Wednesday Milestones

This is Brynlee

She always has some food or sticky substance in her hair.
She says "bambi'd" instead of band-aid, "that takes me off" instead of "that ticks me off", and Book of Mormoned instead of Book of Mormon.
She often changes her clothes at least once during the day.
Whenever she goes to the bathroom it is highly likely that she will be in there for 15 or 20 minutes. Because once she is up at the sink washing her hands, she likes to brush her hair (ruining whatever I've already done) and her teeth as well.  She takes mine or Kenny's toothbrush to do it, and always shows me afterward. "See how shiny my teeth are?!"+
And now she has joined the ranks of big girls who not only pee in the potty but poop too!!! This is a big deal. Yes, she has been potty-trained for a long time, but scared to death of pooping in the toilet. Lots of screaming and tears even at the mention of it. Then it got worse and she didn't want to do it at all, and would go a full week in between bowel movements, and only then because of bad tummy aches. We had to use enemas occassionally and she really hated those too. So anyway, she has come a long way and we are so proud of her.

Other milestones...
Kelsey is 4 weeks old!! She also slept 4.5 hours straight last night!

I went to the store with all 4 kids by myself! It was sort of like a trial run because we only picked up a few things, but I feel like it was a great accomplishment.

Some Old Pics

These are some pictures from last month off my phone that I found. We were still in the vacation rental.

 Madi slipped a lot on the ice and it always reminded me of The Christmas Story... "I've fallen and I can't get up!!" she really couldn't get up haha

 climbing up the snow in our front yard, then they would slide back down and do it over and over again.

 bryn is always eating snow. she would just stick her face in it and get a mouthful. her poor little face would turn red and be freezing but she didn't seem to mind.

 madison was staying up late with me and kenny one night and insisted on holding the computer. she sees the adults with it and always wants to be a big girl.

 The highlight of every day is when daddy comes home from work. This was never more true than when we were in this little house and they were SO ready to wrestle and rough house daddy when he came home. I was a few days away from having Kelsey when this was taken. He had all 3 of them like this and I said, "where are you going to put the 4th?"

The first meal at our new house... Taco Bell on the floor. This was a day or two before our stuff came.

These Are The Days

About midnight: Get to bed for the first time

1:32 a.m. - Bryn wakes up crying, probably a bad dream. I go downstairs to comfort her and of course she needs a drink of water before going back to sleep.

2:46 a.m. - Kelsey wakes up. Feed her, burp her, and change her diaper.

3:57 a.m. - Madi wakes up crying. I go downstairs to calm her down, only to discover she has peed through her clothes yet again. Curse myself for buying this crappy brand of diapers. Change her diaper, clothes, and sheets.

5:39 a.m. - Kelsey wakes up to eat again. My eyeballs are burning I am so tired.

7:02 a.m. - Tyler comes into my room declaring that it's morning and we should all be awake. I want to swear...and I probably do.

Somewhere in there I vaguely remember Kenny kissing me goodbye as he leaves for work.

My nights are pretty busy these days. In fact the days and nights sort of roll into each other and I have a hard time keeping track of time. I just know I am always waiting anxiously for my next chance to sleep. I hate it because not getting enough sleep makes me so grumpy. I'm more snippy and short with my children. Last week I decided I just have one goal for each day. It's not to shower (though I'm sure my family would appreciate it), it's not doing preschool with my kids. It's not going to the grocery store--we're still far from being able to do that. It's not to have a clean house  or make a gourmet dinner, or do a cute craft.

No, my goal every day is just to be happy.

Being happy includes not getting upset when Madison spills her fruit smoothie on the carpet, or dumps out the can of oatmeal while I'm busy nursing. To not let the unpacked boxes and constant clutter get to me. To brush it off when I'm out of clean garments because I'm behind on laundry again. It includes being patient when they are arguing nonstop, and throwing tantrums right and left.

I just need to look for the good in every day and enjoy my children (whether they are being enjoyable or not) because otherwise I find myself wishing this time away. 

  I have looked forward to being a mother my whole life. It's all I've ever wanted to do. And now here I am, right in the thick of it. I don't want it to pass by too quickly.

Running of the Reindeer

Also on March 3rd was the Running of the Reindeer! It was a road race (I don't know the distance, I wasn't there) and they let all these reindeer loose to run after them in the streets. Cool huh?

Afterwards they walked over to see the ice sculptures that were still up for Fur Rondy. Here's Bryn eating snow from her cold little fingers.

Ty and Bryn on the ice train. We don't normally adorn our only son in a pink hat, but they were giving them out for free so why not right?

Iditarod

On Saturday, March 3rd, they held the start of the big fat Iditarod race downtown. It's like the big dog sled race on Balto, but they don't actually use husky dogs for it anymore. Thankfully, Laura was here to attend it with Kenny and the kids while Kelsey and I hung out at the hotel.



And they're off!



Yeah, we live here

A lot of times I will stop and think, "I can't believe we live here". It's still sort of unreal. Below are lots of pictures to record what we see here in Alaska. Mostly just snow and moose, but it's so beautiful here too. As of today, it has snowed 129 inches of snow in Anchorage this winter. The average is 69 inches, and the all-time record is 133 inches.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

This was the rental house we lived in for the month of February



The tall Conoco Phillips building is where Kenny works



We just pulled off the side of the road for this picture when we went on a drive after we first got here. I was obviously still very pregnant.



This was taken from our hotel room where we stayed for 5 days in between houses. We had a gorgeous view of the city. Can you spot the two moose down there? They were just wandering around downtown on Sunday morning.

 

So on the way to church we stopped and took some close up pictures of them. The mom moose is peeing in this picture :)



My beautiful sister with a beautiful view behind her. We drove out to Beluga Point for this shot



Can you spot Kenny in this picture?





Looking out at the Turnagain Arm--a body of water that is actually just a bunch of ice chunks right now



The view from our living room window



Same window, different day

These two moose just waltzed into our backyard today while we were on google chat with my family. This is looking out of our gameroom window downstairs.

Kelsey Week 1

Thanks a million to my sister Laura for taking pictures for me!! I have so much to catch up on and a billion pictures to post, but here's some of little Kelsey in her first week of life. Now that we finally have internet, I will slowly work on getting caught up. Isn't she just perfect?