p52 week 3

January 15th to 21st

Bryleigh is the queen of army crawling. She would put the army men to shame! She has figured out how to get to what she wants, and has gotten super fast at it. This causes problems with the boys, especially with Dallen. She is mobile and can get to their toys now. And those are the toys she wants, the ones the boys are currently playing with. Dallen is learning a new concept called sharing with the little sister. It's not going so well yet, but we will keep trying. You see the agony on his face. It matches these words, Bryleigh, NO!
She has no idea she is upsetting them. She just wants to have fun and play!


He does better than Dallen, since he has already gone through this once. But he tends to get a little too impatient with her also.
Our 2nd picture for the week figures the boys wearing their purple monster mustache. I love how Rylan's blends in with his smile.We have completely changed how we eat in our house, and one of the things we now have for breakfast is a green monster or purple monster shake. It includes spinach leaves, and a mixture of fruit. All of the kids love it and it's a great way to get our greens and fruit in in the morning.

bowling

When my mom was in town we went bowling. The kids loved it! Dallen loved putting his face in front of the vent that blows air. Rylan used the stand thingy. This place had automatic bumpers that would come up by themselves, very convenient! He was the winner out of the kids. Hannah learned how to actually throw the ball down the lane. Half of the time she air balled it and it lands half way down the lane, but he did good!

Dallen also used the stand thingy. He had fun bowling, but I think more fun playing with the blowing air.

Bethany is getting pretty good at actually bowling the ball down the lane. I think she came in 2nd. Next time we may have to teach her how to walk up and throw the ball.

Since there isen't any pictures of Bryleigh bowling, here are a few of her after church the other day. She is so much fun!!

p52 week 2

January 8th to 14th

We had back to back visitors this week. The first weekend we had Ky's mom come visit. We had so much fun with her and enjoyed her company. We went to the aquarium/gardens, Old Town, out to lunch, shopping, to the zoo, and the park.

Then the next weekend my mom and Garry came to visit. We also enjoyed their company and had a good time. We went bowling, out to lunch, to the Natural History Museum, and I got to go on a date with her.

We were so lucky to have these special people come visit us, and we wish we could see them more. We love visitors!!

p52 week 1

January 1st to 7th

I am finally getting around to posting my first picture for my new project, of taking a least 1 picture a week. Some weeks I will have more, but by only having to have one it eliminates a lot of stress.

So this week was the first week back from Christmas break, and was a crazy week! We were on the waiting list for the 80% (all day) program at the girls school. There were two openings in a classroom, so we got a call letting us know that we could switch if we would like. I went into panic mode, not knowing what to do. There is good and bad to both programs.

I like the 50% program, because I get to have the girls home more, and I really enjoy teaching them and doing homework with them. I like the easiness of the schedule, no early mornings and relaxing evenings. The fact that if they absolutely hate school, I don't feel bad sending them for 4 hours. But the things I don't like is feeling like I don't have much time for anything else. I find it hard to find time to clean the house, run errands, exercise, and things like that.

The idea of the 80% program is exciting because I would have more time during the day to get things done, and only having 3 kids at home is easier than 5. I would get to spend more time with the boys. The girls were excited that they would get to have recess everyday. It would be hard to have to be up and going early in the morning, and running into traffic taking them to school. Having to have more of a schedule in the mornings and nights. If they absolutely hate school, it will be super hard to send them there all day!

After much going back and forth, I turned it over to the girls and let them decide. They chose to move to the new classroom and do the 80% program. So they got to experience the first day of school all over again!

Their first day was on a Friday, so it was still only half of a day, so it was a good trial day. They both did well. The next week was the true test. Their new schedule is Mondays off. Tuesday-Thursday 8:00 to 3:00, and Fridays 8:00 to 12:30, so it's still only 3 1/2 days of school.

The real first day, Hannah had a meltdown because she didn't have anyone to play with at recess. I thought this might happen, since Bethany has friends in the class from previous years. I had told Bethany to make sure Hannah had someone to play with during recess, but Hannah didn't want to play with her. So we had to make some goals for Hannah the next day, to make some new friends, and talk to the kids around where she sits during lunch time. The next day was much better, and she is making friends!

The 2nd day Bethany had a meltdown around bedtime. She didn't want to do the 80% program anymore, because she is too tired. She is the one who I have to wake up in the mornings. She will sleep until 8:00. Plus being gone all day, she was struggling.

The 3rd day I had a meltdown. I missed my girls!! It is hard having them gone all day. I am also adjusting to not doing as much homework with them and having as much control over it. They had Sophie Dictation this week, and I felt like I just finally figured out how to teach it to them after 3 years. And now I have to do it differently again because I don't have an hour or more a day to work with them. But in the end, Hannah got a higher score than she ever has on it, so I guess I need to not stress. It will all be ok!

We are now onto week 2 of our new schedule and we are all doing better so far. Hopefully we will fully adjust soon and it will be our new normal!

7 months

Our little girl is 7 months old. It seems like I was just posting about her being 6 months old. They grow too fast!
She is such a little mover and talker. She is still a rolling machine, and has started to scoot forward. She can get to anything she wants. Dallen is having the hardest time with it, since she always gets into his toys! She is also getting up on all fours, which makes me a little nervous! She can sit up by herself, and is getting more sturdy. It is nice being able to sit her down without her falling over. She is the loudest baby I think I have had! She babbles all day long, mixed in with some squealing and growling. The kids think it's funny and like to sequel along with her. Her babbling has turned into repeated patterns. One of the patterns is mamamama. She usually says it when she is hungry or tired or wants me. I love hearing her say it, even if she doesn't know what she is saying yet. The kids also think this is so cool, that she can "talk"! Today she started babbling dadada. I think she is the first of our kids to say mama first!

She usually eats dinner with us every night now. She is getting more used to eating food and all the different flavors. She has now eaten rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, banana's, and apples. She has loved the squash, sweet potatoes and banana's, and has tolerated the others.

She is still sleeping from 6-7 at night and then wakes up around 6 in the morning to eat, and then sleeps until 8. She is still taking 2-3 naps a day. I usually just feed her and put her in her bed for her naps and she gets to sleep by herself. At bedtime, half of the time she falls asleep while nursing so I get to cuddle with her a little, and the other half I just lay her down. Once in awhile she lets me rock her to sleep for her nap, and I enjoy holding and cuddling with her.

She has gotten over her intolerance to sugar. It does not upset her stomach anymore. She has also mostly outgrown her spitting up. Once in a while she will spit up a little, but nothing like it was. I love it when they are able to keep their food in their tummies!

Hannah has been having a lot of fun with Bryleigh. She likes to hold her and likes to hold her up and help her walk around. I am constantly reminding her that she is not a doll and to be careful with her. It is nice when she is crying Hannah and Bethany will come and ask me if they can hold her. They do a great job at helping me with her. Rylan also enjoys helping me with her and holding her when he can. Dallen is more aware of what she needs and likes to give her her toys. He especially thinks its funny when Bryleigh says mamama.

She is so curious! She loves to grab everything, everywhere she is! It is getting hard to do anything while holding her, because she grabs it and want to play with it. Everything she touches goes straight to her mouth.

We love our little Bryleigh. She is still proving to be worth the 9 months of misery!

p260 week 52

January 1st to 7th

Last year I started this project a week into January, so now I am finishing it a week into January. It has been neat taking so many pictures over the last year, and having them all documented. I love that I have something from every week of the year. {Now to get it all into a book!} But the last few months it has gotten harder to actually take the pictures. So next year I am going to simplify a little. I am going to do project 52, it will be just one picture a week and not five, but I will still have something documented for every week of the year. Sounds good to me!

We took a overnight trip down to El Paso on New Years. I was wanting to get out of town, so we did! It was fun to get away. We went swimming at our hotel, and it was Bryleigh's first time swimming. She did better than I expected. She let us carry her around in the pool and was very content.

Ky has been experimenting with his facial hair, and has decided that he really doesn't like it. It starts bugging him after a couple days.

Bryleigh is moving around enough, I had to put her crib rail up. Another couple months and I'm sure we will have to lower her crib.

Dallen got his finger slammed in his closet door {I'm guessing by his brother} and it got bruised up really good. This week part of his nail fell off. I thought he would of had his new nail growing underneath, but he doesn't yet. So his poor finger, but he has not complained about it once. He's one tough guy!

This girl keeps getting up on all fours. It won't be long until she is crawling around, and I don't think I am quite ready for that!

Christmas at our house

Christmas morning! The great thing about having 5 kids, is we will always have a big Christmas! I love seeing all the presents together under the tree!

Santa always leaves candy canes on our tree. He made sure he left cherry flavor so Rylan would like them too.

The girls were the first ones up, Rylan followed shortly, then Dallen and after stockings Bryleigh. Santa leaves the stockings by our doors, and we bring them into our room and open them all together on our bed. I remember doing this when I was young, and stockings was my favorite part of Christmas. Bethany shares this same excitement and it is her favorite part too!

Santa always puts a clementine orange in the bottom of our stockings. Out of all the treats Dallen had in his stocking he wanted to eat his orange first. He is our little fruit boy!

The kids get their picture taken on our stairs before we go downstairs.

We first open the presents from Santa.

Rylan pointing to the train on his legos.

Then we open the presents from us. The kids have fun playing while we start making breakfast. We have cinnamon rolls with scrambled eggs {what I had growing up} and egg mcmuffins {what Ky had growing up}, and hot chocolate. We usually then watch the Disneyland parade. This year since Christmas was on a Sunday we got ready for church.

We went to leave for church and our van wouldn't start. {It had also wouldn't start the night before after we were done looking at balloons.} The kids had left the lights on one too many times and drained our battery. So we decided to all pile into Ky's car to get to church. It was a adventure!

They were so smooshed, but were good sports.

Here are our Christmas outfits round two. The boys outfits I had bought last year for them. I told the girls to find something Christmasy to put on. Bryleigh is wearing her new dress she got for Christmas.

Since I already posted the best family picture, here is the 2nd best family picture. Bryleigh was ready to get down and roll around.

After church we had our ham dinner and then let the kids go outside to play with their new toys.

Bethany and her scooter.

Hannah and her new bike.

And Rylan just riding his bike.

It was a great Christmas, we all had so much fun. But I also was kind of glad when it was over {is that bad?} It is nice to have life back to somewhat normal.

Christmas Eve at our house

Christmas Eve has turned into an all afternoon event at our house. We have so many things we like to do together but we still want to get the kids in bed at a decent time so Santa can come.

We started our celebrations reading our last 12 days of Christmas book, The Night Before Christmas.

The kids draw names and exchange secret santa gifts to each other. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, watching the kids pick out a present for their secret person, wrapping the present, giving the gift to their person, and watching their faces when their secret person opens their gift. They get so excited and I feel like they are experiencing the real meaning of Christmas. They love it too!

We pick up Chinese food for dinner. We felt bad because the kids don't really like Chinese food, so last year we did pizza. This year we debated what to do and the kids are the ones that wanted the Chinese again. I asked them why since they don't like Chinese food, but they replied that on Christmas Eve they do. And they did eat it.

The kids always get new pajama's, and we take a picture by the tree. This year the girls wanted new bathrobes.

They also get a new ornament each year with their initials and year on it. They usually get them when we set up the tree, but running late this year we did it on Christmas Eve, and actually liked it better.

Their new ornaments on the tree.

The kids put on their new pj's and we head out to look at Christmas lights. We usually go to the luminary tour, and there is a golf course there that has hot air balloons that inflate when the weather is nice. The first year we went the balloons were up and it was so fun. The last few years it has been too windy so they have not inflated. This year the weather was nice again, so we got to see some balloons!

We were not dressed to be out in the cold, but we can't resist balloons. I told Bethany to take off her bathrobe before she got out and put on her coat, you can see how well she listened! There were probably 10 balloons that inflated.

We were able to go onto the field and get up close to the balloons. Kind of like a miniature balloon fiesta with a lot less people. It was fun.

This one was extra cold and was trying to keep his hands warm in his pockets.

After we look at lights we come back home and read and act out the nativity. This year Bethany was Mary and the Angel. Hannah was Joseph and the Wise Man, Rylan was the donkey and baby Jesus. Dallen chose not to participate. They did a great job!

Then the kids get their treats together for Santa and his reindeer. This year it was banana bread, carrots and eggnog. I am happy to report we still got 5 kiddos that love Santa!

We have so much fun celebrating and enjoy having our own family traditions, and creating new ones!