Inspired?!

I just have to document that tonight my aunt and cousin came into town. My cousin is close in age to me and one of my good friends as I was growing up and around that particular side of my family. She happens to have 2 little boys ages 2 and 4.

Tonight was the first night in a long long while that I witnessed Aftyn playing with a peer and not trying to be an animal. It was amazing. She was having so much genuine, calm, real fun with the 4 year old. I was so excited for her! She tends to not know how to interact well with her peers and after witnessing her with this little boy it made me remember my childhood and all the boys I chose to play with over girls. Maybe there is something there. . . . .  I also just have to say what amazing little boys these guys were. I have never witnessed such calmness in little boys. They didn't seem to instigate fights over toys, no hitting, no nothing. My kids were so calm and having genuine fun with these 2 sweet little boys. I sure wish they lived closer so they could play more often!

Mirren's Talking To Us . . . .

People I have bad news. My computer has issues and won't allow me to download any recent pictures! Ack!! I've been trying to figure out how to fix this but haven't figured anything out yet other than the fact that my computer needs to be fixed. . . . Hopefully I can resolve this soon. :(

Mirren has been saying lots of different sounds and it's always fun to hear the combinations she comes up with. I have been suspecting for awhile that she was saying "hi" on purpose but wasn't sure since she says lots of sounds but this week I am now sure on a few things she has said.
 3 days ago while feeding her in her highchair, I asked her " do you want more or are you done?".  She answered back "Done". LOL  I was flabbergasted and ran up to tell Reed in his office and he laughed and said he wished he could have heard it.

Last night she seemed pretty gabby so I was trying to encourage her to talk. She loves her daddy and most of her sounds start off with da da da. So I said to her, "Say hi dada." Shockeroo when she said "Hi da da.."
So now I know she can say Hi! And she can repeat. Crazy girl.
Right after that I asked her to say Done since Reed was in the room and hadn't heard her say it before. And right away she said it very clearly, "Done".  Hahaha!! She has been telling us nana whenever she wants to eat or I've kept her waiting too long and she wants some food. It's pretty funny! I don't remember my babies trying to use their words to communicate this early. I've probably just forgotten. Babies are so amazingly smart and do things so young. They are incredible!

Overwhelmed but here we go!

Wow. 

The past few weeks I have had no less than 3 road trips,

 possibly more (I've lost count), 

taken one ugly dresser and transformed it into a thing of beauty

 and somehow managed to keep my household running and preschool lessons taught. 

Until today. 

Everything came to a screeching halt because I am just plain OVERWHELMED! 

 I'm tired of busy, I'm tired of catchup, I'm tired. 

It also doesn't help that this past week

 I have been on a time crunch to make Mirren chubby ASAP. 

With a weigh in today to see if I was successful. 

After a moment to wipe the sweat from my brow,

 I decided to just stop and enjoy today

 and stop pushing myself to accomplish absolutely everything on my to-do list.

I haven't even put all the groceries away that I bought this morning.

I have had more time to play with my kids and hug them,

more time to look through my sewing pile and dream,

and more time to just be.

Aaah.

And now I would like to add a blog post to my list of accomplishments for today.

Here goes.

Mirren hates baths. I can count maybe twice that she hasn't cried while taking a bath.

Because of this, her baths are quick and to the point. 

With a shift in our bathing procedures lately,

Bronwyn and Mirren took their first bath together. 

Wa-la! Alakazam!

Just like that, there was no crying!

She just needed a Bronwyn and a duckie and she actually 

LAUGHED during her bath!!

I can't even begin to tell you how much Mirren loves Bronwyn.

She is always watching for her to be looking at her and greets her gaze with a smile.

Don't get me wrong. Mirren loves Aftyn too but Aftyn doesn't perform for Mirren.

Mirren loves it when Aftyn picks her up. Aftyn loves doing that too.

But Mirren knows out of the two, Bronwyn is ready and willing 

to entertain her at all times and in all places.

(Pictures to be added later.)

Car-Aaazy

Life seems to be so full of things lately, I figured I better take a minute to record what we've been up to.

I'm preschooling Aftyn and Bronwyn. Started last week! Bronwyn is a receptive little thing and it's fun to get to work one on one with Aftyn and see how close she is to reading.

Bronwyn is still getting her 3 year molars. Those things seems like they are NEVER going to come!

Mirren is still toothless. Yet again, those teeth just want to stay in. I don't mind though, she doesn't seem to be in too much pain.  She is getting super mobile. She likes to find hair elastics the girls drop on the floor mindlessly and chew on them. Never eat, just chew. I find at least one a day in her mouth. Ew.  Obviously I should vacuum every night. Gotta get that into my routine.

My parents 50th wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend. That should be fun. It'll be nice to get the siblings all together to honor them.

Last weekend I sang in a trio with my sisters Alyson and Laura in Alyson's ward. I have NEVER received so many compliments in my life. And the song was good, but I messed up at least 3 times. And still received so many kind people's compliments. I'm totally singing in that ward again! :)

We got to have dinner with Reed's brother and wife here in Idaho Falls. Steve and Amanda and their 7 kids + us = lots of people, lots of yummy food and lots of good conversation! They were such good sports to come have dinner with us after hiking and driving through Yellowstone all day. Even though we were 15 minutes late for dinner and they were probably starving and wondering where we were. ;)

Reed is working. And driving. Repeat. I think we must be coming into his busy season because boy has he gotten busy! He's already tired of being gone from home so much. And we all miss him but it won't be forever. And his busy-ness will end.

A Miracle

I have felt strongly the need to document a miracle that has occurred in our life. I don't mean this tongue in cheek, and there's nothing funny about it.

Aftyn had her eye checkup 2 days ago, about a week earlier than we had planned but I am so grateful for the good news we got.

After almost 8 weeks of dilating drops to give her right eye a chance to strengthen, we saw IMPROVEMENT! Now instead of having total suppression in her right eye she has intermittent suppression.

It was amazing to see.

From an eye that could not see on its own to an eye that could be made to see when asked, it was awesome.

Her doctor says that in another 8 weeks, we should see even more improvement and we will probably be able to start to wean her off the eyedrops and eventually be done with them sometime after Christmas. Her eye should be completely normal and seeing as it should.

I am so grateful for the choice we made to keep her out of kindergarten this year. I am grateful for the time this additional year gives her eyes to get to a much healthier place.

 I can't help but realize the miracle that this is for Aftyn and the future of her eyesight.


I. am. grateful.

Miri, Mirren, MirMir's, Luli

This girl is so loved. Happy 9 months little sweetheart!

Bronwyn makes her giggle all the time!

Aftyn is such a good helper and picks her up for me, which makes Mirren smile so big!

Reed can make her smile so cutely. She loves to talk to him on the phone and hear his voice. 

No one gives this girl as much comfort as Mommy. 

 In the middle of the night, she implores me with both arms to snuggle in bed. 

She is such a snuggler. She is so patient. She is so sweet. She loves to pull hair. She loves to eat hair. She loves her little tongue and we see a fair amount of that cute little thing. She loves to army crawl/scoot around and spend time "playing" with her older sisters.  When she's really happy, she breaks into babble, which I love to hear. She did say "mama" before "dada" but it means nothing. She's just as likely to say "lala" and "nana" and any other silly sound that comes out of her mouth. She has clingy little fingers when she wants to stay with mommy. She loves to nurse and is only just finding foods that make her want a second bite. She just wants her milk. Bronwyn loves to play with her and tickle her and give her toys. All unbidden. Her reward for all her effort is that she gets automatic smiles from her adoring little sister.

Tea Anyone?

Bronwyn likes to wear sunglasses in the house I think so she can be like Aftyn. It rarely happens though because it's hard to see with those on in the house, oddly enough. ;)

I took these a few weeks ago. 

Mirren LOVES to be in Aftyn and Bronwyn's room with them when they are playing. 

I plunked her down in their room one afternoon and suggested a tea party! 

My girls love tea parties and so they were more than happy to host one just for Mirren. 

And Mirren loved being a part of it all, clearly. 

Love these girls and especially I love how much they love each other.