My Jelly Belly!

Oh, my sweet Elliette! She is just the funniest kid that I know. Especially when she isn't trying. When I say that she is funny and makes me laugh then she tries and is just silly.  When she is just playing and talking and being herself she is just amazing and hilarious.  She loves to chat these days.  A lot of people don't get to see that side of her as she takes a little while to warm up but when she gets going it is hard to get her to stop.  She could talk our ears right off!  She loves to go and hang out with Great Grandpa, she affectionately calls him 'Greatie'.  Sometimes when we can't find Elliette (which happens more often then we would like) she has been down in Grandpas room, cuddling, watching his shows and chatting with him the whole time.  It is so special and exactly what I was most excited about being here; that my kids may know their Great Grandpa and have a great relationship with him.  Here are a plethora of pictures of Elliette being herself and goofing off for the camera.  It is amazing that I have so many of her eyes as it is hard to get her to look at the camera, or even me, for more then 2 seconds.  I guess she will when it is part of the fun she is having posing.

I think they are dressed up to sing once there was a snowman.  You may notice that Elliette has on a hood under those jammies, and socks on her hands.  She is actually wearing 2 pairs of jammies.  This is one of the funny things that she does.  She often is wearing 2 pairs of underwear, pajamas, multiple pairs of socks and any other clothes that she feels needs a few layers.  One night she came out of bed and her feet were sore.  I looked at them and felt concerned that they were swollen.  I felt them and they felt hard like a cast.  I realized that it wasn't her feet that were swollen as I began peeling off the layers of socks that she had on.  She had on 8 pairs of socks, hard and puffy on her little feet.  It was so crazy.  Actually, it was surprising that she could find 8 pairs of her socks as usually she has to scrounge for her socks because if there are any in her drawer she dresses her animals in them, uses them for toy houses (stretching toys inside of them) tying them around her toys, puts them on her hands as animal paws, anything.  I don't know all that she does with them but she loves to play with socks with her toys Dawsyn getting her face painted as well

The girls frequently wants to have her face painted.  Actually as they came in and saw me typing this they asked to have their faces painted.  Here is Elliette as a butterfly.

Elliette is getting to be a super tree climber.  This is her favorite monkey pose- hanging upside down.  We also made a swing on the tree.  It started with the kids tying their skipping ropes to the tree to try and climb up the big tree.  So I tied some knots into it so that they could climb and swing on it.  Then we tied big knots onto the bottom of it so they could sit on it.  Then we wanted to try and experiment with different ways to try and make it.  It was a fun experiment.  We found a piece of wood and wrapped it in some batting as the first one that we made was really hurting their legs to sit on.  Then Kyndal put some fabric around it and did some of her hand stitching.  Then we tied up the rope to the branch and the swing and secured it by wrapping around lots of hockey tape.  It was so fun while it lasted!  The kids loved having their own swing, especially that they got to make it. 

Elliette is such a fun kid!  We are so grateful to be a part of her learning and growing.  It is a great time!

Better late then never!

Dawsyn is 3!!!

I know that this happened in April but it is just how life goes sometimes. I just really wanted to celebrate our sweet girl turning 3. She is just such a funny kid! She is so full of love and sweetness and then can flip and be the grouchiest, getting into trouble kid the next second. That is just so typical of a 3 year old and Dawsyn never fails to live up to the expectation of what a 3 year old is like. She is really my most child for getting into things.  It seems like I cannot turn my back for literally seconds and Dawsyn is into trouble and messes somewhere.  It may be in part because I am busier then I was with the other girls when they were this age.  I don't know but she keeps me hopping all of the time.  She is also my most social little miss.  She frequently asks to play with her cousins and she just loves all of the time she gets to spend playing with them.  She is my girl that is by my side more frequently then anyone else.  She is happy to just be near me playing.  She loves to have me do her hair and for a while was asking everyday for me to "curler" her hair.

Here is a celebration of my little beauty turning 3!

Dawsyn saying "I am this many!"

Dawsyns request for her birthday cake was to have chocolate money on it.  She had fun helping me to put the money all over the cake.  She choose to decorate it also with her favorite colors, orange and pink.

The birthday buddies sharing the candle blowing.  It is so special to have them sharing a birthday!

Grandad sharing a special cuddle with his girls!

Kids Tri!!

It was so great to be able to do this together as a family.  Well at least a few of us to do together and be supported by the rest.  I think that this was a great experience to try something new for the kids and to participate with me in something big that I am doing.

Dawsyn didn't do the triathlon but she had fun at the bouncy castle.  She really wanted to swim with her big sisters so maybe she will have to do it next year!

Kyndal and Elliette have been so excited.  They got these swim caps free when they checked in.  Not that they needed them but they thought it was fun.  Elliette was easy to spot wandering around in all yellow.  She just cracks me up!

They both were so fun to watch!  Kyndal was wanting to do the backstroke for her swim as she was more confident to go farther that way.  This was fine but very funny.  There were 2 kids in each lane and as soon as they were in the water Kyndal was veering over into the other little girls lane.  So she had to stop and see where Kyndal was going and then go into the other lane around her.  Then Kyndal kept stopping every few kicks to look and see how far she was from the end.  It was so fun to watch her figuring it out.  I had a great laugh!

Elliettes swim was perfect and steady.  She is just so cute and little in there, even with kids her same age.  It is so funny!

Kyndal is getting onto the bike leg.  Nana is there helping her with Marshall sleeping in the sling.  Nana was so excited to feel like a Guatemalan grandma with the babe in the sling just like they wear in Guatemala.

Kyndal had a mishap on the bike.  It was quite chaotic with kids every where and the bikes and runners going along the same kind of places.  So Kyndal was on her bike and a kid running toward her veered straight into her.  I heard that he was fairly hurt and Kyndal was definitely feeling shaken up by running over that kid.  So I found her at the end of her bike crying and very upset.  Also to her credit, she hadn't been feeling well but still wanted to do the triathlon that she had been so excited about.  So after the crash and her throat hurt we were just going to finish up and walk together toward the end.  She was holding onto me but when she got the finish line in sight she just took right off.  She put in all of the last effort that she had and ran right to the finish line.  It was so cute and surprising as she was holding tight to me and so sad just a moment before.  She just so wanted to do it! 

This picture you can see her darting around someone as she races to the end.

Kyndal still looking sad yet proud for accomplishing what she wanted to do.  What a trooper!

Elliette was so fast on her bike.  She really put her heart into doing it fast.  That is so her because we didn't talk at all about going fast but just to work hard and do her best.  She is just a speedy little girl!  .

She was on her bike when Kyndal was headed to the finish line. I thought that I would have a minute before she finished her run as well.  I thought wrong. I barely got the pictures of Kyndal when I heard them calling Elliette's name as she crossed the finish line. Paul said she was just running her fastest.

She was so proud of what she had accomplished.  It was just so cute.  We were also so proud of our girls and excited to share this with them.

Here they are posing with their medals.  It is amazing how much of a reward it is to get a medal at the end.  I, too, felt like that medal signified what I had accomplished.  It was sure an exciting day!!

The girls were also very proud of their body markings.  They are here showing off the numbers on their legs.  You can't see the arm ones in their huge shirts.  They were so proud to have these marking on that they refused to scrub to get them off.  They may still be there faintly.

  

These fun young kids with their costumes were sure entertaining for the kids!  They were also along the course when I went, giving high fives.  Every bit of encouragement sure helps. 

The girls all together!   I saw both Adeline and Eliza flying on their bikes and running as hard as they could to the finish line.  Those girls have triathlon in their blood!  Such an amazing day!