Too big, too fast

Don't mind me as I get all whiney.....but why do my babies grow so much faster than the majority? This picture is of Brooklyn eating with a fork. She stabs the food and eats it. What 15 month old does that? Seriously, if you know of one, tell me so i feel a little bit better.
She is just too big. She towers over all the babies her age. I tend a baby just 2 months younger than her. She is so much bigger, in size and abilities. I compare her a lot latley to kids about her same age. Me and Brandon both cant believe how much older she seems than other toddlers her age. We are her parents, so we are biased, but it still seems like she has an upper hand on somethings compared to other toddlers.
This is a peak into my baby girls life.
She runs with all the big kids. She wants to eat at the big kids table and usually does if there is room to prevent a tantrum. She throws big kid tantrums. She has a big kid scream. She teases you like crazy just as a big kid would. She knows she is cute and isnt afraid to use it to get what she wants. She drinks out of a big kid cup at dinner time. She is a lover girl. She grabs your face and pulls you in for a big ol smooch. She lays her head on the chair and stays quiet during prayers. She understands soooo much. I give her directions and she does it. Sometimes i try to trick her and ask her to do a big thing. Too often, she shows me up and does it. She seems interested in the potty. This is what hurts me the most. Why, why cant you just stay little!! She sees you walking into the bathroom and she pulls her pants down and lifts her shirt up. I have even gone so far to let her sit up there, she loved it. She was all smiles. I wanted to cry. Now dont get me wrong, to be diaper free for the first time in over 3 years, sounds blissful, but not yet. NOT YET! She is starting to talk like crazy. She says mama, dada, doggie, puppy, up, uh oh, diaper.  She signs for more and all done.

I will stop whining. But, mark this down in history, i am not happy about how fast my kiddos grow up.

Eggs

So as a Farmer (yup i am considering myself a farmer, grew up one, havent drove a tractor more than 3 times in my life and 2 of those time have been with my husband....he loves me more than my brothers i guess.) But im not thinking farm famer but more like 'Old Macdonald kind of farmer.
He had cows, i dont. But i really want one.
He had a horse, i dont own one personally but we claim "Kylers Horse" (its not his, but dont tell him that. Its papas)
He had a dog, I have a dog.
He had monkeys, I tend lots of monkeys :)
He had chickens, I have chickens
He has a rooster, I have a rooster.

So i am a farmer. :) And as a farmer, I take pride in my animals.


We love our chickens around here. Kyler loves them, I love them, Daycare loves them, Brooklyn loves them, and im pretty sure Brandon loves the critters too. :)

So with that pride i have im sharing these eggs!!

DO YOU SEE THOSE TWO MIDDLE EGGS! 

My chickens are part goose i swear! Those eggs are gigantic. Poor hen who had to lay them. :) I dont even know what the market would consider those...XXL sized eggs. The other eggs are slightly bigger than the large eggs I was buying, to compare the size of them.

So as of today i am a proud chicken farmer. Look at my newly laying chickens lay goose eggs!

Wow, a picture that was just cute 2 years ago now breaks my heart. Here I was sitting reminiscing on my 15 month old Ky, Ky seeing the similarity between him and his sister and i find this picture. It went from happy time to Broken Hearts-Ville.

Oh Quinners i miss you so much it hurts. Love you little one, cant wait to laugh with you again.

Piano Magic

Months and Months ago, we talking at least 8 months ago. We were given a piano. Someone in my parents ward was getting rid of thiers, my mom, bless her, told them I wanted it and then brought it to us.
I was soooo excited. She did warn me it was going to need to be refinished and cleaned. But oh my it did!
We put it right in the house, and it was too much. A) we have a smaller house and it was in the way with daycare and the busy play that kids do. B) it stunk and my allergies were horrible.
I forgot to mention that the people who owned it before hand a ton of cats in their house. That piano was COVERED in cat hair when it came. I wiped it down, but that didnt do anything. The cats had used the legs as a nail sharperner (or whatever cats do when the scratch at stuff). Its was in bad shape.
So after whinning, we asked our oh so giving neighbors if we could put it in his shop, he has a awesome wood shop, he said sure. We told him we would work on it and have it out quick.
fast forward somewhere around SEVEN MONTHS!!
Bad, bad, bad us! I even kinda forgot about it till my friend(neighbor) reminded me it was in there.
Bad, bad, bad me!

So finally this summer we had a slow week. The only one all summer. So we headed over pulled it out into the open and opened the thing up. OH MY! IT was FULL of cat hair, stuck in the cords, hanging all over the velvet. NASTY! Not to mention that Hickory Dickory who lives in a clock, used the piano as his summer home! Need i say more. Oh my.

It took forever to get it acceptable, not perfect, i dont think thats possible. We pushed it back in and then Brandon took over. I dont have the refinsh bone in my body. I despise sanding down stuff. He on the other had enjoys it. So 4 days later, 1 can of stain, a bunch of sandpaper, a can of polyurithan we have this:

sorry not centered, that was bad photography!

Isnt she a beauty!!

I wish i would have taken a before picture...but imagine something gross looking and a lighter stain and you have got a good picture of what it was.

15 Months

3 more months till she is a year and a half. Really what we think is 3 more months till nursery. :)

This girl is a hoot. She is developing quiet the personality. She loves to tease, she loves to push people, she loves to pinch people, she loves to give big ol smooches, and loves to give big hugs. She loves her daddy still, but lately she loves her mommy just a little bit more. :) I am loving it.  She and Kyler have a love/hate relationship. He irritates her more than anyone else, BUT he is the one that gets the giggleist giggles out of her too. True Brother and Sister relationship i guess.
She hates having her hair done, which is weird cause i have been doing it since she was 3 weeks old.
She loves loves bananas. She eats almost everything i give her. BUT this girl is all girl. . . .in that she loves sweets. LOVES sweets. If she see's anything that resembles cake, coookie, candy she screams till she gets it. Its anoying. Kyler hates sweets. We dont give them to either of them very much. But she can smell it when we do have them. She squeals and giggles when you are giving it to her. Funny girl.
She can almost run, she keeps up with all the big kids sooo well. I have caught her playing with dolls once or twice, but animals and trucks are more of her thing. :) She loves her ball pit she got for her birthday. She runs and dives into it. Its hilarious. She loves talking to Woody the Rooster. When he cocks she answers with "Hi, wowo" (aka Hi Woody!) She loves going to see Goldy Papa's horsey. She gets all excited and squeals when we get out of the car. She likes to watch Elmo and Blues Clues.
She is smart. She listens, so different from her brother. I can ask her to go get her diaper and wipes and she does it!! No help, nothing. I asked her once as a joke, i wanted to be lazy. She left the room and came back with it! I about died!
She doesn't talk. This is weird for me. Kyler was trying. She isn't. She can say, mama, dada, Hi, Uh Oh, "nigh, nigh" (for her blanket) and up. We have heard her say diaper(yes seriously she said it) and water, but we cant get her to say them again.
We say prayers at night with her and she sits still and folds her arms with a little help. Then i will sing her 3 songs, and the whole entire time she lays her head on my shoulder, then looks up, kisses me, lays down. She will do this over and over and over through all 3 songs. By the end, she is usually licking my face cause i am turning my head. I cant take that much slobber on my lips! :)
She is so fun. She cracks us all up. I love her to death, as does her daddy and brother. Kyler adores her and trys to do everything for her, which she finds irritating. :) She is Miss Independent, just like her mommy.\

 During the photo shoot we moved to a different side of the barn. Like her stinker self, she ran ahead to tease me giggling not watching and tripped and fell. These two pictures came after that. I should love them as much as i do, but man i just cant help myself.

When we got inside she found brothers hat and put it on and ran away from him. One shoe on one shoe off and a cowboy hat. This is my girl!

These are from Sunday...i love her giggles and smile

just after her dive into her ball pit


I will be posting more movies just for Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Gaylen, this is a short view of her dancing. She dances with her arms in the air...i think its great.

I LOVE SUGAR!

So I have Fridays off for the summer. This is wonderful Its my day with my kids. You stay at home mommys are soooo lucky to have just your kids everyday. Freedom and all that good stuff. :)
So today I decided to sleep in. Since our Powell trip i have been wasted. Plus we have been staying up late, and i get up at 6:10 to get my first daycare kiddo.
So, anyway today i dedcided i was sleeping in. No biggy. The kids have been sleeping way in as well lately. BUT, of course today was the execption. But bless his big kid heart he didnt want to wake mommy, so he went downstairs and played. And finally at 8:30 he comes in hops into bed with me, which melted me, he was all smiles and excited he got in. He snuggled right up to me, smiles and says, "mommy, i love you, and (giggle giggle giggle) i just ate like 1, 2, 4, 5, well like 10 cookies mommy!!!! giggle giggle giggle giggle. "i loved them so so much, they were so so yummy. I love those kind of cookies!!!" He was so jumpy, happy and well happy. I told him he had toooooo much sugar all ready. He replys "whats sugar" .....ummm "the stuff that makes those 'cookies' sooo good." He says with all the excitement he has inside of his little body, "I LOVE SUGAR!!!"
I coulndt be anything but giggley with him. I kissed his little forehead, and we walked downstairs to see what "cookies" he was talking about, cause we dont have any cookies right now.
What did we find, my stash of chocolate covered almonds I had indulged in while watching Bun Heads late last night on the computer (have you started watching Bun Heads, its A.Mazing. Its my happy thought latley. It really just like Gilmore Girls, just with Ballarinas)

Anyhoo, he found that large Costco container and giggled and said he wanted more of those yummy cookies before breakfast. Sorry bud, mom isnt that cool! Instead we get Jessie's eggs, toast, and nectarines, he was just as excited about that nectarine and Jessie's Egg.  (Jessie is our awesome chicken that is finally laying eggs, we have 13 more chickens, but none of them are laying Jessie and Woody are the oldest, But Woody the Rooster doesn't do anything but make racket and chase and peck at the other chickens and Kyler......i think a post on our 14 'other kids' is in order)

Lake Powell

This summer has been insane. Insane i tell you. We have not had but ONE weekend home. ONE, one, on my only one. Its wearing on the kids, its wearing on me, BUT we have had some serious fun. :) Just don't judge my house/yard/life its all a little on the messy side. When you are gone all weekend, and work on Monday comes and you have 7 kids coming to pull out toys to add to the mess, it gets a little unruly that's all I'm saying. Just don't judge. It will be clean again. I hope and pray. :)

SO, this weekend we left Thursday night to go to Powell with Brandon's family. His parents, siblings, and 2 Aunts and their families, and my brother-in-laws super close friends and their kids. Total i think the count was around 35.

35 people+4 boats+3 wave runners+camp on a beach+tons of perfect sand+super warm water=endless fun. 

We played in that water quite seriously from sun up until after sun went down. Kyler was in that water before breakfast until after dinner. Brooklyn couldn't get enough of the water and sand. Mom and dad even took the opportunity to swim after the kids were snoozing and took 2 late night swims. So fun. So relaxing.

The getting there found a couple hiccups. We planned on leaving about 5:45PM Thursday, but didn't make it till 6:15, not too bad [we blame Travis, we had to wait on him:)] Then we took off. We were stopping by my mom and Gaylens place to pick up their wave runners in Grover. So when we hit Loa i called a restaurant in Bicknell ordered some food for us to grab and eat on the way. This way it would be ready to go and we wouldn't have to stop for more than 5 minutes just for me to run in and grab it. It worked like a charm. We got in ate our dinner got to Grover, back up to the barn to get the wave runners, opened the door.........no wave runners. Empty. BLAH! We called my step-brother and he said he had them his shop in LOA! Ok for those of you who don't know Wayne County let me tell you Loa was just over 30 minutes ago! So we loaded back in, wasted that super time saver plan we had and drove 30 minutes back to Loa, the hitch needed to be flipped, it was stuck, good thing there was a bunch of boys there working on their derby car that helped Brandon get it turned around so we could pull the trailer with our Outlook. 30 minutes later we were on the road. 30 minutes back to Torrey, and then on our way. That little side trip to get the blast of fun wave runners (so worth it) cost us 1.5 hours! So, by the time we pulled on the beach to load the boat it was 11:30PM. Plus the 30 minute drive on the boat to our camping place. We are at Midnight. Thank heavens they had the tent up for us. Then, oh crap, i forgot the pack n play. So, we layed down. Brooklyn crawled all over us for about an hour until she fell dead in the tend. About 5 minutes after laying down on the air mattress it went completely flat. Flatter than a pancake. So needless to say that first night we didn't sleep.

The next morning we were greeted with a warm ray of sunshine. We got a good look at the lake. Excited! We scarfed some breakfast and played in that water for the rest of the day. Perfection. Heaven. Oh so so hot. :) We took out Super Mable and all took a ride. Some had a harder ride than others. Justin his wife Naomi and Travis all got on and rode for a bit, then we made them turn it around into "chariot" style and told them thier challange was to ride standing up. They did quiet well i have to say!! Then me and Brandon took all the kiddos out for a ride back to camp...a good 20 mintue ride and they all oved it. Brookie on the top of that list. She was all smiles and squeals.

That night as we were cooking dinner the wind picked up and by picked up I mean picked up! It picked up 3 shade shelters. Mutilated one of them to no repair. We all huddled behind some rocks to eat dinner. My kids had had it. They were sooooooooooo done by that point. Justin had brought the pack n play when they came that day (thank heavens) so we put the kids down at 6:15PM for bed. Yes, seriously. No, they didn't wake up all night. Even though we were experiencing one of the worst sand wind storms i have ever had, they didn't budge, they were THAT tired from playing all day. Now when i say the worst i mean it. Night #2 was greeted with NO sleep. Yes, 2 nights in a row. This time our air mattress stayed a float, thanks to a patch. BUT, the tent we had needs to find a place in the White Hills DUMP. It was horrible. The thing didn't cross on the top, just 4 poles running parallel to each other held it up. SO, when the wind would blast through, the whole tent would collapse down on our faces. Seriously, not exaggerating. Then when the wind would let up, the tend would flip back up to its rightful place. We were COVERED In sand. it had opened sides(like windows) all along the back, so when the wind blew the tend down, the sand would blow between the top flap and the tend making a perfect pathway to our poor faces. I was slightly surprised we weren't buried alive when we woke up. :) (that was a little of an exaggeration) :)

BUT, that wouldn't stop the fun either, before breakfast was cooked (8AM) Kyler was back in that water running un and jumping(diving) face first into the water. He couldn't stop. He loved it. That $30 bucks for swimming lessons.....SO WORTH IT! We went to Powell in June with my family and he didn't really swim in the water. But this time, oh my it was a fight to get him out. Brooklyn loved the water. That girl has no NO no fear. She would run at the water no hesitation and face plant it in the water. She spent as much time in the water as Kyler (minus her mid morning naps)

 Kyler kept that face in the water all the time. He was "diving" he was an expert swimmer (for a 3 year old) I don't think i can emphasize how much he loved swimming in that water. His eyes were blood red the whole trip from being in so much water.

 This kids loves to take pictures. He is checking out his work on Uncle Travis's camera.

 At one point in the boat ride, Brooklyn all of a sudden wanted down from me, toddled right over to Papa and cuddled up to him. Cutest thing ever. Papa was pleasantly surprised and loved every minute.

 Kyler out cold after out swim at Lost Eden.

 This girl and her daddy. . . .

 Are the best of buds, there is serious love between them. . .

 Admiration from both ends. . .

 Until the bitter end when she finally gave up snuggled in and out she went.

 I love it!!

 Notice she is with him all the time

 On day #2 we took half the group over to Lost Eden (Gaylen has shown the place to us when my family comes, and its so awesome) We went over there and swam in wonderful shady water for i bet 2 hours straight, and there is no beach there. Just 175 feet deep water. I will say that Kyler freaked and didn't want to say in the cooler water. He only swam with me for about 30 minutes, and the only reason he got in, in the first place was to go pee (yup, i told him to pee in the water, I am that kind of mom). Brookie only got in for 10 minutes. It was a little chilly and she at this point was so exhausted that the boat was a better place in her mind.

He dunked me, so not nice. :)

But i still love him lots

can you not help but to love that oreo face

Finding telling Kyler to say cheese resluts in this face every time

Night #3 perfect. Not windy, not hot. Kids exhausted, and in bed by 7PM. Mom and dad stole Super Mable and went for a night float and just talked and looked at the stars. Perfect. Perfect nights sleep. Woke up Sunday, Kyler swam for a bit before breakfast....resulted in a bad series of events...

and like a bad mom/aunt i was busy taking pictures and didn't even realize it was happening until it was too late...but notice our friend Carson behind the boat....he knew what was happening, his face says it all. But, then later on that day we fixed it and had a better series of events.... (he did this jumping over and over and over and over and over, etc)

Then we went out on the boat for a bit and mom/dad/and a couple others got to finally wake board. 

Done with the water, drying off before getting in dry clothes. Brooklyn is OUT cold.

 When we got back Kyler wanted nothing to do with the water. He demanded dry warm clothes. So i changed him, told him now no water. He was 100% fine with it. He was content in the sand while we packed up. I have never seen him so exhausted in his whole life. He was 100% done. We got back to the car, loaded him in his car seat. He watched Nemo/Deigo we stopped at Stan's for a quick expensive bite to eat and he even enjoyed his first ever milk shake. Yup, he is 3 and it was his first. We weren't giving him milk but now we are slowly starting to give him some, and well let just say he was super sad when that last slurp happened. That recharged him enough to make it home, and into bed he went and out he and Brooklyn stayed for the rest of the night until 10:30 the next morning. 

Its was a great trip. We are already thinking we should plan one more before the year is out. Ya I know, take up another weekend that i should be organizing and cleaning.
Here are 2 movies of Kyler jumping. (did this just for you mom)