Liesel's growing up.

Liesel is a big girl now. It blows me away as I watch her interact with her friends. Someone came up to me and said, "That one is a leader right there." To which I thought, "if by leader you mean she bosses everyone and everything, that would be correct." haha... not but really, she loves to be the boss. I have been trying to teach her to let Hannah and her friends choose what they will say and do during a game. She does seem to have this element of adventure to her personality that is charismatic, but she is a self-proclaimed shy girl around new people.

She has been working so hard at learning to read and has made incredible strides lately. She sounds out words very well and actually enjoys her reading lessons. Today I wasn't planning on doing one since it was Sunday, but she opened her book and did it herself for fun. She loves reading the simple two-sentence stories with the cartoon below. She will sometimes run up to me with a word she's figured out how to sound out. I'm not going to lie, teaching her this life skill has been so rewarding for me. 

Liesel loves to jump on the trampoline. She will beg me and Brian to go outside with her and jump all the time. We usually do. Last week Owen and Henley came over and they played on the trampoline for about two hours. Her friend Henley spent the night on Friday night because our friends Holly and David are moving and their whole house was packed. Liesel and Hannah loved it so much and stayed up for forever giggling.

She rides a two wheeler like a champ now. She and Owen were so far ahead of us at one point on the mountain bike ride that I was worried. We went bouldering this week and she completely disregarded me when I told her to wait her turn to climb the boulder since I was spotting another child. She climbed right past me. Ugh.

About a week ago I decided to head up to ISKY before Brian heads to FLETC so the kids could see where he works and we could say hello. We climbed whale rock and as we were eating our lunch on top of the rock, Liesel spit something hard in her hand. She realized it was her tooth and got so excited. She was on cloud 9 the rest of the day, smiling at passing hikers with her bottom jaw pushed out so they would notice her new gap. She killed the tooth pretending to be an animal while eating popcorn at preschool about a month ago and we'd been waiting for it to fall out ever since. 

Liesel has a remarkable memory. I'm always surprised at the events and things she remembers. She has been very diligent in praying for uncle Kevin. She asked a lot of questions about cancer.

I love this girl.  

Hannah and her antics.

Every single day she is the first to wake up. She goes right to Felicity's room and opens the door. Which wakes Felicity up and then Hannah shouts to the whole house that Felicity is awake!! This drives me nuts. I really can't stand that she wakes this poor sleeping baby up every day, but with no lock I really can't stop it. 

Hannah is religious about her morning chart. Often she won't even appear in my bedroom until she's dressed, gone potty, brushed teeth and said her prayer. Speaking of getting dressed, I have finally realized that half of her pants are considered "too big" by her standards. Any pants that have a wide leg (that don't taper close to her ankle) are considered too big. Lucky for her, skinny is all the fashion. ;) 

The other day I was playing with her on a rare morning where she didn't do her morning chart. We were playing in the dollhouse and she jumps up suddenly and says, "I gonna go brush my teef betuz that stinky air keeps going in and out and in and out." 

She really fixates on things she thinks are gross and her look of disgust is HILARIOUS. I mean, if you looked up the definition of disgust in the dictionary there would be Hannah's picture making this face. I was talking to her the other day and she looks at me with disgust and says, 'Mommy, der's a really yucky string of spit going from this lip (points to top) to this lip (points to bottom) on your mouf." She looked genuinely grossed-out. 

It is absolutely impossible to make Hannah do something. If you want this child to shut down, scream, hit and growl, tell her she has to do X. Every time it happens all I can think in my head is "fifteen. . . fifteen. . .fifteen." 

We were reading the Book of Mormon before bed the other night and we got to the part where they talk about Laman, Lemuel and their wives etc dancing and speaking with much rudeness. When I asked the girls what they thought that meant, Hannah in all seriousness says, "Dey were dancing in der undies saying "naked bum-bum" and stuff like dat." Yep, Hannah. That's exactly right. Of course I had to turn and look the other way so she wouldn't see me cracking up (laughing at her is a capitol offense!!!)

She is my little sous chef. I know if I'm cooking something (especially a really yummy something like today's mud cookies) those little feet with pad over, she'll grab a chair with both hands and push it wherever I am. Observing, stirring, pouring and tasting. If it is something "bee-yah!" (remember that face of disgust? Insert here) then she'll be there to tell me how unhappy she is that I'm making it. She is pretty darn good at peeling cucumbers, carrots and sweet potatoes. She holds the mixer for forever. And I can count on her to crack a darn good egg and remove all shells. And to steel copious amounts of cheese, apple etc. 

We played soccer outside today as a family. She is a good little athlete when she feels like it. We went on a 3 mile mountain bike ride-- one with several rocks, bumps and elevation for a 3-year-old. She did pretty darn well despite telling me her arms and legs were so so tired at the end. When Brian and I left to go mountain biking last night on our date, she was upset that she couldn't come because she "really likes mountin biking guys."

She's independent. She's a nurturer. She's always taking care of her babies in such a cute way. When I push the foot to make it cry, she smiles and bounces her up and down while patting her back. It's the most darling thing to see a toddler baby a baby doll. She also draws sicknesses on her and wacks her head against the bedpost, though. :) The other day she wanted to help Felicity say her prayer at night. It was so sweet. 

We went to a restaurant high up on a cliff that overlooks town called The Sunset Grill for a fundraiser for an acquaintance who has brain cancer. She was so impressed with the restaurant and had such a good time eating her giant plate of spaghetti that she told me today, "Dat tree in front of our house is so so big. Dey need to cut it down betuz I can't see the Sunset Grill and I LOVE da Sunset Grill! It's so so beautiful." 

I love this boo and live for her hugs. She honestly makes me laugh every day. 

This child is so strong willed. And  confident. And endearing. She seriously has everyone in primary cracking up every week with her comments and participation. She is adorable. She makes us laugh all the time. 

Felicity at 10 months

My littlest pumpkin is over 10 months old. She's so close to that one year birthday and the just seems impossible. I love watching my kids grow up and getting to know who they are. Their personalities really seem to blossom as they exit the baby stage, but it is still bittersweet. 

I would still describe Felicity as patient, darling and sensitive. But I she is more determined when she really wants something than any of my other babies. She goes to strangers easily and charms them with her big blue eyes and sweet smile. She has loved having more independence crawling around the house and yard. She loves the chickens. She loves being outside. If the girls are out there, she'll crawl to the door and paw at it trying to get outside. 

Daddy loves little Felicity too. He looks for chances to hold her and play with her and is so sad he'll miss so many firsts this year: first words, first steps, first birthday. . .thank goodness for FaceTime or it would really be depressing. Brian is a good dad and has spent more time with Felicity feeding, changing and caring for her than probably any of the others because of my business. He likes to make sure Felicity feels like part of our family and will always include her. 

She is my worst sleeper. She naps for abut 45mins at a time and about twice a day. 

Felicity is already trying to pull up on stuff and climb the stairs. She is getting two new top teeth. She loves bottles, but still nurses twice a day (morning and night). She always falls asleep nursing at night and I love it. She''ll have to be done by the time Brian leaves for FLETC because it's really hard to put them all down by myself with her still nursing. 

Watching her clap is the cutest. She loves for me to crawl after her and try and get her. She has no interest in baby toys, but will play with all non-baby toys. She loves toothbrushes. Felicity also loves her sisters. I can sometimes put her in the room with them and they will all play together. Liesel is very kind to her and I've never seen her get really mad or hurt her-- even when Felicity has chewed to pieces a beloved picture she drew for mommy or at preschool (which happens too often). Hannah is very sweet with her also and Felicity is the first person she visits every morning. She's always bringing her things or offering to feed her. They both keep an eye out for her with choke able objects. In fact, I called a sitter to remind her that Felicity could crawl and choke on things about 5 mins after I left and she told me the girls already let her know. 

She eats just about everything, but her favorite foods are:

Bananas

Beans (she is a bean vacuum) 

Milk

Pears

Cheese

and dirt and rocks. 

I love my baby Felicity. I'm excited to see all the new things she'll learn and do this year!

How could I not?

How could I not take 1 million photos of these cuties?

Skied with Brian today. It snowed last night and all morning and the road up the mountain wasn't plowed. We eventually couldn't go any farther, so we ended up skiing on the road and up a different canyon. Skiing is hard work. My thighs seriously feel like they're on fire (probably because I'm a terrible skier), but I LOVE it. Being outside with Brian makes me so happy. Leslie watched all three kids for us. Such a blessing to have someone like that. You'd think all moms would want to swap to maintain sanity, hobbies, romance in their marriage etc-- but it's hard to find.  

Hannah and Felicity both went to bed at 5:30pm with slight fevers. I had to leave mid-toast and split pea soup to put them down. This meant an FHE lesson with just Liesel. She was on cloud 9 getting all the attention from mom and dad and insisted on sitting between both of us.

We worked on taxes today. There is something so satisfying about organizing your finances. It's quite a bit of work going through my business and figuring out miles, receipts, childcare etc. but it's rewarding.

Brian and his buddies decided to counter our girls-only-bookclub with a boys-only-guys night. There have been two activities so far: a polar bear swim where they chainsawed a hole into the frozen lake and jumped into the 33* water. The video is hilarious and Brian came home pretty darn happy. They watched Guardians of the Galaxy on the other BOSSE (which stands for something like Boys Sophomoric Exploits?). Their next activity will be a bomb-fire. Make small bombs (nothing illegal) and throw them into the fire. Hmmmm. Sounds more exciting than book club. 

Made Indian food on Sunday and invited two families over from the ward: the Olsens and the Clarks. There were like 10 kids here. The Clarks have two boys, 13 and 8-years-old. I thought they would be miserable with all of the younger kids but they totally just played. The 13-year-old was King and they made a jail. L got thrown in because she refused to bow to the king. She later confessed she cried and another girl let her out-- but even with this little episode, she still declared it, "the funnest night EVER!" The girls were so wired after playing that they stayed up for another 1.5hrs laughing in bed. It was a great night. 

I've been enjoying a lot of little things lately:

giving baths 

Hannah's squishy little hugs

Felicity's nursing sessions that are now so few and far between 

peed in beds at night and little voices that come to tell me

jumping on the trampoline

Brian coming home from work

watching Felicity eat dirt and crawl around the yard

Liesel getting off the bus each day with her giant grin

making something new for dinner

the chance to think when it's quiet

Podcasts

Chicken's that have produced eggs all winter

I finally got around to taking 5, 3 and 10-month-old portraits of the girls.