Dear Belle,
My beautiful little girl, I can't believe you are two already. This past year has especially flown by so quickly. You are such a big girl now and doing so many many new things. You have 8 teeth now (your four molars, two bottom front, front left top, and your tooth next to that) very strange arrangement but it's one more thing that makes you YOU. You are learning to walk and are very close but you think that monkey crawling is much faster. I love your little buns stuck straight up in the air. You can sign more, all done, eat, milk, water, cheese, go, and recognize much more. You have started to say many more words than you sign which is so fun. A few of your words are Stop it, don't, out, baby, Jonah, Peppa, wow, and me me me. You definitely know how to tell us when "you" need something. You have started your own little language when you are frustrated, it kind of sounds like monkey sounds. You adore your brothers and think that daddy is your hero. You have decided that you don't like to go to women anymore but you will try to go to ANY strange old man that will pay attention to you. (Scary....yes) You are starting to pretend play. I love to see you naturally be such a sweet mama. You love your baby and give her many hugs and kisses and bottles all day. It makes me so proud. You love your therapists and love going to your co-op class. I love to watch you become such a big girl playing with others, singing & doing the actions during circle time, and cleaning for snack time. Everyone who meets you falls in love with you. You can be very mischievous. You think it is funny to empty all the kitchen cupboards, the snack cabinet, and anything you can get your hands on in the bedrooms. You love to put things underneath other things which makes cleaning the house an adventure.
You have helped me remember what life is all about. It's about love and loving others and doing our very best at all times. It's about not giving up when things are tough. And always helping the next person and making them smile. Thank you for reminding me. Life is good especially with you in it. Miss Belle, we are so so proud of you. You have met and exceeded so many milestones this past year. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. We all love you so much and are looking forward to the mountains you will move this year.
Happy Birthday love!

love,
Mama

Complain, complain, complain.....

I know, I know..... the whole three of you that actually read this blog weren't expecting that the first thing out of my mouth for four months was going to be complaining. So sorry but today is the day.
It has been one of those days that I'm realizing how bizarre certain things in my life are. I'll try to tell you the quick story which is hard for me because the three of you know that I am a girl of details. It is very very hard for me to not include every single detail.
It begins with a simple phone call to our landlord to complain about the toilet running and the fan in the same bath not working which is making mold grow on the walls. Yes, disgusting I know. I also have a theory about said mold affecting our health. We all have been feeling crummy but especially Tony and Belle which would make sense since they both have bad asthma. (I am so so tired of baby being sick that I am trying to blame it on anything I can.)

Our landlord wanted to come over at 10:00 this morning and I suggested 10:30 because I needed to go grocery shopping before he came and I got stuck here. And when I say stuck I really mean stuck. One entire day down the drain. Did I mention Wednesdays are my ONLY days that I am not crazy busy? The ONLY day I get to do ANYTHING I want. This is not what I wanted to do today.

I got back from the store this morning at 10:15 and of course he was here waiting for me. Which automatically sets me off because I said 10:30. Now I need to haul in all the groceries, let him in and talk to him about the problem, put all said groceries away, and feed Belle because she is tired from waking up early blah blah blah.... He proceeded to go into the bathroom and instantly started in on me on how I should be listening to the toilet everyday because I stay at home and then I need to fix it or have him fix it as soon as possible and how the fan must have been broken for a really long time for it to be growing mold....once again...blah blah blah! Like I have time to go in every day and listen to the toilets to make sure they are all working properly. I sometimes barely have time to take a shower and brush my teeth. My kids can vouch that I sometimes don't even have time to feed them. I really wanted to tell him to tread lightly. Today is not the day to be blaming me for anything. It was all I could do to not let him have it. There are so many things I would have liked to say if I wasn't a nice person. But I chose the high road and bit my lip. You can imagine how I felt when he proceeded to prove to me in multiple outlets that the fan in deed was working just not in the ceiling. Bite my lip again. He then decided that the upstairs bathroom fan is some how connected to the downstairs playrooms outlets that don't work. Biting lip again. He then took the next THREE hours yes I said THREE hours to detect which outlets weren't working downstairs and replacing them. Now keep in mind that my dog is locked in my bedroom since I went grocery shopping and now is barking off and on like mad at him. Belle has gone down for a nap and all the things I had planned for the afternoon aren't happening because he is here. (double bite) At one point I realized that he had turned off the switch for everything in my room which meant no phone service for about 45 min. bite. By the time he left four hours later he had gone to the hardware store twice, the fan was fixed (no relation to the downstairs issues, if you can imagine that), Belle had woken up from her nap early because of the barking dog, all the clocks in my house now needed to be reset, I was at my wits end, had a fat lip from biting it all day, and the toilet still isn't fixed. Which means he is coming back tomorrow morning to fix that. BITE!

Another thing to add to my day, it has been pouring like crazy all day long yet between Kiegan's track meet, Jonah's baseball game, and Kiegan's scout bike ride tonight not one of them have been cancelled. Imagine large Sigh here!!

I couldn't call Wendi to vent and benefit from her talented calming skills because my phone wasn't working which unfortunately for you, brings me here to the lovely blogging world that I have so horribly neglected. Yes, once again I apologize to the few of you that may have been excited to see that I finally updated our blog just to read about me complaining. Whining like a little school girl who didn't get her way. I am truly sorry.

So here I sit with a fat lip, getting the kids off the bus with my too good to be true fake smile, and telling myself over and over things could be worse. Just not today......

Kiegans Birthday

Kiegan got to celebrate his birthday twice this year. He first had a birthday party at the beginning of winter break with his friends. They went to a movie and then came back for pizza and dessert. Kiegan chose marshmallow fudge brownies in place of his cake. It was a very crazy bunch of boys and I was so glad that Tony was willing to take them to the movie without me.

On his actual birthday he chose his favorite donuts for breakfast. He opened his presents and was pleasantly surprised to "finally" get an ipod touch. I think he would sleep with that thing if we only let him.

We took him out for lunch and then that night we celebrated again with the Bennett family. New Years was full of fun and good food and of course dessert #3...lemon bars.

I can't believe he is so grown-up. I am so proud of the wonderful young man Kiegan is turning into. He is a great big brother. He is always willing to help and very rarely complains when we ask him to. Belle has him completely wrapped around her finger. And he couldn't adore her more. He has always had a heart of gold that just keeps growing and growing. This year at school he took it upon himself to get trained to work with the special needs kids. I didn't know he was doing this until he told me about his first day. He gives up two of his big recesses a week to go and help them at P.E. I don't know very many boys his age that would do this. He especially loves to work with the little boys who have Down Syndrome. They absolutely adore him. He has also taken on band, crossing guard, and basketball this year. He loves playing his trumpet but hates early morning practice. We often find him awake all hours of the night reading a book. (which makes waking up early for band even harder) He is quite funny and loves to tease his brothers. But best of all he is truly genuine. He is a really great kid. I'm so lucky that he is in our little family. It makes me teary to see him grow up so fast. I couldn't be any more proud of him. Love you Kiegs!

Christmas Day 2009

It was so fun to watch all the kids faces as they opened their presents. Santa was very generous this year. I don't know who liked it more us adults watching or the kids. We all were completely spoiled.

I don't think Santa realized how completely obnoxious this toy is though. It really should say on the outside how fun it is if you love really loud carnival music that proceeds to get faster and louder as the time runs out. For some bizarre reason ALL the kids like this one. I thought that maybe it would get old but no no no, they don't skip a day trying to "catch" something.

We played lots of games including Monopoly, (not me I HATE this game), Clue, Trouble, and Scum or Presidents. The biggest hit though was Beatles Rock Band. To the few of you who don't know, I am a little obsessed with the Beatles. Which means I have totally loved every minute of my children wailing to all the songs. We love it so much that a drumstick got broke courtesy of Kiegan. Oops!!

Raven, Jonah, and Bryce jamming out. Amelie very sleepy.

Calder couldn't quite decide if he liked Belle or not. She on the other hand was obsessed with him and wanted to be in his face and grab him constantly. The poor guy. It was a bit overwhelming for him. The plus was that Belle is now crawling on her hands and knees. I'm saying Calder taught her that one. She still army crawls when she wants to go fast though. She also just last week started pulling herself up to standing position. YEAH!!! She is growing up so fast. Thanks Calder for the little boost!

Calder 15 months Belle 19 months

In the end we all had such a great time with the Haymonds and wish they lived closer. We miss you already. We really hope you come again. Thanks for coming!

Kiegan w/Calder, Jonah w/Belle, Amelie, and Tate

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was full of traditions. We first baked and decorated cookies for Santa.

We played games, ate homemade clam chowder, and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Austin. We read about Jesus' beautiful birth and talked about how grateful we are for him. The kids were all anxious for the big man and what he was going to bring. They tried to wait up for him but I think they only made it to 10 o'clock. Us parents were waiting up for him to........I think until close to 1 o'clock.