Halloween 2017

Halloween was on a Tuesday this year. Now that I have two kids in school I was a little worried about how to help in two classrooms. Annalyn's teacher asked me to be her room mom so I called everyone and made sure we had enough stuff for the party but I thought I should be there and I told Brynlee I would probably have to miss her party. In the end it worked out great because Brynlee had her party right after lunch and the party was over after afternoon recess which was when Annalyn's party started. Kyla and Summer stayed with grandma and I had fun getting to spend some time in both of their classrooms. Brynlee dressed up as a vampire this year while Annalyn was Hello Kitty.

After all of the school parties we went home, ate some pizza, and then my mom and Alesha and Brian's family come over and went trick or treating with us. Kyla dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake while Summer was a cute little owl. Kyla kept that pink wig on for the first half of the night but it kept falling off so I told her she didn't have to wear. I brought the wagon along for Summer and Kyla and they both rode in it for a while but then Kyla got out and Annalyn rode in the wagon for half of the night.

I couldn't really get Summer to say anything the whole night. She would just hold out her bucket and when the candy was handed to her she would grab as many pieces as she could fit in her little hand but she would not say anything. She was pretty excited about getting all of that candy and held on tight to her bucket the whole night. I tried to help her hold it when it started to get heavy and she would not let me even touch it. She had to be the only one holding it. She kept getting into everyone's candy all week and ate tons of the stuff but most of the time she would just eat part of the candy and then throw the rest of it on the ground. I found so many half eaten candy bars and suckers the next few days. I kept thinking all of the candy would be hidden really well and then Summer would come in the room with a sucker in her mouth.

Kyla lasted out for our whole subdivision and then it was starting to get late and she was getting cold so by the time we made it back to our house she was ready to stay home. All of the other guys stayed with Joel who was home passing out candy. Kyla and Summer got into their jammies and they were both in bed by the time we got back.

Brynlee and Annalyn wanted to keep going so all of us girls went across the street into another subdivision to get some more candy. I almost abandoned the wagon but decided to bring it just so I didn't have to piggy back Anna home. She used that thing after almost every house. I should have made her walk more.

We had a fun night and the girls got lots of candy. I am glad they love the Holidays and enjoy dressing up. It was never my favorite thing to do as a kid but their enthusiasm makes it pretty exciting. They love decorating the house and getting into the spirit of the season. They were convinced our house needed to be creepy looking and they all thought we did a pretty decent job at creating a scary looking yard.

Family Night with Pumpkins

Every Monday is Family night in our home. We take turns being in charge of the song, prayer, lesson, activity, and treat. It is one of the most anticipated nights of the week in our home. We got several pumpkins from Joel's mom's house this year and we got some little ones from my grandma. The kids were really wanting to carve and paint them but I wanted them to wait and do it together on Family night. Annalyn was in charge of the activity the week we were going to paint pumpkins and everyone else was on board with the activity but Annalyn had other ideas. She went into the garage and got out the Easter stuff and set up an egg hunt. Instead we all had an Easter egg hunt on that cold October night. The hunt started out with Annalyn hiding all the eggs and then finding all of them before anyone else got a chance so then everyone else spent the night crying. We finally convinced Annalyn to let dad hide the eggs and we had a fun little egg hunt with our family. We ended the night with ice cream cones while the kids played with all of the Easter toys. 

The next week Brynlee was in charge of the activity and she chose to paint pumpkins. It is one of the activities that everyone looks forward to all year. Brynlee painted several witches and ghosts on her pumpkin, Annalyn and I just painted a face, Kyla and Summer just free painted different colors all over their whole pumpkin. Joel painted several different things on his pumpkin. We ended the night with cookies.

 The Monday before Halloween was my turn to pick out the activity and I chose to carve all the big pumpkins from grandma Hirtle's house. Joel brought in his drywall knife and that thing worked really well to use to carve out the faces. The kids really got into the whole things and had a great time. After we were done Joel collected all of the seeds and roasted them in the oven. The kids all designed their faces this year.

I love family night. It is fun to spend time with my little family. I am grateful that Joel does his best to make this night one to enjoy and cherish every week. It is my favorite night of the week. 

Summer 18 Months

Summer is officially eighteen months old. She is still the sweetest baby but she is super busy and gets into all kinds of things these days. She weighs 23.7lbs. (65%) and is 31.3in. (33%) tall. Her head is still big in the 84%. We are still putting her in size three diapers and she still wears 18 months clothes (they are starting to get a little small though so I will probably pull out the 24 month stuff later this week) and she wears size 4 shoes. She has 12 teeth, eight in the front and four molars in the back. Her hair is long enough for me to give her a little Mohawk. She loves it when I fix her hair but for now that is the only hairstyle I can do. 

Summer is constantly pushing the chairs all over the house so she can climb and get into things. She can open all of the doors in the house and can often be found playing in the pantry. She likes to dump out the cereal and eat whatever food she can find. There have been several times when I have found her snuggled on the couch with the bag of Lucky Charms and a blanket while she eats all of the marshmallows out of the cereal. She found a thing of Desitin in the bathroom one day and I found her and Kyla hiding out in the garage with it. Summer was covered in it and she had smeared it all over the front of our van. Kyla claimed innocence and claimed that Summer was the one who opened the door and decided to play out in the garage. Summer likes to draw on her body whenever her sister leave writing utensils out and she has drawn on the walls a few times already. The first time she wrote on the wall was when Joel was home watching her. She likes to play in the bathrooms and has thrown several toothbrushes in the toilet. She recently threw a brand new tube of toothpaste in the toilet. I was not happy about having to throw that away. One of her most favorite rooms in the house is the master bathroom. Now that she can open the door I keep finding her in there. She loves to play with Joel's shaving cream and all of his Q-tips. She learned how to climb on the drawers and likes to eat my chapstick and play in my make-up. She loves deodorant as well and likes to stick it in her shirt and walk around with it. Right now almost everything that should be in our bathroom drawers are sitting on top of our counters so that Summer can't reach it. 

Every time I do the dishes Summer likes to pull up a chair and try to play in the water. The last few times she helped me she kept trying to climb in the sink and then spent the whole day pushing a chair up there so she could play in the water. She got soaked both times. She was so obsessed with the sink that I could not distract her from the water. 

Summer loves to stick things down her shirt. If she is wearing a onsesie we never know what we might find tucked in there at the end of the day. It might be food, playdough, toys, measuring tapes, deodorant, or other clothing items. She likes to put things on her head like swimsuits or panties but she will not keep her hat on her head very often. She refuses to wear any kind of headband or bow but she will walk around with a pair of pants on her head for a few hours. 

Summer likes to sit at the big table with us while we eat but she is constantly climbing on the table to reach things so I still make her sit in her high chair for most meals. She can climb in her hair chair and out of it if she wants to. Summer loves candy but will usually only eat half of her sucker and then throw the rest on the ground. She still eats pretty well. 

Summer can understand everything that is said to her and will follow most of the simple commands we give her. She throws stuff in the garbage when I tell her to and folds her arms before every prayer. So far we can't get her to talk very often. She points a lot and will say "dat" when she wants something. When I try to get her to say the word she usually just signs "please." She uses the sign language for that word a lot. She has said "ta tou" for thank you a few times, she says "dada" all the time, she says "ah nuh" for Annalyn and "ky uh" for Kyla. She has attempted to say Brynlee and there are rare days when she says "mama" but most of the time she just calls for her dad. She was snuggling with me the other day and would not let her dad hold her but when I asked if she was mama's girls or daddy's girl she didn't even hesitate before she said "dada." She does love her dad. She has repeated several words we have said and will sometimes say cat or milk. She hates when there is a piece of hair on her soother and will hand it to me and say 'yuck' when she finds one. When she colors on paper she will lift up her hands after each line and say "Ta da." She also says "owie" whenever she gets hurt. She will say "Hi" on occasion but most of the time she just waves and will sometimes even blow kisses. She will say "hot" sometimes and "mine" but her most favorite word is "no." She has that word down really well. If  I ask her a question she is really quick to tell me no. She will remain silent and sometimes nod her head for a yes answer. She says several other words but they are not easy to understand. She honestly doesn't need to talk since she has three big sisters that dote on her and help her get whatever her little heart desires. When she wants something done she just walks around the house, points at what she wants and waits for someone to fulfill all of her desires. 

I was making cookies one day while Summer was napping and Summer found the cookie dough after her nap while I was waiting for the oven to preheat and kept eating the dough. She is one good little climber and when she sets her mind to something she is hard to deter. Usually she loves walks in her stroller but there have been a few times where she threw a fit and wanted to be held, walk, or help push the stroller. Honestly she just wants to be treated like a big girl. The last few times we went to the park Summer insisted on swinging in the big kid swing. She tries to do whatever her sisters do and wants to be right in the middle of all the action. 

It took a while but we have finally transitioned this girl to only take one nap a day. She usually falls asleep right after lunch and then sleeps for two hours. Then she goes to bed around 7-7:30 at night and sleeps in her bed until morning. She now has a pillow in her bed and she likes to sleep with several blankets and her soother. We still have nights where she will wake up occasionally and there were several weeks where she was getting in our bed at night but she is finally on a good sleep schedule. She will still sleep in our arms at church on Sunday but it is getting harder for her to sleep when she isn't in her bed. Summer really does love her soother and will not sleep without it. I have been making her only use it for bedtime and naps and that has been a challenge. I think she would keep that thing in her mouth all the time if I let her. When she first wakes up she always insists that I bring her blanket and soother with her and snuggle with her on the couch for a bit. When she is ready to go play she will take them both and put them back in her crib.

Summer is one fun little girl. Her hugs are one of the best things you can get in our house. She seems to know when someone is sad and will run up to them and give them a big hug and a kiss right where she can reach. Kyla gets the most hugs from Summer. They will be playing and all of a sudden Summer will just run up to Kyla and give her a hug. Kyla never turns a hug away and will always stop what she is doing to fully bask in the hug. Before anyone can leave they must give her a nice sweet hug or she will cry real tears of sorrow. I love her hugs cause she just melts right into your arms.

Summer is one sweet busy little baby. We all love getting to hang out with her. Summer's sisters love to be the one that helps her get dressed and ready to go in the morning. They love to play with her, although they hate it when she messes up their toys, they usually try to include Summer. Brynlee loves it when I let her watch Summer in the back yard and Summer loves that because she loves to play outside. I usually stay close to a window so I can keep an eye on her.  

Summer is still scared of dogs and most other animals but has been brave a few times and pet a few animals. She was fine with me leaving her in nursery and didn't even care that I was gone. I have taken her in there for a little while a few times. She goes to other people just fine. In fact she went and sat with one of her nursery teachers before church started the week before she turned 18 month and then she would not come back and sit with me. She kept telling me "no" that she didn't want to sit with me. She ended up falling asleep in her teacher's arms. Summer loves to play with dolls, to swing and be outside, to look at books, and to be with her family. 

We sure do love this sweet baby and we are all so glad she joined our family.