Happy 6th Birthday Eloise

Eloise turned six and I just can't believe how fast she is growing up!  This year she started school and loves it.  She does so well and loves her teacher, Mrs. Jensen.  She is learning to read and write.  She also started dance this year and has really enjoyed it.  She is a natural and is so graceful when she moves.  She got to visit a gymnastics class and the teacher, Melanie Bunce, told me that she is really good and ahead for her age and she's never even been to gymnastics.  She loves dancing and dances all day to the songs from the Greatest Showman.  

She is also becoming quite girly and loves to wear clip-on earrings.  We have asked if she wants to get her ears pierced, but she is a little nervous and wants to stick to clip-ons for now.

She loves the roller blades she got for Christmas and chose to go to the roller skating rink for her birthday activity.  It was really fun, except when she pulled on my shirt and I fell flat on my behind.  She couldn't stop laughing as I laid there moaning in the middle of the skating rink.

For her birthday we had cousins over for a great big party.  She loved having a special day where she was able to call the shots and have everyone love and pay attention to her.  Eloise, you are a sweet natured and mostly obedient little lady who pays attention to details and tries to do her best.  We love you!

How old are you: 6
Who is your best friend: Hazel Albertson
3. What is your favorite thing to do? Play outside with Friends
4. What is your favorite color? Turquoise and yellow, pretty much the rainbow
5. What is your favorite food? mac-n-cheese and cake
6. What do you like to do with your family?  bounce on the trampoline
7. What is your favorite toy? Calico Critters/
8 What is your favorite sport/activity? Soccer
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Pop Star
10. How old will you be when you get married? 23
10.5. Who do you have a crush on? Boston Davis
11. How many kids are you going to have?  6
12. What is your favorite book? Jack and Janet
13. What is your favorite show or movie? The Greatest Showman
14. What makes you happy? Playing with my family
15. What makes you sad? When I can't play
16. What do you think about before you fall asleep?  What time it is
17. What is your favorite part of your birthday?  Roller skating
18. What is your favorite scripture story?  When Jesus lit up the rocks in the brother of Jared
19. What is something that you think you will accomplish before you are 7? Splits
20. What is one word that describes you? Fun

Everly is Six Months Old!

Everly is just the sweetest baby in the world.  She is so happy pretty much all the time.  She is just learning to sit up and has started eating solids.  She loves bananas, like all of the others, but she also has a taste for the finer things.  We had chicken curry the other night and she was going crazy for it.  She kept lunging for Zac, trying to get more and more.  She also doesn't seem to mind spicy foods.  Everly loves everyone in the family so much.  She has special smiles and sounds for each person.  For dad she bounces and smiles and gets excited, for mom she tries to fake a cry and can't help but smile and coo, hoping to be picked up, for Teagan she giggles, anticipating the entertainment that usually comes with him.  For Eloise and Adeline she has a hesitant smile and she always starts blabbing to them, she never knows if she is going to be played with or teased with those two.  There is just something special about this sweet little girl, we are so lucky to have her in our family!

Teagan's Piano Recital

Teagan did so awesome at his piano recital!  He got another 100 this year on his two songs and is so sad to be leaving Sister Searle, his teacher.  She is heading off to go on a mission so we're starting with a new teacher, Lenae Hale.  He has learned so much in the last 3 years and is becoming a fabulous pianist.  His judge said he is the "King of Dynamics" which is so true.  Teagan has a gift for making any song exciting with dynamics!

Family Dinner

Grandma and Grandpa Daniels got us a house warming present, a new kitchen table!  It is so beautiful and we are all in love with it.  This was our first family dinner at the new table.  We figure there will be years and decades worth of memories sitting around it.   Here's to many happy memories (and unhappy food battles) to be had sitting here.

Random

Playing dress up and dancing around the house is about 75% of what Adeline and Eloise do these days.  They have so much fun together!

The other day I was walking Eloise to the bus and Adeline decided to cut herself a piece of bread.  I am so grateful that she didn't cut herself!!!

Adeline loves to hold Everly...and poke her and push her and lay on her and pull her arms and pull her legs and squeeze her head and give her the binkie and take it back away....having a three year old with a baby is a full time job these days.  Luckily, Everly is so goodnatured and patiently endures the attention.

Thrush

Me and Everly have been struggling with thrush.  Okay, I have been the one struggling.  She is fine.  In our many attempts to rid ourselves of it's grasps we broke out the gentian violet.  It is a dark dark purple (looks black in the bottle) liquid that you put inside baby's mouth to get rid of thrush and it stains EVERYTHING.  She looked like she had a goatee because it would leak out of her mouth with drool.  It stained several outfits and blankets as well.  

One of the times I put it in her mouth I didn't twist the lid on all the way.  I actually had the thought, "you should hurry and put that lid on before you forget."  Well, I did not listen to that prompting and at some point it was knocked onto the ground and was not discovered until the entire contents and had had plenty of time to soak deep into the carpet.  This picture was taken after I soaked through about 20 rags that I would rinse and soak up again. When I first discovered it, it was a black spot.  I finally borrowed my friend Stacy's carpet cleaner to try to clean it up.  It was seriously a disaster.  It stained all the brushes on her carpet cleaner and spread the purple into a much larger region.  After several hours and changing the water tank about 20 times, I got it to the point where it is just a dull purple.  I learned an important lesson.  Listen to promptings the first time!!!  And if you don't, there is always repentance, but it takes a long time and can be really horrible, so just do the right thing in the beginning.

First Manicure

With Eloise and Teagan at school, Adeline, Everly and I have a lot of time during the day.  Adeline has been begging me to paint Everly's nails and we finally did it.  Everly held still and just watched, calm as ever, per usual.  She is such a peach.