Pumpkins

     Joel brought home his laptop from work and he let me use it to try and catch up on some blogging. Now I am so behind. I added some pictures to my last few posts and now I am going to try and start with a quick and fast post about all of the pumpkins we carved and painted this year.

      For family night in the middle of last month we went over to grandma's house and found a whole bunch of pumpkins in her garden. We loaded them all up in the wagon and pulled them to the house where we washed them off and the kids had a great time figuring out which pumpkin they wanted to take home. Brynlee was begging to carve them right away but I told her to wait. Apparently she didn't like that answer because the next thing I knew all three of those girls were in the house and Brynlee had grandma helping her to carve her pumpkin. I was mad at her for not listening but at that point I decided to just let it slide and we had a good time carving our pumpkins. All three of them were actually pretty independent with their own pumpkins and did a lot of it on their own. Annalyn got frustrated with the carver not working right a few times so I did that part but she designed the face and scooped out most of the seeds. I had to help Kyla quite a bit as well but she did pretty good at getting out all of her seeds.

     Our next door  neighbor asked our girls if they wanted to paint his pumpkin and they were more than happy to help with that. Joel took them all over there with their paint one night and Brynlee painted the neighbor's pumpkin while Annalyn and Kyla took their own pumpkins over to paint. I was actually pretty impressed with the faces they drew. Even Kyla had a little face on her pumpkin.

     All of my girls left their pumpkin at the neighbor's house and since we carved our pumpkins so early, they all rotted before Halloween and had to be thrown away. We still had several pumpkins sitting on our front step that I wanted to paint later but we never got around to it and Joel threw all of the pumpkins away as soon as Halloween was over. In fact, my girls were convinced that someone stole them when they looked out the day after Halloween and didn't see them. They were really distressed about that. When Joel told them what really happened they were so mad at him. Haha. We love pumpkins and I am glad we at least painted some of them.

Summer's first baby Food

Brynlee, Annalyn, and Kyla were all pretty anxious and excited to help Summer get her first taste of baby food. All three of them got right in there and took turns helping me feed Summer. It was kind of funny to watch them. They all opened their mouth every time they wanted Summer to open her mouth. Summer took several bites before she refused to eat anymore but I don't think she was super fond of the carrots she got to eat. She didn't act like she hated it but she made several faces.

September

     My computer is slowly dying so I am going to make this brief. Hopefully I can add pictures later. September started out with Brynlee getting strep throat. She missed her first day of school and had to get a throat sculpture. She described it as the nurse sticking the q-tip all the way down her throat and almost to her stomach. She was pretty mad at the nurse since she told her it wouldn't hurt. Luckily she got better in time to attend church on Sunday where we went to see Brian and Heather's new baby, little Elowyn get a name and a blessing. She also made it to her friend's birthday party. She was much more worried about that than about missing school.

     We went to the mall and I finally got some family picture taken. I helped grandma do up some grapes and applesauce. Brynlee had school all month and Annalyn had speech and we started going to the library every Thursday for their music class, story time, and for their art class. Anna and Kyla both enjoy doing that. We had a few friends over, went and played with friends, and went to the park a few times. The kids made lots of messes, I spent lots of time cleaning, and Joel spent lots of time at work. Bryn is still enjoying school. The little girls and I enjoy walking to the bus stop to get her most of the time. There was one day where we were all waiting for her to get off of the bus when I got a text saying that the police still had the kids on lockdown because of a mountain lion that was spotted near the school. She was almost 40 minutes late getting home from school that day. It isn't often that you find mountain lions in the middle of Kuna.

      Joel had a work party thing that we went to where we met at the Boise stadium before one of the football games and we had dinner, met the players, and got to tour the players locker rooms. It was a fun rare night out. We took the baby with us and had a girl from the ward watch our other girls. They had a blast with her and we had fun. I got to meet a few of the people Joel works with. Really the company is so big that Joel only knew a few of the people who were there.

Annalyn is 4 and 1/2

     Miss Annalyn is growing up lots and lots. Here is a little update all about her now that she is four and a half. Annalyn can be the sweetest girl. She is so helpful and sweet with little Summer and simply loves holding her. It melts my heart. She also loves to cuddle with anyone who will cuddle with her and if you talk to her and give her a little attention she will be your best buddy. She can also be the most difficult child. If something is unfair or if it doesn't go the way she wants, she will yell, scream, and cry for a long time after I don't give in to one of her demands. She has perfected the angry scowl pretty well and she has a great little growl to go with it. When she is super mad she runs to her room and stays in there for a while until she has calmed down.

Annalyn loves playing with toys and can play for hours. She plays with Kyla all the time these days while Brynlee is at school and they get along pretty well for the most part. Annalyn also loves watching videos on you tube and could sit there and watch shows for hours if I would let her. Whenever she gets to pick the family night activity she picks to play "animal action," which is really just animal charades. It is still really hard to figure out what she is because she changes what animal she is acting out in the middle of her turn. 

     Annalyn loves to get her hair fixed all fancy. I have been letting her play on the I-pad sometimes while I fix her hair so she always request a "long due," which means one that takes a long time to do. Of course as soon as I finish fixing her hair she then does several somersaults all along the living room. She does more somersaults than anyone I know. She comes up with some pretty crazy outfits to go with her hair. She hates jeans and loves dresses, leggings, and anything pink. I love her style.

     Annalyn has been going to speech once a week and has already made a lot of progress. We are working on the F, K, and S sounds. At home we are practicing saying the F sound at the beginning of words and she is doing great. She knows all of the ABCs and can write her name, although she still asks me which letter comes next after she has Anna. She loves doing preschool and any kind of craft. She likes coloring and painting.

Annalyn is such a little ball of sweet and sassy. She is often my hardest challenge of the day but she teaches me so much about enjoying life and about how to be patient. I am grateful for her and I love her fiercely. I am so glad this little girl is a part of my life and that I get to spend my days with her. I love you Annalyn.

Summer at 5 months

     I finally got my computer to work well enough to finish this post. Now lets see if I can load some picture before it dies on me.  Little Summer sure is getting quite big and is really gaining her own little personality. She is a pretty easy going and happy baby. She is sitting pretty well all on her own and likes to grab at and play with whatever she can get her hands on. She reaches and stretches really hard to grab things. She loves paper and anything that makes a crinkly sound the best. She is pretty cute and fun to be around. We love this baby a lot.

     Summer still lets anyone hold her and sleeps so great when I take her places. She still spends at least part of the night in bed with her parents and doesn't enjoy sleeping on her own. She takes the best nap when I hold her but as soon as she is set down, she wakes right up. She still wakes up once or twice to eat every night.

     Summer got her first taste of baby food during the middle of this month. We started her out with carrots. All of her sisters helped to feed her but Summer did not seem all that crazy about the food. I also gave her some squash, applesauce, and bananas but she didn't seem all that fond of it. She really just got a taste of those foods. I am waiting till she gets older to feed her more. Most days she just has milk.

     Summer used to love taking a bath but last time I put her in the bathtub she was terrified of the water. She did not enjoy her bath at all. I will probably have to let her take a bath with me for a few times until she gets over her fear of the water.

     Summer loves her jumper things and can spend a long time looking at all of her toys and playing with them in there. She loves looking at, playing with, and sucking on her feet. She is one cute little baby and a great addition to our family. We all love holding her and talking to her. She started to babble, gurgle, and make all kind of fun noises. Annalyn started calling her Summy and it is looking like that might become a nickname for her. We will see if it sticks. Joel doesn't really love the name Summy but we sure are loving every day with her.