Sunday 10

1. We had a great, fun, busy week! We're only 3 days into school, but I can already tell that I will cherish weekends more than ever. (Okay, maybe not ever, but probably as much as I did in my college days.) 8:00 a.m. start time for Alli means we're up and at 'em early each morning. This has potential to be a long year!
2. Alli started school on Wednesday. She was up and dressed before I was, excited for her first day.

3. She came home on her first day and said she loved it, which was no surprise to anyone. Her teacher, Miss Braswell, told each student to make up a funny thing about each of their parents. In Alli's words, "I wrote 'my dad says the letter A all day long, and my mom eats poopy underwear'." Thanks, Alli. I appreciate that. We have since had a talk about potty talk at school.
4. Holly started school on Thursday. I simplified my life this year and enrolled her at a preschool across the street from my house. We're just one day in and I already love myself more for doing that. Here's a picture from her first day. Right before we took the pictures she encountered the attack of the itchy eye, so I got about 20 shots of her with closed eyes or rubbing her eyes, and this one single picture showing eyeballs. She had a great first day and loves being back in school.

5. Tyson gets easier every day. Today at church he cried two times, and both times were because he was tired. It took me less than 5 minutes to rock him to sleep each time, and he was a happy camper the rest of the day. He's smiling and cooing a lot, and I'm now in the stage of baby-hood where I spend half the day with a camera stuck to my face, making baby talk to him, just trying to capture one smile. So far this is the closest I've come.
6. Thursday after preschool, Holly, Brynne, Tyson and I went to the Hills for Laila's birthday party. My kids could have stayed and played in the water all day. They had such a great time. It's days like that one that I hate having the school schedule to deal with. We had to leave earlier than any of us wanted to get Alli from school. I suppose it will just feel normal in time, but I kind of miss having all day, every day to do whatever we wanted.


7. Friday night Alex went with 5 of his friends to Heber for a golf weekend. While the guys were gone, Lindsay, Aleena and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. In a twist of fate (I just think that's a cool phrase) I got Kristen, a girl I used to babysit who is now at BYU, to come babysit my girls for me. They loved her, and it was great to reconnect a bit. We have discussed how my kids can babysit her kids, and the cycle will never end. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Olive Garden was so fun, and it was great to have a girls night. Those have been nonexistent since Tyson was born.
8. Saturday was a busy, busy day. We watched Alli's friend in the morning while her family moved, then headed off to Alli's first soccer game! She surprised us a little, because she actually ran and tried to get the ball, and she broke a sweat. We're excited to see how she does as the season progresses. Here's my little soccer player, #6.

9. Right after the game we headed up to Salt Lake for a lunch to celebrate my Aunt Carla's 25 years at her job. We had a great time with the family. After a brief respite at home, we went down to Orem for a big friend barbecue at the Hills. I got to play badminton for the first time in years. That was a lot of fun. As usual, my kids didn't want to leave.

10. I needed to include this picture of Brynne. She is just so cute. She's silly and loves to be a big girl, but is the first person to climb onto my lap every morning. Even though it frustrates me at times, I love her feisty personality. I caught this picture of her the other day while she was in one of her silly moods. It captures her perfectly.

Mainly Because I Think it Will Be Funny Someday.

Alli (for the 17th time): Can I have a friend over?
Me: (for the 17th time): Not today, I'm really tired and don't feel like having an extra kid here.
Alli: I wish you said yes to everything.
Me: If I said yes to everything, it would make you be a spoiled brat.
Alli: When you say no to anything, it makes you a dumb mom.

Bear Lake

Or as Brynne says in her sing-song voice, "I see a Be-ar La-ake." We spent the last three days at Bear Lake with Alex's parents, Betsy, and Natalie and their families. Alex's parents were extremely generous and rented a cabin for the weekend. We spent Saturday on the lake doing the waverunners, relaxing, and playing in the sand and water.

Brynne definitely won the difficult child prize this trip. She would not go to sleep. She climbs out of pack-n-plays, opens doors, and just generally has way too much energy late at night. And all day long. That's why we love her, right? She had fun driving the waverunners when they were parked at the cabin.

Lack of sleep apparently wore her out. After playing for a couple hours, she spent two hours just sitting her stroller at the beach.

On the way home today she fell asleep with a sucker in her mouth.

Alli and Holly were cracking up making funny faces in the car.

It was so nice to have one last family weekend before school starts. (Really, that should say before college football season starts, but I don't want Alex to feel bad. Not that he would...he's too excited.) We love having the cousins play together and getting to stay up late playing games!

Sunday 10

1. I am tired and was just going to skip Sunday 10 this week until I realized that I skipped it last week. Whoops. So here I am. Tyson's not asleep yet, anyway, so I can't go to bed.

2. Tuesday after lunch I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country. We saw the animals, took a tractor ride, and got ice cream cones. It was a great day. I'm glad that I can manage outings with all the kids by myself now. (Plus, we got a new double stroller that I LOVE, and makes it much easier to get around than our old one.)

Holly and Brynne on the tractor ride.

Alli and Holly by the goats. Brynne was terrified of them...

...until she found some grass to feed them. She went up to this goat all by herself and fed it. So cute.

3. Alli started soccer practice on Wednesday. Her first game is this Saturday. Should be interesting. And maybe a little funny.

4. Alli and Holly had a primary activity on Thursday morning. I dropped them off, ran some errands, and got home with plenty of time so we decided to load up the stroller and walk over to pick them up. Good news: I got a little exercise. Bad news: by the time I got there the dark clouds were rolling in. When the activity ended there was crazy wind and lots of rain. Awesome for me, right? Thank goodness for a wonderful neighbor who loaded us up in her car and took us home!

5. Once the storm ended we went down to Orem where I left my girls with Lindsay for a bit and went to the mall. I walked out with nothing, but it was nice to get away. We had dinner with them while the guys went golfing.

6. Brooke came home with us for a sleepover, which my kids have been begging for for weeks. They stayed up as late as we let them and woke up early.

7. The big news of the week is that Tyson slept through the night! On Wednesday night he had a pretty good stretch, but still woke up early. Then on Thursday night he went from 10-7. I woke up feeling a little more refreshed than I have in weeks (7.5 weeks to be precise!) and he woke up super happy and stayed that way the whole day. Sleep is good for everyone.

8. Side note: I LOVE these little pajamas. He hasn't been able to wear them because it's just too hot, especially since I swaddle him at night. But I want to get these jammies in every size because they are so dang cute.

9. Brynne, my little comedian, learned how to suction a cup to her face. She thinks she's just hilarious. So do I.

10. This week is the start of school. I think I'm starting to get excited for it, though secretly I'm not ready to get back on a schedule yet. But there is something so refreshing about the start of school. Something that goes back to my own school days of newly sharpened pencils, fresh sheets of paper in an organized binder, unused boxes of crayons just waiting to become artwork. Fall. A new start. I think I'll like it.

I hate to brag, but...

We seriously have the cutest kids. THE cutest. Here are some pictures from our latest photo session. (And don't you want to just kiss Tyson's cheeks? I do. All day long.)

Sunday 10

1. We've become the family I never wanted to be: the loudest family at church. Between Tyson's grunting and crying, Brynne's inability to whisper, and Alli and Holly's love of walking up and down the row to sit on our laps or ask to go get water, I have started to dread Sunday mornings.

2. Monday afternoon I took Alli to get her haircut. It's super short and, when I do it right, looks really cute. Monday evening we drove down to Orem to look at vans and eat dinner at the Gardners.

3. I took the kids to the Highland splash park on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily Tyson slept in his carseat the whole time, so it was super easy. The girls had a great time. Brynne could have stayed there forever . . . we'll definitely be going back!

4. Wednesday afternoon I got a babysitter for the girls and met up with Alex for lunch at Cafe Rio. Yum. So in love with the chicken tostada. Wednesday night we looked at vans again, then went to Jeff Gardner's birthday party. It was a great night spent hanging out with friends.

5. Thursday I was a fool. Mary called saying she was taking her kids to the cheap theater to see Karate Kid and invited us to come. I thought I could time it so Tyson would sleep the whole time. My plan backfired. Between Tyson not sleeping and the movie just being way above Brynne's level, I left the theater with a vow that I will not take 4 kids to a movie by myself until they are teenagers. Yikes.

6. Thursday night we went to Midway to celebrate Liz's birthday. We took Tyson with us and he slept the whole time. Happy Birthday to my wonderful mother in law!

7. Friday evening we went back down to Orem to look at vans again. We picked out the one we wanted, and Alex picked up his packet for the Provo River half marathon.

8. Alex ran the half marathon yesterday morning and did great . . . so he says. Despite all my best efforts, we just couldn't get there to watch him run in. 4 kids is a lot of work! I'm amazed that Alex can just sign up for a half marathon a week before the race and not worry about training because he's already running that much. When I grow up I want to be like Alex.

9. We bought our van yesterday afternoon! The kids think it's pretty cool (and so do I...).
10. Last night we drove down to Spanish Fork where Tyson and I hopped in the car with Liz to go to Alex's cousin Jill's bridal shower. It was great to hang out with his cousins and chat for the evening. Alex took the girls bowling during the shower. We had a great day!

Sunday 10

1. First and foremost: I survived a busy week with 4 kids! The kids and I had at least one place to go every day this week, and we made it (on time!) to all of them. It was a good confidence booster for me that I'll be able to handle life with 4 little ones.

2. See this cute little face? See how he's screaming? He does that a lot. Last Saturday I hit my breaking point and I bawled. Things are chaotic enough with 4 kids and I just couldn't handle having a newborn that cried all.day.long. So we tried something that we'd heard about back when Alli was a colicky baby. We took him to a chiropractor. He had 3 appointments this week where they adjusted his back. I know it sounds crazy, but I have totally seen a difference in him. He still has his moments, but he's so much better than he was a week ago! He usually gets fussy at nights, but I can totally handle it because my nerves aren't shot from a full day of crying. Who would have thought he'd get fixed from a little adjustment? (Okay, so I had to cut out chocolate, too, but I don't like to talk about that. It makes me sad.)

3. He loves baths. I love a baby who loves baths!

3. Um . . . nothing really to say here. I just really like his outfit. :)

4. My girls have been playing SO well together since Tyson was born. Alli and Holly always have, but they're including Brynne a lot more now, which I love to see. And Brynne just soaks it up, doing whatever game they want.

5. Allison and Holly had swim lessons Monday-Thursday this week. The lessons were run out of a house not too far from here. (And I'm in love with the lot that this house is on. Completely private, covered with trees, and tons of grass to run around. Heaven.) Tyson and I sat and watched them swim, and Brynne played with other younger siblings of swim students on the huge swingset.

Holly was fearless. She loved every second of swimming lessons!

Our neighbors were in the same session. Here is Alli with Tanner. Don't worry, they've already talked about getting married. Draper Temple, date: TBA. I LOVE this picture.

Alli floating on her back. Or trying. She tends to be in a sitting position more than flat on her back, and she had a hard time staying afloat!

My girls after their last class!

6. On Tuesday afternoon I took Alli and Holly to their 2nd art class in Alpine. They love going to art class, and I'm thinking about signing them up for a couple more classes. The place they go has cooking classes, a couple different art classes, exercise classes, and a lot more. They have a blast, and the teachers always comment on how well they get along.

7. Joy, Chase, and Charlotte came over on Thursday. Joy and I don't get to hang out enough, but I love when we get to. There's just something about a good friend that you've known for practically forever. Thanks, Joy!

8. Friday. Aaahhhh, Friday. Mark and Liz came to watch the kids and Alex and I went to see my number 2 man . . . Tim McGraw. Anyone who knows me well knows I have a love of my Timmy, and I have for years and years. Pretty much since the summer I discovered country music. There aren't a lot of people I'd leave my one month old for 6 hours for, but Tim is one of them. The concert was awesome, and spending all that time with Alex sans children felt foreign and wonderful. You know it's love when you are hot, sticky, and sweaty, and you can still hold hands. It was a great night. Lady Antebellum was the opening band, and I loved that, as well.

9. Friday afternoon I went to Chelsea's for roommate lunch. Fabulous, as always.

10. Today we had Ryan and Amanda and Theron and Katie, plus all the kids, over for dinner. We had a great time and the kids all played so well together. Brynne LOVES Miley and just follows her around. They're all so cute together.