French

Brianna loves learning French and is doing a great job at it. I'm glad that we went with the French program. She sang in school. Did really well, although I think she may be mumbling at times.

 

 

I've been busy

I hadn't realized it had been so long. Here is a really quick look back over the last few months in a random order.

Alyson
She crawled and now walks. Loves strawberry milk. Has started hitting David when he gets close. Loving her bed hair.

David
Everything in our fish room survived a two hour attempt to toilet train. It has been over a month since he has spit in my face. He loves his rolling game. He loves his costume.

Mikayla
I think she is speaking clearer. She grew sunflowers in our front yard. She has stopped bringing potato bugs inside. She is as darling as ever.

Brianna
 She loves learning French. She is wonderful being the oldest.

 

Me
Has realized a benefit to cold weather. No more bugs in the house. And van. I have a nook. Oh my, there are so many free books. Good thing or I could easily put our family in financial ruin. Yep, I just admitted to my real time suck.

My Honey
Working. Made a Santa sweater.

This year has been good. Christmas was good. However, I always look forward to a new year. As if the ending of one year is the ending of a chapter. And a new year brings fresh pages to fill.

The Dress and more

During my fourth pregnancy I bought a dress, on clearance for a dollar. Because one always needs more baby dresses. I loved the dress and was planning on using it for spring earlier this year and bought 12m size. So many plans. Plans that changed. My parents saw it and questioned why I had it in the D.I. pile. I reasoned that it would fit during the wrong seasons. They replied that Alyson could still wear it in December. It was then packed away.

 They saw it as just a dress. I saw so much more. I saw what I longed for, prayed for, and then lost. A painful reminder.

The dress eventually ended up hanging in the closet. Months it hung there, reminding me of other plans I had dreamed of. Until a couple of weeks ago I decided that Alyson was going to wear the dress and I would be okay. And I was.

Allie in the dress

The dress was thrown into the laundry and forgotten. While folding laundry I pulled it out of the basket expecting to feel the anxiety I always felt when touching the dress, but instead I immediately felt peace. It felt good. While folding the dress I noticed that it was not a 12m size, but an 18 month size (I had thought the dress was really big on her, but she is only eight months old). Tears came quickly. What an incredible tender mercy to receive. I may still get to use the dress during a spring like I had planned.

In other news, we have been busy enjoying the summer. Which is why it has been two months since my last post.  We have enjoyed many trips to Hogle Zoo.

A skunk in our back yard.

And a trip to the Dinosaur Park with cousins.

So many other things are going on too. We are also working hard on finishing our basement.

Fatal!?!

We have known for a while that Mikayla is allergic to pollock (fish sticks), but not the severity. But that has changed. End of March Mikayla decided to eat a very small bit of a fish stick and we were forced to address the issue.

It is bad. And will only get worse with each exposure. Every exposure for the rest of her life, she will have to get emergency medical help. For FISH STICKS! Fish sticks can potentially be fatal for Mikayla. Smile, go ahead. I think its funny.

I was talking to the pediatrician about her reaction and she gave me the best advice ever. Such profound wisdom I would have never thought of on my own. Avoidance. Just don't buy fish sticks any more. Problem solved. At our house and around me. But what about at school or other people's houses?

Wow. I think I would rather teach her that she is allergic to fish sticks and that they are made out of pollock, so she shouldn't eat them because this will happen if you do. I wonder what the allergist will suggest.

There is a part of me that wants to really laugh at the situation and use sarcasm. Oh, wait I do. Because its fish sticks. How common is pollock? Most people don't even know what pollock is. But I have a deep gratitude for it being pollock instead of something else much more common.

Firsts

He is my first kid to actually want me and make me do his hair every day. My girls much prefer the unkempt look.

 Mikayla had her first day of school! She is so excited and happy to be going. She goes afternoon while Brianna does morning, so I make a lot of trips to the school. We're really hopeful this helps her speech quickly.

Alyson is now sitting at the table during dinner time and we love sitting there as a family with her. She loves to eat baby food table food and stars. she is so cute.

February

Things that happened in February...

David ate sidewalk chalk and then threw it up everywhere.

Brianna made Rapunzel dolls out of paper and ribbon during one of their 'craft' times. She did it all on her own. I was very impressed with her creativity.

David is a huge help. He likes to spin cousin's bottle.

Mikayla had an ear infection. Had one last February and the one before and the one before she was born.

Ben painted the cabinets which now look fabulous.

I was able to wear a pair of single digit pants. Which means one option is true.

          a. I've lost weight
          b. They now size pants differently
          c. They really are to small and I will most likely rip my seat. At the zoo. In front of the biggest crowd ever.

I'm thinking C.

And Alyson with a little support is sitting like a champ. She is adorable.

I really need something to happen or a moment to think something worth blogging about.
Any ideas?

The Big 3

Here is baby girl at 3 months old!

She is an amazing little girl. With a fabulous personality that we love.

And she spits up a lot.

And here are the other kids at three months. Hee hee!

Busy

I have been very busy lately. Mostly working on these...

I did this project completely unaware of how long crocheting really takes.

After weeks of working on them I finished.

And my reward...

ONE load of laundry on Saturday!

The girls wore them all week and wouldn't wear anything else.

I have also been busy helping Ben with his projects. Which are looking fabulous.

And we are absolutely loving our little baby Alyson. So much that we quickly forget to take pictures.

a house is not a home

My super amazing woman took an ugly old  wreath and turned it into something awesome! I love my creative wife and all the ways she comes up with to make our house our home.