RIO 2016: BORUP FAMILY STYLE

Well the Olympics finished up last week. Very sad... we won't dwell on that.

But for Family Home Evening last night we finished up our Family Olympics.  We had a good time "competing" over the last few weeks and ended up doing pretty well!  Our final medal count was fairly impressive!
Like that's any kind of surprise. Our team totally rocks.

 Here were our competition events:

Last night we finished up our final events and had our medal ceremony. Then we had our closing ceremonies (read: we had a dance party and some dessert!).  It was an evening to remember.  Once in a lifetime type experience!

And so, we say goodbye to the Olympics for now.  Always a sad day.
But don't think you've seen the end of us! We have 2 years now to perfect our winter events, and then the Borups will be back and ready to rock!

I told you I may be a little too obsessed with the Olympics...
but I think this tradition should stick!  It was fun.
Good thing I have a family full of good sports  :)
Woo!

SWEET NEW RIDE

Ok, after you finish rubbing your temples and shaking your head at the goof-ball man in this picture...

Please take note of the the little gold car parked in our second assigned parking spot.

Yes it's true. We bought a car!

It's a 2002 Dodge neon.  It has 97,000 miles on it, cost us $1800, and really looks remarkably awesome (minus the dorky spray-painted black rims. Bleck!).

AND, it's the biggest purchase our 7 years of marriage has seen yet.  So it's kind of epic.  We have't officially named it yet (though Brinlee calls it Gold Car... nice and original), but we did put new plates on it.  So it's definitely ours!

Welcome to the family Little Goldie! 

4-YEAR-OLD BRIN

And here's our sweet little 4-year-old!

Man.  Another darling, totally awesome, amazing, very blonde, angel child!  

How did one mama and dada get so lucky??

Fairly recently (ok, fine... back in May!) I filled in her birthday interview update, which is still a pretty good overview of Brinlee right now.  But honestly, I could talk about her all day long.  There's never really a dull moment with her.  She is one spunky little kid!  She likes to show off and have you watch her "cool moves", and boy does she have plenty of those! She is naturally a little shy though, and embarrasses easily.  She doesn't mind keeping to herself, but she doesn't always like it for long.  Even if she doesn't need you to engage her, she likes to know where you are and what you're up to, and she will often move her playing into the room I am in, just so she isn't somewhere alone, or just to make sure I don't feel alone myself. She's sweet like that.  

She is independent and definitely likes to do things herself.  It takes a lot for her to ask for help, and even then she doesn't easily let you help her.  She has a decent little attitude, and doesn't always like to listen.  She knows the rules, but also likes to try to be in charge and push boundaries. She doesn't like to be given limits or choices. She doesn't like to feel pressured by time or pending consequences. She likes to put on a brave, rebellious, sassy front and gets caught up in that sometimes.  She's 4 I guess! But she has a very tender heart too.  She cries easily, and more than anything really does like to be good and obedient. She does not like feeling like she has disappointed you, and she is very quick to say "I'm sorry", "I know I should have listened", "You were right", "I'll try to be better". She likes to try to please and will often say things like "did you see what I did? Are you proud of me?" 

She is so smart!  I am surprised all the time at the questions she's asking and the things she's learning.  Most recently she has been into ocean animals, particularly squids.  And she remembers everything! She has the most amazing imagination.  She's still very into dress-ups, and she's still VERY into imaginative character games.  We all pretend to be something different every day.

She's getting very interested in learning how to read.  She's been working on the alphabet and has just about got down all the letters and their sounds.  She loves to pick out rhyming words, and she doesn't seem to be losing any interest in sitting and looking through books.  She has several of her favorites memorized, and the ones she doesn't know as well she "reads" to herself by looking at the pictures.  She still loves to be read to though, and is starting to choose chapter books.  Right now we are working on Charlotte's Web. She has a few scriptures she is close to having memorized and she says the sweetest little prayers. 

She loves to sing (both real songs, and her own made up ones), she loves to dance, she loves to play with play dough, she loves to swim and play at the park, and she loves to talk!  Her little voice keeps me company all day long.  And honestly, most days, I really don't mind.  She says some very thoughtful things, some very sweet things, and some of the funniest things I've ever heard!  I wish I had a recorder on all the time, I don't always remember some of the gems she says.  But here are some of the ones I jotted down lately:

"McKenna, do you want to put your toys over here by mine? It will be simply delightful!"

"You are making things really difficult for me right now!"

While trying to finish a green drink:

Brin: "When can I be done?"

Me: "I told you, when your drink is all gone Brinlee.  Don't ask me again until it's ALL gone!"

Brin: "Silly mom.  I won't have to ask again when my drink is gone, because then I will know I'm done!"

Me: "I am asking you to stop playing and eat your dinner please!"

Brin: "Yes, I know, and you're asking very nicely mom.  But I just can't do what you need me to do right now!"

Brin: "Mom, let's play princesses!  You can be Sleeping Beauty, and I'll be Rapunzel, and we can be friends!"

Me: "Ok, just as soon as I get this laundry started we will.  Dirty clothes need cleaned you know!"

Brin: "Oh... Well, you can be Cinderella then... and you can have just mice for friends."

While being frustrated with a little sister that wouldn't cooperate:

"Mom, McKenna is wanting to live this life.  But I just don't want her to be living the life she's living!"

"Dear Heavenly Father, 

Please bless that the bumble bees won't wreck the earth.

And that the spiders will get them.

In the name of Jesus Christ, 

Amen."

"Alright, I will, if you insist."

"I love this new toy.  I probably won't share with anyone... except McKenna, because I love her!"

"I just love Heavenly Father.  I know he helps me."

Rocking a stuffed animal wrapped in a blanket and pretending to feed it a bottle:

"I am pretending this is a baby snake in here, and this bottle has milk, and egg, and rat in it."

"Did you know I already know a lot of stuff?  Like I already know things you're going to say.  Like, if you say 'Hi Brinlee, you are cute', yep!  I totally did know you were going to say that."

"No, I don't want to lay by dad! He's stinky!"

"I hurted my foot, and I just do not think this was supposed to happen."

She is a wonderful big sister and is incredibly patient with McKenna.  She shares with her, reads to her, sings to her, encourages her, helps her, and teaches her.  I often overhear things like "Good job McKenna, that is a ball!" or "Nice try McKenna!", or "Here McKenna, I can get that for you!" She also does her fair share of yelling at and bossing around McKenna... She is quick to that when she gets frustrated and wants things her way. But McKenna adores her! It's so fun to watch.

She is getting to be quite the helper around the house.  She goes through phases with how quickly and easily she does her chores.  But right now she loves to hand-wash dishes, she makes her own bed, folds laundry and puts it away, cleans up her own room, unloads the silverware, and feeds the fish.  She washes herself in the bathtub, and she runs errands all over the house fetching me things that I need.  

She likes to dress herself, she does NOT like getting her hair done ("I just want it crazy!), she's not the best eater, but also isn't really picky.  When she realizes she has to she'll eat most anything, but still can't really stomach green beans and peppers.  She is naturally very cautious and steers pretty clear of dangerous or unfamiliar things, but she also likes to try new things.  And once she has discovered something isn't so scary, then she likes to do it over and over until she gets it down perfectly. She loves to play with and take care of her friends and make sure everyone is happy.  She loves to cuddle and loves to lay in bed with me and pillow talk.  She is getting quite the little sense of humor.  She likes to play and be silly and make people laugh, and she also loves to laugh. She's very easily happy and her happiness is infectious.  She has a fun, positive attitude and a little personality that you kind of can't get enough of.  She is easy to talk to and actually quite fun and entertaining to carry on a good conversation with.  Her smile goes for miles and when she gets to giggling, you really can't help but giggle yourself.  

Oh how we LOVE this sweet, funny, smart, silly, loving, crazy, incredible little lady.  She is the best little buddy and the most amazing little person.  She teaches and strengthens us every day and we are so grateful to have her warming up our little home.  Our family wouldn't be the same without her!
Now.  How to keep her little longer...

And now for a few every day scenes from life with this one.

It's a good, good life!

18-MONTH-OLD MCKENNA

Back in May Brinlee turned 4 and McKenna turned 18 months.  You know what that means...

Picture And Journal Update Time!

Yes, of course I wanted to update our portraits, but naturally couldn't just get it done.  I had to put it off until we were well into June . Then one morning when the girls were being really sweet, I spur-of-the-moment decided it was time.  So I took them and some skittles (for bribing of course) up the street and around the corner to the elementary schoolyard real quick just to see what we could get.

And it was NOT very successful.

Turns out the girls weren't in the mood after all, and we didn't get a whole lot of anything that I really loved!  Boo.  Oh well.  These will definitely be a more honest memorandum of how these ladies really are right now :)

I planned to give the 4-year and 18 month photoshoot a round 2 attempt on some other day, at a nicer looking location, with another set of hands (namely Tim) that could help me get kids to sit still, smile, and cooperate.  And now we're almost into September.  And nothing like that has happened.  And honestly, by the time we do get around to it, really we will have to call them 4 1/2 and 2-year-old pictures instead.  

So.  Might as well go ahead and post these ones.

Here's our little 18 month-er! 

Golly. What do I even say about her?! 

She is definitely her own little person.  She is a serious ball of fire and is completely full of character, confidence, sass, independence, and goofiness.  She is 100% mama's girl and likes to keep me close, but also doesn't mind having space and time to herself.  I fairly often find her alone in her room looking through books or building legos.  She loves to run, dance, spin, walk on her tippie-toes, climb things, sit in bubble-baths, and attempt to copy everything Brinlee does. She loves to be read to.  She spends a good part of her day bringing me book after book and asking me to "read". She also loves when we sing to her.  Once she gets you singing, she won't let you stop and when your song starts to near the end, she starts in with "Son! Son!" over and over until you pick a new song.  Her favorites right now are Old MacDonald and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.  She also loves to do her own singing. She carries little tunes pretty well, but so far the words are mostly from her own imaginative language.  She is starting to be more interested in the TV and will sit still to watch things with Brinlee.  Her favorites are Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Train, and LeapFrog.  She loves to run and "hide", and giggles like crazy when you come find her.  She loves airplanes, trains, and cars and can do all the animal sounds.  Frog is my favorite, "rrrr-Rip!" She loves shoes, and she loves blankets. She loves to throw things away and likes to flush the potty. She loves strollers, umbrellas, and wagons. She loves puppies, but only from a distance.  She is very smart, and learns very quickly.  She loves to stack blocks and build with legos. She is learning some colors and can point out "yeh-yo" (yellow), "ah-inge" (orange), "be-you" (blue), and "po-pow" (purple).  She can also tell you the M says "mmm" and the O says "ah". She is getting to be quite the talker.  She still has a lot we can't quite catch, but every day we understand her more!  Here are a few of my favorites right now:

"fwo-fwen": Frozen

"Awepeen": Airplane 

"Bum... chens": I need a diaper change

"Bye-bye Dada"

"Eh Are Oo": Where are you

"Yetssss": Yes

"Stro Stro": Stroller

"Tawns": Thomas the Train

"Bun bun": Bunny

"Sheshen": Seven

"Pway pwace": Play place (i.e. nursery)

"Sissy": Brinlee

"Peas hep": Please help

"Breh-bruh": Umbrella

"Yah Yoh": Love you

"Cheeses": Jesus

She can say "yes" and "no" just fine, but we often have to ask her to specify because for some reason every time she's asked a yes or no question, she answers with "Nee-ow"... which has at times meant yes, and other times meant no.  And she gets really bent out of shape when you take it to mean the one she didn't mean.  It's confusing.  

She is getting very big.  At her 18 month appointment she was still 98% for height!  And she acts just as big.  We put her in her bed for nap and night time and she puts herself to sleep.  We give her a fork and spoon and she feeds herself.  She walks up and down the stairs.  She goes and gets us things when we ask her to.  She uses a chair, or basket, or whatever else she can find to stand on to reach up to things she wants.  She can be a good eater, but fairly often chooses not to be. And it's hard to say what her favorite foods are.  One week she loves one thing, and the next week she won't touch it!  But so far we haven't yet gone wrong with blueberries, fruit snacks, apple sauce, and green drinks (we'll see how next week goes). She can be kind of a bully.  She unfortunately likes to pull Brinlee's hair still, though not as much.  Instead now she likes to wait until Brinlee puts down her toys to go potty, then she quickly snatches them all up and runs off to hide with them somewhere.  I have come upstairs many times to find a crying Brinlee and McKenna hiding in the back of my closet with all of Brinlee's things.  Stinker.  

McKenna's brave and can be a little wild, but so far exercises pretty good caution too. She hasn't caused me too many heart attack moments yet.  She is very independent though and likes to do her own thing!  She isn't afraid to ask for "hep", but when she can she definitely wants to do things herself, because she very quickly gets very frustrated if you don't do things exactly how she wants. And she is not afraid to say "No"! So far she has NOT taken well to any type of discipline.  She can throw quite the tantrum when she doesn't get her way.  And though we don't see it near as often, she does still have that death glare that she likes to flash at you when you're cramping her style.  

But oh, she can be so sweet too!  She gets very concerned when people are sad and she will come lay her head on you and give a kiss if you ask for a lovie.  She likes "cuddo's" (cuddles) in the rocking chair, and will come for a kiss and a snuggle better any time she gets any kind of bump or bonk. She repeats after us the last words of phrases when we help her read scriptures and say prayers, and she is the first one with her arms folded and eyes closed every night at the dinner table.  She thinks it's really funny to randomly close her eyes and snore, and likes you to pretend along with her that she's asleep. She likes to be a helper and give you things that belong to you (things that she isn't interested in playing with though, of course), and when she's sitting in my lap she likes to rub my arm or reach up and pat my face and sweetly say "mama".  And every morning when I go to get her up, she gives a huge smile and the happiest "Hi!" you've ever heard.  It melts my heart every time!  She is getting a little sense of humor.  She recognizes when she's being watched and repeats things that make us giggle, and she has the most darling, contagious little laugh she does when something tickles her funny bone.  She absolutely adores Brinlee and already wants to do everything she does.  And she has one of the prettiest little smiles the world has ever seen!

Oh how we LOVE this darling, sweet, energetic, crazy, goofy, funny, amazing little girl.  It's hard to remember our house before her, and we cannot imagine our lives now without her!  She brings so many smiles and so much joy into our family and we feel so blessed and so grateful to have her!

I only wish she wasn't growing up so fast.

And here is a little bit of the more accurate, real life type picture of the beauty of life with this little lady.

Ah it's a good, fun life! 

WE LOVE VISITORS

Well, we just waved goodbye to some very special visitors.

We spent the last 6 days running around with these party animals and couldn't have had more fun! The pictures really do the good story-telling here.  So I'll let them do the talking!

Thanks grandma and grandpa for coming to see us.

We love you!

Ok, this one does need explaining.  For the last few days we have been looking around for Brinlee's other sandle and hadn't been able to find it anywhere.
I got this photo in a text message that said "Look what we found in Grandpa's tool bag!"
Looks like the left foot Elsa and Anna will be making a new home in Boise, while the right foot partner gets to stay here and hang with us!

Unbeknownst to me, Tim the sneak made some ahead-of-time plans and secretly arranged with my dad for us to go out and have a late anniversary celebration while they were here!  Wicked came through Columbus and my sweetheart took me to see it, while grandma and grandpa treated the girls to Chic-Fil-A and a movie night.  Everyone wins!
And the show was amazing! Couldn't have planned a better surprise myself.
Love this man!