The reason our house always seems so ChAoTiC...

Any questions?

this one does not have a quiet voice. she's tried and tried but it's just not there.
I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

volume aside, she is such a great big sister. her sisters think she is awesome and they try to do everything she does.

you've never met a sweeter, more sensitive child. movies such as The Land Before Time have been known to bring her to tears.

she LOVES to laugh. she can turn any situation into something to laugh about. I need her for that!

she likes to do her chores without being asked. if I happen to ask her she says, "Oh... you didn't just ask me to make my bed, okay?" and then run off to do it. when she's done, she leads me into her room with my eyes closed to surprise me.

loves loves LOVES soft cuddly animals. the stuffed versions work just as well.

she can sing amazingly well (and amazingly loud!).

always lets us know how much she loves us. what a little lover! and she is nice to cuddle with, warm and soft.

she is one smart cookie. to keep her busy the other day, I asked her to write me a grocery list. she wrote what she wanted from the store and drew corresponding pictures. pretty funny to see her fish drawing with bubbles coming out of it's mouth.

this little miss is the most adorable sleeper you have ever seen. she always looks like she has been posed, with her little face resting on her hands. so pretty!

we sure love our Amb doo. what a great example Bays and Ellie have to look up to. I am so grateful for all her help and for the sweet spirit she brings to our home. it just wouldn't be the same without her! love you Ambs!

Happy Snow Day!

I was so cozy this morning in my bed, snuggled up next to my yummy hubby. I could hear the wind and I knew it was going to be a snow day (that and the weather report!). When I opened the blinds this morning it looked like a regular day but sure enough... by breakfast time it was snowing! Yay for snow! It makes me want to stay inside and drink cocoa and make some sort of yummy soup for dinner. I love it!

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My girls love this... Thanks for sharing Kami!

Yummy deliciousness

I have been on a quest to become healthier, not that I'm unhealthy or sickly, I just want to better my health and the health of my family. Thanks to Michelle I have been learning a lot and I am so excited about it. I have been trying to omit dairy from my diet as a start and I have also been incorporating various beans, legumes, and vegetables into my diet. It's really fun. The best part, however, is how great I feel. I don't have that heavy, full feeling after meals, but rather I feel satisfied.


As per Sami's request, I will share what we eat in our house every morning now. It is a green shake, and it looks strange but I promise it is yummy! If it didn't taste great my girls wouldn't eat it and Brielle (little miss picky!) always drinks it up and usually asks for more. This is what we put into the shake:
-Fresh spinach, about a cup or two (it has such a mild taste that you can add a lot without compromising taste).
-Kale, which is a vegetable I just learned about. It's like a cross between broccoli and leaf lettuce. This amazing vegetable packs vitamins a and c, as well as fiber and calcium. I like to blend the kale with water before adding the other ingredients because I learned from experience that if you can taste the kale... no bueno.
-Oats, uncooked, as much as you want. Ambree won't eat oatmeal so this is a good way for her to get it.
-Flaxseed, which is loaded with omega-3's as well as fiber. It has a mild, nutty flavor so you can add as much or as little as you want.
-frozen berries. My girls love blueberries and raspberries so we add about a half cup of each into our shakes.
-frozen fruit, we like the huge bag from Costco.
-frozen banana. The banana is vital... it takes away any weird flavors from the greens and makes it yummy. We add about one and a half frozen bananas into our shake.


You can add whatever else you want, you can also add a little juice to sweeten it. I prefer water as a base to smooth-ify the smoothie. Blend into an oblivion and enjoy!

My little aliens

After Joe returned from work today we were sitting in our bedroom. Ambree was off doing her own thing and Bailey and Brielle were playing and going up and down the stairs. They were having fun, whatever they were doing, because they kept giggling and chattering to each other. When they were close enough that we could hear them, we giggled to ourselves because they were talking about a spaceship. Very imaginative talk about going to a spaceship. I told Joe that they were talking about where they came from. So he called out to them, "Are you girls talking about the spaceship that you came from?" Then the laughter really began. They laughed for a few seconds and then Bailey said to Brielle, "Dad's talking about a spaceship!" Then came the giggling from me. Funny that they think he's the crazy one!

Bailey

I love this kid!

We have been potty training and she is super stubborn. It's taken an entire week to crack her! She is finally getting it. Every morning when we take off the diaper and put on the panties, we talk about where we go potty. This was our exchange this morning:

Me: Bailey, we don't go potty where?

Bailey: In my panties.

Me: So where DO we go potty?

Bailey: In the Tiki Room!

I have no idea why she said that, other than we watch the video of Disneyland a few times each day. She is continuously asking if we can go back to Disneyland.

You should see her dance. She's got great rhythm.

She is not picky at all. She will eat whatever is put in front of her. She LOVES food. Especially cereal.

She prefers to be called Princess. When I say, "Bailey, come here please" she responds, "I'm not Bailey, I'm Princess!"

Her laugh is awesome!

Definitely the dirtiest kid in our household! She is a dirt magnet!

She has this little dimple on her left cheek, right below her nose. It shows up when she has her 'serious face' on. I absolutely love it!

Crazy Bays is what we call her, and for good reason. We are so lucky to have her in our family. What a sweetheart!

I'm so motivated...

...to eat healthier. I've always known that it's important to eat healthy, and you are what you eat. It's just difficult to transition from the foods you are used to eating and cooking. But I'm going to start with baby steps. My friend Michelle had her sister come speak to a bunch of us, and make us a delish dinner. The dinner was just icing on the cake, I was so excited to hear her story of how she transitioned from a normal diet to a plant-based foods diet, and without much support from her husband. The statistics are really what got me. You can reverse and prevent disease by making most of your diet plant-based and eliminating most animal proteins. It's just the beginning for me, but I can tell it's going to be good.

I forgot to mention that my beautiful sister gave birth to her handsome little man on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 1:30 am our time/ 3:30 pm China time. Mr. William or Big Willy as they call him, came in at an unexpected 9 lbs. 12 oz, and 20 inches. It still amazes me that my little sister could carry a baby that big! I think he looks just like my brothers, definitely a Brusch. Mom and baby are doing awesome. In fact, Jen said that when they brought him in so she could feed him, he latched right on and ate for an hour and a half! Good boy! Will is the first grandson for my parents, so it's exciting after this gaggle of girls that we have!


Tonight when I got home Brielle ran into my arms, played with my earring for a second and said, "Mom your earrings are cool." Haha, I've never heard her use that word. Funny.