Deakin's First Haircut and Food

Deakin had the best baby hair!  Everywhere we went people would comment on all of that hair! I knew that it wouldn't last as all of my babies had lost their hair, some of them lost it all, others just lost some.  Deakin lost some and had crazy long locks, mixed along with shorter sections.  It was weird baby hair.

Here is a reminder of all of that great baby hair!

 Here is my sweet Deakin at 6 months old.  With all of those long, strange pieces of hair.  The girls wanted him to be Einstein at Halloween with all of this crazy hair!  It bothered me so I knew it had to be cut.

Here is Deakin after having his hair buzzed.  I did it a little shorter then I had planned but I knew that it would be growing in nice and even now, so I was still happy about it!  Also for his 6 month birthday he got to eat his first solid food.  He was not very impressed with applesauce.  I guess it is pretty sour after only eating Mommy's sweet milk your whole life.  It took him a little while to get the hang of eating but then he was sure a hungry baby!

A Letter to my 12 Year Old.

Happy Birthday, my darling, Kyndal,

  I cannot believe that you are 12 years old. It was not long ago that you were just my first child, a little baby, in my arms. Since then you have grown and progressed so much! Everyday I am gaining more joy from the girl that you are becoming.  You are becoming responsible and helpful. I can see your testimony growing and developing.  This helps you to have great peace and hope in your life.  You are confident in all that you do and I know that this will help to carry you far in all of your endeavors. I am so happy to be alongside you as you go to the temple for the first time.  This is a great step in living your life the way that your Father in Heaven wants you to.  This is the path that will bring you true happiness in this life. I love you my sweet girl.  Thank you for all the positive things that you contribute to our family.  You are a wonderful girl!

Love, Your Mom

 It was a cold day attending the temple with Kyndal for the first time, just a couple of days after she turned 12.  It was a great day to do family names and work to tie generations of our family together. What a great service for her birthday.

 Kyndal asked for make-up for her 12th birthday.  So she got some of that, along with some drawing supplies and a drawing book.  That is what she loves to do the most.

Our whole crew up early with an excited birthday girl! It is quite a full bed for cuddling in the morning!

We have a fun time together!

Marshall has been loving writing lately.  He has really progressed in his ability since these pictures but I loved him all by himself making lists, writing letters and words.  it is so sweet!  He loved the letter E this day and adding lots of sticks to them all.  So cute!

Baylor loves his little brother and always wants to hold him.

We cut down the huge tree in front of our house.  It was so big that you couldn't even see the house behind it.  It was a fun event to go and watch it happen, even though we only made it for the last bit.  We had them cut the stumps into appropriate sizes for having stools.  We are excited to keep these for use for all of our kids along our front and back porches. It was fun to have the tree guy counting the rings from the tree with the kids.  There were 45 rings!

At the zoo we loved spending time watching the baby gorilla!  This baby is exactly 3 months older then Deakin.  At this time I think that Kimani was 8 months and Deakin was 5 months.  Deakin was quite a bit bigger then her but she was definitely more capable, climbing around and holding onto her mother.  It was fun to watch and relate to these amazing animals.

Baylor has learned a new trick for being happy.  With a pencil in your lips it helps to mimic the muscles used in a smile, along with raising the eyebrows, your brain thinks that you are smiling and produces happy hormones.  Paul had been using this trick on grumpy girls at times and Baylor was frequently doing it as well. Baylor trying it made the rest of us smile, so he really knew a good trick for bringing happiness, be so incredibly cute!

We had hardwood floor throughout our rental house, so when the carpet went in and Deakin could roll around on a soft surface, he was really happy about it. It was so fun to see him be able to happily explore further without bashing his little face on the hard floor.

These guys were working on a push-up challenge a little while ago.  So they spent some time seeing what they could still do.  And showing off their Booms afterwards, of course.

We were eating supper and there was one last section of bread that no one else wanted after supper, can you guess why?

For a service we wrote Thank you notes to our contractor, telling him how grateful we are for the ahrd work that he has put into making our house for us.  Marshall was very proud of his writing and was so happy to deliver it to Luke.  He had many proper letters written but would write them out of order, all over the page.

Some of these cute little shenanigans that happen at our house. Climbing, cuddling, dressing up as a hot dog, all having fun together.

This day Marshall was trying to tell me that though he had eaten a lot he was still hungry.  He is saying here, "Look Mom, there is still more room!" He is such a funny boy, and yes, he always does seem to have more room for food!

Halloween 2016

Halloween was interesting this year as we were living in a different area, in a rental house.  We were guessing that we wouldn't have many trick-or-treaters due to our location and area.  We underestimated how many we would get.  We had 1.  Of course that doesn't count all of our 5 going out (actually we only sent 4 out, we put the little boys to bed.)

Kyndal had a really fun time planning her gypsy costume.  She knew what she wanted and we had a fun time scouring "Valoo Vilahj" to find the right pieces.

Here are the kids and their pumpkins.  We carved them that day and used an LED light in them that night so that they would be salvaged to cook up the next day.  I love pumpkin baking, so I love using all of the pumpkin that I can.  I like how as we cooked Kyndal's pumpkin that its face grew grumpier and grumpier.  I guess I would feel the same way if I was cooked!

This is all of the costumes that the kids ended up trick-or-treating in.  The little Cat-in-the-hat, with thing one, a little horse, a Hogwarts witch, a unicorn, a gypsy and a bat. We had a really fun time trick-or-treating on our new street to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors and a little bit around our rental house as well.

Birthday Photo Shoot

Elliette is 10!  Well she is now in these pictures.  She wasn't allowed to read the Harry Potter books until she turned 10 so then she read the first 3 in that next week.  This is why she is seen on her birthday where I can't get a book out of her hand.  This is vary happy for this girl to be a couch potato for a couple of days, or more likely a book worm.  She is a super busy and active girl, she also loves to read but doesn't often enough take the time to sit for any length of time to do it.  Unless she is totally enthralled, like she is now.

This girl is a super happy and funny child.  I adore how she makes me laugh, especially when she isn't even trying.  She is strong and proud of it!  She has great growing muscles and will show off her boom any time you request it. Ask her!

Elliette is such a kind and amazing sister, especially to Baylor.  Those 2 always have a special connection.  She doesn't love the baby stage and is starting to tolerate time with Deakin more, now that he can more and climb and do things.  She detested having to sit and hold him.  I shouldn't be surprised by this, that is the way she is.  Now that he can play and more, she is getting to enjoy time looking after him as well.

Elliette's birthday request was a dessert pizza.  I can't remember exactly why, but I think it had to do with the fact that her cousin Clayton doesn't like cake.  What a thoughtful girl!

I love this little beauty and can't believe how much she is growing up! I am so happy to be able to be a part of it!

Elliette also has a very special bond with her Cuzzy!  She loves to have time playing with Adeline.