The Smily One

Yep, that pretty much sums up Grace. She always has a smile on her face. Even when she is in trouble. Which sometimes makes this mom a little bit annoyed, but for the most part, we love that smile.

She also talks. A lot. One of these days I'm going to have to get a recording of her talking, because she just goes nonstop. Half the time she makes up words so as not to have to pause to think of one that will work. If you listen to her though, you would think she knows exactly what she is talking about. She is very convincing. Her prayers are the best.

Grace can be the girliest of girls one minute and then be a total tomboy the next. She loves to play Pokemon, and Beyblade fighting games with her brothers. She also loves tea parties and all thing princess. Everything is lovely and beautiful. Walking home from church with Ryan the other day she said, " Oh, what a beautiful day, the sun and the breeze make it perfect, I just need to take it all in!"

(First day of preschool Sept. 2014, she posed for me about 100 different ways. Oh and side note, she only made it about 4 days before she decided she hated preschool and we quit)

She loves to play soccer like her big brothers and can't wait for her soccer games on Saturdays. She also can't wait until she can have Soccer practice during the week. She always complains that only the boys get to have practice. While the boys complain about having to go to practice.

(Ready for her first soccer game)

She has a lot of energy. She's my little fire cracker. You know when I first found out I was having a girl after my two boys, a lot of people told me how much easier girls were. How they are calm and just sit and read books all day. I was really looking forward to that after my busy busy boys. Grace has outdone them in just about every way. From climbing and getting into things to attitude and disobedience. We are struggling a little right now with her listening. She just thinks she can do whatever she wants, even if Mom or Dad are telling her to stop. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon.

Grace and Faith have a really sweet relationship. They both really love each other. Ty and Cody have always had a little bit of sibling rivalry between them, but so far the girls are really sweet to each other. They will both give loves to the other if they are hurt or sad. 

This girl LOVES horses. She has claimed our horse Valentina as her own, even though Valentina really isn't broke enough for Grace to ride her. She loves to brush her and give her grain and sometimes, even though it scared me to death, Ryan will let her ride her while he holds onto the lead rope. Her first birthday party, when she turned 3, we brought the horses to our house and gave all the kids a ride around the circle. Then the next year she wanted to do that again, but we only do parties every other year. On the off year she is supposed to invite someone to go somewhere fun. She chose to take her two cousins up to see the horses.

(Sitting on and brushing her beloved Valentina)

We sure love this smily little girl. She has brought a lot of joy and girly girl and energy to our lives. There is so much more I could write about this crazy little thing but we'll leave it at that for now. I love you Grace Mary.

The Quiet One

 

Meet Cody.

If you ask Cody a question, he probably won't answer, and it doesn't seem to make him feel awkward or uncomfortable to sit there and stare at you while not answering. He's talented like that. Sometimes I pull out my hair trying to get him to speak up and use his words to tell me what he is feeling. He is incredibly stubborn. 

He has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen, and I still catch him rubbing his eyebrows when he gets nervous or scared like he used to do as a baby. He is creative, and could spend all day drawing pictures and cutting things out. If he doesn't have something he wants, he'll make it out of paper. He's made costumes, Ipod's, pokemon cards, dolls for Faith and much more. He would rather draw and create then watch TV or play video games.

He loves legos and building things out of wood. I get scrap pieces of wood from home depot and I got a little tool box full of things the kids can use and during the summer he is always building things in the driveway. He is not so fond of cleaning up that mess. In fact, he is not a fan of cleaning up really at all. He tries my patience everyday when it comes to getting his jobs done. He is a perfectionist and hates to make a mistake. 

Cody loves all fruit, but not so much veggies. He will eat a whole container of raspberries from Costco if I leave them on the counter. He also loves sweets, and is often found sneaking into the cupboards to get them. Cody is a muscle man and at six years old has the best abs in the family. (No offense Ryan) He is really good at soccer and an awesome swimmer. If he could get the courage up to do swim team, I think he would rock it!

He is loving Kindergarten, mostly because of a super rad teacher, and is getting to be a great little reader. He loves his baby sister more than anything, and if I counted how many kisses he gives to Faith in a day I bet it would be in the 100's. 

This sweet boy is going to test my strength as a mother. I struggle to figure him out some days. He can go from the sweetest, most pleasant kid one minute, to an angry, stubborn kid the next. I'm still trying to figure out what causes the switch. It will be my challenge throughout his life. Hopefully I can do things right.

This is my boy. I kind of love him a lot.

The Goof Ball

Meet Ty.

Ty has the most infectious laugh of anyone I know. I dare you to try not to crack a smile when he starts giggling about something. Sometimes I tease him that when he gets into one of his giggling moods, I could say anything and he would laugh his head off. So then I say something like fire cracker, and he goes into a hysterical laugh for the next 5 minutes. It's pretty funny.

He is not shy or intimidated by anyone. When we go to restaurants or to the library he wants to order for himself or ask the librarian where to find a book. Well unless he wants a Barbie flavored snow cone from Bob's brainfreeze, then he asks me to order it for him.

He makes friends easily and likes to be called Ty Ty Tastic at school. He also enjoys hot lunch from the school cafeteria, even when I beg him to let me make him a cold lunch. I've often wondered if I should be offended by that. I mean if my cold lunch isn't as good as the hot lunches I remember growing up, I must really suck at cooking. We've compromised by letting him choose two days a week to have hot lunch and I make him a lunch the rest of the week.

If Ty could play video games all day everyday he would be in heaven. It all started when I was put on bed rest in the beginning of my pregnancy with Grace and thought it would be a good idea to play Mario together. It may have been a mistake. He was four and thought it was the greatest thing ever, and from that point on was either playing Mario on the Wii, or playing Mario in real life. He told everyone his name was Mario for the next two years.

He also enjoys soccer and tae kwon do. He gets straight A's in school without having to work very hard. He does have to work a little harder on the citizenship stuff. He likes the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and all things Pokemon. He recently turned 8 and chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a pretty special day.

He has a soft spot for his mom (most the time) and is a little more defiant with his dad. Although tonight he threw me a curve ball and wouldn't do a thing I asked and got sent to bed. I went in to talk to him about it later and he was doing the poor me, nobody likes me and I'm going to run away bit that I think every kid does at some point in their life. I know I did it. I felt like it was one of those moments in motherhood when I could say something really profound and he would realize how silly those thoughts are and change his attitude. One of those moments he would look back on time and time again and say wow, my mom really knew what she was talking about. Instead I think I got another check on the mommy fail card.

I won't go into all the details but one of the highlights was me saying "If you think life is so much easier and you won't have any jobs to do out on the streets then why don't you go try it out." and he said, "Can you set up the tent and get me a sleeping bag?"

This is my boy. I kind of love him a lot.

Brand New

 These pictures were taken on November 4th 2013. My baby girl was almost 2 weeks old. I cry when I look at them because she has grown WAY too fast!  Introducing Faith J

Hospital

I love everything about having a baby! One of my favorite things is getting to spend two days in the hospital, just me and my baby. It is such a special time. This was the first time they offered to have a photographer come in and take some pictures of us. With the boys they just snapped a picture of them after their bath, and Grace didn't get anything. I thought the idea of getting some pictures of Faith was great, but I said there was no need to get Ryan and I in it. They insisted though, and I unwillingly participated. I felt so silly.

Surprisingly, they actually turned out pretty cute and I'm glad I agreed to do it. They only charge you an arm and a leg to get them, and I'm a sucker and paid for them. I think one day I'll be happy I did.These were taken right before we came home, Friday October 25, 2013.

 The monster size hospital sheet they wrapped her in makes her look HUGE! She was actually so so tiny.