Elynn is FOUR

Oh, Elynn! How can you be FOUR!? It seems like I JUST had you. But, you are so big. And you LOVE that you are so big! Always trying to keep up with Ezra and Emersyn! We love you soo soo much. You are definitely our funny girl! You are constantly making us laugh. You are also constantly pushing our buttons. You like to do things the way you like to do them and have your own way and thoughts of how to do it. You do have your own way, but you are also very good at listening and trying new things and new ways to do stuff. I love your strong personality (or at least I will). You have such a love for life. You love to share, and give. You are a helper, you love to dance and play. You CLIMB on everything! You are constantly running around, climbing, playing, swinging, doing whatever the big kids are doing. You speak your mind. You make us LAUGH!! Just the other day you were talking about a boy in your class named TY. You talk about him a lot. I asked you why you talk about TY so much, more than your best friend Seyla. You replied, "well, because he is the most handsomest. And he has big muscles." To which you told Ezra, that Ty is stronger than him. He pulled up his sleeve and said, "why did he flex for you? Because I have a muscle back here (pointing to shoulder) without even flexing." HAHA! Another funny thing you said. One time you were doing something and I asked you to stop one to many times. So you got in trouble. I told you, " I am tired of you not listing to us. You need to be a better listener." To which you replied, " Well, I am TIRED of following your rules. So, I am NOT going to follow them anymore." I was trying so hard not to laugh!
Oh, I cannot wait to see what you do. You are such a smart girl. You LOVE being in Ms April's Fantastic Frog class where you are learning sooo much! You know almost all of your alphabet and all of your numbers up to 10. You can write your name and you know all the parts of a book. One day you came home and said, "mom, listen to this. Red Pink Red Pink Red Pink. That is a pattern. You know why it's a pattern? Because it repeats itself." Another day, your class had show and tell for the letter K. I was asking what some of your friends brought to school. You replied, "Simon brought a Marsupial. It's called a marsupial because Kangaroos have pouches where they keep their babies."
When we went to the doctor you were 40 inches tall (56%) and weight 35 lbs (55%).
You are so beautiful inside and out!!

Here is her birthday interview:

1. What is your fave color? Pink and Purple
2. What is your fave toy?
3. What is your fave thing to eat for lunch?
4. What is your fave TV show?
5. What is your fave outfit?
6. What is your fave fruit?
7. What is your fave game?
8. What is your fave snack?
9. What is your fave song?
10. What is your fave animal?
11. What is your fave book?
12. Who is your best friend?
13. What is your fave cereal?
14. What is your fave drink?
15. What is your fave holiday?
16. What is your fave thing to do outside?
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
18. What is your fave thing to eat for breakfast?
19. What is your fave dessert?
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

*side note..this has been done for a while but haven't posted because I still need to get her answers to the yearly questionaire..

Let's Rodeo San Antonio

The San Antonio Rodeo has come and gone. We always look forward to it in Feburary. It looked a little different for us this year with a baby and two kids in school full time, but we managed to make it to a show and the stock yard for some fun.
Brent and I were able to go see the actual Rodeo part with some good friends, who invited us to sit in their box suite with them. We had a great time watching the Rodeo, talking and enjoying the concert.

Littlest E was waiting up for us when we got home

One weekend, we took the kids to the Stockyard. They always love to see the baby pig races and look through the barns at the different animals being shown. We also got to see a really fun dunking act, with 4 guys doing tricks while dunking a basketball. It was a really laid back time, but fun.

Everly, sweet Everly

Everly! You are 6 MONTHS old!! How can that be?? I wish you could stay at this age for a while. I love snuggling with you and giving your sweet cheeks kisses! You are the HAPPIEST baby always. You only cry when you are ready to eat. You sleep through the night. You eat every 3-4 hours. You talk saying, "babababa. dadadada". You are always smiling! You to watch your brother and sisters. You have just this week started to get up up on all fours and scoot to the toy you want. You can sit up by yourself for a little bit without toppling over. If you can't scoot to something, you will just roll your way over to it. Oh. I just LOVE LOVE this stage! I love that you get so excited when you see me. I love that you just start to laugh so much more at things around you. I love that you play peek-a-boo with your blanket. and you kick your legs as hard as you can when you are on your back. You definitely have such a JOY about you and you bring others joy when they see you! Oh I just love you!!
When we went to your 6 month check up, you were 15 lbs (43%) and you were  inches (89%). Tall and skinny! Just like our Emersyn!

December (yes, December!)

Ha! I am horrible at keeping up with this thing. I really want to do it so I can look back and have some sort of picture summary of our life. I always think I will definitely remember everything, but I WONT! So, this is here to help me out a little..but I just can't keep up!

December was a great month. We had a great Christmas break celebrating with all of our family. Every year we do Christmas Eve at my dad's house, then Christmas Day it's just us, the 6 of us! This is my favorite time. I LOVE watching the kids come downstairs in anticipation of what they got from Santa. How they are so excited. How our living room becomes complete chaos, how we open everything, get it out and either build or play for the whole day! It's such a great day.
The day after Christmas, this year, we headed to JC to spend Christmas with my WHOLE family. And when I mean WHOLE for my side, it's not big at all, but it's special. We had my aunt and two cousins with their wives in, my grandmother, siblings, mom and stepdad. It was a great, relaxing weekend. My Aunt was very prepared and had a lot of great games to play. We even did an Ugly Christmas Sweater Cookie Decorating Contest. I won..shocking! No, really! But, it was just sooo soo good to be with everyone.

That Sunday, the 6 of us headed out of town to New Mexico. We went Skiing in Angel Fire. It was, hands down, one of our BEST trips. Some of Brent's family met us there too. We rented a condo right across the Ski lifts so it was super easy to walk back and forth. It really helped that we were able to eat breakfast and lunch right there, so conveniently. Opa, Oma, Hinckley family and Johnny and Mary stayed in cabin all together about a mile away from the lifts.
The first day we got there, we went to a pizza joint, that was recommended by a friend, to eat and watch the Aggie game while we waited to get into our condo. That day we really just loaded our kitchen with groceries and walked around Angle Fire checking things out. The next day, we did some sledding at the Golf Club to acclimate to the elevation. We rented our skis and Brent took the big 3 on the snow to show them how to put them on.
By Wednesday we were ready to ski. It worked out nicely that Oma and Johnny didn't ski so they could watch the little littles while we all skied. I went out that morning to help teach the kids how to ski. It was so fun. No one did ski school. They did OPA ski school. We basically taught them how to put ski's on and wedge, then sent them down the bunny slop. After a couple times down the bunny slop, they were ready to go! I am not kidding, they picked it up so fast. Ezra and Michelle's 4 were able to get on and off lifts by themselves. They spend all day out there, only coming to sit for lunch. They were doing greens and 1 or 2 blues by the end of the day. After lunch, Opa, Johnny, Elynn, Emersyn and Michelle's two littles went sledding again for a couple hours. That night, we all had dinner at the cabin and called a night.
Thursday, was a full day of skiing. Elynn even went down some greens with Opa. Emersyn did awesome and was able to get on and off the lift by herself at the end. Ezra and Michelle's 4 spent most of the day at the ski park doing jumps. It was beautiful, awesome weather and everyone had FUN. Everyone skied! SO MUCH FUN! That night the 6 of us, plus Johnny and Mary at dinner on the mountain and watched the torch parade with fireworks.
Before we left, Brent and I were able to go out to a nice restaurant for our Anniversary. Just a great trip. I'm hoping it's one we do every year!