gardens

While Bethany and Hannah were at their acting camp I took the little ones to the gardens and aquarium.  
They had fun exploring and being in charge of where we go.

 We might of spent a lot of time watching the trains...and they were happy! 

 Some pictures of my little girl practicing her walking skills.  I love how she uses her arms so much to balance herself. She used her hands a lot the first two week that she started walking.

  

 Happy girl that she can get out of the stroller and walk around.  When she was a crawler there was no way she was getting out of the stroller, and get all dirty. That's one of the big reason I am happy when babies start walking.  It gets them up off the ground so they don't get dirty and germs all over.  It makes going to the park, church and other places so much easier.

Everyone look away from the camera...awesome!!

p52 week 23

June 3rd to 9th

I convinced this little boy to wear his suit that looks so cute on him!  He wanted to accessorize his outfit with  his flip flops, and when it came time to leave for church, I didn't much care, as long as he had something on his feet.  One less tantrum in my house!

The girls love to participate in plays.  They love memorizing their lines and acting out their parts.  I signed them up for a acting camp during the first two weeks of summer.  They had a great time overall.  After we complained about Hannah not getting a true part in the play (they thought she was too young and quiet) and they fixed that I was happy with it too.  They had so much fun, and they got to perform their play on the big stage at Albuquerque Little Theater!

Rylan was brave and learned how to ride his bike without training wheels.  He has been ready for awhile, but was too scared to really do it.  He was still scared and skittish at first, but now he loves it!  He likes that he can go faster without the training wheels on and he says it more fun!!  Good job buddy!!

p52 week 22

May 27th to June 2nd

3 days after Bryleigh's birthday she started walking full time.  She was doing a few steps, but when she would fall down she would then crawl to her destination.  Now if she falls she will stand back up and keep going.  She loves being able to hold things while she walks, a little harder to do when she was crawling.  The kids think she is pretty cool too!!

Salad bar night.  The kids absolutely loved this, which means I loved it too.  Any night they are excited about dinner is a good thing! They love going to sweet tomatoes, so is just makes since they would love it at home too.  We will be doing this again!

My little exercise buddies.  Most of the time they love to do my exercise video's with me.  It's so cute to watch them.  The next day Hannah was complaining that her inner thigh was hurting and thought it was bruised.  No Hannah that's what happens when you do swats!

Bryleigh's 1: the party

"I'm one!" Because she totally knows it!!

Just joking, I have no idea how we got this picture, I think she's probably trying to touch my camera, but I thought it was pretty fitting!

I wasn't going to do a big party for Bryleigh, just cake and presents with the family.  But a few days before I started feeling sad that I wasn't going to celebrate her first birthday big.  So I invited some of our friends and they were all wonderful and came on such short notice.  We all had a good time!

Pictures of the birthday girl! 

Bryleigh with her one cake.  Yes she had stuck her finger in the frosting and is eating it.  She also got some on her eyebrow.  

Checking out the goodies.

Cupcakes for the kids, Bryleigh's personal cake, and cake for the adults.

Bryleigh's first year banner.  I knew I took a picture of her every month for a reason!

Bryleigh's balloons went from 5 to 1.  Dallen jumped onto them and popped all the other ones.  This was the only one that survived.  I think everyone thought she had only one balloon because she was turning one, so it all worked out!

Cake time!  She had no idea while everyone was looking and singing to her.  She did not know what to think!

Digging into her cake.  It so funny that they always know what to do!  She enjoyed being about to do it all by herself! 

She made a good dint in it.  She ate most of the first layer!

Opening her presents.  She loved them! We opened them while the other kids were playing outside.  After the party Rylan was ready to watch Bryleigh open her presents.  He got very upset when he found out we already opened them!

We got to caught up with everything else, that we forgot to have Bryleigh open our present at her party, that I had to drive all over town, and two malls later to get!  So the next morning she got to open our present!

A pink bear from build a bear, named pinky pie.  The other kids picked it out for her and help make it.  

We stole this idea from my awesome sister, of getting a build a bear stuffed animal on their first birthdays.  We skipped Hannah in there somewhere and is sad she is the only one without a build a bear animal.  So she will get one on her next birthday!

Bryleigh loved it!!

Bryleigh's 1!!!

  It happened!  Bryleigh turned one. So crazy how fast a year can go and how much they can grow! 

These pictures were taken when she was 5 days old.  It seems like just yesterday!

Bryleigh was a huge surprise to our family! {When I say surprise, meaning we were actively trying to prevent getting pregnant.  I was on the pill, and I had not missed a pill. According to the calender it was the one week during the month that you really should not be able to get pregnant! It showed me how much control we don't have sometimes!}We thought we were done after we had had Dallen, or at least while I was pregnant with him, once I held him I was not sure anymore.  Shortly before we found out we were pregnant with Bryleigh I had gotten inspiration at the temple that there was another little baby that needed to come to our family, and it was going to be a girl.  I was happy about that, having another baby in a few years would be great,   Little did I know that this baby was coming now!  That part I was not very happy about.  I was not ready emotionally or physically to be pregnant and to go through all it entails.  Plus at the end there is another little person that needs to be taken care of, and we didn't feel like we had adjusted to the four we already had yet.  Four is the number that threw me under the bus.  Going from one to two kids was easy, and two to three no problem.  But that three to four, it seemed to get really hard. And since it wasn't ever easy with the four, having a fifth really hasn't been too bad.  It was already crazy!

So her timing was a surprise, but her being in our family, not so much!

Bryleigh was due on May 30th.  I was convinced {and hoping} that she was going to be here by then, and that I would go into labor naturally. But that didn't happen, and I was bummed about it.  Part of me really wanted to have a June baby though.  May is such a crazy month {Dallen's birthday, mother's day, Dad's birthday, sister's birthday, our anniversary}. So going over by 2 days was kind of worth it, but at the time I just wanted the baby out!  I ended up being induced on June 1st, that was as soon as they could get me in.  It is always weird going into the hospital when your not in pain.  But we got there early, and a few hours later they started the picotin.  The midwife on call was so not very nice or personable and I was not happy with her at all.  She treated me like I knew nothing about labor and how it works.  But I had already done it 4 times!! She was just rude about things all day and second guessed me with everything, because normally that wasn't what happened. Labor usually takes longer with most people with picotin, but with my body it tends to go a little faster.  I loved it when I proved her wrong every time though, and she ended up doing whatever I asked because my body was ready, surprise! The labor was predicable and went smoothly.  The epidural only worked on half of my body, so I had some pretty intense pain, but it made it seem more real. Bryleigh arrived at 6:41 that night, and the moment they laid her in my arms my heart just melted!  I was a little surprised that there really was a baby in me and all that misery was for a good reason!

She was precious and perfect and loved her so much already!!

I remember that she cried for the first 2 hours of her life, nonstop!  The nurse was asking if our other kids cried this much, nope! She could not get her temperature up to where it needed to be, so she was cold.  Then they put her under the warmer forever which she did not like, and I didn't either, I wanted to hold her!  She is a thumb sucker and she could not figure out how to get her thumb into her mouth, and especially when they swaddled her little arms down in the blanket.  I always swaddled her with her little arms out so she could suck her thumb.  So that is why she cried, forever!  And I don't blame her.

Bryleigh weighs 16 pounds 7 ounces (negative % on the growth charts) and is 28 1/4 inches long (20%).
She got to get 5 shots at her dr. appointment.  It was so sad and the hardest set of shots for me to watch!! She started crying from the first shot and she just kept going and going.  I bet she was wondering when it was going to end! She likes to give the nurse some pretty good glares when it's all over.
She has a toothless grin, but her top left tooth is bulging and will pop through soon.
She does not like to keep her hair clips in her hair, and it drives me crazy!!
She loves to give high 5's and dance to music.  She will bop her head up and down and using her arms twist from side to side.  It is pretty much the cutest thing ever!

She is loving eating real people food!  Some of her favorites are banana's, strawberry sandwiches, green smoothies, avocado, and sweet potatoes. She is still nursing and seems to still like it.  Although she gets very easily distracted, which makes it not so fun for me! She also really likes drinking water out of her sippy cup.

She walks along the furniture and holding onto your hand. She can stand up by herself and can take 3-4 steps by herself. She has been very independently motivated to walk and will try to walk first, then when she falls will crawl to what she wants.  With some of the other kids we would "practice" walking with them, to help them figure it out.  But she beat us to it and has done it all by herself.

She has brown hair still, and I'm pretty sure it is staying that way.  People are always surprised that she has darker hair.  Most people overlook the fact that Hannah also has dark hair.  They usually think we have all blonds.  Kind of strange.

She has hazel eyes, like all the other kids except Bethany who has blue/gray eyes.  The rest all have hazel and can change from a greenish to blueish to brownish.  Kyle and I must have pretty strong genes for eye color.  He's blue and I'm brown and the kids are all in between, they couldn't decide which way to go!

She is such a happy and go with the flow kind of girl.  I think you have to be that way when your the 5th child.  Your schedule revolves around everyone else.  I am so glad she does not get cranky over it. 

She loves to play with her big brothers and sisters.  She will go to whatever room they are in and follow them around.  They enjoy making her laugh and playing with her too! When the kids are outside playing, she will stand against the glass door and watch them play and will squeal at them. Soon enough she will be out playing with them!

She had a fun day and had no idea it was her birthday.  I'm sure she was wondering why we kept singing to her all day and why she got to have so much cake!  Happy birthday my sweet girl!!!

p52 week 21

 May 20th to 26th

My mom came to visit this week.  It was perfect timing, and was here to watch the girl's school play, which they loved.  I got to go to the temple with her, and to a play singing in the rain.  We also went roller skating, to Olo, and to old town.  We enjoyed her company and had a great time!!

 My mom watched the kids minus Bryleigh one night and Ky and I went out overnight.  We went out to dinner and stayed at a Marriott in town.  It was nice to have some time together, with less kids.  Bryleigh loved this huge window in our room and laughed and laughed when we opened the curtain.  It seemed weird  and wrong having her crawl towards the window, since it seemed like she was crawling toward a cliff.  I had to keep telling myself that it was ok. 

"Look mommy, strawberry eggs".  We bought eggs the other day, {the first time in 6 months, and I bought the cage free ones to clear my conscience.}  I went all out with Bryleigh's birthday and wanted to make some cakes that I knew would turn out.  Rylan saw these eggs and they were in a pink container, so that must mean they are strawberry right!  When I told Rylan to go stand by the strawberry eggs, so I could get a picture, I had Hannah convinced they were strawberry too.  Silly kids!

preschool graduation

Rylan at his preschool graduation.  He was so excited for it!  

 Him with his teacher Ms. Kathy.  She was a wonderful teacher and loved the kids so much!

She told me that Rylan reminded her of one of her sons, and just enjoyed him so much!

 Rylan with Mr. Benjamin.  He came halfway through the year.  He liked Mr. Benjamin most of the time, and Rylan liked his songs at singing time. 

They each got a medal and a diploma.  It was very sweet and now we can say that Rylan is a preschool graduate!  He is so excited for kindergarden!