Visitors!!

So my brother and sisters came at the beginning of Oct. for a little over a week so I figured I'd better blog about it! We didn't get as many pics and I would've liked but we had lots of fun! They flew in to LAX and Tosh got a rental car and drove the rest of the way to our house. They kids were SO excited that they came! Brynnlee had been promising me that she wouldn't fight with Chalese at all while they were here and she was right! That may sound funny.... but seriously those two have always been more like sisters and Brynnlee sure was the little sister who liked to push Chalese's buttons any chance she got! But Brynnlee thinks that the reason we moved is because she fought with Chalese so much..... we keep telling her we moved because Daddy got a job and we're really lucky he has his job that he really likes so we're going to stay here for a few years at least. But for some reason she still thinks it's because she used to fight with Chalese a lot and get into her stuff all the time!
 They were so cute. Chalese painted Brynnlee's nails and played with her non stop. Brynnlee loved having her "big sis" around again! They really have always had a special bond since Brynnlee was born and it's definitely been hard being away from home! The kids still say daily that they want to move back in to the blue house by Grandma and Grandpa Flamm's! Even though they get their own rooms here and we have a little more room! Tosh spoiled the kids AS USUAL, and Spence was a great buddy for Tayson to have around. He played ball with him and took him to the park and kept Tays from beating up on Brayden. Spence could definitely handle Tayson's craziness a little better than Brayden does! It was fun for Austin to have someone to play basketball with and play football on the play station..... cause I am so not in to doing either one of those things with him! The only hard part was that Brynnlee was in school all week and of course Austin worked so we weren't able to do as much as when my sister Maurcine came to visit but we still had fun together!

Picking Apples in Tehachapi (It's a town that is up in the mountains with about the same elevation as St. A! And it was a little chilly!) They even get snow in the winter!

We had to play at the park after picking apples

Cute park with faces cut out of a lot of the trees. They also had one shaped like a turtle and other faces

What kind of trip to California would it be without going to the beach?! This was Chalese's and Spence's first time seeing the ocean!

Austin taking Tays out into the waves and pretending he was going to throw him into the ocean

He threw a fit once he got back on shore. It was pretty funny!

Austin helping Chalese jump some of the waves

Playing badminton at the school

Sadly the best pic I got with Spence

My sister who's 16 1/2 years younger than me! She's growing up so fast! (But I'm still staying young right!?)

Three out of five sisters

Brayden still remembered Chalese! He was a little iffy about Tosh and Spence but he clung to Chalese!

Cuts and more Cuts

Why is it when things happen they happen all at once?! Last Thursday Brayden was in the kitchen and was standing on one of our kitchen chairs and he ended up tipping it over backwards. He fell with the chair and hit his chin on the back of the chair splitting it open. Awesome. Austin wasn't home from work yet so I was trying to clean it up and hold him still long enough to decide if he needed stitches or not. Well I couldn't get the little monkey to hold still so I finally just put a wad of gauze on it and a big bandaid and drove to Austin's work to pick him up so he could help me decide. It wasn't a very big cut but it was pretty deep in the very center of it and probably could've used a couple of stitches. But it was after six, and I didn't want to go to the ER so I ran to the store and bought some superglue. It took Austin, me and Brynnlee to hold him down to glue his chin. But we were fairly proud of ourselves once we finally got it done. We put some butterfly bandages on it also to  try and help it stay closed and called it good.

Once we got it to stop bleeding it actually didn't look too bad. It's hard to tell but it was a little swollen so between that  and his chub, it helped hold his skin together pretty good. Thank goodness!

Fast forward to Sunday and Brynnlee is helping me cut carrots for our salad for lunch. (She loves feeling like a big girl and helping me chop up different foods.) We got done with the carrots and were going to start on a cucumber. I went to grab the cucumber and Brynnlee looked at her knife and decided it had some carrot juice on it and she needed to wipe it off before cutting the cucumber. So she decided to wipe it on her hand! It was a brand new knife (well we got it for our wedding so not exactly brand new, but we had never used it before so it was very sharp!) She sliced her ring finger on her right hand pretty good. She of course starts freaking out just a little and dancing all over the kitchen getting blood everywhere. We grabbed some paper towels and my sister held it on her finger while I ran to get changed out of my dress. I called a Dr. in our ward to come look at it and tell us if we should take her in. If he didn't think it needed stitches I definitely didn't want to go sit in an emergency room on a Sunday afternoon! It looked pretty deep to me... but what do I know?! And I wasn't comfortable superglueing it cause it's a finger and you bend it and use it a lot and I figured it wouldn't stay. So the Dr. comes over and looks at it and says yup. Take her in. So we ended up being in the ER for three hours. They actually ended up using the skin glue which is like super glue only way thicker and completely AWESOME! But because it's so strong they had to make sure she didn't bend her finger for 24 hours for it to dry completely so they had to put a splint on her finger. But it was way better than stitches! The guy who did it actually plays basketball with Austin and told Austin he has some of that stuff at his house and suture stuff if we ever need to call him again and we won't have to sit in the ER for a few hours. Hopefully we won't need to but it's nice to have the offer just in case.

Bracelet from the ER

Dermabond 

 

 

 

Exhausted after a long afternoon

Looking good after a few days

Then Tuesday Brayden split his chin open again but I guess if it isn't within 24 hours of the original split then they can't suture it. So we should've had his sutured in the first place but the guy who glued Brynnlee's finger told us to just keep it moist with some neosporin and keep clean bandages and it will heal up fine. It's going to be a little bigger of a scar now but hopefully he won't mind! It's right under his chin so shouldn't be very noticeable. We were just waiting for Tayson to break his leg or something since he is usually our accident prone kid. Nothing so far and we keep knocking on wood to make sure our streak is over for a while! 

He wasn't too happy it split open again.

What we do when it's hot

 I was looking forward to the heat when we left Idaho. I HATE being cold! But we went from one extreme to another! Here it is almost October and we're still having 100 plus degree days. I'm a little over it. Thank goodness we have awesome friends who have pools in their yards or I think we would D... I.... E.  A slow miserable HOT death. Some days I wonder if I actually have died and gone to Hell.... Seriously. Just walking across the street and down the block to pick up Brynnlee from school and we're all sweating to death. It's ridiculous. And gross... Anyway... here are some pics of Labor Day and Skyler's birthday party.

Brynnlee swimming at our friends the Olson's on Labor Day

Tays was so funny catching a ride with Ava doing all the work!

She seriously swam him around the pool over and over again. Apparently he's not much of a gentleman yet. We'll have to work on that!

Brayden was crazy in the water. He decided he loved swimming back and forth between Austin and me and if we weren't looking he was going to swim to us anyway.

So I got out and poor Austin had to entertain the little swimmer

I tried to get a pic of Brayden jumping in to Austin..

But kept missing it. Haha

Almost.

This kid was a prune when he got out. I don't think his skin went back to normal until the next day!

So this is Isla Belle and she decided she liked Brayden's floaty thing. She also has no fear..... It was so hilarious to watch her run and jump off the diving board over and over again with this floaty.

Our friends the Tonks' had a birthday party for their little boy and the kids thought it was super awesome cool.

They didn't quite get the concept of the slip and slide though. They would run down it until the very end then try to slide.

Or drinking the water was just as fun.

They had tons of fun stuff in their yard. There was another little pool and a water hopscotch too!

So it was a Toy Story theme... and Janelle did Amazing! She had the cutest setup! I should've gotten pics of everything. But the kids thought it was such a cool party!

I must be getting old...

When did my sweet little baby become old enough to start Kindergarten?

How did I turn 28 and have three kids all of a sudden when yesterday I was in high school? .....Brynnlee has been SOOO... excited to start school! We picked out some new clothes, shoes, a backpack and got all her immunizations and everything up to date and waited for the August 20th 2012 to get here! Sunday night I asked her if she would like a father's blessing before starting school on Monday and she said yes. So she went and asked her dad for a father's blessing. It was so cute and sweet. Can I just say how thankful I am for a husband who is worthy and able to give my family a blessing whenever we need one?! It's so comforting. Brynnlee was so mature sitting there with her arms folded and her eyes closed the entire time. She was listening so closely to what he was saying then gave him a great big hug afterwards. When we were having prayer with her and putting her to bed she jumped on his lap and said "Be happy and smile! Your kid is going to school! I can't stop growing and having birthdays." Haha. So for her first day she woke up early jumped on our bed and said "I'm starting school today! I'm so excited!" I asked her what she wanted for her special breakfast. Do you want pancakes, german pancakes, french toast?.... "I want cheerios." So that was easy for me!

We actually got ready by 7:30 (shocker) and had enough time to take a couple of pictures outside and run Austin to work (which takes 20 min with all the traffic even though it's only 2.1 miles away)... and we got her to school on time! She walked in put her backpack away and started looking for her nametag. As soon as she found it she plopped down and started doing her school work. There were kids around her crying and clinging to their parents and other kids who would sit down for a minute then get back up and walk around, but she was very intent on doing her homework. I was taking a few pics of her and wasn't getting a good one because of the flash,  so I turned the flash off to see if the pic would turn out better and the last time that I asked her to look up and smile at me she looked up at me and raised her eyebrows and said "Mom! That's enough pictures!" HAHA I about died laughing! I am obviously SOOO embarrassing! So I got the hint and gave her a hug and told her I would be there to pick her up when school was over. She said "K. Bye." She didn't care at all when I left. Which was a good thing because I had Brayden on my hip and Tayson pulling on my hand wanting to go play on the playground. It would've been so bad if she would've been throwing a fit like some of the other kids. Cause I can't handle it when all three of my kids go crazy on me at the same time. I start getting a little crazy myself!
So anyways, Brynnlee goes to school Monday through Friday from 8:15 to 2:15. It's kind of a long day for her but she LOVES it. She comes home telling me about her day and I am just amazed that she is getting so old and mature. Haha she told me the first day that after lunch there was a lady helping the kids get back to their classes and she had been sitting by some 2nd graders eating lunch and so the lady assumed that she was a second grader also. Which if you don't know Brynnlee, she is as tall as a 2nd grader and fits right in with them. So they sat her down and she told me that she thought in her head that it wasn't her class and the door was open so she was just going to run out the door. Haha. But then she said "But I stopped. and I thought about it.... and I raised my hand and told the teacher that I wasn't in 2nd grade. She asked me what grade I was in and I told her 1st! (haha which is still wrong cause she's in kindergarten) And the lady asked me who my teacher was and I said Mrs. Bridgette (it's actually Mrs. Bridges)". The lady laughed and took her back to her kindergarten class. ;)

I love her pose! Haha

So excited she found her seat and could start on her school work!

smile!

Ok. I'll smile agian...

Ok. Seriously smiling one more time...

"Mom! That's enough pictures!" Said quiet but very firmly! Haha

Excited to pick Brynnlee up from school. (BTW got this awesome wagon for $1.00 at a yard sale! The wheel was broken but we bought a new one for 14 bucks plus 5 bucks shipping. So this is our $20.00 wagon that usually sells for $120.00! Sweet!)

Brynnlee said she had the best day ever!

I love this girl and am so grateful to be her mom. She has taught me so many amazing things. I am trying my best to raise her and teach her things to help her grow and learn and be a good person, but most of the time I feel like it's her teaching me those things!