The tooth fairy

We were starting to think Ellie might go to college without losing a tooth. Not because her age, but because she was looking like a shark -- her bottom two adult teeth had completely grown in behind her baby teeth. She wouldn't let us touch those wiggly teeth with a ten foot pole.


But, finally, the first one just popped out! She wasn't even expecting it and didn't even know at first that it happened. After losing the first, just a few days later, she gained a little confidence and popped the other one out. Phew!

Up to this point, Aubrie had also only lost a total of two teeth. So as soon as Ellie lost hers, Aubrie yanked and pried two of her teeth (that were barely loose) so she wouldn't be shown up by her little sis. All this competitiveness is causing the tooth fairy to feel a little broke!

The escape artist

At 8 months, Kyler decided he wanted to be an overachiever. Over -- as in up and over the gate. No more gated community for Ky-boy.


He may be little (5th percentile in weight and height) but he is a very determined and strong little guy (two gifts he was born with!).


As you can see, he has become very resourceful in using what he can to give him that extra lift to get over the top. He is so social; he wants to be right where we are and getting into everything he is not supposed to. We love him to pieces, but we're a little afraid of what's to come! Boys and girls are so different -- even at 8 months!

The little dominator

Ellie has come out of her shell to say the least. She's at 60 goals and counting this season! Our sweet, timid Ellie probably also would have had multiple red cards for pushing (if they gave them in 4/5 soccer). Not so proud of that fact...

Living in a gated community

Much to his dismay, poor little Ky-boy has been behind bars all summer since he decided to start crawling at 5 months and pulling up at 6 months!


Kyler is definitely our most active and curious kid!


How could you resist these baby blues?




...or this little smile?




When Kyler is not too happy, he says "ooooooooohhhh".


But he quickly recovers and 'Kyler the Smiler' returns.


Shhh! When he is all grown up, don't tell him we sometimes put girl bibs on him or we might get some more "ooooooohhhs"!

Hospitals, medicines, and surgeries ... oh my!

Instead of this...


We have been doing all THIS!!


And this...


In a week and a half, we had 10 doctors visits, surgery, and a hospital stay! First Teyah and Ellie became sick with strep throat. Aubrie developed a strep infection in her finger. Kyler got an ear infection. Then he developed a terrible cough, which fortunately wasn't Pertussis like the doc first thought it was, but unfortunately was pneumonia! And on top of it all, Teyah had her tonsils and adenoids removed and new ear tubes this week. Her surgery meant another night for me this year at Children's hospital.


Taking care or these cuties, and administering ALL those medications would have been a nightmare without the help of this wonderful Grandma! I'm not sure how we would have survived without her (once again!).



Hopefully soon we can get back to a little more of this...


And this!

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL!

We've never been into rewarding our girls for scoring goals...not because we are against that sort of thing, but because our girls have combined for a total 1 goal over the last 3 years. That is until this week.



In the first 30 seconds of Ellie's game, she had her first goal ever. About a minute later, she surprised us with another. Then, moments later, she scored again...and again...and again. Before we knew it, she had scored 9 goals, and she became too tired to go anymore. That is until we mentioned that she could get ice cream if she scored 1 more. She promptly went out and added 2 more for a total of 11 goals!



On the way home, Aubrie negotiated a similar deal that if she scored 2 goals, we could all go out to ice cream as well. That extra motivation was just enough to get some of her kicks into the net as she scored 2 goals tonight.



Even Kyler couldn't be left out as he got to have some milk for his reward for being such a good sport at the soccer games.

Highlights from the 1st half of the summer

11 states in 2 months....not bad...

Why I'm behind on blogging, life

Ellie graduated from Joy School! She was so proud.


And so were we. She is already worrying about where she is going to have to live when she grows up. She doesn't believe me that it's still a long time away.


I am certainly going to miss her sweet spirit around here next year. She helps me soooo much. It is extremely convenient to have a 5-year-old going on 35-year-old daughter. She cleans and is so helpful with the younger two. Love this girl.


Aubrie and Ellie performed in a children's ballet for their final dance performance. We couldn't take pictures of them dancing then but could at their final dance class. They loved being in class together (and I loved it too). Next year they can't be together because Aubrie will start "Ballet 1."


They also had class with two of their best buddies. I love this picture where they are scheming.


Two and a half hours of softball two nights a week certainly keeps our family busy as well.


This slugger is having a great year of "coach pitch."


We ditched the second to last week of school, and went on a long road trip, which included a few wonderful days with a handful of different family members, tons of sightseeing, a few days of Dave working in Philly, a chocolate tour, thousands of miles in the car, some tornado dodging, and ...

a very relaxing stop at the beach.


We have about a billion pictures from our trip to share, and we will eventually, but here's one of my favs. Cousins Liam and Kyler chilling in front of the nation's capitol.

June is every bit as busy at our house as December (especially with birthdays, anniversary, Father's Day, etc.) so hopefully we will be able to post more soon too.

Kyler the Smiler

I'm smitten. Look at this precious 5-month-old baby boy! I feel a little sad Kyler's already 5 months. I think I got a little gypped because I haven't been able to savor all of his infancy because he was so sick, and we were so worried about him for a good 2-3 months. But I shouldn't complain because the bottom line is he is doing fabulous!


I am so surprised how intensely he plays with his toys. He loves his toys so much more than the girls did.


He is also very determined to get them when they are out of reach. He rolls, scoots, reaches, and then cries if he can't quite get there.


Kyler is one determined little boy. So far this has been a blessing in his life. Let's hope it stays a positive trait!


Kyler cut his first tooth this week!


All the specialist doctors have signed off on him, saying he's doing just great! Although we still have a couple more physical therapy sessions for his torticollis/Sandifer's Syndrome, but he has improved so much there is little concern there too. He is still on his reflux medicine, and we're trying to decide if he still needs his nebulizer steroids.


He is still "Kyler the Smiler" and loves making eye contact with anyone at about any time. He is ticklish and a good-natured little boy. A lot of people notice the red in his hair. We are curious to see what color it is going to come in, but we think maybe blond with a little red (a lot like Teyah). Time will tell.




He is FINALLY starting to consistently have decent nights where he wakes up usually twice a night but occasionally once. Hooray!

Treasure

I sure throw away a lot of papers around here: art projects, homemade tickets to dance shows, heart-shaped Post-it Notes, self-portraits, family portraits, programs to made-up plays, poetry, scribbles, painting projects, Christmas lists, future baby name lists, etc. etc. etc.

Finding treasures like this are a definite highlight in my days of constant pick-up.

Easter Sunday

We dyed eggs,


had an Easter egg hunt,


enjoyed spring-like weather (NOT a given on Easter in Minnesota),


smiled at this guy,


talked of our Savior and His sacrifices for us to be an eternal family,


and read lots and lots of books (this one is "Ella Enchanted," but we mostly read Easter books). It was a very low-key Easter, but was such a fun, relaxing family day. I think it was one of my favorites ever because it was so fun to be together, to not be busy, and we could focus on remembering our Savior.