Brenda

Brenda truly is an amazing person, and I am very lucky that she is my wife and best friend.

These pictures remind me of all the good times we have had these last 12+ years and just how beautiful she is.

(P.S. the video has music but you have to un-mute it along the bottom)

Love,

Bryan

Brenda - flash slideshow maker

First Day of School

I know most of you were wondering if I started to home school my kids because you had not seen back to school pictures posted here. Well I am super mom, but I have decided to support our local school system and send my kids there....you know to boost their numbers.

Trevor is starting 4th grade and it blows me away that the oldest kids at the school are only 1 year older than him. He is still in the spectrum program (advanced placement class) and doing great.

Kaylee is starting 3rd grade and loves her new class. She has been starting lots of new books and has been super dedicated to getting her homework done and papers signed as soon as she gets home (a big improvement from last year)

Nathan is starting Kindergarten and is in the PM class. He LOVES it. After trying a few backpacks we finally found a winner with a Mario backpack. Nathan is doing well and he is learning the rules of school quickly.

Ashton and Blake are alas still at home (only 5 more years....not that I'm counting down) They keep me REALLY busy (sometimes they actually nap at the same time and I am amazed at what I can accomplish) Ashton still thinks that he is one of the big kids and tries to do everything himself. Blake has decided that he too would like to be a big kid and has started to crawl (mostly scooting around with his head on the floor and his legs kicking behind him) I will try to get video soon.

I LOVE the fall weather that has started to creep in and hope to catch up on all things bloggy soon.

Successes and Failures

I had quite an interesting day today with several ups and downs. As I prepare for bed I was thinking about them all and thought I would share:

Success: I got Ashton to eat his dinner without yelling at him or force feeding him

Failure: I did not do the dinner dishes....last night or tonight

Success: I completed all of my grocery shopping with all 5 kids and bought a large clock I have had my eyes on for a couple of years.

Failure: I was "that lady" at Wal-mart with my kids, they were screaming and fighting and running up and down the isles, and I was about at the end of my rope, and I am pretty sure it showed.

Success: I got all the kids fed and out the door and made it to Cub Scout pack meeting before the opening prayer.

Failure: Blake was covered in spit-up and stunk (I am pretty sure some of the other kids stunk, but I don't want to embarrass them by putting it on the blog)

Success: I got Ashton to bed without yelling at him (for those not around Ashton a lot, I will let you know that he is trying to make the most out of the term "terrible twos" before he reaches the age of 3.

Failure: It is past bed time and I have still not put away the non perishable groceries.

Success: I wrote a blog post

Failure: No pictures of my new clock and newly painted front room.

There you go, a day of ups and downs. Overall I feel pleased with my day and look forward to the new day I have in front of me tomorrow.

You Know It's Summer When.......

Around here there are some key things that tell us that summer has arrived. I will share just a few.

You know it's summer when you see me making one of these for a cute little girl:

You know it's summer when you have to add sunscreen to your shopping list so that your kids don't end up looking like this:

And finally, you know it's summer when Bryan starts to bring these sweet things home from work:

Gotta love summer!

Summer Fun

First day of Summer Break?

Bring it ON!

My house may be a mess, my laundry might all be dirty, the lawn might need mowed, dinner might need to be started.........

BUT

My kids all have happy smiling faces!

(except for Blake who got his 2 month shots today)

No Cat and No Hat

The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play

So we went to IKEA on that cold cold wet day

I shopped there with Bryan and all our kids too,

and I said "I'll take this one and that one... gimme two!"

So Today....

It's too wet to go out and too cold to play ball

So I'll sit in the house and assemble it all

BEFORE

AFTER

But that is not all OH NO that is not all.....

Lets just say that I am hoping for rain all the week long!

How to Successfully Catch Up a Blog in 10 Easy Steps

Step 1: Choose a day when you will have extra kids, like cousins, at your house. (if it is too easy to write a blog post you might do it more often, and then you would not need a handy dandy post telling you step by step how to catch up on your blog.)

Step 2: Got to bed late the night before the post (see you don't want too much energy in the morning or you might be tempted to do housework, run errands, or other things that have been neglected just as long as your blog)

Step 3: Get kids off to school (not only does this get them out of your hair for the day but it gives them opportunities to do cool things like placing 1st in a regional Destination Imagination competition, or even placing 3rd in a state wide Destination Imagination competition, thus providing great material to blog about.

Step 4: Get a nice nutritious breakfast

Step 5: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by feeding him

Step 6: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by changing his diaper

Step 7: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by holding him on your lap precariously so that you can still use both hands to type.

Step 8: Once baby is asleep carefully take him to bed (watch out your leg might be asleep because of how you were holding him).....(you may find these steps unnecessary, but they do provide ample opportunity to post cute pictures of baby)

Step 9: Think of all the fun things you have done in the last few days months that you have not blogged about (don't get too depressed)

Step 10: Find lots of pictures of said fun activities, write, and publish your post.

Now that wasn't so hard was it?

A GIANT thanks goes out to my sister Charlotte who redesigned my blog for me. You should check her out HERE at http://latermom.blogspot.com