Busy Bee

This post is LONG overdue. I meant to do it when Kaya turned 6 months old and had her well-check with all the new info on how big she's getting. But then the well-check ended up being scheduled later because of the holidays and then I had to change that appointment because we were still in Utah. So by the time we finally got in to see the doctor, Kaya was closer to 7 months than 6, and I was so far behind in my blogging, that I'm only getting around to it now that the 7 month mark has already passed!

Anyway, our darling daughter is growing. This whole first year of life thing is amazing. SO many things happen and they grow SO much. (Can you imagine doubling your weight in less than a year??? Yikes!) Kaya now weighs 17.5 lbs and passed the 2 ft. mark by an inch. She is meeting all of her baby milestones like sitting and holding objects and trying crawl and getting teeth and eating everything we put into her mouth.

If she's awake, she's on the move. She has so much energy that I almost fear for her to succeed in crawling! I'll have to chase her all over the place. She is just so busy all the time. But she is nearly always happy and we love to leave the room just so we can walk back in and have her whole face light up when she sees us. She's such a cutie and is developing a fun little personality.

So far she still remains the most popular among her siblings and they still tend to fight over who gets to hold her or play with her. The other day I told Spencer that I had to take a basket of clothes upstairs but I'd be right back. Kaya was playing on the floor and he ran over to her and said, "Don't worry, I'll babysit Kaya while you're gone." And he did. Kaya just loves to have attention from anyone, but she especially seems to love big sister Lynnsey. It's so much fun to see them both when Lynnsey gets home from school everyday and they are reunited.

Babies are so amazing. If we'd never had her, we would have most likely gone on with our lives as happy as before, but now that we do, we can't imagine what we'd do without her. She's such a blessing and we love her so much.

Fancy Fiesta

Lynnsey's princess party may have been the easiest friend party that we've ever done. When it was all over Kalen remarked: "That was surprisingly unstressful!" It really was. I wondered if it was because we only had 7 little girls this time. (Kendall holds a record of 18 kids at one of his parties! That thing we read about inviting double the kids you are planning for because only half usually come totally backfired.) But we decided it wasn't so much the number as the fact that they were all girls! This is the first time that we haven't had a mix of boys and girls, but Lynnsey was adamant that there were to be no boys at a princess party--excepting brothers of course. So little girls it was. And it was SO adorable seeing all these fancy little girls arriving and giggling and checking out each other's attire.

We began the party with a craft. They all decorated princess picture frames. Well, except for Spencer who so badly wanted to make one that we covered up the "ss" on the word princess with a little glitter glue frog to make a prince picture frame.

The next activity was a princess bingo game where the winners got to pick a princess prize out of a bowl. (Of course, we made sure they were all winners).

Next was present time! The ladies all gathered in a royal circle. Lynnsey loved all of those girly gifts.

One of her favorites was a bouquet of roses from one little girl whose mom says she is obsessed with giving flowers as gifts especially when she discovered that they have actual shops where they only sell flowers! (What a concept!) She also gave her a potted tulip and some seeds to plant. Very creative gift we thought.

Next we did cupcakes and ice cream. But first each princess had to fashion her own cupcake design. There were many un-eaten cupcakes when we were through. Sprinkles and candy look yummy, but putting a half a pound of them on a tiny cupcake is a bit too much--even for a glamorous princess with exotic tastes.

After they'd stuffed themselves full of birthday delicacies, they had a little unstructured play time before the parents came to wisk their princesses off to their own castles.

Here's to Lynnsey: The most beautiful princess in the land!

Lynnsey is Six!

Lynnsey turned six on January 10th (yes, I am very behind in my posts lately!) Since this is an even numbered birthday, she was supposed to be allowed to have a party with friends over, but we had to postpone those plans since I had only gotten back from Utah late the night before and would have no time to pull off a big party in only a few hours. So instead we celebrated with just our family and tried to make it a special day. As you can see in the above picture, she chose to have a pajama day. We made her a cake and had ice cream and we gave her the presents that we had gotten her. She seemed to really enjoy herself, especially knowing that in just one week, she'd get a second party with her friends! (I will be posting about that one seperately).

So here is some information about our middle child:

Full Name: Lynnsey Christina Oswald (We really liked the name Lindsey but weren't set on it. In fact she would have been Sophie if I'd named her and Rachel if Kalen had named her. But then we hit on the different spelling of her name using the name Lynn that is somewhat common on the Oswald side of the family. And that seemed to stick. We both loved it and it does fit her. Her middle name is my middle name as well as the name of Kalen's great-great-great grandmother, Maria Christina and my great-great-great grandmother, Christina Beckstrand.)

Age: 6

Birthdate/Place: January 10, 2003/ Marshall, Michigan

School: Caldwell Elementary School (This is a new early childhood school for all the preschoolers and kindergarteners in the city. Lynnsey loves that she gets to ride the bus this year!)

Favorite things:

Color: Pink and Purple

Food: Chocolate (she has told us that her thumb tastes like chocolate, so that must be why she cannot seem to break herself away from it!)

TV show: Spongebob Squarepants

Movie: all three High School Musical movies

Book: Her big book of Disney Princess stories and the Fancy Nancy books

Activities: Lynnsey loves all things princessy. She loves to play dress up. She loves to sing, especially the songs that she learns at church. She enjoys dancing if she thinks no one is watching her. Her favorite thing to do lately is draw and write in notebooks and journals and she can almost always be seen with a pencil and paper in hand. She also writes notes and draws pictures for her friends and family members. ( I love her invented spelling of some of the words.) She enjoys playing with her Leapster L-max and with her giant collection of Barbies. But probably her very favorite activity is playing with her baby sister. She is so good at entertaining her with silly songs and dances and Kaya just lights up when she sees Lynnsey.

I had longed for a daughter since before I ever started having kids, so when we found out that we were having a girl, I was ecstatic. Lynnsey has been such a beautiful blessing to us. I love that she is such a girly girl but that she also doesn't mind playing in the dirt or rough-housing with her brothers. She is so shy (even more so than I ever was!) but so much fun too. She gets pretty silly sometimes and has the world's cutest giggle! It's almost unbelievable to me to think how fast my children are growing up and Lynnsey is no exception. Six years has gone by in a flash! I wish I could keep her little for longer, but at the same time I am so excited to see how she grows and changes in the next six years. I'm sure it'll be here before I know it!

Utah Trip

The reason for my visit to Utah was a very sad one, but any chance I have to be reunited with my family, is always a blessing. And this time I was finally able to meet some of my nieces and nephews that I hadn't been able to see yet. Cody and Melissa drove up from Texas with their four seriously adorable children. I had only ever met William and Tristan but that was a long time ago when Tristan was just a baby. So this time I met their two newest additons, Brody and Jenna. Oh, my goodness. They are all such beautiful kids with just the sweetest personalities ever! And Cody and Melissa are so great together. Very cute family!I also got to see Andrew and Marni and their two sweet kids. I hadn't seen Lilly since she was a baby. What a cutie! She was so shy with everyone at first, except for Kaya. She was so taken with her that she just kept hugging and kissing her and Kaya was loving all that attention. I was especially excited to meet Andrew and Marni's new baby Grant. He is just so sweet and snuggly. Boy, that stage just doesn't last long enough! He sure is adorable. Kaya was reunited with Uncle Jonathan. He is just such a kid magnet! He was just crawling with all the neices and nephews who were vying for his attention the entire time.

We also got to meet some brand new puppies. When Kaya first saw one, she reached out with both hands with her mouth wide open, and I could just see what she intended to do if she got her hands on that poor little thing! Isn't that such a cute little face? This one is the runt of the litter.

And here's the whole clan. At least everyone who could come. We were missing Alison and Mike's kids and my other four kids and Kalen. It really was wonderful to be all together again and to share memories of Kayleigh and to celebrate her life and the wonderful example she is to all of us.

I stayed one extra day and spent it visiting some of the Oswald side of the family. Some of them hadn't met Kaya yet, so I couldn't pass up the chance to share her with them. We had a very nice, but very short visit with them. Unfortunately the camera batteries were once again exhausted, so I don't have pictures of that part of the trip. I wish I had. I couldn't get over how much some of the kids have changed! It's just unbelievable to me how fast they have all grown up. I shouldn't be surprised I guess, since my own kids are doing the same thing in front of my very eyes. It really is amazing though when I think back just a few short years to when I first came into the family and the oldest ones were just tiny. Crazy life.

Kaya made her first airplane trip like a pro! Actually the whole trip she was just perfect. It was funny on the airplanes when people were boarding and they'd look back and see me sitting with a baby, and I could just see in their faces how they were hoping that they weren't sitting next to me! But by the end of the trip, everyone around me would just rave at what a good baby Kaya was and how they'd never seen anything like it before. I was just relieved that she handled everything so well. It's hard enough traveling with infants; it's horrible when they are miserable. And I speak from much experience. Kaya really is a dream come true. She is just so social and happy the majority of the time. It really made the trip so much more enjoyable to have her enjoying it too.

It was a very nice trip. And it was very nice to come home again. It was such a short time, but I miss my kids so much when we're apart. I felt like they had already changed in just a few days. It was funny though when I arrived. Kalen had left them with some friends because the weather was so bad. So when we walked into their family room, they all looked up and realized I was back...and then they all ran to hug and kiss Kaya!

Oh, and I forgot to write earlier about my celebrity encounter. Okay it wasn't so much an encounter because I only passed by her in the airport and didn't say anything. But anyway, as I was rushing to catch my plane in Phoenix on the way home, I walked right past Jane Seymour. I recognized her right away but couldn't think of her real name until much later. All I could think was "it's Dr. Quinn!" I'm absolutely positive it was her because she was speaking to someone that was walking with her and her voice and accent were definitely recognizable. Pretty cool huh?

Mischief Maker

I have SO many other things to catch up on, but this is one that can't wait. I know I'll be laughing about it someday. Actually, I'm laughing a little bit about it right now. But I sure wasn't earlier.

This morning I decided to brave our zero degree frigidly cold temperatures and go to the moms of preschoolers group that I attend. I actually debated going or not for awhile, but I decided I really wanted to get out and have some adult conversation. I just started babysitting on Thursdays again (last semester I only did 3 days a week), but I wasn't worried about it. I've taken extra kids before. S0 I bundled up the kids and got Kaya into her carseat all cozy and warm (and weighing about 45 extra pounds with all the layers). I managed to get them all out to the car although I had to make 3 trips to do it. The only issue I had on the way there was that Lilly (the extra kid) will not wear a hat or gloves. I tried getting her to wear some of our stuff since she didn't even make it to my house with her own today. But she wouldn't have any of it. So of course, partway there, she realized that her hands were really painfully cold and started screaming. Luckily as I was unloading them in the parking lot, another mom pulled in and offered to help me lug everyone inside. Crisis over.

I had a lovely meeting chatting with other moms about mom things and then it was time to go home. We ended early today because it's a half day of school for our older kids. So I managed to get everyone loaded back up and we pulled into our driveway at 11:10 a.m. exactly 30 min. before the rest of the kids would get out of school. Kalen had told me that he would be home to go and pick them up so that I wouldn't have to bring the little kids back out in the cold. Thank goodness for that. I unloaded Spencer and Lilly and told them to start walking toward the house while I got Kaya and the diaper bag. I made it to the back door before the kids so I unlocked the house, set a sleeping Kaya and the bag down on the floor, and set my keys on the bar (that part is important). Then I went back outside. Spencer was just coming up the back steps so I helped him the rest of the way in and then went back out to get Lilly who had wandered back to the garage. I picked her up, turned around and then realized what was about to happen. Picture in slow motion: Spencer giggles, the door creaks as it is closing, I realize what it about to happen and yell "NOOOO, SPENNNNCERRR!", then I hear a deafening CLICK of the dead bolt turning, and Spencer's muffled but delighted laughter from behind the door. Remember I had left my keys inside. Remember that it was about zero degrees outside and that Lilly will not wear a hat and gloves. I very calmly said "Spencer, I need you to help Mommy get inside. Can you please turn the lock back the other way?" He said: "This way?" I said: "Yes." He tried. I said: "Try it the other way." He tried. "I can't Mommy." By now, Lilly is starting to scream again from the cold. I'm starting to panic at the thought that my 3 year old is locked in the house with the baby. I think I've mentioned before that we don't even have a cell phone so I couldn't call Kalen and tell him to come home a little earlier.

So I ended up putting Lilly back into the van, where it was at least a tiny bit warmer. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that as we were leaving MOPS I realized that Lilly had a stinky diaper, but I knew we were coming straight home, so I decided to wait and do it then. So, yeah, she was freezing and rotting and screaming at the top of her lungs!

I went back to the door where Spencer was beginning to seem mildly concerned and I tried to get him to unlock the door again. It was the same scene as before. The lock would not budge. And then it suddenly ocurred to Spencer that if I was outside, who was going to make his lunch? And then he started screaming. I was begging him not to cry because I didn't want Kaya to wake up. Finally I told him to go in and turn on the TV and watch a show while he waited for me to get in. That seemed to do the trick. So then I just had to deal with Lilly. The minutes ticked by like hours and the car cooled off extremely rapidly as we waited for Kalen to get home. Finally I was starting to wonder if he'd forgotten because it was time to go and get the kids from school and he wasn't there yet. I remembered that I had seen the answering maching light flashing and wondered if he had actually called to tell me he wasn't going to make it home in time and so I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to go and get the kids carrying a screaming, freezing, smelly toddler and leaving behind my 3 year old with his baby sister, when Kalen finally pulled into the driveway. I have never been so overjoyed to see him or his keys as at that moment. We got the door unlocked and Lilly inside. She immediately calmed down and went to play happily. I found Kaya just waking up at that exact moment. And Spencer had indeed gone and turned on the TV. He had stripped off his coat and gloves, sweatshirt, and socks and was lying on the couch under a cozy blanket almost as if to mock me and my frostbite. Little stinker! We had a long talk. And he promised that he will never touch the deadbolt again. Yeah...I doubt that highly. So I promised myself that I will never set my keys down if I have to go back outside again. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go and bury myself under a quilt to try to defrost my frozen limbs.

Kayleigh: A Tribute to a Beautiful Sister

Kayleigh Rebecca Potter: January 20, 1994-January 2, 2009

Just over a week ago, one of the most beautiful girls in this world taken back to be with our Heavenly Father. My sister Kayleigh was a light to all of us and in her short life she taught me so much.

A couple of days before her birth, I had some sort of thought, or feeling, or whatever you may want to call it that Kayleigh might have Down's Syndrome. I don't know why it came to me beforehand. Maybe I needed a little processing time to think about what that might mean. I was away at college for my sophomore year at the time. When the call came that she had arrived and that she had indeed been born with Down's, I shed some tears. But not many. I remember in the midst of my emotions, one of my best friend's and roommate Holly said: "Wow! Your family is so lucky that Heavenly Father considers you worthy enough to entrust you with one of his most valiant and choice spirits!" And that was all I needed to hear. I knew Kayleigh would be a blessing. And I knew that I had a lot I would learn from her.

The first time I met her, I fell in love with her. She was like a doll. So tiny in fact, that she sometimes did wear doll clothes. When she looked up at me with those clear eyes, I could sense the divinity within her.

I didn't get to see her as often as I would have liked in those early years. I didn't go home that summer because I got married, but I did get to see her briefly when my family visited. She was still a doll with the cutest smile and funny little facial expressions.

I remember after we had Taylor, we were in Logan visiting Alison and the rest of the family was there as well. Kayleigh was SO upset that there was someone littler than her trying to steal her thunder! But it didn't take her long to realize that her place as the family princess was safe. And eventually she and Taylor develped a strong bond. He was so great with her and always thought to include her in whatever we happened to be doing.

Over the years, the separations and reunions continued. Brief periods when the family would come to see us or when we would go and see them. I'd get pictures periodically so that I could see her growing. And I'd hear stories of all of her silly antics. I knew that she was CRAZY for Barney the dinosaur and McDonald's restaraunt. And PINK. And beads. Dolls with long hair that she could strip all their clothes off and swish that hair all around. And of course, her pom poms.

Kayleigh has the most amazing collection of pom-poms around. She spent hours and hours swinging those things, lost in her own little world of thought. I loved how she would suddenly burst out laughing at something funny in her head. I often wished I could see what she saw.

Time went on, and those infrequent visits continued. But the thing about Kayliegh was, she always warmed up quickly. She hugged me everytime as if we had never been apart; as if she knew me just as well as the rest of the family. She loved to talk on the phone and usually filled me in on what she was eating, or what she was watching on TV or what music she was listening to.

And finally, about a year and a half ago, Kayleigh came with Mom to Michigan to live. Finally, I got to know my sister the way I had always longed to. She loved to come to our house and spend time with her nieces and nephews. Particularly Lynnsey (whom she called Woontzy). She loved to scoop her up and hold her tight. At first, Lynnsey was uncomfortable with it and would squirm away, but eventually she seemed to sense that Kayleigh just needed her for a minute and would allow her to do it. I loved watching Kayleigh dance and sing to her music. I cracked up at dinner times when, after she'd been told that she'd had enough to eat, she'd sneak food off of my plate while I wasn't looking. I loved how she always wanted to sit with me in Sunday school and how she would hold my hand and lean her head on my shoulder. And mostly I loved when she would look right into my eyes and smile. I could still sense the divinity within her. I treasure the time I spent with her these last months.

Her passing was a shock to all of us. I think we all wish for more time to have prepared for it or to have given her an extra hug or one more "I love you". But she knows how much she meant to us. I know she does. Not having her here is heartbreaking. I will miss her every day. But I know that where she is, she's happy. I know that I will see her again someday. I am so thankful for eternal families and what that means for me and Kayleigh. A dear friend pointed out that Kayleigh only had to come to this earth to get her body, not to prove her righteousness as the rest of us do. The fact that she was allowed to remain here for nearly 15 years, I think was for our benefit. Do you know how I see her now? I picture her in her perfect form and with her perfect intelligence, giving the rest of us even more incentive to get our act together and become worthy to join her someday. I see her cheering us all on. With a pom-pom, of course.
I love you Kayleigh!!!

Catching Up

Well, it has been awhile since my last post and I'm behind on several things so I'm just going to post them all in one and have it done with! So first of all, going back a couple of weeks, we finally started Kaya on rice cereal. I know, at six months that's kind of late to be giving her solids for the first time, but after the terrible experience we had with Spencer's allergies, I am being really cautious. But mostly, after doing this with my four previous children, I was really not in a hurry at all. It's messy and time-consuming and MESSY. But Kaya was ready. And I mean really ready! For the past couple of months, she's been grabbing at any item of food she can get and sometimes she's successful until we take it away from her. I know, I'm totally mean. So she was beyond excited when I brought that first mouthful of food right up to her face. And then, she wasn't so sure it was all that she'd thought it would be!

Here she is right before the feeding began and she wasn't sure what was going on:


And then here she is after that first bite:
But after a few more tastes, she decided that was pretty good and she was ready to feed herself:


Now she is a pro--albeit a messy one and we are about ready to venture into other baby cuisine! Oh, and on a side note, this morning we discovered that our "baby" has cut her first tooth! I was shocked. My other kids teethed for months but didn't actually get the first tooth until closer to 8 or 9 months of age. I was totally not expecting my 6 month old to have a tooth yet and I can't say I'm too excited at this latest diplay of her aging-faster-than-I'm-ready-for behavior!

Anyway, to continue...Christmas happened at our house. It was an absolutely wonderful time once I got the last package in the mail and sent out the last of our newsletters, and purchased the last of our gifts. Which pretty much left Christmas Eve and Christmas day to enjoy. But we really did enjoy it. Christmas Eve we spent at home wrapping the rest of the gifts and listening to Christmas music. We started a new Christmas Eve dinner tradition. At least I think it will be since everyone really liked it. I made chicken noodle soup but even the noodles were homemade. I've never made noodles before! But they were SO delicious. Everyone ate their dinner and most had seconds. With the picky children I have that is nothing short of miraculous! That night we watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and one of the many repeating airings of A Christmas Story and laughed like it was the first time we'd ever seen it. And not forgetting the spiritual aspect, we watched the dramatized Christmas story on BYU TV . Then it was time for hanging our stockings and saying our prayers 'cause Santa Claus was coming that night. It took him awhile to show up though because Taylor decided that he was going to have the tooth fairy come that night too by pulling out one of his loose molars. However, the thing was mighty stubborn. One spot just wouldn't budge and it took him till about midnight to get the thing out! Finally with the tooth out, Mom was able to go to bed and Santa could finally come (though not quite in that order).

Christmas day dawned bright and early. Well, actually not super early. Our kids are a phenomenon when it comes to Christmas. Usually they don't wake up until around 8 or later! What kid does that??? I'm just fine with it however.


Everyone got what they asked Santa for--Lynnsey got a Leapster L-Max, Spencer got a Little Einsteins piano, Kendall got an interactive globe, Kaya got a little musical elephant stacking toy that has balls that drop down the center, and Taylor got a Havoc Heli remote control helicopter. No one got an Official Carbide Action Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time though. Darn! Maybe next year. Unfortunately the camera batteries died right after this picture so this is the only digital documentation we have of the day. We had lots more great gifts though and our traditional omelet breakfast and a YUMMY Christmas dinner which was made mostly by Kalen. It was so great to just stay home and relax with nowhere to go and a temporary break from all our day to day worries.

And finally we arrive at today. Today was Spencer's last day in Nursery. For months he has been so excited to be in Sunbeams and has talked about how much fun it was going to be. And then last week, he and the other three-year-olds got to go to primary for the last 20 minutes as an orientation. Not a good experience. Suddenly Spencer did not want to go. He threw a fit and they had to carry him in yelling that he was staying in nursery. Well, today they did it again. We knew they were planning to and so we've been talking it up all week. The nursery teacher even made little caps for them and asked them to wear a "gown" (Daddy's shirt) as they walked into primary from the nursery. They had Kalen come to escort Spencer so they could avoid the scene from last week. It didn't work. I came out into the foyer so I could see what happened. I heard him before I saw him. He was yelling as Kalen carried him through the priesthood meeting: "I'm not going to Primary!!!" and as they came out into the hall I see the nursery leader followed by the two little girls in caps and gowns with arms folded and looking so pleased to be so grown-up and then bringing up the rear is Kalen carrying Spencer who will NOT wear his cap and is ripping at his gown all the while yelling: "I don't want to be a Sunbeam!". I quickly went back to Relief Society to pretend I didn't have any idea what had just happened. Oh, what are we going to do??? We've had difficult children before, but they usually do their tantruming before we are in public. Spencer is so very vocal about his dislikes and he doesn't care who happens to witness his antics. I talked to him after church and told him being a Sunbeam wasn't a choice. The only choice he has is to be a happy Sunbeam or a sad Sunbeam. Guess what he said. He scowled at me and said "NO! I'm gonna be a MAD Sunbeam!" Aargh!!! I did get him to wear his cap and gown for a quick picture by promising to let him watch his Thomas the Train movie that he got for Christmas. At least he can still be bribed! I'll have to think up a good one to get him to go to class next week...