We Broke 50!

I feel bad that I haven't been very good lately at recording our every-day lives. I guess there's not much different from day to day, and I feel like it's not much to record. But when I stop and think about it, I do want to remember the details of our days, even if they are boring and mundane. So I'll try to do better. If you follow me on instagram, a lot of these are repeats--sorry about that. But I need this for our family record.

 

Here's Madi being a cute mommy and reading to her babies. She does this a lot. Madison cracks me up. She must have a very positive nature because of the way she phrases things. When we were at the zoo this weekend and it was pretty cold outside, her hands were freezing and instead of complaining she just says, "It is not so nice and warm outside today!" And while I was brushing all the tangles out of her hair, it was really hurting her head and she says, "This is not very much fun mom!" haha I love that girl. Also while at Costco, she points and says, "Look mom! It's a prophet!" I turned around to see what she was talking about, and there's this old man with a long beard and tall hat, and he's looking at me because he most definitely heard her!! I was embarrassed but it was hilarious.

 

This Friday Brynlee had a "parent observation" day at ballet class. It's like a show-off day where they do all the stuff they've learned, and the parents come inside the studio and sit and watch, bring cameras, etc. Well I knew Madison and Kelsey wouldn't handle that very well, so I stayed outside the room and just watched through the window. But she sure is cute to watch. She didn't know as much as some of the other girls, but that's because she has only been in it for such a short time, where the others are finishing up the year. It will be fun to watch her grow in it.

 Sitting outside waiting for Bryn :). I love this cute polka-dot shirt my mom gave her for her birthday.

On Friday I chopped all my hair off. It's a pretty drastic difference from what it was before (very long), so it's been weird getting used to it. But so far, I love it and don't know if I'll ever go back. It's SOO easy! That's exactly what I want and need. I don't have time to mess with hair and it was always in my way, so this is perfect for me right now. Unfortunately Tyler hates it, and wishes I wouldn't have cut it. Brynlee and Madi just tell me that I look like Grandma all the time. :) My mom has really short hair, and I guess this makes me look more like her, which is a compliment to me!

 Saturday morning we went to the 7 a.m. session at the temple together! Thanks to Carmin who came over and watched the kids so we could go. WE normally take turns going because it's hard to find babysitters, but it was nice to go together. Later on after Kelsey's nap, we went to the Zoo because it was free kids day. The whole city was there I'm pretty sure, and it was the warmest day we've had this year (I think it broke 50 degrees!) so it was fun to get out and be in the sunshine. I actually hate this zoo, and will probably never go back. But it was good to spend time together as a family, if nothing else.

 After the zoo we stopped at the library to pick up some books I had on hold, and feed the ducks. (notice how you can see some grass over there? the snow is melting!!)

 

And since we were so close, we couldn't go home without stopping to see daddy's office. We didn't want to go on a week day, because bringing these hooligans to a professional work environment is a bad idea. But a private Saturday tour was perfect :). They loved admiring the beautiful view he has, and getting to drink some hot cocoa.

 Went home and Kenny washed both cars, but not without some helpers of course. I mostly just followed Kelsey around as she wandered up and down the streets, trying to let her feel like she is in control as much as possible. :)

 

I've mentioned this before--she loves to play in the bathroom. She snuck in when someone opened the door. It was only a matter of seconds :).

 Some good books I've read lately that I loved:
Gifts from the Sea by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LeRoux
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price
Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille...I especially recommend this to anyone considering homeschooling. Or especially if you're not homeschooling. Or especially if you have kids. Or especially if you are a human being. Basically just read the book :).

Sunset at Beluga Point

Mondays seem to be particularly bad for Kenny's work schedule. Or maybe it just seems worse because he misses family night every week. Well last night I decided it would be fun to have him there, even if it meant keeping the kids up really late. The sun sets later every day now, yesterday was at 9:23 p.m. So we drove out to Beluga Point and played around, exploring and scaling the rocks for an hour before hand as we watched the sun sink behind the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful, and just what I needed. Beauty like that is always so good for the soul. The kids had so much fun, even if they did get to bed at 10 p.m.! It was a lovely evening.

Easter

Easter was nice and simple, just the way we like it. We dyed eggs for FHE. On Saturday, Tyler went to an Easter egg hunt/lunch that we were excited to attend until we realized we had a conflicting meeting for choosing out house stuff (countertops, flooring, etc.) So we dropped him off and he had a fun time. But he's the only one that did any egg-hunting this year. On Sunday I only got to attend Sacrament Meeting because Brynlee was sick and coughing so much she had discoloration and pitikia on her face. But it ended up being really nice, all 3 girls took a nap while I finished up our Easter meal. We had the Rogers family from our ward over for dinner (kept Bryn in our room) and had a lovely time getting to know them better. 

We talked a lot about Christ and Easter events, watched a lot of the bible videos on lds.org and looked at pictures, etc. It's really sweet how Madison is starting to understand things. She will randomly say throughout the day, "Jesus died for us Mom. The bad guys put pokies in Him, and Jesus died for us." She also will say funny things like when she's running around the house..."Heavenly Father makes me run really fast mom!" Or she'll be carrying her dolls around in their little doll crib and say "Heavenly Father makes me Soo strong!" She cracks me up. I love my sweet children so so much and I"m so grateful I can be with my family forever. What a sweet message of peace and joy the gospel brings.

Wrapping Up March

I know it's been a while since I posted. Not on purpose, but for some reason I couldn't upload images from our pictures folders. Google Chrome lets me though, so here I am again. Anyway, here's the last little bit of march...

It's spring soccer season again for Tyler and he couldn't be happier. He really, truly loves this sport and I'm happy to let him play. He runs his little heart out for an hour straight and has such a good time. In the picture he's back by the goal, an action shot of his awesome defense.

Although if Tyler didn't absolutely love it as much as he does, I don't think I would do it. It is twice a week, (half an hour away!! and rushing dinner time!) and I have to chase around three crazy, little girls. We try to disrupt as little as possible, but you know. Yes, Madison's pants are on backwards in the picture below. I have to keep Kelsey off the soccer fields, and off the volleyball and/or roller derby courts behind us, keep her from drinking other people's water bottles that are laying around, make her not go through the lost and found or the trash cans, take Bryn and Madi to the bathroom heaven knows how many times, keep an eye on them and pray they don't kill themselves as they climb around the bleachers and extra soccer nets, with any misstep being a potential injury. It is not my favorite time of the week, but for some reason we keep going back. I must love Ty a lot :). Some moms sit there and read a book while their child plays soccer. I wonder what that would be like.

 Kelsey, 13 months now,  keep us all entertained. She is a very quick mover. She makes a dash for it if she sees the bathroom door open, or the dishwasher open. I am con.stant.ly. keeping her out and off of things, and yet she still manages to get regular bruises and goose eggs. All the kids know that if they leave the bathroom door open, they're busted. She's the cutest little one year old though. If ever I sit, whether at the table, on the couch, or on the floor, she stops whatever she's doing and comes over to sit on my lap. It's so sweet. And she usually brings a book for me to read to her. She'll turn around a couple steps away from me and back up into my lap haha. She also has some quirky things where she likes to pinch the back of my arm. It drives me absolutely crazy. Like when I'm holding her on my side, if I have a short-sleeved shirt on so that she can feel my skin, she sits there and pinches me! It hurts and it's hard to carry on conversations when she does it. She also likes to slap my chest, just below my neck with a flat palm. Repeatedly. Not sure why. But she's always good at giving hugs and snuggles. Each one of her siblings want a hug from her every time she wakes up (can you tell she's a loved little baby?!)

Brynlee is still enjoying ballet. I'm trying to teach her to not be silly just because the other girls are being silly. That she can still listen to the teacher and follow directions. A lot of times she's just in her own little world and it's frustrating to watch from the outside window and not be able to whip her into shape. It's good experience for her. This picture was taken the other Saturday when she had pictures taken with the rest of the class at the studio and they requested that they wear make-up. She was of course, thrilled about it. She gave her first talk in primary the Sunday before Easter. She also went up and sang with all the kids on Easter Sunday, even though she was a bit shy and scared at first. I was proud of her for being brave and going, even though she wanted me to come up with her.

 So a while back I started saying how spring was here and it was warming up, etc. That was a big joke. The day after I wrote that, the temperatures dropped again and it wouldn't stop snowing. We got another couple feet and it was seriously depressing. I sometimes forget and accept it as normal, until I get on facebook or something and see everyone's pictures of beautiful warm weather. I remember that nobody else does Easter egg hunts in giant snow piles. But oh well.

Kenny shoveling the driveway yet again, with 3 little helpers. Okay so Bryn's just playing, but the other two were trying to help!

 These two built a giant snowman, and put a hat on him.