Rylee's Seventh Birthday

Rylee celebrated her seventh birthday yesterday and it was so much. The theme she chose this year is Candyland. So, I spent most of the day on friday building a Candyland Castle. It was kind of awesome. (Not the time spent, but the castle). The kids had so much fun playing in it, that it didn't even survive the party. Alas, six hours to put it up, and only 2 minutes to tear it down! Luckily, it can be rebuilt for hours of imaginary fun in the near future (after it stops raining). I had big plans for Rylee's birthday cake. I was going to make a giant sheet cake and decorate with assorted candies to resemble to Candyland board game, but then I thought that would be a lot of work after that castle! So, I made Funfetti cupcakes, had 4 different colors and frosting and 8 different types of candy, and the kids decorated their own cakes! A much better idea! Rylee had a lot of fun and I'm kinda glad it's over. (time for a nap!)

Aaaaaaand, even thought Rylee isn't technically seven until Tuesday, here are my top seven things that I love about this pretty little girl:

1. She is super, super, super creative. Those who know me know that I envy that in people. I often attempt to force creativity out of myself and find it awesome how it comes so easily to some people. Rylee is one of those people. She can find any piece of garbage and see the potential in it. That's awesome!

2. She is a good big sister. She loves to help her younger brother and sisters do things and I often catch then curled up together in bed or on the couch as Rylee reads them a story.

3. She is super smart. She could probably graduate high school if we pushed her! okay, maybe not quite to that extreme, but she is really good at school stuff and still enjoys it so far.

4. She loves to sing. I often have to stop her singing just so she can get stuff done. Even on the toilet, we will hear her singing a song, often one she has made up. And she's not quiet either! She just belts it out wherever she is!

5. She enjoys reading and writing stories. I think I like this about her because it's something we have in common. She loves to read, and so do I, but she usually loves to read stories that she writes herself. And while I no longer write stories now, as a kid, I did all the time and even wanted to grow up to be an author (then I think I discovered boys and anything else I was previously interested fizzled out pretty quickly).

6. She is athletic. She loves to dance, play sports, just about anything that's active. We take family hikes occasionally and she's always wanting to run ahead or play a game to make a leisurely activity more exciting.

7. She is super optimistic and positive about everything. Even when she gets in trouble for making a wrong choice, she will point out what she did right! She is very confident and believes she can do anything she wants. Some of you know that she does not have full use of her right arm, but if you didn't know, that's probably because she has never it make her feel that she can't do anything. It wasn't until she discovered "monkey-bars" that she felt limited. And you know, she came home from school just a few weeks ago so excited to tell me that she crossed the monkey bars that day! She is proof that it is often ourselves that get in the way of goals we want to accomplish, not the obstacles placed before us. Rylee has been such a huge blessing in my life. The last seven years of getting to know her as been a lot of things, but mostly wonderful and exciting. I look forward to the next seven!

Wacky Wednesday

Cole's Preschool had a wacky day last week and he was so excited as we came up with what he should wear for the day. Here is what we came up with, along with the wacky pose for this picture. Fun Halloween socks, one pant leg in sock, one pant leg rolled up, shirt inside out, and hair spiked into 3 rows. He was so excited to go to school that day and to tell me about the wacky things his teachers wore. One of his teachers, her name is Tinker, put her hair in a high pony and stuck a roll of toilet paper on it. What fun!

Bree has been so much fun. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I was comparing this video to one we took just over a month ago and what a change! She's already so different and so much bigger! Here are a few things we've come to learn about Miss Bree:

1. She is high maintenance. She loves to be held and held a lot, but I guess that's okay. Life gets so busy around here that I may just forget to sit and enjoy snuggling her if she didn't demand itoccasionally!

2. She doesn't handle milk very well, and since I'm nursing her, I don't get to have milk (only one of my favorite things in the world!) But since giving it up, she's been much happier and sleeps so much better, so it's worth the sacrifice.

3. She sleeps 5-6 hours at night, and I'm lovin' it!

4. She has begun to smile, giggle, and coo a ton more, so we spend a lot of time desperatelytrying to make her smile. It must be humorous to observe what an adult might do to make a baby smile, but what a reward!

5. I change her diaper at least every hour or two and it's never clean! We go through more diapers with her than I ever thought possible!

6. She has brought so much joy to our little family and made us feel more complete. There's six of us now! Can you believe it!?

7. She still has so much hair and it's still brown, which I'm really excited about since our kids always look so much like Justin, maybe Bree will resemble me with her coloring. And BIG blue eyes. Such a pretty girl!

Sweet Bree

GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Oh! . . . and I forgot . . .

a few more for the previous post

19. 2 trips to the E.R. (one for "nurses-maid" elbow and the other for taking a bunch of allergy meds).

20. climbing onto her dresser and jumping off onto her bed (she hasn't missed . . . yet!)

21. she has chewed on or eaten dog poo, goat poo, and her own poo.

22. banging on the window of her room with the handle once used to open it.

Just what's on my mind!

The Terrible, Terrible Twos!

Gracie has definitely redefined what it is to be a two-year-old for me. I can count on just one hand the times that Rylee and Cole got into things and made messes that were either nearly impossible to clean, or destructive. And that's combined! Gracie on the other hand, it's pretty much a daily event. Here are just a few examples of some of the things she has gotten into:

1. diaper rash ream

2. laundry detergent

3. Oriental oils (more times than I can count)

4. lotion

5. hand soap (she rubbed it on her face because she thought it was lotion and it got into her eyes. That made for a very unhappy toddler).

6. black magic marker (all over my mother-in-law's white cabinets)

7. make-up (of all kinds)

8. markers, highlighters, pens and pencils (all over walls)

9. hormone cream (hopefully she doesn't start developing too early!)

10. ripped pages in books, notebooks, and many of the kids books.

11. sidewalk chalk on the fence, house, and windows (luckily, that's easy to clean)

12. Beans

13. dog food and water

14. she likes to eat the dogs snacks

15. ashes from the fireplace that were left in the backyard (snow! snow!)

16. She has ripped and colored all over Rylee's homework

17. She loves to take all her clothes off (and her diaper) and run through the living room, rubbing her bum, dancing, and squealing "nakey! nakey! nakey!" She even has what we call her "nakey dance."

18. and on, and on, and on.

Keep in mind, these are just the things that I can think of right away. I'm sure if I put more thought into it, the list would easily double, possibly triple. You would think that I would be able to get it under control, this being my 3rd child, but Gracie has proved be determined. I think she possible lays in bed at night thinking, "what can I do tomorrow to make my mom want to pull her hair out?" Grrrrrrr!

But probably the most frustrating thing about it is, she's sooo cute doing it! Whenever we find her doing something, her reactions to getting caught are so hard not to laugh at, or the way she looks with diaper rash cream all over her body! What does a mother do!

Baby Bree

Thank you, Taryn! You did a beautiful job on these announcements!

Back to Photography

Now that I'm beginning to get things under control around here (at least to some degree), I'm trying to get back into some of the things I used to enjoy, such as reading, exercising, blogging, and taking pictures. This morning I got to take some pics of Baby River. He was a super easy subject and ultra cute! You can see more photos of him HERE.

I'm still here

It's been such a long time since I've felt like getting to my blog on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I love blog-stalking and I stalk every one of my friends/family that you see in my list to the right, but alas, whenever I come to blog I get so caught up in everyone else's blogs that I either A) run out of time, or B) don't feel like it! But, we are still here enjoying life.

Life in California has been an adjustment, but a good one. We love spending time with family and now we have so much of them around us (at least on Justin's side). I love that my kids get to grow up around their grandparents, especially as they get older and stop regarding my little tidbits of wisdom as something important.

Bree is growing far too quickly and still struggling to figure out her days and nights. Hopefully we'll be able to get that under control soon. Rylee is loving everything about school (reading, bus rides, lunch time, recess, and even math) and excelling at it all. Cole has a good time at preschool and can't wait for each new day at school. He finds the long wait between school days obnoxious and can't wait to go back. Gracie is developing into quite the little trouble maker but what's worse is she's hilarious! So sometimes it's hard to discipline her when you can't stop yourself from laughing, only encouraging further destructive behavior!

Justin finally got a new job and has his first day tomorrow. He is working for the county as an appraiser and is really excited to get his foot in the door of a new adventure. I go back to work tomorrow as well. I have mixed feelings about that. Even though I only work 5-6 hours a week, leaving Bree behind is still hard. But I'm excited to help contribute to my family.

That's the down-low on our family lately. I'll try to get more motivated about my blogging again and post some new pics of Bree (which you may see above this post).