes on. I told her she had to go get them but she did not want to run in the house. Instead she ran over to our neighbor who was working outside and yelled at him to see if he would go into her bedroom and get her shoes. I made her go and get them.

     We smelled a dead skunk on the way over to visit grandma and we looked out our car window where Brynlee could see the dead squished skunk. She got really excited about that. "I can't believe I saw a dead skunk," she marveled. "I am going to tell grandma about this right away."

     Brynlee went up to the neighbor by our new house and asked; "Are you going to die soon?" Joel was really mad at her and told her to never ask those kinds of questions. Our neighbor just smiled and said, "well how is she supposed to know if she doesn't ask?" Then he told her he thought he would be around for a little bit longer.

     Before bed a few nights ago Brynlee had on her bumblebee pajamas and Joel sang her the baby bumblebee song before bed. Then we tucked her in bed only to have her wake up crying hysterically a few hours later. She was convinced there was a giant bumblebee in her bedroom that was trying to sting her. Apparently it puffed itself up and tried to attack her. It took me a long time to get her to calm down and go to sleep. The next morning she was still talking about the bee in her room that night. "There wasn't really a bee in there;" I tried to assure her. Bryn just gasped and asked, "Was it a wasp?"

     At the library several months ago Annalyn ended up knocking her chair over and falling. She cried really loudly and the fall made a loud bang so several of the people who worked in the library ran over to check on Anna. She was already having a rough day and we were getting ready to leave when it happened. Once Annalyn calmed down one of the librarians offered Anna a sticker. She was excited about that but then she ended up crying because they didn't have the sticker she got last time. She finally found one she wanted but it ripped when She tried to tear it off the back of the paper. She ended up crying again so Brynlee went and asked for another sticker. They didn't have the same sticker so there was more crying but eventually we found a Hello Kitty sticker that Annalyn happily stuck on her dress. We were almost out of the library when she discovered that her sticker was missing. She wanted another one when we looked for it and couldn't find it but I made her leave without a sticker. She cried the whole way home.

     We went to the rodeo this summer, Brynlee called it the "Radio" and she had a blast. She keeps asking when we will go again. We got tickets at the library so last week she asked the librarian if they had anymore tickets so she could go again. While we were at the rodeo they sang the national anthem. Brynlee thought it took a little too long. "Why is this taking so long?" She questioned. "It never takes this long at preschool."

     Brynlee keeps sucking on a little section of her hair. Joel told her that she better not do that or hair would grow all over her whole body. "That's what happened to me," he told her." A few days later we were driving in the car and one of Brynlee's friends was riding with us. I could hear her tell her friend, "Guess what? When my dad was little he had long hair and he sucked on it and then hair grew all over his whole body. He has hair everywhere!" I guess that is what Joel gets for lying to Brynlee.

     Brynlee got to spend the night at grandma Hirtle's house this summer and she used one of grandma's toothbrushes and some of her toothpaste to brush her teeth. The next time we went over to grandma's house Brynlee begged to brush her teeth. Grandma told us that Brynlee brushed her teeth like 5 times that night. Apparently she really liked grandma's mint toothpaste.

     Brynlee came home from school begging for me to put an icepack in her lunch box. I tried to ask her what she wanted to keep cold and I told her she didn't need an ice pack. "It's not to keep my food cold," she replied. "It's just incase I get hurt when I am eating so I can put an icepack on my owie."

     The Jehovah's Witnesses came to our house a few weeks ago. There was an older lady that shared a scripture with us and Brynlee talked her ear off. She told her all kinds of stuff and kept interrupting her scripture. The lady was nice. When she left Brynlee ran outside and gave her a huge hug. She waved to her and then looked at me and said, "I liked that lady."

     There have been lots of mice in the area lately and I could tell we have had several of them in our garage. We always keep D Con out in the garage just in case but the boxes have been emptying out really quickly. We must have a pack rat in there because I have found several stock piles in different places including in our stroller. I hate mice. I bought more mice poison and told Joel he should set a trap in the house again just in case. He just shook his head and told me there were no mice in the house. Later that night Joel was sitting on the toilet and I could hear this loud commotion. Apparently a mouse ran right across his feet and into our bedroom. He set a mouse trap right after that. Joel said he is going to make sure there are no holes in our new house so it will be mice proof.

     Brynlee is slowly learning the names of all of the kids in her class at school. The first day of school she told me all about this little girl that she played who had a boy's name. She called her John. She talked about John for about a week and then she came home and told me her name wasn't John, it was really Tanner. I looked up the class list that I wrote down and we discovered that her name was really Taylor. "Oh yeah, her name is Taylor. I just always keep calling her Tanner but everyone keeps reminding me of her real name." At least Brynlee has her name down now.

     At Brynlee's five year old check-up Dr. Bennett asked Brynlee several different questions about health and safety stuff. She asked her about brushing her teeth and wearing a seatbelt in the car, stuff like that. Then she asked Brynlee how many hours of TV she should be watching a day. Brynlee didn't even hesitate before she announced, 1. Dr. Bennett was super impressed that she knew the answer to that and I explained that they are only allowed to watch one show a day. She was impressed again and I was feeling pretty good about my parenting skills when Annalyn piped in, "my mommy and my daddy watch bad movies." We don't even watch rated R movies but she did come out of bed the other night when we were watching the Hunger Games and I told her it was a bad movie for kids. Thanks for telling your doctor about that Anna. As we left the doctor's office Annalyn pointed to Dr. Bennett with her middle finger (the finger she uses to point at everything lately) and she said "I really love that lady mom." You gotta love kids and sometimes it is best to just not explain. We just laughed and waved goodbye. At least Annalyn likes her pediatrician.

     The other night Annalyn came out of her room all worried because our house looked like "that." She kept pointed to our vaulted ceiling and panicking because she thought the house was going to fall over. I tried to calm her down and explain things to her but she just wanted her dad to come home and fix our house so it wouldn't fall over. We talked to Joel on the phone but that wasn't good enough. Eventually I got Anna to calm down enough to lay on the couch and fall asleep. It is kind of funny the things kids get scared of but in her mind it was a real valid fear. She really thought our house was going to fall over.

     I sure do love my girls. I love hearing the things they think and come up with. I can't wait for Kyla to be talking more so I can write down funny quotes from her too. 

Kyla at 15 Months

     Little Kyla is officially 15 months old. She runs all over the place, climbs on everything, and babbles all of the time. She is such a fun little ray of sunshine. She is getting so big. Here are a few more facts about Kyla.

Height: 31 in (66%)

Weight: 21.6 lb (56%)
Shoe Size: 4
Clothes: 18 months
Diaper Size: 4
Teeth: 10 - She has all 8 of her front teeth and the top and bottom molar on the left side of her mouth.
Sleeping: Kyla learned how to climb out of her crib when she was still only 13 months old. It was more like she would fall out of bed and hurt herself. Usually she would climb on top of her porta crib and just hang there crying until I came and rescued her. I was so afraid that she would hurt herself that I started bringing her into our bed at night and I would rock her to sleep for her naps and for bed. She is a super wiggly sleeper. That lasted for over a month before I couldn't take it anymore. I love rocking her to sleep but I just didn't have the time. Plus sometimes she would wake when I tried to put her in bed and I would have to rock her again. It was hard because she would cry and wake Brynlee up at night. I finally got Brynlee to just leave Kyla alone and let her cry. Brynlee still tends to get her out of bed and she will bring her to me in the middle of the night sometimes, but for the most part she is good about sharing a room with Kyla. It only took two nights of letting Kyla cry a little bit, I would go in and check on her every little bit and lay her back down, and then she finally started napping and sleeping in her own bed without being rocked. She only tried to climb out once or twice and then she settled down and went to sleep. She still tries to climb out of her bed every once in a while but usually she is easy to get to sleep. For a while she was sleeping thought the night but once she got those molars in she would wake up and scream and wake Brynlee up so she has been sleeping with us for part of the night. Hopefully we will have her done with that habit soon.
Eating: Kyla likes to eat and eats pretty well. She loves sweets just as much as the rest of us and will usually eat whatever we eat. She has gotten a bit more picky but for the most part she still likes her veggies and she loves fruits. Every single time we got to grandma Verna's house Kyla has to leave with a handful of blackberries from grandma's bushes. She goes crazy for watermelon and cantaloupe, she can eat a lot of that stuff. I stopped nursing Kyla right before she turned 14 months and she transitioned to whole milk with some reluctance but she does not like the stuff all that much. She would rather drink water. She seems to be fine with me not nursing her but she likes to lay on my belly and suck her thumb when she wakes up in the morning.

Talking: Kyla seems to understand everything I say and she babbles all the time. It almost sounds like she is speaking German. She follows most of my requests. She throws her diaper away after I change it, she gets her diaper and the wipes when I tell her to, gets her shoes when it is time to go outside, and she will go and get the scriptures when I tell her to. She recently learned to say "no" and she uses it quite often; whenever her sisters bother her or when I tell her to do something she doesn't want to do. She also nods her head "yes." really it is her whole little body she nods. I love it. She can shake her head no too. Kyla can say "mama," "dada," "Jo," (for Joel), "hot," "shuh" (for shoes),  "kee E" (for kitty), "no," "hi," "bye," "chi" (for chicken and ba ba for the sound they make). She says ahh, when something is soft, she says ouch or ow when she gets hurt, and she has repeated several other sounds and words that people say.
Things she loves: Kyla loves markers and is constantly writing on herself. Anytime she finds a marker, (Brynlee and Annalyn have been using them a lot and they keep leaving them on the table) Kyla takes of the lid and draws on her legs. One day she found a permanent marker sitting by my computer and she drew all over the keyboard and the computer screen. She still climbs on the table all the time and she will climb on whatever else she can climb on. She loves being with her sisters and doing whatever they do. She likes dolls and playing with toys. She loves to play outside, swing in the swing, and jump on the trampoline. She dances whenever she hears music by jumping from one foot to the other and she tries to sing.

Things she doesn't like: Lately she does not want me to cover her with a blanket and she immediately kicks them off, even when it is cold. She didn't like jacket at first but she tolerated it when I told her she had to have it on. Kyla is warming up to animals and seems to really like them but she has no desire to touch them most of the time. She is still scared of big animal. Lately she is getting more picky about what she gets. I broke her granola bar in half the other day and she threw herself to the ground and cried. I put her milk is a sippy cup instead of a cup without a lid and she threw another temper tantrum. She can scream really well and is quite loud. Kyla's last temper tantrum really made me laugh because she didn't really cry at all. She just laid on the ground, kicked the wall with her legs and whined a little bit at me. At Kyla's 15 month check-up we discovered that she had some Impetigo on her thumb and under her nose so she had to take medicine. Kyla didn't like that medicine one little bit. She came into the kitchen the other day and saw me getting her medicine out and she took off running yelling, "No!" It was a real fight to get that medicine down.

     I sure do love this little baby so much. She is really such a mama's girl but she sure does like being with her sisters. She gives the best hugs and kisses and she loves running to her dad and getting a hug and kiss from him every time he is around. We all love this girl a whole lot.