p52 week 47

November 18th to 24th

 The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Rylan got to eat lunch at school.  They got special hats and bow ties to wear while they ate.  They got to go get lunch from the cafeteria.  He was so excited to get to eat at school, since the girls get to all the time.  He had a lot of fun and had fun showing me all his thanksgiving stuff when he got home.

 Dallen the orange man. 

 Bryleigh loves her sister.  Bethany was sitting in the chair, and Bryleigh brought over two pillows, a blanket, and the remote, and then crawled up into the chair with Bethany and watched a show. It was pretty cute!

Our family picture for the month, I didn't forget this time!  Standing on the same stair's we stood on 11.5 years ago, we just added a few people!  I love these guys!!

 That seems like forever ago!! And it stresses me out a little that our kids aren't with us.  Who's taking care of them!! I know they were in good hands, but it's just kind of weird to think about!!

primary program

  

 The older kids all ready for church and for the primary program.  Once a year the kids get to participate in the primary program where they sing all the songs they learned all year during primary and they each have a speaking part during sacrament meeting.  They all memorized their parts and sang the songs. I was so proud of them!  Next year Dallen will get to join in with the fun.  

 A couple other pictures.  Hannah posing, like a princess this time!  Bryleigh posing in the sense that she is standing where I told the kids to stand.  She ran to the wall for the picture.

 The three girls.

 I wanted a picture with all 5, but Dallen was not having anything to do with it.  Their grandma's both came to our church to watch the primary program.  I think Da is knocking on the door, which is why they are all looking at the door. 

p52 week 46

November 11th to 17th

 Dallen and Bryleigh had a Thanksgiving "feast" at playgroup.  They got to draw a turkey on their place mat and then have some different snack food.  Dallen coloring his turkey.  He was adding the sky and grass. See how good he stays in the lines!  Amazing!

 Bryleigh with the rest of her feast.  We had to leave early to get Rylan from the bus stop.  It was early out week, so he was home at 11:00 instead of 12:00.  I love early out!  That was the best week.  I love having the kids home more!

Because we were talking about thumbs {below} Bryleigh was also a thumb sucker.  She was not very happy her first two months of life, because she could not find her fingers.  Once she found them, it was heaven!  She would suck her right thumb and pointer finger.  Around 15 months, she stopped sucking her thumb.  It was right before our Disneyland trip, which is why she cried so much on the drive there and back, and was horrible at night.  The next few months were hard as she was adjusting to not sucking her thumb.  She was wanting to nurse so much more during the night and I felt like I had a new born again.  One of the reasons she got weaned a few months later.  She is doing great now and sleeps like a champ!  It was hard that she choose to stop sucking her thumb when I wasn't ready for it, but it is nice on the other hand that I don't have to break her of the habit, that she did it herself.

 The reason for early out, was parent teacher conferences.  We had fun meeting with all the kids teachers.  They are all doing well at school.  Rylan has become a little social bug, and I tried to hold in my smile when his teacher told me that.  I was not expecting talking during class would be a problem for him, but am kind of relieved that it is.  For Rylan, this is kind of a good thing.  He used to be so shy that he would not talk to anyone outside of our family.  His speech has suffered from this, and was then very self conscious to speak to other people.  I think he is finally getting over this, and is talking so well!!  His speech teacher said within the next year he should be able to be done with speech!  Yay!  And in the meantime we are trying to teach him to only talk during class when your suppose to.

Dallen has been a thumb sucker since he was in the womb.  We have an ultrasound picture with him sucking his thumb, his left thumb which is the only thumb he sucks.  When he was little he would only suck his thumb with his special blankie.  So around 2 years old we took his blanket away, hoping that it would make him stop sucking his thumb.  It did, for a few months.  Then one night we found him using his comforter as his "blankie" and was sucking his thumb again.  He would only do it in his bed, when no one was around.  If we were at a hotel, he wouldn't suck his thumb. If someone walked into his room while he was sucking his thumb, he would pull it out.  We have been trying everything to get him to stop sucking his thumb.  We started with some icky spices, to putting bandaids on his thumbs, we bought mavala a gross tasting thing you put on your thumbs.  I tried it and it is some nasty stuff!  He stucked right through it.  He has a super high tolerance for pain and I guess gross stuff too.  So no more complaining at the dinner table!!  Anyways, so we having everything else failed us, we tried out the good old socks taped to his arms.  It did the trick!  He can't get them off and has no access to his little thumbs.  He is doing really good. We haven't had to tape them on anymore, he will keep them on which is good.  So I guess we'll see how long until he can be sock free!!

2nd snow

Our second snow storm of the year.  This was the first day while it was snowing.  They wanted to go play in the snow when they got home from school. Rylan really wanted to play in the snow before school, thinking that the snow would be gone by the time they got home.  Not is Utah buddy! 

 The next morning they all wanted to go back out and play some more.  It snowed so much overnight.  Bryleigh really had a hard time walking in this snow!  It was up to her waist. 

 Dallen with his snow mustache!  He loves to eat the snow!

 They had a fun snowball fight. Making snow angels. Shaking the snow off the trees onto their heads. Making snow chairs. It's funny the things they learn from school at recess. 

 I'm not sure what I think about all the snow.  I knew it was going to be a adjustment and I wasn't super excited about it.  But it really hasn't been too bad yet.  It snows, but life goes on.  The kids get so excited and love it! It is so pretty especially where we live by the mountains.  I love looking out my living room window and seeing the mountains covered in snow.  I guess we'll see how I feel when spring comes around.  

I'm really hoping for a white Christmas this year, that would be awesome!!

3.5

 Dallen had fun celebrating his half birthday.  He waited all day to open his present and was so excited for it! I love his surprised look on his face, when he helped me pick it out! He loved it!

I'm not sure what was wrong, but you can tell something was wrong.  That's one of the things I love about him, is he shows his emotion on his face so much!  I love all of his fun expressions!

He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and buzz on the top.  It's what he picks every time!  He is totally a chocolate boy!!

Dallen is such a fun little kid!  He is overall easy going and mostly happy. 

He loves to play with Rylan, they are best buddies!

His favorite food is crepes and oranges. His favorite candy is M&M's.

He loves playing the leapster. 

He has just started to enjoy watching movies, and will actually sit and watch it. {It is so nice!} His current favorites are the little people shows and Dora. 

He can be very shy without his brother with him.  I think Rylan is a source of security for Dallen.  He had a hard time with his new nursery class at church and also with a playgroup we go too.  A lot of the time he will just sit by me instead of playing.  But if Rylan is by his side he has no worries and will play and talk to anyone.

He loves to color and is an excellent colorer   His nursery teacher who teaches Kindergarten says that Dallen can color better than some kids in her class. 

His favorite colors are still yellow and orange!

 Happy half birthday D!  We love you!!!

pictures

It was time to take a family picture again.  So we did our family picture, then the kids wanted to take more pictures.  Maybe that really is a sign that I've been slacking on taking pictures.  They usually have the opposite reaction when it's time to take pictures, but they were having fun today. 

Me with my girls.  Hannah just has to pose, every time!! 

Dallen with his cool glasses, and Hannah with all her war wounds.  She was kind of a mess!!

As I was taking pictures, Dallen kept getting in front of the camera.  He thought he was being pretty funny!

My girls.  So pretty and so fun!!

Rylan had to have a picture with Bryleigh.  He still loves her to pieces and has to give her a hug and kiss 10 times a day.  But he can also get frustrated with her when she gets into his stuff.  He's learning that little sisters are fun, but they can also be a pain.

Then Dallen joined in.  

They can all be so silly!

My little Bryleigh loves to have her picture taken. She will go and stand or sit where she is suppose to and will sometimes say "cheese" for her pictures.  Some times she will give me a good smile too.  

Rylan and Bethany.

And Dallen who did not want his picture taken anymore.  I guess he was done!

Me and my handsome guy! He really is the best and I love him so much!!

p52 week 45

November 4th to 10th

Hannah piece of art from school.  It's made with bubble gum.  They chewed up the gum, and then spread it around using toothpicks.  Sounds fun to me!

There's a ton of construction going on in our neighborhood, which is a pain.  But I thought this was funny.  The sign got turned somehow. 

Kyle was out of town for work.  I took the kids on a Sunday walk to get all of us out of the house and give us something to do.  They are loving all the leaves!  Another things we were lacking in Albuquerque, trees. But compared to my home state, Washington, Utah is the one lacking trees.  Funny how your perceptive changes!

Bryleigh got her hat on and then sat down to look at the friend magazine.  

These two are actually starting to play together.  It is cute to watch them and see their relationship grow. 

Bryleigh being where she is not suppose to be playing with something she is not suppose to play with.  She thought it was fun though!

Hannah vs. the scooter

Hannah was riding her scooter on the sidewalk in front of our house, while Kyle and I were cleaning the garage. She started screaming like I have never heard her scream before, and there was blood everywhere! She had fallen off of her scooter. She had blood all over her face and it was squirting out of her finger.  I knew this was not good.  I started to panic a little, cause that's what I do.  I grabbed a pillow and put it on her finger while we went inside. Then I grabbed some dish towels and had one on her finger and the other on her mouth.  It wasn't until now that I looked into her mouth and knew we would be going to the instant care. We were at the table wrapping up her finger so we could go, and Bryleigh was up on the table.  I looked around for Bethany to come get her, and Bethany is no where to be found.  After yelling for her a couple times she comes upstairs and get's Bryleigh.  She had run to her room when she saw all the blood.  She got scared. After we got her all bandaged up, I took her down to instant care where we waited for 1 1/2 hours to see the dr. I felt so bad for her, she was hurting pretty bad.  I hadn't given her any pain medication because of the mess in her mouth. She did not want me to take her picture, but couldn't resist.

We still don't know how she did this to herself.  We think that handle bar of her scooter somehow hit her in the mouth, since her lips are not scratched.  Thank goodness her front tooth was already missing and the other is a baby tooth.  The dr. sent us to a dentist to have him pull the tooth. The other dr. that was at the clinic had to come in and check out Hannah's tooth too. With her finger they cleaned it up and glued it together, then wrapped it up with a splint on it.  He told us to keep it wrapped up for 24 hours to have the glue set and then to just have her wear a bandaid till it healed up.

So then we headed to the dentist office.  It was a friend of the dr. we saw who wasn't working that day, but went into the office just to see Hannah. The dentist wanted to get the tooth out and then put it back in the mouth.  He numbed her up to pull the tooth. But when he started working on the tooth, the numbest didn't reach where it needed too.  He stopped and numbed some more.  But again when he went to pull it it was still hurting her.  The dentist thought it was barely hanging on, as it looks, so he decided to just go for it.  There was Hannah's horrible scream again! He finally got it out, but he had to pull pretty hard.  It was jammed into the gums behind the tooth.  She cried for quite awhile, but then felt so much better!!  We stopped and got her a orange julius, {since orange is her favorite right now}, and make all the other kids jealous. She was felling better that night, as long as we kept pain medication in her.  

On Sunday afternoon we took off the splint and put a bandaid on, like the dr. told us.  It still didn't look very good and was a little swollen.  By Monday morning her finger was huge and it was hurting her pretty bad. She got to go back to the dr. They ended up taking some x-rays and her finger was fractured right underneath where the cut was.  Plus the cut had gotten infected, so she got to be on some antibiotics that she hated. We saw an orthopedic dr in the mix of this.   They put antibiotic cream on her finger and wrapped it in gauze so it could breath and then put the splint back on her finger.  We had to balance it so that she wore the splint on the finger at school or doing any activities, but then at home she need to air it out so the cut could heal.  It would cause her pain on and off all week. 

Her mouth was all healed up within a day or two, it's the darn finger that was causing more of the problems.

She was practicing writing with her left hand, so she could go to school the next day. 

The dr. gave her a sling so if the finger started hurting she could elevate it with the sling.  The first thing she said about it was, "At least it matches my dress, because black matches with pink."  Such a Hannah comment, and I'm glad that it brought her comfort in knowing she matched still!

A couple days later we went back to the orthopedic dr. to have him check out her finger.  It's looking better, but we still have a ways to go.  The dr. is more concerned about there being a cut on top of a fracture.  He explained that when there are two injuries together like that it can cause them to not heal right.  So we need to watch it closely, to make sure it is getting better.  

It was quite the Saturday and week or two to follow.  I hate seeing my kids suffer and hurt.  I would much rather be hurting than them.  Hannah was a good sport and got through it good.  She never wants to ride her scooter again, and she thinks they are so very dangerous! I think she was just going way too fast!!!!
Oh and the scooter definitely won!!