All My Children

There are great things to be learned from each of my kiddos.

Trey taught me how to close my eyes.

It can be hard work.

Here's how to close your nose.

How to close your mouth.

And, lastly, how to close your face.

Important skills to have.

Lanaya teaches me how to defy gravity.

This is her immediately following a bath and blow dry.  Behold the awesomeness.

This is what her hair does if I comb it down and just let it air dry post bath.  Still fluffy up top.

But, this is just so much more fun.

And they both teach me about love.

Trey teaches me to love unrestrained.  Lanaya teaches me to be tolerant and patient with those I love.

 It's all about the motivations of the one offering the love.

And, in case you've been missing pictures of the older two.  Here we are enjoying dinner at Chili's, thanks to Blake's mama.  We have appreciated so many free dinners (and so many other outpourings of love) since Blake's surgery.  And we probably wouldn't have survived without them.  So, thanks.

Lest you think I've forgotten about my oldest two children, here are some of their latest goodies brought home from school.

From Bryce:

Yesterday was my birthday.  I turned six. I got a remote cenchrole frog car.  It was orang.  My cacke was a gient coockie sandwich.  It was brown.

And from Kayli:

The Amazing game of FOOTBALL!  Have you ever played football?  I have.  It was fun.  A time I will always remember, is when I played football.  It was very, very fun!  Oh, no!  You will never belive the time I played football.  I was the second to last time I played.  

Three of my cusins and my grandpa went to the park on a hot summer day in Idiho.  We decided to play football.

We played for a very long time.

When I had the ball, I ran so fast I ran faster than Jared and Tyler.  I thought my lungs would BURST!

We played again tosing the ball and running.  Also we kicked the ball over these fence things to see who won.  We had a blast!  Most of the games we played, me Natalie, andgrampa won.
But we did not cheat and we did not laugh we just kept injoying our plesent little game.

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FIVE HEADS ROCK!

A time I will alwyas remember is my big trip.  It was August 2011.  My mom, my dad, my brother Treyton, my brother Bryce, and me were on our way to a huge trip.  We went to more than one place.  One of them was Mt. Rushmore.  When we got there I could hardly belive my eyes!  There was thousands of flags.  I saw the amarican flag, cool ones too.  As we walked through the crouds of flags I saw a big rock with five heads!  We entered the heads.  "Telescopes!" I screamed.  I ran toward the purple telescopes.  I put an eye in and the heads were huge!  I took a glimps at the stores.  "Mom, dad pleeeaasse" I begged.  "Yes just one suvineer" they screached.  I ran to the ramp I had saw and ran up and down it.  Soon I found myself face to face with a movie.  It was about how the workers built the faces in the rock.  It was amazing!  They used boms!  When the spactaculur movie was over we looked at the heads again.  "Who are those people?" I asked.  "WEll that ones Groge Washington" said my dad pointing.  "Cool" I said with amazement.  Suddenly I caught sight of what looked like t-shirts, toys, movies, video games, stuffed animals, magnets, and many other things.  Bryce picked out a bag of magnets.  I picked out a stuffed animal with the heads on his chest.  I named him Mt. Rushmore.  His rainbow body was soft as a white feathered dove.  Except his chest is hardish.  He sounds like rocks rolling.  He has the heads sowed on his belly.  Soon it was time to leave.  "By by" I said sadly.  We walked through the everlasting flags and to our car.  I hopped in and we started driving to our hotel.  I hope we get to go on a trip like that soon...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here are a thousand words to make up for the lack of photos of my two, talented writers.

8 Months

Lanaya rang in her 8-month birthday with some real spunk.  Turns out the bronchitis she was diagnosed with the day after Blake's surgery was also pneumonia.

It was pretty scary for a bit there.  She seemed like she was getting better for a couple of days and then it got worse.  Only, there weren't any real obvious symptoms.  She was just really sad.  And she had a fever.  And it seemed like she was in intense pain every time I moved her.  So, I took her to the pediatrician's and said this, "She only smiled twice yesterday."  And my pediatrician is awesome.  Even though she seemed okay--fever gone, chest and lungs sounding clear, ears only mildly bothered, she ran some more tests, assuming it was probably just another strain of the influenza virus.  And we felt bad for her to have to go through influenza twice, but what can you do?

Only, that test came back negative.  So, they ran a blood test.  Which showed elevated white blood cell count.  And they said she probably had either an infection in her blood, or in her lungs.  And I kind of freaked out.  They did this awful awful awful chest x-ray.  In this thing that looked like a torture device.  And the way she cried throughout only furthered that image.  I might have cried, too.

But, when the results came back positive for pneumonia, we were actually kind of just relieved to have it not be the blood infection.  And thankfully, she responded well to her second round of antibiotics.

She even perked up enough to hang out with a few of her friends a little while later  in the week.

And she started smiling again.

And doing weird things with her tongue.

Funny story about her hair--when she got sick, it laid down flat.  I assumed it was just because baby hair always seems to get greasy when they have a fever.  When she woke up the morning after starting the antibiotic, it was still pretty flat.  But, as the day wore on, it slowly perked back up until it finally stood back up again.

So, it turns out she actually had to notable symptoms--lack of smiles and her hair was sick.

And this is how she spends much of her time.  Peeking around her high chair to see what everyone else is doing.  It sure makes mealtime fun.

And this is pretty self-explanatory.  I'm surprised at how much fun these two have together considering how young they both are.

Sweetest Valentine's Gesture Ever

So, you might not know this, but Blake had shoulder surgery the day before Valentine's.

It was fun.

If finding out that you actually need more repairs and having the pain block partially fail is awesome, that is.

So, we brought Blake home the morning of Valentine's.  We anticipated it not being the best Valentine's Day ever (and went out on a hot date the weekend before), but we also thought we'd just sort of watch movies together all day.

That's not what happened.  Turns out shoulder surgery is pretty darn painful.  And pain meds are pretty powerful sleep-inducers.  So, Blake pretty much hurt and slept all day.

And she just hung out in my arms all day.  And tried to be happy.  But wasn't.

So, poor Blake was left home alone (locked in his room so Trey couldn't come jump on him) with the oldest three while I took her to the urgent care, where we got a bronchitis diagnosis.

And how sweet is Blake?  He had the foresight to make sure these were delivered.

In the midst of all the other fun of the day, these were a definite bright spot.

Annual Dates With The Kids

So, the weekend before Valentine's is typically the weekend when our local Y sponsors a Daddy/Daughter Dance.  And the boys and I have a Mommy/Son Donut & Movie Night.

Look how cute they are.

Practicing some stellar dance moves!

The boys and I decided to really mix things up this year and make beignets.

They. Were. Delicious.

Since Lanaya still hasn't learned to stand on her two dancing feet, she chose to sit this one out and stayed home with us.  Next year, Baby Girl.  Next year.

This is what a "Beignet Face" looks like, in case you were wondering.

And we watched "Flubber".  The one with Robin Williams.  Good times.  Lots of giggles from my boys.  I live for those giggles.

Good Luck Troll

These photos were taken when Lanaya was about 7 1/2 months.  So, not much was different from the last post about her.

But, we're all pretty happy about her hair.

I just can't seem to stop myself from photographing it.

And sharing all the photographs.

Her cheeks still get a fair amount of attention, too.

Some people have started saying her hair looks like troll hair.  You know, the cute little troll dolls we played with as kids--not the ugly, drooling trolls lurking under a bridge.

This is how she looks when she laughs.  And she laughs all the time.

And she does this.  Not sure why.  But it's funny.  She also smacks her lips a lot.  It's funny.  I've never had a baby do that before.

Cutest little thing ever.

I lead the music in church and she falls asleep on Blake's lap every week.  When it's me, she fights it like crazy.  But when in Blake's arms, she just sort of effortlessly drifts off.  I know this because I watch it happen from the stand.  I might be a little bit jealous.  But it's pretty darn cute as well.

And she doesn't usually wear her headband straight across the middle of her forehead like that.  In case you were wondering.