Catching up

I'm so behind on blog posts! I'm afraid I'll forget current stuff, so I'll just jump in here, and try to catch up later.

We thought about building a house for a couple of months. We found a lot that was right in the area we wanted, plus it was owned by my uncle, so we didn't have to purchase it right away. We met with the architect many times, and he delivered our official plans to us. We then went to the builder, and realized that what we wanted was going to cost more than we could afford. Plus, we would still have to put in sprinklers, grass, yard, etc. We decided it wasn't for us, at this time. Then, while talking to the contractor, Jimmy, (who happens to be my cousin--and has been talking about moving for a couple of years now), I told him we would buy his house. He gave me this weird look and asked "What makes you say that?".  I thought I had offended him, but it turns out he had just mentioned to his wife the night before that they should sell their house to us! Crazy.
So right now, our house is up for sale, and we are planning on buying Jimmy's house, provided we can sell this one. The first week we had showings every day, 2 on a couple of days.  It was so hard. We felt like we weren't home at all, and the girls were being really moody. Our schedule was all messed up, and we didn't eat dinner at home for 5 or 6 days.
This second week has been slower. Only 2 on Wednesday. We got an offer last Saturday, but it was pretty low, and they wouldn't come up to the range we are wanting. I know everything will work out how it is supposed to. I've always felt that way about changing houses. I know that we were blessed to have my uncle offer his property, because if it had been anyone else, we would have had to purchase it, and then we would be stuck. Also, everything in Jimmy's life is pointing toward him leaving, but we had to spend the time making house plans so we could be in the same time range as Jimmy's family.

Annalisa is so talkative! It's funny, because when I brought her in for her 18 month checkup, the doctor thought she wasn't using enough words, so he referred us to "Early Intervention".  Some ladies came to our house and asked questions, and observed Anna. Then they took a hearing test, just to rule that out for sure. Her hearing was perfect. They both said they thought she was right on track, and that I didn't have anything to worry about. And sure enough, just 3 months later, she is talking up a storm! She can say so many things. Her favorites are: Kaygee (Katie) Eena (Elayna) Daddy, Mommy, me!, Anna! meow? (cat), ruff ruff, (dog), ball, baba (bottle), and nigh nigh (night night-bedtime).  She can usually correctly label yellow and white, plus she normally will wait for us to say a color, and if it is wrong, she will pause for a minute, then say "no!"
When we pass by Wendy's she says "Eat?". Obviously we eat there way too often. She is just so observant. She is also OCD. She really likes things in their places and throws a fit if you don't let her fix it. For a while there, my poor Mother couldn't leave her glasses or phone lying around anywhere, because Annlisa would bring them to her saying, "uh? uh?".  It can be cute, and bothersome.

Elayna is just finishing Preschool. She will go to Kindergarten in the fall.  She knows all her letters, their sounds, colors, shapes. She is trying to sound out words and understand concepts better. She still loves being read to, playing with Barbies, playing with friends. She has become more responsible for Annalisa, which helps me out. She loves her sisters very much. She loves playing with her "friends" (they are all her cousins) Gracie, Sadie, and Celeste.
Elayna can say the funniest things. Just last night, while I was putting her in bed, she said, "Mom? One day, when no one has work or school, and the house is all clean, you know what I want to do?"    "What?"
"I want to do something so fun. Like make candy and play games all day!"  She just has such a wonderful way of phrasing things so they are hilarious.

Katie is finishing up 1st grade. She has grown up so much this year, it is amazing! Her reading abilities are fantastic. But she still likes me to read her stories. She is reading "Harry Potter" with Ryan, "The Secret Garden" with Bowman's, and "Secret of the Attic" series books with me. She loves chapter books, as they are called.
Katie wants to be climbing trees, riding her bike, and playing with friends. She is a wonderfully responsible girl. If I get up to get them breakfast, she usually tells me to go back to bed so she can feed them. That could be because we tend to let them watch some shows Saturday mornings while we sleep in. :)
She loves to play with her sisters. She is very tender hearted. If she doesn't get a good night kiss from someone, she gets all sad. Of course, she gets sad about quite a few things, which can be taxing. But she is a girl, and drama has to be a part of her life, I suppose.

Our Church ward was just split up, because the wards were too big. When the ward is too big, people start feeling as though they aren't needed, because there aren't that many callings or responsibilities for everyone. This way, with a smaller ward, everyone should be able to have a job and feel that they are contributing to the ward family. We were put in the 5th ward, but when we buy Jimmy's house, we will be in the 19th ward, with my parents.

Ryan is still working at Westring Technologies, under the umbrella company of Rocky Mountain ATV/MC. He helps with a couple of different websites. He still enjoys collecting toys. He gets to hang out with his cousin, Derek, once a week, and they talk about toys, movies, etc. He is enjoying not being the choir pianist for the first time in 20 years. He is so talented, he gets put into piano jobs in every ward we are in.

I have been pretty busy trying to get the house ready to sell. We filled our garage halfway with stuff that we moved out of the house, to make it feel roomier. Then my Mom came over and helped me decorate it so it looks large and spacious. We are currently borrowing quite a few things from her house. I'm trying to get spring yard cleaning done. It's funny, once the house was really to list on the market, it was clean, and we didn't mess it up much. House cleaning is pretty quick. I feel like I have a little bit of extra time on my hands. I still have a reminder on my phone that goes off every day so I remember to actually fix dinner though.

We are all healthy and happy. Life is good. We are very blessed!

Halloween 2012

Katie, in her Princess Leia costume, when she was 2: 

Elayna, same costume:

Annalisa, same costume:

We got a lot of use from that costume. They are all pretty cute!!


Cousins!

This is her scary witch face: 

This is Elayna's witch face: 

Painting (using markers, actually) Pumpkins:

Ryan's Transformer image:

Katie's pirate pumpkin. I love her winking eye to match the pumpkin.  

Ryan's Batman image on the opposite side: 

Elayna's pirate pumpkin. Again, love the wink! 

GG had a tea party for these 4 girls. They had fun playing with the little dishes and little food. 

Annalisa got to come too, but she wanted to eat on the floor: 

Home Improvements

In August, we had a bad windstorm. It took a lot of our shingles off. It was suggested that we talk to our Home Owners Insurance. They sent out a claims adjuster and our insurance sent us a check. We had a roofer come give us a bid. To have the entire roof removed and new shingles put back on was pricey. But the roofer did a bid with just putting new shingles over the old ones, which he said would still last 40 years. That bid was just under the amount of the check the insurance sent us. So, we got a new roof for free!! (Our Homeowners only went up about $100 per year, so it worked out well)

Old roof (ready to be re-shingled):

I

                 New roof:

 

This kitchen faucet was really cheap when we bought it a couple of years ago. It felt like it would start breaking soon (I'm sure I just wanted a new one, so I was imagining it) so Ryan replaced this faucet:

With this new faucet!! It has a nice brushed finish, so it looks clean most of the time. Plus, it has a sprayer, which I had declined on the old faucet, because I didn't think I would use it. Well, this time I got one, and I don't know how I cleaned without it. It is great.

Since we (Ryan did all the hard work. I just ordered what I wanted) were replacing faucets, I got a new one for the kid's bathroom. This old one was really hard for any child to turn on, and I got tired of having to turn it on and off each time someone went to the bathroom.

So Ryan put this new one in. It is a lot easier for the kids to use. The handle has a tear-drop hole in the handle, and it has a brushed finish that is easy to keep clean. The only disadvantage is that the temperature control is not very fine. It seems to be hot or cold. Oh well, next time...

This is our bookshelf. I painted it yellow years ago, and we keep the girl's books in it. It didn't have any dividers, so the girls couldn't really see what books they had. Which meant we read the same 4 stories over and over because that's all they could see. I was complaining to Ryan about the books always falling on top of each other and all leaning one direction or another. He came up with this fabulous idea. Put dividers in! The girls can now see all the books and it makes it a lot easier for them.

Our old shutters were a pale gray blue color. Which looked fine. I wanted a change, and so we got some dark blue ones instead.

When we took off the old shutters,we found lots and lots of wasp nests. Yuck. Left side of the window:

Right side: (if you click on the picture, it will get bigger and you can see them better)

But this is the final result, and I think it looks nice. Ryan says he can't tell a difference, but he was still so great to put them up and put sealant around them so no more wasps can build nests back there. I think the new shutters brighten the house a little.

This is a new curtain I put on the kitchen sink window:

This is the back wall of our walk in closet. It has some drawers and misc boxes piled on top of them:

I painted some shelves a beautiful deep purple, with white trim:

And I painted the knobs of the dresser the same purple:

This is the new and improved closet.A little color makes everything better.  :)

I'm not sure why I felt I needed to do all these changes. All of the sudden I just felt like things needed to be different. And then Spring came, and I don't worry about the inside of the house as much. I do have a list of things I want to do when it starts getting colder this year though...
Ryan has been great through all these projects. He is always willing to step in and help when I'm at the end of my rope. My hero!

November, part two

Some notes that didn't get put into November's post:


We got a new roof on Nov 7, 2011. There had been some wind damage, and Mom suggested I talk to my homeowner's insurance about it. After they sent out a claims person, and he walked all over our roof, he said they could pay to have the front half of the roof re-shingled. (old shingles off, new ones on)
So we had a roofer come give us a bid, and it turned out that he could just put new shingles over the old ones, and it would all be covered by the amount the insurance was giving us. He said the warranty for 40 years would still be fine, and it would be a great roof, even with old ones underneath.
What a blessing: to get a brand new roof, and not have to pay for it at all!! Of course, our premium will go up, and I won't even know by how much until May, but for now, it seems great!


Katie is so great about helping and wanting to do what is right. Katie is so smart. She is doing so wonderful with reading, and she amazes me with all she learns in school. When I put Katie to bed, she wants me to rub her back and neck and sing "Love One Another". Then she falls asleep almost instantly.

When I put Elayna to bed, she has  a large variety of songs: "Song of a bird" (My Heavenly Father Loves Me), "that one Katie does?" (Love One Another), "Heaven" (I Lived in Heaven),  and "not the heaven one" (My Savior Loves Me). Sometimes she will just say, "think about it Mom" which means I need to list songs until I say the one she wants. After the song, I'll say, "I love you, sweet dreams, sleep well." I repeat it until she smiles or laughs. The last couple of days, after I repeat it, she will say "You only have to say it once Mom".  Then she blinks her eyes at me-which means I need to tickle her with my eyelashes, and she tickles my face with hers. She's fun to put to bed, and she is getting to the point that she almost only needs naps ever other day, or else it is hard to get her to go to sleep.

Annalisa likes to eat some baby food (peas, green beans, or applesauce, for now) mixed with cereal, drink some water, nurse on both sides, AND have about 3 oz formula before she goes to sleep.
Ryan usually gives her the bottle while I get the other two ready for bed. Then Ryan listens for all 3 of them until he comes to bed around 2 am. This helps me sleep so well for the first half of the night. I know Ryan will take care of anything that happens, and I don't have to worry about it.  Annalisa usually sleeps until 6, then goes back to sleep after I nurse her, until about 8 or 830. She'll go back down a little after 9, for 1 and 1/2 or 2 hours. Then she sleeps after lunch also, about 2 hours.  11-10-11


Ryan was released from the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I think he enjoyed being in the Presidency, but he is the Ward Choir Pianist already. Plus, with me being in Young Women's, he can watch the girls while I'm fulfilling my calling. He's so supportive! 11-13-11

Annalisa got her first tooth (bottom) on Thanksgiving Day. 11-24-11.We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We are blessed to have so much family around. We ate at Mickie's house, and ate dessert at my parent's house. We had a wonderful day.


Elayna will say, "What the heck-o?"
Elayna drew on a desk that I was trying to sell.  I was pretty upset about it and made her clean it up. When she told Irma about it later, she said that "Mom was just yelling and yelling and yelling."

Katie and Elayna were in the tub, and they were being noisy. I told them to be quiet because they were right next to the baby. (her room is right by the bathroom) They both gave me blank looks, then Katie said, "well, there is lots of space in between us..."  11-24-11

Ryan put up Christmas lights. We worked and played outside while he was doing that. The weather was so nice and warm. Ryan worked from home so that Katie, Elayna and I could go up and see the Temple Square lights with John, Emma, Irma, Denora, Kelsey, Taylor, Jasmine, Shelise and Lexy.It seemed like it was going to be too much work, but Irma and Ryan convinced me to go, and we had fun. Everyone helped me keep track of the girls, and it was a neat experience. When we got too cold, we would go into the Visitor's Center to warm up. 11-26-11

Dad sang the Bass Solo for the Messiah Sing-a-long again this year. I love going. I love to hear Dad sing, and I love to sing along, with Ryan by my side. 11-27-11

September 2011

Ryan was taking a nap with Annalisa. I went in to check on them, and found them like this:

Irma, Katie and Elayna, at the lake by Palmer's cabin in Fairview:

My cute little boating girls:

Getting rides from Grandpa Jerry and Uncle Matthew:

These are some pictures from when Kristine and Jessica were here from Sept 24-26.  
Aizek, Jessica, and Annalisa. Annalisa is the oldest, then Aizek (6 weeks later), then Jessica (6 weeks after that). Aizek looks so light, and Jessica looks so dark. Their hair color is drastically different also.

Annalisa, Aizek, and Jessica- all in their blessing clothes. I was happy that Annalisa still fit in hers!

Annalisa gave me a "kiss" on Sept 1- she held her mouth open and purposely put her mouth on my cheek, then smiled when I said Thank You! She gets so excited to see us. She squirms and smiles so big. She takes a bottle easily now. She loves "Pattycake". When I called to set up her 4 month appointment, the receptionist asked for her birthday and my mind went completely blank. It took a good 5-10 seconds to even remember what month she was born in. It was pretty embarrassing.

What a cute smile!!

 Annalisa does this funny "belly crunch" to try and sit up, or to see what is going on:

Annalisa went to her 4 month well child checkup Sept 15, 2011. She was 15 lbs, and 26.6 inches long. She is doing really well in everything. She had to have more immunization shots, so she cried, but at least I know she won't die from some crazy horrible disease.

Grabbing those adorable toes:

Annalisa rolled from her stomach to her back at Bowman's house on the 15th. I saw her roll 3 times in a row on Sept 22.  Annalisa loves to "stand", jump, be tickled, have her sisters talk and play with her. She is grabbing things, and loves to watch hands move.

This is Annalisa, starting to roll over: 

 And this is her crying, when it didn't work exactly how she wanted:

When nursing, she searches for something to grab. She will intertwine her fingers in mine. I seem to be enjoying the small things more than I remember doing with Katie and Elayna. I love looking at and touching Annalisa's feet and little hands. I love to watch her watching my hands. She is so intent. Sept 29.

I just can't get enough of Annalisa grabbing her toes. It is so cute! 

Annalisa - watching me snap my fingers:

It is so interesting with this baby. I only used 1 or 2 blankets with Katie and Elayna. With Annalisa, I have 7 or 8 blankets around the house, and sometimes I can't find any. I also used to prefer just white diaper cloth for burp cloths. With Annalisa, I prefer the pretty, embroidered flannel ones.


Elayna is very dramatic. She loves Barbies, and princesses. She asks for Katie a lot, especially when she wakes up from her nap. She loves art-painting, coloring, using markers, cutting, etc. She also makes lots of messes, but I try to not get to upset about them.

Elayna, playing with tiny Princess dolls. She really loves these toys. 

She can pedal a tricycle and the training bike. The bike is too tall for her, or I think she would be riding that all around. She is also really good about playing by herself for long periods of time. That is kind of a disadvantage, because I tend to start working, she'll start playing, and then it is time for Katie to come home, and I haven't had the one-on-one time with Elayna that I should be having while Annalisa is asleep.


Elayna was talking to Mom about something, and Mom asked, "Really?" and Elayna replied, "I'm serious!" 9-29-11

Elayna wants to hold Annalisa, but after just a minute, she will say, "Heavy!" and start to push Annalisa off. 

Katie can do so many things right now. She rode her bike to school with me on Sept 14.  She got tired, and we rested once or twice, but she did it!  She does gymnastics, rides her bike, reads, and almost washes her hair all by herself. Not an easy feat with all that long hair.

 We went to Kindergarten assessment with Ms Halter - Katie is leaps and bounds above where she should be. She is so smart and catches on to new stuff very quickly.

A picnic at Payson Park, with Clarissa and Irma: 

 Ryan replaced the light bulb in the stairway - it is up very very high. The only way to change it was to get a ladder that extends on both sides, try to balance it carefully on the stairs, and then change the bulb. Understandably, it didn't get changed, hardly ever. Then I found a light bulb changer extender thing. It has a grip on the end of a long pole, so you can just change the bulb while standing on the ground. The reason I bring this up, is because Katie was so excited that we had a light in the stairway. She wanted to show all her friends. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her friends probably wouldn't care.

Katie loves to cuddle, kiss, and hug. Plus, she feels so comfy on her Dad's back. 

A little of June and July

Ryan's cousin got married in the middle of June. Ryan, Katie, and Elayna drove down with Jerry, Irma, and Matthew in a neighbor's Expedition. I could have gone, I suppose, but I thought that a weekend of just me and Annalisa sounded pretty nice.

The first day (Saturday) I did some cleaning, took care of Annalisa, then went and visited my parents. Sunday I took care of Annalisa, slept, read, and watched movies until I went and had dinner at my parent's house. Monday I think I cleaned some more and just held Annalisa and relaxed.  They got home late Monday night, and I was very glad to see them. I missed them alot. After having Katie and Elayna around all day every day, it was a little boring having them gone.
I actually don't really know what they did while they were in Vegas. I think most of the time was taken up with wedding preparations and visiting family. Oh, and driving. This is one of the places they stopped on the way home. It is a rest stop at the Virgin River.

Katie and Elayna in Vegas at The Cliffs, the condo style hotels that we like to stay at:

July stuff----

For the 4th of July, Provo does a Balloon Launch really early in the morning. Ryan and I weren't interested in going, but Irma, Jerry, and Jonathan's family wanted to go. So I woke up Katie at about 6:30, and they came and picked her up. She got back from Provo about the time the rest of us were getting out of bed. She had so much fun. I guess only one balloon got up because of the wind, but she thought it was great. She spent half the day at the Bowman's house, playing with her cousins. She wanted to make sure Ryan saw this balloon:

My parent's neighbors were having a firework party, so we let the girls stay up late so we could go. I'm not sure if Katie was more excited that she got to stay up until it was dark outside, or that she got to see fireworks. She kept saying, "this is the best day ever!" The fireworks were amazing. Utah passed a law this year that allows airborne fireworks. They had to go above 150 feet, I believe. The were so cool! It was just like being at a professional firework display. They were beautiful! I held a blanket over Annalisa's ears, and held her to me tight, because she would jump everytime one would go off. Katie and Elayna absolutely loved them.

The Bowmans went up to the Palmer's cabin while Jonathan's family was here. I stayed home with the baby. Here are the 3 brothers, playing games.

Katie and Elayna really like going to the cabin. They get to play outside, get dirty, play (with adult supervision, of course) by a lake, canoe on a lake, etc. They have a blast. This is the second summer I haven't been up to the cabin. Last year I had a kidney infection, and this year I had Annalisa. I'll make it up there sometime this year.

Bowman Cousins-Katie, Scotty, Elayna, and Peter:

 

Katie was showing my parents a bag that she got from a birthday party. It was a little plastic one, with two holes in the top for a handle. Katie said, "my bag has a hole in it". Elayna replied with, "Oh, I hate that!". July 9, 2011

Ryan's CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) mask for sleep apnea can be slightly annoying at night. This is an example of how some nights go:
Me (noticing that Ryan's mask isn't sealed, and sounds like a leaf blower is sleeping next to me)Ryan, fix your mask.
Ryan then pushes his mask tighter on his face, which doesn't fix the problem, and falls asleep.

Then I tell him again, Ryan you need to fix the seal.
So he takes OFF the mask, and promptly falls asleep.

I tell him, Ryan, you need to fix your mask. He finally adjusts the seal, and falls asleep. Ryan, you need to put the mask back on! He puts it on and falls asleep. Ryan, you need to turn on the machine! He turns it on, and we BOTH get to fall back asleep. It is not fun at night, but pretty funny to think about in the morning.

Speaking of sleeping....

July 18, 2011
Annalisa was sucking on Ryan's face while I was reading Katie and Elayna their bedtime story. She was obviously hungry.

I was putting lotion on Annalisa (she has a little bit of eczema) and just smiling at her. Then I started humming I am a Child of God, which is a song I sing to the girls before bed. Annalisa must have recognized it, because she got this huge grin on her face, and started squirming around.

I was taking care of Gracie and Elayna while Amanda took Katie and Abby to gymnastics. I went in the back yard with them, and swept the patio while they played. They didn't play together really wonderful, so we got some bubbles out, and I blew them while they laughed, giggled, chased, and popped the bubbles. Then they wanted to take turns, so I held the bottle, and they would hold the wand and blow bubbles. Gracie was really good at it. She would get lots of bubbles from one blow. Elayna mostly just blew bubbles into Gracie's face. Good thing Gracie laughed about it.

Katie goes to Grandpa Craig's house to have singing lessons with Abby and Hannah every third Thursday. They will have a recital at the end of the summer. Josh, Joe, and Ben form one group, Nathaniel, Junior, and Bekah form another group.  Then they get to go swimming after the lesson is over. Katie is having lots of fun.

Irma had a "water party" one day for all the little cousins. Unfortunately, it was overcast, and not very hot, so the kids took a little while before they wanted to play in the water. Gillian and Jonathan were good sports and played in the water with the kids. I just watched. 

 

Irma had a sprinkler under the trampoline, a "Slip N Slide", a small pool with a waterfall on it, and water guns. My girls are incredibly spoiled and don't like cold water, but after they got wet, they had lots of fun.

Annalisa had her 2 month checkup on July 11. She weighed 13 lbs, and is 24 inches long.  The doctor said she looks really healthy. She is in the 90 or 95 percentile for height, weight and head circumference.

For comparisons:
Katie at 2 months-23.5 inches long, 11 lbs, 7 oz.

Elayna at 2 months-22.5 inches long, 13 lbs.

Katie and Elayna wanted to play in the sprinklers at the beginning of July. Both pictures of Elayna were so cute, I couldn't choose just one.

 

 Elayna mostly played with the umbrella, but Katie tried to play in the sprinklers a little.

 

Katie rode her bike without training wheels for the first time on July 22, 2011.  I held the back for a bit, then let go, and she just took off, just like that! She is so excited and pleased with herself. She rode to Grandma Paula and Grandpa Craig's house, with me starting her each time she leaned too far, or couldn't go around corners. Then, 2 days later, she wanted to ride, but I was feeding Annalisa so I told her she needed to wait. Next thing I know, she is out there, riding all by herself. She has really picked it up fast. The day that she started all by herself, I went outside to do some yard work, and she was riding up and down the street. I was keeping an eye on her, and then I couldn't see her. I waited for her to come back, then waited some more, and I was getting nervous, when she appeared from the opposite direction of the way she had left. She had ridden all the way around the block, without letting me know that is what she was doing. We talked about that, and staying close to the side of the road, instead of right in the middle of it, and watching for cars.

Katie can also do a headstand against the wall, if I help her feet get up there. Once her feet are against the wall, she can hold the headstand for about 10 seconds. She has also learned how to lay flat on her back, put her hands by her head, and push up into a back bend.  July 22, 2011

Katie was telling me about a "DS" game (Nintendo game boy thing) she was playing at Abby's house. She said she won with the turtle, because the turtle always wins because it sucks. Me- "What?"  Katie-The turtle sucks. Me-What does that mean?  Katie- I don't know....it sucks.....something, I guess. Maybe it just sucks drinks or something? I don't know. It just jumps and knocks other Bakugans over...

Annalisa has been sleeping in the swing, since she will only wake up once to eat around 4, then sleep from 8 pm to 9 am. I didn't want to give that up, but I wanted her to get used to sleeping in a crib. So, July 28, we put her to sleep in the crib, and she slept the same way as she did in the swing. She has done that 2 nights in a row, and she takes all her naps in the crib also.

This girl sure loves her Daddy, just like her sisters.