Updates on Kiddos

Tyler:
Started piano lessons after we moved out here. He takes from a lady that was actually in our ward in Anchorage. She comes out here to the valley one day a week to teach students, so I quickly called her--she's fabulous. He's making good progress and seems to enjoy it most of the time. I don't enjoy nagging him to practice, but isn't that the cycle of life? It's just part of my job as a parent, I'm afraid. After going to see lots of different schools and talking to people, reading, and lots and lots of prayer, we've decided to homeschool him again this coming school year. He's ecstatic. I'll talk a lot more about that later, though. Probably deserves its own post with how much stress and thought went into that decision.
He's still very creative and comes up with all kinds of things to make and do. Quite addicted to legos still and loves when he finds a friend or cousin that shares his lego passion. He is so excited about a new baby coming, especially that it's a brother. He really just loves babies and other kids and is really good with them.

Brynlee:
Often starts new thoughts and sentences with "and since...". I've tried explaining the appropriate time to use the word "since", but she continues to stick with it, and Madison says it a lot too now. It's pretty funny. She absolutely loves fruits, except for blueberries. And she is my best vegetable eater, except she hates peas. Like really bad gags on them.
Bryn has the most grateful heart. She is always the first to say "thank you" for everything. A lot of times she'll even say "Double thank you for this lovely, lovely meal!" Or however many thanks she feels is deserving.
She's often the first to try new things--fearless attitude.
Bryn has come up with some of the funniest words to use:
"I can feel my heart beeping"
"I will give you a back scrub, then you can scrub my back"
"I'll have that done in a jiggle" (jiffy)
Once something happened and Tyler said, "hey! I wished on a wishing flower that it would happen!" Then Brynlee says "That's so crazy that your wish came true! I wished that I could fly, but it still hasn't come true yet!" I think she's still holding out hope :)

Madison:
Oh sweet Madi is about to become the dreaded "middle child", haha. I'm really not worried about her. She's such a happy and sweet girl... except for when she's not :). I think she's figured out that doing school work leads to individual attention from me so she often requests to do her "letters and numbers" together. She and Bryn like to play "school" on the new chalkboard wall upstairs and Bryn teaches her to write different letters, it's so cute. She really loves to hand-wash dishes ALL the time. Sometimes I don't always want the help, but I try to never say no that, because who knows how long that will last. Really she's just always eager to help me no matter what I'm doing and it's fun to have a little sidekick. She's still a very devoted mother to all her little baby dolls. Lately, she often has them under her shirt to be pregnant, just like me. Then all of the sudden they just come out, ready to play. If only it were that easy :).

Kelsey:
It's a good thing we are having another baby because Kelsey has been so spoiled for so long! Everyone thinks she's just hilarious, and she soaks up the attention. 2 year olds crack me up! It's such a fun stage and I love watching her learn and grow. We all think everything she does is so cute and funny, I'm sure she gets away with a lot more than the others have. She still has such gorgeous curl in her hair, which is finally growing well now. She's got a sensitive spirit and doesn't like to play too rough. Even when the kids or daddy are pretending to be a lion or some animal that growls, she asks them to be a kitty or puppy instead. She'd rather hug you, than wrestle you. But still likes to be thrown up in the air by her dad. I don't really have a whole lot to say about her, she's just a doll.


My mom and youngest sister, Sarah, are going to be here early early Saturday morning (4:30 a.m.!!). We are SO excited to have them here. Hopefully this little babe will be just as anxious to see them, and us, as we are to meet him! I sure am ready for him to come. But everything with this pregnancy has gone well and we've both been healthy and not had any complications. For that, we are extremely grateful. We're all very anxious for him to join our family. I'll keep you posted.