Brynlee is 6 and 1/2

    My oldest child just keeps growing. She can read pretty well, I can't spell things over her head anymore. She just lost her first baby tooth this month, and she is getting quite independent to where she doesn't need my help to brush her teeth or take a shower anymore. Watching her grow up is full of so many bittersweet moments for me. I love that she can do things all on her own and it is so much easier to have her be independent, but it makes me sad that she doesn't need me anymore. Luckily she still likes to be snuggled in tight before bed and there are moments when she will just want to sit on my lap and talk to me. I love this girl so much.

Brynlee recently decided that she is "getting too used to playing with toys," so I have a hard time getting her to do that anymore. She constantly begs and begs to watch movies, play on the wii, and play games on the ipad. I made a new rule that she isn't allowed to do any of that on school nights because that was all she would do. It was kind of nice because she would hurry home from school, do her reading and chores, and then beg to watch a show. It was making her pretty whiney and she would get so mad when it was time to turn things off that I finally had to make the rule. We will see if that changes things for the better. If Brynlee isn't watching a show she can usually be found in the office creating a craft, writing a letter, or making paper dolls and clothes. She loves to write. She also plays lots of pretend with Annalyn and Kyla when they are home. They always beg her to play with them and she does every once in a while. She is still pretty bossy when she plays with them but for the most part they get along pretty well.

      Brynlee is still very picky about what she will wear and what she will eat. She was wearing jeans last year but this year she decided she hates them again. She hates socks but since I won't let her wear flip flops anymore has resigned herself to the fact that she must wear them. Most morning she doesn't complain about it and wears her boots happily. On PE days she puts her tennis shoes in her backpack and changes into them at school right before PE. She likes dresses and lately she lets me fix her hair before school each morning. She usually requests two braids and ponies, one side braid pony, or two ponies. Those are the only hair dos she will do. Sometimes she will let me curl it or leave it crimpy but if not she just wears is straight down. As far as food goes, she mostly takes a PB&J sandwich to school for lunch everyday with the occasional crackers and pepperoni, or cold pizza. She will eat hot lunch at school maybe two or three times a month.

     Brynlee still loves going places but now that she goes to school everyday she is content to just stay home after school. She will play with a friend anytime she can. She has been scared a few times about someone kidnapping her and worries about that a lot. Sometimes she has bad dreams, usually about zombies, so each night in her prayers she asks for good dreams and that her dream catcher will work. My sister Alesha gave one to her and she is pretty fond of that thing. She has gotten mad at it a few times and called it broken when she still has bad dreams but she still makes sure it is hanging above her bed every night before she goes to sleep.

     Brynlee loves school. She likes riding the bus everyday and she seems to have lots of friends that she plays with. She plays school with Annnalyn at home all the time. She loves writing time the most. She has been checking out a lot of "Magic Tree House" books from the school library and we have been reading them together. She is good at reading and will sit and try to read all kinds of books. She reads a verse of scriptures most nights before bed but she hates doing the reading her teacher sends home. She brings home four books that she has to read every night. She will often pick easy books that she has memorized so she can get it over with. Lately I have been letting her get books from our bookshelf to read instead and she seems to like that better. I am getting tired of listening to the same books every night so it works for both of us.

Brynlee sure is a fun part of our family. We love her lots. Here is a little video of her talking about some of her favorite things.

Kyla is 2 and 1/2

Kyla was officially 2 and 1/2 at the beginning of last month. She is still one of my easiest and most easy going kids but she has gotten an opinion on several things and can be mischievous when I least expect it. She is the best toddler to take places because she sits for me so well and is usually content to watch what is going on around her. She is still a super observant kid. She loves playing with all of her sisters and is the best playmate. She shares well and is a great peacemaker. If someone else wants the toys she is playing with, she is usually the first one to give them the toy. She is super compassionate and will run and get a band aid every time someone needs one. She likes to be the one that gets the scriptures every night when we read them. She is one fun little girl.

 Kyla talks all the time. Sometimes she just talks and talks and goes from one topic to the other so quickly it is hard to keep up with her. I love talking to her and seeing what her little mind is thinking about. Lately she keeps talking about how she is growing up big and about how she is going to "grow up into a mom." Whenever she does something naughty or if she spills something or pees on the bathroom floor she runs to me and say, "I is just liddle. I is just a liddle girl!" She must know that makes it hard for me to get mad at her. She is super sensitive and will cry every time someone gets onto her or tells her to not so something. For the most part she doesn't have a hard time talking to other people but sometimes she can be shy and will stay close to me.

 Kyla still sucks on her thumb all the time, especially when she is tired. We got rid of her nap a long time about but every once in a while she will get tired and come and tell me she wants a nap and I always let her take one. She also falls asleep in the car on long rides. Every Sunday when we drive to Joel's parent's house Kyla takes a nap through dinner and then tries to stay up late that night. If she doesn't take a nap she will fall asleep in her bed all on her own at bed time and she sleeps in there through the night. It was a lot of work to get her to that point but things are so much easier now that getting her to sleep isn't such a struggle.

Kyla eats well and seems to like most foods. She gets dressed all on her own and lately she only want to wear "pretty pants." Right now that means she will only wear stretchy leggings. She calls jeans and anything with a button "boy pants" and refuses to wear them. Kyla loves getting her hair fixed in the morning and usually requests a braid. It is finally long enough that I can do one big side braid in her hair. I let her play on the ipad most of the time while I fix her hair and she will usually pick the show her sisters want to watch.

Kyla likes to play with barbies, stuffed animals, and baby dolls. She likes to steal the baby stuff and her and Annalyn like to take turns pretending to be the mom and the baby. She plays lots of pretend with Annalyn during the day when Brynlee is at school. She likes make-up and all things sweet. She will climb in the pantry to get things to eat when she wants a snack. Here is a picture of her making her own "hot chocolate." She made hot chocolate with straight coco powder the other day and despite me telling her that is wasn't going to taste good she took a huge sip of it. Then she declared it to be gross and left the mess for me to clean up. Lately she does not want to be bothered with cleaning up and seems to leave when chore time comes around. She still likes the color purple the best but will often ask for the pink bowl because she knows it makes Annalyn mad. As soon as Anna starts to cry Kyla will usually trade with her though. Kyla loves baby Summer and is usually pretty sweet with her. Kyla shares a room with Brynlee and they get along pretty well most of the time.

To finish off this post I am going to leave you with a video of Kyla. She was in a pretty talkative mood so you can get a pretty good idea of what it is like to talk to Kyla. I love how she just goes from one topic to the next. I really love this age, even if she is a little bit mischievous and if she throws a fit every once in a while. She is just so little and innocent, it's hard to get mad at her.

Kyla sure is a blessing to our home. She makes it a happier and more peaceful place to be. I love her happy, compassionate, easygoing personality. We sure are lucky to have her.

December 2016

     The month of December started out with our kids being sick. Annalyn was still feverish from the croup that she got after Thanksgiving. Luckily her fever was low grade and she seemed to be feeling better. She had a fever for a total of six days. I had to take Summer in for a flu booster later that week so I got to make another quick visit to the doctor and then Kyla ended up getting croup so Joel and I took turns staying home from church with her the next Sunday. Summer got it a few days later but luckily hers didn't last as long as Annalyn's did and after five long weeks of staying home with sick kids, we all got to go to church together as a family on the 11th of December. Our kids were so naughty that by the end of sacrament meeting Brynlee was the only one who was sitting in the chapel all by herself.

     There were a few other colds and yucky stuff that got passed around our family this month but luckily everyone was well enough to enjoy and celebrate Christmas. Brynlee has this awful cough that has been lingering since she had croup during Thanksgiving break. It sounds awful and she is so loud when she coughs that it has been a huge distraction to everyone around her. She had a substitute teacher at school one day and apparently the teacher  told Brynlee she was driving her crazy and made her go to the office and I ended up getting her and taking her home from school. Then Brynlee got in trouble for taking a cough drop to school (even though it wasn't a cough drop, it was just a little throat drop and it was mainly to ease her fears about going to school.) For a while she was convinced that nobody wanted her at school so she was just going to quit going. There were two whole weeks when it was a fight to get Brynlee to go to school every day. I finally went and talked to her teacher and that has helped with her not wanting to go to school.
    
     Once Christmas was over I decided to set up an appointment to take Brynlee in to the doctor to see about her cough. The day before her appointment she started complaining that her leg hurt and she would hardly walk on it. The next morning she was really hobbling around and crying that her leg hurt. She could barely limp into the doctors office and the doctor was a lot more worried about her leg than her cough. She prescribed me some allergy medicine to help with the cough and then sent us over to get some X-rays done on Brynlee's hip. Brynlee could not even move her hip properly to get the X-ray done, she was in so much pain. Luckily we got the X-ray done right there and they were pretty fast with the results. It turns out Brynlee had some fluid that was in her left hip and it was causing an excruciating amount of pain in her leg. I guess that can sometimes happen after a virus or cold and the fluid just settles in the leg for some reason. I had to give Brynlee Ibuprofen for several days but that seemed to ease her pain so she could walk and less than a week later the pain was gone and she was back to normal. Unfortunately the cough was not. We are still trying to figure out how to get rid of her cough.

     We tried to do several things to bring in the Christmas spirit and did several fun things as a family. We did some crafts and listened to lots of Christmas music in the van and before bed. Brynlee had a school Christmas program for her whole school where they sang some songs. Brynlee was chosen to play the bells for one of the songs and she was so excited to do that. She has been singing those Christmas songs for a long time so Annalyn almost knew them and could sing along while we listened.

  
     It snowed a lot this month. My girls sure enjoyed playing in it at first. The Friday before Christmas break Brynlee ended up having the first Snow day in Kuna in several years. Luckily she got to go back to school next Monday and Tuesday because she wasn't that excited about missing school. We really got a lot of snow so I am glad we didn't have to go anywhere in that stuff. (The picture of Kyla crying below makes me laugh every time I see it. She fell in the snow and got covered in the stuff but she was fine until she realized that she had lost her quarters that she was going to use in the quarter machine at Annalyn's speech. Luckily I had an extra one for her.)



     My Uncle Eric, the one that was in Australia was in a pretty serious accident at work on the 9th of December. He got knocked off a ladder and landed right on his head. They did brain surgery on him but things weren't looking so great so my mom and grandma hopped on a plane and went to Australia. Our family was all desperately praying for a Christmas miracle while also realizing that this may just be his time to go. After a few days it became clear that my Uncle was not going to make it so the difficult decision was made to take away Eric's breathing tube. He lived for several hours after and slipped away from this Earth on December 15th; the same day as my brother Josh's 18th birthday. Eric was surrounded by my mom and grandma at the time and I hope he could feel of their love. I know it was excruciatingly difficult for them to watch Eric die but it was important to them that he didn't die alone. I think in the end there were several little tender mercies given to all of us and while we will miss Eric, we are at peace that this was his time to go. I am grateful for the knowledge that we will see him again. I think everyone's heart hurt the most for his nine year old daughter Patricia. She meant the world to him.

     Since my mom was gone on Josh's birthday, the rest of the family got together and had ice cream and pie and then Joel went with everyone to see Rogue One, the new Star Wars movie. My mom came home that Sunday and I had everyone over for a Sunday dinner. It was good to be together. Having Eric die was a hard reminder of the important things in life and it was good to spend some quality time with my family. While grandma was gone we went and surprised her by putting up her Christmas tree. We wanted her to have something festive to come home to and we knew she didn't have time to put one up before she left.


     My grandma stayed in Australia and did a little funeral service for Eric there in Australia and then had his body shipped back to the United States so we could also do a little funeral for him here. My Aunt Lisa came up from Texas and my mom has a few cousins that live close that came to the funeral as well. Because of Christmas his body didn't get here in time for his funeral that we wanted to have on the 27th so we had to push it back to the 29th. He was usually late to everything and I guess now we can say he was even late to his own funeral. Our family met in the chapel for a small funeral service. Grandma gave a life sketch of Eric, my brother Josh and some friends sang some songs, and then my dad and the bishop gave some talks. It was over in 30 minutes but I think everything important got said. My Uncle was a quiet guy. He didn't talk much. I will always remember him with a smile on his face. He could be a tease sometimes, I remember him calling Brian 'stick man' all the time when he was little. I always thought he could beat any video game and fix any electronic that was broken. He was super smart and had a lot of random knowledge. He used to send me little fun or informational emails all the time. I will miss him a lot.

     After the funeral service we had lunch at grandma Verna's house and then we drove to Oregon where we left his body to rest. It was super cold and snowy but we were all able to say goodbye and see his final resting place. I got a little teary eyed during the funeral service, I think most of the family did. We will all miss Eric and it was hard to have him go so unexpectedly; but I know he is in a better place and that he is happy right now.

    Joel's sister Joy came down right after Christmas and we had fun spending time with her family. Joy fixed up all the girl's hair and painted everyone's fingernails. We played several games and watched many movies with them. We love spending time with family.



     It was also fun to spend time with my family. We played many games with them and We even took Lisa sledding/snowmobiling with us. Joel traded his old trailer for four snow mobiles and this was the year to do it. We have had record amounts of snow that Joel has gotten to play in and enjoy and he doesn't even have to leave town. He has had a lot of fun with those things. It was a good thing we went close to go sledding because I think each of my kids went down the hill once and then they were done. They just got too cold, Annalyn's sled tipped over, and Brynlee got her gloves all wet. Grandma watched Summer while I went so I got to go down a few times and I had fun. Lisa is from Texas so she didn't last in the cold for much longer than my kids did. Brynlee enjoyed riding the snowmobile home with her dad.

     It seems like the snow was around for most of the month so Brynlee got to go out and she made a little snow girl all by herself.. I tried to get Summer asleep so I could come out and help her but it took to long so Brynlee made it all on her own.

     This month was full of many hard times. With the death of a loved one and so many sick and whiney kids, there were days that were super hard but there were many fun times. I am grateful for all of the Christmas lights and the joy of the season that made this a month to be remembered and cherished.

Summer is Eight Months

     Little Summer is crawling all over the place and getting into all kinds of stuff. She is constantly putting stuff in her mouth. She is pulling herself up to stand with ease. She says "mama" and "dada" all the time lately and is starting to cry when other people try to hold her. She is a serious mama's girl lately and if mom is around she doesn't want anyone else to hold her. It was a real challenge to get a decent picture of Summer this month. It took me several days and numerous tries to get her to hold still long enough for me to get a good picture. I had to bribe her with lots of food and toys in order to make it work.

Summer is the best little baby to take places with you. She is pretty happy, loves to be held and packed around in her baby carrier, and enjoys just sitting back and observing the world. She sleeps well in the baby carrier and in her car seat in the van. Being at home can sometimes be a different story. At home she can be pretty fussy and whine to be held, especially when she is tired, she likes to be held and rocked to sleep for all of her naps, so she sometimes makes it difficult to get things done around the house. Really I wish I could just sit and hold her for all of her naps. I do love snuggling with this baby girl.

Summer loves to eat big people food and pretty much eats whatever we eat. She sits in her high chair at the dinner table for lunch and dinner and eats with the rest of the family. I have not bought very much baby food so she eats lots of cooked carrots, applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, and peaches. I just set her food in a little bowl, or sometimes I just put it on my plate, and I smoosh it up and feed it to her. She has also had lots of eggs, pieces of muffins, cheese, crackers, and bits and pieces of whatever she can eat without choking. She has been getting a little pickier but for the most part she is a pretty great little eater.  

     Summer got to experience snow for the first time this month. One day I actually put a snowsuit and a warm coat on her and set her in the snow. She did not enjoy that experience. She was fine with being out in the snow as long as I held her but as soon as I set her in the snow she just sat their and cried. I never did get her to come around to the stuff. I mean, her name is Summer so I guess it makes sense that she doesn't like winter.

     Summer also got to celebrate Christmas with us this month and she sure enjoyed it. She just liked being in the middle of everything and watching the excitement of everyone else. She never did open any presents but she had fun playing in the wrapping paper and crawling amongst all of the presents. She liked crawling under the tree and playing with all of the ornaments that would fall off.

     Summer got sick several times this month and wanted nothing more than to be held. She sure was nice and cuddly but so miserable. I was determined to get this baby out of mom and dad's room and into her room that she shares with Annalyn so I packed up her porta crib. She slept in her bed for a few nights and then she got sick so I let her sleep in our bed. She still wakes up a lot at night, sometime she still wakes up every three hours to eat. I was hoping having her in another room would solve that but for now she is sleeping in our bed and she seems pretty happy with that arrangement and still wakes up far to often in the middle of the night. Good thing she is so cute cause she makes me tired.