...Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away...

You know how they say that the mom is the heart and soul of a household?  Well, in our case, I think it's actually the mini-mom.  Jenalyn is the sunshine in our family!  Whenever I wake up grumpy (which happens more than I'd care to admit) she swoops in and tries to cheer everyone up.  She often says to me, "Do we need to start this day over, mom?"

• She's a peacemaker.
• She loves to help with chores.
• She chats with Grandpa on the back deck.
• She sometimes tags along with daddy to work, to keep him company.
• She keeps Corbin out of trouble in the morning before we wake up.
• She urges Corbin to play outside with her when he has been sitting too long in front of the t.v.
• She keeps an eye on Tienna for us whenever we ask her to.
• She pushes Tienna on the swings when we go to the park.

I'm telling you, she's everybody's sunshine!  Well, I {willingly} sent our sunshine away for a week vacation!  *what was I thinking*

Here's what I was thinking: after all she does for everyone else, she deserved a week away with the greatest great-aunts on earth, who are sure to spoil-the-heck out of her!  I'm so glad she had this opportunity.

So, she went to Colorado with Dale & Nancy.  She also got to spend time with Dori and Marlene, and she was able to meet the rest of Grandma Jan's side of the family.  Jenalyn had such a special bond with Grandma Jan, I know she was smiling down from heaven while Jenalyn created special memories with her family.  I hope it also made Jenalyn feel closer to her Grandma.

Here are some pictures they sent us throughout the week.

With Aunt Dori on the 4-wheeler.

With her Great-Great-Aunt Irene.

Her second-cousin Cole had a birthday while she was there.  He turned 10.

 She also got to hold chickens for the first time.  Almost every time I talked to her she told me about a new animal she got to pet/hold/play with.  That is heaven for this little girl!  She loves animals.

 She got to visit her great-grandparents' old house.  They lived in this house since Grandma Jan was about 8?  I think?

Here she is with Great Uncle Jim.

I'm not sure where she got this cute dress, but here she is with Marlene and Dori.

With Great-Uncle Bill and Dale.

She got to visit her Great Grandparents' grave site.  This is the reverse side of the headstone and she's pointing to her Grandma Jan's name.

Our sunshine comes home tomorrow.  I can't wait to squeeze her guts out!

This kid is the bomb-diggity.

I was hosing off the driveway this afternoon, while Corbin was using a medicine dropper to melt his fruit-in-ice-project-thingy.  One thing lead to another and before I knew it, we were in a full-blown water fight!

He never once complained about it being unfair that I had a hose and all he had was a medicine dropper.  He's the best!

Potty Talk

Corbin really dislikes going to the bathroom.  It's "boring".  So one night I sat just outside the door and we chatted, told jokes and laughed.  Excellent opportunity for bonding, right?  Well, it was!  We had so much fun!  I had to snap a picture so I'd never forget.

He's such a cool kid.

(On a side-note, when Jenalyn found this picture on my phone, she cracked up!  And she has shown it to everyone who will look.  I just think it's adorable!)

Done Nursing

That's it.  We are officially finished nursing.  Makes me so sad...she's my last one!  I'll never nurse another baby as long as I live.  I certainly had to document it.


Tienna nursed longer than the other two.  We made it to 21 months.  Mostly because I wasn't ready to close that chapter.  Neither was she.  In fact, she still asks for it, a week later.

What Made You Smile?

This morning Corbin seemed a little off.  So I took him aside and asked if he was feeling ok, or if something happened that he wanted to talk about.  He was really somber and it was so unlike him.

I had crouched down so we were eye-to-eye while talking.  All of a sudden he broke out into his amazing, heart-melting smile...totally out of the blue...I was caught off guard and so I asked what made him smile.  He said, "Sometimes your face just makes me smile."

Awe.  His face makes me smile too.

This Girl Can Ride

(I hate hearing myself in these videos.  I should just keep my mouth shut.  Feel free to watch the video with no sound. ;)

BIG news!  Jenalyn can (finally) ride a bike with NO training wheels!  I'm so happy for my girl!  She doesn't have a bike (we live on a hill and there's really no place to ride), so her only experience has been on friends' bikes.  She's never tried without training wheels...until TODAY!  She hopped on and started pedaling :)  She did great!  I'm so proud of my girl!

Naughty Kids

Have you ever seen such misbehaved children?  Attacking a defenseless elderly man?  It looks like the small one is the ring-leader.

I blame the parents.

(this video is over a month old...but it had to be posted.)

Toot-nack

We are loving Tienna's baby talk.  Yesterday we had soup for lunch and the kids were getting a kick out of her saying "nummy poop."

I got a video of her talking about her fruit snacks...er, toot-nack.