80 acres

I had been wanting to take some pictures out at my in laws 80 acres before the seasons changed.  It is so beautiful out there when the sun is setting.  So last night we set out to take some pictures with Brad.  We were a little early (the sunny was still kind of high), so we decided to go look for deer first.  Bad idea, ha ha... we almost ended up missing the light altogether by the time we got over there.  And going from the cold air of the car to the warm air outside caused some of my pictures to be blurry. After my camera warmed up we got a few good ones.  But I think they turned out pretty good considering we took them in about 15 mintutes.  Next time we will plan better :)

The family one is blurry because we set the timer and so it wasn't really focused.

Brad wanted to get some of us on the hay and had us pose for him.

My little buddy

First off let me just say that Brynlee is completely different than all my other babies.

Kayla was an extremely independent baby and could not have cared less who or if anyone was even holding her.  

Callie was very energetic  and bouncing/moving all the time and could entertain herself with almost anything.

Hailey was a little more tender hearted, but very calm baby and went to almost anybody.

And Brynlee is well.... needy :)  She wants to be held ALL the time when she is awake, and sometimes she will let others hold her, but 90% of the time she wants me.  Which is so sweet, it really is, I'm touched... but I really can't hold her ALL the time.  But I try. And as frustrating as it can be, I love that she loves me and I love her so much.  I am especially treasuring my time with her since she is my last one.

This is a picture of Brynlee helping me play the piano at church during mutual.

Changes

The girls had a great first week at school.  Kayla is loving middle school!  She likes having a lot of different classes to go to rather than just having to stay in the same one all day.  She also loves planning out what she is going to where each day, and let me tell you she is always looking like she is in style.  She has been like this since she was 3 or 4 years old.  When I would take her to preschool she would BEG to wear a dress.  What little kid does that?   Kayla does!  

Well she's growing up, but her love for fashion never has left. I am excited she is getting bigger.  She can wear an 8 now in some shoes and since I am a 9 it won't be long before I can start stealing them:)  I wore one of her peasant skirts on Sunday that had an elastic waist ( the only way I would EVER be able to fit in something of Kayla's) and I was thinking that it will be so nice when she's an adult and we can share clothes all the time :)

Miss Callie had a great first week as well.  She has a new teacher this year and she tells me that she is "silly and funny!"  So I guess that means she's okay in Callie's book.  On one of the days Callie was at school she was supposed to make a collage of pictures that she liked out of magazines.  She had some things on there like a swimming pool and a rocking horse and things like that, and right smack in the middle she had glued on a picture of the comedian Chris Rock.  Ha ha.... she is so funny.

I have been enjoying some new found free time during the day, and our days have definitely been a lot quieter with just Hailey and Brynlee at home.  But don't you worry, they still manage to keep me plenty busy.  However, we have been able to add a couple more things to our days. We have been able to squeeze in a morning walk now and I am able to spend more time studying the scriptures and reading too.  I finished the first book in the Hunger Games series just this week.  It has been NICE to have a little more "me" time.

Hailey has adjusted well to having her sisters gone, except for the fact that she gets into a lot more now because she has no one to play with.  This is a picture of her after she got in the permanent markers (this has already happened twice this week).  I don't know where she keeps finding them!  

I love how she's looking at me like "Okay, she's taking my picture so does that mean she's not mad at me?"
And yes I was mad, but how can you get after a face like that when she says "See? Pretty!"

First day of school

Today was the big day and both girls were so excited to go to school.  That really surprised me because everyday up until today Callie has said "I don't want to go to school today!"  But this morning we woke up and to my surprise she was excited to go.  So hopefully they have a great day.

Can you guess who DIDN'T want their picture taken?  Yep, Callie.   She said "The suns in my eyes!"  (Even though the sun was behind her.  Oh well :)

A great way to use those bananas...

Banana Crumb Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 bananas, mashed 3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten 1/3 cup butter, melted 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2.	In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3.	In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Summers End

Well as fast as summer came, it has quickly come to an end.  I have to admit, that at the beginning I was a little scared as to what this summer might be like with all four of the girls at home.  But I think we have had a GREAT summer.  We have stayed busy and had a lot of fun even despite the hot weather.  Of course the highlight of our summer was going to Wyoming for two weeks, that was some great memories that we will treasure.
This past week we took care of several doctors appointments, dentist appointments and school open houses.   Kayla and Callie are all set to head back to school on Monday. I'm going to miss spending my days with them, but I also think it will be nice to get there brains back on a structured schedule. I do wish that Hailey had someone to play with during the day, I have a feeling she is going to get bored without her sisters at home.  
The past couple days I watched my little neighbor for his parents while his papa recovering from surgery.  The girls loved having him come, he is such a little ham he makes me laugh!

We also said goodbye to another one of our missionaries this week (Elder Streeter). It seems like they come and go so often lately.  We will also be having Stake Conference in Little Rock this weekend.  One of the Apostles (Elder Christofferson) will be coming  from Utah to our Stake and Brad and I will get to have dinner with him on Saturday.   I'm very excited for that. 

Random pictures

I just wanted to post a few of these pics from our camera.

These are some Brad took of us during storytime:

 I caught this one of Brad and Brynlee, I love how they are sleeping in the same position.

And this last one is one that Brad took of Callie a while ago, but I wanted to post it because he did such a great job.

Hailey's 2nd birthday!

It was Hailey's 2nd birthday on Wednesday.  The day started out fine, I took the kids to a doctors appointment that morning where Hailey and Callie got checkups.  Callie ended up having to get her school year shots and she threw one of the biggest fits I have ever seen!  The nurse and I could hardly hold her.  She is a strong little thing when she wants to be, LOL!.  After we came home I put the girls down for naps so I could make cupcakes and get things ready for the party that night.  At about 3:00 I started to feel really really sick.  And it just hit me so fast.  My fever went up to like 102 degrees and my body was just shaking.  I could feel some pain in my right chest, and although I have not ever had it, I was sure it was probably mastitis.  I was getting so sick so fast that I was afraid I'd have to go into the ER by that night if I didn't get on some antibiotics. So I loaded up the kids and drove around to different doctors trying to get in.  One was closed, one wouldn't take me (because they said mastitis doesn't come on that suddenly and they didn't have their lab open to test for other things), and the other one was in Little Rock where we had just been at the doctors all day.  So after calling them, I sweet talked a nurse into writing me a prescription for antibiotics and went home and crawled into bed.  Brad picked up my prescription and everybody started coming for the party.  I really didn't want to cancel because the girls had looked forward to it all day and I already had it ready. So I came out just for the present opening and then went back to bed.  I think the party still turned out good but I wish I could have been there for all of it.  Hailey didn't seem to mind anyway, she loved all her presents ;)

Especially her new Rapunzel four wheeler!

Uncle Cory helping her blow out the candle.

Thanks everyone for making Hailey's birthday so special!   

Toddlers and Tiaras and playing around

 We had a lot of time to play around and have some fun while we were in Wyoming, and one of the things that we did a lot of at night was watch toddlers and tiaras.  My girls love this show, I think the little girls are a bit bratty, but I let them watch anyway as long as they know that's not how we act.  One day, Kayla begged her aunt Karren to do her up in full makeup "toddler and tiara" style.  So she did, and of course once Callie saw how pretty Kayla looked, she wanted to look like a princess too.

Kayla even made a "flipper".  Ha ha... for those of you that have watched the show, this is a fake mouthpiece that some of the girls wear so there teeth will be white and straight.  Kayla's was made out of toilet paper :)

Before we left, I had the chance to go to the Billings, Mt temple where Brad and I were married.  It was nice to be able to go with my parents.  It was their anniversary, so that was really special. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.

Karren was a sweetheart and watched the girls while I was at the temple.  And my sister in law Shayla watched Callie.

These other pictures are just of some from when we were all hanging out in the evenings together.