Two Months

These are all photos from about two months for Lanaya.

Poor Baby #4.  I'm nowhere near as good at keeping track and marking everything down as I was with Kayli.  But, here are the stats as I remember them.

This photo looks so serene and peaceful.  If I had taken it from the other direction, you would see the complete chaos going on at our dinner table.  It was so noisy and nuts, but she just drifted off to LaLa Land in the midst of it.

One of my very favorite outfits ever.  This was taken on her 2 Month birthday.  She weighed in at 12 lbs. 14 oz.  That's about 3 1/2 pounds smaller than Bryce at the same age--in case you were wondering.  She had to get a bunch of shots and it was sad.  So so sad.  And you should know that....

One thing that happened right around two months was that she went from being a decidedly non-smiley baby, to being Little Miss SmilesAllTheTime.

And I fell even more in love with this amazing girl.

She also has the ability to attract homemade gifts like no other.  This pretty blanket is one example.  My awesome neighbor knitted it for her.  Amazing.

She also started putting her little fists in her mouth and sucking them all the time.

Oh, I love this face!

And this one...

And this one...

And this one!

Aren't her cheeks amazing!

Doesn't this look a little unsettling?

I think this was her second time doing Tummy Time.  Ever.

Back to the fists.

Funny little fast forward:  Today (September 28th), Trey saw her doing this and asked me what she was doing.  When I told him that she was just sucking on her fingers, he responded thus:

"Banaya, it's like dis," and then slowly placed his thumb in his mouth to demonstrate how it's done.  And then repeated the whole thing.  "Banaya, it's like dis."

Ham And Fish

Blake has been an awesome daddy and has taken the kids fishing a few times this summer.  I went with them once.  It was awful, in my humble opinion.  He was so busy going back and forth between children--baiting hooks, casting, de-tangling lines, re-casting, more de-tangling, helping reel in, setting fish free, rinse and repeat.

Awful.

But, he's a great daddy and he enjoys it because it's so fun for the kids.

They went with a friend of Blake's and he helped out with some pictures.  Kayli was such a ham!

And I think she actually baited her own hook.  Eww!

That is a box of worms there.

At least Blake had a little help with his friend this time around.

Look how cute these guys are!

30 Celebrations For 30 Years

Meet our Kale:

Who knew that two little kale plants could feed an army?  We've made kale chips, green smoothies, Zuppa Tuscana, salads, and given a ton away.  But, this stuff just keeps growing and growing.

Just thought you should know.

Anyway, I had a birthday.

I used to pretend like birthdays were not a big deal to me because that seemed like something I should have grown out of.  But, that didn't work out for me.  So, now I've just embraced my inner Birthday Diva.  I've been telling Blake for a few years that I wanted something big for the Big 3-0.  I didn't really have 30 celebrations, but it kind of felt like it.  This is the first of those:

My actual birthday.  The kids were pretty excited about the cake Blake picked out.

I was pretty psyched myself.

I blew out all of my candles.  I'm amazing.

My massive pile o' gifts.

Actually, my big gift was the HUGE pool party Blake had in the works.

And we don't really have H & M here.  Blake just wanted a racy bag to put the running shirt they all got me in.  I should have taken a picture of it.  I get more compliments on this shirt than any of those hanging in my closet.  It's Under Armor.  It has reflective stuff on it for running in the dark.  It is so comfy.  And it's stinkin' cute.  I love it.

And Kayli made this for me.  I can't remember what she called it.  One of its many uses is to be a fan.  She's awesome.  I love my thoughtful girl.

This was also the first day of school.  So, it was a little sad.  A little refreshing, too.  I silenced my phone early in the morning in yoga and forgot to turn it back on, so I missed all of my birthday phone calls.  But, thank you to everyone who called!  It was a great day.

Kindergarten?!

The kids stared school two days after we got home from what was a three week trip for them.

This little guy was pretty pleased to finally join the elementary student ranks.

And super excited about his new backpack.  He had a lot of fun just wearing it around the house when we first got it.

Waving 'bye bye' to me.  I'm might have struggled to keep it together at this point, except for the fact that he is actually walking toward our front door.

Can I tell you how proud she is to be a Second Grader (or, a "grader as Bryce refers to her and all of her friends)?  And how proud she is that she knows all of the ropes and now finally gets to teach them to someone else?

She picked that shirt out all by herself with her grandma.  I was quite impressed as her style is usually not so cute (i.e. free t-shirts from races and the like).

Isn't this sweet?!

You'd never guess that just a few days later Kayli would come home from school with scrapes all over her chin and when I asked what happened, she simply responded by pointing at her little brother.  you'd never guess that he threw her down to the ground at recess.

Ah, siblings...

This was to show that it was the 1st Day of School.

Kayli wanted to show that she's in 2nd Grade and Bryce suddenly felt the overwhelming task of the next 13 years on his shoulders.

But, in the end they both decided they were ready to go.  We barely made it to school on time and I left a very forlorn little Bryce standing in the doorway to his classroom, looking like he wanted desperately to walk back out with me.  I gave him a hug, a kiss, and a cheerful smile that belied how my heart was breaking as his sad little face.

He had a good first day, a rocky first couple of weeks (i.e. beating up his sister on the playground), but now seems to be doing well.

A couple of weeks in, a friend asked him how he liked school.  He replied, "I don't think it's going to work out very well."  "Why?"  "Because all of my friends are older than me."

Yes, that will definitely ruin a school career like nothing else.

Fortunately, when someone else asked the same question a couple of weeks later, he optimistically responded, "I think it's going to work out."

Whew!

Kayli, of course, is loving every minute of it and doing great.

Family Reunion 2012 Day 3

The last day of the reunion dawned earlier than I was ready for.

Traveler's Tip:  Vacationing with a nursing baby es no bueno.  Not enough sleep.

That's right, Friends.  This blog just went bilingual.

Back to English, though.  It's a pretty long post.

For those who could get out of bed, the day started off with a hike.

This is such a typical Kayli-find.  She is why we have a "No-plants-in-the-house-or-car-Rule".  Not a rule I anticipated needing before I had children.  But, a very necessary one now.  Or else, all of our living spaces would be over run with dead flora and fauna.

I was really impressed with all of the photos Blake took.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what is going on in most of them.

I think they might have discovered the Loch Ness monster on the other side of that bridge.

I was amazed that (excluding Lanaya), even the youngest kids made it on the hike.  Although, from what I hear, this one was carried by his papa most of the way.

The whole bunch of hikers.

The green hat in the back left is Grandpa.  And Blake was taking the photo.  My sister-in-law was the only adult female healthy enough to do the hike.

I think.  Actually, I can't remember for sure.  I was sleeping until just before they left.

Her presence was sorely missed back at the homestead, though.  We had a girly shopping trip with me, my mom, my two sisters, my oldest niece, and Lanaya.  It was a girly girly party.  And I got a cute outfit out of it!

Back to the dirty party.  That little blob they are looking at is a snake.  Exciting.

Here is Kylie working her magic on my baby again.  The oldest and youngest of the cousins.  For a few more weeks, anyway.

After the fearless warriors returned from their triumphant hike (and showered and ate), we had a little arts and crafts session.

Uncle Weston manned the letter-writing session.  My cousin is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so they wrote a bunch of letters to him.

Isn't my mama pretty?

This was the blanket tying station.  We made blankets to donate to a children's hospital.  My brother and his wife do this every year and it's awesome.

Can't wait to show them this photo in another 10 years, or so.

Bryce's little fingers were really struggling to tie these knots.  So, we sat together and practiced a lot of positive thinking and persistence.  I was really proud of him for sticking it out.

This is a little sneak peak of the third station.  Josh was so proud of himself for making this anklet.  He's adorable, non?

Yep, we're now multilingual here.

Kylie was in charge.  She was so organized and even drew diagrams to demonstrate how to make four different varieties.  I was super impressed!

She even did some one-on-one assistance with Bryce until I was done taking pictures and could help him myself.  These kids have an awesome cousin in her.

Look into these eyes and melt.

He even got a little lovey with Grandma.  I took a bunch of pictures of this and in the background of all of them, Josh is there making his own kissy faces.  So fun!

My nieces and nephews are amazing.  Even with her silly headband, you can't miss how beautiful my niece Natalie is.

Aren't they a cute couple?

I have no idea what these three were doing, but as they continue to get older, we are in trouble!

Bubbles!

I love the hair on the back of her head.

And I love watching my dad interact with my babies.

I think they were doing "exercises" here.

And then we did a Nativity.  Remember, it was Christmas.

These two were so sweet and adorable.  And surprisingly reverent for two so young.

Our Angels from on high.

Our slightly less sweet and reverent wisemen.

I think he was supposed to be a sheep.  He was cooperative as ever.

The whole troop.  So sweet.

Mostly.

Final lesson given by Grandma.  I was impressed with how well they all listened.

And soaking up the last bit of bonding time with Aunt Melanie and Trey.

These two are getting ready to have a baby of their own in a few weeks, so I gave them a little refresher course on how to hold one.  They did a good job.

Anyway, it was a great reunion.  We had lots of fun hanging out together and seeing all who were there.  We missed those who couldn't make it.  Thanks for hosting something so awesome, Mom and Dad!

We had to leave at 4 AM the next morning, so we couldn't stay up and party too late.