Krystin Brooke

K, so this will mostly be pictures. And there are a lot... Krystin Brooke was born April 2 at 11:04 pm. 6 lbs. 12 oz. 19 inches.(our biggest baby!) Went into the hospital 2 days prior with contractions that had been going on for 6 hours and ended up at 2 1/2 minutes apart. I wasn't dilating much (because she was breech!) so they gave me a shot to slow the contractions and sent me home. So right after Priesthood Session of Conference, they started up again at 2 and a half minutes. Stronger. I waited cause I didn't want them sending me home again, and I was visiting my mom. I had to have a neighbor go get Ryan because his phone was on silent, so by the time we got to the hospital they were 1 and a half minutes apart. So they immediately started preping me for the c-section. Within an hour she was born! I got to watch in a mirror as they pulled her out. At the time I was worried about her because they still had a hard time getting her out. But we are very very glad she is here and healthy!

Birthday and Conference

We celebrated Erica's 3rd Birthday a few weeks ago. She was VERY excited about it. And finally started using the "big" potty (instead of the training one) that very day! She wanted a castle cake, so that's what I made. Yes, it's tilting, but she was still thrilled. She had a lot of fun and is our little princess! Here she is dressed in her Rapunzel dress with her Rapunzel doll. She kept asking me to do her hair like Rapunzel, "So...make it long, ok?"
We watched Conference together this morning and I was so surprised when Katie remembered Elder Eyrings talk and decided to follow his advice. Watch the movie to hear her experience: (For those who got this on email, the web address is britt-keilfamily.blogspot.com)

Baby coming, and the last few months...

The last few months have been fun. Since it's been so snowy, dad helped the girls do some fun inside stuff...like build their own pirate ship! Let me just say they thought their dad was the coolest dad ever. And the pirate ship stayed up for over a month!!

Katie the pirate...

Inside the ship...

We were also able to get outside, and had fun walking the frozen lake at Pineview. Ashley and Katie thought it was amazing and wanted to try ice fishing too. We didn't but it was fun for them to think about all the fish under their feet. Erica just screamed. She's scared of everything!

We also went sledding, which Katie and Ashley loved. Erica refused and sat in the van. :( One dat she'll learn to have fun.

Then there is the pregnancy of course. This has been probably the most fun one, just because my sister Crystal is due one day before me with her first, so it's fun to talk to someone all the time about everything! (Yes, embarassing picture...but we are 36 weeks pregnant here!!)

And now the snow is melted we are LOVING being outside. And aren't these the most beautiful little girls?!! This was taken March 12, on mine and Ryan's 7th Anniversary. 7 years with my best friend, 3 wonderful little girls, and one more coming very soon. Life is good!

Coming to a new year...

So, I figured that after 6 months...it's probably time to update my blog again! Our family has had a good year, with Katie starting Kindergarten and Ashley and Erica doing Joyschool at home. Also we are expecting another little girl in about 3 months, which we are thrilled about!
Ryan is still working in West Valley as a Senior Graphic Designer, making all sorts of products for Browning and other hunting companies. The hours are finally like a regular job now too, which is VERY nice for all of us.
I am so blessed to be a stay at home mom. I can't imagine having to work at the same time and it is well worth it to be with our kids! I am still teaching piano and am the Compassionate Service leader in our ward.
This Christmas was probably the most fun we've had so far. Ryan put up PINK Christmas lights (since we have a house full of girls). The girls were so excited and it was great seeing their expressions as they opened their presents Christmas morning. I was also very happy, getting a camera!!! since losing ours earlier this year. (Providing some excuse for my lack of posting.)Katie only asked for "lovely" things. Here she is with some of them...

(And here is Ashley and daddy...)

We didn't have a white Christmas until the day after, which Ashley had been waiting for! She had been begging us to make a snow man with her...even when there was no snow, so of course, Monday morning we were out making the snowman!

I am excited to see what this new year brings. Ashley(4) will be going back to Miss Tammy's Preschool next week, which will be good getting her ready for starting Kindergarten in August. Katie(5) is still loving Kindergarten and tumbling and is already talking about turning 6...in May. Erica turns 3 in March and will continue doing some Joyschool at home with me until September when she will go to Miss Tammy's. It will be different, and yet still very busy I think with all this and the new baby. We are very happy though and I can't imagine what I'd do without our wonderful family.

Ash

Hooray! I'm updating my Blog after almost a year! And I've decided to write about my second daughter Ashley, who turns 4 next month.



Ashley is completely her own person. She likes girl things like sparkles, diamonds. rainbows and princesses...but then she likes her own sort of everything else! Her favorite colors are blue and orange, which she recently added pink to "cause girls like pink". Her favorite stuffed animals are her snake and jaguar-those are the ones she carries around and comforts herself with, ESPECIALLY her snake. She really likes playing soccer and wants to be a "soccer player girl" when she grows up. (She has been emphasizing "girl" lately since she noticed there are nine boys and then her in the soccer class. I think she wants us to realize even though she plays it, she is still a girl.) She wants an "eyeball and rainbow" birthday party...rainbow decorations, and an eyeball cake and eyeball toys, and a toy snake...hmmm.
She loves to sing, especially making up her own songs, using her microphone, and then adding actions to them (using her hands, arms, face, pacing the room, etc.) and she can already BELT the songs and sing vibrato.
She is the peacemaker in our home. She likes everyone to be happy, especially her sisters. She won't give in if it is something she REALLY wants or has her mind set to, but will usually give her toys up if one of her sisters wants it. If one of her sisters has to go to time out, Ashley will try to fix what they did wrong for them, then tell me, "Don't be mean to my sister!" She even stood in front of Katie at the doctor, trying to block her from view so they couldn't give her a shot, and started crying for Katie when they did.
She has a great imagination. She turns into Snow White, or Cinderella, or WALL-E, or a puppy, and she IS them. She screamed and cried, banging on the front door for her "Snow White Mother" when I wouldn't let her "go home"- which she said was at the bridge down the street and her mother was worried about her and I'm not her mother and I need to let her go! (Good thing no one called the police on me!)
She also has lots of "Birthday Friends" who like to sleep in her bed at night so there is no more room for her. Or the "Other Ashley" who drops her food on the floor. And she is always daydreaming about other things her Birthday Friends are doing...or that she is sliding down the rainbow!
We love our Ashley! I'm so glad we have been blessed to have her in our lives.

Lake Powell...two months ago...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted so I'll start and add more later. To start off, Ryan decided to give botox a try. I warned him not to, but... (just kidding. I just had fun with photoshop and decided it was too funny not to share with everyone!)
We went to Lake Powell in June. We all had a lot of fun, especially the girls. Grandpa and grandma Keil took us. We stayed on their houseboat.
The girls even got turns driving the speed boat with grandpa.
Uncle Sean caught tons of lizards for Katie, since she was looking forward to finding lizards for months before our trip. This one she named Sparkles, and as you can see loved him a little too much...poor sparkles didn't last long. She at least let the others go before it was too late.
We were there for about 6 days, and had a lot of fun together.
We did lots of hiking and climbing. Ashley is so independant, she would just take off on her own, and did not want help!
Take a look at a few minutes of out trip.

We love the warm weather!

It's been so nice outside the last few weeks. We've got to do a lot of fun things. The girls have been waiting forever to play in the sprinklers, so on a day that was almost 90 degrees I gave in. They were so excited and played in them for over an hour with the neighbor boy.
Suprisingly Erica, who hates baths, loved playing in the sprinklers too.
Then Katie graducated from her first year of preschool 2 weeks ago. They did a program where they sang all of the songs they learned and a few other cute things. Katie's part in the program was being "The Leader" for the Tuesday/Thursday classes.
This is Katie with her teacher, Miss Tammy. She is a wonderful teacher and very positive with the kids. I felt bad for her because the gym wasn't set up how she had asked for it to, and all the families were so noisy in there, it was hard for her to keep the program running smoothly, although the kids did a good job. Katie, unfortunatley was tired by the end, so she wouldn't smile for us.
Then for Memorial day we went with my family down to Heber. It's a family tradition.
Erica loves being outside and had just as much fun as everyone else.
We saw all the hotpots, and the kids thought they were so cool. We told them stories about how my grandpa used to go swimming in them when he was younger.
Then we went to the graves, where a lot of the McMillan ancestors are buried. We told stories about them: my grandma, grandpa, uncle, great-grandpa, great-great grandpa, and great-great-great-grandpa! Ashley had fun spelling out all the ABC's on the grave stones, and both Katie and Ashley liked running around finding their favorite flowers. Afterwards we got some lunch and took it to the park where the kids played. It was a fun day, and nice to visit with all our relatives.

Then a few days later Jeramy and I took the girls down to Logan to visit Crystal, and we went to a zoo! (Although it was more a bird refuge...they still had other fun animals to look at like a bobcat and monkeys and turtles.) The girls loved it.
Unfortunatly, I didn't have my camera with me last weekend. On Saturday we went to Carl's Jr. with Grandma and Grandpa Keil and the kids played on the toys forever! Erica even climbed up to the top all by herself and was so excited she SCREAMED with joy every few seconds. Then we went and saw UP and the girls loved it...actually we did too!
The next day at Grandma and Grandpa Alveys, we went hiking up the trail in the back yard, looking for "Mr. Duck". Adam's duck had wandered off and was lost, so we went to try and save him! We finally had to turn back, although Katie was insistant that Mr. Duck needed us and he was just so lost and we had to find him! She continued to call for him and quack, even as we walked back to the house. Whew! It's been fun! We are so blessed to live by so many wonderful grandparents!