Brycen's Birthday

Brycen had a party with his friends on the Saturday after his birthday. It was "Fear Factor" themed and they had a blast.

Here they are doing the "Yum or Yuck" Challange. I filled each cup up halfway with chocolate milk and dropped 5 M&Ms in the bottoms. Then, I put some whip cream on top so they couldn't see under it. I told them all that in the bottom was either peas or candy. They had to drink it all and them eat whatever was on the bottom to win. Of course, I didn't put any peas in, but Braden still swears to this day that his had peas in it. :-)

These are most of the kids that came to his party. I think we're missing 3 or so in this photo.

This was taken on his actual birthday. He opened his family gifts on this day. Here he had just opened his new skateboard and his iPod helmet. He can plug his iPod into the helmet and it will play through the surround sound speakers built into the helmet.

This is his electric drum set. He loves it and has given up many concerts already.

Halloween

I know these are wayyyyyyy late. But I just downloaded these pics and had to share them. Braden was a ninja for the third year in a row. You'd think I'd learn and not give away his costume after the second time. NOPE. I had to go out and buy a another new ninja costume again this year.


Brycen was the scream guy. I don't even know his name or if he has one. Bry scared all the little kids at dad's work when he had his mask on.

Brooke is our sweet pirate girl. Isn't she just too cute?

This Holiday Season

An old friend from elementary school (Oh my! I am old!) wrote this and I love it. Thanks Gary!

Remember when you were a kid and Thanksgiving was coming? Remember that feeling you got? All the handprint crayola turkeys in the classroom windows? All the excitement of Christmas around the corner? Remember how it felt to just know that everything was okay? Where did those holiday feelings go? It seems we have grown as adults and become so preoccupied with life that we have forgotten about living. Now WE have to explain to OUR children what Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about. This is a very tough time for a lot of American families and our children will not understand what the holidays are representing if all they recognize as different this year is a few less presents under the tree. we need to teach them how beautiful this time of year really is.

You know how on an evening stroll, you smell the air and in it is a familiar smell that brings you back to a specific moment in your life? It almost places you at an exact moment in time; you feel it, your body becomes engulfed in a strange familiarity. Suddenly, you're back in second grade, reciting the lines for the Christmas play and making reindeer out of clothespins. You're cutting plain white pieces of paper a thousand times to make a magical snowflake. You're at Grandma's house and the sweet smell of cookies in the oven takes over. You're at home with your brothers and sisters, Moms and Dads, watching Ralphie shoot his eye out or watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" while the smell of sweet evergreen pine is in the house and can almost hear the theme song by Vince Guiraldi on his piano. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. It takes us back. Back to a simpler time in our lives when the biggest decision of the day was choosing between Cap'n Crunch or Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

But in order for us to have any nostalgic feelings, we must have memories first. We need Grandma's cookies, or home baked pies. We need the smells, the sounds, the warm feelings of the holidays in order to burn a sense of peace and well-being in our souls.

Christmas has a feeling to it that I worry will be lost this year to paying overdue bills and mortgages and worrying about our futures. This holiday season, relax just a little more; be a Mom, be a Dad, be a brother, a sister, a grandmother or grandfather, be a friend to somebody who needs a memory created. Most importantly, create memories for the children in your life. There may not be as many presents as there used to be, but when they're 30, 40, 50, even 80 years old, what they'll remember are the feelings that the holidays give us. Bake some cookies with the kids, take them on a trip to see the lights, take them iceskating, build a tradition that is only yours. Don't use that old plastic tree with bunched up needles and wire branches. Go pick one out of a lot, or, better yet, take the kids on a trip to a Christmas Tree farm and let them help you pick out a beautiful tree and cut it down yourself. That tree is one of a kind, made by God and Earth for your family. Let thesmell of Christmas pine permeate your home. Make your home feel like Christmas. Make it so when your children are on an evening stroll with their children twenty-five years from now, a smell of something familiar will bring them back to relive memories with you. Slow your life down and live; be there for your loved ones. Bring friends over, bring family over, burn that feeling of peace into your childrens' souls. After all, nostalgia won't exist for your children if you don't creat the memories. Peace and love in this holiday season to you and all you love. Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas.

Manicure

I put Brooke down for a nap today in her bed and went downstairs to do just what I'm doing now... messing around on the computer. I was also baking some cookies for our squadron children's Halloween party tonight. I thought I smelled something that reminded me of fingernail polish, but I brushed it off as the smell of the cookies. (I know, I know... they smell nothing alike!) I couldn't take it anymore and went upstairs to check on Brooke. What did I find? Funny you should ask...

I don't know how I smelled it from that far away. Our living room in downstairs in the SE corner of the house. My master bathroom is upstairs in the NE corner of the house.

I think I'm going to leave the polish on her so she can sport her own mani at the party tonight. Pirates wear polish, too!

A Morning @ the Riverwalk

So, as promised, we went to the Riverwalk on Saturday and I got a chance to play with my camera. I'm still trying to figure out my editing program, though.

Brooke was sitting under the bridge watching a boat in the river. She is such a good subject!

I love this picture. Nick really wanted to comb Brycen's hair, but he refused. It's apparently not cool to have combed hair right now.

Here's my cool dude.

Braden was trying to be "serious".

Brooke loved the flowers I picked for her.

The boys were leaning against the bridge and Brooke had to do it, too.

This is my favorite picture!!!!

Photo Shoot tomorrow

A friend of mine has asked me to take some pictures of her family. I am so excited to be able to do this for my friends. We are going to a really pretty area called the Riverwalk tomorrow morning. I am going to bring my kiddos and do theirs first. Then I'll do Cindy's family. While we were talking about it, another friend asked if I could do her kids, too! So, she's going to meet us out there and I'll get some of them, too. So, be looking for some new pics on the site soon.

Lunch @ Lee Park

Today we went to Lee Park with some friends to have a picnic lunch and run around a little bit. We met Lily, Tyler, Drew, Sophie, Gabe, Bella, and their mommies there. It was so much fun and she is now taking a much needed nap.

Even though Brooke is out of focus it this pic, I love it. She is riding that horse like she's got someplace to go.

Here is my pretty girl. I love the pictures where she doesn't know I'm snapping away at her.

Brooke is posing for the camera in this one. She has gotten over the over-dramatic "cheese face". I love how her hair curls up at the ends.

First day of Preschool

Brooke started preschool on September 10th. She does great if I am not the one to take her. If I take her, she cries from the time we pull into the parking lot until I walk around the corner and she can't see me anymore. Miss Willie (her teacher) tells me that she is doing great and is so smart. (But we already knew that!) Her little friend Maddi is in her class. Brooke tells me all about her day and her teachers for about an hour when we get home. It is so cute.

Bina Class

Brooke has been going to dance class since the beginning of August. She was not a fan until recently. In fact, I would have to get out there with her during class and run and jump around with her for her to even participate at all. Now it's a different story. She goes out by herself and does everything her teacher tells her to do. It is so cute. Oh, and she calls it "Bina Class". Here are some pictures of her in class...

This is her "twirling":

I don't know what she was doing here, but it's cute anyway.

She is getting ready to curtsy here:

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Wow. This past month has been crazy! I’ll try to catch you all up on it as much as possible.

Brooke’s birthday celebration was on July 26th. Of course, it was a Dora party. Tiffany made a custom Dora cake for her. It was a lot of fun.

The boys went back to school in the beginning of August. Brycen thinks his teacher is “kinda cool”. Braden has the same teacher as he did last year. She “looped” into the second grade and most of his classmates are the same from last year. We really like her. I’ve even had the opportunity to help out in his class once and will do it again anytime.

At the end of August, we were able to travel to New England for Mike and Missy’s wedding. It was fantabulous! We spent a couple days at Hampton Beach and the kids got to play in the sand and the ocean. Both boys got to try out body surfing and they really enjoyed it. Brooke did not like the cold water at all, but she loved digging in the sand.

We all had lots of fun at the wedding, too. Brooke started dancing before the music even started. She danced until she couldn’t stand on her own two feet anymore. Then she wanted me to hold her and dance. We swayed on the dance floor until she put her head on my shoulder and fell fast asleep. Braden danced up a storm, too. He sat out maybe two songs the entire night. He was break dancing and spinning and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Everyone thought he was so cute. He even danced with a couple girls. (Shhhhh, don’t say anything to him. He’s still embarrassed about it.) Brycen was shy about dancing at first and wanted nothing to do with it. He found a couple friends and they ran around most of the night together. Towards the end of the evening, he got over it and got out on the dance floor for a couple songs. His footwork was so quick, people were calling him “King of the dance”.

Brooke started preschool on September 10th. Her friend Maddi is in her class. She is going on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So far, I think it’s been harder on Mom than it has on Brooke. (Pictures to come...)

As for us grownups, Nick is getting ready to go on a squadron “deployment”. That’s just a fancy way of saying they are going away for a weekend to party hard. I think they just call it a deployment so us wives think it’s a mandatory thing. Yep, partying like a rock star and then going deep sea fishing is totally mandatory. (I don't know if I'll post pictures of this later. It all depends on how embarrassing they are to Nick. If they are duds, I won't post any.)

I’m staying busy with MOPS and OSC and keeping up with the kids. I also bought myself a toy this week. Brooke and I found a Wii Fit at WalMart and had to buy it. It is so much fun and quite a workout, too.

I promise to try to stay on top of this better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

I know... it's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy. What can I say? I swear to catch up once the boys go back to school next week. Pinky promise!

A Few More Pics

We had a mini photo shoot in the backyard again. Brycen is asking to have one all the time now. I grab my camera and let the kiddos pose however they want. Of course, because these are just spur of the moment, they are not all cutesied up (if they are dressed at all - see the nice shot of the kids with Brooke in just her panties!). This time, dad was home. So, we pulled a bar stool out to the yard (Braden broke the tripod) and had a full family shot. We tried to get Kody in it, too, but he was so not interested.

The boys wanted to look serious. Brooke wasn't playing along.

Here is one of our little friends. They are so cool. If we are standing out there, they will fly around and you can see them zooming around your head.

So These Are the Days of our Lives...

This blog is about one of my many addictions. soap operas... It all started when I was pregnant with Brycen... no, let's back this up. It all started when I was born. My grandma, whom we lived with when I was born, was also a SO addict (and still is). She had four shows she watched on a daily basis. I think one was a half hour and the rest were full hour long shows, so if you also count her "resting her eyes" hour, Nicole and I had 4.5 hours to do anything we wanted and she didn't care as long as we didn't disturb her. Thankfully, we were pretty good kids. But instead of talking about normal kid things at the playground, we were discussing whether Erica Cane was going to get together with Adam Chandler or Jackson Montgomery and which one was Bianca's daddy. (http://abc.go.com/daytime/allmychildren/bios/61952_1.html) Or if Dixie and Tad were getting married or not. (Nicole, if you are reading this, I know you are totally laughing your butt off right now!) And when Robin was three or so, whenever she would give someone a kiss goodbye, she would say, "Oh, Nico!" very suggestively. So then I went off to school and didn't think twice about soap operas....


Until I was 6.5 months preggers with Brycen and I had to quit my job and Nick and I moved to the desert. I couldn't get another job until after I had Bry and I didn't know anyone in my new town AND it was hot as the trenches of hell in Lancaster during the summer. Soooooo, I sat my big pregnant butt on the couch and got caught up on all my soaps. I watched them all day long. It was great. When Bry was 2 months old, I got a job. It was a regular work during the day job, so I couldn't watch my soaps. (This was before the days of DVR.) When I went on maternity leave with Braden, I had a toddler to chase after, so I couldn't devote my entire day to soap operas. I had to make a choice. I picked Days of our Lives. I don't know what it was during those 6 weeks that got me so hooked. When I went back to work, I would try to take my lunch hour from 12:30 - 1:30 so I could watch my show. When Nick went back in the AF and I had to quit my job again, I was able to watch it whenever I could in between chasing the boys and running them to/from school and activities which was once a week if I was lucky.

Then one day.... we ordered DirecTV with DVR!!!! HEAVEN in a box! I can now record every single show and watch them whenever I please (like when the kids are in bed). The best part about it is that I can fast forward through all the commercials. Sometimes I save my soaps up. I'll not watch them at all during the week and then stay up until midnight one night getting caught up on all five. That way, when they leave you hanging at the end of the day with some suspense filled drama, I don't have to think about it all night (which I do!). I can just watch the next day's episode right then. LOVE IT!

Tomorrow I may fill you in on another one of my addictions. Maybe it will be the one that is sweet, soft and chewy that you eat... or the salty one that you keep the inside and throw away the outside. Hmmmmm........

MPF!!!

Arggghhhhh! Those of you not in the military does not know what MPF is. Honestly, I don't even know what the acronym stands for, but I can tell you it's where you get a new ID card. Recently on our base, MPF has stopped accepting walk-in customers. You must make an appointment. It's so bad that Nick's co-worker sent them an email to ask a quick question and they sent him an email back telling him that he must make an appointment for inquiries. WHAT?! Anyway, I called them last week because my ID was expiring. I told them what I needed and they asked me what date my card expired. I told them it expired on July 18th and he made my appointment for the 17th. We were there FOR-EV-ER! And, of course, I had the three kiddos with me. It was lovely. But, I did get my new ID card, so I can come home every night. Wait...... What was I thinking?! :-)

The other night when we did our little photo shoot in the backyard I took a pic that I just love now. Brooke did not have any pants on (What else is new?), but it is still awesome. And you can barely tell she was running around in the back field with just her panties on.

Splish Splash

Today we went to the Sprayground with some friends from MOPS. The boys had a ball from the time we got there. Brooke, on the other hand, was pretty reserved at first and did not want to get wet. About 15 minutes before we left, she found her groove and was sticking her head in the spray and sitting on them. She did not want to leave. Here are some pictures of the kiddos.

Pictures

I do not know how to post pictures to my blog, so this is my test.

Terry is turning 50 in a couple weeks and I want to make a nice picture collage for his office. I bought a black frame with a mat and room for three pictures. So far, I've choosen the pics I'm going to use for the boys... but I am torn over which one to use for Brooke.

And then I had to post just one of my handsome hubby.

Ouch! My Poor, Aching %#@!

Yesterday, the boys were begging us all day for an Icee from the Shoppette. We promised them that if they completed all their chores we would go. Well..... they finished their chores, Nick and I finished ours, AND we ate a ginormous dinner that needed to be worked off, so we decided to ride our bikes there. For those of you that do not know Columbus AFB and how far away the Shoppette is from our home, it's about a mile and a half. Not very far when you're on a bike. Brooke sat in her seat behind me and we were off. Braden couldn't stay on the side of the road and we looked back a few times to see him riding along the yellow dotted line in the middle of the road with cars lined up behind him. Only Braden...

Understandably, my bum was quite sore this morning. The boys wanted Taco Bell for lunch. Where is Taco Bell, you ask??? Right next to the Shoppette. So we got "back on the saddle" and off we went... again. I could tell right away that riding another three miles today was not going to be a great idea. Can I just say, "OUCH!" I think I'm going to stay off the bike for a few days.

On another note... we are going to paint the inside of the house. I think we are going to start with Brooke's room. I've already painted her toddler bed, which will going in her room when she wakes up from her nap in a few hours. We are going to paint it a pale, butter yellow. We may even attemp some verticle stripes 1" thick. The yellow stripes will be either 6" or 12". We haven't decided yet. I think it will look really nice with her black bed and pink accessories. As for the boys, we are going to sand and paint their bunk beds and dressor a really manly blue. Once that is done, we'll decide on what color we are going to put on the walls. Downstairs, we'll be painting it beige with maybe some accent walls. I think I want to try a faux finish in the downstairs bathroom. I've never done a faux finish before, but I figure it's the smallest room in the house, it only has one door, there are no windows, and if it ends up looking bad it will be snap to repaint it. Wish me luck!

Why, Oh Why???

Why do I fill our schedule with so many activities during the summer months? Isn't this supposed to be the time when we're supposed to be able to sleep in and lounge around in our jammers for half the day before lazily making out way to the pool?

I just woke up at 6am for the fifth time this week to take Brycen out to Caledonia for Summer Day Camp. When we get home, I have to get Braden dressed and ready and take him to Golf Camp. After I pick him up an hour later, we are having Brooke's friend, Drew, over for a playdate so him mommy can have some "me" time.

Enough wah, wah, wahs...

Brooke is so talkative lately. And her words are so clear. She is saying full sentences. Not just the ones that go, "I DO IT!", either. She told me the other day, "I put my shoes on!" She is singing her ABC's and counting to 10.

I meant to post this on Friday, but I hit "save" instead of "publish". Doh!!!

But Everyone Else is Doing It!

Blogging, that is. I've started this puppy... let's see if I can keep up with it.

I got this cool new camera and have not shared the awesome pics with anyone in the family yet. Hopefully, this will help me keep the family happy.