Instagram: November - January

Outside without coats 2 days before Thanksgiving? Crazy talk.

 Paper just makes them so happy!

 Influenced by her brother's love of blue.

 Happy Birthday Devynee!  We love you sweet girl!

 That row of birds is why I won't ever own a dairy farm. #latergram

 Cheese! Love our time touring the #LDS Church dairy farm. #latergram

 Christopher Pop-in-kins made an appearance for the first time last night (in our un-decorated tree). The questions about him were exhausting, but the kids love him!

 Someone has a new found love for Sorry.  #fourthgametoday

 He's been planning this outfit since the plane ride home from Cali.  Mom just didn't get the pjs washed 'til today... #handsinwebslingingposition

 First plane ride for this little dolly! #latergram

 Can't leave this one out!  She sure loved hanging out with Stuart. #latergram

 Shorter = less tangles. We hope.

 Why is it they all know how to empty a wallet in record time?

 At 13.5 months old, this one finally got her first tooth!

 A first tooth last Thursday and glasses today!  Exciting times in the life of Devynee!  (She is farsighted and it causes her to go cross-eyed)

 Waiting to go in to preschool!

To make life easier...

Sometimes you have fine hair and it gets longer and looking a little stringy, so mama goes and gets it cut without double checking with dad [this may or may not have been on purpose] but then you have a darling hair cut on a darling little girl who's hair is just a lot less in the way of life. :)

I think this face illustrates how my kids feel most of the time that I pull out the camera.  Also, could she look any older?

Devynee - 14 months

Devynee is so tiny that I sometimes forget my baby is really over a year old!  She is starting to express herself a little more, which makes me very happy!

At 14 months:

• Devynee is cruising on all furniture, but doesn't really try to step anywhere on her own.  She will walk when holding onto both of your hands, but based on her lack of coordination there, walking may still be a ways off.
• She signs "more" "all done" "banana" "milk" "please" and says "bye" and "ni-ni" for night night.  She will also repeat a few other words (cracker, thank you, etc.) but I haven't heard her use them on her own. 
• Devynee still screams at an ear piercing level if she wants something and you are not moving fast enough.  I'm trying really hard to make her use her words and signs, but sometimes I have to admit, I let the scream win.  [bad mama]
• Devynee went to the eye doctor this month to get what I thought was a lazy eye checked out.  Turns out she is farsighted and that makes her cross eyed when she tries to focus on things up close.  We are now constantly putting her glasses back on her face!  She will wear glasses for the next several years, but in most cases, the glasses will actually cure the condition.  We'll know more after our next appointment in February.
• She got her first tooth this month!  The bottom right tooth on January 10th.  It sure is cute!  Especially since mama is done nursing and there isn't any biting going on. :)
• Devynee continues to wear size 12 month clothes and size 2 shoes.
• She also continues to take 2 naps a day (both 2+ hours) and sleeps from 7 pm to 6:30 am every night.
• Devynee loves to play with our phones and the ipods.  She never puts them in her mouth and only holds them for about 10 seconds, but she knows that she is supposed to like them like her mom, dad and siblings do!
• She can crawl up the stairs like a pro, but still doesn't understand why she can't just go down frontwards.
• Devynee continues to love her daddy most of all.  If she is crying in another room and I hear the garage door open, all I have to say is, "Devynee!  Daddy's home!" and she will stop crying and crawl as fast as she can to meet him at the garage door. 

And now some pictures!

Sad girl, just got her first tooth.

 On the plane ride home, with daddy.

 Emptying mom's wallet.

 First day in the new glasses!

 Mom's sad attempt to get more pictures in her glasses a few days later.  Let's just pretend that her nose is not runny in these pictures, mmkay?

 This one shows you the strap around the back.  They ordered the wrong size that matches her glasses, so we are borrowing the purple one til they get the white one in.

Helping with the dishes and yes, her glasses are dirty and smeary at least 50% of the time she wears them.  It just comes with having a 14 month old in glasses. :)

 Now, helping with the laundry.  This time she took off her glasses and then crawled in to help.  A small break for her (she is supposed to wear them whenever she is awake).

 All ready for church (kneeling, not standing) and she really wants the camera.

Devynee - 13 months

Devynee had the pleasure of being in California for her 13 month milestone.  We had lots of fun with lots of family!

At 13 months:

• Devynee is a pro at crawling. She has also started to pull up on things (did this for the first time on December 8th), but isn't moving along things yet.
• She still doesn't have any teeth.  That gummy smile is the best.
• Devynee takes two naps a day and sleeps through the night.  She is dying to get to bed at 7:00 p.m. and sleeps until about 6:30 a.m. on a regular basis. To be honest, she wakes up less than the other two do at night!
• Devynee will eat anything and just gums away at it.  Everyone is surprised at what I put in front of her, but she loves it all.  She continues to eat baby food as well to balance out some food groups that are harder for me to get her to eat normally.
• She loves to follow all of us around the house but lets us know when she feels that she has crawled long enough!
• Devynee is a pro at screaming and we are diligently working on signing with her.  She will do the signs for milk, all done and more consistently and we are working on introducing others.
• She has decided that she really, really, really loves her Daddy this month and gets very upset if he does not acknowledge her immediately when he comes into the room.
• Devynee is pretty comfortable with anyone as long as it is not time for a nap, then she wants someone she knows.
• She is in size 12 month clothing with no sign of moving up.
• Wears a size 2 shoe, but mostly wears the Ministar shoes from Target (LOVE them!)

We sure love this sweet little girl!  She loves to be the center of attention and will sometimes "fall" down while crawling so that mom or dad will pay attention to her!

[pictures to be inserted later, when Grandpa Cali sends them (hint, hint)]

Christmas Sunday Clothes

Sunday, December 16th was the last day that we went to our regular ward before Christmas, so I dressed up the kids in their Christmas dresses/clothes.

I tried to get some pictures, but well, you'll see how it all went down.

The pictures of the girls in their matching skirts were a little more "hands-on" than I had hoped.

 This little one sure is a cute little thing though.  You can also see our tree set up this year.  Yes, it was on a table.  Everything worked out perfectly as Devynee couldn't reach it at all.

 Another attempt at the girls together, with no one looking at me.

 And Easton, insisting that he pose with his web-shooting hands.

Gotta love 'em!

The time that turning 30 was no big deal

I feel like I am in the minority on this, but turning 30 had no effect on me whatsoever.  I'm another year older.   I am as beautiful, cool and amazing as always, except I've had an additional year to perfect myself even more. [ha]

Seriously though, 30 was not a crisis in anyway.  The gray hair I am finding consistently is a bit more alarming to me, if we are being honest. I'm sure that some of this is because I'm kinda where I imagined myself to be when I was a Beehive.  I'm married to a hott husband. I have three mostly fantastic children. I own a home. We make some money. You get the drift.

I realize I am incredibly blessed and I thank my Heavenly Father many times a day.

In case you are wondering, having a birthday on a Sunday in December when your husband is the Bishop and in the middle of tithing settlement is not the ideal situation. Keep that in mind for future reference. I'm sure it will be immensely helpful.

My wonderful parents offered to come over and cook me my birthday dinner since Ron doesn't normally get home from church until 7pm or later (this was when we had 1-4pm church, it is better now).  It turned out wonderfully and wonderfully delicious!

My mom made sure we all mourned the death of my youth appropriately...

 And the Cheesecake Factory cheesecake I purchased for myself at Sam's Club was as good as I hoped. :)

I had lots of help blowing out my 30 candles! It was determined that 30 may be the end of the "actual number of candles on your cake" as the smoke was pretty intense and we were concerned about sleeping Devynee getting awoken by the fire alarm!

I was as spoiled as one should be.  The biggest surprise being that Ronnie purchased a water softener for our house!  This may seem like the lamest gift ever, but I LOVE soft water.  Love what it does to help my dry skin and hair.  On the flip side, Ronnie hates soft water.  For this reason, I assumed I would never have soft water unless we purchased a home with a water softener already installed.  So, this gift was like the Gift of the Magi if you will.  Ronnie will suffer everyday so I can be happy. I'm convinced that he will grow to love it as well. :)

Easton's Birthday

Since Ronnie and my dad had a meeting with the city council in Laramie on Easton's birthday, we conveniently held the party at Grandma's house. We had a great time!

Surprise, surprise, he had a giant cupcake! :)  Mom did find a sweet Spider-man candle though, so that made the cake as cool as could be.

 Easton has this birthday stuff down now.  He has been doing it for 5 years now, you know.

 These are mom's sad attempt to document the decorations, which she of course forgot to take until after everything was over and the banner was falling down.

 Traditional Wyo family birthday signs.

 Then, it was on the presents! First, he opened the biggest box...

 which was conveniently a bean bag for him to sit on to unwrap the rest of the presents.

 He even let Kendree help with a few.

 This is a get-up I see on him several times a week.

 And just like he asked for, Grandma and Grandpa Cali delivered a skateboard.

 Don't ask me what blogger is doing, but here is the rest of the falling down banner.  It wrapped completely around the room and looked super cool when it was actually up.  I promise.

Easton had a great day surrounded by family and being spoiled rotten!

December 2012

Sometimes you get SOOOOO behind on the blog you almost don't want to catch up.  I think I've learned my lesson though, as this is my favorite way of sharing pictures of the kids with friends and family, not to mention how much I love that it serves as a record of our family.  The plates of RonnieKaLeeEastonKendreeDevynee if you will.

So, how about a little bit of random catch up?

The older two kids wrote letters to Santa this year.  This is Easton's.

 [Dear Santa, I have been a good boy. I would like a Robot and Sonic toy and Silver Sonic and Luigi. Thank you. Love, Easton.]

We then delivered our letters in person (Easton would hear nothing about mailing them) to Santa at our ward Christmas party.

 What is Christmas as a one year old without a screaming on Santa's lap picture?

Don't ask me how these got so out of order but here is Kendree with Santa at mom's work Christmas party.  Easton is convinced that the Santa at the ward party is the real Santa since we see the same one at dad's work Christmas party and the one at mom's work Christmas party is just a helper.

 Now Kendree's letter:

 [Dear Santa, I have been good this year. I try to be nice to my brother and sister. I would like a dolly with a bottle and a potty. Also some books and princess bath soap like last year. Thank you Santa! Love, Kendree]

And now Kendree giving her letter to Santa.

 And all three with the real Santa.

Finally, Easton at mom's work party.  Mom decided Devynee could have a break and not sit on Santa's lap more than once.