AWESOME NEW KICKS

What you are looking at here is pure joy.

Here, I'll show you. 

Zoom out.

 Zoom out.

And there it is.

A girl and her awesome, brand new shoes.

Hard to top that kind of happiness.

See what I mean?

SURPRISE, MORE SHOTS!

Brinlee brought home a note from school the other day that said she wasn't up to speed on her vaccinations and that we needed to get her in for some shots.  I was pretty confused.  We've never skipped or missed any doses with her, but when I called the school nurse she said there was indeed a problem.  Want to know what the problem was?

The school district is really  strict about the amount of time that passes between each round of multi-dose vaccines, and according to the district standards, her second dose of Hepatitis B from back when she was 6 months old was given to her a whopping 3 days early... and they wouldn't count it.

We probably could have put up a stink about it, but we decided to bribe Brinlee with candy and just go in and get it taken care of instead. A few months ago when we had been in with her I had promised her that she wouldn't need any more shots for a long time.  Little did I know.

I felt really bad.  But she was actually a really good sport about it, bless her heart.  Here she was right before the shot (that's supposed to be a thumbs up... we'll work on that later).

I didn't take pictures of her after the shots, they wouldn't have been nearly as happy looking.
But the lollypop did help!
And now she's all approved and good to go.

...sheesh...

SLSS VOL 8: BRING IT ON KINDERGARTEN

Well, the long-awaited, blessed day finally came.

Our awesome little Brinlee is no longer a "soon-to-be", 

now's she just official.

And she is LOVING it!

Her school day doesn't start until 9:00, but she was up and ready to go by 6:30.  A little early for my taste, but it did give us lots of time for a few first day of school festivities.  We packed her first lunch, ate a special breakfast, picked out her first outfit from her stash of new clothes, took lots of pictures, and then headed out the door!  School is just a block away, so we get to walk there every morning.  Though, for her first day she didn't actually do much walking, 

she skipped and hopped most of the way :)

Then it was a hug and a kiss, time to line up, a few tears from mom (none from Brinlee though, she was ready, and did I mention SO excited?), and then she was off!

I got over being sad quicker then I thought I would, I guess her excitement rubbed off on me. By the time McKenna and I got back home I was pretty recovered and surprisingly just giddy to hear all about her day!  Maybe this next phase won't be so bad after all?

I did wonder about her all day though and how she was doing with such a busy, long day full of totally new things.  I prepped for her coming out totally overwhelmed.  But when 3:00 came and that door opened, out bounced the happiest most excited little girl I think I've ever seen!  And that's when I knew that this phase really won't be as bad as I thought after all.  She was exhausted, but she had loved every minute and couldn't wait to tell me and McKenna all about it! And I loved that!  Hearing about her day is one of my favorite things.

Speaking of McKenna.
I had wondered if we would have a bit of a hard time when this little one lost her full-time play partner.  And it was a little rough at first.  She was bummed.  When we got home that first day and she realized her days weren't going to be as full of sissy anymore, she was pretty sad.  I spent the first couple of schooldays dropping off Brinlee, and then walking home and cuddling a very tearful McKenna.
But it didn't take her long to realize that sissy does come home, and in the meantime, I have mommy and all of the toys to myself!  She still doesn't love it.  Every day she asks probably 14 times if it's time yet to go pick up sissy. But she is a little more ok with Brinlee leaving. And she is a super fun little buddy!  It's been kind of nice to have her one on one a bit more and see a little different side of her.  A bit more of her personality blossoms out when she's not trying to mimic so much, and she has been so sweet and so fun!

While Brinlee was gone for her first day, McKenna and I stayed busy getting ready for our "K" party (K for kindergarten, of course).  We went to the store and McKenna picked out all the things she knew Brinlee would love, and then once Brinlee was home, we had a celebratory dinner.  We made little pizzas, wore party hats, ate cupcakes, and listened to every detail of the Kindergartner's big day. It was perfect.

We had to party without daddy.  Poor Tim was out of town taking a board exam and missed all the fun.  He was super bummed.  But you better believe that a very excited Brinlee was more than ready to spare no details and get him all up to speed the next day when he got home.

Oh I can't say enough about this girl.
I'll just leave it at she's completely amazing,
and we love her, love her, love her!
And she's going to knock this whole kindergarten thing right out of the park!

$1.00

A couple weeks ago, Brinlee came and asked me if I could tell her more about tithing.

So I did, and we talked about it for a bit.  She has a jar of birthday money sitting in her dresser drawer right now that apparently had been on her mind, because when our conversation was winding down, she said "So.... then.... do I have to do tithing with my money?"

I told her she sure could if she wanted to, but that it was her choice, and that whatever she decided would be totally fine.

Well, yesterday out of nowhere she came downstairs with her jar and said

"Mom, can you help me count how much I can do for tithing, and can you help me get it ready? 

I decided I want to give some."

I don't think I've ever seen her look more proud than she did today handing that envelope over to the bishop.  

And I was pretty proud of her too!  

Oh how I love this amazing, beautiful little tender-hearted lady!

FIVE AND FABULOUS

Well, we had a birthday!

Remember this sweet little squishy-faced fuzz head?

Well check her out now! 

5 and fabulous!

This girl...

If I could go back to my 20-year-old self, and tell me that in 9 years I would be spending every day with the sweetest, funniest, happiest, smartest, goofiest, most loving, most creative, most amazing little 5 year old there ever was... honestly, this post might have come several years sooner.  Because my 29-year-old-time-traveling self would have told me how wonderful my life is, and 20-year-old me would not have wanted to wait!!!

I cannot believe how much we love this little blonde-haired angel girl.  And I really can't believe how big she is getting! Every day is something new with her.  She amazes us all the time and is such a joy and blessing to have in our lives.  She is quite a tender-hearted emotional little thing.  We get the whole spectrum with her... But most days Brinlee is just a fun, happy little girl!  

Let's have a little look at what this lady is like right now. 

Here is her birthday Interview for this year:

What is your name? Brinlee Borup… oh yeah, Brinlee KAY Borup

How old are you? 4… no, 5!

What is your favorite color? Purple 

What is your favorite food? Peanut butter and honey sandwiches

What is your favorite animal? Snake

What is your favorite book? The BFG and The Mixed-Up Chameleon

What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... And the songs from the Moana movie... and from Newsies, and from Wizard of Oz... and I like the harp, and the violin, and the horns (aka instrumental/orchestral music)

What is your favorite TV show? The Magic School bus

What is your favorite movie? The Wizard of Oz

What is your favorite game? Uno and Slap Jack, and playing snakes

What is your favorite toy? Hank, and snake, and bone

What is your favorite treat? Candy… cotton candy! I've never had it, but I really want to try it sometime.

What is your favorite thing to learn about? Snakes

What is your favorite thing to wear? My Ariel jammies

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

What do you want to be when you grow up? A zoo keeper

Who is your best friend? Alex

Where is your favorite place to go? Chick-Fil-A, and COSI… and daddy’s school to go swimming

What is something you love to do? Play sea (sea animals and mermaids), and being outside coloring with chalk.  And I love to play in the car and “go places”!

What is something you are really good at? Painting and pretending

What is something that makes you really happy? Playing with mommy

What is something you really don't like? When McKenna hits me

If you had lots of money, what would you buy? Candy

If you were an animal, what would you be? A snake

If you had a magic power, what would it be? The power to fly

Where in the world do you want to visit someday? Chick-Fil-A

Who is the most handsome man in the world? Dad 

What do you love the best about your family? That McKenna is in my family

What's your favorite scripture story? When Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected again, because it means that someday I can have my body and my family forever

She is such a smarty!  She has known all her letters, shapes, and numbers for a long time, but to her bag of tricks she has added simple addition and subtraction math problems, back seat driving directions (which way's left and which way's right), rhyming words, patterns, days of the week, months of the year, knock knock jokes, handwriting (she does the lower and upper case alphabet, most of her numbers, small words, and can write her name), recognizes several sight words, she is starting to figure out telling time, and she is right on the verge of figuring out this whole reading thing! She still goes crazy in the library and loves to bring home stacks and stacks of books on whatever is her topic of interest at the time.  She still loves anything about the human body, she is obsessed with ocean animals, we did a trains and airplanes phase, and we still go back to spiders and insects fairly frequently, particularly beetles lately. She has an incredible memory for facts and stories and has several of her favorite books, fairy tales, and scriptures memorized.  She still loves to pull book after book off of her shelf, but when it comes to serious reading, this girl is into the heavy stuff.  We have gone through several chapter books already reading to her at night, and she has a big list of others she can't wait to get to.  She likes to ask questions (all day long!) and is always excited when she comes across something she can learn about with an "experiment!" (Do these things sink or float? What different sounds can these objects make?  Can I build a leak-proof Lego boat? Which food will the ants like best? Is there something in my room that's light enough for my Chick-Fil-A balloon to lift up and carry? ...etc)  She always has her little wheels turning and oh how those eyes sparkle when she's learning something new! She will sit and listen all day to anyone who has anything interesting to show her.  And she loves to teach!  Her little voice will gladly and very enthusiastically fill the ears of anyone willing to listen for as long as they will let her talk.  Thank goodness she has a little sister to take care of.  McKenna happily spends all day soaking up and repeating everything Brinlee does and says.  It's darling!
Whew.  Look out kindergarten, this girl is ready to go!

Brinlee is so goofy, and so creative! She still loves to dress up and pretend to be a character.  She enjoys watching movies and a few shows, but her true love is the reenacting of the movie/show after it's over.  We barely make it to the credits before she disappears upstairs and comes back not only dressed as her favorite character, but with character assignments for the rest of us as well.  We currently are very familiar with Moana, The Wizard of Oz, Newsies, Finding Dory, and The BFG.  But we also aren't limited to the screen or pages from a book either.  This girl likes to play "games from my imagination" as well.  She makes up stories and plot lines and even theme songs.  Often her character assingments are random animals, shapes, familiar objects... the list goes on really.  There is no limit when it comes to this girl and her creative little juices.  It is so fun to watch her at work!  She doesn't even always have the most willing participants (namely McKenna), but it doesn't hold her back.  Never fear, she'll make it work! This girl is patient and flexible and will take any and all make-believe play she can get.

She is also starting to show a bit of an artistic edge.  She loves to color and draw and we find her little sketches all over the house.  She LOVES to build with play dough, loves sidewalk chalk, paints, and would cut, tape, and paste together little projects all day long if I would let her!  And she loves to sing!  She has several musical selections we often hear ringing through the house (or loudly through the neighborhood while she's riding her bike).  Moana, Seize the Day, and If I Only Had A Brain are some of my personal current favorites, but she also likes to make up her own little songs.  Sometimes she uses the tunes of other songs and replaces her own lyrics, sometimes it's all completely original.  But it's all fabulous, and very heartfelt!  And she has quite an ear for a bit of the finer stuff as well.  She often asks for the "music without words" and loves to listen to movie score soundtracks and orchestral pieces.  She likes to try to pick out the different parts and the different instruments playing (particularly the trombones, horns, harps, and the violins), and it warms my little heart every time I catch her waving her arms and conducting along in the back seat of the car.  Honestly, I don't think this girl could get more awesome!

She's getting quite the little sense of humor too.  She loves to laugh and often does a pretty good job making the rest of us laugh too.  It is seriously contagious when something tickles her little funny bone, and she says some clever and funny things!  I'd have to keep a camera on her all day to remember all the great things she says.  But here are a few of the recent noteworthy ones:

"Scrumpled" - Her word for anything wrinkled, scrunched, bunched, or annoyingly out of order
"McKenna, we can't go in the road, because mom doesn't want smashed kids!"
"Toast is my life!"
"Look, I'm almost your age!" - standing next to someone comparing height
"Sorry I can't help you, my brain is turned off right now."
"How many more sleeps?" - how we count the number of days til the next exciting thing
"No thanks" - her answer to anything she doesn't want, or doesn't want to do at the time
"Mom, you're cleaning up lunch? Without even being asked? You're a good maid."
"This song makes my legs dance!"
"You're my best buddy"
"That McKenna... she's a stinker"
"Ok, let's remain calm"
"Clear out, I need some space!"
"When is later?" and "Just is the answer yes, or no?" - when we give the answers 'later' and 'maybe'
"If I lay down and puff my tummy up big, look! I'm like a cooking pizza in the oven, bubbling away!"

This girl is so sweet.  She is a very emotional little thing and definitely has her moments.  She knows what she wants and she can be pretty stubborn and defiant sometimes.  Lately we've been doing some hot sauce on the tongue for talking back, arguing, "snotty talk"/whining, and saying 'No'.  She really hates the hot sauce!  But luckily we don't have to pull it out too often.  Generally she is just good and really does try hard to be obedient.  And she has such a loving, tender heart!  She is not embarrassed to boldly be herself, which I love about her!  But she also keeps an eye out for others and how they are feeling.  She wants everybody to be getting along and wants to see others happy, and she gets very upset when she thinks others are sad or disappointed.  It's probably the thing she asks me most of all, "Mom are you happy?" and "Mom are you proud of me?"  She loves her friends, loves to make new friends, loves to be around and play with little babies, and LOVES family time.  Her only reservation about going to kindergarten is that she won't be able to keep me company all day (pardon me while I wipe my melted heart up off the floor!).  She tells me every day that I'm her best buddy, she adores Mckenna, and she really hates that Tim has to be gone at school all day.  Her very favorite thing in this world is when our whole family can be together.  She doesn't even care what we're doing, just as long as we're all there. And if you're having a down day and need a little pick-me-up, she's your gal!  She always has a hug to share and compliment to give, like "Wow, you are really strong!" or "Hey you are really smart at that!" or "What a great idea you had!"  Such a sweetheart!

She is the best little helper.  She sometimes mysteriously turns into rubber all the sudden when there's work to do, and it is sort of uncanny how often her legs suddenly hurt when she is asked to do something... but she is usually pretty willing to run quick errands for me, or do little chores, and she pretty regularly checks in to see if there's anything she can help with.  

And she is an amazing big sister!  These two are doing a lot more interactive play these days, which I just can't get enough of!  They run around here in character and costume and deep in the middle of little make-believe games all day long.  Their giggling is music to this mama's ears.  I love, love, LOVE it!  Brinlee does like to be a little bossy with Mckenna at times, and she is occasionally the culprit when tears are involved.  But she does try hard to be patient and keep Mckenna happy, and she never does retaliate when Mckenna gets testy.  She reads to Mckenna, she builds lego creations for her, she helps her clean, helps her get dressed, teaches her, cuddles her, shares with her, and feels genuinely lonely for her when Mckenna isn't around.  If only everyone could have a big sister like Brinlee!

Her tender little spirit is truly amazing and is such a joy and blessing, and example to me.  She loves her Heavenly Father, and Jesus, and she wants to be good and "keep the Holy Spirit in our home".  She keeps me in check and re-teaches me almost every day about what's really important and how to be truly Christlike.  I really don't know what our little family would do without her!  I feel so privileged to be the mommy of such an amazing little lady!

And a fabulous, darling little face like that really does need celebrated, wouldn't you say?
So celebrate we did, streamers and all!

Quite the little photo montage huh?  She has been so fun!

We knew daddy would be busy and not home until the evening, and of course Brinlee couldn't imagine any real partying without him.  So we had the day to fill. I had kind of planned on getting her out and about for something fun, but that little angel had different plans! Her only birthday requests were to 1. Paint with shaving cream, 2. Cuddle and read books together, 3. Make and decorate her own cake, and 4. Get to choose her own dinner.  So that's what we did! After a special birthday breakfast we got going with her list.

The birthday cake masterpiece!  

I have never seen So. Many. Sprinkles!!! 

Once daddy was home it was time for the good stuff!  She had been eyeing the presents on the piano all day, and bless her heart she had been SO patient.  But once Tim came through that door, she couldn't wait another second.  She didn't even let him take off his shoes!

I don't know that she had a very favorite gift, she loved them all!  She got a journal and some colored pens, a few new chapter books, Mckenna got her her own copy of The Mixed-Up Chameleon plus a few yummy chapsticks,  she got a Dorthy dress and ruby slippers (which she loves!!! More to come on that later), and....

A BIKE!!!

She had seen some kids doing "big bikes" a few times when we were out for walks, and she thought that was pretty cool.  But she hadn't really thought to ask for one, and had no idea it was coming. She was so surprised, and SO excited! Despite the rainy afternoon she strapped on that helmet and hit the parking lot with nothing but smiles!

Mckenna inherited the little push-along bike, which she was thrilled about!  Big surprise, she's a little reckless on it.  Thank goodness for helmets!

Brinlee's choice of dinner was none other than the beloved Chic-Fil-A, of course!  She had been talking about it for weeks.  Chicken nuggets, a play place, and balloons?  It's the childhood happiness trifecta!

And to finish off the evening we cut into that fabulous cake!
McKenna singing happy birthday was probably one of the highlights of the day.  We sang, Brinlee blew out the candles, and then for probably a good half hour McKenna just sang over and over, and over to herself,
"Happy Birt-day Dear Bwin-Weeeeeee....
Happy Birt-day to yoooouuuuuuu........
Foo!"  (her blowing out her own invisible candle for the big finish)

Unfortunately the evening ended in some tears and a rushed bedtime.  It had been a big, long day, and by the end a certain little birthday girl was a little too tired, and a little too emotional.  When it was time to eat her cake she broke down and cried about how "I just miss being 4!"

But after a good sleep and some leftover cake for breakfast, she announced to me this morning that she's decided that being 5 is going to be pretty awesome after all.  And I would have to agree!  With how amazing this girl is, there's no way it can be anything else!

This is going to be a fantastic year for her, I can just feel it!

Look out world, this little 5-year-old is ready to rock!