Pedicures

Dear Kaylee,
Every day you grow up so much more. You are my little sweetie pie. You're also giving me a run for the money. Today you threw yourself down on the floor and had all four limbs thrashing around in true tantrum form. I didn't personally witness the thrashing but I could hear it in the kitchen. You have such a temper. At dinner tonight you were mad and threw yourself backwards hitting your head on the wall. That only infuriated you more. You are probably the queen of tantrums. And then, in the blink of an eye, you are my sweet baby girl giving me kisses and snuggling into me. You give the best kisses. You come towards my face super slow and then plant a big one right on my lips. I love the anticipation. I'm not sure if I'm going to get slobbered on, a nice kiss, or head butted.
Today I wanted a pedicure so I took you to the mall. I knew it would be risky but I really wanted one! You were very good. The last ten minutes you were done and I had to pull out every trick in the book to keep you calm, but overall you did very good. You stood in the water and leaned against my legs. Every time I had to pull my foot out of the water, you did too. You copied everything I did perfectly. You even let them give your calves a massage and paint your big toes. Yes, only your big toes.
When were done I let you ride on one of the rides and we went and got some pretzel sticks. You were pretty happy. You don't have any pants so I went to Children's Place to find some great deals. We found some really cute pants for $4. I wanted to get one in every color, you wanted blue. I tried to talk you into the other colors but you just grabbed two blues and headed to the counter to pay. I traded one of the blues for a pair of purple stripe pants. You're not thrilled, but I think they're cute! You definitely know what you like.
You say everything is blue, or "boo." You really like the teal and aqua colors. You pick them out of your drawers whenever they are available!
You love the show Yo Gabba Gabba, I think it's because of the Dancy Dance. You love to dance and still ask every day if you can.
You love Ben and Ethan, but particularly Ethan. You call him Eeefee. It is the cutest thing in the world. Whenever he's not around you look for him. Today you even had Grammy buy him suckers.
You already tease your brothers. I have to stop you before it gets out of hand. You will push them until they are completely melting down and I have to remind them that they are twice your age and height. You typically give them a sly smirk and then give them back whatever it was you took. It drives them insane, and I think it's probably only the beginning. Regardless though, you three love each other to the moon and back. You copy everything they do and they love to teach you things. They always run to your side and defend you. You are very lucky to have such sweet caring older brothers. We are very lucky to have you.
I love you!
Mommy

Her new "Boo" pants.

Edible Crayons

Dear Bubbas,
I love you! We've been having such a great time the last few weeks. I think I've decided that none of us our hot weather people. We struggled during the summer, but now that the new school year is here we are all in much better moods. We've are babysitting two friends this year. Ben (5) and Ethan (3). It's been really fun so far and you three love it. Every day you run to get dressed so we can go to their house, and every day you cry when their Mommy or Daddy comes to pick them up. I love watching the five of you interact. Kaylee laughs so hard at you guys. She throws her head back and belly laughs in her car seat while you guys are making jokes on the way to preschool.
We took the boys to preschool orientation the other day. Kaylee got to play outside with Daddy for an hour while the boys were meeting their teachers. Your classroom looks fun, and I think you're going to have a great year. We had to miss the first day of preschool because Connor and Kaylee had the stomach flu over the last weekend. Hunter got lucky and didn't get sick....at least yet anyway!
In honor of school starting we made some edible crayons. My friend Rachel posted the recipe and pictures of the ones she made and I was super motivated to give them a try. I ended up going to four different stores to get all the supplies, but it didn't damper my excitement. You make them by dipping pretzel rods into chocolate and then wrapping a crayon wrapper around it. So the night before I made all the crayon wrappers and prepared all the pretzel rods. The next morning I let you guys dip the pretzels. You had so much fun! You love colorful food! You didn't dip deep enough though, so I tried to redo some of them. However, when I redid them the chocolate got really thick and the crayon wrappers wouldn't fit around the pretzel. I tried for awhile and then got irritated. I ended up making one cute bag of crayons and then letting you all eat the chocolate dipped pretzels. I don't know when I'll learn. You had the best time dipping, and I should have left it at that!
We bought our Halloween costumes about a week ago. I know it's still September, but you were really excited. You've all been wearing them around the house a ton! Kaylee is Cinderella. Connor was super impressed that he found a Cinderella doll's dress and it MATCHED Kaylee's dress. He told her quite a few times that it was "a match." Connor and Hunter are superheros. I have no idea which ones. I think one may be a transformer... Regardless you three look adorable running around the house in these outfits.
I'm really thankful to have such fun kids. You make every day exciting! I love you three so very much.
Mommy

Best Aunt In The World

Dear Kaylee,
You have the best Aunt in the World. We went down to the beach at the campground. It was a decent walk away from our site. Since you've been in pull ups and you learned quickly how to potty in the great outdoors I didn't bother to take a diaper bag. What were the odds that you would poop? Well, pretty good apparently. Poop you did. We had only been to the beach for a few minutes. We were ate a crossroad. I knew you were super excited to be at the beach. You practically ran down the path and were ripping your shoes off far before it was time. If I were to walk you back to camp you would completely melt down. However, I couldn't let you play knowing that you needed a new pull up.
That's when Aunt Diane said, "Wipe as much as you can with the diaper and I'll rinse her off in the river." Now, I would like to say that this is something I thought of, or at least would have been willing to do, but I was very relieved that I did not have the appropriate footwear to be walking into the river to clean a babies butt. Aunt Diane was wearing flip flops so I took her up on the offer.
I wiped as good as I could, but it was a pretty full diaper. Aunt Diane carefully picked you up by the armpits and carried you a good arms length away all the way to the river. She then began dipping you and letting you sway back and forth in the water.
We all thought you would scream because the water was so very cold, but you giggled with glee. At that moment Aunt Diane was not only the best Aunt in the world, she was also your very best friend. And mine too, because it was one less butt I had to clean that day.
You owe Aunt Diane a pretty big thank you hug next time you see here. It probably wouldn't hurt if we got her a Starbucks too!
Love You Kiddo,
Mommy