Happy Birthday Twins!

If you can believe it.... (I can't).... the twins have turned 11! They are almost Young Women! 

Well they are "young women" but you know what i mean haha! 

They sure have grown this past year. 

They are sprouting and developing their own uniqueness,

 but we still get them confused or have to ask...

"are you Kaylee" or I've even said...."Which one are you?" LOL! 

They did get their hair cut differently for the first time since Kindergarten, 

so that helps but still, if hair is in a pony tail it's still hard at times! haha. T

hey both like to be silly, have friends over, play on phones, play their instruments, and play volleyball. (Which they are really good at) 

But Kaylee is getting more into fashion and hair styles, 

where Renee doesn't really care too much and is good to go with her ponytail and sneakers. 

Kaylee is a bit more outgoing and social. 

Renee likes friends but gets easily frustrated 

when there are too many cooks in the kitchen so to speak.

 She prefers to be incharge and silly and when people don't think she is funny or 

when she is too silly she gets offended and chooses to go be by herself. 

But they are still best friends for the most part. when they aren't fighting that is. haha. 

They both like to help with the baby and are good little mommy helpers that way. They both are learning to cook and are  pros at pancakes, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, Ramen (haha) and cookies. 

Ryan and Jordan helped "make" this cake for them for their birthday. It's an ice cream sandwich cake smothered in whipped cream. And we purposely saved some whipped cream to play "Pie Face" afterwards :-) 

SANTA!!!! I KNOW HIM!!!!

 I Do know him actually... this is a small town haha! 

He is also a twin and a member of our ward.  Super nice guy. 

This event was a soup supper at the fire station here in town. 

One of our first outings as a family with baby in tow besides church. 

Great to capture this moment

Welcome Baby Bryson

We welcomed Bryson Andrew Blunier into the world on Nov 6, 2017 at 7:50pm. 

He was due the following week, but since I’ve been contracting and dilating they didn’t feel comfortable having me go home “across the bridge” and possibly have the baby at home or on the bridge.... lol

So after showing up to my appt and being determined that I was dialated to a 6, we decided it was best to stay and have the baby today. They needed to get a room ready and find a nurse to care for me, so my friend Laura and I went walking for 2 hrs to help get the contractions really going and bring in labor and the baby! I got to the room at a little before 4, then got all checked in and the dr came just before 5 and broke my water. Kept on walking or bouncing on a ball for an hour and felt good, listening to  hypnobirthing sound track. Well the nurse came in over an hour later to check my progress and also called me a 6... so that for me discouraged thinking that these contractions weren’t doing anything even though they were nice and strong. So once they got stronger I decided fine let’s get an epidural and enjoy this last rodeo. So they proceeded to get me “ready” for the epidural and I started to really feel the contractions and had to really work through them. I had a doula friend come and she made it right around then and took charge and got me feeling comfortable and talked me through the most difficult part. It was a tender mercy for sure. 

The dr came right when the anesthesiologist came and he wanted to check me.... well I knew that he was going to say your too far along so let’s just have this baby.... so part of me didn’t want him to so I could get my epidural... but I let him and sure enough that was the response I got. Fortunately it was shortly thereafter he WAS born and all the pain stopped instantly. It was a relief and a joy to have my baby in my arms. 😊👏🏻

The kids were at a friends house and we called to share the news and their excitement was felt through the phone. Joe went home to be with Jordan and the rest of the kids enjoyed a special time school night sleepover. Haha 

Joe picked up all the kids and brought them to me the next morning and they all got to meet their new Brother! A friend from the ward Heather, came to help get the kids and take them back to school for us. 

Bryson is here

Summertime Swimming

We all enjoy the sun and summer time. We love swimming, the concessions during "safety breaks" and the together time. It's a sure thing for everyone to get a long experience. The drive there and drive home is different story at times haha. 

Volleyball

Volleyball season has come to an end. The girls started out knowing pretty much nothing and we able to learn how to get the ball over the net when they serve and pass and ball and also get it back over the net. We had about 2 times where they actually "volleyed" the ball back over the net and earn a point. It was the most exciting part of the game!! Otherwise the points are earned if you can serve it over, because it rarely gets returned back over. Kaylee and Renee ended up be quite the super stars when it came to serving. This last game renee for the mercy rule on her a couple times, which means once you serve 5 points then the ball is now the other teams. All but one ended up being able to serve it over the net. I was hoping and praying she would at least experience it once in a game. We did experience it once in a warm up and she ran over to her dad and exclaimed t with such excitement! It was adorable! It was hard to have so many girls and focus on them one by one. But we managed and ended up having a great time! I'll do it again, and looking forward to it and watching them learn and grow. 

Cooking

Ryan is assigned to be "cook with mom" this week as one of his chores. He gets to help pick what we eat and also help prepare the meals for the week.  

He loves shrimp so I taught him how to batter and fry it. He was quite proud of his creation! We also did some zucchini there st the end with the left over batter we had. 

Jordan jumped into to help make the fruit salad, dancing and shaking his body and booty to the music we were jamming out to while cooking 😂

Basketball

Nauvoo Exodus Re-enactment

Each year this time of year Nauvoo puts on the re-enactment of the pioneers Exodus when they left Nauvoo in 1846. It was the dead of winter, super cold out, the river was frozen but that must of helped with the logistics of crossing the river. It's a humbling experience to reenact, it was super cold for us, but we only walked for an hour, then returned to the comfort of our own home. They did not have that same previldge. They had an unknown journey ahead of them, suffering and perishing along the way. It is nice to remember the great sacrifice that was preformed for or behalf. It was nice to experience to have with Ryan and some friends.