A Mom Reward

Dear Kayla,
This is a blurry picture and doesn't even look very significant, but after a long and hectic day and kids shouting demands left and right I walk into the living room and watch one of the sweetest things ever. I  asked you to feed Keira while I helped Jaida in the shower. When I come back and watch, you are smiling, making coo noises and doing everything you can to get Keira to eat. "Come on, you can do it, there you go... good girl!" I just sat down on the chair and watched. Thank you Kayla, sometimes these simple tasks are the most rewarding to me.

Eating Theirselves

Dear Joey, tonight I was reading "Snowmen at Christmas" and when we got to the part about them eating iced sweets you said, "Its like their eating theirselves." I had to laugh at that one. :)

50 Degrees in January

It's January 23rd and its 50 degrees outside.  Get your coats we're going to the park!

Crazy!

Get me down mom, I'm scared.

Bribes Only Work Sometimes

Dear Miss Jaida,
Since I have no pictures of you lately I am putting up this one you took of the cat and Keira, I think they should switch places don't you? The other night you were teasing Keira, taking a toy and almost giving it back to her and then pulling it away. I said to you, "You are a pest, and you taught Joey everything you know." You got quite the kick out of that and continued to tease Keira until I couldn't take it anymore and made you stop.  You let Kayla wear your black boots to school today and she was SO excited, thank you for doing that (even though I had to bribe you).

Sleeping

Dear Kylan, the other day we were cooking something for you in the microwave and this is how you wanted to wait for it. Yesterday when I got my haircut you laid down on the chair like this and fell asleep - I don't mind taking you anywhere when you do things like that. :)

Peacocks Are My Favorite Animal

Dear Kayla,
On Saturday Grandma Fielding brought you home from the dollar store and this is what you had. A peacock hat (which you yelled into my face, "PEACOCKS ARE MY FAVORITE ANIMAL!"), A ladybug head band and fake birds that you wrapped around the fingers of your gloves. You just HAD to wear your peacock and ladybugs to church, and I let you.

Dear Jaida,
Your dollar store purchases were small notebooks, notepads and a tiny clipboard. You're getting into the more serious stuff. :)

Super Smiles

Dear Keira, I can't believe I didn't get a picture, but yesterday this is what you looked like all day!  You were smiling all day long! Its gotta be the most smiles I have seen from you.  If you are still smiley today I will try and get some pictures. :) Smile, smile, smile...

Curly Tongue

Dear Keira, you usually have the same serious look on your face in all your pictures so when I can get a funny picture of you I have to post it.  You love to stick out and curl your tongue and blow raspberries.

I'm Not Five Yet

Dear Joey, this year you got to have a friend birthday party and boy was it crazy! We had six little boys running around like crazies in addition to our five. We only played two games because everyone just wanted to play with toys and do their own thing. It kind of reminded me of nursery: breaking up fights, telling kids to share, kids telling on other kids... But Joey you had a great time and you have some really great friends.  I can't believe all the awesome toys your friends and family gave you!

When Grandma called you and asked how old you were you said, "Four."  I said, five! And you said, "I'm not five yet."  You're birthday hadn't happened, so you weren't five yet.

I keep asking Monty, "Are all little boy parties like this?" This was my first boy party and it was like night and day compared to all my girl parties. The great thing is that I have the next one all planned out: bring out all the kids' toys, put food on the table and just watch all the playing happen for a couple hours. Almost no planning or cost involved. :)

Grandma Pants

My mom makes me wear grandma pants.

Kylans "Letters"

Dear Kylan, last night you wanted Dad to write you some letters so he started writing all these sentences.  Most of these are answers to the questions he was asking you. At the very bottom where it says, "Mommy is beautiful," Dad asked, "Is mommy beautiful or ugly?" You actually said, "Ugly." Hahaha, thanks.

When you brought me the paper you came and sat in the chair by me and I read out loud, "Kylan likes Daddy more than Mommy." You said, "And that's not true." It's hilarious to hear you speaking sentences and saying funny things!

No More Chickens

Dear Monty, I didn't tell the kids that I gave the chickens away, I want to see how long it takes them to notice.  The girls were very upset that either Dawn or Sprinkles died last night. Their first question was, "Which one?" Their second question, "Was it the dark red chicken or the light red chicken?" I didn't know there was a difference, but they weren't willing to go look in the coop to see which one was still alive. 

The chickens now have a large shed to roam in and stay a lot warmer with 12 other chickens.  The wife of the family that came was the nurse that checked us out of the hospital for our last four kids.  She said, "You look familiar."  She's seen me at four different life changing moments, funny to see her outside the hospital.

Polar Bear

Dear Keira, you me and the boys went out for a much needed walk. You are eating more, pooping more and napping less. You loved being outside and I'm sure you were wishing one of the boys would have let you have a turn in the swing.  Maybe tomorrow.

Bombarder

Dear Kylan, bombarder is the spell Hermoine used to blast the door open and get Sirus out. Luckily you don't have to use this spell because you can open doors now!  Its been about a week and when you first opened the bathroom door you spent all day going in the bathroom and opening and closing the door...over and over.  It's pretty funny but you were SO excited, and still are. You always want to let the cat/dogs out or in and always want to be in front so you can open the door first.  You can even reach the lock. I love having one more door opener for the animals. :)

You received this cloak and wand for Christmas. When you were showing grandma you said, "This is my wand, but it doesn't work."

Senor Pepperito

Sunday the kids played Pet Shops all day long and loved it! Joey got to play with Senor Pepperito who bought a trailer with Kisses in it, lucky! :)

But Why Does It Not Glow?

Dear Joey, last night you cried for at least an hour after I described to you how these highlighters work.  After showing you that it was basically just a marker you cried and cried, asking, "But why does it not glow?" You asked over and over and over...

Joey and Primary

Dear Joey, you gave a great talk in church today!  You are now in CTR 4 and have new teachers.  Sister Kitteridge will definitely be one of your favorites even though you won't remember. She also had Jaida and Kayla. All the kids love her, she always does the funnest things and always has treats.

I cannot find your talk anywhere, but it went something like this:

My Heavenly Father loves me
and knows what I like to do.
He knows my name and where I live,
and I know that He loves me too.

I know that Heavenly Father loves me because he gave us temples so that I can be with my family forever.

 Jaida of course wanted to come and listen to your talk, but when we got there she didn't want to just listen, she wanted to help. So we let her hold the temple picture. It was like being in primary all over again where Jaida and Kayla wouldn't sit in their seats and they had to be standing up at the front with me.

I still love you Miss J. :)

Tea Party

Dear Jaida, thank you for inviting me to your tea party and thank you for letting me bring Kylan. At first you said he couldn't come, but when you saw how excited he was that he got to come you softened right up.  You put extra crackers and pepperoni on my plate for him, helped him stir sugar into his water and kept pouring him cup after cup. We had to hurry when we heard Keira wake up, but it was fun while it lasted.

Diaper Change!

Change that boy's diaper!!

High Expectations

Dear Jaida and Kayla, today I realized why I don't encourage you to have friends come over.  When you two get bored, the friend doesn't want to play what you want to play or someone turns on the TV, I become your friends entertainment.  I remember about two years ago Kayla had a friend over and I entertained her by painting her face, putting fake eyelashes on her and just chatting. Today Jaida had a friend over and all Jaida wanted to do was watch TV. So "friend" came upstairs and of course I wasn't going to ignore her. 

I hope it just takes growing up to become a good friend and my expectations of you to be perfect are too high while you are so young.

New Years Eve 2013

We started out the night about 7pm. I brought out some balloons that I had put some surprises in. We cleaned up the living room, put on Christmas music and started dancing around the house. We took turns being the leader and did the bunny hop, side slides, giant steps, small hops, turning around and saying "stop" and then just running and running around in circles. At 7:10 Kayla asks, "Is it midnight yet?!" Nope.

Then we started playing Hullaballu, we love this game! You would have thought that someone won the lottery at our house about 50 times. Every time someone was the winner they would jump up and down screaming - screaming at the top of their lungs.  It was hilarious and it's too bad I didn't get any video... I was playing. :)

At 8pm we put in a movie and at 10:30pm I made it midnight. The kids started popping balloons and inside were candy and jokes. Everyone went to sleep but Jaida and at 11:47pm she came and woke me up and together we watched the ball drop. Thanks for waking me up Jaida, that was fun!

p.s. Monty, you're staff is broken. I will give you one guess as to who it was...