little miss overachiever!

This little girl decided that she was ready to start using the potty.  Around 20 months Bryleigh started telling me every time she needed to go or went to the bathroom. She also wanted to go sit on the potty.  So every time she needed to go I would run her to the bathroom to have her sit on the potty.  This would happen 10 plus times a day.  You knew she needed to go when she would stop playing, grab herself and give you a look.  Potty training had been on my mind, and I was debating whether or not I was going to do it when she was 22 months, supposedly that's the magic age, or wait longer.  But since I was already doing half of the work I decided to jump right in on our next free weekend.  So the beginning of March, at 21 months, I started really working with her in underwear.  It took until lunchtime on the first day, after about 20 accidents for it to click with her and she got it.  Not that she was 100%, but she understood her signs and what she was suppose to do.  I was so surprised that she caught on so quick, when all morning I was telling myself she is just too young, that this is so silly that I am even trying.  But seriously, she was one of the easiest ones, which was a welcome surprise with number 5! 

After a couple weeks, she started adding words to her sign that she needed to go.  She would say, I gotta go, I gotta go.  It is pretty cute, and I like it when they start putting words with it.  It makes it a little easier to know that they need to go. 

When I potty train, I spend the whole day with the kid.  I follow them around, and play with them and do pretty much whatever they want to do.  Bryleigh loved having my attention. Dallen joined our little party and was having so much fun playing with me too.  The rest of the week Dallen kept asking, can we go play mommy.  And Bryleigh would sit down to play and pat the spot next to her wanting me to sit down and play with her.  I enjoyed spending the time with them, and then it made me feel a little guilty for not doing this with them more often.  Something I need to work on!

Her interesting outfit when we went to go pick up the kids from their friends house.  She cracks me up! She loves to put hats and gloves on and will play with the bins of them for hours.

She caught on with the peeing so quick, but the pooping took some time like with all my kids.  I was so hoping that she would be different, since some of her first successes when I would run her to the bathroom was with pooping.  That didn't last long and she started pooping in her underwear everyday.  I struggle with this so much!!  So after a few weeks, hoping she would figure it out on her own, I started working with her more.  Also known as following her around the house and not taking my eye off of her, and we got her going most of the time on the potty.  

I haven't had to use sticker charts, or prizes, which I am glad of.  She gets potty treats for going.  I got so desperate with the pooping that she earns a whole bag of fruit snack for pooping, and she likes that.   

Bryleigh's other fun outfit.  She loves to dress up! I love the one with her brother's watching her.

I still think that potty training is one of the worst parts of being a parent.  It can be such a frustrating and gross thing.  Even though she was an easier one, it still was not fun and stressful.  It is so nice to be diaper free!!  We have had a kid in diapers since Bethany 9 1/2 years ago. I could get used to this!

Bryleigh still has her good days and bad days.  But she is doing awesome!  She still wears pullups at night, but that doesn't bother me.  We went to Disneyland a few weeks ago and I was a little nervous with her being out and about all day for a week.  But she did great, and it was nice not having to go change diapers. 

We are so proud of you Bryleigh, you are good at amazing your parents!

easter

Easter morning.  Bryleigh with her basket and her crazy morning hair.  She is already attacking her candy!

Rylan and Hannah with their baskets.  The easter bunny hides their baskets and they have to find them.  

Dallen and Bethany and their baskets.  It took Bethany a little bit to find her basket.

Once the kids check out their baskets, they get to find the easter eggs they decorated and left for the easter bunny to hide.  They always have fun searching.  The easter bunny must be getting pretty tricky, because they had a hard time finding their last couple eggs.

Easter kind of felt like bla this year.  If you notice Ky in this picture, he felt about as good as he looks.  He was so sick.  The night before he started throwing up and was in bed all night and most of easter day.  He came down to watch the kids with their stuff but then he was back in bed.  He was feeling well enough to go to my mom's for dinner, but he pretty much just laid on her couch and slept. I felt bad for him.  It also made it hard for me to enjoy the day since I was doing everything alone.  We almost didn't get their eggs decorated Saturday night, because I really didn't feel like doing it either, but I pushed through and we got it done.  The kids had fun and that's what it is really about, and I'm glad that they enjoyed it all!  

easter egg hunts

The kids had fun at the easter egg hunts this year.  Our first one was with the playgroup that our ward does.  It was nice and organized how I like it!  Everyone brought 12 eggs, and everyone got to find 12 eggs.  It makes it so much more fun and enjoyable.  You don't have to rush around fighting with everyone else to get eggs.  It was fun.

Because of this policy of bring 12 eggs and get 12 eggs I felt fine letting the girl participate.  They have a friend that also homeschools so they get to play with her when we go to playgroup. 

Our 2nd easter egg hunt was with some friends at the park.  I missed having our annual easter egg hunt with our friends from Albuquerque and I almost didn't arrange this one, I think I was having self pity.  But I finally got over myself and the kids had fun, of course.

Since I was in charge, we did the same thing.  You bring 12 eggs and you get 12 eggs.  It's always so funny how it takes so long to hide all the eggs and they are all found within seconds.  

The kids with their baskets.  Of course Dallen is sticking his tongue out, that's just what he does!

Hannah wore her blue "easter dress" this day. And her pink "easter dress" on Saturday for the other easter egg hunts.

Our 3rd easter egg hunt was a total flop.  There were easter egg hunts all over town, and we decided to try the one on base.  We did the one on base last year in Albuquerque and it was a lot of fun.  This one was so not fun!  They had the groups divided up by age, which they should.  But each age group was at a different baseball field that was completely fenced in.  I went in with Bryleigh and she got maybe 7 or 8 eggs, which was plenty for her.  But the boys age group wouldn't allow parents in the field with their kids.  Rylan was fine, but Dallen just cried because he wanted us to come with him.  So while Rylan was trying to help Dallen, all the eggs were collected by other kids.  I think they got a couple eggs each.  The same with the girls, minus the crying.  They are old enough that they can hold their own and they don't need parent's helping them.  But there were so many kids that they got a couple eggs each too.  Not that they needed a ton of eggs, it was just a frustrating experience and it was much more stressful and less fun.  So we will have to try out a different one next year!

Hannah and her pink "easter dress".

Our 4th and final easter egg hunt was with their cousins.  They had so much fun at this one, and they got way too many eggs.  So I guess it makes up for the other one.

Bryleigh's cousin Charlotte felt too old to collect eggs for her, but still wanted to participate, so she helped Bryleigh collect her eggs.  Bryleigh has so much fun with Charlotte!! 

Rylan finding his eggs!

The girls finding their eggs.

Dallen was doing a good job finding eggs too.

I love the smile on her face.  I'm not sure why she's smiling, but she's sure cute!

All the grandkids still at home.  Two are on missions now.  The older kids got to hide the eggs for the younger ones.  

A better shot of my kiddos!  They had so much fun collecting eggs and playing with their cousins!

field trip

We were kind of in a rut with school, so we decided to take a day off and head out on a field trip.  We headed to the church history museum downtown.  It was nice for all of us to get out of the house and have some fun!

My cute students!

They all especially had fun at the kids play area.  We spent most of our time there.

We then headed over to walk through temple square.  I was hoping to see the flowers, but we were a few weeks too soon. 

Then we walked over to city creek mall to go to the disney store and to get chocolate. 

It was a fun day.  These are the days that I will have fond memories of when our homeschooling year is over.  I love being able to spend time with them, and having the freedom to do what we want to do!  

Rylan's 6!

One of the things I have loved most of all having the kids home with me is getting to celebrate with them all day on their birthday!  It's hard to send them off on their birthdays.  So we had a fun day being together!  Rylan choose graham crackers with frosting for his birthday treat for snack time.

He had to wait all day until daddy got home to open his presents. He was more than anxious.

He got the right much anticipated castle he wanted.  He had told me the week before that he had a dream that I got him the wrong castle for his birthday and he cried.  Good thing it was just a dream!  He was so excited.  It's hard having so many other little people who think it is super cool too!

His birthday cupcake.  He loves chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!

Rylan wanted to go swimming for his birthday.  We ended up going in the afternoon, since the girls had dance that night.  When we got there it was great!  There were only another couple families there swimming. Then about an half hour into it a bunch of kids came on a fieldtrip from school.  So it got really busy and loud fast. It turned out ok though, because they were letting everyone use the tubes for free.  It's a wave pool.  So every 20 minutes they turn on the waves, and the kids had a lot of fun with the tubes.  

I can't believe how grown up this little guy is getting.  He can be such a sweetheart and also such a trouble maker! He loves to play with other kids and is not a big fan of doing things by himself.
Some of his favorite things to do is riding his bike and scooter, going out to dinner and going bowling.
His favorite food is pizza and macaroni.
His favorite color is red.
His favorite candy is peanut butter cups.
He loves to play with his friends Tyler, Ben Susie and Jonah {whom he really misses!)

Happy birthday Rylan!  We sure love you!