5 year old Finley

I have been so busy with my clients photosessions.  I have not had time to take Finley's 5 year old pictures, but we did take these for her party invitations.  She had a kitty party so of course we needed a picture with her kitty on the invitation.  :)

So if you know Finley at all, you will be shocked by what I am about to tell you.

Finley has stopped sucking her thumb.

I cant even believe it myself.  But she decided all by herself that she would stop, and she has stopped for almost 5 days.  Devin told her a while ago that if she kept sucking her thumb it might fall off.  And last week she had a little dry crack appear on her thumb and she got so nervous and asked Devin if it was starting to fall off.  Devin told her it might be falling off.... and I guess that scared her enough to make her quit.   She even quit her blanket.  She hid it downstairs and has not went down to get it since then.   One day when she was going to watch cartoons she asked me "mom, will you go get my blanket?....... oh wait.... I don't suck my thumb anymore.  Never mind, I don't need it."  And that's all she has asked for it.
This girl was obsessed with her thumb and her blankie.  She took the blankie with us everywhere.  In the car, in the store, everywhere.  And she loved sucking her thumb, she would even suck it to soft stuffed animals if she could not find her blanket, so I am shocked that she has been able to quit.  She sucked her thumb in the car, and watching cartoons, and at bedtime.  I never ever told her she needed to quit, I have a hard time letting my kids grow up.  And I was not even about to try and make her quit because I know she loved her thumb so much.  I know I should be happy that she was able to quit so easily, but I am a little sad its over.  My favorite thing about her thumb sucking was when I would paint her nails she would tell me that I could not paint her "suckin' thumb" because the paint tasted yucky.  So ever since she was 2 or 3 she always had all of her fingernails painted except that left suckin' thumb.

A few more things about this little 5 year old Fin.
She is the craziest kid.  Just full of it.  Full of everything - sass, craziness, loudness, happy, mad, bouncy, pink, sparkles, dirt, candy.  You name it - she is full of it.  She is just full of life.  She is constantly dancing and skipping around.  She does not just walk, she swirls and shakes her hips and tosses her arms around.  

She does not have a serious bone in her body, she is silly all the time.  And when she is not silly she is usually being sassy.  She is either making her sisters laugh or making her sisters cry.  Its never just a dull moment with this one.

Right now she is also full of so much love.  She always wants to give me and Devin hugs and kisses.  And she loves to sit on the couch with me and talk about how much we love each other.  She tells me things like "I love you one hundred and twenty eight".  She also has the sweetest and saddest little "I'm sorry mommy".  Which makes it really hard to get mad at her when she says that after spilling something or making a mess.

Speaking of messes, oh my.... she is the queen of mess.  Like put a crown on her and just give her the title.  There is no question who is the messiest kid of mine.  Finley wins - easily.  She just has to rip things apart, or spill things.  I think its just how she learns and plays.   Just today I saw she drew on her window with lipstick, sprayed the couch with a whole bottle of fabreez,  ripped apart packing peanuts and hid them in her room, stomped in a mud puddle in the garden, then walked through the house with dirt trailing behind her,  and dumped out a flower pot and scattered dirt all over the front porch.    And that was just today.  I cant even keep up with this little mess maker.  My walls have crayon on them, my carpets are not as perfect as they were when we moved in, my kitchen floor is always sticky, and I am always finding something new to clean up thanks to Finley.
But I honestly don't think she is doing it to be naughty, she is just extra curious about things and needs to make a mess to figure it all out.  

Finley is so so funny.  I cant imagine life without her.  She loves life!  She loves preschool, she loves all animals, she loves all the candy, she loves all the snuggles and watching cartoons.  She loves it all!    She loves to spend time with our family.  She is not one that needs to be playing with friends all the time, she is quite content to just hang out with us.  She called Sailyr her best friend the other night.  And every day while Sailyr is at preschool she loves hanging out with me.  We read or mop the floor or paint her finger nails.  Sometimes she talks me into snuggling her while watching cartoons.

I still cant believe that Finley gets older.  In my mind she will be 3 or 4 forever, she is not supposed to get any older.  I love this sweet girl and I hope she becomes whoever she was born to be.  She is still positive that she will be a Vet with she grows up and I hope she just follows her dreams forever and ever.  She is the cutest vet I have ever known!

Biggest pumpkins

Last night, right before bed we went out to the pumpkin patch and we picked our two biggest pumpkins.  We have been watching them grow all summer.  Sailyr claimed one and Finley claimed one.  We sat them side by side in the wagon and pulled them up to the porch.  

Devin weighed them on a scale.  43lbs and 47lbs.   Our biggest pumpkins ever!

And funny enough they weigh about the exact same as Sailyr and Fin.

Next year we will try and grow bigger!!

Today I might try and bring the rest of the pumpkins to the front porch.  It's quite a haul. 

Finley - 5th Birthday!

Today was Finley's 5th birthday!  She woke up to balloons all over her room and we had donuts for breakfast.  I let her open her gift first thing this morning because I knew it would be so mean to make her wait until Sailyr and daddy came back home from school and work.  

We gave her the swimming turtle that she has been asking for since February.  Not joking, Finley saw this swimming turtle at target last February, and I told her Santa had just come so I was not buying her anything.  And she has asked for it ever since then.  Finally.... she got her swimming turtle.  She was so excited!  And played with it all day after preschool, and it even went to the grocery store and to the bank with us.  She loves it!

We skipped out on dance today and had a party with a few of Finley's friends.  We have been working on finding Finley her own friends, instead of all of Sailyr's friends.  Which I think is a problem with most little sisters.  But She actually has quite a few cute friends that are her age!  

We played lots of games out on the front lawn and smashed a piñata .  She opened gifts and we had cake.

Once the party was over,  Finley wanted taco bell for dinner.  So we headed into Idaho falls.  After dinner we went to Walmart and used the money that grandma Lois gave her for a new bike!!  

Then we told stories of the day Finley was born on our drive back home.  And watched her baby video before bed.  

How is she 5?  I remember her birth like it was yesterday.  How?

Last week and phone pictures

Last week at preschool fin had a honey hunt.  They were learning about bears and the letter b.  So parents came the last 10 min of school to see them on their honey hunt.  It was so cute!  I always love watching my children's eyes searching for me... And then the relief and happiness that comes into their face once they see me in the crowd.

After those long days of school for Sailyr I often find these two just snuggling.  They have never been apart from each other for longer than about 5 hours or so... I know they start to miss each other.

And if you have not walked through the Halloween isles in Target then you must.  We go every year.  They have so many little battery operated decorations, we spend about an hour watching haunted TV's, and crystals balls.  My kids love it!

Dinner at big juds

And snuggling on the couch while it's cold outside.

Saturday morning the girls ran in and we're so upset because the garden was dead.  We had our first frost and sure enough all the leaves were turning Brown and laying on the ground.  We still need to go harvest the pumpkins, but all the flowers are about gone.  Both girls were not very happy about it.

We went in to try nursery with indie for about an hour yesterday.  She is not officially in their until November.  But we tried it.  She was not as timid as I thought she would be.  She ran in and took a seat in the corner and watched the kids.  She had 2 baby dolls ripped from her hands, and would glare at the kid as she walked slowly by them.  She also got hit in the face with a soft ball... After that I decided that was good enough for our first time.  She needs to beef up a little before November so she can defend herself a little more in there.  After y.w. I found her sleeping on Devin's lap.

We had our first family movie night in a while.  Dev went on a soda run and came back with pink lemonade.  The girls requested to watch Hocus pocus.

And Monday morning school drop off! I love these people (and Dev).  I'm thankful for these days with them.  

Indie 16 months old

I have not posted any pictures of Indie in a while.  To be honest, I forgot what Indie looked like when she is not crying.  A couple of weeks ago she finally started being a little happier and I looked at her face (which was not crying) and hardly recognized her.  That sounds mean and dramatic, but its true.  This girl knows how to cry.  We have had about a week of more happy days than sad and its so fun seeing her funny little toddler personality.  She loves peaches, milk in her bottle, and fruit roll ups, and apple cider.  That's about it... I still cant get her to eat a ton of things, but I have found those few things that she loves.  She will just scream and follow me around the kitchen until I hand her one of those things that she wants.

She also is very dramatic when she crys and says "owie owie owie" the whole time she is crying. Even if she is not hurting, she still says it.  The other morning she started crying when she woke up and she was in her crib crying "owie owie owie".

She knows how to hit now.  Yes.  I'm so proud.  I'm sure she learned it from her very loving big sisters :).  Most of the time she fights with Finley, because Finley picks on her more than Sailyr does.  So usually she ends up getting so mad and just hitting Finley as hard as she can while screaming.

She usually wakes up once or twice at night again.  I'm hoping once we get these little teeth that are growing in, she will start sleeping better again.

She loves her bottle at bed and nap time.  I just hand it to her and go tuck her into her crib and she does not make a peep.

She loves baby dolls.  She carries them around and pats their back.  I have even seen her give them kisses.

She loves the kitty, and can say kitty.  She loves looking at it out the window.

She is so busy right now and can not sit still.  She is on the go and has learned how to climb.  We have to keep all chairs pushed in or else she climbs up on the table.

She loves to dance and will dance to any kind of little tune or music that starts playing.

She played peek a boo with me yesterday.  She was holding Finley's jacket and kept pulling it over her head and then pulling it off and saying something like "there she is!"

She waves bye bye.

Still not much hair.  I think that is why she still looks like such a baby, she needs to start growing some hair!

She is starting to understand us.  When my grandma was here my grandma asked her if she hurt her leg and Indie pointed to her leg.  I was pretty impressed that she understood.

She is horrible when I have pictures over.  She just cries at the door and wants to sit on my lap the whole time.  I have had to give a couple discounts to my poor clients lately because Indie is such a handful.

She has probably the prettiest eyes I have ever seen, and I am excited to see who this cute little face grows into.  Now that she has been a little happier, hopefully we can get more pictures of her.