Annalyn is Four!

     Miss Anna has officially turned four. She has really been a challenge for me lately but she is seriously the sweetest and most cuddly girl you will ever meet. If you give her a little bit of attention she will sit right in your lap and be your best buddy. She can play by herself and keep herself entertained no matter where we are. She has the best imagination and is super content to just stay home and play with her toys. She loves it the most when Brynlee plays with her but she is starting to play with Kyla a little bit. If Kyla gets in the way of a toy she wants then Anna pushes Kyla out of the way and is rough with her. If her sisters are not around then Anna likes to just play by herself. We tried to have a friend over to play and they played well together at first but then they ended up playing in separate rooms all by themselves. The friends Annalyn likes to play with the most are Brynlee's friends. I had an interview with Annalyn so here are the facts she told me about herself. 

Facts About Annalyn:
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Movie(s): All of the princess movies 
Best Friends: Keira, Brynlee, Kyla Mae, and Josie
Favorite Thing to do: Jump on the Trampoline
Favorite Food(s): Chicken Nuggets and French fries and Tater tots
Favorite Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Favorite Toys: My chickie and my duck (her stuffed animals) and polly pockets
Favorite Games: Hide and Go Seek, Duck Duck Goose, and The Animal Game (animal charades)
Favorite Book: Sleeping Beauty that I got from the library
Favorite Animals: Ducks 
Favorite thing to do with Family: Play with them
What she want to be when she grows up: A mommy
Height: 40.25 in. (72%)
Weight: 39 lb. (48%)

     Lately every time Annalyn does not get her way, she runs to her room and cries dramatically until someone comes in and talks to her. If she gets in trouble she does the same thing. She gets upset pretty easily and cries a lot. She is also one of the loudest kids I know. She cannot whisper. This new house echoes so I can hear Annalyn playing no matter where I am at. At church Joel and I are constantly trying to get her to whisper. She is not good at it. Annalyn is also good at making messes and is terrible at cleaning them up. She likes to play in the water in the bathroom and I caught her in there several times painting my counters with toothpaste with her toothbrush. 

     Annalyn still loves all stuffed animals, pretend animals, and dolls to play with. She is really good at puzzles and is great at coloring. She loves all things pink and sparkly. She likes to line up her shoes and get herself dressed in the morning. Some of her outfit choices are pretty crazy. She has also learned how to do her own pony tail and she likes to surprise me by getting dressed and fixing her hair all on her own. Her ponytails are getting better but at first she would make them without brushing her hair. I had a hard time letting her go to church with her hair in the little ponytails she made but since she was completely convinced that she looked beautiful, I just let it go and she felt pretty proud of herself.  

      Annalyn has gotten really good at writing the letter A and she likes to write them on all of her papers. She can write all of the other letters in her name as well except she still struggles with the Y. She still struggles with the ABC song and with saying some of her letters but she has improved a lot in the last year. 

     Annalyn likes to play outside and she has gotten pretty good at riding her little scooter. Whenever we ride it to the park she has to stop and rest several time and she usually ends up climbing in the wagon on the way home. She still does somersaults all over our living room and everywhere else we go. Somersaults are often her preferred mode of transportation. 

     Annalyn can be pretty stubborn once she has made her mind up about something but for the most part she is a pretty easy going kid. She has taught me to slow down and enjoy life to its fullest. She takes her time with stuff and is never in a hurry. She enjoys staying home but it usually up for any adventure that everyone else wants to do. She is quick to laugh and smile when she is happy and she makes our home a much brighter and happier place. We all love this girl a lot and we feel pretty lucky to have her in our family. 

Kyla 21 Months

  My baby just keeps growing and is really not a baby anymore. She will be two in just a few short months. Kyla still likes to tell me she is my baby and then she snuggles up in my arms so I can rock her like a baby. She is a pretty cuddly girl. When she wants something she just looks at me with these cute little eyes and tilts her head all nice and cute and says "peas." I have a hard time not giving into her every request. Here are Kyla's 21 month pictures for this month. She was pretty cooperative this time and didn't have a problem laying still for me. She really is such a great little toddler. She is easy to take places with me and I can usually count on her to be pretty good. Granted she has her moments and church has been hard. She can not be quiet at church, but whenever I take her to the library or to the store I can count on her to just sit and watch what is going on. She likes to just sit and observe the world around her.

     Kyla still sucks on her left thumb all the time, she calls it her "numb." Then her little right hand is either rubbing her belly or her ear or her neck, although usually it is her belly that she likes to rub. Let's just hope she stops that habit before her permanent teeth come in. 

     Kyla has got a pretty great little vocabulary and she likes to talk. She gets shy around other people but at home she talks all day. She is pretty good at saying "peas" and "tank you." She is using full sentences and tells me things like "mom, I tirsty" and she will tell me to "watch dis" all the time before she does some kind of a trick. She also like to tell me "I need dat," usually while she is running away with my phone or taking away the pen I was just using. She asks me "why" All The Time. Lately that has been her response every time I tell her something. I took her with me to my last doctor appointment and my doctor was super impressed with her vocabulary. She said the "why phase" should not start until she is at least two or three. Kyla loves to give hugs and kisses and will ask us for "ugs and tisses" before bed every night. She will also tell us "I wub you," and it just melts my heart. She is the sweetest girl. She still loves to read books and will often request that we "tount" (count) all of the pictures on the pages. She then tries to count with me. There are usually a lot of twos and sixes in her counting. Kyla likes to pretend to eat all of the food on the pages of the books as well. Whenever we ask her what color of something she wants she usually says "purp" and can identify the purple things about half of the time. 

     Kyla loves to let me fix her hair and she likes playing outside and helping dad. She is still great at helping to pick up messes. Kyla will not stay off of my kitchen counters and keeps climbing up in my pantry to get the food I try to hide from her. She prefers to eat with big people cups and utensils and she uses them really well. I just have to watch her because as soon as she is done eating she has started to play with her food. She likes to dump her water on her plate or put all of her food into her cup.  As soon as I start making dinner Kyla runs for the table and climbs up into her seat. She usually has to sit there for a long time and she does not wait patiently. She eats most of what we prepare for her still but she prefers all things sweet. Her favorite snacks are oranges and fruit snacks. I quit buying fruit snacks for a while because I could not get her to stay out of them and she would just cry for a long time when I wouldn't give them to her. 

     Kyla is not at all afraid of heights. She climbs up the tall slide at the park with no fear and we went to this play place that had all of these tall things to climb and play in. Annalyn was super hesitant about climbing up there. Brynlee lead the way and Kyla followed right behind her the whole time. She was scared of the mechanical moving cars and things and would not let me even get close to them but she had no problem climbing to the top of the playground equipment. 

     Kyla is still scared of dogs and most animals. She likes to get her teeth brushed, say the prayer, and read scriptures by copying what her mom or dad says. I am usually pretty impressed with how well she can pronounce the big words from the scriptures. Kyla says she needs to go potty every time Brynlee or Anna say they need to go. Then Kyla runs with them to the bathroom and has to sit on the big potty, flush the toilet, and wash her hands. She doesn't actually use the potty chair but at least she likes to sit on it. I will often find Kyla in the bathroom getting a drink right out of the faucet or playing in the water in there. Last night she stuck her feet in the sink and her legs were soaked. 

     Kyla is finally sleeping in her own bed through the night and she is falling asleep in there for her naps and at night all by herself. It was no easy task making that happen. Joel and I spent hours for at least a week up with her constantly coming out of bed. She would beg for a story, a "dink," or for a "rock." When I would tuck her back in she would pat her pillow and beg me to lay by her. Then she would crawl in Brynlee's bed and get Brynlee to read her books. She kept keeping Brynlee up. We tried staggering their bedtimes but Kyla just took so long to fall asleep. Even now Joel and I can often hear Kyla talking in her room for an hour or two after we put her in bed and she still likes to climb in bed with Brynlee sometimes. I am glad Bryn is a pretty good sport about sharing a room with her little sister. Those girls really loves each other. 

     Kyla knows and can say the names of everyone in our family. She calls for "Binlee and Nana" all the times and loves to play with them. Kyla and Anna play together a lot when Brynlee is at school. They really love to draw pictures together. Kyla is very intense when she colors and I am always amazed at how long she will sit and paint or write. She likes to pretend she is drawing a "Art" (heart) and can identify a heart and a star shape. Kyla also loves to wait for Brynlee to come home from the bus and is sure to get a hug from her right away. Kyla does not like having to share attention from her mom and every time Brynlee or Anna tries to sit on my lap she tries to push them off and tells them "dat my pot." (That's my spot.) I am a little worried about how she till handle having a baby sister in a few months. She loves babies and is usually pretty gentle with them but last time I held another baby she was not happy with me. She tried to climb right on my lap with the baby.  

Kyla is a pretty fun little girl to be around and we sure do love her. 

February 2016

     Another month has come and gone and we are feeling good and all moved into our home. We are adjusting to our new schedule and our new house. Although little Kyla is still not loving her new bed. We did some crafts to get ready for Valentines' Day during the last week of January. The girls all love painting and each painted several hearts. We also spent lots of time painting with watercolors and making Valentine's Cards. We had fun celebrating the holidays.

     We went to the park a few times and played outside a little this month. Joel is working on the yard so the kids can play out there more but he had to spend a lot of his time working on his trucks. His little buggy was having problems so he had to do some work on his four runner so he could drive it while he did the extensive work needed for his other truck.  He had to get an emissions test on his four runner and on the way to get one his truck overheated. Needless to say the truck did not pass so he has got to work on his truck some more. Our yard is pretty muddy but the kids still love playing on the big rock pile. Really they can entertain themselves with just about anything.

     On the days when it was too cold to go outside the girls played a lot upstairs in the toy room. I love that room. It is a complete mess but at least the mess is out of the way. The girls also enjoy reading books and playing pretend. We did some cooking together, the girls love to help me in the kitchen. Joel likes to make cookies with them after church on Sundays and they love doing that. Annalyn keeps trying to sneak toys downstairs and she likes to line everything up and organize. I have been getting more and more uncomfortable and tired during the day with this pregnancy so I am grateful that the kids all play well together. 

     My camera was acting funny so a lot of the picture I took lately have turned our blurry. The girls all wanted me to curl their hair several days this month. Kyla's was too short to curl so she had to settle for some pony tails. I sure do loves these girls like crazy. They have been pretty challenging lately. Annalyn has had a hard time at church. The last Sunday of the month I picked her up from her class and she was throwing a major temper tantrum. She kept saying, "I hate this church. I want to go to my nursery at my old church. I am never coming to this church again." She protested a little but went to church just fine the next week. Still she has not been listening and getting into lots of trouble lately. Kyla is still struggling with her new bed, and Brynlee has been super bossy lately. Despite all of the challenges I love these girls with all my heart and really enjoy spending my days with them. Joel has been home so much more and he is such a big help to me. I am lucky to have him. 

Pregnancy Week 30

     So today I am officially 30 weeks and 6 days pregnant with baby number four. I just barely got around to taking some pregnancy pictures on the day I turned 30 weeks. I feel much better now that I know I will have at least one picture of me for the baby book. This has been a pretty normal typical pregnancy for me. I don't feel like I had as much heartburn at the beginning of my pregnancy as I usually do but I am making up for it now. Mostly I just feel tired and uncomfortable at this point. The evenings are the hardest because by the time dinnertime rolls around the only thing I really want to do is to lay on the couch and go to sleep. If only everyone else didn't want dinner and the kids didn't need to be tucked into bed. The good thing is that Joel is around a lot more and he has been helping me so much. He even let me sleep in a few mornings while he got the kids breakfast. I am so grateful for his help when he is home.

     So far I really like my doctor and everything has been pretty normal. At this point I am going to the doctor every other week. I did the glucose test at the beginning of February and passed with flying colors. I took Anna and Kyla to my last two appointments and they had so much fun playing with all of the toys in the office that they did not want to leave. My doctor, Dr. Wiberg even let Annalyn help hold the doppler thing and push the button. She felt pretty special and can't wait to go to my next appointment with me. Brynlee felt kind of left out since she didn't get to go so she has determined to go with me next time.

     I am starting to get a little worried because we do not have a named picked out for this baby yet. We have one that we like, Brynlee and Annalyn keep calling her by the name, I am just not completely convinced that I want to use it. Really I just have too many rules for the name. I don't want it to start with an A, B, or K and I don't want the name to end in lee, lyn, or a. That doesn't leave a lot of names to choose from. I keep changing my mind and try to abandon the rules but then I decide I would rather stick with the name we have picked out. I think I would feel better about the name if I could think of a middle name to go with it. I want a family name I just can't find a family name that goes with it. Good thing we have a few more week for me to make up my mind.

     Four kids is a lot and I am a little nervous about how I am going to handle everything. My biggest worry is that I won't be able to meet the needs of all of my girls. I am so grateful that I have a supportive husband. He is planning on taking several days off of work to help me when I have this baby. I am grateful that my girls are also so excited for this baby to come and they are eager to help. Most of all I am grateful for the love and support from my Heavenly Father. I know that what we are doing it right and that he will help me to raise all of these precious girls that he has entrusted in my care. I sure do love them all and we can't wait to meet this sweet little baby. 

Happy Valentine's Day

     The girls have been so excited to celebrate Valentine's day. Brynlee really wanted to make her own cards this year and she requested some Kit Kats to got with them. I figured that would be easy enough. It took her several days to make all of her cards. Most of them were hearts she cut out with the words "I Love You." and several giant Xs to represent kisses. Then she wrote her name and her friend's names on the outside and taped the candy to the card. We had to make 20 of those cards and I think she was pretty tired by the end of it. I took Annalyn to Brynlee's school for the party and she had a blast seeing all of Brynlee's friends. She got right in there and joined the party. The kids had pizza and drinks and they got to look at and read all their cards.

      I took Anna and Kyla to a Valentines' day party that someone from our new ward invited us to. My mom gave me a whole box of old Valentines cards that she kept from when I was little so that was easy enough. Annalyn helped me put candy in each envelope and we took them to the party so she could give them to her friends. The problem is that she didn't really know most of the kids there so she did not want to give them her cards. She cried about having to give those away. She wanted to keep her cards. Haha. I was finally able to convince her to give her cards away and her and Kyla both got some candy and they had snacks and crafts for the kids to do. Annalyn made a friend by the end of the party and did not want to leave.

     The kids helped me to make heart shaped chocolate chip cookies for Joel this year. They turned out pretty well. Then we hid half of the cookies upstairs in a fancy little box and made a treasure hunt so Joel could find them. The kids helped me set it up and we had it ready for Joel when he came home from work. They were so excited about it. They were jumping up and down and they couldn't wait for dad to get home. Bryn was really worried that Joel would not find the right clue first so she kept asking me questions like, "mom, what if dad looks in the fridge first? Or what if he tries to take a shower right away? Maybe we should tell him about the treasure hunt first." I told her she could and when dad got home he got bombarded by kids. They all jumped on him and they were pulling his arms. Brynlee yelled at him. "Dad do not take a shower, and don't look in the fridge. Follow me, you have to do a treasure hunt." Joel told them to hold on so he could take off his boots. As soon as he had his boots off, the treasure hunt was on. All of the kids followed him laughing as they were running through the house. Kyla didn't know what was going on but she sure giggled as she followed everyone through the house. I think Brynlee and Annalyn ended up finding half of the clues for Joel. Joel really liked all of the cookies and he had most of them eaten before he had his dinner and all 12 of them were gone before the night was over. It was fun for everyone. I was surprised at how excited all of the kids were.

     Joel and I splurged and got all of the girls a big stuffed animal for Valentines' Day and a piece of candy. We did another scavenger hunt for the girls the next day. I wrote everyone's name on each clue so that each child could find at least three different clues. The clues eventually lead the kids to our closet where they got to find their stuffed animals. Kyla immediately grabbed the pink horse we had picked out for Anna. I tried to give her the giraffe that was hers but she didn't want it. She wanted one of the other ones. Annalyn fell in love with her horse and hugged it and was super excited. Brynlee picked up her red tiger and cried. She wanted a balloon and a chocolate rose like she got last year. She was really mad and cried about that for a while. I said that was fine, we could just give her tiger to Kyla and that next year we would get her nothing. She cried and cried some more. I just ignored her and she was over it by the time Joel woke up that morning. She decided she really liked her tiger and since then she has been keeping it on her bed. Even Kyla seems to accept that the giraffe is hers and she likes it. The kids like to use them as pillows. Joel got me some candy for Valentines Day but other than that we just had a relaxing day. Valentine's day was on a Sunday so we went to church and then went to visit grandma Hirtle. We got to meet Janeen's baby for the first time and it was a nice simple fun day. 

     Kyla wore her first set of pig tails to church that day. She is looking so much older lately. My little baby is growing up.