Brynlee's Baptism

     Brynlee has been waiting to turn eight and be baptized for a long time. She was supposed to be baptized at the end of the month of June, a few weeks after her birthday. As soon as she broke her leg we were worried that she would have to put the baptism off for a little while. They only do them once a month so she would have to wait until August which would be during the Hirtle Family reunion or she could wait until the beginning of September which is right when our baby is due. We were really praying that she wouldn't have to wait until October and that she could get her cast off before the 30th of June.

      Amazingly the doctor who looked at Brylee's foot told her the cast could come off on the 27th. We felt it was a huge blessing. Brynlee had been complaining a lot that her foot was still hurting right before she got her cast off so she was a little worried that she would have to get another cast put back on. If her foot wasn't healed all the way that was a possiblity. Brynlee had her interview and was all ready to be baptized earlier that week but we just had to make sure the cast would come off for sure. When we finally go to the doctor, they took the cast off, did an x-ray, and declared Brynlee's foot good to go. The doctor said if he didn't know where the break had been he could not even tell her foot had been broken. He told her to take it easy for a week and then to resume all of her normal activities. Brynlee was pretty excited. She had been super worried that things would not turn out well. The first thing we did when we got home was to fill up our little pool out back and Brynlee swam in there for a little while before she decided to take a nice long bath so she could finally soak her leg in the water and wash it really well.

My sister in law Heather offered to take some baptism pictures of Brynlee in her white dress so she came and picked Brynlee up that night and took her to the Meridian temple where they took a bunch of pictures. Brynlee had a blast, she got to eat donuts, she got a balloon, and she even got to go out for ice cream after that. She came home in a pretty great mood. The pictures Heather took turned out super cute. She took so many great ones. I am posting a few here but you can see the rest on this website, http://picti.net/1skHC.

We were getting pretty excited for the weekend when we could celebrate the baptism at that point. I bought a bunch of hot dogs, ice cream, and root beer so we could have some people over to celebrate. Then that night after Brynlee went to bed she woke up with a fever and she ended up feeling pretty sick and running a fever all the next day. I was hoping she would be better in 24 hours but the next day she was feeling worse. She was throwing up and running a high fever all day. She didn't eat anything until that night when she was feeling a little better so I went to sleep with a little hope until she woke up during the night with another fever. I was convinced we would have to postpone the baptism but Brynlee woke up that morning all smiles ready for her big day. I tried to make her wait and make sure she felt all the way better before she made a decision but she was determined to call everyone and tell them the baptism was on. She felt great all that morning until around lunchtime. After a little medicine she was good to go again and my dad took all the kids out to the dog park with him. Brynlee came home in a great mood and got ready for the baptism. I gave her some more medicine and we went to the church where Brynlee got to be baptized by her dad.

During the baptism, I said the prayer and Summer ran up on the stage after me. There was a pretty music number and then a short talk. There was three other kids getting baptized that night but Brynlee got to go first. They did a little spotlight on each of the children. Brynlee acted fine but I still felt like she wasn't feeling totally better. She didn't have her normal smile. Brynlee's dad got to baptize her and then she changed back into her white dress and was confirmed. One of her primary teachers and a few other people from church came to support her as well as both sets of grandparents, grandma, my brother Brian, and Joanna and all of her family. We didn't invite a lot of people because we were so unsure if things would get to take place or not.

We had a few people that stopped by and had hot dogs and treats after the baptism. We had a fun time but as soon as everyone left I could tell Brynlee wasn't feeling that well. By the time she went to bed that night her fever had returned. At that point I was just praying that she didn't get anyone else sick. She had to miss church the next day and ran a high fever the whole day. She still had a fever until after lunchtime on Monday. Summer had a fever on Sunday and Monday as well but hers didn't last long at all. It was less than 24 hours until she felt better.

Brynlee's baptism did not turn out at all the way I envisioned it. I was feeling pretty disappointed at first. We had a lot of people praying for Brynlee to get baptized, her name was even put in the temple and yet she was still feeling sick. And yet, it was kind of a miracle that she was even able to get baptized that day. She was super sick the days before and after her baptism. Even with the medicine on Sunday she was miserable. There was no way she could have gotten baptized that day so she was pretty lucky that she felt as well as she did and she was able to get baptized. I am pretty proud of her. I am proud of her choice to be baptized and I am proud of her determination to do it even when she wasn't feeling that great. I sure wish she had been feeling better but I am glad she was able to get baptized anyways. She is one pretty strong little girl and I love her a lot.

 

A Party for Bryn

     Brynlee wanted an Oreo ice cream cake this year and insisted on making it all on her own. She made the Oreo cookie bottom, put the ice cream on, mixed up the Kool Whip with some food coloring to make the frosting, and then did all of the decorating with only a little bit of direction from me. Her sisters all tried to help but she insisted on doing it all on her own. This girl seems to know what she wants and when her mind is made up, there is no changing it. She wanted to do another movie night birthday so she called her grandma and asked to use the projector. Then she had her dad set up a screen in the living room. She picked to watch the movie Epic. The hardest part for her was that I limited the amount of kids she could invite to six. She took a long time trying to figure out who to invite. I felt bad making her choose but I was not in the mood to handle a big crowd this year. Brynlee was still in a cast so the things she could do were limited. She was allowed to walk on the cast without crutches at this point but her leg was still sore so she still used them quite a bit.

Brynlee was eventually able to narrow her list of friend's down to six and all six of the girls showed up on the day of her birthday right after Joel got home from work. In fact, a few of the kids showed up before he got there because he had to work late. Brynlee wanted Homemade French Fries for the food and she wanted to decorate sugar cookies. I bought the cookies and Brynlee made the frosting so the only thing I had to do was to clean up the mess she made. We had fruit, veggies, chicken nuggets, and Joel made the french fries. The girls decorated their cookies and then we played the Saran Wrap game. For that game we wrapped up several toys and candy in a huge ball of saran wrap and the girls took turns rolling the dice. When they got dubbles they got a chance to try and unwrap the saran wrap and get prizes. Everyone got several things.

After all of that excitement we sang to Brynlee, ate dessert, and then Brynlee opened all of her presents. We got her some Shopkins that she opened later that day and we also got her a set of scriptures with her name on it and a case to go with it. She got a lot of other fun stuff. Then we turned on the movie. Before the movie was even over all of the kids ended up playing outside in the backyard so the movie wasn't a huge hit but everyone had a fun time so that is really all that matters. Brynlee definitely had her own ideas of how she wanted things to go and I think we were able to make all of those dreams come true and she had a fun day. 

A Birthday for Kyla Mae

     Kyla has been dreaming about a pool party in our backyard for her birthday ever since last year when she was sick on her birthday and didn't ever really get to do a party so I was determined to make her dreams come true. We went to Walmart and Kyla picked out a pool. She passed up several plain colored pools and went with the one that had a cool fish design on the outside of it. I kind of felt bad about doing a water party when Brynlee could not be near the water thanks to her cast so It took me a while to get the plans together and invite Kyla's friends. She invited her cousin Remi and three girls from church but one girl couldn't make it. Kyla invited all of her friend's older siblings to come as well and since the group wasn't huge I figured that would be fine. Kyla invited everyone she has talked to in the last six months to come to this party but there is no way I could have handled that. She ended up with a good fun group of girls. 

     Kyla wanted a butterfly cake and some purple and pink cupcakes. Joel helped make the mold and bake the cake for her while Kyla and I make the cupcakes and frosted everything the day of her birthday. The kids all love being the one that gets to help decorate their cakes and it is a fun tradition for them. 

We set up the pool the night before the party so it was ready to go in the morning. Brynlee kept getting close to the water and I was really worried she would get her cast wet so we went to Walgreen's and bought one of those air tight cast protectors. Brynlee's doctor told me they were awesome for baths and water stuff so I made Brynlee wear that the whole time so she could at least sit by the pool and watch the water fun, she just couldn't get in the water. Kyla and her friends had a pretty great time playing in the water and swinging on the swings. I had several games planned but no one seemed interested in them so I just let the kids play. Joel was at work so it was just me and all the girls until Sam came, (she was over an hour late) with her family. Her mom came and stayed as well so that made things a little less chaotic. 

After the kids played outside for quite a while we came back in and had cupcakes and Popsicles. Summer helped Kyla blow out her candle a little bit but luckily Kyla didn't notice. 

Once the cupcakes were consumed and the Popsicle were all eaten outside, the kids came back in and Kyla opened up all of her presents. Kyla got kind of bombarded with a lot of kids that were trying to help her and after the presents were all opened, everyone wanted to play with and open everything. She got a small set of Hatchimals and Kyla was kind enough to tell everyone they could open one of the eggs. The problem was that there were not enough so I put all of the presents up high and told the kids Kyla would open them later. Remi is the one who bought Kyla those Hatchimals and she was devastated that she couldn't open them. She cried about that for a good while. We took a break and danced to some music after that and then we all went back outside and played for a little bit longer until it was time for everyone to go home.  

As soon as Joel got home we got to all eat some Pizza for dinner and we had a small amount of family that came over to eat cake and ice cream with us. Kyla was pretty pleased with the way her cake turned out. 

Kyla got to open the present from us that night. She asked for make-up so we got her a Num Noms nail polish making set and she was pretty excited about it. Once the gifts were opened we hung out with family for a little bit longer until it was time to go to bed. 

This girl had a pretty special day. I think she felt pretty loved and she had fun spending time with all of her friends. She is a pretty spectacular little girl so I am glad we got to have a fun day celebrating her. We love this little girl a lot. 

Brynlee is 8!

     Brynlee has officially turned eight years old! It is so fun to be her mom and to watch her grow into a beautiful young girl. Lately she has been so super independent. She doesn't want help from anyone. Here is a quick look back at how much Brynlee has grown over the last eight years followed by a few fun facts about Brynlee.

Favorite Colors: Rainbow and Turquoise

Favorite Food: Homemade French Fries

Favorite Dessert: Brownie, Cake, Muffins, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Ice Cream Cake, and Cake

Favorite Movie: Love Kennedy

Favorite Show: Miraculous

Favorite Toy: Her Doll named Noa

Favorite Song: The Fight Song

Favorite Animals: Jelly Fish, Giraffe, Crocodile, Dog, and Chimpanzee

Favorite Game: Clue, Candy Land, Go Fish, and Uno

Favorite Thing to Do: Play with her Friends and with her mom

Favorite Place to go: Her Grandma's House

Best Friends: Reagan, Rori, Joslyn, Kynlee, Athena, Madison, Jesse, Jake, Abbey, Maggie, Elle, Aveya, Everly, Cray, and Charlotte.

What she Wants to be When she Grows up: A Veterinarian

Size Clothes: 10/12, Shoes size 2.

Brynlee weighs 63 lbs (73%) and is 51in. tall (62%).

Brynlee loves to color and do crafts and is pretty creative. She likes to write and can read really fast. Things in school come pretty easy for her. She loves to play outside and be active. She likes to ride her bike, roller blade, jump on the trampoline, and swing. She is constantly asking to have a friend over to play with. She has lots of friends and would have someone over everyday if I would let her. She loves to watch movies and play on the Ipad. She has been singing all the time lately and likes to write down the song lyrics and practice them over and over again. 

Having a broken foot last month was super hard on this girl. She hates not being able to run and play and go in the water with all of her friends. She is constantly pushing the limits and trying to sneak on the trampoline or do things that she should not be doing with a broken foot. It is a trial that has been hard for me to watch her have to endure. She got super fast on those crutches and almost never asked for help when she was doing things. Her foot got pretty sore and she asked for a lot more ice packs and hugs from me (which I didn't mind) than she has in a long time but for the most part she did not want anyone's help. She also developed a bad cough this winter and it has turned into another habit cough. She is constantly coughing.

Brynlee likes to cook and can make several things all on her own. She can make anything that comes in a box and likes to make brownies and cupcakes whenever she can. She can make the frosting and follow simple directions to make cookies and a few other things. She loves to make slime but that stuff has gotten stuck in our carpet a few times so it is now banned from our house. 

Brynlee went through a brief phase where she was obsessed with the Sophia Grace and Rosie movie and she decided that she would only wear the color pink. Luckily that phase passed quickly because she doesn't own very much pink. Now she has moved on to other things. She wanted to learn how to roller blade and spent hours outside after school this Spring practicing on her skates. She fell so many times but would just get right back up and keep going.

So far Brynlee has lost five teeth and she has another top tooth that is super loose that she won't pull out. That top teeth has been missing for almost six month and I am just now seeing the big tooth that looks like it is about to come through. She loves to get haircuts. She tried to grow her hair out a few times but only lasts a few month and then decides she wants it short again. She is still super picky about the clothes she wears but her preferences are constantly changing. This year she wore tennis shoes to school almost every day while last year she would only wear tennis shoes for PE. She likes dresses the most and wears them all the time, especially when she had a cast on. She won't wear jeans but she has worn jean shorts a couple of times.

Brynlee is a super bright and fun little girl. She gets frustrated easily, loves to be in charge and can be super bossy, she often thinks she knows what she is doing and will not listen to anyone when they try to give her advice, but she is also fun, creative, and super confident and helpful. She can be so compassionate and loving with her sisters. She fights with Annalyn a lot but can also be one of Anna's favorite playmates. The little girls love it when Brynlee plays with them. She is usually pretty sweet with Summer and is good at helping Kyla when she needs helps. I am so glad this little girl is in our family and that I get to be her mom. She makes it a challenge sometimes but she also makes me a better person and I am grateful for her.