Another year gone by--Too quickly. Most definitely.

Sarah: Just turned 15 months, she is a stubborn one, sweet but stubborn. What we love most about her:

• sometimes when you pick her up to hold her, and she lays her head on your shoulder, and pats your back, like a "thank you for holding me" without saying anything. Adorable.
• other times, if she's feeling in a giving mood, you can ask for a hug and she will lay her head down on your shoulder and wrap her arms around you. So Adorable.
• when she waves both hands at cars passing by on the street while you are out on a walk
• when she bounces up and down in your arms upon seeing her big sisters coming home from school and smiles really big to say hi to them.
• when we sing our night-time song as a family before bed, she laughs and sings along with us, obviously not the words, but her type of humming. I remember at Christmas time she was so sweet when she would get so excited every time "Angels we have heard on high" was sung-I think she is going to love music more than the other girls even.
•  She stubbornly won't walk. She's been able to stand on her own now for about a month, but only in short bursts, then sits down. If she's feeling so inclined, she will walk with you when you hold her hands but I think she just can't stand the thought of moving slowly that walking would necessitate. Consequently, she sticks with the crawling everywhere. That said, just today at church, she did take her first official steps--three!--without holding hands or any support.

Camilla: Just turned 5, we celebrated with an M&M Birthday party on the 16th for her first real party with friends. Other birthdays were spent with just family. It was a grand affair and she loved every minute of it. We had an M&M piñata, M&M packet toss, M&M search, and cupcake walk with lunch. With a theme that doesn't have much that can be purchased for décor, it took lots of prep making the piñata, decorations, and game/activities. It was worth it to celebrate for her though. To get to know her at 5:

• she is petite. I can still wear 3T clothes on her, though I've slowly been able to put away items this summer with some recent growth, but she has never been a great eater, so that makes growing pretty difficult.
• she hates potatoes. Really? Who doesn't like potatoes? Doesn't like them mashed, baked, or roasted, but will tolerate them as tator tots or French fries. Salt and Oil can improve lots of things, of course.
• She manipulates situations to get what she wants because she knows she's cute. No joke. Last week, she gave Todd her Fathers day card on Friday. She said very sweetly, "Here's your fathers day card, Daddy. [Pause, wait for positive reinforcement] Now can I have a treat?" Or, she'll ask for something she wants, and then she does a deliberate eye-bat, and face tilt, or "let me be as cute as possible to charm you to say yes". In other situations, she's been given things because she's so cute even though she wasn't actually expecting anything. A few months back the worker at my friends house gave her his canned juice "because she was just so cute and reminded me of my niece." Or the manager at the McDonalds that came over to the table where Todd and Camilla were eating and gave her a free Lego movie cup just because she was cute. (We didn't get a kids meal so it wasn't related to that.)
• That girl LOVES to dance, twirl, sashay, sway, bop, jam, every word you can think of. It's even better in a "cupcake dress"--the kind that billows out beautifully when you twirl. I have got to get her in a dance class.
• She is obsessed with boys--worse than Kayla was at this age! She's always asking about marriage, when she's going to be married, etc. She almost had an emotional breakdown a few months ago because she was crying about how long it would be before she could get married. It's disturbing. I'm not sure how we are going to survive this girl as an adolescent.
• She's funny, really funny. She makes jokes about things that take me by surprise. I wish I could remember one for an example, but I've drawn a blank. But, she's got a pretty robust sense of humor for a five year old.
• She loves the color purple, her stuffed monkey, and oh yes, she is going to make gummy bears when she grows up.

Kayla--about to turn 7 in August

• Kayla is all about correctness. If you say the wrong thing, i.e. wrong phrase or word or name for the girl, trust Kayla to correct you.
• She"believes in fairies; they are real." Her favorite series is a the Rainbow Place Fairies books, filled with stylist fairies, fashion beauty fairies, music fairies, party fairies, and at least 5 more I've forgotten. She well exceeded the 1st grade reading level for end of the year.
• She loves pizza and loves to help me cook in the kitchen. Her dream is to have a pizza parlor one day. The fact that we found out she had either lactose intolerance or milk allergy (not sure which) doesn't faze her. She also dreams of being a fashion model and she has quite the poses for it. It's funny watching her do a pretend catwalk. And we have lots of fashion shows in our house.
• She loves shoes. It made her year when I bought her a pair of Sunday shoes with a 1/2 inch heel. I've never know anyone to fawn over a pair of shoes like that.

Abrianna--about to turn 9 in July

• She loves Art--Painting, weaving, pottery, you name it. Her Art teacher showed them how to weave in May, and that week she came home, made her own loom from cardboard, begged yarn out of my craft pile, improvised a needle using a bobby pin, and has now completed at least 9 blankets from the loom. Her self-portrait was included in the District Art show by her Justin Elementary teacher. She always wants to do crafts.
• She loves cupcakes and watching a show on the Food Network called Cupcake wars. She's determined to go on that show when she's older and win $10,000. Her favorite T-shirt is one that says "More Cupcakes, Less Homework." My friend is having a cake camp in July so she's excited to learn techniques like they do on the show.
• She LOVES to read. She is reading middle school books even though she is going into 4th grade in the fall. (This is particularly embarrassing to Emma because Emma hates that she is reading the same books as her little sister. It makes her feel stupid. My reassurances don't help the matter--but I hardly think stunting Abri's interest in books is the solution, even to avoid injuring Emma's pride.)
• She wanted a medal really bad this year (she was jealous of Emma's medal from Destination Imagination in 2012). She participated in Spelling Bee and Battle of the Books, hoping she could get a medal, to no avail. The highlight of her year was getting a surprise medal for Perfect Attendance. If I could have captured the look on her face as she stood there on the stand at the awards ceremony fingering that medal around her neck--priceless. She didn't gloat about it, she was just so happy to get one after wanting it so much. She earned that medal though--she was always up on her own every morning, independently preparing what she needed for school. It was especially earned on those crazy mornings just after we moved--I almost didn't take them to school a couple times but resisted the urge and it paid off.
• She loves her Wish bear for helping her not have bad dreams, her comfy but fashionable clothes (because you can't forsake comfort for the sake of fashion), her mp3 music player, her journals for writing, and of course, Sarah. But, "math is not her friend."

Emma--12 already??

• With 3 out of 4 core classes "Pre-AP" or Pre-Advanced placement (the precursor of college prepatory classes in high school), Emma earned A/B Honor Roll this year as she encountered her fair share of trials with difficult team assignments and unbalanced work loads, late nights studying for multiple tests, and more responsibilities than she had time to handle. She got positive feedback from her many teachers for her work ethic and attitude.
• She started playing the French Horn in Band--the first musical experience she's ever had and really excelled. She has an excellent range for a beginning player, and she made the top performing band as a new 7th grader in the fall to beat out 8th graders who also auditioned.
• Turning twelve she got her ears pierced for the first time. She was nervous when the time arrived, but firm in her resolve, she took the pain and then took accountability to clean her ears everyday.
• She had her braces removed in Aug 2013 for a new improved smile. She still doesn't think she's pretty though. She told me that adults may find her pretty but teens have a different concept of beauty. Hmmm.
• She's not the most patient with her sisters, but she is definitely responsible and works hard at home, whether weeding, cleaning, etc.

It's certain--these girls are great and we love them lots!

Getting to Know You. . .one day at a time

I had a goal I would write about the girls on this blog at each birthday as a way to document their changes. That hasn't happened in a long time what with other distractions, but here's my latest attempt at writing just some of the things that makes them their own individuals and a blessed part of our family.

Sarah as of 5/13/13:
What can you say about a sweet new baby? The sight of her warms your heart. It's an amazing thing when bodies are created, and new little spirits inhabit them. She has these dark blue eyes that I look in and just wonder about what kind of personality is in there.

• She loves the sound of running water-she immediately stops crying when I turn the tub water on.
• She is just barely starting to smile and respond to others.
• She grows fast! (which is good since she was the smallest of all our girls at 6 lbs 15 ozs at birth.) Doctors have been amazed that she gained over 2 lbs in her first month-from 6 lbs 11 ozs to 8 lbs 15 ozs.

Camilla nearing 4:

• Most likely to get into mischief--first girl of four to cut her own hair in February
• never passes on a chance to dance to good music--and doesn't forget to pose at the end
• often sings phrases from pop songs or Primary songs throughout the day
• happily plays on her own for quite a while
• very concerned that her baby monkey is "cold" each night and needs to have "her" own spot under the covers
• minimal tantrums-majority of the time when she doesn't get her own way she sulks and pouts with her eyes and lips, crosses her arms and then thinks for a minute. Then she sighs and says "FINE!" (only recently she has thrown a couple of tantrums with full out screaming and kicking)
• makes us laugh:
• the other day we went to Costco and I put Sarah's car seat in the cart. Camilla told me "We're going to buy Sarah!" with this coy smile to prove she was making a joke.
• I was cleaning a cut that one of the girl's friends got on the swing set and said to the friend, "does that hurt, honey?" Camilla says to me, "Mommy, you know she's not one of your daughters?!?" with a decided tone of disapproval and reprimanding glance for using an endearment.

Kayla at the end of Kindergarten:

• Academically: she has done well learning her sight words--she had learned all the kindergarten sight words by the end of March with 2 1/2 months to go in the year (only 4 other kids in her class beat her at that milestone). She has now memorized all but a couple sight words for 1st and 2nd grade. Writing is more of a struggle since she wants to know how to spell all the words instead of trying to sound them out so it takes her a long time.
• still having difficulty saying her "r" sounds--ex. Abri sounds like Ah-blee, though the speech therapist said she is still considered in the normal range of development
• Concerned about celebrating/remembering others' birthdays: For example, her Kindergarten teacher had her birthday on the 28th of April. Kayla told me about it when she came home that Friday. That Sunday, she spent lots of time making her a birthday card, and asked me to make cupcakes to go with the card. (All of these were done with no reminders on my part.) We had a similar situations with a few of her friends' birthdays-i.e. she was very excited to give them a card/gift to celebrate even when they weren't actually having a party that she needed to take something to.

 Abrianna

• Loves to read but math "is not her friend." (Her grades in math are high A's but it isn't interesting for her.) She particularly likes books that combine drawing with paragraphs such as Bad Kitty, Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Beach Mouse. If I had to pick her profession today it would be comic book artist. She wants to write a book someday.
• She had a space party this summer for her birthday. Not your typical princess party, right? She really gets into the planets and she made awesome hand colored planets on Styrofoam balls that we hung from the ceiling. She loves art and her painting was featured in the District Art Show this past spring.
• She loves all things rainbow. She dreams of a rainbow canopy, loves not just a single color but the full spectrum of the rainbow.

Emma

What type of candy are you??

We had a funny conversation at the dinner table the other night. We were trying to decide what type of candy best described each of us. Here is the consensus in order that we decided them:

• Emma: M&Ms, easy because she has the m's in her name. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be plain or peanut though, but we settled on plain since she didn't want to be referred to as nutty. [Note: when she grows up she's going to make an M&M that has bubble gum in it. I won't tell her that then she might be said to be full of air.]
• Daddy: PayDay (his suggestion, not ours)
• Kayla: Hershey's Kisses because she loves giving and receiving kisses.
• Mommy: Smarties (I said I only wish that applied more often.)
• Abri: Mr Goodbar because she's done so well in school this year. {She didn't believe this was an actual candy until she was looking thru some candy at the store and saw one and then she actually believed us.)
• Camilla: took quite a bit of debate. Originally we said Whatchamacalit because we were so undecided. I suggested Sour Patch Kid because she's a little sour and a lot sweet, but then we decided on SweetTart. You can tell we are in the terrible two stage with her.

Girls in front of San Antonio Temple in April

Here are some highlights on Emma, Abri and Kayla since I put some things on Camilla already for her birthday.

Emma is definitely the oldest child. She helps me all the time. I love when she helps get Camilla to bed, since she is a toddler whisperer after all, and  tells me often, "Thanks for all that you do." She loves doing what is right, gets excited about doing things as  family, and loves organizing things.

Abrianna is a great reader, both out loud and silently. I hear her pronouncing all sorts of words that would seem a lot older than first grade that she doesn't hesitate to sound out and usuallys gets right. She was a diligent student this year with all As and mostly 100s, even on report cards. She loves movies/TV and dreams of being an artist one day.

Kayla is a hopeless romantic already. She talks more about love and marriage than I've ever hear Emma or Abri talk about them combined. She loves looking pretty and often makes little poses.

Mormon Message

A recent photo of Abrianna I took at the Alamo in April.

Abrianna LOVES movies or TV. If we take a vote on what our family activity for the night will be, hers is always for one of those. (By contrast, Emma will choose a game, and Kayla will choose to play the Wii. Makes voting interesting.) Last Sunday, Todd was watching some Mormon Messages on his laptop when we got home from church. Abri heard the sounds so she went in to see what he was watching. She immediatley sat down and attentively watched several with him, then remarked--"I like Mormon Messages. They're like conference, only shorter." I love Mormon Messages too--such touching and poignant videos to remind us of the simple things. I put a link below of just one example of a Mormon message that touched me tonight.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng&id=2012-01-008-rescued-by-christ#2012-01-008-rescued-by-christ 

Bless You Daddy

In January, we hit a milestone in our family. We had our first trip to the emergency room, thanks to our dear fourth child. It turns out that if your 2 year old runs in the tiled entry way of the church and loses her footing, she can hit the corner of the tiled floor runner and split her forehead open. Six stitches, three hours from arrival to departure, and one episode of Dora on the Child Entertainer's Iphone, left us with an appreciation that we haven't had to do it before now, but grateful that we went to a Children's hospital for treatment.

The sweetest part of it all, though, was our little girl, sitting weakly but surprisingly alert in her car seat as we made the frantic 20 minute drive to the hospital. Sometime during that anxious ride, Todd sneezed and she looked at him, her bandage seeped with blood across her forehead, not even crying with pain, to reply, "Bless You Daddy." It brought tears to my eyes.

Happy Birthday Camilla! 3 years old

It's been a busy year for this little girl. On the list:
Talking lots and lots
Driving her mom a little crazy
Running her grandmother ragged
Seeing just how many ways she can look cute to get what she wants, ha ha.
We sure do love having her in our family, though.
Here are some things about her that always make me laugh, in random order:

• She loves blackberries--can't get enough of them.
• She hates naps.
• She can get up before any of the other girls and go to bed later than them--showing no signs of stopping.
• She won't eat donuts or cake--only lick every bit of frosting off that she can and leave the rest.
• She loves books. She will just sit and look at them on her own and doesn't have to have them read to her, though she will often ask.
• She loves Phantom of the Opera music.
• When she loves a song, she just can't sit still. She gets up and starts moving her arms in the air and striking semi-ballet poses and positioning her head "just so" as she "feels" the music. This includes, but is not limited to, during sacrament meeting at church--in the aisle no less, local musical theater presentations, or the movie theater aisle. Below: Cami dancing to the music at Sea World.

• She always has to say good-bye to me in the mornings now before I go to work. If I leave and she wakes up when the door closes (it rarely doesn't wake her up) she gets up and runs out the front door literally crying, WAIT!! WAIT!! I want to say goodbye!
• She loves the "Rock Song" for her choice of bedtime song. The words of the lyrics: "The wise man built his house upon the rock, [repeat], and the rains came tumbling down, [repeat], and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up, [repeat] and the house on the rock stood still."
• She loves to say/do things to make you laugh. It's not unusual for her to say, "Hi Grandma Mommy" and wait for me to say I'm not. . . and then laugh and laugh.
• She remembers where she puts things hours and hours later. I've asked her where things are, and she'll go directly to it without searching. It's not 100% but at least 90% of the time, and it surprises me.
• She really loves baths, not washing her hair so much, but she loves the play time.