Interview with a 2 year old

 2 YEARS ago today.....Our lives completely changed!

 Now we have our very big boy Bronson who is  2

Name: BrOnSoN
Nickname:  Buddy
Age: 2

Weight: 30 lbs

Favorite food:  Anything he is not suppose to have....yogurt...cheese....you get the idea!  (Dairy IS NOT his friend).

Favorite thing to do:  Run really really fast, pretends like everyone is chasing him, play with electronics, push buttons, turn lights off and on as fast as he can before someone stops him, and laugh.

Favorite animal: His weasel.....I have no idea where it came from but he sleeps with it every night and calls it baby.

Favorite things to say- NO!, Set GO!, Roxy!, Reese-E!, nigh-night! BYE! Girls!  (can you tell which words I am yelling most of the day?)

Two things I LOVE about him:

He gives the best hugs and kisses!!

He either loves you or not!  He will go up to different people and turn around and back-up to them.  That means he likes you and wants you to hold him.  Others he will look down and not make eye contact with them.  That means......Stay away from  me!  I love that he is his own person even at 2 and so very different from the other 3.  He keeps me on my toes ALL day! 
He is SO easy to love and he has completely changed our lives (for the better) and we could not imagine not having our sweet boy....He has my heart for sure!

The party!!  This is his special birthday chair....complete with cute hat that he did not like (:

An BOY party has to have DIRT cups of course....they were super good....even with worms in them.

The girls decorated for his party and took alot of time making a banner for him!  What great sisters he has.

We luv u Buddy!

(:

I LOVE this little boy....Can you see his personality??

Prego Skier!

You heard me!  Skiing at 9 months pregnant.... I had a chance to go skiing with the YW in our ward.  And I thought...no big deal!  I still have 3 weeks before I deliver...I can do it!
That was until I put on my ski pants and could not zip them up......grrrrrrrrr
Alan GRACIOUSLY offered his ski pants and even though I looked like a marshmallow I wore them (:

I got a ton of laughs from all the girls but it was still fun.  I stuck to the easier trails but quickly realized why you don't see alot of pregnant skiers.  I had to pee after EVERY RUN!  The bumps were killing me, but I stuck it out and even though I looked completely ridiculous, I had a blast (: 

Interview with the middle child

REESE

Age: Four 4

Weight: 30 lbs

Favorite Color:  PINK

Favorite Food: Mac and Cheese

Favorite toy:  New princess camera that she got for her Birthday

Favorite things to do:  Ride her bike, go to church (she has an AMAZING teacher), go to the girls school, and dance to her princess music!!

Reese is our TRUE BLUE middle child.  She is stuck between 2 worlds where she is not quite old enough to do things with the big girls but, not a baby and is able to do many things that babies and toddlers cant do!  I think that is why she is so sassy.  She is still trying to figure out her place!!

FOUR things we love about Reese

• She is a mommy in training.  She loves to take care of Bronson and is SUPER excited to take care of another baby brother
• Her big BLUE eyes and pout lips get her anything........really they do....... ...
• She is so easy to love!  She doesn't ask for much and really just has fun hanging out!
• She is always trying to do her best!  I love that she loves to learn and wants to do new things all the time!

Birthday GIRLIE!!!! (picture overload)

Ready for earrings!!!

Reese had a super duper awesome Birthday!! 

We had our traditional pancake breakfast with candles to blow out!

Then on to her Birthday adventure....piercing her ears!  The girls and I headed to the mall where Reese picked out her earrings.  She had to choose the studs and they super cute flowers and pink flowers.  When the lady asked which ones she wanted she said the BIG DIAMOND!  She picked the biggest sparkly earring they had.  After a minute of trying to get her to choose the dainty little pink flower, she held her ground and we stuck with the big diamond.  Reese cried for about a second, then they showed her her sparkly earrings in the mirror and that was it!

She is so proud of them and tells everyone she knows about them (:

At home we celebrated with opening presents and her "cake" this year was ice cream sandwiches with pink sprinkles (a girl after my own heart!)  

She had so much fun and she can't wait till she turns 5!!

LoVe NoTeS

For family night a few weeks ago, Kendall was in charge.

She decided to do a lesson on LOVE!!

She wrote notes to every member of our family, including a picture, and read each one out loud.

It was so sweet and so thoughtful that she made everyone feel special.  And YES she wrote one for our dog too!

):

  Computer STILL not working ):

BESTEST Day EVER

Can you Guess what IT is?

More on the best day ever later...maybe when my computer is back to working!

Dear Reese:

Thanks for the lovely picnic you made for us today!  It was delicious...you must know how much I love to eat!
On a side note:  Alan got her dressed today.  Can someone please help him if I am at the hospital?!?!?
On another side note:  I was responsible for not doing her hair today!!  I am getting LAZY!

Hope this leaves an awesome SCAR!

.....at least that is what the doctor said.  The stiches are now out and Bronson didn't even cry.  Of course that could be due to the 10 suckers they gave him while they were taking them out!!

Happy Valentines Day

 

It's pretty low key at our house!  We had heart shaped pancakes with strawberries.   The kids all have little mail boxes that were filled with stickers, heart post-its, and some pink bubble bath!  

They are easy to please and enjoyed the rest of the nice warm day having class parties and playing outside (:

The award for first person to get stitches goes to.......................................

 BRONSON....Ok so you probably guessed right!  We thought that he would be in the ER before he was 2 but this was unexpected!  It wasn't from running like a mad man or jumping off a table or couch.  No knives were involved.....

  Bronson was playing with Reese and he fell back and a picture frame that was leaning up against the wall fell over on him.  I am still not sure how it happened but he seemed to block himself with his hand and it got sliced in between the glass and wood frame. 
  I was in the room so I swooped him up and wrapped his hand in a paper towel and held it for a minute.  Then I took a peek and instead of clotting his hand was still dripping blood.  So we went over to the sink and I rinsed it off.  Then I saw how bad of a cut it was and knew he needed stitches.  I wrangled him and Reese to the car (thank heavens the big girls were at a play date) and off to Now Care.  Alan meet us there and thankfully held him down for 6 stitches.  He is a tough boy and was back to his normal self that night!

Even something silly and small as stitches makes me realize how quickly life can change and how much we all  love our Bronson! 

The REALITY of 5 Pregnancies!!

The reality of being pregnant 5 times.....I don't know how the Duggers do it!

• I have to wear support socks everywhere.  In the picture I am wearing tube socks over my old lady socks to the gym.  Not a fashion statement here!  The old lady socks are compression socks for my legs.  I think I have broken every blood vessel in my calves so they look like lumpy waves all over and hurt like no other!! Yea Varicose Veins and spider veins ROCK.
• I sleep with 5-6 pillows.  And even with all the pillows I average 2-5 hours of sleep per night.
• With each pregnancy I manage to gain more weight with each and every kid.  I know its hard to do, but I have done it and done it well!
• This baby wants to be different than the rest and is STILL completely BREECH.
• I have no patience....wait....I lost that 3 kids ago!!
• I got rid of all my maternity clothes after Bronson.  And I refuse to buy any...I hate them anyways.  So I stuff myself into what ever I can get into....and when that doesn't work I just wear Alan's clothes (:
• Due to having 4 previous kids, most of my normal clothes are stretchy and have elastic waist bands.  So that means I can wear the same clothes if I am 8 months pregnant or not pregnant at all (:  I know...... not cool ):

BUT.................. even after all my complaining.  I am blessed 5 times over!  Its the end result that makes it all worth it!!

Dinner time update and other boring facts!

 Since we have tried our dinner goals for a week here is my update!  I am usually on my own with 4 kids for dinner, so for me, it is the most difficult part of the day for me.

::Getting dinner down in about an hour- YEA- we are for some reason doing lots better on this and we are usually done in 1 hour instead of 2.  Bronson is usually done in his usual 5 minutes and then proceeds to run around and touch every power cord or electrical circuit that he can reach.

::Using our manners-  OK so the girls can still be found running around occasionally and doing a cart wheel or two during dinner.  But, they are now asking to be excused after they are done eating and even clean up their plates and bowls (:

::Do it now rule- BIG FAT FAIL.  I am not sure how to enforce this one unless I am on them 24/7 to pick up everything they touch.  And due to fixing dinner with 4 crazies and feeding them.....its looking like this one is going to sit on the back burner till I get another brilliant idea.

ON OTHER NEWS::

I was just realizing the other day HOW MUCH KIDS EAT!  Seriously....

• If we have eggs in the morning we scramble 18 eggs
• French toast is at least an entire loaf of bread
• We got through a "bunch" of bananas EVERY SINGLE DAY.
• If we have oatmeal or cream of wheat I make 8 servings and usually either Alan or I do not get ANY!

I cannot imagine the boys eating this much and then the girls growing and eating even more....there is no end in sight.....I am saving my coupons!!

p.s.  That is a Pummelo in the pictures....They are a HUGE grapefruit that is not so tart and Kendall and Reese LOVE THEM!

What's a few more when you're havin' fun....right?

The girls asked to have a play date with some friends and since its getting close to Valentines day we decided to do a few extra fun things.   Well one thing lead to another and we ended up having 12 kids at our home 0:

 Reese and Austin coloring a Valentines Card

 Reese, Roxy, and their new BFF Hailey

 Most of the BIG girls at the table!  They were really great cookie decoraters for only being 7 and 8!

 Syd, Kendall, and Allie

 Kendall's masterpiece

 Megan, Savannah, and Alexus (Savannah's 2 BFF's)  I am so glad all their friends get along (:

 Savannah's triple decker cookie....man that makes me sick just lookin at it!

 This is what a 3 year olds cookie looks like.......

 We made gnome kisses.....almost too cute to EAT!

It ended up all working out and everyone had a blast!  The bonus was that Savannah and Kendall's friends have siblings who are 3 or 4 so we invited them too!  She is such a social butterfly and loved having her OWN friends over!  The kids got to take home bookmarks, gnomes, and lots and lots of cookies (:  All in All a GREAT time.