Mommy wow...I'm a BIG kid now

I bought Brylee some potty chairs a while ago. We have had them sitting out and she has been thinking about using the potty. Now she is using the potty. She does really good on the days she runs around naked...and other days not so good. I am not pushing her to use the potty...she can use it when she wants to. I did not have an easy time with my last child...so I wasn't looking forward to this part. Brylee may just potty train herself.

Have you ever heard the saying...The Family that pees together...stays together.
It's true!

Happy Birthday Brylee

My little baby is not quite a baby anymore. Her birthday was Nov 30th, but we celebrated on the 29th with a family birthday party. Everyone came to help celebrate with us.

She loved opening presents.

Look how big she is!

Erik and I gave her a car. When she gets older we'll have to remind her that we all ready bought her a car and we are not buying her another one. :-)

We did a Spongebob Birthday. This is the Krabby Pattie Cupcakes that we served. (It's a terrible picture)
Our little princess had so much fun on her special day. We love you Bry Bry!

Families are Forever

Erik's Grandpa Gumbrecht passed away last month. We knew it was coming but it doesn't make it any easier, but we know it was his time to go. He was 86 years old...he led a full life and was ready to rest and return home to our Father in Heaven and be united with his sweet daughter that passed away in September.

Some of the things that I will remember about Grandpa is his love to tell stories. When we would go visit he would tell of his experiences in the war. Sometimes we would hear the same stories over and over, but we still loved to hear them. Grandpa loved the kids. When Dacia was a baby, and Grandpa still had energy, he would pack her around the house on a little tour. He would always stop at the mirror in the kitchen and talk to her. Grandpa lit up with the girls around. Even last month, before he passed away, we went to visit and he just laid in the recliner sleeping . He hadn't eaten for a few days and not drinking much either, but after being there for a while he perked up and just watched the girls play. Up until a few years ago, Grandpa was still driving and still shopping at Sam's Club. I am not sure where Grandpa put all the food...I don't think he ate it. He was probably only 80lbs...wet.

I will have to get Erik to write up some memories about Grandpa. We also have some more recent pictures of him and Grandma with the girls. Grandma is still living in the care center in Ogden and she is our last living Grandparent. We love her dearly.

We are thankful for all our Grandparents and the many stories they have shared and the true examples that they were. We believe that Families are Forever and that we will see them all again someday. My Grandma Brown & Grandpa Sherwood passed away when I was 8 years old...I like to think that they were with my girls in heaven before they came to us on earth. I hope we are making them proud with how we are raising our girls.

I LOVE my Family

More Dirty Looks

She has now added the eye roll. I love this little girl...she keeps me laughing!

This is where my food storage has been for the last three months.

This is where it is now.

I {LOVE} it!

This is what I have to organize next.

You better not blink...

or you might miss my kitchen clean.

This house has a bunch of ledges. It has been fun decorating the new house and visiting Tai Pan. I am working on a project for that back wall in the family room. Watch my craft blog for pictures.

Happy Halloween

I have never seen a cuter Leia, Padme and Ewok in all my life.

My Ash

with straight hair. I used the straightener on her hair last week for church. She looks so grown up.

Off to the Circus...

This was our 4th (I think, I'm pretty sure) annual trip to the circus. The girls love it and look forward to it every September. Last year I think Brylee was a little young to enjoy it, but this year it really had her attention. Her eyes were glued to the arena for most of the show. The older two, loved it too, like always. It was a great family date night.

Brylee's Dirty Looks

Brylee has learned how to give dirty looks. It's hilarious! She will do it on demand now, but not for everyone. It took her awhile to give a dirty look to her grandma. She thinks it's funny too! We love this little girl. Some days she is my little angel that keeps me going when her big sisters are being naughty.

More House Shots...

The girls new room got painted pink, just like their old room.

I love having the family room separate from the kitchen. We are trying to keep food and snacks in just the kitchen and it helps that the tv room.
The chair rail was all ready put up. It has the tan we did throughout the house on the top and gold on the bottom. Erik was pretty nervous about the gold, but I like it. We just need to add a few pictures to the walls and add the gold to the upper part of the room.

I can't get any pictures of the kitchen...I can't keep it clean long enough to get any shots. Then when I remember I need to take pictures I have all ready done some cooking and we are full of dirty dishes again.

Tis the season..

The painting got put on hold for a couple weeks for the canning. I went up to the Farm in Layton after work on a Wednesday to pick tomatoes. The girls were such big helpers and we got two boxes full. Thursday and Friday were spent canning tomatoes. Then I decided I really wanted to make salsa. So we went up to the Farm on Friday and picked another box of tomatoes and I spend the next day making salsa all day long. The following week I got a box of apples and Angela (my girlfriend) and I made apple pie filling. In there I also got a box of peaches.

So I ended up with

28 quarts of Tomatoes
40 pints of Salsa
7 quarts of peaches
7 pints of Peach Jam
17 quarts of Apple Pie filling

Yummy stuff! I all ready have a list of things I want to try to can next year! I can't wait. I love being able to fill the food storage with things I canned myself.

Let the work begin...

(I wish I had a real before shot, but I didn't save the one on the internet on the real estate website and then it wasn't available anymore)

We started working on the house right after we signed...technically we didn't have keys yet, but it was my weekend off work and I wanted to get started. We had carpet scheduled to be installed on Tuesday after we signed so we wanted to get as much done as we could.
The front room had wainscoting on the walls. Which I like, the girls had it in their room, but I didn't like it in the front room. So I ripped it out. Which left a problem. It pulled off the drywall paper. (note the dirty ugly carpet)
So I had to plaster the walls and then sand them down, then prime and then paint. It was quite the task. I was glad I got it done before carpet. I used the electric sander and it sent dust clear upstairs and down.
After...I still need to hang stuff on the wall, but we have it painted. We hired someone to come and do the vaulted walls. There was no way I was going to get up that high and Erik didn't want to do it either.``
I still need to paint the bay window and we need to put new baseboards in. We ripped the baseboards out of the whole house. They were really small and grungy. The builder that put them in put them right on the floor instead of leaving a space for the carpet. It looked silly, so we are putting new ones in. (note the new carpet, we love it)
I had red in my from room before, but with the vaults and the wall shared with the kitchen I didn't know which wall to paint red. So I think I will just get some red curtains to go in the bay.
The tan we painted in the front room is what we used through out the whole house. It is looking pretty good, but we still have a lot of work to go.

Preschool

Ashlyn started preschool this week. She was excited and loves it. I now have two kids in school. I am getting old.

My kids are growing up and there is nothing I can do about it. :(

Prayer

We are working on prayers with Brylee. She is so cute when she folds her arms.

This little girls wants to be so grown up. She is now standing up to go up and down the stairs. She also loves playing copy cat with her sisters. She is such a joy to have in our home.

Dacia C. First Grader

I was pretty nervous with Dacia starting first grade. Having her gone all day was going to be hard. Well, she started school and she loves it....and I am doing fine with her gone all day. I can't believe she is getting so big.

(pictures to come)

The wait is over...

on August 21st we signed paper on our new house. It was a very long wait and we are very excited to finally be in our house. We were originally waiting on a different house, but that was going no where. We found this one and put our offer in the beginning of July. Things took a while with this one too, but everything worked out. We are excited, now let the work begin.

I wish the grass was still this green. It's dead! I hope it comes back in the Spring.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

On August 18th we went to Thanksgiving Point. The girls loved the water. It was fun to get out and play on our last week before school started.

Moon Lake

So it time to get back on the blog wagon. It's been a long time since I posted. So I will try to catch up on everything going on with the Gumbrecht family.
The last weekend in July we went up to Moon Lake. We went last year and had lots of fun. My mom rented the same cabins for all of us...little did we know that the cabin we had last year now has a only in it where mice like to come in. We, correction, ERIK spent the weekend setting and emptying mouse traps...I think the final count was 7.
The first day was windy and we counldn't do much with our little boat, but the second day the weather was a lot better. My brother rented a bit boat while we were there too. It was fun and went alot faster than our little inflatable boat and trolling motor.
It was a fun weekend and we were glad to get away.

Star Wars Geek!

Dacia has become obcessed with Star Wars after we bought the girls Lego Stars Wars for the Wii, so can you guess what kind of birthday she wanted this year.

Dacia as Princess Leia complete with Leia buns and light saber.

Dacia with Darth Ashlyn

Now we have the complete Stars Wars collection.

I never thought that with having all girls we would own light sabers and have talks about Star Wars 24/7. Dacia is very proud of being a Star Wars geek!

Family Reunion

We went to the Sherwood Family Reunion the first week in June. It was up at Strawberry Pinnacles. It was a fun weekend with my extended family, full of food, lounging around and visting. I love those nice lazy weekends.

Ashlyn came in second in her age division in the Jello eating contest. Those are the proud mommy moments I love.

I'll have to hit up my sister in law and cousins for more pictures of my kids. I didn't get my camera out the whole weekend.

If you give a girl a fork...

she might just eat all her food.

Here comes the graduate!

My little girl is growing up so fast. I keep trying to talk her into doing kindergarten again, only the second time around, it's called Super Kindergarten. She doesn't like that idea. So I guess she will be starting 1st grade in the Fall and will be gone all day, wowsers!