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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Ho Hum

So another year is starting out and things have gotten quietly loud around here. I am glad that my life has slowed down to a fast pace and that my kids have gotten calmly rowdy. I have several goals for the new year such as to sit around and lose weight, keep my house messily clean, and only whisper when I yell at my kids.

Because it has been a while I will do a quick update on the kids:
Blake:
Blake is now 9 months old and has decided that life is only worth living if he is eating the crumbs out of my garbage pile when I sweep. I tried just not sweeping for a while thinking that this would solve the problem, but he turned to his second passion which is to eat all the crumbs that have not been swept up. He also eats a steady diet of baby wipes, candy wrappers and remote controls. (the baby wipes actually bother me the most, I understand the crumbs...at least they were once food, but a baby wipe?? Doesn't it taste nasty?? Maybe it doesn't, I have not actually tried one so I guess I shouldn't judge)

Blake is such a joy to have around. He smiles a lot and keeps us going, but he also sleeps through the night and eats well, so no real complaints.
Ashton:
Ashton turned 3 this year but is still under the impression that he is 18 and should be able to run his own life. Ashton enjoys a variety of activities (anything with a flat screen or controller usually works) and doesn't understand why he can't have his own iphone. He has recently decided that clothes are ok to wear for longer than 10 minutes and that there is more to eat than just cold cereal. Ok, fine, that is a lie, he still only wants to eat cereal for every meal, but he only gets away with it when he is tired and grumpy, or if he throws a big enough fit. (there is nothing wrong with giving into fits....right?)

Ashton loves the movie How to Train Your Dragon (I do too, the scene with Toothless and Hiccup learning how to fly together makes me cry every time....not sure why, I don't cry at many movies, in fact the only other one I can think of is Brother Bear)
Nathan:
Nathan is loving Kindergarten and has learned to read several words. He has published 2 books. (I debated weather to put that fact in the blog, you see I have a friend who just signed a deal to publish her first book and I didn't want to make her feel bad being so far behind my genius children and all, but I went for it anyway) Nathan has decided to keep his room clean and to do everything that I ask him to do. (no joke) I am pretty sure it is my parenting skills and not just his personality that has brought this about....the other kids?? We will just blame their messy rooms on their father.

Nathan just had his 6th birthday and had a small party at Chuck-E-Cheese with a SUPER fantastic cake that was made by my friend (it was actually the same friend that is publishing a book....maybe I should take out that first reference to her to say thanks....nah) Nathan has quite a collection of Mario characters and enjoys playing with them.
Kaylee:
Kaylee is 8 years old and is becoming quite a young lady. She is funny and fun and smart and shy all at the same time. (the split personality comes from me...or maybe it comes from me....hard to tell which) She has decided to join a Destination Imagination team this year and has really enjoyed working with her group. She is keeping up with her piano and I like to hear her practice. I wasn't able to post video of her winter recital because her piano teacher had a baby the day before the recital so we had to cancel, otherwise I would have posted the videos......yes I would have.....I am a blogging maniac.

I am thankful every day that I was blessed with a sweet little girl to call my own.
Trevor:
Trevor is still my oldest child, even though he thinks his opinion should be counted as an equal to his parents. Unfortunately the other kids agree with Trevor. If they have to choose to obey us or Trevor they almost always choose him. It drives me nuts. Here is one example: Ashton was going to say the dinner prayer the other night and I was going to help him...apparently Trevor was planning on helping him too and we both said "Dear Heavenly Father" at the same time. Silly me thought that Trevor would realize that I was going to help him and therefor stop talking, but no, I said "thank you for our day" as Trevor said "please bless the food" and as Ashton quickly repeated "please bless this food" I realized that my fate was sealed. Oh well, at least he has taught Nathan to keep his room clean.

Trevor is also doing Destination Imagination again this year and auditioned for and was accepted to participate in the school talent show for playing the piano. He is really a good kid and tries hard in everything he does.

I know you were expecting a "short" update, and this was kind of long, but when you have had as many kids as I have it takes a while to update on everyone.....either that or it makes you go crazy and you tend to ramble on and on and forget that you said it would be a short update in the first place.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

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


Saturday, September 18, 2010

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.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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!

Monday, June 14, 2010

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)

Monday, June 7, 2010

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!