Piglets, Messes, and Surprises!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Britynn's 2nd Birthday!!

Our sweet little baby britters is not a baby anymore :-( It is hard to believe that she is already two! Man time is really escaping from me. Britynn turned two on may 20th. We had our friends from Oswego come into town and stay with us for the weekend. Britynn's birthday was pretty low key, I figured that she is still too young to have a big party so we just did the usual stuff. We went on our family bike ride and then came home for cake and presents. She is very much into Mickey Mouse so I decided to make her a Minnie mouse cake and she LOVED it! It was a bit of a challenge prob because I didn't have all things needed to make it. I had to improvise and make the bottom layer brownie since I ran out of cake mix. Consequently the different textures stacked on top of one another created a big bulge on the side so I had to try and tuck it in with a ribbon around the base.

So every year I like to make a list of my children's favorite things it seems like they are all quickly changing so I have a goal to do these little servery on their birthday.

All about Britynn

Fave food: Bagels, eggs, Fish ( especially Talapia) and Flowers (also know as cauliflower & Broccoli)

Fave T.V. Show: Blues clues and Mickey mouse Clubhouse

Favorite Activity: Going on family bike rides especially now that we have a seat attached to my bike

Dislikes: She does not like to get her teeth brushed by other people

Britynn is such a lovable little snuggler, she is very sensitive and is sensitive to others especially when they get owies. She is very friendly to all people and says "Hi", to just about anyone. She is very polite and says "please" and "thank you",without being told to say it. She will keep saying "thank you" until you acknowledge her and say "You're Welcome"! She knows about five of her shapes. She love to pretend especially with her food, she will bite until it turns into shapes like a heart or a Dinosaur. She is very proud of her little creations and holds them high in the air to announce what she has made. She love to sing her ABC's and can count to 13! She can also stack and amazingly high tower of blocks. She loves balls and has one heck of an arm, It is a very exciting thing for her to throw the ball and have someone then throw it back! she will giggle and get really excited. Her best friends are Kenidi and Kaden and Brianna from church. She cant quite make the R sounds very well though so she ends up calling her Banana! She also says a few other things that I just cant bring myself to correct... for example she will call her sippy cup "Sicky Cup"! I love it ! LOL Britynn is very attached to her blanket that Grandma Wanlass gave to her when she was born. When she cant find it she will go around the house calling out "Blankie, where are you?" Until she finally finds it. She is a clean Freak and will wipe her own face clean in between bites of food. And will request wipe after wipe until it is cleaned to her satisfaction. She came into the Kitchen yesterday and saw that I was making pizza and the first thing she says is "Mommy hands messy!" Then she leaves and comes back seconds later holding up the wet wipe tub for me to clean with and insists that I clean up! This girl cracks me up!! Last of all her favorite color is Green which is also the only color that she can name correctly. Oh and I also forgot even though she is a clean freak she can also really enjoy making a mess while it lasts the pics of her playing in the dirt speak for itself! Love You Britynn! YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE !!!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Jan-Feb Happenings

As always I delay my posts for so long that I have a ton to catch up on. These past few months have flown by! In January Kaden celebrated his 4th birthday, I didn't originally plan on making him a fondant cake but after feeling quite guilty I did some last min stuff. We ran to the store and got him a handy Manny demolition set and I went strait to work. I was very surprised at how quickly I pulled it off, it took about 2 hours to make and just in case you were wondering that is fast for me. Kenidi's cake took a little more than a day. That night we went to MacDonald's for dinner (Kaden's choice) then we rode bikes at walmart to see which Bike was best for Kaden. He rode the bike all the way up to the cash register and said in a very stout voice "Big Boy bike please!" This kid cracks me up!

Britynn has been suffering from ear infections since she was about 11 months old. We finally decided to get tubes, I really didn't know what to expect and spent the night before the surgery tossing and turning. I was really surprised at how quick and easy it was! It was all worht it to have Britynn free of infections!

I have been very busy at the gym these past few weeks. I am now running 4 miles! Yay I have tried to run outside but it is too cold and painful so for now I am gonna stick to the treadmill till it gets warmer.

The Carthage school district just had Winter Break, it was nice to have Kenidi home and to spend time with all of my kiddos! We got to do a lot of fun activities that her school challenged the kids to do during the break. All of it related to 100 since they passed the 100th day of school. We took 100 steps in the snow, made pictures with 100 stars, counted to 100 by 5's,10's and 1's. over the break we got sick, first it was Britynn, then me then Kaden and Adam. Kenidi is the only one who has not come down with any symptoms. We had what is called gastroenteritis, which is basically two days of throwing up and five days of diarrhea. I lost 5pounds!! It was so yucky and I am so glad that it is all done and over with.

All of my kids have had this same interest in putting their feet up on the table, the funny thing is that they have all discovered it right around the same age!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

More catching up

Okay so I have all of you Grandparents in mind when I take soooo many pictures. I know that you appreciate it though.

Kenidi: She finally started school after having a week and a half break for Daddy's homecoming. She ended up starting in the first part of October. She was so excited to take the bus, here she is just getting home after her first fun filled day. She has really adjusted to the public school thing pretty well. I am a little concerned about the behavior of other children in her class but Kenidi is great with communicating and keeps me up to speed pretty well. She was working on some more advance stuff in Arizona so she is kinda taking a step back now since the public school doesn't have as high of expectations. I plan on looking into some extra classes she might take to keep her interested.

Kaden: He is such a lovable little guy, always has a smile on his face and always in a goofy mood just like his daddy. He and I have been having fun spending time together during the days. I am kinda doing the same things I did with Kenidi before she started school. He knows all of his letters and is reading three to four letter words and he writes his name. He loves to draw pictures of cars, trees, power boxes, and his family oh and houses of course. He is a great help with britynn and loves to sing songs about his family and how much he loves us. He just started Primary and LOVES it!! I am very glad that he finally advanced :-) Adam got me some cheese for Christmas, I know it sounds weird but when Adam was on his way back to the states he stopped in Ireland and got me several different kinds of cheese. So he found a Mennonite shop in Philadelphia and bought some as a Christmas gift and Kaden's favorite was the Munster Cheese. He came running into the kitchen and asked if he could please have some "Monster" Cheese!

Britynn: She is a busy little girl and expresses herself very well. She loves baby dolls and books most of all! She loves loves to read books she has been having quite a few ear infections and is actually scheduled to get tubes on the 26th. I am a little nervous but think it will ultimately be the best for her. She loves to watch the squirrels outside and is very attached to her blanket. Her vocabulary is quite large. She repeats almost anything you ask her to say. She can say: Apple,Tree,Baby,Jesus, Water, More, Book, Uh oh, Owie, Thank you and she says it on her own, Blankie, Mouth, Bubble, Got you, Go, Car, Bagel, Peek a Boo, Play, Dog, Nap, Juice, Strawberry, Orange, Horse, Get Down, Truck, Block, Circle, Pretty, Boots, Squeaky, Me, Sleep, Bread, Seat, Tickle, Breakfast, Help, Door, Cranky, Buckle, Hat, Hot, Want more please, Square, Brownie... I pretty much just gave up keeping track. Those babies first year books really make me feel guilty because I can never seem to keep track of everything it is almost impossible! Anyways she is doing really well with her speech considering the fact that she cant hear very well with all of these infections.

Britynn started to read the dictionary

We discovered that our camera can make distorted pictures. This kept us entertained for hours one night!

Christmas at the Steimle's was busy and Fun! We did the twelve days of Christmas to a new family in the church the Cramers and also did a family gift exchange. As tradition we each pick a name out of a hat to see who we will get a gift for. We woke up to find that Santa did in fact come and he ate every last bite of the cookies and a thank you not. We had church at 10 and then rushed home to work on dinner. We had the Cramers and the missionaries over for dinner. We didn't do Turkey because I always make it taste icky, instead we did roast.

Britynn got daddy a box of his favorite cookie, it is the closest thing to thin mints.

Kenidi has decided to become a nurse someday. Here she is checking the vitals on her patients and recording her findings. She cracks me up !

Catching up part two

We decided to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasted. The family picture was taken at the Apple Cider Mill. We went to the old McDonald Farm in Sackets Harbor. It was a blast! They had miniature golf, bunny trails, horse rides, corn mazes, pumpkin patch, bounce houses and a Wizard of Oz Hay ride in which we got to feed some enormous cows at the end. The kids were exhausted by the time we left.

This picture cracks me up! If you look close see what Britynn is doing in the background.

These are some pics I took back in October... I love to look at these pictures. The kids were so thrilled to play with daddy again! This is at the Richard hills community center just a stones throw from us. It is nice because they have an indoor play area so the kids don't go crazy in the winter.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

catching up part one

I cant believe it has been four months since my last post!!! I feel guilty but at the same time I don't. We are finally a family again and the last thing I have wanted to do is take anytime away from that. We have been enjoying every minute with Adam. The kids are thrilled for him to be home. Since it has been so long I figured I would just try my best to summarize the past few months.

Before we left for New York we spent a good amount of time hanging out at the Arizona science center. This science center has three levels so you can easily spend several days exploring all that it has to offer.

Aunt Shanna on a bed of nails

Waiting with much anticipation to see daddy for the first time in over 8months! The kids were up till about 1:30 that night. It took Britynn a little bit to warm up to daddy, but by the time we got in the car she was already making flirty faces with him. Thank goodness for skype, he remained a familiar face because of it.

OH THE JOY!! It seemed this day would never come

Our gift for Adam's homecoming was a jar of milk, They didn't have milk in Afghanistan

Adam decorated the house for kenidi's party while Grandma and Grandpa Clement took the kids to the indoor playground. The turnout was great kenidi had about seven kids from her class come. We played games and did face painting and watched a strawberry shortcake movie and popped popcorn. It was a lot of fun, but a bittersweet end to the day since Bob and Marianne had to leave right after all the celebration was over.

Best Friends

I don't care about this big lion suit anymore, I have candy Now!!

Kenidi finally got her pillow pet

We visited the Ives retirement home in watertown for Veterans day, We had a nice visit with the veterans and gave them some yummy lion House rolls. We are now volunteering there and have had a good time getting to know the people there.

As we drove into the Walmart parking lot we noticed seagulls flying onto the parked cars I thought it would be fun to feed them and they all went nuts!