"School Pictures"

Since I'm homeschooling this year, I decided to do my own version of "school pictures".  Definitely nothing fancy because I don't have a camera (except on my phone) and I don't want to spend the money for a professional.

We actually are creating a "Me Book" and I took a bunch of pictures this day of their favorite things and I'm in the process of putting it all together to create a little book.

My last post had Molly's school picture.  So, here are Eden and Leila's.

I love these girls.  A little about each of them...

Eden - She's a sweet spirit.  She loves playing with friends, "riding" her bike (put in parenthesis because more often than not, she is WALKING her bike), drawing, and talk-talk-talking.  She loves homeschool and primary.  She most recently told me that when she grows up she wants to "draw pictures for books".  She is my cautious child that will never overeat sweets for fear of getting sick and will never ride fast on her bike but is constantly pushing the breaks.  If you've ever read the story "Chester's Way" by Keven Henkes, she kind of reminds me of Chester...with a slight bit of Lily in her.  If you've never read the book, we like that one.

Leila - She's my spunk.  She loves candy, fruit, and most anything dealing with food.  The way to Leila's heart is definitely through her stomach.  She is daring and fun, has a smile that will brighten any day, and she finds pride in "doing" things (which Eden takes advantage of because Eden doesn't like to do things and will always ask Leila to do them for her...and Leila almost always does).  Leila has a really funny sense of humor, is very good at puzzles and figuring things out on her own.  She also has a die hard love for the color blue.

Molly - I already wrote about her last post.  But in new news, she's grown in two teeth!  It came along with a fever and earaches, but her teeth popped up!  She has also learned how to blow kisses and loves throw her arms in the air and say "BOP!"

Tyson has also been doing well with work.  I can't complain really...I'm totally spoiled thus far.  He works from 8-6 and never weekends of holidays or on-call.  But he does start doing a few days of weekend on-call starting soon.  He does need to "hide" for a few hours a day to study, but I'd rather him be home (even if studying) than to just have him be "at work".  For a resident's wife, I'm happy with the schedule thus far.  We are anticipating a few upcoming months where I'll be practically husbandless...but at least I know its coming.

I've been doing well.  I keep myself busy with the kids, school, cleaning, cooking...you know, the motherly stuff.  Today was a proud moment...I got a pass to the YMCA and exercised.  My first spinning class.  I plan on making this a regular event.  There's no excuses now, they give me free childcare while I exercise.  And they also have an exercise class for kids.  I'm taking the kids tomorrow and they are excited, hopefully they stay excited about it because my kids could probably use a little bit of exercise in their lives...

So, that's life.  Things are great.  Life is great.  We have our ups and downs, but our ups outnumber the downs.  Heavenly Father has blessed our family more than words can tell.  I'm grateful.

Molly...and ONLY Molly

My intent was NOT to only post about Molly...

Seems my computer has a bias and I can't seem to locate where the pictures (that I KNOW I took) of Eden and Leila have gone.  For some odd reason, only the pictures of Leila seem to appear.  I guess it just knows a cutie pie when it sees one.

Molly has quite developed a fun little personality over the past few months.  She's now 9 1/2 months old and she's a whole lot of spunk and a whole lot of fun.  She sits, crawls, walks when you hold her hands, can say a few things, and is always willing to try and try again.

She definitely knows what she likes...for example...when Leila sits on my lap, she knows that she DOESN'T want Leila there...because obviously mom's lap is her territory.  She loves musical toys and dancing and singing.  She love water and taking tubs.  She loves Sandra Boynton books, especially "Moo. Baa. La La La." (which was also an Eden favorite long, long ago).  She loves her mom and often when dad takes her away you'd think that he pinched her by the way she gets upset.  She also loves food...but she can only feed herself...heaven forbid anyone try to help.

But man she's cute as a button.  We love her so.

What's Going On?

I feel so distant from everyone....

Guess that's what comes from moving to a different state.

Life's been great here in Kansas City.  We have been blessed with a wonderful town home in Riverside with 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and A BASEMENT.  That's quite an upgrade for us.

Tyson did TONS of work on the house before we got here.  Tearing down wood paneling, tearing up carpet, and tons of electrical.  Not to mention that he unpacked most everything before I even came to Missouri.  Yes, I have an amazing husband.

My parents drove out with me and the kids (thank goodness I didn't have to make that trek alone).  It was an incredible blessing and so fun to have them with us for a while to explore.  We went to the zoo and Oklahoma Joe's...between those two things, who could ask for more?  Seriously, the zoo was WAY fun and Oklahoma Joe's...well, let's just say that if you're initial thought was "what's that?" then you are missing out.  Missing out on the best BBQ ever.  And its even inside a gas station...yes, that's right, a gas station.

I didn't take enough pictures...like usual.  But here are a few.

 Molly is as cute as ever.  She insists on being big and will pretty much only eat if she can do it herself.  I can't believe she's 9 months old.  Time flies.  She crawls, stands, walks along furniture, says a few animal sounds, and loves the dishwasher.

 Eden found a book full of fun little activities for kids.  This is one she found and REALLY wanted to do...so I said, "sure, why not"  Blue jello and swedish fish.  Their own ocean in a bag.

The zoo...and my kids are possibly wilder than the animals.  Actually, I KNOW they are...the animals at the zoo tend to be pretty tame looking creatures....these girls don't look so tame to me.

What else have we been doing while in Missouri?

Homeschool.

There...I admitted it.

Its hard for me to admit because I get various opinions and facial expressions when I let people in on the secret.  But I had to admit it eventually.  But the girls love it.  If you want to ask me questions about why, how, when, or what I do...feel free.  I don't mind at all....but I prefer if no one stones me for it.  Just know that I'm not doing this to be "anti-public school" or to create "genius children" or because we are "better than everyone else" and we feel good about this decision.  We are not sure how long we will home school, but we plan on it for at least a few years.

Before We Left

I'm attempting to get myself back into the blogging world again since moving back to Kansas City makes it harder to friends and family to keep in contact with me.

I missed a TON of stuff that I wished to blog about in my last days of being in Utah.  It was a wonderful last hurrah before headed away from family.  But for the sake of time...here's a very few pictures that I was able to pull off my phone.

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Now we've made it to Kansas City to be back with Tyson (hurrah for having a husband again!) and we're moved into our new place, settling in, making friends, and just enjoying life.

My Three Year Old

My little Leila is three.  I'm a bit behind on the times, since she turned three on June 16th, and I've got more posts to catch up on...but hey, so it goes.

Leila's my little child full of spunk.  She has a smile that will brighten the world (and make it hard to get upset at her when she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing).  She's a ball of fun.  She's super shy when you first meet her but once she comes out of her shell she's definitely not the shy one.  She talks a lot and I can't help but love how she mistakes her "L"s for "Y"s, "C"s for "T"s, "D"s for "G"s, and "R"s for "W"s, as well as several other mistaken letters.  My favorite word of hers (that's she's RECENTLY starting to correct) is how she says "milk".  The sentence ends up, "Tan I det some moat?"

Getting her presents was a trick.  The girl doesn't care of toys much.  She does love organizing and puzzles...but in the end, not that much.  If we ever try to get her something at the store she can't ever decide on anything.  She'll say "I want this."...then a minute later say, "No, I don't want that." and put it back.

But we found something she LOVED.  A chair/swing that hangs from the ceiling that we bought from IKEA. That was a hit.  The girl loves adventure and we're excited to put it up in our little town home in Kansas City.

Although, she was POSITIVE what kind of cake she wanted.  Three kitties in a basket cake...er...I mean...she actually said, "I want fwee titties in a bastet tate."  The cake ended up a little like three puff balls in a basket.  But they were still cute and she loved them.

A little about Leila:

• For as dirty and scroungy as Leila often looks and seems, she's pretty particular like how she never wants to eat at a spot that has any sign of dirt and can't stand if her clothes get AT ALL wet.
• Leila is a good organizer.  Like when she took all her different sized candy from her Christmas stocking and organized them perfectly into a nice square with no holes or spaces.  Or when she found several different ways to re-organize boxes in the pantry full of food to best fit everything.
• Leila knows her alphabet and how to count to thirty.
• She could eat fruit all day, every day.  But she also loves all sorts of other foods...her favorites are probably chicken, asparagus, broccoli, and other meats and veggies.
• She doesn't care for cake, cupcakes, etc.  But she LOVES treat-treats...aka: candy.  Her favorite by far is sour candy.
• She always gets very "motherly" in crowded places.  She's always afraid of people getting left behind or getting lost in a big crowd.  And she also gets REALLY scared if she thinks she is lost.

I can't wait to see what adventures await me this year!

6 Months

This post is a little late...but better late than never.

My little Molly is 6 months old....and we just love her to pieces.

A little about Molly:

• She LOVES toys.  Play, Play, Play.
• She sits up all by herself
• She can say "mom" and is 100% a mommy's girl
• She has slightly digressed in her sleeping habits, but overall she's still a good sleeper
• She will SWAT anyone who tries to come too close to her
• She likes stroller rides (now that she can sit up by herself)
• She loves the tub, but hates the pool
• She is a talker.  Lots of babble.
• She is a tough cookie being #3 in the family

Oh how we love our dear Molly.  So glad that she's in our life.

p.s.  Her hair isn't usually this wild...she just gets some serious bedhead at times.

Tyson the Graduate

After years and years and years and years of school...Tyson's finally DONE!  WAHOO!

I'm so proud of him. He's worked so hard and did so well, he's finally done with med school.  Although, I admit that it doesn't seem QUITE like he's "done" because he's still got 5-6 years of residency.  But its definitely a momentous occasion.

Us with our good friends, the Hutchings.

 The gang who came all the way to Kansas City to support and say "HURRAH" at Tyson's graduation.

 Molly made a friend, Lincoln, out in the hallway during the four hour ceremony.  She really liked his tie.

It was awesome to go to the graduation and we were even able to sneak Molly into the special dinner.  But man I'm glad its over with.  It was not a stress-free trip to Kansas City.

We left Eden and Leila with family back home (which is the longest we've left them...its was hard for them at first but they gradually got over it as time went on).  We left the Friday before for the long drive out.  Molly was a CHAMP when it came to the car ride.  I admit I was afraid...very afraid.  Molly SCREAMED in the car. But then on the trip, she for some reason was happy as a clam.  I'm thinking she likes it nice and quiet.  Usually we have the other girls in there with her...and its anything but quiet.  And she definitely loves it nice and quiet to sleep and play.  She also became more talkative without the other girls there to compete with.

Sunday we went to church and drove around looking at different areas in Kansas and Missouri to see what we found.

Then the real house hunting began.  We wanted to rent a house...to find that houses for rent were slim to none.  So, we looked into buying.  Went through the process to buy, looked at a few houses, and then found out that we aren't approved to get a loan to buy a house.  Back to renting.  So, we looked into town homes. We finally came across one of the residents in Kansas City who had a town home.  They showed us their place...but the trick is that in order to get a place there you need to be on a waiting list OR know someone leaving and take over their spot.  Luckily the resident knew someone planning on moving out soon, but Tyson will have to leave in a small rental for a few months while I wait here in Utah for a few more months until our place will be ready for us.

Anyhow, after a week of scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off, we headed home.