Monday, August 29, 2016

Mirren

Mirren wakes up every morning, for the past few months, undresses and then picks out clothes for the day. 
Sometimes they're not half bad. 

She gets very upset if you make her change, or heaven forbid,
 make her get back in her perfectly clean jammies at least until breakfast is done 
so as to not dirty her clothes for the rest of the day. 

Todays choice was unique, but only in the sense that it was inside out AND backwards.

Back At It

Life, as you might have guessed, has been pretty busy the last few weeks. 

We had a trip to Idaho Falls for eye exams. Aftyn got 2 new sets of glasses just in time for school to start! Woohoo!! Mirren's eyes look great after her surgery, she is looking a little far sighted so she may need glasses, but for now she gets to wear her eye patch 5 days of the week instead of 7 and only 2 hours on those days instead of 3. Woot!!

Bronwyn has been turning into the boss at home now that Aftyn is in first grade and she has school every day, all day. In some ways it's good. In others ..... yeah. She is really coming into her own. She had an awesome summer. She finally learned to swim. She learned to ride a 2 wheeler with absolutely no help at all. And next week, unbeknownst to her yet, she gets to have a dance class. She is going to flip!!!!

Mirren recently gave up the binky. We had some strange repercussions from that, like she started having problems staying dry at night and once I caught her with her thumb in her mouth in the middle of the day.  Perplexing....  But as of now, things are back to fine. She is staying dry again, after putting her back in pull-ups for about a week which she hated, and I'm keeping a really strict eye on the whole fingers in her mouth thing. She is 2 months away from turning 3, but has been in 3t clothes for about 2 months. She is going to catch Bronwyn here in a few years unless Bronwyn surprises us all and starts having some massive growth spurts. Bronwyn JUST went into 5t stuff, but still fits in a lot of 4t clothes.

Lochlan's 1st birthday is this Saturday. :(  :)  How did that go so fast? He is such a fun boy. He's stronger than he knows. I call him a brute. Except he smiles all the while that he's unknowingly hurting you. He does really well with being taught to be gentle, thank goodness, so I just have to keep moving forward with that. He's not walking yet, but he cruises and crawls like nobody's business. He can crawl into the bathroom SO fast, all the while laughing and smiling as you try to catch him. Little stinker. It's hard to not smile while he's being naughty because he's smiling and laughing at you while you try to tell him no. Ha ha!!! He sure is loved.

We got 2 cats about the beginning of July. One was a kitten maybe 10-12 weeks old, an orange tabby. We named her Tilly. Now she's referred to as Tilly the terrible or Atilla the Hun. She is your typical crazy kitten. At the same time, we took an abandoned cat from my sister that needed a home. She showed up one day at my sisters house and just never left so my sister was feeding her for a few months before we decided to give her a home. At my sisters house, she was called Blackjack. We initially called her BJ and that morphed into Betty Jean, and now we just call her Betty. Recently, it became Big Betty. She really is a sweet cat and is so patient with our crazy kitten. Poor Betty recently got re-spayed because unbeknownst to us, her previous owners had had her spayed but we didn't know so in trying to do the right thing, the poor thing had to go back in a 2nd time. Except they couldn't find her uterus. Poor poor Betty. She's recovered well, and totally got spoiled while she's been recovering.

Reed is doing great at work. He continues to support our family so well and I am impressed with his work ethic. I am in the middle/beginning of finally losing this dang baby weight! I have lost about 16 pounds so far and cannot wait to be done. Seriously. There will be a party with lots of yummy food. :) Ha ha ha!!!!

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Lochlan's New Hat

For a kid who just got his first baseball cap yesterday, he will wear it a lot more than I would have thought!

He must like it.  :) 





Friday, June 24, 2016

Lochlan this week

                        Lochlan discovered the reflection on our trash can.
                          Ha ha ha!!! His reflection is hilarious, look at his eyes!!
                       This was when I started laughing.
                     "Oh, you were watching me?".    Funny kid
                                                       Random close up
                 His first chocolate zucchini cookie. As you can tell, he hated it. LOL

Aftyn Got A Haircut

Aftyn has been wanting a haircut for a few months now. 

We made her wait to make sure she really wanted it 

but after many months and lots of snarls that she and I lamented 

would be lots easier on shorter hair, I sat her down on Monday 

and chopped her hair off in my kitchen. 

Here's the new Aftyn!



Many days later, we love this length!
 It's super cute and frames her face, and so much easier to detangle.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Guys, Lochlan Fell Down








Lochlan has been eyeing the front door for a while when it is open, as if crawling out of it would open up a whole new world of curiosities. Except there's a big step down and he won't expect it and he'll fall down on his head.

And that's what happened today when my back was turned making dinner and I'd already asked Aftyn to please close the door so as to prevent the possibility of Lochlan falling to the hard pavement below.

:(  He has slight road rash under his left eye and a little bruise on his left eyebrow. Poor little man.

Pictures to come. This is his first big bump, and I have a feeling, this is only the beginning.

This kid is an animal. He's voraciously energetic and excited to experience it all.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Things to Remember From This Week

Aftyn finished her swimming lessons this week. This year we found semi-private lessons for the same price we were paying for Aftyn to learn in a big group, and this year made ALL the difference. She can swim!!! She can do the elementary backfloat, she can swim on her front, and she can tread water. We were both SO SO SO excited, and now she really loves swimming. :) Happy parents over here!  Bronwyn starts hers in another week and I am hoping for another swimmer after her lessons are done.

Aftyn is having her first piano recital tonight, and is really excited and proud of herself.

Lochlan waved for his very first time last night. To his favorite "Sunday Lady", Sister Arnold who has been taking him while we teach our Sunday School class. He loves her and tonight just proved it as he waved bye to her as she walked back to her car after dropping something off at our door. :) What a sweet memory.

Aftyn learned how to snap. Oh snap. Now she does it all the time.  Bronwyn wants to figure it out REALLY bad so I'm sure she will quickly follow suit.

I bought a used double jogging stroller this week, and so on Friday we took it to the park for the free lunch that they serve there during the summer. My girls rode their scooters that I just got last week at a garage sale all the way there! They were so proud of themselves and in all it was such a fun adventure!!