Witches, Witches, WITCHES!

This last week, we got together at Garnder Village with our good friends, the Olsens, for a little witch hunting.

We each have 3 girls and they are all pretty much the exact same ages, so it's always fun {and slightly crazy} to get the kids together.

We started off with a little game of ring around the roses....

Makayla & Lauren imitating the kissy face of the witch behind them.  Silly girls.

Posing in front of the funny frogs

They just had to have a picture on the big red bench!

Discussing how to do criss cross apple sauce

Mya did what she does best.....wandered

The weather was beautiful, the babies slept pretty much the whole time, we ended the afternoon with a messy pumpkin sugar cookie, and we all had a fabulous time.

I love October!!

Thanks again, Jennie, Makayla, Annie, and Ella for joining us!

Conference Sunday

We aways get together with my family on Conference Sunday, so this year we decided to have them all up to the cabin.

I didn't have my camera, but luckily Holly did and got some sweet pics of the kids that day.

I love this picture so much!

Holly sent me a billion pics of Jane smiling her little fool head off - so adorable!

The girlies - all the kids played down in the trees {and the sticker bushes} the whole time and had an absolute blast.  They even caught a snake.  Yuck.

I love this picture - she was really giving that candle blow out everything she had!

We all had a great time, and hopefully we can do it again next year!

The Big 5

Can you believe my baby is 5???  Well I can't!

Lo has been so excited for this day, she's been so cute about the things she can do now that she's 5.  Like "learn things and say big words".

She has been looking at this Lalaloopsy ferris wheel for months, and I think she may have peed herself a little when she opened it.

And maybe now I won't have to hear about this Barbie Princess Charm School doll at least 5 times a day now that she has it.

"Oh my gosh, the skirt winds up, and you push a button, and it falls back down!"

I prefer if the skirt stays down, because when it's up Barbie's nude underwear bum shows. 

We had a picnic on the front lawn.  It was very bright and squinty.

Every time one of my kids has a birthday, I can't help but look back on pictures past.

She was so teeny tiny!!!  It's hard to believe my little 5 lb 2 oz baby is now a child who is already growing out of clothes made for a 6 year old.

Happy birthday to the most wonderful 5 year old I know.

She is so helpful and loves to learn to do chores {for now....}

She is the best big sister a sibling could ask for - she loves her sisters so much and is always wanting to help with them.

She loves clothes as much as I want her to love clothes.  And she will still wear what I buy for her, even though it's not covered in Nickelodeon characters, sequins, and glitter.  I buy those kinds of things for jammies, and it makes her super happy.  Best of both worlds, I think!

I can't believe how smart she is.  She is constantly sounding out words on cereal boxes and on signs, and loves to find out the meanings of new words.

She is such a people pleaser.  She never wants anyone to feel left out, and the thought of someone being mad at her breaks her heart.

She reminds me so much of myself sometimes with her personality traits.  It makes me smile and terrifies me at the same time, because it almost seems like I can see the road ahead of her.

I'm pretty sure she's the sweetest child I've ever met.  So sweet that other kids tend to walk on her a bit.  But she doesn't mind at all.  Sometimes I want to tell her to yell back at them, or say something snotty in response, because it makes me so angry to overhear another child say something bratty to her.  But it doesn't bother her, which, really, is wonderful and I hope she stays that way.  It is just so heart breaking to hear someone be mean to your child.

We have been so blessed to have Lauren in our family, and she makes me smile every single day.

I can't believe it's been 5 years since she made her arrival into this world, and she has made every second of every day of my life better.

Lauren - I love you, baby girl - continue lighting up everything and everyone around you.

4 Months

Wow

I can't believe Jane is 4 months old.

We went in for the 4 month check-up the other day, and she is still a "lanky" 25% for weight and now 95% for height.  Keep it up baby, you'll love it when you're 20!

Some fun facts about my little Jane-E Poo at 4 months:

1. She has the funniest bed time routine.  She goes to bed happily and refuses her binky, because she wants to talk to her little friend, the sea horse, that lights up and plays little songs for her while she's going to bed.  Then she will decide she's ready, and yell for you to come give her the binky.  She smiles at you when you come to put it in, making it hard to leave because you just have to smother her with kisses for another 5 minutes.  Then she's done and we don't hear from her until the morning.

2. Her fingers {or fist} are in her mouth all the time.

3. She drools enough for 3 babies.

4. These last 2 things make solid feeding quite difficult.  We just started trying solids this week, and she really loves it, but here's how it goes:

Mom puts spoon with food in Jane's mouth.

Jane tries to swallow it, but most keeps coming back out {darn tongue}.

Mom scrapes up food off chin and goes in for a second go-round.

Food is very thinned out because of the drool.

More comes out.

Then the hand goes in the mouth, trying to get the food back in.

Pureed sweet potatoes aren't exactly easy to put in one's mouth by using one's hand.

Mom tried to pin hands down.  Not a good idea.

Jane eventually freaks out because she really wants the sweet potatoes, but we can't get it to work yet.

Sigh.

5. She wakes up so happy - it's one of my very most favorite parts of the day.

6. Jane loves to make noise with the copious amounts of spit she produces.  She gets very creative.

7. She loves, LOVES her older sisters.  If I'm in the middle of something, and she starts to get fussy, I just ask Lauren to go talk to her and immediately she is giggling.

8.  She is SO TICKLISH!  I swear every part of her body is a tickle spot.  My favorite is her jaw.  Sometimes all I have to do it kiss her chin and it puts her into uncontrollable giggles.

9. She loves when I sing the Ginger Baby song that I made up {I'll sing it for you sometime.  It's super awesome} and when I sing Silly Love Songs by Wings {just the chorus}.  And it only works when I do it.  Which I kind of adore.

10. She loves to be outside and swing with me in the Snugli.

11. It takes her breath away when I walk really fast down the stairs while holding her {sometimes I run just to see the look on her face}.

12. She can roll - both ways.

13. She can almost hold her own bottle during a whole feeding {YES!!}

14. She has re-discovered a love for snuggling.  Only because she has a cold right now, but I'll take it.

15. She almost, ALMOST has a fat roll on her thighs.  We're so close!

She's such a delicous little thing.

I can't believe how time flies.

Back to {Pre}School

 FINALLY!!

School has started.....and not soon enough, if you ask me.

The girls are both going to preschool 2 days a week, which is making for some crazy mornings around here.  I tried to keep with the morning routine throughout the summer - having everyone ready to go by about 9:00 every day, but it still seems to be just nutso getting out the door by 8:50.

Here is Lo on her second day.  I tried to take a picture of her on her first day, but a certain someone put the camera waaaay high up on a shelf where I would have to use a chair to get it, and we just didn't have time for such things.  So I figured the second day was better than nothing :)

She asked if she could have straight hair - I love it, but it makes her look so old!  I really wish she was going to Kindergarten - she's so more than ready.  Oh well, she'll be happy to be one of the older kids.

Poor Mya.....she had a really hard time with Lo going to school without her.  She just kept saying "I go to school on Wednesday" - but obviously the kid has no concept of days of the week, so she was super sad when we pulled up and only Lo got to get out.

 Wednesday finally came, and here is my big girl off for her first day!  I'm not thrilled about her outfit, but I let her choose her shirt.  Oh well.  She loved it and said she has a friend named Emily and likes her teachers.  I think she was most excited about getting to put her monkey "back-cack" to use.  I was most excited about going to Target while she was in school and not having to be that mom yelling at anyone in the store.  Yay!

 And Jane just gets to be along for the ride, interrupting what used to be her greatest nap of the day.  So we'll see what this new schedule brings for her. 

Why did I decide to have 3 kids ages 4 & under?

Oh yeah, because I'm obviously insane.



Right Now

Mya is sitting in front of me on the floor, whining about ponies {My Little Ponies} because she says that Lauren took hers.  Lauren didn't.  And Mya has about 8 in front of her.
That must not be enough.
And now the ponies are being thrown around the room.
This has been going on for a solid 15 minutes.
I might just lose my mind here at any moment.
I'm trying to ignore it, because it's the thing that works best with her.
And if I leave the room, she will just follow me.
But I know I still probably have another 5-10 minutes before she stops.
I need chocolate.

Folder Sept11

*WARNING - this is going to be a bit of a picture fest

It's totally weirding me out that I just pulled these pictures out of a folder called Sept11.  Seriously?  Already?  It's OK, I'm completely looking forward to September and fall, complete with sweaters and boots and kids coming in pink-cheeked from outside smelling crisp and cold instead of hot and sweaty.....let's just hope fall sticks around for at least a few weeks this year.  It always seems to leave us too soon and Utah winter comes way too early.

Anywho, Labor Day marks the end of summer, and cabin weekends are winding down. Boo!

But Labor Day also means Swiss Days and a loooong cabin weekend which almost makes up for it {almost, but not quite}.

Here are quite a few memorable moments from the Sept11 folder thus far:

Did you know that ginger babies can get sunburned in the shade?  We learned that this weekend.  We spent many, many hours out on the deck playing and relaxing in the shade of the big maple tree.  I'm not used to children than burn, the older 2 just tan, and tan, and then tan some more.  I rarely even use sunscreen anymore, unless there is water involved {bad mom, I know}.  And don't worry, Jane's sunburn wasn't bad.  Just enough to get her little fair skinned cheeks red and now flaking a tad bit.  

This is an actual spider found at the cabin in a tree way too close to the front door.  It looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. I didn't appreciate it, and am very glad Bryan's cousins removed it with them after they came to visit. 

Cousins like to hold hands on nature walks.

The first {of I'm sure many} cousin pictures with Jane & Lyla.  They are only about 2 months apart and we are positive they are going to be BFF's.

See?  They're even trying to hold hands.

We took a little jaunt over to Heber to visit Sharalee & Darrell's horses, who just had a baby.  Have you ever seen a baby horse?  It is ADORABLE!!

We fed Stormy

And rode Dolly

Mya wasn't scared at all, and she about gave Bryan a heart attack at least half a dozen times.

Can I get a "yee-haw!"

The adults: "Mya, are you holding on?"  Mya: "Yes!"  Brock: "No she isn't!"  Hence the heart attack

Darrell, attempting to mount the poor baby horse {who they think will be called Ginger}

This isn't from the cabin, but I love this perfect example of Mya's camera face.  What the....

And Lo's silly camera face {that she insists on doing every. single. time. I bring out the camera}

And here is Jane's camera face.....j/k. 

She's starting to grab things and LOVES her jumperoo.  And in case you were wondering, there is still not a fat roll in sight on this kid.  She eats...I promise!

My goal today is to get a picture of her smiling.  She smiles ALL THE TIME - I actually think she is the smiliest of all of our babies.  I just am too busy goo-gooing over how cute her smile is that I never get the camera out to capture it.  But I vow to you, I will post a smiley picture.