Birthday Girl!

Kylie turned 6!

She was super excited, she's such a big girl now!!!

We began the day by meeting her at school and bringing her and all her kinder-friends doughnuts!  They sang to her and she was delighted!

Kylie and her teacher Ms. Messerli- who by the way, I absolutely adore.  She's positively amazing... I'm trying to convince her to go up to first grade next year... then switch back down to Kindergarten to get Kacey. 

Next, we headed over to Cici's.

Notice my cake, umm I mean HER cake.  I was pleased with myself! :) 

They had her stand on the chair while the whole restuarant sang Happy Birthday to her...

Then... later that afternoon we went to SKYZONE.

It's a huge place with dozens and dozens of trampolines, even trampolines on the side of the walls so you can literally BOUNCE everywhere!  The girls were so tired out, their little cheeks were bright red!  Sweat was pouring off of them after an hour- even Matthew was laying down a few times just trying to catch his breath.  I felt like it was a job well-done! 

Our evening ended with a middle-of-now-where Las Vegas McDonalds dinner stop.  (A 50 piece nugget was 9.99... score!  Although I'd like to say we had a lot leftover, we totally didn't!)  Again, more playing... this time on a PlayLand we'd never been to before which was fabulous to the girls.... then rushing home to beat a storm brewing.  They were so ready for bedtime at the end of the day (although all I wanted to do was sanitize them down- lightening or not, they were getting in the tub!)  I think Kylie had a great day, it was definitely a day out of the ordinary... doing crazy fun stuff!  And she got a boatload of presents... and a brand new bedroom.  More to come on that, later :)

One Day Later...

One tooth less! 

Not 12 hours since she lost one bottom, she loses another!!!

You can see her excitement!

This one was all on her own.  She came running upstairs to me, kinda freaked out.  Her tooth was laying in her lip, no pulling necessary (lucky me~ Matthew was at work).

A Big Night!

Kylie lost her first tooth last night!

It was barely hanging on in there... how she ate, I have no idea!

She called me upstairs, and she was ready.  She told me she wanted me to pull it out.  Before, she's always been too scared.  So I held her hand with one hand and pulled with the other one... but I got scared.. so we called Daddy upstairs.  I held her hands, he pulled and a few seconds later... she looked like this! :)  She was pretty excited, we did the whole tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy.  She got $5 and was so pleased with herself this morning when she woke up!

***

I can't believe we're at this stage.  I've got 1 losing her teeth, 1 with a perfect little mouth (she never took the pacifier), 1 getting her molars, and 1 well who knows what type of teeth/gum/mouth development she's at in the 5th month of pregnancy! :)

Ultrasound Today

The only thing better than having 3 girls...

is having 4 !!!

***

Yes, yes it's true.  Boyd Baby #4 is officially a little GIRL!

To that I will say, I knew it.  I knew it with every fiber in my being, I knew it.  Sometimes I worried that I wanted it so bad, so that's how I knew it... but in my gut, a girl felt right... and it was! 

And to save your questions/comments, I'll confirm that WE ARE DONE!  We have 4 girls (I love saying it!!!) and we are happy, content, and complete.

We're still here

Yes, we are still alive and functioning.

I'm feeling quite lousy, and it's all I can do to survive the day to day.  In fact, I broke my 3 year long resolution of writing in the girls' journals every month.  The month slipped by me, not sure how... I was certainly miserable every long day... but I'll have to make up for it this month with my entries.

***

The girls are well!  I did take a gender test, but I took a different one than I took with Kadyn.  I liked that the results were immediate so I wouldn't have to wait for the call from the lab like I did with Kadyn.  However, I just found out that they have a class-action lawsuit against them.  Their claim of being 93% effective is really only a 50% effective rate.... which is about as good as me just guessing.  Long story short, if I ordered the test (I took with Kadyn), by the time it got here, I took it, sent it back, got it processed by the labs, and got the results... my real ultrasound would be only 2 weeks away... so it doesn't seem worth the $400 for me just to find out 2 weeks later.  So that's where we're at with that...

****

Here's a quick picture I took of Kadyn the other day, lunchtime I think.  Spaghetti takes alot out of you!

And here's a cute one of Little Miss Kacey.

Do you notice anything different about her?

Hmmm?  Look for it...

Straight hair. 

Yes, it may take 25 minutes because I have to do little sections at a time... and a whole lot of styling product with a straightening iron, but it tickles her to pieces to see herself in straight hair!  So we occasionally do it.  Of course she always tells me she wants straight hair on days that I do the morning car pool, and we're in a super rush anyways to get out the door.... but the things we do for beauty!!!  And would you figure, it's raining today.  All that hardwork and it's all I can do to protect her little head... a couple of raindrops and it curls right back up :)

Primary Activity

I love this picture, thanks for sending it to me Erin.  Apparently, the Primary Presidency was taking some photos of their activity this past Saturday.  And Kylie asked if they could take one of her and her sister together... it turned out really cute :)

Family of 6

I can hardly believe we're going to be a family of 6. 

The fact that I'm going to have 4 kids age 6 and under... is insane.  A 6 year old, 4 year old, 2 year old, and newborn... I must be crazy! :)

A few nights ago, we went out to dinner.  The hostess put us at this huge table in the middle of the restuarant, and I was looking around like what the heck... why such a big table.  Then we all sat down, and filled all but 1 chair.  And I realized, oh... we fill all the seats (or at least will soon enough) that's why she gave us such a big table.

Baby is due August 16th, my crazy gender test is Jan. 23rd... so stay tuned.  We have a fast heartbeat, 180 beats per minute if Matthew and I remember correctly... which according to old wives' tales indicates a girl.  Kacey and Kadyn were both quite fast, Kylie was alot less.  Quite honestly, another little baby girl would just be heaven for me! :)  Although Kylie's infant hand-me-downs have seen better days!  hehe.

Two Sundays Pictures

New Year, new church time... welcome 9 am church!  I gotta say, I like it.

Don't get me wrong, it's all "Hurry up.  I'm tired.  Get dressed.  I'm hungry.  You're in my way.  I'm tired.  Hurry up.  Get dressed.  Where are your shoes?  I 'm tired.  Hurry.  I'm hungry.  Brush your teeth.  Hurry.  Get DRESSED!!!!"  It's that from 7 am to 8:45 am, straight... but it's awesome.  Naptime is all systems go in the afternoon.  All 4 ladies with full tummies and sound asleep in their beds by 2 pm.  Right on!

*****

Kacey became a Sunbeam today!  She was so excited to go where Kylie goes in the Primary room.  I can't believe it's her time now, we did this for the first time 2 years ago with Kylie.  Time goes by so fast.  Kacey was pretty proud of herself today that she's a Sunbeam, she's been saying it all day!  Kylie also got a new teacher today, she seems really happy in her class.  She's like that though, she'd be happy no matter what.  She's a good sport.

*****

Last Sunday's Picture

And I've gotta say, I've got the life.  Just got called into Nursery, and released from my other 2 callings, and I don't think I could love Nursery more!  Nursery is so awesome, and I'm going to bask in my glory right now because I think I'll always look back and wish I was still in Nursery.  Because, as I said, Nursery is awesome!!!!  There's playtime and snacktime, I'm with Kadyn and it rocks!!! 

CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve yummies for Santa!  I know for a fact that he enjoyed them...

 And the girls also sprinkled reindeer dust in the front yard for the reindeer to see and come to our house FIRST!  Here's our Christmas tree after our visit, I love how the ornaments made there way to the top half of the tree.  (Thanks Kylie) Kadyn was a little too hands on.

Us at the top of the stairs waiting for Daddy to give us the go-ahead, that all cameras were ready.  We seriously were waiting for 10 minutes, which is eternity kid's time on Christmas morning.

Not too thrilled that I'm in the picture, but Kacey's face is priceless as she's heading to the tree and seeing it for the first time.

Opening the presents! 

The cleaning crew... love it!

Matthew and all his Wii glory!

I love the girls in the back of this picture, doing teamwork clean-up.  Good girls!

Games, games, and more games...

Thanks Uncle Aaron, it now sits beside her bed.

Kadyn was walking around with this big Christmas bag like a purse, it was cute!

I can hardly believe Christmas. Where did the time go?!?  My heart breaks that I have to send Kylie back to school tomorrow and we're back into our same old, same old routine.  Although we're starting ballet up again with a bunch of friends... so that's lots of fun!

****

Here's to a New Year and new things... as in a baby in August!

Kacey's Preschool Christmas Program

Kacey's Preschool class put on an adorable program about the symbols of Christmas.  Year after year, I'm continually impressed with the effort Mrs. Tate goes through for the learning and progression of her preschool kids.  The love and dedication she has to them is amazing, and it shows.  Tate goes above and beyond, and she's more than just a teacher to my girls.  I'm so grateful for all she has done for my girls who have gone to her year after year-- let's see how many more years I can talk her into doing it so I can send Kadyn too--- (more to come on  Kylie... later)... Now, it's Kacey's time to shine...

My sweet little thing :)

Kacey's symbol was the wreath, here she is putting it on the tree.

And she recited, with Mrs. Tate's help: "Eternal love, no beginning, no end.  Love never ends."

Kacey's Gingerbread House that she made during her Christmas party at school.  Within moments of this photo, Kylie and Kacey had both devoured it.... licked it to shreds until it was unrecognizeable. 

The Sunday Before Christmas

I can not believe Christmas is already here, not sure where exactly the time went!  Unfortunately, we wore our adorable matching Christmas dresses last week and didn't get a picture because Matthew was at the Redskins game in Oakland (dresses from Aunt Chiarina, thank you!)  So, we'll have to get a picture of them up soon... but here we are anyways this past Sunday...

Kylie is becoming such a little ham for the camera!  Her new favorite saying is, "I'm stylish," and she does some sort of cute pose like this. :)

Ward Christmas Party

This year's Ward Christmas Breakfast was fabulous!  So much yummy hot food, great set-up, and a fabulously energetic Santa! 

The girls loved him... Kadyn not so much.

Kylie's Parent/Teacher Conference

So not to go into too much detail :)  We had our first Parent/Teacher Conference last week.  We met with Kylie's teacher, not knowing what to expect.... never done this before.  Obviously, my child is perfect and anyone who'd like to challenge me on that is going to suffer consequences... sorry, that sounds bad... but I'm an Italian mother.  That's the way it is.  I'm my kid's biggest cheerleader and no one's going to protect them and build their confidence like me.  I've had too many bad teachers to choose their side over my kid's side.  That being said, good luck to any teacher my kids have... right?!?!  Funny thing is my mom and both Matthew's parents are teachers, my aunt's a retired principal, you'd think we'd have some sympathy. 

Anyhow, we were truly excited to learn that Kylie's teacher felt the same way about her that we did.  Kylie's excelling in her class- she'd met the Kindergarten requirements for the end of the year, by the end of September.  (Thank you Tate!)  She's very kind and compassionate to the other children... and the teacher is going to keep Kylie thriving by giving her mid-to end of the year first grade material... because academically, that's where she's at.  Her teacher also strongly suggested Kylie going to a Magnet School.  Kylie's teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say, I think she said fabulous about 37 times in 25 minutes.  Needless to say, we're very proud of our little school girl!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Happy Birthday!  Nicole is THE best mother and wife in the entire world.  She is so caring, loving, and nurturing!  She continues to impress me day after day with how talented she is and she has amazing skills that make our marraige and family that much better. 

Please join me in wishing this amazing woman a very happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Babe!  We love you! 

Thankful Thursday

I love that I have such a bossy, in control, it's my way only-type of 5 year old.  Because come time to do Kacey's homework, Kylie's hovering over her -pretending she's the teacher- saying, "Now do a straight line, hold the pencil like this, good... color it red, no no not like that... do it this way.  Now that's the letter J.  Go here, write your name..."  I'm thinking this is great.  In years to come, I can help Kyile with her homework, she can help Kacey and we'll do the trickle down effect.  TEAMWORK!  It's fabulous!  :)