I forgot

I left out the pictures of Kyla, so here are a few:

Pumpkins

Yay for carving pumpkins for FHE! Here are some out of order pictures from our family activity:

Kaden with his finished pumpkin.

Aaron with his finished pumpkin.

The boys cleaning out their pumpkins.

And this last picture is from the Jensen Family Halloween Bowling Party. My children love this! Grandma Jensen rents out the bowling alley in Tremonton and we get to eat and bowl (and the kids get to wear their costumes an extra day!) Tons of fun!

Remodel

I have to admit, my new addiction is HGTV and DIY. Our t.v. is always on those channels, except in the morning (when the boys watch some cartoons). I love the home buying shows and remodel shows. Yes, kinda nerdy. It's fun to see different ideas and color schemes, etc. I'd love to do more with the little space that we have, but it's more important to try to save money right now. Anyway, Brad decided to help me add some class to our bedroom the other day:

This poster used to be in our boys' room. Aaron ripped it off the wall so I put it on the desk in our bedroom for temporary safe keeping until we could put it back up. Brad found a new home for it. Not what I had in mind, but it did make me laugh!

6 months

Believe it or not, Kyla is now 6 months old. She is crawling and I'm not ready. Safety wise we are good. I'm just not ready to have 3 to chase after...

Notice in the above picture Aaron is wearing Kyla's headband...

She absolutely loves solid foods. This picture is the first time she had rice cereal, 2 months ago. Now she's eating all sorts of stuff and gets really mad when you eat in front of her without offering her some. She is so happy, all the time. She has a smile for everyone. Her 6 month stats: Length: 25 3/4 inches (50th percentile), Weight: 15 lbs 9 oz (50th percentile), Head circumference: 44 cm (90th percentile!). Her brothers still love her. They are always asking for her to sleep in their bed with them. Despite the challenges of having 3 kids, I love it!

Family Pictures

Back on conference weekend we had Michelle, Brad's sister, take some pictures for us. I edited some of them, but can't get the edited versions to upload. So, here are the raw pictures, just imagine they're cropped and edited. I think she did a wonderful job! I'm excited to get prints and hang them on my bare walls!!

Kyla

Me and Kyla, with Brad's head in the background! He has holding onto the baby too.

Kaden

Our (not so little anymore) family

Funny boys!

More serious: Kaden, Aaron

"The boys:" Kaden, Aaron and Brad

Aaron

This picture shows his personality so well, I love it!

Smooth Talker

This weekend Brad's brother, Mark and sister, Michelle came down to visit. We love having them come and our kids constantly ask for them now. Mark is dating a girl that lives down here named Marissa. On Sunday Mark brought here over for a little while between conference sessions. She's beautiful and Aaron fell in love immediately! He sat on Mark's lap and Mark was helping him talk to her. I have never seen Aaron blush, but he was turning all shades of red (poor guy gets that from me!). He hardly left her alone the entire time she was there. When Aaron's naptime came around I had him give Michelle and Mark a hug because they were going to leave soon. I started walking him to his room when he said, "Marissa." So I turned around so he could give her a hug. He got right up by her and said, "Marissa, give me a tiss." (That's how he says kiss). I am now very worried for when he's a teenager.

That night I was telling him goodnight and putting his covers on him. I gave him a couple kisses before I said goodnight. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I don't want any kisses." I responded, "What, Mom can't kiss you but Marissa can?" to which he answered, "Yeah." Turkey.

He's only 2 and a half and he already has his first crush. Watch out Mark, you've got some competition!

Multilingual

Kaden informed me today of all the different languages he can speak. Fluently I might add. Of course, there is English. Next is "bad guy English" for which he lowers his voice and makes it all gruff. Then there is "girl English" where he makes his voice higher pitched. I'm sure he'll come up with more. I'm so glad my little family is so diverse. It gave me a good laugh!

4 months

Kyla is now 4 months old. She had her check-up yesterday and they found another ear infection... Other than that she is doing great. She is now 24 inches long (50th percentile), weighs 12 lbs. 6.5 oz. (25th percentile), and her head circ. is 41.8 cm (75th percentile). Here are a few pictures that we've taken recently of our sweet little girl!

This is by far my favorite picture!

She's even happy when she sleeps.


Getting ready to go to church.

She loves her brothers. Kaden was on the side talking to her.

Blowing bubbles.

She is rolling over now, and has been for a couple weeks. She loves to talk and gets the biggest smile whenever someone talks to her. She doesn't care for tummy time, but loves to sit up. It's so much fun to have her around and watch the boys interact with her. Aaron calls her "princess, babers, and sweetie." Kaden loves to play with her and make her smile.

Cheese Monster

It appears I have a cheese monster in my house. I pulled out our block of cheese the other day and cut a couple slices off for my boys. Then I started grating some for whatever I was cooking. Halfway through I had to stop and do something else. One of the kids needed me or something. I heard Kaden say, "Why does he get the big one?" I ignored it. Their cheese slices were the same size. A minute or so later I went back into the kitchen and discovered what Kaden was talking about:

Aaron found the whole block of cheese and helped himself. Yummy yummy!!

Thanks!

Thanks for everyone's help! I was really struggling, and it's hard to focus on this when I've got kids fighting in the background. Now you can actually read the blog again! Yay!

Lame

So, they deleted the background that I've had for years. I had to pick a new one. Now I can't figure out how the change all the text colors so that they match. If anyone can read this, HELP ME! I've done it before, but they've changed things around. I'm struggling and getting annoyed. Thanks!

Oops!

I pulled up to my sister's house today for a pool party. After a long and crazy morning--dropping Brad off at work, going to Wal-Mart (my first time with 3 kids by myself) for diapers, feeding the baby, making cookies and a salad--I was just excited I made it (an hour and a half late!). My phone rang right when I got there. It was Brad. "Hey honey, happy anniversary!" he told me. My response, "Oh, yeah huh." Oops! All week long I thought about how it was coming up on Saturday, but with all the craziness this morning it totally slipped my mind. Sorry sweetie! I love you! Thanks for a wonderful six years! I'm excited for eternity!

Now, back to cleaning the house. There is a spider emergency...

Brad's Birthday

Brad had his birthday last month. Hopefully it was a pretty good day for him. We went to dinner at Olive Garden and came home to have cake and ice cream with the kids.

Look at all that smoke!
So, I accidentally put trick candles on his cake. I forgot that we even had trick candles.

Blowing out the candles, or at least attempting to.

He was moving the cake down so the boys could see too.

Lighting the candles. Kaden tried to help me put the sprinkles on the side. That's why there are a ton on the plate and they're pretty patchy looking on the sides.

Kyla's Blessing

Kyla was blessed the first Sunday of June. It was a beautiful day. Brad did a terrific job and really captured her personality in the blessing (like he has with each of the kids). By the time we took pictures it had been an extremely long day. The ones of just Kyla--she was not happy. It was the third time I'd put that dress on her that day. It was just so hot I didn't want to leave her in it and I really wanted pictures. Brad managed to get her to stop crying though.

My mom made the blanket for her in about a day and a half. She's amazing!

The baby whisperer! He was calming her down so I could get some pictures.

Family pictures. The shirt that Aaron's wearing... I think Kaden wore that the day Aaron was blessed. Didn't do that on purpose.

Too bad Kaden's scowling.

I don't think she liked it.

My mom had a hard time figuring out our camera. But there you have it. Some pictures of our beautiful girl on her special day!

America

The real reason I started posting things tonight. I was driving home from PetSmart with Aaron, listening to some country music (judge me if you must). The song "An American Soldier" came on. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It's been 3 years since my cousin/brother was killed in Iraq. I just want to say how glad I am that I live in America. I'm grateful for the freedoms that we are blessed with here. And I am so grateful for all the service men and women who serve our country because "freedom don't come free." Our nation isn't perfect. But there are people willing to risk their lives in defense of everything our country stands for. I doubt I'll ever be able to look at a flag or listen to that song without feelings of pride and accompanying tears.

Thanks to those who have served our country and those who continue to serve!

Summer Odds and Ends

The boys watching movies on the XBOX.

Aaron loves wearing Kaden's snow boots.

Kaden was playing Lego Star Wars and fell asleep while playing.

Aaron found a gift we received for Kyla. He decided to try it out, and he's even carrying around the card that was sent with it. Thanks Uncle Bob and Aunt Sharon!!!

Trying to get Kyla to smile... this was in May when she was starting to become responsive. She smiles all the time now.

This is the most precious smile and Kaden stuck his head in "just in time." The little stinker.

More smiles.

The boys were exhausted one Sunday and fell asleep next to one another (which never happens peacefully).

A view from the top.

That just looks so uncomfortable.