Spring is on the way

This year for Valentine's Day we had stake conference, so we got all the kids dressed up and ready to go. They were actually willing to smile and take a decent photo altogether this time. It helps that I was home, instead of in meetings, to get them all ready to go.

Malia is getting around a lot better too these days. She can crawl to almost anywhere she wants, and is really good about pulling herself up anywhere. This day she decided to help with the laundry.

She's also trying to sit up in the middle of rooms. She has a unique form to stabilize herself, she sits on top of one leg stretches the other one way out. We're betting that she will start walking by standing up in the middle of the room and taking off, instead of walking around furniture.

The weather is actually started warming up recently too, and all the ice has melted off the roads, so the kids are finally able to take the bikes out again and get to the streets. As you can see Charlie enjoys wearing shorts and T-shirts. There've been several days that we have to tell him he has to wear a coat to school, especially since you're still frost on the ground in the mornings when he's leaving for the bus.

We have had a couple fun family nights recently. Earlier this week the kids enjoyed making candy sushi.

They all had lots of fun making them and I think this is the only one that Jerrick actually took a picture with before eating it.

Keisha just loves attention for the camera, and make extra effort posing for it now.

Here some of the finer end results

Friday evening we had a pan themed dinner, to get ready for the movie. The kids really enjoy the extra effort that Ashley puts in to the themes for the movies. Sometimes this is a meal other times it's just the snack that goes along with the movie.

Tooth Fairy

Keisha finally lost her first tooth! She has been dying to lose teeth ever since Adahleigh started. Last year was the hardest for her when Charlie started losing teeth and she wasn't. Every time he would lose one she would ask when am I going to lose a tooth. The main reason she's wanted to lose teeth is so she could get one of the glowing bottles that the tooth fairy leaves behind for your first tooth. She wanted her tooth out so bad that the day it got loose she was determined to have it pulled out. I didn't think it would come out because it was pretty well attached, it only took two tries though and she was excited as can be to have it out. Her two bottom teeth actually became loose about a month ago, for a day or two and then tightened back up. She somehow loosened the tooth this time in a wreck on her bike, and made sure the tooth was out that same night.

We were able to capture a picture of her with her treasures from the tooth fairy while she was still sleeping.

She has been using the bottle as a night light every night since she got it. It has definitely been the highlight of her week.

Flashback to Karli's wedding, Jerrick was in rare form at the sealing of Karli and Josh. He usually pretends to be shy in public around other people, but his regular personality, that we see at home, came out to shine from the beginning. He walked around with his hands in his pockets, which till then he only used to transport toys (usually a car), and a smug look on his face.

He then decided to catch rain on his tongue, hands still in pockets.

We should apologize to Karli, because she probably ended up with more pictures of our kids then of her and Josh. The one thing the photographer didn't catch was Jerrick's climb up the steepest and only muddy hill on the temple grounds. While no one was watching he took off exploring, luckily he didn't slip and I had to go rescue him otherwise he was going to slide down on his bum to get down.. 

Snowshoeing, sleeping, and crawling

A little over a week ago, I was able to go on a field trip with Adahleigh.The class went up to Mount bachelor to go snowshoeing. It was a lot of fun to go exploring in the wilderness. The forest rangers shared a lot of information about the area and the dangers of being in the woods in wintertime. Adahleigh did really well getting around on the snowshoes some of her classmates didn't fare so well and fell often and had to be helped back up.

Jerrick has been having a hard time adjusting to primary, some weeks he wants to go back to nursery instead. This week he wasn't able to last through sharing time and fell asleep sitting up on his chair. The last couple weeks he hasn't ended up falling completely asleep, but comes close. The funny thing about this is during the week he doesn't take naps no matter if we make him lay down for a while. A lot of it probably has to do with him not constantly moving and play. When asked why he went to sleep he just complained "they wouldn't give me a blanket".

Malia continues to grow rapidly. She can now get up on all fours and rocks as an attempt to crawl. She is getting around though, by getting up on all fours and then diving forward so she inches along.

Adahleigh's Baptism/Malia's Blessing

Adahleigh turned 8 this last year and decided to be baptized, so we were able to participate in that with her.  She made the decisions on how her program went.  Keisha had the opportunity to lead the music, so we tracked down a stool she could stand on so everyone could see her and set up the music stand even though she couldn't read any of the music.

We tried to get Adahleigh to write about her baptism right after it happened but this is all that we could get out of her.
-Last night was Adahleigh's baptism! It was a lot of fun.

Adahleigh was baptized on Halloween at the Stake Center. It was originally the child of record date, but they moved it to November, and we had already made arrangements with family. All Grandparents were able to make it out, Aunt Jenny, Riggin, and Aunt Karli.

After the baptism, the kids were able to go door to door for trick'o'treating. This hasn't happened since we lived in Reno  because the city just does a trunk o treat put on by the local businesses. They probably walked over 5 miles and trick o treated for 3 hours. By the time they were done they ended collecting their weight in candy.

Sunday we had Malia's blessing, everyone was able to stay over and be part of that. Uncle Josh was even able to join us after getting off work and driving  over late Saturday night. We enjoyed a nice get together after church before some family had to get back. The girls got up early the next morning to say goodbye one last time to Grandpa and Grandma Wilde, before they left back to Utah.

Malia has been growing tons since then and is getting close to crawling. Here's a video from a couple months ago of her blown raspberries. It was a one time deal since we've tried to get her to do it again and she won't. Luckily we got it on video the first time.

Winter Fun

   This winter we had quite a bit of snow. It all started when we wanted to make a trip out to Utah for Thanksgiving. A 10 hour trip turned into a 20 hour trip. The first three hours of the trip was spent just 10 miles down the road where we got stuck on the highway closed due to the foot and a half of snow we got in one day. We have continually been getting snow on and off since then.

   We decided to go get a Christmas tree A couple weeks later. Also  decided to dump a bunch more snow. Only Charlie and Keisha were willing to brave the snow to find a tree. They had a blast trompping through the woods and shaking snow off the trees to find the perfect one.

   Adahleigh and Keisha made sure to make snowman. We still have some parts of snowmen in the yard, a month later.

   At the end of the cul-de-sac the plows have been piling up the snow. Our neighbor has done some of the plowing and made sure to stack the snow so that we had a sledding hill. The kids have spent several days after school sledding down it. They usually do it on an innertube.

Summer 2015

Our summer has been pretty uneventful, we spent most of it just relaxing at home.

 Adam took the kids fishing a couple times and on a couple hikes and swimming.

He also took them to lava hot springs for his family reunion and to visit with family.

The kids enjoyed swimming like they always do. Adahleigh even jumped off the lowest platform, and the older three enjoyed the slides.

He also took them on our yearly outing to kah-nee-tah to swim and sleep in tepees with there cousins, grandma p, and most of there aunts and uncles. While I got to stay home with two day old malia and grandma w and catch up on some sleep!

Adam decided it was finally time to put in a sprinkler system which lasted most of the summer with early mornings and late nights. Our grass is beginning to be green and not so patchy, so next year the kids may have some grass to run around on. 

We ended our summer with a trip to the valley over Labor Day weekend. It was Adams long weekend and he had plans to go to the temple Saturday with the youth in our ward so we decided to make a weekend of it at his moms. The kids enjoyed spending time with there cousins. Miles and Erin were planning a day trip to the coast so we tagged along. We stopped by a casino on the way for lunch at their buffet. Adahleigh  was ecstatic to be going, her favorite restraunt is chuck a Rama, and to hear this is just like it but bigger and better she couldn't wait. All the kids ate their weight in jello and pizza and topped it off with ice cream. 

We finally made it to the beach where the kids played for the rest of the day, Malia enjoyed her first beach trip tucked away in the moby. 

The weather at the coast that day was very nice. 

Jer enjoying both ends of his cones at lunch.

The kids all trying to build a dam to stop the water. We didn't get many pictures for Adam dropped his phone the ocean when we first got there and I spent part of the time taking care of Malia and going shopping for some rice for Adams phone. 

This little man loved the beach and getting dirty and just getting to run!!! We all enjoyed are end up summer trip to the beach.

We spent the rest of the time celebrating birthdays, having an outdoor movie party, the kids thinking they wanted to swim but  realizing it was just too cold. 

We headed for home the day before school started to get things ready and to get the kids ready for bed at a decent hour.

We enjoyed our lazy summer and for all the family we were able to visit with throughout it. 

We are slowly adjusting to getting back into school mode, but the kids are all enjoying school and doing well.  

Malia Rhys

We left for the hospital just after 11 on the night of the 14th, after what I thought was my water breaking. After a few tests and waiting around they finally admitted us. She was finally on her way! 

Malia was born August 15 at 6:57 am. She weighed 8 lbs & 21 1/4 in long. She was very content most of the day, when she wasn't sleeping or eating she was wide awake. Adam left mid afternoon to go home and get the kids and grandma w to come meet "baby sister" ( this was her name at the moment because we had yet to decide on a name for her). They each had a turn to hold there new sister! 

After only a few minutes of being there, Jerrick was sitting on the bed with me when he turned to me and told me to get my shoes on it was time to go home. When I asked him if baby sister could come home with us, he said no she has to stay here. Needless to say they have become best buds and he is a great big brother to her.  

The rest of the time was pretty uneventful, Malia slept the rest of the afternoon, and Adam took kids home and spent sometime with all his brothers and there families who were visiting for the weekend. Her first night was a little rough with constant crying and little sleep, once we finally got her to sleep it wasn't much later the nurse came in to wake her up to take her vitals and prick her heal to get some blood. She couldn't get enough blood so she had to prick both her heals. Eventually later that day putting a line in her arm for a blood draw because the blood kept clotting so they couldn't use it for what they needed to test it for. She slept most of the day. And of course we had to wait around most of the day before being released to go home. That night she cried most of the night with little sleep. I think she got it out of her system, she's a pretty good sleeper now. 

She is now 5 weeks old.

 She loves to eat and enjoys her bathtime. She sleeps well at night only waking 2 or 3 times to eat. 

We have managed to survive the last few weeks of church, she enjoys being  wrapped in the moby so my hands are  free to wrangle the other four so we're not to disruptful during sacrament meeting.