Gender Reveal

     Joel and I got to go in and find out the gender of our baby a few weeks ago when I was 20 weeks along. Brynlee had school that day and Annalyn said she would rather stay with my sister Alesha so she stayed with her and Joel and I took Kyla with us. I could have found out what I was having several days earlier but Joel told me if I wanted him to come, I needed to schedule the appointment for a Friday. Then on Thursday the weather was terrible so Joel decided there was no way they could work that day. He called everyone and told them they would work on Friday instead. I was really mad at Joel for making me wait and then not even being able to come with me. He had several things scheduled for the house that he needed to do on Friday anyways so he called everyone back and told them they were going to work on Saturday instead.

     Joel left to work on our house that morning and came home barely in time to leave. We dropped off Anna and made it to the hospital just in time for our appointment. The roads were snowy and slick so I was a little worried we would be late. We got checked in and waited for our turn for several minutes when someone came over to us and told us that their ultrasound machine was not working. They were trying to get a new one but we would have to come back later that day or they could squeeze us in at the other hospital on the other side of town. Joel and I both had plans for later that day so we opted to drive all the way to the other side of Nampa to the other hospital. Again we had to check in and we had to wait a long time for them to have time to squeeze us in. I am just glad they were able to see us.

     The ultrasound took forever; an entire hour and the lady who did the ultrasound hardly said anything the whole time. She did not have the best bedside manners. She spent forever measuring everything. I think we spent over three minutes just taking measurements of our baby's foot. Kyla feel asleep after the first 15 minutes. We kept trying to figure out what was going and what we were having but we couldn't tell. After about 45 minutes the ultrasound tech just blurted it out. "It's a girl." I couldn't believe she had just told us such news in such an anti climatic way. I kept asking her if she was sure and she assured me that she was pretty sure. Joel just looked at me and said, "well that's pretty cool." I think he had prepared himself pretty well for another girl. I was kind of hoping for a boy but I am pretty excited that we get to have one more little girl join our family. It will make sharing a room easier, two girls in each room. If we don't have a boy next time I will be really disappointed but right now I am really excited about having a little girl.

     As soon as we found out what we were having we were ready to go but the doctor needed a lot more measurements. Finally she asked us if we wanted a copy of some of the pictures and then she spent forever finding us some good profile pictures. Then she put them on a CD and handed it to me. I felt a little bit disappointed that they couldn't print me an actual picture. I didn't get to try out the CD for several weeks but when I did the CD didn't have anything on it. I am hoping my doctor will do another ultrasound for me later in this pregnancy so I can have a picture for the baby book.

     Joel and I had planned on doing some Christmas shopping at the dollar store right after the appointment but there was no time. Joel did run in and he got three pink balloons for us to use in revealing the news to our girls. I asked Joel to take care of the balloons and he said he would. The plan was to put them in a box and then the girls would open the box at our new house and they would know what we were having based upon the color of the balloons. We had to wait until Brynlee got home from school. I made some frozen pizzas to eat while we were there. My parents, my brothers, Alesha, my grandma, and my cousin Ryder all met us there. Everyone was excited to find out what we were having and we were ready to go. I asked Joel where the box was and he looked at me and said, "what do you mean? It's at home." He put the balloons in the box and then left the box at home for me to bring. I did not see it at all and just assumed Joel took it to the new house. Joel had to drive all the way home to get the box so everyone was left in even more suspense.

     As soon as Joel got back Brynlee and Annalyn opened up the box and the pink balloons came floating up. They both started jumping up and down with excitement and they shouted over and over again, "it's a girl, it's a girl." They really wanted another sister so they were beyond thrilled. They kept declaring the baby a girl the whole time. They both ran around the house jumping up and down with their balloons in pure excitement for several minute. My cousin Ryder was pretty disappointed and I think my family and Joel's family were all a little shocked that we are going to have so many girls but everyone seems pretty excited for us. Joel has four older sisters so I am sure he will handle it well. Hooray for another little girl to join our family soon. Now we just have to come up with a name. That is going to be the hard part.

Bryn is Five and a Half

     I am so far behind in my blogging. Life has been crazy lately. We celebrated Christmas, packed up all of our stuff, and have officially moved into our new house. We just got the internet set up today. To start the official catch up of the last year; I want to write a few things about miss Brynlee. She turned five and a half in December and is really growing up lately. She can be super helpful when she wants to. She is good at playing with almost anyone, and has been making her bed and Kyla's bed everyday since we moved into our new house. She still has several meltdowns about clothes and I get lots of meltdown from her when things don't go her way but overall she is pretty happy. She loves to go places and do things. I have had some issues with her being bossy and trying to tell people including me, what to do. She will sometimes stick her tongue out at me when she gets in trouble which never works well for her. She loves to sing songs and is a fun girl to be around.

     Brynlee loves school and has made lots of friends. She plays with different kids all of the time but her best friends at school are all boys. She knows all of her letters and all of the sounds and all of the sight words. She likes to read books to her sisters and when I read to her she loves it when I let her read me the words she knows. She is working on sounding out short words as well. She is constantly writing notes to people and she is starting to sound out the words and write the sounds she hears. Her drawings are getting really good too. She likes to teach Annalyn all of the stuff she learns at school.

     Brynlee loves movies and seems to pick a certain movie and her and Anna will watch that movie all week. This week it is Rio 2, Last week it was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and before that it was Despicable Me 2. Her favorite movie seems to be Spy Kids and I am sure she would watch that one a lot more often if Annalyn liked it more.

     Brynlee usually eats pretty well but she can be a little bit picky sometimes. We went to Dairy Queen and she did not like their crispy chicken strips because they didn't look like McDonald's chicken nuggets. I told her she needed to at least try one and she obediently took a bite and then gagged on it. She told me it was too "Crisperty" so Kyla got to eat them. She usually has me pack her a lunch for school and the only sandwich she will eat is peanut butter and Jelly. I will sometimes send cold pizza or crackers and cheese with pepperoni to mix things up a little bit. She usually eats her fruit but I stopped sending veggies because she never eats them.

     Bryn loves games and can be quite competitive. She is usually pretty lucky and does well at games like memory. She is good at the "spot it" game and usually does better than me. She gets really mad when she doesn't win.

     Brynlee loves books and I read her all of the Junie B. Jones books last year. I had one of those books on tape and Brynlee would listen to that book over and over again. She has listened to it at least 50 times. Then she discovered that the library has the rest of the books on tape so we check those out all the time and Brynlee will listen to a story while she plays.

     Brynlee is a pretty sweet girl and I don't know what I would do without all of her help. I know her sister's adore her and Joel and I feel pretty blessed to be her parents. She wanted to make a video where she said all of her favorite things so here it is...

Kyla - 18 Months

     Little Kyla has been full of personality and spunk lately. I love this age when they are learning how to communicate their wants and needs. Kyla is really a pretty easy going baby. She is content to just sit on my lap when we go places. She usually sits in the grocery cart and is super well behaved. But then there are days when she is super mischievous and constantly getting into things. She fights getting buckled into her car seat lately and still climbs on everything. Her latest things has been to climb on my kitchen counter and play in the sink. I had to hide all of my markers up on the fridge because she kept climbing and getting them and then writing on things. She loves to push the kitchen chairs all around the house so she can reach stuff. She also takes the little potty out of the bathroom and packs it to other rooms so she can use it as a step stool. She is a smart one that girl.

     At Kyla's last doctor appointment she weighed 24 lbs. (68%) and she was 32.75 in. tall (79%). We have been playing doctor quite a bit around here. Kyla thinks it is hilarious when she gives me a shot and I cry so she does it over and over again. We practiced what the doctor would do for her appointment and Kyla did so great. She showed the doctor her ears and let her look in her mouth. She was really unhappy when I set her on the scale but other than that she did great at her check-up. I was pretty impressed. She cried for her shot and poor Annalyn was right there looking on when the shot was given and Annalyn let out the loudest sympathy cry I have ever heard. It was like a yell cry and I felt sad for Kyla but Anna's cry made me laugh a little bit. As soon as Kyla got her sucker she immediately stopped crying and life was good again.

     Kyla likes to have me fix her hair whenever I fix everyone else's hair and she has brought me a pony tail holder to put in a few times. I can do a little pony in the back of her hair but other than that she doesn't have a lot of hair to work with. She has almost all of her teeth for a total of 16 with 8 on the top and 8 on the bottom.

     Kyla can say several words and she is getting good at communicating what she wants. Her favorite word is still "no" and she uses it even when she means yes. She can also say "uh uh," and nope. She also says bies (flies) a lot and she likes to point at the flies she sees flying around and then she pretends to squash them. You would think all of the flies would be dead by December but there are still a few flying around our house. Another favorite word is "bus." Whenever we talk about Brynlee when she is at school she likes to run to the window and she says "bus" over and over again. She says "me" and "my" when she wants something or when she thinks the thing is hers. She says "poo poo" when she has a poopy diaper. She says "dis" and "dat" and points to things to tell me which one she wants. She says "ja key" for jacket, "beh E" for belly, "oss" for off, "d o" for dog, "peas" for please, "orse" for horse, "ta tou" for thank you, "Joe" for Joel, "pod" for frog, "bis" for fish, "bas" for bath, "ca E' for candy, "mo" for more, and "I" for why. She can kind of say Brynlee and Annalyn's names. She can say up, bye, hi, eye, shoe, toe, ouch, ow, bite, cheese, hot, baby, bug, and uh huh. When she is cold she says "burr, co" and she wraps her arms around herself. She says "Ta Da" whenever she does something good. She likes to have me "mell" (smell) things and when she spills something she runs in the kitchen yelling "cow" (towel.) I love listening to her talk.

     Kyla loves books. She is constantly bringing me books and then climbing on my lap so I will read to her. Whenever we visit grandma Verna she heads straight for the bookshelf and gets grandma to read her book after book after book. She gets really jealous when her sister try to listen to the story grandma is reading to her as well. She pushes them off and hollers at them.

     Kyla loves shoes and she loves to eat candy. She still sucks on her thumb all the time and takes a nap in her bed and falls asleep without any fuss. Although she kept climbing out of her bed tonight and sometimes she wakes up in the middle on the night and I end of bringing her in our bed. For the most part she sleep well. She loves playing with baby dolls and looking at real babies when we go places. She loves to have her fingernails painted and she loves playing with her sister and tries to do everything they do. She hates it when she is left out. She really enjoyed sitting on the potty chair for a while until she actually peed in her little potty. It kind of freaked her out so now she won't sit on the thing at all. She loves to color, paint, and to play with play dough and she does quite well with it. She likes to take my phone and pretend to talk on it and she likes to take my chap stick and eat it. She is still a major mama's girl and doesn't usually like when other people try to hold her. She loves music time at the library and is staring to do the actions and go up to get the manipulatives with all of the other kids. She has gone to nursery three times and I don't think she even cried once. She seems to really enjoy nursery. It helps that Annalyn is in there with her. We will see how she does in our new ward.

     Kyla sure is a lot of fun lately. She likes to tease her sisters and do things that aggravate them but if one of them cries she is quick to give them a hug and a kiss and say sorry. She really loves her sisters and we all think she is pretty fun. We sure so love this little girl.

November Craziness

     November was a busy month at our house. Our little family has been working hard trying to get this house finished. We got a lot done. We finished taping, and texturing the drywall and sanded it all nicely, thanks to all of the help from Joel's parents. Joel then started on the trim and he put in lots of shelves. He set all the doors, built a mantle for our fireplace and made several fancy little feature that give our house a cool unique look. He put a shadow box in by our front entrance and he made sure all of the closets have lots of usable storage space. I can't wait to move into this house.

     Joel paid someone to come pour the concrete for our garage and for our driveway and walkway. Joel stamped it himself and it turned out nice. While Joel was working on that his dad worked on getting all of the lights going so now several of the switches work and we have light. His mom helped to fill in and sand all of the nail holes and to do some caulking. Joel took an entire week off of work during the week of Thanksgiving and I had my mom watch the kids so I could help him caulk some of the closets and trim. I didn't realize how time consuming that job is. It took me a while to figure out how to do it quickly but I finally started to get good at it towards the end of the day.

     Joel and I went to the store and we picked out tile and laminate one day. We took my mom with me and my brother Brian and his wife watched the kids. We tried to pick some out at Lowes one day when we had the kids with us and it was terrible. The kids kept whining and playing with the cart and there were so many people there. It was so much easier to pick out tile without the extra distractions. This time we went to a flooring store and someone helped us pick the tile out. We found this laminate we really liked and it was for a really good price because it was being discontinued. Joel did a rough estimate and we thought we would have plenty but when we went home we discovered that we would be 200 sq ft off so we had to pick out some different laminate. My mom watched the kids for us again and we went back to pick out laminate. We ended up having to pay a little more but we were able to find some more laminate that we like. That same day we also went and picked out our appliances from RC Willey. They had a good deal going on. Joel bought me dinner from Taco Bell on the way home so it was kind of like a little date. Then I went and got the kids while he went back to work on the house.

     Once we were done caulking Joel taped all the windows and took down all of the door and then he primed and painted the trim. Next he primed the entire house and then taped the trim he had just painted. His dad and his brother Josh spent half a day and put in all of the tile on both of the bathroom floors as well. Joel had to got back to work at this point but he was able to finish painting the rest of the house the last day of the month. His mom spent the day taping for him and I had grandma watch the kids so I could spend a few hours cleaning up around the house so he had room to paint. Joel stayed up until midnight that night but he got it done. He didn't have enough paint for the upstairs bathroom so I think we will just paint that a different color. Annalyn was a little disappointed that we didn't paint the house pink but I think it looks great. Joel also got all of the stone for our fireplace and for the front of our house and he put up the concrete on the posts outside. It was been super cold and snowy here so it might be tricky to put it up. We had a lot of help and we got a lot done. I am still not sure it we will finish by the end of the year but we will be close.

     During the rest of the month we celebrated my birthday and Thanksgiving. The kids ate all of their Halloween candy and I went to the doctor for a check up on this baby. My dad sent my brother Josh over and they took all of our chickens. They can't move with us and it has been so hard for me to take care of them lately so that was a huge relief. The kids miss the chickens a little bit but I know they don't miss that rooster. He was getting more and more aggressive so that I couldn't even get the kids to go close to the chicken coop.

     During the week that Joel took off from work Joel took me to see the last Hunger Games movie. Joel was so excited to see that movie that he didn't want to wait any longer than we had to. We went with Joel's friend Jake and his wife Amy from work and it was fun to get out again. The traffic was terrible that night so we barely made it there in time. We both really liked the movie.

     Kyla got a pretty bad cough, I think she had the croup, and she had a fever for a few days last month. She was also teething and got her last molar right around that time so she was miserable. I ended up staying home from church with her one day. Brynlee came down with the cough next and then I got it. Annalyn didn't get it for several more days. Then Brynlee came home from school early one day crying that her left ear hurt. She didn't even want to stay at school and celebrate the birthday party they were having. I gave her some tylenol and she went to sleep. I took her to the doctor the next day and discovered she had an ear infection in both ears. Dr. Bennett told Brynlee she would prescribe her the yummy tasting medicine and Brynlee was really eager to get home and drink it. I got it ready and went to get Brynlee a drink when Brynlee ran into the room and told me that she spit the medicine all over the floor. "The doctor lied," she told me. "That medicine was not yummy or delicious at all." She took her medicine fine that night but she missed the bus the next day because it took her soooo long to drink that medicine. After that we didn't have a problem with it. Brynlee had a Thanksgiving party at school that day and I wanted to go to it but Anna and I both had really bad coughs and I was feeling miserable so I decided we had better stay home.

     My sister Heather took Brynlee shoe shopping for me because I decided I did not have the patience to shop with that girl. Heather seemed excited to do it so I watched her kids and it sounds like they had a blast at the store together. Brynlee pick out two pairs of boots and some jeans that she loves. She desperately needed new shoes so I was grateful that she has something she will wear. That girl is so picky about clothes. When she came home she told me, "Mom, I love shopping just like Heather, I love shoes, and I want to cut hair when I grow up so I think when I grow up I might be Heather." HaHa.

     I had to give a talk in church one Sunday, we went to the library a few times, and I started packing and getting ready to move towards the end of the month. Since we are getting ready to move I seriously debated whether or not we should put up our Christmas tree and decorations. In the end I decided that we might as well put them up, just to make it feel like Christmas. I really don't think there is any way we will move before Christmas at this point. In the end I am so glad we put up the decorations. Joel quit working early one night so we took advantage of it and put the tree up together. The kids loved decorating that tree. The whole time we were decorating Anna kept excitedly exclaiming, "This is the best Christmas ever. This is really the best Christmas ever!" Their excitement was contagious so we had a great time putting up that tree. We ended up putting several lights around the house and the kids thought it felt pretty magical. I love their enthusiasm for life and I am excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior with my little family.

Thankful

     Life has been pretty busy and stressful lately; but through all of the trials and crazy times our family has been richly blessed. There have been so many little tender mercies along the way that I have been wanting to document; and what better time to acknowledge all of the things you are thankful for than at Thanksgiving.

     Lately I have had several different people watch my kids for me. There have been a few times when my mom (my brother Brian and his wife have done it too) would come and take my kids for me. It was always a much needed break for me and an opportunity to get some of the things done that would be so hard to do with the kids. I have dropped my kids off with my grandma several times when I went and helped Joel work on the house, and my sister Heather watched them once while I went to the doctor. I am so grateful for all of their help and that my kids love going over and hanging out with all of them.

     Not only has my family helped watch kids, they have also helped me out when I can't take dinner to Joel a few times. Grandma has offered to help me out and bring him dinner several times when I have had a lot going on. That is so much nicer for Joel than when he has to stop working and run to buy a burger.

     Joel's parents have helped us out immensely lately. There is no way we could have done the drywall without all of their help. Joel's dad has done most of the tile and they have been working non stop on our house for the last two months. We just can't thank them enough.

     A few months ago Joel talked to someone about putting the shingles up on our roof and he agreed to do it but Joel didn't get his phone number. So when it was time to put the shingles up Joel didn't know how to contact this guy. Joel and I prayed about it and the next day the guy showed up on the job at work that Joel was working on. He shingled our roof and did a good job.

     There was another day that Joel was trying to finish putting the siding up on the house and the only section he had left was way up high. There was really no way to finish that by himself and as we were talking about what we were going to do, we kind of decided that we would just have to wait until tomorrow when he had help. That would push the painting of the house back quite a bit so we were not happy about that but what can you do. And then at that exact moment, one of Joel's friends from work, Jake, showed up and asked Joel if he needed any help. They were able to get the rest of the siding up and then we were able to paint the next day. My dad and brother came and helped out with that. They also did lots of the caulking and the prep work so we could paint.

     A few weeks ago Joel went to work and discovered that his trailer full of about $6,000 dollars worth of his tools plus all of the other tools that he needed to work had been stolen. He called the police and then went around the neighbor to see if anyone noticed anything and then he came home to try and round up some more tools to work with. When he told me about what had happened I was shocked but he just looked at me and said, "you know, I am really surprised that I am not more upset. It is a little annoying to not have the tools I need to work with but I am not mad." Joel found enough tools to get by and went back to work. I think the most annoying thing was that he had to carry all of his tools in the back of his truck and he no longer had a microwave so he was stuck eating cold sandwiches for lunch. Not so fun on a cold day. A few weeks later Joel got a call from the police station. They found his trailer abandoned in a church parking lot. Most of the expensive stuff was stolen but they left quite a few of the tools there. They used Joel's microwave to jack the trailer up so it was smashed but at least he has a place to keep all his tools. Joel's boss let him use an old microwave he had and I think the insurance should cover some of the cost of what was missing. It could have been a lot worse so we are just grateful that the trailer was returned and that it wasn't completely destroyed.

     Really our family truly has been blessed this year. Our house is coming along really nicely and we should be done building it soon. The blessing along the way have been numerous. This pregnancy has not been a complete walk in the park but I feel pretty good and I have been able to do everything that I needed to do. My girls have been real troopers through the whole thing. I know the stress of building a house hasn't been easy on them. It has been hard but we have done our best to put the Lord first and I feel like we have been really blessed. We got a few really good deals on some products (we even got a free front door.) and I thinks things are turing out very nicely.

     For Thanksgiving this year, Joel took the whole week off of work so he could work on the house. He was able to get a lot of things done. I helped my grandma do a little bit of the cooking and we ate Thanksgiving dinner at her house.

     Thanksgiving morning started out with quite a bit of snow in our front yard. Of course the kids had to get their sleds out and I pulled them around our front yard. Brynlee tried to jump on the trampoline and they enjoyed playing in the snow. At least Brynlee and Annalyn did. I don't think Kyla was a huge fan. She kept wrapping her arms around herself and saying "burr." She could hardly move thanks to all of the snow gear I had on her. After playing in the snow we went to grandma's house and ate. The food was wonderful. Joel stopped working to eat and then he watched the kids while I took Brynlee with me to JCPenneys so I could buy her a coat. In the end there was no coat her size so I ordered a coat online for her. Then I went home and decided to just do all of my Christmas shopping online this year. It was nice to just sit at home and relax. Joel went to Walmart the next morning to see what deals were left and because he had to stop and get more caulk anyways. He came home with a few things.

     We have been richly blessed lately and I am very thankful for all of the blessing and tender mercies that the Lord has blessed us with.

Turning 30

     This month I turned 30. I am starting to feel old. Really there has been so much craziness going on around here that it hasn't really even registered. I found this old project that I did in elementary school where I wrote all about what I thought my life would be like when I was 30. I had pictures cut out of magazines of my family and house and everything. For the most part I think I met all of the goals that I wanted to accomplish by now. I got to be a teacher for a few years and now I am enjoying being a mom to my girls. I think this house we are building looks so much better than the big brick covered one I picked out and my family is much cuter. In my made up family I had a lot more kids, I think there were five or six of them. I guess I had planned on getting married much sooner. Yes, life didn't turn out exactly like I planned but I think it turned out to be pretty great.

On my birthday Joel let me sleep in a tiny bit and he even brought me breakfast in bed. It may have only been some frozen egos that he popped in the toaster but it meant a lot to me. He even put peanut butter on them for me. As soon as I was done eating Joel left to work on the house and I got up and took care of the kids.

Joel came home around three and we had cake and ice cream with the kids and some of my family came. My mom bought me a new Crock Pot since my other one broke and the kids gave me some cards they drew. Then we left the kids with my mom and Joel and I went to watch a movie and go out to dinner. Every place we drove by was packed so we opted for Golden Corral. We figured that way we could make it in time for our movie. That place was pretty packed as well but we were able to finish our meal and still have time to stop and look at appliances at Home Depot. We went and saw the movie The Martian because I had a free ticket and that looked like the best choice. It was a pretty good movie. The kids were good for my mom and they were all asleep when we got back. It was not a super fancy celebration but I sure enjoyed some one on one time with Joel.

(Annalyn took this picture of me a few weeks ago. It was the best picture I could find. For some reason I never think to take pictures during birthdays. HaHa!)

October

     October was filled with lots of fun things. Life has been pretty busy and stressful lately with trying to finish this house and take care of a growing family but we have had several blessing along the way and we have enjoyed lots of fun and happiness during all of the crazy times. We started the month by watching general conference which is always a good uplifting way to start the month. We had lots of fun celebrating Halloween and we went to Jakobee's soccer game one day and we spent another day playing at his house. The kids are good at finding things to do so really there is never a dull moment around here.

     The girls had a few play dates with friends and I babysat a few different kids several different times this week. The kids love having friends over, especially Brynlee. I have been watching two little boys every other week for a mom in our ward so that she can volunteer at the school with her older kids and then she watches my kids for me when I need her too. Her kids were sick last week so she wasn't able to watch them but the first time my kids both had a blast over there. I was really worried that Kyla would cry the whole time I was gone but she didn't really cry at all. Thank goodness. Her kids have been pretty good for me but she forgot her babies binky and so he cried a lot last time.

     The girls and I have been playing outside a lot. The leaves have all fallen off the tree and the kids had a blast playing in all those leaves. They didn't cooperate for a picture and it keeps raining so the leaves are all wet and soggy right now.

     The kids and I went Jabbers with a friend and the kids had a blast playing there. My sister Heather happened to be there at the same time so that was a nice surprise. Kyla really wanted to go down that big slide and she had no fear. The big kids on it didn't bother her one bit. She likes to climb so that was right up her alley. My sister Alesha is still in China and we have talked to her a few times, it sounds like she is having a great time. We went as a family to Idaho Pizza for lunch one day and we got there as the same time as my sister Heather. What are the odds? My kids love eating there so that was a fun time to spend with dad. Brynlee's school had an art night that we went to.

     Bryn is still absolutely loving school. She likes to come home and teach Anna everything she learns. She sings us all the songs she learns, makes us do all the movements and stuff with her, and she is constantly writing words and letters to people. I am completely amazed at how much she has learned. She seems to be picking everything up super quickly and she loves to learn. She is starting to read a few words and she has learned how to write pretty much all of her letters. I am so glad that she loves school. I got to go with Brynlee to her class field trip to Linder Farms and I really enjoyed it. It made me really miss teaching. Brynlee got to pick out her own pumpkin while we were there and we went through a corn maze, went on a hay ride, we got to pet some animals, and then the kids played on the little park they have. It was a fun trip. I even got to ride on the bus with Brynlee. We also had parent teacher conference with Brynlee's teacher and she is pretty pleased with how well Brynlee is doing. The friend she plays with the most at school are these three little boys but she seems to get along with everyone.

     Miss Annalyn has been obsessed with somersaults. That girl rolls everywhere she goes all around the whole house. She keeps running into things though and for a while she had so many little bruises on her back. She rolls over all the toys and whatever is on the floor. It is kind of funny. She is playing with Kyla a lot more and has been quite stubborn lately but for the most part she is just happy to play with her toys. She likes to do things with me and I try to spend a little alone time doing things with her when Kyla is sleeping. She loves when she gets all my attention. She has been kind of whiney lately and she gets upset over the silliest things. She was mad at grandma Hirtle for several days because she took the light out of her bathroom at the new house. She cried about it for hours. She has also been asking all kinds of questions lately. She likes to point at people (with her middle finger) and she will ask me things like, "what is that girl doing? Why is she doing that. Why is she wearing that?"

     Kyla got two more teeth on the bottom of her mouth this month and she is talking lots more. She has started saying a few phrases as well. My favorite is when she does something good she will lift up her arms and shout "ta da!" She likes to get her finger and toes painted and she loves to show people her feet and say "toe." She says "Cheese" whenever I get out the camera and she likes to share her food by putting it close to your mouth and saying "bite?" She says "tae tou" for thank you, she can make several animal sounds, and she will tell me when she is poopy by patting her bum and saying "poo poo." She hate those pajamas that zip up because she has gotten in the habit of rubbing her belly while she sucks on her thumb. She gets really mad when she can't rub her belly.

      It seems like I spent a lot of time this month cleaning up messes. Annalyn peed on the bathroom floor a little bit one morning and I was cleaning the floor when I came into the kitchen and found that Anna had poured some Apple juice and spilled some on the kitchen floor. Then I walked into the living room and discovered that Kyla spilled the cup of juice that Anna poured her all over the couch. It just seems like there were a lot of things that happened like that. The last night of the month Annalyn snuck into our bed, she hardly ever does, and she peed all over our bed. It was pretty bad. Joel slept on one little corner of the bed and I slept out on the couch. It was not a comfortable nights sleep for either of us. We have also had so many mice in our house and the flies have been really bad. So far we have killed 12 mice in the house and there are lots more. So gross. That makes me really want to more. My brother Brian and Heather came and got my girls for me one day and they took them to the dog park and to the dollar store which was so nice for me, plus the kids had a blast. It was really the break I needed for a few hours. Kyla took a nap and I got a lot done. My mom also came and got them for a few hours one day. I was so grateful for that.

     Bryn is still doing Tavaci once a week. The kids spend lot of time playing together. We got to church together on Sundays and we are enjoying life. Joel got sick one Sunday so I had to take the kids to church by myself. The van wouldn't start so I ended up waking Joel up to come help me jump start the van and we were a little late thanks to that. Then I lost part of my lesson for primary, and ended the day by losing my van keys. It turns out they were really in my bag the whole time. Luckily we made if home and I am grateful that my mom was there to help me get through the day. The kids and I play outside a lot and Brynlee has gotten really creative with building things. She followed the directions on that thing and built it all on her own.

     As for the house, we made lots of progress this month. We got all the insulation put in. We even got it all blown in the attic. Since the drywall guy would not be ready for three weeks Joel's parents volunteered to help us do the drywall. In order to start on the drywall we needed to get the insulation inspected. We were almost done but some of the insulation was put on backorder and not in yet. Luckily the inspector was nice and let us start on the drywall. All of the drywall is hung and we are just about done with all of the taping and mudding. Joel mom did almost all of the taping and texturing on her own. Both his parents were there most of the day while Joel was at work. We can't thank them enough for all of their help. That was a huge job. Next they will start the texturing. We had someone else come in and put up the shingles on our roof and put the concrete in our garage. It is really all coming together and starting to look and feel like a real house. The kids still love playing around the house and they like to help out when they can. Now we have the cabinets ordered, the rock for the front is ordered, and the trim is ordered. We got the fixtures put in the tub and the garage door should be put up any day now. (This picture was taken on Nov. 6th, right after the garage doors were put in. It was too dark to take a picture when I tried to take one.)

     Yes, life has been pretty crazy lately but we are pretty happy and overall we are really enjoying life.