Happy New Year

I hope all who reads this had a blessed and joyous Christmas. With year end rapidly approaching and the New Year anxiously awaiting, it seems like a great time to reflect on this past year before sending it off.

This year has gone by so fast and I realized as I did my annual Christmas cards(the one time a year I feel I keep in touch with people even if it is just a season's greeting) that I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and family. So I decided it was time to join the bloggers! This is completely a new experience for me so forgive me if it takes some time to figure it all out. Here it goes!

This year has been eventful and it went by so fast that most of is a blur but here are some highlights:

In July, my cousin Courtney came to live with us for awhile. She has been busy with online school and has been a huge help with girls who just love her to pieces. Allyson especially is fond of her. We have enjoyed having her, she has brought a unique insight into the teenage mind, which is scary sometimes! Oh what we have to look forward to with three girls! Courtney has gone home for the holidays, we all miss her very much. We got so used to having her around Allyson still calls for her when she gets hurt and for kisses before bedtime.


Kylie turned 5 in September and with some debating with the school superintendent, she entered Kindergarten. She missed the deadline by 18 days, but after finally agreeing to meet with her (which took about 5 minutes) determined that Kylie was definitely ready for school - No surprise to us and to those who know her. She is enjoying school very much although they have long days, she leaves at 7am and walks back in our door at 5pm starving and exhausted. She is so intelligent, creative and loving - it is fun to watch her grow and learn everyday. She is still pretty clever and seems to amaze us each day with something new.


Allyson turned 2 in November and she definitely fits the bill of a typical two year old. She is the complete polar opposite of her big sister with whom she loves to terrorize most every moment she can get away with it. She is the most curious, fearless and the toughest little girl I know. Two weeks before her birthday she fell backward while standing in a chair at our counter hitting the back of her head so hard on the tile floor that her two front teeth flew, yes flew, out of her mouth! One of the most scariest moments I have experienced as a mother thus far. I fear that it won't be the last with this one. It is a miracle that her head is okay, the doctors and the dentist have never seen anything like it. "you are unique" they said! She will be missing her two front teeth until about age seven but we can handle that! She is so cute even without her teeth and although she is a challenge she is so much fun. She loves her new baby sister and is obsessed with everything baby in general.



And then we have our newest addition. Brynnah Danielle was born September 26 at 10:07pm. 8lbs. 5oz. and 19 1/2 inches. She didn't come easy, the night is mostly a blur but to make a long story short, she was almost out when she went into distress and I had to have a emergency c- section ( with which I didn't want to do but obviously had no choice.) It is amazing that they can knock you out and deliver a baby in less than ten minutes! Jacob said I went through the first set of doors at 9:57 and Brynnah was delivered at 10:07. WOW. The doctors were amazing, especially for such a little hospital. She was on oxygen for about three hours, but you would have never known it the next day that she went though the whole ordeal. I of course was a different story, you never look good after delivery but this had to be the worst! It turns out that I had a partial placental abruption and when my water broke it became worse and she couldn't get any oxygen. She is so wonderful and such a blessing. She smiled at two days old, and laughed at 1 1/2 months old. She is so attentive to what is going on and is such a loving, good baby. Her sisters just adore her and she likes to watch, smile and giggle at them. She currently has a bad case of cradle cap, which is a new experience for us but we are trying some new treatments with head and shoulders and emu oil and it seems to be working. She also had a visit last week with the Chiropractor, she is the stiffest baby I have ever seen. She doesn't bend very well. He said she is fine and will grow out of it but probably won't be very flexible. We are going to help her become more flexible with some deep tissue massage. We are so blessed and thankful to have three beautiful, healthy, happy children.

The past couple of months have been pretty busy with the holidays and we have had a lot of visitors, which is nice since we are so far away and haven't really been anywhere for awhile. We had a full house at Thanksgiving with the Scorse Family (Kylie's best friend and Family) and the Lopez Family (Martin works for Jacob). Lots of people make it feel like the holidays to me. We once again had our 2nd annual family Christmas on the second weekend of December. (Check out the slide show below.) My Mom and Dad came from Montana bringing my Aunt Joey and cousin Ty as a surprise. My Brother and his family,my Cousin and her family and My Grandparents all came from California. Oh and cousin T from Vegas came as well. We had such a wonderful time and all the kids played together remarkably well. The weather wasn't great but it was nice having everyone together for the holidays. Then we had more company a week before Christmas as my sister, Tammy and her Family came it was nice to see them and we enjoyed there visit very much.


Christmas was nice and quiet. Christmas eve we spent with our great friends, the Scorse's at there new beautiful home in Thatcher and then we enjoyed a nice Christmas at home. The girls enjoyed opening there gifts ( Allyson is a pro, she loves to unwrap everybody's gifts!) Kylie got what she wanted from Santa and it was so fun seeing her get so excited.


Jacob and I are doing well, we still can't believe how much are family has grown. Jacob loves having his girls, and they are so attached to him. We are enjoying the cold weather this time of year brings. This year has been eventful and has brought us many happy memories. We are so thankful to have good health and loving friends and family. We are looking forward to the New Year and the many exciting things that are awaiting us. We wish you all a very Happy New Year with many blessings and new adventures. We hope this past year left you with many blessings and happy memories to look back at. We look forward to keeping in touch this year through our family blog and hope to see you all soon.

Love,



The Wards