Molly's 1st Birthday

She's one.  Time flies.  I don't remember my other children growing up this fast.

Molly is a ball of love.  It never ceases to amaze me how each of my children can be so different from one another.  She's been a joy in our lives, that's for sure.

A little about Molly:

• She's definitely got the lightest hair of all my girls
• Her favorite foods are lollipops. chocolate, avocados, and broccoli
• She doesn't talk much...
• Mom
• Dad (Da)
• Hello (Eh-Woah)
• Leila (Ya-Yah)
• Eden (Deh)
• Thank You (Day-Day)
• More (Mo)
• No
• Uh-Oh
• Banana (Na Na)
• Fishies (Shi)
• A few animal noises, mostly dog
• And maybe a few other words said here and there
• She thinks she's just as big as the other girls
• She's a REALLY good climber and LOVES slides
• She's under the charts on height and weight
• She gets really jealous if Leila tries to sit on Mom's lap
• She loves to pretend Dad's on the phone "Eh-Woah? Da?"
• She loves tubbies, being outside, and stroller rides
• She loves to give hugs and kisses and to blow kisses
• She's got 3 teeth and 2 more popping out
• She will blow her nose...unfortunately often on her own or other's clothes
• She loves baby dolls and taking care of them
• She loves peek-a-boo, reading books, and singing songs
• She loves sesame street songs with celebrities on youtube

Utah Fun

Although our little family is staying as a "little family" for Christmas this year instead of staying with "my parents" or "his parents" or, as often occurs, a little of both parents...we WERE able to visit for a few weeks during the holiday season.

Endless activities, snow play, and cousins accompanied by a serious lack of sleep.

No wonder my kids were so sad to leave and are currently suffering from "Utah withdrawals".

I had a great time as well...although, I admit that I definitely became sleep deprived (considering the first night back I slept in until 11...).

We were able to celebrate Molly's 1st birthday (for the second time...) with "decorate your own cupcakes and cake pops".

 Festival of Trees was lots of fun.  I thought Eden made an awesome choice to go inside the bubble machine. She thought that was pretty cool.

 Eden got her first "I miss you" love letter.  She went to visit Roman while in Utah and there was all sorts of boy-trying-to-impress-girl actions followed by lots of giggle-at-boy-trying-to-impress-girl actions.  She's just glad to be loved and missed.

 We went to Midway and did an early present exchange for the kids.  Leila got her first Legos and Eden and Eva both ended up getting each other the same gift, My Little Ponies.

 Then of course we were able to visit Santa (twice in fact).  Once at the JACL (Japanese American Citizen's League) party and another at my parent's ward party.

 Molly was a little worried when I handed her over to someone else to hold her...then she turned to see who was holding her and she was scared to death...*snap picture* then rescue the poor child.

There were several other activities that we did that were so much fun.  We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert which was INCREDIBLE.  Eden and Leila sang a musical number for the neighborhood care center.  Alyssa and Ben hosted an AWESOME get together with family and friends where we sang Christmas carols and had special musical numbers and goodies to eat.  We were able to go see Frozen at the movie theater which they girls loved (they still dress up at home and play Frozen daily).

Oh, the activities seemed to go on and on.  It was such fun....the only sad part is that I'm not sure when we'll be back to Utah again....

Volunteering

 Eden and I were able to have a little mommy/daughter date on Saturday.  Our ward gave us the wonderful opportunity to do some community service.  A Lutheran church group in Kansas City holds a service project every year and they ask the LDS church to come because if there's a service project that is child friendly, you can count on us to be there.  They take food from a food pantry, fill up bags of Thanksgiving-ish food, and give it out to those who are less fortunate.  We put the food in bags, decorated the bags, and also made Christmas cards.

When we got home, Eden went to work decorating our refrigerator in the same way she learned to decorate the Christmas cards.  I love it.

What's Going On

Walking...that's what going on.  And boy does she love to be "big" like everyone else.  She also blows kisses which is one of our favorite things in the world.

We also added a few new members to our household....fish.

Eden has been BEGGING for pet fish for ages and we kept saying "When we move to Kansas City" and then we got here and we had to pay for this and that and fish kept getting delayed.  But we could break her heart no longer and finally got her fish.

We ended up getting guppies from a neighbor after her fish had babies.  So, they are teeny, tiny little guys....six of them to be exact (obviously they are small since the first picture looks just like an empty tank.  The biggest one (shown above) is named Bruce.  He is the only fish with a real name, partially because he's the only one we can tell apart from the others since he is quite a bit larger than the rest.  Eden is pretty insistent that she wants to name one of them Gloria...but we are unsure which one.

The girls love their little fish.  They supposedly get their fun colors as they grow older, but for now they are pretty colorless.  Eden doesn't seem to mind.  She loves feeding her fish and being with her fish.  It was well work it to get these fish.

Halloween...and the Rest of October...

Its strange how Halloween ends up a bigger and more exciting holiday for us.

Perhaps its because its the beginning of the BIG holiday season events...and its time to get our craft on.

Monsters...

 "BEWARE" signs (I wish you could actually read them...the kids made them up.  They say things like "Beware!  Vampires and Zombies live here!")

 Other little critters and creatures to decorate our windows.

 Pumpkin muffins with spider cream cheese frosting.

 

 Laura, Eric, Trey, and Ramona were able to come visit..which definitely added to our fun and excitement.  The kids were thrilled to see cousins again!

 We celebrated Tyson's birthday.  For his birthday present, he got 2 days off of work!  Wahoo!

More crafts...

 There were a few Halloween party get togethers that we had and were tons of fun.  With face painting, tons of candy, games, etc.

 Lady bugs are now EVERYWHERE.  The girls had a hay day trying to look at and collect ladybugs.  Although, we were warned to NOT touch the yellow ones cause apparently they bite.

 I end up making all food with a Halloween theme.  I actually made these with eyes...then Eden took one chocolate chip out of each and said, "they are eyeballs!"  I actually think her idea was better than mine.

 I found this online for meringue ghosts and wanted to try them.  They were fun and cute.

Daddy took them out trick or treating in the neighborhood.  Eden was a ladybug, Leila was a doctor (which she was SO excited to be able carry around daddy's real stethoscope around the neighborhood), and Molly was a little Indian (which she never keeps things in her hair...but for some reason she KNEW she was supposed to keep this Indian headband on and she kept it there the entire time).

Its all been fun!

The Important Things in Life

I feel like I only blog about my children.

I suppose they are the important things in life.

So, I'll continue to blog about them.

I could sit here and tell you all about Kansas City and how truly wonderful it has been here.  Like the incredible rain storms that seem to come and go occasionally creating my favorite smell in the world, wet cement.  Then the kids begging me to go outside in their umbrellas and boots to go puddle jumping.

 Or I could tell you an story about how we get through "those days" using food for comfort.  My chocolate and ice cream addiction has definitely hit a few peaks and I'm sure that it is all rubbing off on Molly who gets great joy out of new foods like pretzels, avocado, pancakes,...small rocks... etc.

 I could sit and tell you horribly negative things about how my children are monsters.  But really that's just not true.  They are wonderful kids.  I admit I often am glad when it is bedtime and I have a few moments of silence to enjoy, but I often enjoy more those times when I overhear them playing nicely together and becoming more than sisters, they are becoming friends or those times when they want me to read book after book after book after book to them or when Eden uses her drama to say things like "mom, this is the BEST meal I've EVER had" or when Leila makes a discovery and simply states "yep, that's pretty cool" or when Molly blows kisses over and over and over again.

 Or I could tell you about our adventures meeting "the stars".  Talking about how we went to a mermaid party and Ariel (not just this tablecloth you could pose in front of) actually came to read the children a story and Eden's face lit up and followed her...EVERYWHERE.

Hmm....well, I guess I did tell you all those things...

I'm so lucky.

I've been studying a lot about the role of women and while I am far from really understanding everything, I know that I'm blessed beyond measure to have the opportunity and ability to be a wife and mother.  God has already blessed me more than I can imagine.

"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.