Scenes from Making Dinner

Here's the thing about dinner time...it's stressful. It's crazy and chaotic, and sometimes fun too. Last night as I was having a particularly stressful evening (my fault for trying to do bread at the same time as dinner which involved homemade tortillas for the fajitas so it looked like someone dropped an atomic flour bomb in our kitchen), I had the thought that these nights need to be recorded so I can remember it later. I know it won't always be like this, but here is what it is for now.

I think all babies have a "fussy time", and Kelsey has decided that right when it's time to start making dinner is the best time to be fussy. So she's usually crying 90% of the time. She just wants to be held, and I do try to hold her for whenever I'm able to only use one hand, or an awkward two. But a lot of the time I'm quickly setting her down on the floor or couch, running back to what I was doing, then hurrying over to pick her up when I get a second, etc. So kind of like a chicken running around with her head cut off. I might even try to feed her if I can sneak in the chance, it depends on what's for dinner.

Madison usually wakes up from her second nap towards the beginning of when I'm making dinner. So I go get her out of her crib and bring her upstairs. If I set her down, she will cry and cling to my legs, and follow me around, and start fights with her siblings, and just cause problems. So I have to stick her in her high chair and give her something to snack on, or color.

Brynlee usually likes to be in there with me, snacking on things as I make it. Or she'll be up at the sink "washing dishes" and making a big watery mess. But she's very happy there, so I don't mind. One day she even brought up her rubber duckies from the bath tub because "it was like a bath tub for the dishes". I often have her help set the table with Tyler.

Tyler is a great help, trying his darndest to keep Kelsey happy while I'm busy. He tries repeatedly to get her to take her pacifier, and he sings to her songs that he's making up on the spot. It's really sweet, but sometimes I could do without the extra noise. He loves being a big helper though, and doesn't mind helping to set the table as well.

I wish I could say that everything is peaceful and clean, and that Kenny walks in the door right as I'm setting a beautiful meal on the table. But he is never home for dinner thanks to his longer hours ever since we moved here. We're all so excited when he gets here that it is anything but peaceful (the clean house part is more of a joke around here than a reality). The kids barely give him the chance to eat, and there's usually at least one child on his lap while he does eat.

But ya know, I don't think I'd have it any other way :).

Kelsey 6 wks.

 Look who turned 6 weeks old yesterday!

 I really love this picture because this is going on a lot during the day. Brynlee loves to just stare at her, and I don't think Kelsey minds a bit. Truth be told, she smiles at Bryn probably more than anyone else. I love her goofy smile, especially when she goes cross-eyed at the same time. If only we could catch it on camera.

I really, really love newborns. I love everything about them: how small they are, how their little bum fits in my hand, the noises they make, their clenched fists, and when they stretch they arch their backs and stick their bums out and bring their arms up--you know the one? I love their yawns, their soft skin, baby smell and cuddly blankets. I love that they will just be held 24 hours a day and their little heads fit right in the crook of your neck. I love their purity and innocence, how they bring such a sweet spirit into a home. There's nothing sweeter than a new baby. I feel like 6 weeks means she's not a newborn anymore, now she's grown into a baby. It's bittersweet. Here's to hoping that means more sleep for the both of us :)!

Happy Easter!

Snow and Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning we woke up to this:

 more snow. And it didn't stop snowing until late in the afternoon.

 In fact, with those extra few inches, Anchorage now has a new record of most snow in one winter. Pretty ridiculous that we're here the winter they get the most snow. ever. Kenny thinks it's pretty cool, but I'm just glad we missed the first (and worst) half of the winter.

After Tyler had soccer, we went to a potluck lunch/easter egg hunt. I made a fruit pizza--yum! Carmin invited us and it was mostly people from their ward. Thank goodness it was snowing a lot because it forced them to move the potluck part of it indoors, so we weren't freezing the kids for 2 hours. But the hunt was still outside. Someone said to us, "welcome to an Alaskan easter egg hunt". No kidding.

 (Don't mind that we forgot their easter baskets...I'm running on half a brain, I swear.)

Making Up

I realize my last post was pretty lame with no pictures. So this post will make up for that. Tonight we went on a family walk because it was warm-ish (like 43 degrees maybe?) Just for in the future when we look back at these, my children should know that they have their father to thank for setting them up on high snow banks, tossing them into open fields of snow, and even throwing it down their pants haha (ask Tyler about that one).

 See what I mean about our roads starting to melt? I saw a piece of the sidewalk today. We were wondering if there was a sidewalk and there is, so I'm excited!

This was our trip to Costco the other night. One cart for children, the other for groceries. That's how we roll.

Tyler at soccer a couple weeks ago. Are you wondering where he is? Well just look for the ONLY kid wearing yellow, not the proper red uniform. He also didn't have on his soccer socks or shin guards...and we were 15 minutes late. I know, talk about on-the-ball parenting. Don't worry, it was only once, and they still let him play.

So we haven't really been doing Ty's preschool curriculum since we moved here. BUT I do make sure that we read every day, and that Ty does some writing of some kind. I usually just make up something fun for him to do, so it's not like some regimented part of our day. He likes to write letters to his uncle Tim, grandparents, and cousins.
Today I finally got around to cleaning my bathrooms and had him make some signs to tape on the door after it was mopped. He felt so important, and I think it's the cutest thing in the world to see how he sounds words out. The sign below says "Warning wet floor do not wok (walk), then a picture of the ocean (as he informed me) with the word Wodr (water). He often adds in these signs / or \ when he wants to clarify that there's a space in between his words. Or sometimes he'll do a random shape like the triangle in between wet and floor. He is also into arrows. I love that he will sit and draw and write things on his pictures for hours.

This one says "Bewer in the bathrom wet on the flowr"

Just Stuff

It's starting to warm up! It gets above freezing every day, so the roads are starting to melt! We still have at least a foot and a half of snow on the grass, but the busy roads are all clear so it makes driving easier. They call this time of year "the break off" or "melt", instead of spring. While watching General Conference we were admiring the beautiful blossoms on tv, and watching the snow fall outside our window. The sun sets later and later every day, it's crazy. It's 9:30 p.m. right now and it's still not totally dark outside.

Madison is 16 months old today. We've been having a rough time lately. She is not only getting more and more independent and wants to do everything her siblings can (without help), but she's pretty feisty. She likes to get reactions out of people and is often picking a fight. She'll walk up to Bryn and just hit her, or they'll be playing together and she pulls her hair or hits her. She likes to chant (or scream) "No! No! No! No!" Or "don't! don't! don't!" Is it obvious what words she's heard a lot in the last couple months? We're trying to eliminate them from our vocabulary when we are talking to her, but it's difficult sometimes because she does sooo many things that she shouldn't. We've had to go to the doctor 3 different times this week and it's pretty tricky. She refuses to hold my hand in the parking lot, and prefers to run away from us or just stop walking altogether. But she is pretty heavy, especially when I only have one arm to hold/wrestle her with since I am carrying Kelsey in her car seat with my other arm. But I am trying to spend more time with her, give her more one-on-one time (when at all possible) and lots of loves. She is normally such a sweet girl, we are just going through a hard time. She gives me lots of opportunities every day to practice patience, and obviously I haven't learned my lesson yet :).

I mentioned we went to the doctor's 3 times this week. Ty and Bryn had their well visits (5 and 3 yr.) and Kelsey had an appt. too. She weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces, a day before she turned 5 weeks. I'm so grateful to have 4 healthy, happy, and beautiful children.

Last night I went to the grocery store and there were 2 moose in the parking lot. Cool.

Tyler has been playing soccer the last few weeks. Every Thursday night and Saturday morning. They don't really play much soccer at all, at least not the normal soccer games. They just play different games like freeze tag, and learn different techniques like dribbling and kicking. But it's still lots of fun for him, and probably better this way. Normally Kenny just takes him and I stay home wiht the girls, but one time I got to go and I love to watch him run his little heart out and have so much fun.

My license expired on my birthday back in February, so this week I finally got around to going to the DMV and got an Alaskan license. I guess I'm official now--and legal too, which is always good.

I am constantly behind on everything and can't seem to keep up with cleaning and what not. But I've decided it's only as stressful of a situation as I make it. I'm the only one who feels anxiety when the house is messy, so if I can just learn to chill out, things run much smoother. I love on the movie The Incredibles when the mom calls Mr. Incredible at work and says "we are officially moved in!" And he's confused because they've lived there for 3 years, but she says, I just unpacked the last box, so now it's official. That's probably going to be us too haha.

It turns out I have a second cousin that lives here with her husband and son. My mom put me in touch with her and it's so nice to have some kind of family, and a friend. She's been really kind to invite us to things and help me get a little more settled in. Ironically, her ward was the ward we went to for the first two weeks we were here, while staying in the vacation rental. We went over to their house for dinner and FHE a couple weeks ago. I also went to a gymnastics place for the kids to have "open gym" with her and her son, David last Friday. And I went with her to her ward's book club the other night, and joined them for this month.

I'm sure there's more I wanted to write about but I can't think of it now, and Kelsey's asleep so I better catch a few minutes while I can.

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.