p52 week 10

  March 4th to 10th 

Our family picture for February.  I love temple square and feeling the sweet spirit that is there.  And I love these people!

 Bryleigh decided it was a good idea to start climbing the stairs.  It surprised us all!  Before I got her down, I called all the kids over to see her.  They love to celebrate her achievements (good or bad) along with her.  They love watching her learn and try new things!  None of my kids have been this into the stairs at this age.  The stairs are in the living room, and we are usually in the family room.  Usually my babies don't like to leave the room I am in until they are over one, then they start exploring.  This girl goes everywhere, and sometime makes me nervous when she is in one place, and the next minute I can't find her!  She is a fast one!

 Rylan had to give her a little kiss, he was so proud!!   Bryleigh not sure what all the fuss is about, she was just exploring!!

 She also thinks it's a good idea to stand up everywhere!  She is getting mighty sturdy on her feet, and that makes me a little nervous.  She is becoming a little too mobile and adventurous!  Doesn't she know she is suppose to sit in one spot and not move!  

Hannah got lots of birthday money and gift cards this year, which she loved!  Bethany was a little jealous.  Some of the things she picked out was this dress, and pink shoes.  She had so much fun picking out stuff that she wanted, and deciding how to spend her money!!

 Dallen came down the stairs with Hannah's cowgirl hat on saying, "Look at me, I'm a cow!"  It was so funny, we all got a good laugh!

 Ky had to go out of town, and dinner/bedtime is always the worst part of the day.  I got the kids dinner and by the time I sat down to eat they were already done and upstairs.  I started to feel a little self pity, I have to eat dinner all by myself, minus Bryleigh.  Then after about a minute I got a little more excited, I get to eat dinner all by myself!  It was actually really blissful and I got some peace and quite.  

Hannah's 7!!

 Hannah's birthday was the day after we got home from Utah.  It was busy trying to make sure her day was perfect, but she is pretty easy going with all of it.  It was on a Sunday, so we went to church.  After church she got to open her presents.  We had some good friends over for dinner and cake.  Nice and easy and she was as happy as ever!  

 It seems like she has been 7 forever.  She is very mature and I often think she is older than she is. I surprise myself when I realize that she is only in first grade.  But at the same time I find myself wondering what happened to my little girl.  She is sure growing up, way too fast!!

 Hannah is such a sweet girl.  She usually likes to make everyone happy, and will often forgo something that she wants or likes to make sure the other person is happy.  It is a quality that I so admire her for!  She can also be very feisty!  She is not scared to attack her siblings when they get under her skin.  Bethany has expressed that she is scared of Hannah when she get upset.  Hannah thinks that is funny and says, "why are you scared of me, your older."  It kind of makes me laugh too.  

 Hannah loves: 

Playing with her sister's and brother's.

Singing and dancing.

Riding her bike and scooter.

Her favorite color is pink and turquoise!

Her favorite food is pepperoni pizza and pineapple 

She enjoys math and school.

She loves to swim, go out to dinner, go on dates, play computer games, play outside, play her ipod.

Her favorite friends are Skyler, Chloe and Catherine.

 She has lost her two bottom baby teeth.  Her top front two teeth are loose and will be out soon.

 She was wanting a lala loopsy doll since Christmas, she was so happy!

 Her cupcake cake.  Not too bad for a last minute put together.  I had her presents wrapped and ready, the cake ingredients, but had no idea what I was going to do with it.  When the cake ended up being very flat (probably due to no eggs), it got turned into a cupcake cake.  It worked and the girls were even impressed! Extra points!

She loved every minute of the day.  At bed time she came to us crying, I'm sad but I don't know why.  It is always hard when a day you look forward to is over and you have to wait a whole year for it again! We love you Hannah!!  Happy birthday!

Utah trip

 Ky had a training for work in Utah, so we tagged along for a free vacation.  We left after school on Friday, and got there around midnight.  It's always nice when the kids sleep those last few hours!

The next day we went down to Temple Square, where it was freezing!! My mom and Garry met us there.  It is always fun to go and see "our" temple! Later we went over to Ky's sister's house and visited with his mom and sisters.  The kids had a blast with all their cousins!  They would love to see them more!

 On Sunday we went with Ky's mom to her sacrament meeting, and then with my mom to her sacrament meetings.  We then had dinner and a little birthday party for Hannah and Rylan.  They had fun playing with her toys and scout.

 One of the days we went to Jungle Jims.  The kids had fun riding on all the rides and playing some games.

 bumper cars, the kids loved them!

 the carousel

 The girls loved the "inside roller coaster", is what everyone called it.  And the boys played it safe with the train and boat!

 Another day we went to the Children's museum downtown.  When we first got there it was super busy, with some school field trips.  After a little bit, it cleared out and was, much better! 

 Bryleigh moving around with a ball.

 This was the kids favorite exhibit, where you build things with the blocks.  They loved it even more when it was just them playing.  That's one good thing about having a big family, you always have a crowd to play with!!

 It snowed a few days while we were there, and the kids were dying to play in it.  I made them wait until Ky got out of class to take them out to play.  I had no desire to go out in the cold!  They sure had fun though!

We had a fun trip and enjoyed being able to visit with everyone.  It was a little more stressful than normal for me, since Ky was gone all day in class.  It is much easier to deal with the grumpy sleep deprived kids when we are both around, and can give each other a break. One day Rylan was throwing one of his many tantrums, and there was a knock on the hotel door.  It was a maid for room service.  But I told the kids that it was a worker and they said we need to be quieter or we would have to leave the hotel.  They totally bought it, and it helped for about 5 minutes.  I laughed later when the girls were telling Ky about it when he got out of class.  Anyways, I was happy to get home and to have all the kids sleeping in their own beds.  It sure makes a difference for everyone!

p52 week 9

February 26th to March 3rd

 This week is about Rylan.  Rylan is such a cute, sweet, fun, loving boy!! This picture was taken at preschool.  He loves preschool! His days revolve around his preschool days.  I am glad he likes it and is having a good time!

 This is his best buddy Jonah!  These two have so much fun together!  He goes to preschool with Jonah. When we went on our trip to Utah, Rylan missed him so much.  He told me a couple times that he missed Jonah, and one of the last days he told me that he wished he had packed Jonah in his suitcase.  That made me laugh!  It will be a sad day when we don't live 1 minute from each other, which is coming too soon!! 

 This sweet loving boy has been having a hard time lately!  He is having tantrums, and bad tantrums.  It drives me crazy!  It's bad enough when they are 2 or 3, but really at almost 5?  It's really not ok!  Bryleigh had a dr. appointment yesterday and so I talked to the dr. about it and if this is "normal" for an almost 5 year old.  Of course it is, especially since he is smack dab in the middle, poor guy.  But the dr. gave me permission to do a reverse timeout.  Meaning when he starts throwing a tantrum I walk away.  If he follows me, I go in my room and lock the door, until he is done.  He totally gave me permission to lock myself in my room.  The thing is, I already do this, mostly because I can't handle it.  But I always feel like a horrible mom when I do it.  So now I get to lock myself in my room, and have no guilt whatsoever!  My dr. really is the best.  

Rylan does not do well when he doesn't get enough sleep.  He just can't handle it.  It's the only kid at almost 5 that still takes a nap a couple times a week (because he needs it so bad), or will fall asleep in the car late in the afternoon.  His tantrums disappear when he is well rested, so I know it is totally sleep related.  So if he can just get enough sleep he can be the happy boy I know he can be!

 It always has to be someone that is testing us.  Right now it just happens to be this little boy.  I think we are on the upside, and it is getting better, Thank Goodness!

8.5

 Bethany just turned 8 1/2, didn't she just turn 8?  Crazy!!  She is the one that takes these half birthday's a little too serious and wants to be able to pick everything that we eat or do for the day.  She almost lost 1/2 birthdays for everyone, for the rest of the year! She quickly changed her behavior.

Bethany wanted a scavenger hunt, so Hannah stepped up and did one for her.  What a nice sister!  

 The girls love playing battleship!  I got this game after Christmas for $.96.  I was so excited about that one! It made a great half birthday gift!

Bethany choose a lemon poppy seed cake.  Our first egg and oil free, whole wheat cake (cause that's how we roll these days).  It was yummy!

p52 week 8

February 19th to 25th

Dallen has a new found love for puzzles.  He decided one day that wanted to do some, and hasn't stopped.  It is really nice since it keeps him occupied and quite! He is getting really good at them!!

Hannah was not wanting to go to church one Sunday morning. We had a talk about how it makes Heavenly Father happy when we go to church. Her response was, "what if Heavenly Father isn't real." That caught me off guard, I thought we were past this with Hannah. But a good question indeed, and she does need to know for herself if he is real or not. So that night for Family Home Evening, she asked to do the lesson. I said that would be great, and maybe you should do in about Heavenly Father. She found this article in the Friend magazine called, "Who is Heavenly Father". Perfect! So she taught us about Heavenly Father, and wrote a two page testimony about how he is real and lots of other stuff. By the end of the day, I felt pretty good with the whole thing, but it was a bit emotional getting there! I am glad that they are thinking though, and that they want to find out for themselves if He is real!

Our kids love to play games on our ipods, and my iphone. What did parent's do with their children before technology?? I really do wonder.Fruit pizza. The kids love it!

love day

We had a great valentines day at our house. Since then I have no idea where all the love has gone, but we definitely need some more like NOW! There has been way too much fighting, hitting, name calling and the likes. I told the kids today that our home is suppose to be a safe and happy place where we all want to be, and right now I really don't want to be in our home. We will see if we can get some of the love back and have a happy home again soon!!
The girls and their heart hair. They want hearts in their hair all the time, but they usually only get it once a year.

We took pictures of everyone, since we were doing our family photo also.

These two dressed up for the day. Rylan wore red and Hannah wore a love shirt. I love it when they coordinate with the holidays, too cute!

Bryleigh got a special first valentines shirt to wear.

I rarely see these two smiling at eachother at the same time, but I think I like it and could get use to it. I guess that would mean Bryleigh needs to stop taking D's toys!

We ended our love day with our traditional fondue. Love it!