The last few months

I am going to try and recap the last few months, I don't know what has happened since the first of this year but blogging has been a struggle for me, but since it is the journal I do for my kids, I really want to be better. We decided to go over to Grammie and Papi's house for the Superbowl and stay the night for a sleepover . The girls of course were thrilled because they think sleeping over anywhere is the most exciting thing ever. And they especially love Grammie and Papi's. I made some chocolate fondue that the kids sort of enjoyed. Nellie just wanted to dip stuff, but she wouldn't eat an of it.

The girlies got to take a bath at Grammies and use her towels, which they think is really cool. Nellie wanted the green frog, big surprise. I thought she would maybe move on to a different obsession like most kids do but not Nellie, it is still Diego, jaguars and green for Nellie.

Janie in her jammies. She doesn't sleep well at all away from home and especially in the same room as us. She wakes up every couple of hours and just cries because she can see us in the room. It is so funny because she is the best sleeper at home and always sleeps a solid 12 hours at night and never ever wakes up. She is just such a homebody. Whenever we are gone for a while and get home she just smiles and laughs when we walk in the door.

For President's weekend we went down to Oklahoma to visit my brother Austin and to meet his fiance Jenny. But being the worlds worst picture taker, I never got a picture with Austin and Jenny. We had a lot of fun with them. The girls just love Uncle Austin, and it was a lot of fun to get to know Jenny.

At the hotel, the girlies hanging out. Can you tell that Lizzy loves Janie. She is just such a little mommy.

It was so nice one day when we were down there that we went to a local park and played and then my camera died so this was the only decent picture I got.

Kevy got a shamrock shake at McDonald's and Nelie just assumed it belonged to her because it was green and she ate pretty much all of it.

One of the VERY few nice days that we have had, I took Janie out back to play with her sisters in the sandbox. She has really started to follow them around and want to play with them. She enjoyed the sand and of course decided that she had to try eating it.

How I just love being a Mom to these lovely little ladies. Life doesn't get much better than this. Janie is such a different kid than the other two. They were both so busy and into everything. She is the opposite. Usually at this age she is at kids just want to get down and play, they don't want to be held. But not Jane, at church she wants to sit on my lap almost the whole time. I took the kids to the park and Jane just sat on my lap the whole time. She is very cautious and likes to be comfortable and if she doesn't know everyone very well she won't get down and explore at all. I do have to admit that I love the cuddles on the lap, it is just not something I am used to.

My Mom and my Aunt Judy came out to visit at the beginning of March and it was an awesome break from winter and the monotony of my life. The girls were soooo excited to have them come visit and we had so much fun together, but true to form I only got a few pictures while they were here and none with my Mom :( I will someday take more pictures! I swear I will!

We pretty much just hung out which I love. I don't need to be entertained. It was so nice to have so much help with meals and dishes and cleaning, it was such a nice break plus itwas just so nice to be with my mom, I miss her.

All of us went bolding (bowling) When we got there the door was locked and Nellie and Lizzy started bawling thinking we wouldn't be able to go but they just hadn't opened the door yet. We had so much fun, I always forget how much fun it is to go. We also went to the Orphan Train museum that they have here in town. I had never been and it was so interesting, and sad to hear about all of the different stories of the orphans.

Judy helping the girls bowl. They were pretty proud of themselves.

The next week Kevy's grandparents came to town and we went out to dinner. Lizzy, Nellie and Brinlee all wanted to ride in the back of Papi's car. Don't they look so cute!

Then we came back to our house and I had made a cake. Kevy bought me The Pioneer Woman cookbook and I have been loving trying all the recipes, there are tons of good ones in it.

Janie sure did enjoy the cake, don't you think?

Little Walker

It would have been nice to know that Kevy already posted this without me finishing it up. Oh well. We had the hardest time trying to upload any video onto here so we had to take what we could get. Anyway Janie is walking! She has actually been walking for a couple of weeks now, but I have been very unmotivated to blog.

She was showing very little interest in walking and since she didn't crawl until ten and a half months I thought she won't be walking until she is at least 15 months. Plus she was showing a bit of stubborness because every time Kevy and I would try and get her to walk she would lean back or lift her legs up, (little stinker.) So one day I was in the kitchen and Kevy was in the living room and he could see Jane in her room and he said she walked across the room to the door, like she had been walking for a while. After that she started walking a lot and got so excited everytime she did it and now she rarely crawls anymore.

Since she started walking she seems to think she is so big and while she used to play a lot by herself now she is always following the girls around. She thinks she is just as big as they are, and unfortunatly Nellie doesn't want her to play with them, so we are workng on that because it makes me sad. Janie just loves her sisters so much and is trying to keep up with them. She all of a sudden seems like a big girl now, it is crazy how walking ages kids so much. She decided to eat her oatmeal yesterday with a spoon and she actually did eat the whole bowl by herself using a spoon, it was way too cute. She is just growing up too fast. I guess it is time for another one.

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My Sweet Baby Jane is ONE!

I just can't believe that time could be going so fast. This past year has been the fastest of my life. My baby Janie is one, I can't believe it. Sometimes you get excited for a baby to get older, but not my Janie, I don't want her to grow up. She has been the best baby ever. She has such a clam nature and is so easy going. She has made me want to have 5 more babies, she has been so good, although I think I will still just stick with two more.

I can still so vividly remember every single thing about the moment that she was placed in my arms. She was born with all this cute curly dark hair, which I was surprised about, I thought she would be a tow head. She had these darling chipmunk cheeks that I still just can't get over. And of course she had her daddy's crazy long toes just like her sisters.

We brought her home and after about two weeks everything was just great. She was such a good baby and she just fit in so well, that it wasn't a very difficult adjustment. Lizzy absolutely adored her and wanted to suffocate her with her hugs and love. Nellie loved her too, but more from a distance. Janie was and still is a great sleeper, she was sleeping until 4 am pretty much from the beginning, and was sleeping a solid 12-13 hours at night from about 5 months on.
What a blessing she has been to our family, who would have known we would have had three little girls, and how amazing they all are. I cannot imagine having a boy instead of our amazing beautiful Jane.

I took Janie to her one year appointment and she was 17lbs. 6 oz. hovering just about at the 4th percentile. I love having petite little girls though. You would never guess that she is that small though because she eats so much. There is not one thing that this little babe won't eat, she eats everything, I love it!

Jane is such a little water bug. She has always loved her baths so much, she will just play forever, and she never ever cries when water gets in her eyes. She is my little water baby.

If she sees me coming to get her, or she thinks I am bringing her something like her bottle or a treat, she lifts up her head and gets this huge silly grin on her face, with her eyes all squinted it is really cute. She is really busy right now and one of her favorite things to do is to go over to the bookcase and pull every book she possible can off the shelf, she just loves to do that, and I am putting books back on the shelf about 20 times a day because I can't handle the mess. She loves to follow me into the kitchen and be just right under my feet playing, I have stepped on her too many times, so finally we got a gate to keep her out of the kitchen, and when she sees me pull it out she starts whining, it is funny. When Jane gets really excited she starts flapping her arms a lot, it looks like she is trying to fly away. She is just the most peaceful happy baby, she just hangs out and doesn't make much commotion. If I have been in the kitchen and I haven't heard from her in a bit I will go and find her and she will be in her room playing with toys or something. We got her a little stuffed rocking horse and she will go over to in and just hug it and say aww.

Janie is a total mama's girl right now, which of course I love. She loves to give me kisses and hugs and when she gives hugs she always says, Awww when she does it. I just want to eat her up. We just love her little cheekies, they are so cute and chubby still.

I could just go on and on about my Janie. She is so special and I just adore her so much. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father knows better than we do or else I wouldn't have this amazing little girl that my life wouldn't be complete without. I love you my little baby lady.

Janie the day she was born, such a little beauty.

I just can't get over her cheeks, I love them!


Her blessing day, she looked like such a little angel.

Janie big eyes, her eyes have always been so bright.

I love the little hand up by her face.

In her pretty pink dress that Kevy's grandma made her.

Kevy and Janie sleeping, both are very talented in this department.

There are those big eyes again.

She would get so tired after we would go swimming, she loved it though and would chill in her floaty forever.

The three little monkeys in the tub, she loved when she got to start bathing with her sisters

Pancakes and blueberries, two of her favorites. She really knows how to make a mess when she eats, I have to be careful and watch her because when she decides she is done she will start painting her hair with food and then I have to bathe her, I think she does it on purpose for that very reason.

I just love that little face.

Look at those cute bunny cakes, as the girlies call them.

We think she looks just like her Grammie, Kevy's mom, just with blue eyes

What a joy this little baby is. We love her so much!

Baby Jane's Birthday Party

We had a little birthday party for our little Janie girl. It is always so fun to have their first birthday party, even if they don't understand. Janie got this darling little outfit from Grandma and Grandpa. I love yellow and she looks so darling in it. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Kevin's parents and Kelli and Lance came up for the party. It was really nice of them to come.

Janie was really not interested in opening the presents. I tried to show her how to tear the paper, but she just sat there.

The other kids were much more into the presents then she was and it was hard to keep them from opening the presents for her.

As you can see I just ended up giving up and letting the other kids open the presents because she just didn't care about it.

This was the cake I made for Janie. I wanted to make a lady bug cake for her but I baked one in a large bowl and it took so long for the middle to bake that the outside was burnt, so I just decided to make a sheet cake and put some little lady bugs on top.

She enjoyed the cake but true to Jane's relaxed nature, she never went full force on it. She did make a mess, but nothing like my other two did on their first cakes.

It was a fun little party and we are so glad out little Janie was born a year ago.

December Wrap-up

We had our annual Branch Christmas party and it was a good thing that Santa came because we didn't go see him any other time this year. My girls LOVE Santa, which is kind of strange. Most kids their ages won't sit on Santa's lap, but I can't think of a time that my girls wouldn't. I was really surprised that even Janie sat there. She had a strange look on her face, but she never cried. I just love this picture because she is looking at him like "I just don't know how I feel about you."

Nellie was excited to sit with Santa and tell him she wanted a Diego toy. Everyone is shocked I know.

Lizzy told Santa that she wanted a snowflake ring, which I am glad that Santa found because finding a snowflake ring sounded like a hard thing to me.

We dressed up some of the Primary kids who wanted to, as the Nativity. It was very makeshift, but that was okay the kids looked cute. Lizzy of course wanted to be an angel, because angels got to wear sparkly stuff.

Nellie was a trusty shepherd. She doesn't care about sparkly stuff, she cared more that the towel she wore was green. I brought Janie's lamb costume for her to wear and I would have to say she was the cutest little lamb ever. She still has that funny face like she isn't thrilled, but she didn't cry.

The girls had a little Christmas program at their preschool. The lighting was really bad, so it was hard to get good pictures. Lizzy was really into all the songs and actions as usual. She is such a performer. It will really be interesting to see how she is when she is older.

I was proud of Nellie, for her age group she did really well. I am just so used to Lizzy and how Lizzy has always been, so I have to make sure I never compare them with things like this. Nellie was funny because her little class sang jingle bells and her teacher handed out red and green jingle bells to all the kids. The kids were asking for certain colors and the teacher kept saying "It doesn't matter which color you get." But I was really hoping that Nellie would get a green because we all know with Nellie that it does matter. Good thing she did get a green.

That day the girls got to open their presents from Grammie and Papi, and they were just thrilled with the outfits and scarfs, gloves and hats they got. Thanks Grammie and Papi!

Christmas Eve the girls got to wear the new pajamas that I made them. I was thrilled with the pattern that I found. I was able to get each set of jammies done in about an hour and a half, it rocked. I think I am going to make that pattern again next year.

I just had to throw this picture in because the girls were being so silly. Nellie put a bow on like a bow tie, and Lizzy put on a long bridesmaid dress, and they pretended like they were getting married. Nellie got down on one knee and slipped the ring on Lizzy's finger and then they kissed and said, we are married, and danced around. It was really funny. I sure get a kick out of them. It is funny too how Nellie is always the boy and she doesn't care. She is such a tomboy.

For Christmas we had some special guests. Jarom and Kristen and their baby Jerry drove here from Kentucky and stayed with us for Christmas. It was so much fun to have them around. They were such great guests and helped out so much and were so easy to have around we didn't want them to leave. It was also great to really get to spend time with Kristen and get to know her better. We moved to Kansas soon after they were married and I haven't spent much time with her, so it has been so fun to really get to know her. I wish we lived closer.

Here are the girls with baby Jerry. They just loved having him around, especially Lizzy, she loves babies. You can't really tell but Janie is almost a year here and Jerry is four months, they are about the same size, Janie is just really tiny.

They boys hanging out. Kevin gets along so well with all my brothers, I love it.

Nellie opening her presents Christmas morning. We had a great Christmas. The girls got a bunch of good stuff, but w spent a lot less then we usually do, it was great.

We got the girls stuff they could actually use. We got them a couple of board games, because they love to play them. We got them some craft stuff and other things they could create.

We got the girlies play laptops that have ABC's and number games. They love to play on them, plus they are learning a lot with them.

The girlies coloring Nellie's stuff she got from Grandma and Grandpa. She got this cool my little pony set with pages to color and markers and crayons. My girls LOVE to color. Lizzy got a jewelry box that she can decorate with special stickers from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a perfect gift because Lizzy loves to decorate, and she is really into jewelry. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

The girls got the really cute headbands and bows from Aunt Kristen. She made them for them, and they loves them. She taught me how to make them too, but I don't know if I can make them as good as she can. Thanks Kristen!

We had a great Christmas, it was just really sad to see it end, I always hate when Christmas is over and the new year starts, with January, and all the endless freezing days. Spring cannot come soon enough for me.