February Catch Up

The end of February already? This year is already flying by. Here's the pictures you didn't see in the other posts: 

We love child labor because one, it's free, and two, our kids appear to be really happy when they do dishes. 

 This winter has been unseasonably warm, but I think Makayla was getting a little ahead of herself here. Or, she understands this importance of water safety.

 Sometimes when we don't have time to do the bedtime routine we compromise by telling our kids they can fall asleep in our bed. Brynnli even joined in on the fun for this night.

 Our handsome little man cheering on Brynnli while she eats

 The kids struggle to look at the camera at the same time

 But this little cutie always looks at the camera... and always sticks her tongue out.

 And of course the kids' favorite part each night is Daddy reading them stories! Daddy might love it more than they do (even if he does fall asleep mid stories). Plus he does a really great Mickey Mouse voice.

Some cute sayings of the kids this month include: 

• One night we were getting ready to eat dinner and Caden started freaking out because we didn't say a prayer. He screamed, "We have to say the prayer, because if we don't say the prayer Jesus will be so sad!" 
• Speaking of praying, the kids like to say the prayer before dinner. They are very thankful, and say things like, "thank you for these plates, and thank you for this fork, thank you for this house." It's pretty cute. 
• Caden told us, "When it's spring time, we get to go to Hanna Land and I can pee on a rock!" Set your sights high little man.
• Speaking of Caden, he is now totally potty trained. After one time going to the bathroom he said as he flushed, "good bye poopies; I wov you!"

Brynnli's First Food

This sweet baby girl got to celebrate 5 months by having her first taste of real food (well if you can call oatmeal with breast milk as real food). I've been thinking she was ready for food for a few weeks now, but she had to wait until she was officially 5 months old.

 Good news, she LOVED it! Here's proof

Yea for our little girl growing up!

5 Months!

Happy 5 Months to the happiest little girl around!

At five months old, Brynnli:

• Just started eating baby oatmeal, and she loves it!
• Is sleeping through the night again after a rough few weeks when she was sick and picked up some bad habits of waking up and wanting to eat multiple times each night.  
• Getting more consistent with her naps. 
• Still loves bath time. 
• Always sticks her tongue out like a little puppy. 
• Still wearing some 3 month clothes, but is moving into 6 month clothes. 
• Rolls over all the time and is getting so close to crawling. She will get up on all fours and rock. 
• Loves Makayla and Caden. Sometimes when she's fussy, I will ask Makayla and Caden to make her happy, and once they go over by her, she is happy again (until they smother her).
• Has several nicknames: Brynnie-Bear (mom), Brynnie-goos and Brynnsbee (dad), Brynn-Brynn (Caden), and Little Cutie Pie (Makayla). 
• Is still the happiest and best baby around.

We love our little girl so much! But please stop getting so big, so fast!

Remember that time...

Hey remember that one time Brynnli had a huge blowout and literally the only thing I had to change her into was her new swimsuit? She went to dinner and the furniture store wearing it because there was no way we were going to ruin our date night to go home and get her real clothes. #swimsuitsinfebruary #atleastshelookedcute

Cupid's Cuties

We got to spend the whole day with our cuties this year on Valentine's day. We started out in the morning with a little gift for everyone. The kids got a swimsuit and play doh, Tyler got a cookie cake (well it was really a combined Valentine's and birthday cake), and I got a cute decoration for the basement. 

 Tyler made us heart shaped pink pancakes. He put our initial on each one so that we wouldn't get confused at which pancake was ours.

 And this adorable little girl got to celebrate her very first Valentine's day! We love this little girl so much.

 Especially when she's all dressed up in her cute outfit.

We spent the day shopping for decorations for our basement and then had dinner at our new neighborhood Culvers. We ended the night with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Thomas who stopped by with come cookies and presents for the kids.  Nothing too exciting, but it was a great day with my adorable family!

Happy Valentine's day from Cupid's Cuties!

The Randomness of January

So January was really busy. We had a lot of fun events, but here's some pictures that didn't make it into our other posts: 

I can't figure out how to get this picture to go the right way, but it is too cute to not post. 

I love taking Brynnli to church. I absolutely love getting her dressed up, and I love that she gets to hang out with me for two hours during Relief Society and Sunday School, just the two of us (and the rest of the people who stare at her adorableness... yes, it is a word).

 Makayla is now in Sunbeams and she LOVES it!

On the first day, her teachers came and told us that she was so good and was answering all the questions. They also told us that she volunteers to say the prayers every time. I have to wonder how that goes since we have never taught her how to pray,  but she must be catching on because she tells us we need to say the prayer all the time. Last night we were having banana bread and she said the following in her prayer, "Heavenly Father, Cheezits Christ, thank you for this day, thank you for banana bread, and thank you for plates. Amen." I was trying so hard not to laugh!

Makayla has also become our moral compass. Every time I get mad at her or Caden, she tells me, "Heavenly Father is so mad at you because you are being mean to us. You need to be nice and then Cheezits will like you." Thanks Makayla for keeping us all on track.

Caden is in nursery by himself, and he is struggling with it a little bit. He relies on Makayla a lot, and now that she's in Sunbeams, he doens't know what to do without his best friend. Every time we start driving to church, Caden starts crying and tells me, "I will be scared in my room." It breaks my heart every time I have to leave him there, and I can hear him crying the whole way as I am walking to Relief Society. But every time we pick him up, he is always so happy and so proud of the picture he colored. As hard as it is to leave him, I think it is really good to help him get some confidence.

Speaking of Caden, this should come as no shock: Caden is a picky eater. He rarely eats what I make for dinner. Some days we pretend to be strict parents, and we tell him he can't leave the dinner table until he finishes his dinner... so he falls asleep on his chair.

 I know, we are mean parents.

Makayla got a bike for Christmas and Daddy taught her how to ride it. It took her a few times to get it, but now she's pro!

 Brynnli is so lucky because she has the greatest brother and sister to watch over her. They are always so good to make sure Brynnli has everything she needs. They still like to hold her all the time, and they still smother her a lot. In fact, I think I have to say at least once a day, "Caden, get out of Brynnli's face!" or "She doesn't like it when you lay on her!"

 Plus Makayla and Caden are so nice to share their toys. We all had a good laugh at this one.

 Snuggles with Daddy! FYI, have I mentioned that Brynnli is now rolling? She can roll both ways now. She obviously didn't get the memo that said she had to stay three months forever. I'm really struggling with the fact that she has to grow up.

 Just being adorbs (Yes, that's a real word, too)

 One night Tyler was helping the kids get ready for bed while I was getting Brynnli down. When I was done I came out to see this. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.

 Pretending to be sad

 Brynnli is loving her new hand-me-down toys. Love her huge smile!

 Yep, 2015 is off to a great start! January was busy, but we love our busy lives... even if it leaves us feeling like this:

A Frozen Event

Since about June of last year, Makayla has told me she wants an "Elsa and Anna party" for her birthday. In fact, Makayla has her birthday parties planned out for the next five years. I told her before we get too ahead of ourselves, we need to focus on one party at a time, so we started planning her Frozen 4th birthday. 

Do you know the great thing about Tyler? I tell him what theme we have in mind, and he comes up with all the great details to make it perfect. To get us in the Frozen spirit, Tyler came up with (aka looked on the internet) for all these ideas. We had the drink and cupcake table set up with Frozen icy blue drink, and a pitcher of water with a sign of Olaf that said, "Some people are worth melting for." Get it? The snowman melted into a pitcher of water.

 On the main table we had a picture of Makayla when we were in Disneyland and she met Elsa and Anna, plus some marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate chips, and orange tic-tacks with a sign that said, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

 On the tables we had M and M's with a sign that said, "I want to stuff some chocolate in my face"

 and this one with Hershey Kisses that said, "A kiss to melt a Frozen heart."

 If you've seen the movie a million times like we have, you totally get all of these, but if you haven't seen the movie, just smile like you think it's cute.

The rest of the basement was decorated as such:

 After dinner we opened presents. Makayla got spoiled again with a lot of Frozen gifts, Tinkerbell toy, Cabbage Patch Kid (named Makayla), and clothes.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for supporting our sweet birthday girl!

 We were about to have cake and ice cream when a special visitor knocked on the door... And you wouldn't believe it, but it was Elsa herself!

 She crowned Makayla as a special princess, then talked to all the kids about her special powers

 Then she sang "Let it go"

 After that she took time to take pictures with all the kids.

 Makayla was really shy of Elsa through the whole thing, but since then she has been telling me and every person, "I can't believe Elsa came to my birthday party!"

 Hannah and Brynnli posed with Elsa

 And Caden looks just thrilled. He really was, but he was just scared of her.

 To end our fun Frozen party, we sang Happy Birthday to Makayla and she got to blow out the candle on her Elsa cupcake.

Happy Birthday Makayla! Hope you loved your Frozen party. Now it's time to start planning your 5th birthday.