March 2017

     This was a month full of many great accomplishments and a whole lot of fun. There were a lot of birthdays that we got to celebrate this month. Annalyn turned five, her cousin Jakobee turned six, and Bryn and Anna went to a party for a friend while Anna and Kyla went to a party for a different friend. The party that Annalyn and Kyla went to was a princess party and the girls were supposed to dress up as princesses. I got out all of the dress up clothes and Annalyn chose to be a ballerina princess while Kyla picked to be a "Fancy Mancy" (aka Nancy) princess. I had to admire their individuality.

Brynlee finally let us take the training wheels off of her bike and she took off almost immediately. After just a few quick pointers she got on that bike and took off riding. By the end of that first night she was riding like a pro and doing figure eights in the streets. I was so impressed with how fast she figured it out. Annalyn begged to let us take her training wheels off too. She fell a lot and got pretty frustrated because she couldn't get it but was pretty determined that she did not want to put the training wheels back on. For now she is just using her feet to wheel her bike around. I tried to put Summer and Kyla in the bike trailer and give them a ride but Summer hated that things and cried and whined until I took her out.

Annalyn also graduated from speech this month. I was so proud of her and of the amazing progress she has made with her speech. She graduated much sooner than was ever expected.

There were a few nice days where we went to the park to play and the kids spent as much time playing outside as they could. I babysat a few times again this month and we had a few friends over to play.

Joel started this month out with a really sore tooth. It was the same tooth that has already had a crown and a root canal but it was so infected. He went to the dentist and they sent him to a specialist but it was a while before he could get in so he was on some heavy pain killers for a while. They went in and fixed his root canal. Joel almost went on a campout with the youth but only two boys showed up so they decided to cancel it and they watched a movie instead. Joel was a little disappointed that he left work early for no reason. Right now his bag is still packed and sitting in the middle of our living room.

Annalyn filled up her shell jar and got to go on a date night. She picked to see the new Beauty and the Beast movie with her dad and they went to eat at Artic Circle afterwards. It sounds like they had a lot of fun together and they both really liked that movie. Joel made the kids pancake animals for breakfast one morning and they all thought they were pretty cool.

Joel's sister Jamie came up for a visit and we got to see her one night. I went to the Women's broadcast and a fireside with my grandma. We didn't really do anything to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We still went to the library every week on Thursday but we only had to go to speech once before Anna graduated.

The last week of the month brought Spring Break for Brynlee and I signed the girls up for swimming lessons during the week. Brynlee and Annalyn both got to do them. They loved them and were so excited to go swimming every day. On the second day Brynlee came home super excited and told me, "mom I was actually swimming. I was swimming for like two seconds." Haha! They both made lots of progress and were pretty proud of everything they had learned during the week. Annalyn was putting her whole body in the water like it was nothing. I was a little worried because we had to leave our house at 8 in the morning to get there on time but it didn't end up being an issue. Kyla and Summer were awesome little traveling buddies and were fine with watching. I let Kyla play on the Ipad during lessons on the last day and she was super thrilled about that. I paid to let her go swimming on another day and then the other girls all played in the little kiddie pool for an hour or so after their lessons. My mom and sister met us there and went swimming too. Then we went out for lunch and went to the park.

Most of our Spring Break was pretty cold. We tried to go to the park a few other days and my girls wimped out because they were too cold. We had my friend Rhonda over for lunch one day and had fun visiting with her. On Thursday during Spring Break it started out wet and rainy but by the time we got done with swimming lessons it was snowing and there were a few inches that had stuck to the ground. We all had flip flops on (except Kyla, she had her cow girl boots) and we had to run into the library through the snow with the wrong foot wear. We visited my mom after that. It was a fun filled week. We ended the month by having Madison Spend the night. It was kind of a crazy night. I had just finished cooking up five pounds of hamburger meat for dinner and I had the meat sitting in a glass bowl. Brynlee tried to help me by getting out bowls to set the table and she knocked a mason jar out and it broke and landed on my bowl of grease. That bowl broke too and there was grease all over my kitchen and there was glass everywhere. Brynlee cut her foot and was bleeding pretty good, and there was glass in the meat so our dinner was ruined. I doctored Brynlee up and sent everyone out of the kitchen. Then I called Joel and had him pick something up for dinner and I spent a good hour trying to get the grease and glass cleaned up and out of my kitchen. Despite the sad ending it was a pretty fun filled month.

Summer is 11 Months

     Summer just keeps growing and is already eleven months old. I think I have been in serious denial about the whole thing and totally didn't even realize she was eleven months until the day after. She is letting me know she is growing up and is starting to act more and more like a little toddler every day. She took her first steps on the day she turned eleven months and is now walking all the time. She spent a lot of time practicing and standing all on her own and would walk around all of the furniture. She has been getting braver and braver all month and has taken a few big steps between pieces of furniture several times.

Summer has been trying to talk for a while now. She makes lots of fun sounds and has mini conversations with people. She seems to have figured out what mama and dada mean and she also said her first word this month, "mo" for more. Whenever she wants more food she will say it.

    
Summer got her two bottom teeth this month. For a while she was sticking her tongue out all of the time and there were a few extra miserable nights but she has been back to her happy self since the teeth broke in. She still spits up occasionally but is mostly done with that. She still drools a little and leaves a big wet spot on her bed while she is sleeping from all of her drool.

     Even though Summer only has two teeth she can still eat pretty much everything we eat and she loves to eat big people food. She can eat more than her sisters sometimes. So far she still eats most of what she is given and is a great little eater.

     Summer still wakes up far to much at night. I haven't been feeding her but one time during the night but she wakes up several more times and wants to eat. At least she is taking some good naps in her bed during the day.

      Summer climbed all the way up the stairs this month. I was behind her but she didn't need any help from me. She can stand on her own unassisted and has been practicing this for a while now. Her balance is getting pretty good. She has figured out how to use cups and straws and loves them. She also loves to take the spray bottle that I use to fix the big girl's hair with and she sucks the water out. I have to constantly be moving and hiding that water bottle the whole time while I am fixing hair and Summer sits there and whines for it.

     Summer loves to play peek-a-boo. She laughs so hard for that game. She loves to watch and play with her sisters and wants to be right in the middle of everything they are doing. Summer loves to play in the kitchen drawers every time I am in the kitchen. She dumps out all of my Tupperware, my dish rags, or else she plays with all of my pie pans every time I go in there. I pick them up multiple times a day. Her other love in the kitchen is the dishwasher. She loves to crawl in it, throw out all of the silverware, and suck up any water she can find.

Summer is starting to get braver and is not as content to just sit in the baby carrier when we go places. She likes to participate in the library music time and thinks she needs to hold a musical instrument with everyone else. She is still pretty timid and shy about new situations but is starting to try and venture out a little more. She is pretty sweet and has showed a lot of interest in playing with baby dolls lately. She likes to hold and cuddle them.

Summer got to experience several firsts this month. I took her to the park and put her in the swing for the first time. She hated it. She did a little better on the slide but still whined to be picked up. I tried putting her in the grass later that day and she hated the grass as well. For a while I would put a blanket on the grass and she would not crawl off of the blanket. She is getting better but still prefers to stay far away from the grass. I also put Summer in our stroller and tried to give her a ride and she cried or whined to be held the whole time. Eventually I picked her up and put her in the baby carrier and she stopped crying and gave me a big sigh and snuggled right in. She was super happy to be snuggled up with me and out of the terrible stroller. She also hates wearing socks and headbands lately. She rips them both off right away. She also hates Shoes.

     Summer does this funny little thing with her mouth where she scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out really deeply. She has the best little laugh and gets super giggly quite often. Especially when she is tired. Right before bedtime almost every thing is funny and it is so easy to make her laugh. I love that she has brought so much laughter and happiness into our home and we feel pretty lucky to have this baby in our home.

Annalyn is Five!

     Little miss Annalyn is now officially five years old. She is all signed up for kindergarten now and can't wait to get to go to school with Brynlee next year. She sure has grown so very much these last few years and I feel pretty lucky that I get to be her mom.

Here is what Annalyn told me are her favorite things now that she is five.
Favorite Food: Chicken Nuggets
Favorite Dessert: Donuts
Favorite Toy: Reindeer
Favorite Song: Jesus Walked Away from None
Favorite Movie: Moana
Favorite Show: Kickin It
Favorite Animal: Giraffe
Favorite Colors: Pink and Purple
Favorite Game: Kirby on the Wii
Best Friend: Elle
Favorite thing to do: Play outside
Favorite place to go: to the movies

What she doesn't like: People in her bedroom
What she wants to be when she grows up: A mommy

     Annalyn loves crafts and has gotten pretty good at writing her own name. She absolutely loves doing Mini Monets at the library once a week and really gets into story time as well. She loves her teachers at church both this year and the teacher she had last year and she makes them cards all the time. She has talked her teacher into letting her take home all of the extra stuff from the lesson several times and she has fun playing with it after church. In the picture below Annalyn decided she wanted some earing so she found some pretty Jewels and she glued them on her ear with a glue stick. I was actually impressed that they stayed on for almost an hour of church.

     Annalyn officially graduated from speech less than a week before her birthday. We were supposed to reevaluate her in July to see how she was doing but she had already surpassed her goals so we went ahead and tested her early. When Annalyn first started speech she could not say the S, K, F, V, SH, or CH, sounds. Now she is using those sounds everyday in all of her sentences. She still can't do the R or TH sounds but that is normal for her age and since she can make the sounds when prompted, Anna's teacher thought we would be good to go ahead and graduate her. I am so proud of how well she has done and of all the progress she has made. She is going to miss going to speech a lot. Before speech every week she used to raid her piggy bank and search for quarters so she could get candy out of their little quarter machines. She would try to hide from her speech teacher when she walked in the room and then giggle like it was the funniest thing in the world. Annalyn still likes to talk like a baby a lot so we are constantly reminding her to use her "big girl voice." I think she just likes to feel little.

     Annalyn recently decided that she doesn't like the taste of cheese and will not eat it most of the time. She likes to smell things and is constantly smelling her hands. Lately she keeps coming into mom and dad's room in the middle of the night and trying to snuggle with us. I keep making her sleep on the floor instead of in her bed so I am constantly waking up to find Annalyn asleep on the middle of my bedroom floor.

     Annalyn is one of the sweetest and can be the happiest giggliest girl you will ever meet. She can also be extra whiney and grumpy when things don't go her way. She can be pretty stubborn and hard to reason with once she has set her mind to something. If you make her mad she will be mad at you for a while. She can cry pretty loudly and make any trip miserable when she is in a bad mood. She loves attention and will talk your ear off if you will sit and talk to her. She tells lots of long drawn out stories. She is often my biggest challenge because she gets angry easily and she lets everyone know when she is angry. She can also be so much fun because she finds so much joy and excitement in all kinds of small and simple things. She loves to snuggle and is usually a pretty fun girl to be around.

     Annalyn  has a pretty great imagination and can play really well all by herself but she gets along with other kids for the most part. Her and Kyla play really well together. Her and Brynlee will fight a lot but they get along most of the time. Annalyn loves babies the most and is constantly pretending to either be a mom with a baby or else she is the baby and Kyla is the mom. She likes to dress her baby dolls and stuffed animals up in clothes and diapers and then act out taking care of them. She is going to make a great mom some day. She loves to help with little Summer and is pretty patient and gentle with her most of the time. When Summer plays with her she likes to pretend to be Summer's mom.

     Annalyn has been a great little addition to our family. We love you Annalyn!

Annalyn's 5th Birthday

      Annalyn wanted a lipstick birthday party this year. She helped Joel make a little "lipstick" box a few months ago and she got to paint it so she requested that her dad make a lipstick box for all of her friends. Since we ended up inviting some boys we decided to call them treasure boxes and we changed the party to a "lipstick treasure box" themed birthday party. I wonder how many other people have done that theme? Joel spent one evening and he made ten wooden treasure boxes for each of Annalyn's friends to paint. Annalyn had been talking about and planning this party for months and could not wait for it to be her birthday. She was super excited about the presents. She went with my sister Alesha and picked out some clothes and immediately wrapped everything as soon as we got home. She wanted everything wrapped right away so she could forget what we got her. I made the mistake of talking about the clothes she got for her birthday a few days later and Anna was so mad that I told her what she was getting. Haha. As soon as I bought her a present that she didn't know what it was she kept trying to find the present and figure out what it was. She did not want to wait to open it and kept begging to open it early. This girl loves presents.

     We had Annalyn's party the Saturday before her birthday. She invited her cousins Jakobee and Remi, the neighbor boy, who lives by us, and four girls from church. Everyone started the party by painting their boxes. I just used washable paint and the kids got pretty into painting. Especially Kyla; she painted forever.

     As soon as the painting was done I let Annalyn open her presents. She got two baby dolls and they were both a drink and wet doll which Anna had so much fun playing with. Kyla loves those things too and now wants one for her birthday. Annalyn got lots of lip gloss and chapstick, a light up jump rope, some hair chalk, clothes, and we got her the Moana movie. She loved everything she got. My dad got her a random bag full of all kinds of random presents, just like the presents Annalyn gave to my dad and mom this year. He got her some candy canes, he gave her back the cardboard computer she gave to him, as well as several other random treasures that he found. Annalyn got excited about every single item in there and loved every single present she got.

     After the presents were unwrapped we headed outside for a seashell finding game. Everyone had to find the shells that I had scattered all over the sandbox. Then we broke the piñata and got the candy. This year I did not want to do a piñata. It was literally an oatmeal box with orange crepe paper wrapped around it. Annalyn still thought it was beautiful and didn't mind one bit. My dad had to make several cuts around the side in order for it to break because it was so strong.

     We had a lunch of some of Anna's favorite foods; chicken nuggets, French fries, fruit, and veggies. Then we had cake and ice cream and afterwards everyone played for a little bit before they went home. Annalyn wanted a lipstick shaped cake at first but later changed her mind to want a circle cake. I told her I could do a heart shaped cake and she was pretty happy about that. She helped to decorate it a little bit by adding several flower type things on the side of the cake.

     When I asked Annalyn what her favorite part of the party was she didn't even hesitate before she said, "the presents." The first present she had to try out was the chalk hair pens. I think she had a pretty great birthday. It sure is fun to celebrate with my girls and watch them grow up.