Mirren turned 2!

Best birthday present ever - Balloons!! :)

Mirren loved her birthday! We had 2 days of celebrations. Grandma and Grandpa B celebrated with us on Saturday and Mirren opened presents and Grandma and Grandpa W celebrated with us on Sunday and Mirren got to blow out some candles. She loved opening presents, LOVED blowing out the candles. She was so excited she was squealing and screaming with excitement as we sang the Happy Birthday song to her. Oh it was so fun! She especially seemed to love the balloons. By far her most prized possession for the 3 days we had them. Ha ha ha! We also celebrated later than her actual birthday since Reed was gone for her real one but none of the kids knew and nobody cared except that we celebrate her birthday somehow. And so we did.

Halloween

Just hangin' 'round in my costume mom - Mirren's still in jammies  ;)

Ballerina Girl

Yeehaw!

Our Candy Hander Outer Lady

I Love it When I Can Get These Two in Pictures Together Naturally

He loves this girl so much.

 I love it when she loves him and gives him some attention 

because he absolutely adores it when she does and almost 

always has the biggest smiles for her.

Lochlan's blessing

     It's a blessing day miracle! My computer is letting me upload pictures!!  This is Lochlan in his cute cardigan onesie and bowtie. I made this, thanks to an easy to follow tutorial on the makeitandloveit.com website. 

 We had so many family members able to come, for which we were so grateful. Reed's parents and brothers Brian and Mark and their families were able to make it and my parents and my brother Jon, sister Jen and their families and my sister Laura. Things I remember about his blessing: he cried! Ha! He's such a laidback baby and he cried. He cried because he didn't like laying down and he wanted to sit up. I also remember that Reed blessed Lochlan to be patient. I wish I had written down his blessing, but I never think that far ahead. Much like how I always forget to bring a camera so we could get a picture of everyone who made it. Bronwyn had to go and give a talk right afterward in primary and I had to go teach our class of 17 yr olds so we had lots on our minds, along with Mirren having a nasty cold so she couldn't go to nursery and Lochlan also being sick with a cold.
   We were sad not to have been able to bless Lochlan last weekend when more people were here but things happen for a reason so we're just glad he's gotten his special day. Lochlan is such a sweet boy, with such an easy going attitude most of the time. He's a good mix for our family and we're eternally glad he's ours. :)

Aftyn is Awesome

I need an update on Aftyn!  Since starting kindergarten a few months ago, she has absolutely flourished!  Because she only has school a few days a week, (every other day) I've been trying to find ways to challenge her here at home. We read books almost daily, and she began taking piano lessons from my sister Laura a little over a month ago. I think she likes the challenge, generally, of piano lessons and wants me to listen every time she is practicing.

         She and Bronwyn have been sharing a room again for about the last 2 weeks and generally it is going as expected. Bronwyn is an early and energetic riser and anyone saddled with her as their roommate will have to expect being woken up early and sometimes going to sleep late too thanks to her talkative ways. Mirren is grateful for the additional sleep she now gets, as we all are for her, and Bronwyn loves the addition of being able to listen to music with Aftyn as she goes to sleep. They've been listening to a kids classic Christmas CD and seem to rather enjoy it.
           Thanks to that cd, Aftyn was introduced to the song "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth".  Thanks to lots of encouragement and 2 very complying front teeth, 2 days ago she finally lost her 2nd front tooth so she can (and does) sing that song a lot! :) Aftyn is a worrier when it comes to losing teeth and has only managed to pull 1 of her teeth, leaving the pulling of the rest of them up to me.  She hates the sight of her own blood, it seems to make her worry that something bad and scary is happening to her body. Now that she can see the predictability of losing teeth, she frets less.

     Aftyn is becoming a great reader and at grandparents houses is likely to have a stack of books in her lap and sitting on a comfy couch, perusing them all. Not necessarily reading them though. She loves to look at all the pictures too. :)
           She is a huge help around our house, and generally very willing to hop up and help in whatever way I might be in need. She is an awesome example to her sisters in that way and I truly truly appreciate that about her and need to be better about thanking her for that. Bronwyn and Mirren are both great helpers because Aftyn is a great helper and sets a good example of how helping can be fun. And brings its own rewards.
         Most recently, Aftyn is very proud of her basketball skills and dribbling the ball. I think this girl has some basketball potential in her future! Truthfully, whatever sport they are working on in p.e. is the sport she wants to be mastering here at home. She clearly has a desire to play sports and master things that she likes. I love that about her at this time in her life.

My Main Little Man

 

Lochlan is 2.5 months old. :(  It happened too fast!

Here are some of the things we love about him:

          I insist on doing his hair after every bath. I don't get to put bows on him, so at least I can

         decide what his hairstyle is going to be! It seems only fair! The girls love to watch me do

          his hair.

        He has the cutest little smiles. He is definitely the easiest smiler we've had! He will be laying

        in my lap, and I'll look down and he's just grinning up at me.  Also, sometimes when he smiles,

        his ears move. I wonder if that means he'll be able to wiggle both ears. I've never noticed this

        on any of my other babies.

         He is quite the talker! He coo's and gurgles so sweetly. He has also started laughing!

        I can't get enough of all his noises.  Except for his crying, but he still doesn't usually cry

        a whole lot so I'm not terribly sick of it at this point.

        The girls love when I get him all dressed up in something special. They have lots of things

        to say about how handsome he looks.

         Mirren calls him "Buddy".  And pats him hard, pokes his eyes, and smacks his poor little

         tummy. Also, she makes his hands clap. LOL  But I figure it's better to let her feel a part of

         him and keep helping her learn about being soft than to keep her completely from touching

         him. She is still really good about him and loves him, but is still adjusting to not having

         Reed and I always handy to help her when she feels she needs it.

          His eyebrows and eyelashes are coming in reddish! I think his hair color may be permanent!

         He started being able to bat at things this week, and rub his eye with his fist.

         Reed gave him a bath today and we noticed that his ears stick out a little! I'm in cute stickie

         outie ear heaven! LOL  :) 

           TMI but hey my post: He is pooping once a week and has been doing this for at least a

        month. It's gross and I wish he'd just poop once every 2 days or something. Maybe soon.

          Some of his current nicknames: Lochie, Lochlan buddy, little man, Manny.

          He's pretty long. 24 inches at this point. He's in 3-6 month clothes, depending on if they

          are new or hand-me-downs and have been washed a lot.

          Lochlan is such a sweet boy. I love him so much! He is so loved by us all. I'm so grateful

          for his sweet calm happy spirit in our home and in our family. 

                                                                                     

         
        

Bronwyn in all her Glory

Have I mentioned our computer is still being dumb and won't let me upload pictures? Grrr....

Bronwyn is a sweet and busy 4 year old. Her most popular game right now is being a mom, with a doll shoved up her shirt because she's going to have a baby. She loves to pack a diaper bag with bottles and toys for her baby. She is a hard worker and best loves to organize things. She totally reminds me of myself.
      She and Aftyn have recently moved back into a room together thanks to Bronwyn peeling paint off of my beautifully painted bunk beds, so now she and Aftyn will sleep in our newer purchased off craigslist bunkbeds that have no beautiful paint to peel. Bronwyn likes this because Aftyn gets to have music to fall asleep to each night, so now she does too. Bronwyn wants to grow up as fast as Aftyn and do all the big girl things she can do and she is waiting impatiently for the time when she can do them by herself. LOL  Like going to school, or picking up the baby off the couch instead of just holding him on her lap. Bronwyn definitely struggles the most with not being allowed the same privileges as Aftyn.
       Bronwyn is the child most able to just play by herself in a space. She loves to go outside in the backyard and dig in the dirt, play some pretend game with sticks, or anything else. She finds friends everywhere we go and gives her heart very easily. She is so my child. She is so sweetly sincere in her intentions. She loves to do nice things for other people because that is how she shows love. She will help me do cleaning around the house with hardly any complaints but equally as likely to do something naughty as well.
        Recently because of her peeling the paint from her bunkbed, she lost her Halloween privileges, something that broke her heart and made mine sad too. But she plucked herself right up when given the job of handing out the candy, and she loved being able to be in charge of it and getting to be her own boss. She tends to thrive in situations where she is given a job that she completely understands how to do, with clear boundaries and knows what is expected of her.
      She also wants to boss people around and when pushed can be very sassy with adults, something we're trying so hard to teach her is wrong and that she needs to show people love by word and deed.  Bronwyn has a tough time because she has such a fun and playful personality, that people want to play with her and don't understand that if you give her an inch she'll take a mile. She tends to do better when playing with adults if they lay out the boundaries and rules for her first so she knows what is okay to do and what isn't and then she can have fun while knowing she is following the rules as well and won't get into trouble for something she didn't know she shouldn't do. Such as being sassy, jumping on people and hurting them, playing too rough. It seems self explanatory, but she thinks people want to play with her and that means she can do whatever seems fun to her without thinking of how it affects other people. In those situations when she's just playing and doesn't stop to think out the consequences of her actions and people get hurt because of her, it truly makes her feel so sad because she didn't know she shouldn't do something. I understand her personality so well because that was me as a child. I thought everyone loved me and so I could do whatever and people would still love me. Ha ha ha!!

     She truly has the best of intentions and the biggest heart. She loves to love people. If you are ever sick, Bronwyn is the one who will come and tell you a story to help you go to sleep. She is a girl who loves to sing, and dance, and color and play. She is such an important part of our family and I can't imagine life without her!