Brynlee birthday party

Mom made the traditional giant cupcake cake for Brynlee's party with family in Laramie. Due to soccer games, it was made a day in advance and the frosting was hard to prove it.  Live and learn.

Brynlee waited while we sang...

And then had no idea what to do.  Her siblings were quick to show here and she was quick to catch on.

Just a little while later, we had this...

Next up were presents. We let all the other kids there open the gifts, so it was like a birthday for everyone!

Brynlee did get to play with the spoils.

 The haul.  We have a loved (spoiled) little girl!

She wasn't too keen on being in the picture though.

Happy Birthday Brynlee!

Brynlee: 1 year!

This happy baby is one year old!

But this is how she felt about her headband...

I can't believe it has been a year! She is so sweet and loves to be in the action.  At one, she can sign more, all done, please and grandma.  She still doesn't say any words consistently except "ba" for her stuffed bear. She is cruising along anything she can find and practicing to halancing, but no walking yet.  She is weaned and sleep trained and now sleeps through the night (Hallelujah!). She takes two naps a day and loves to eat anything we are eating.  No teeth yet.  Brynlee wears size 12 month clothes and moccasin shoes that I have no idea the size of.

We sure love this sweet spirit!

Instagram: September 2015

We have a standing baby! The kids are going a little crazy trying to find new "safe" places for their toys.

So. This little lady is clearly my 4th child. This "10 month" update is coming to you 3 weeks late. I'm going to try to keep it to what she was actually doing at 10 months though. Brynlee is crawling everywhere and is fearless around the house. She takes off for the kids rooms whenever she can to see what treasures they happened to leave on the floor. She takes 2 naps a day and if we stay home, her morning nap is consistently longer than her afternoon one. Night times are rough. Mama is quite honestly counting down the time when she can wean and sleep train.  Brynlee is so tiny (not even 15 pounds at her 9 month appointment) that the doc said to feed her anytime she wakes up. Luckily, she is super easy going and cute during the day, and goes right back to sleep after she's eaten at night. So crazy to think my baby is quickly approaching 1!

My manicure this morning. Devynee will talk your ear off for your entire appointment and even speaks English.  A win-win.

A sad, sad, sad loss, but still a fun family day at the UW football game today.  Grandma and Grandpa were there too!

This little one loves "real" books. Too bad she isn't so gentle and only gets quick looks before mom trades her for a board book.

At 11 months, Brynlee is busy! She takes two naps a day and is ALL over the house when she is awake. She is a lightening fast crawler and pulls up on anything and everything. She is starting to balance on her own and we aren't far from walking now! Brynlee takes the cake as my worst night-time sleeper, getting up anywhere from 2-4 times a night and is up for the day at 6:30 a.m. (she goes to bed at 7:30). Brynlee refuses to do any ASL or repeat words to you.  She just looks at you like "keep doing that mom, you look like an idiot." She loves stuffed animals and doesn't really have one favorite but collectively has three stuffed bears that she drags around. The sound "ba" is the only one she will say on command if I say "bear" so I suppose we know where her heart lies. She doesn't even say mama or dada yet. Whew! if you made it through all of that, you must really love me (or Brynlee).

After detailing my entire car today, I've decided not to let food or kids inside of it.  Reasonable, no?

The New House: September 2015

Next, came the forms for the footings.
(west side of house) The front of the house faces south, just so you know.

Middle of house

East side of house

Garage

Then those were poured and inspected.

Next came the wall forms!
Looking from the west side across the basement

 And soon, we had actual walls!
(looking from the east side across the basement.  The lower wall is the garage.)

 Standing in the back of the house, looking west.

Standing on the west side looking east.

Almost before we knew it, the rough plumbing was in!

 We chose to do the window wells that look like stone (just a vinyl picture applied to the insides).

The graded the driveway and soon it looked like this (hard to tell, but there is a three car garage you are looking at.

 Next came cement floors. Garage.

Basement (standing on the east side looking west).

Standing at the northeast corner.

And that's about all that was done in September!

Random September 2015

Cute, cheesy girl!

Kendree's teacher sent this.  They have several different work stations in their classroom.  You can see the ball chairs behind Kendree, then they also have tradition chairs and a standing table (which is where Kendree is working).  Her teacher tells me, it is her favorite place to work when she has a choice.

We were able to get tickets to the UW game on September 12th.  The lost horribly, but we still had fun.

Kendree and Devynee with our friends' daughter, Marlow.

Grandma and Grandpa were there too!

We've slowly been getting our house ready to sell.  One thing that had to be done was the replacing of some siding that had hail damage.  Our good friend Nate Galloway came over to show us how it is done (when I say us, I mean Ronnie).

This was in progress.  It is all fixed now!

Snuggling sisters.

Baby Jaxon was blessed on September 19th.  They also had a little birthday party for Todd at the same time.  Kendree took control of my phone and got the following pictures:

Todd.

Silly Devynee.

Adam, Jaxon Paul, Todd and Alicia.

Brynlee.

Another cheeser.

Then, we had the Ninja Turtles show up for the party:

Adam and I had some fun showing the kids how a teeter-totter works.  They were all a little confused at first since these aren't at parks anymore.  Adam and I were pleasantly surprised that it is skill just like riding a bike. ;)

Albeit, a skill that makes your bum very sore when the seat is made for kids.

We took a quick trip out to the ranch to site in our guns.  We unloaded the 4-wheeler on the loading ramp that Jordan built a few years ago (I'd never actually seen it used and felt that I needed to take a picture).

The kids all got to shoot the BB gun.  Always a highlight.

 Easton made an All About Me poster for school. My favorite was that he love ESPN and mom and dad, but ESPN first.

Another trip to the ranch, another 4-wheeler ride.  Easton LOVES the kid sized one.  The only draw back is that the pink helmet is the only one that fits him right now.  That does NOT keep him from riding though, he just grumbles a little.