New Year...

I can't believe that I've let myself get this behind! I've had several family and friends come up to me and ask if I was ever going to update my blog. Things have been crazy but good in our house hold. Our biggest news, for those who don't know, is that we're expecting child #4. I'm about 17 weeks along, and my belly's already sticking out, making me look like I'm further along than I am. I don't mind. Much of the awkward "Is she just gaining weight??" stage was passed over very quickly. I'm due June 12th and we have our ultrasound to find out what we're having on the 25th of this month.

The girls are doing well. Boo's loving kindergarten, and is doing very well with her reading especially. Aunt Julie got her some of the "Judy Moody" chapter books, and she's doing well so far. I don't know quite how much she's retaining, but she's picking up most of the words. Lyssa is loving preschool. She's doing well with writing her name, and working on remembering how to write down all of the individual letters. Brooklyn is getting bigger everyday. She's talking a lot more now, and is able to express her opinion much easier than in the past. She has discovered Dora and Barbies, is still my little dress up girl. She loves the necklaces, bracelets and shoes.

Steve is doing well with work. He just got done with his 2nd set of training, and is excited to be progressing at work, especially in these times. We feel truly blessed by the Lord and are grateful everyday for all that we've been given. I'll work on being better at my blogging. I know I keep saying that....

It's been busy!

I cannot believe that I have let my posts go for this long! Life has been absolutely crazy for my family these past few months! We purchased our own home about 2 months ago, and we have been busy getting the house remodeled. All of the flooring downstairs is coming out, and we're putting our own, new flooring in. I am very excited about that, however living in the construction zone can be a bit tiring. It's all worth it in the end though!

The girls are adjusting well to living in a new town. Kaelyn starts kindergarden in July, and she's very excited about being back in school. Almost everyday she asks if it's time to go back to school yet. She's also taking Ballet lessons. She went with my mom to see the Nutcracker over Christmas-time, and she fell in love. We got her signed up for Ballet lessons, and she is catching on very quickly! She has her recital coming up in a little over a week:-)

Elyssa is growing like a weed! That girl is almost as tall as Kaelyn, and she's 18 months younger. I get so many people asking me if they're twins when I'm out running errands. I think it's funny now, but I know once high school comes, Kaelyn's going to hate having her little sister not be littler than her. I was blessed and was able to get Lyssa signed up for preschool for this upcoming fall. I am so happy she was able to make it in. She's going to be going for 3 hours a day, 5 mornings a week. I told her the happy news this morning, and her response was (of course!) "Do I get to take my Tinker Bell backpack?" It was very cute!

Brooklyn is now 20 months old, and growing up too fast! She's finally starting to say a few words. She can say: hi, wow, no (surprise surprise), mama, dada, papa, and wa-wa (water). There's probably more that she says, my mind is just blank right now. Brooklyn has also discovered that she can fight back when her sisters are bugging her. Her thing now is to walk up to her unsuspecting sisters and pull on their hair. She has a good grip too. There have been a couple times where she pulled out quite a few hairs. She's also perfected the art of shrieking whenever one of the older two takes something away from her. You'd think that I'd be used to this change by now, but it's still a shock to my system seeing my sweet innocent little babies become a full blown toddler!

That's pretty much my life currently. I am going to try to get better at this (yah, you've heard that before from me). I also will try and get some more current pics of the girls posted along with some pics of my house!

More Catch up!

After Auntie Carly and Uncle Joel got married, we visited they're new home this summer. Brooklyn met their dog, Bones. They formed quite the friendship:)

We took the girls ice skating this Veteran's Day. We went with Auntie Becca and my mom. The girls eventually loved it... Kaelyn, as you can see, took a little longer to enjoy.

Lyssa, my daring child, caught on pretty quickly and was able to skate between 2 people (a short distance of course!)

This was one of Daddy's days off. Brooklyn started this game by getting into my pots and pans. The older two furthered the game by taking my spatulas and banging them on the pots and pans. Daddy said that I had a high patience level at the time, ha ha.

I know, I know, it's been way too long again! I wanted to at the very least post some pictures of the girls. We're all doing well. Steve is finally back to his normal schedule at work, and he's loving getting back into the swing of things!

Kaelyn is the student of the week in her preschool class, and is beaming from ear to ear about it! She got to create a poster of herself this weekend. One part asked for the child to draw or paste pics from magazines of their favorite place to go, and what did Kaelyn choose?? You guessed it - Disneyland!! She made my mom proud! She has also finished her last soccer game, and had a blast this season! She got a trophy from her coach for her participation. She's constantly carrying it around showing it to everyone. She is also my little helper. She is eager to help clear the table after meals and especially help with anything that has to do with Brooklyn. As long as I can keep her interested in helping out, then we'll be good to go a few years down the road regarding chores...I know I know, wishful thinking!

Lyssa is finally well on the road to potty training, and very excited about it (finally!). She finally discovered that she can go #2 into the toilet as well! She hasn't made it to the toilet every time for that, but so far it's been every other time, so I can't complain too much. As far as going pee-pee, she's been doing excellent at! I don't have to remind her to go potty every time anymore. More than half the time she'll let me know:) We bought her Tinkerbell and Sleeping Beauty (her choice) underwear, and she knows that she shouldn't get them wet. Now that she's going potty in the toilet, and that she's seeing Kaelyn doing more activities now, Lyssa's expressing interest in them. On the way out from Kaelyn's classroom one day, Lyssa said to me, "I going pee-pee and poo-poo in the toilet mommy. I play soccer and go to school like sissy!" I was impressed that she remembered that.

Brooklyn is more monkey-like than ever! She has now discovered that she can climb into my bathroom drawers (as I am getting ready) and be able to reach the top of the counters. She is so fast, that if you're not watching her ALL THE TIME, she can be up the stairs and in the kid's bathroom in about 1 minute! So, now the gate is always blocking the stairway. She has also discovered the toilet! Bleh! We're going to need to purchase some toilet locks now. The older two never had any interest in the toilet as a toy (Bleh!), so for my third child to be interested is a new thing for me!

That's my life, currently. The girls and doing well, and growing so fast. I know I keep promising that I'll do better about blogging, but I really am trying!

Winding down...

I posted this one to celebrate Brooklyn's first birthday...I saw that pic and can't believe how much she's changed!

I went upstairs to check on them one night and this is what I found!

Boy, has this been a crazy summer! I know it's been a long time, and I've had a few people ask me if I had dropped off the blogging world, so here I am. Lots of things have taken place in our family. Becca and Lon were married on Aug 9th. It was a beautiful ceremony on a beautiful day! Josh had his mission farewell the next weekend and left for the MTC on Aug 27th. He is now in Vanuatu serving the people and loving the work!


Steve starts the academy on Monday and is very excited to get it overwith so he can get back to work. He keeps telling me that he's preparing himself for a total beat down - both mentally and physically.


Kaelyn started playing soccer just a few short weeks ago. Her first game was two weeks ago, and for the first time last week, she was goalee! The first ball that came her way got past her, but after a quick briefing by daddy on what to do, she was quick to catch the other two balls that came at her. We were so proud of her! She knew it too, because as soon as she stopped the balls, she turned towards us and gave us that all-too-familiar Kaelyn grin:) She is also now in preschool and doing excellent! She loves going to school everyday, and really likes her teacher. It was such a blessing that an opening came up at the last minute!


Elyssa is still refusing to go potty in the toilet. All of our attempts end the same way...her sitting on the toilet for 30 seconds before she fights and fights to get off. We're trying our hardest to get her to go potty in the toilet without pushing her too hard. She's the strong-willed type that would backfire on us. There is small progress everyday. Now she's agreeing with us that she wants to be a big girl and go potty. Next it will be getting her to stay on the toilet!


Brooklyn is going to turn 1 year old on Monday and I am in complete shock! I cannot believe that it's already been almost a year since she's been born! She's really starting to grow up. She's walking along furniture and letting go and standing up all by herself. She's starting to discover big people food despite the fact that she only has three teeth! (Don't worry, I keep a close eye on her!) She's also made the wonderful discovery of ice cream (that's the Riddle coming out in her!). I can't sneak a bowl by her. One of the ladies at our ward get-together a few weeks ago watched and laughed as I attempted to eat a bowl of ice cream with Brooklyn in my arm, shreaking at me every bite.


Brooklyn's big sisters love her to pieces! We're constantly on them for picking her up and walking around the house with her. They mean well, however. Most of the time it's because "Bloo-blyn's eating _(insert any item!)__, Mommy!" Kaelyn's very good about getting on the floor and helping Brooklyn play with her toys. Lyssa's good at "sharing" the baby's snacks with her. She'll give Brooklyn and baby puff, then give herself two. It's hilarious!


I promise that I'll try and keep up on this better! Now that the summer's winding down, and activities are calming down, I should have more time for this.

Proposal!

Our lives have been absolute madness these last couple weeks! They've been fun though, don't get me wrong. We had Jana and Livia down for a week just recently for Carly's wedding on the 31st. It was a beautiful wedding, and the bride looked stunning! ;) Boo had an absolute blast having Livia down for the week - it was non-stop play the whole time for the girls!

On a more sad note, my grandma passed on a few weeks ago, and the funeral services were the same day as the wedding! It was kind of stressful trying to juggle both, especially since Boo was a flower girl! However, it was worth the crazy day, since everything worked out smoothly and we got to attend both services.

On a more happy note, Becca got engaged this past weekend to the love of her life, Lon. (I hope you don't mind my announcing that Becca!) We are so very excited for her and Lon! The family all loves him and he makes her soooo happy! Boo was happy to hear that she can now call him Uncle Lon:) and when we mentioned the engagement to Lyssa, she simply said, "Becca and Lon went swimming at grandma's!" - they came down for the weekend about a month ago, and Lyssa still remembers doing that! It was cute!

Brooklyn is now crawling, and has been for a couple weeks at least now. It's funny watching her getting into things. The most famous is her getting stuck underneath the piano. She gets pinned, then looks around for myself or Daddy, and then lets out a shriek. As sad as it is the moment it happens, its amusing looking back! She has also discovered fries! We were eating at In-N-Out Burger, and saw daddy munching on a fry. So of course, she reached out for one and he let her try it. All I have to say is, every time she was finished eating one, she'd let us know she was ready for another fry by simply shrieking. It may have been annoying the everyone else around us, our little family was chuckling, even Kaelyn and Lyssa. They thought that "Bloo-blynn funny!" as Lyssa says.

Well, I better get going for now. The baby's ready to get to bed. I know it's taken me awhile and I've had several people asking me when I'd update... here you go! I'll try to do better next time! :)

Daddy's girls

The girls have had a lot of fun having daddy home during the day. His schedule has been all over the board since he's still in training (3 more days left of training I might add, and we're very excited!). One morning he decided it was finally time that our poor vehicles got a good cleaning (The poor truck was LONG overdue). One morning last week he pulled the truck in front of the house and started washing it. Soon after starting, Lyssa came outside to investigate, and wanted to help. Kaelyn saw how much fun sissy was having and decided to pick up the hose and "cool sissy down." That was it. Within what seemed mere seconds they both had gotten their clothes drenced! Mommy, of course, was a little hesitant on letting the girls get themselves wet, but daddy promised he'd clean them up. I am sure glad I did so, because they had a blast! Kaelyn came into the house shivering but with a huge grin on her face. After awhile, she was ready to dry off and rest. Lyssa, however, took some convincing to come in. She is definitely an outside girl!

Brooklyn has recently discovered that she can be mobile. She doesn't quite crawl yet. Rather, she scoots everywhere. Its absolutely adorable, especially since she now knows that she can scoot on over to me and pull on my legs until I pick her up. Tonight I noticed that she's starting to get on her hands and knees and rock. She even moved one back leg forward before her legs gave and she slipped onto her stomach. I have also discovered that she'd rather eat big people food than that tasteless baby food. Daddy and I even let her try a little bit of cheese (yes, we were naughty!) which she loved. I got some of the gerber graduates chopped carrots at the store and surprisingly, she ate it. This is my first child who has outright refused baby food! That's just more proof that each child really is different!

In other news, my brother got his mission call today! We went over to my grandparent's house today to open it with them. He's going to Fiji!! He's beyond excited! All evening, he kept saying, "I can't believe it!" He's even thrilled that he gets to speak english. He told us it would have been nice to learn another language, but he's glad that he doesn't have to. He gets to go on a foreign mission and still speak his own language. He doesn't report until the end of August, so he has all summer to save more money for his mission.

Our lives has been pretty eventful lately, but we're happy. Keeping busy sure makes time fly by. That's all for now, but hopefully it won't be long before I write again!

FINALLY another one...

First off, I must comment about this picture. It is my absolute favorite of all the easter pictures we took merely for the fact that Brooklyn is bawling her eyes out. She didn't like the fact that we set her down on some itchy surface. We thought it was cute.

Alright, moving on. These last couple months have been absolute madness in our household! Steve got the job, and we have been thanking Heavenly Father daily for the blessings He has bestowed upon us. After he found out that he got the job, we had two weeks to get all of his uniforms and other accessories together. Let me tell you, there is A LOT of stuff you have to get. I think we made almost daily trips to Crescent Supply (of course Steve didn't mind. After all, Crescent is most guy's "Disneyland.") for those two weeks. We had to get his uniforms tailored, boots and belt purchased, a name pin made, etc. The very funny thing is, after about the 10th trip to Crescent, we pull up to the store, and Kaelyn notices where we are. The first thing out of her mouth was, "Not this store again! We come here every DAY daddy!" As you can imagine, Steve and I were busting up in laughter. He got sworn in on the 27th of March and had his first shift on the 30th of March - graveyard.

So far, Steve's first few weeks of work have gone well. It is most definitely been a whole new experience for him. One that he finds exciting, I guess you can say. He is learning new things every day, and is finding the job challenging, in a good way. His shifts are all over the board right now because they want to train him on all shifts before they settle him into his regular schedule.

The girls, so far, are doing really well with their daddy's schedule changes. In fact, they like that daddy is sometimes home with them during the day. Elyssa is finally starting to become more vocal. We honestly thought she was going to speak the baby language forever! She's even starting to say her own prayers! It's so cute! She's hitting that phase where she is starting to want to do everything on her own - brushing her teeth and saying her prayers especially. It's difficult to let her do these things on her own, but I realize that's the only way she'll learn and grow.

Kaelyn continues to amaze me every day. Right now, she really enjoys helping mommy with the baby. If I forget to grab something I need for Brooklyn, Kaelyn's right there getting things for me! Every time I attempt (will elaborate on soon) to give Brooklyn cereal, Kaelyn is right there wanting to feed her for me. She is also an excellent artist!! (Ask her to draw Spongebob for you... she's quite good!) One of her favorite things to do is to color when we're at daycare. I watch her color with the other children her age, and I'm absolutely amazed! Her coloring is quite neat and stays in the lines really well! We have decided that daddy needs to color and draw with her since he's a pretty good artist.

Brooklyn is making so many changes, so fast! She's hit that stage where anything and everything that she can't have, she wants. Her favorite no-no is paper. You CANNOT hold a piece of paper in your hand anymore unless you're willing to let it get all wrinkled, b/c she WILL grab for it. She also prefers to gnaw on the remote controls over her toys. She's constantly trying to convince me (with her cuteness!!) to hand it on over. Steve commented tonight, "I love this stage!! The world is a chew toy at this age!" How true that is! I do have one problem, however. She REFUSES to eat solids! I have tried rice cereal every way possible (I was bad, I even mixed in a little applesause to see if the sweet flavor would get her to eat), and nothing works! She spits it out every time no matter what I do! I am so frustrated! Does anyone have any suggestions?? They would be greatly appreciated!

Well, I thank everyone for being so patient with me. Our lives have been crazy (but wonderful) lately, and I have had little spare time. Well, until next time!