Happy Holidays!

We had a great time this Christmas. It didn't have to be that great to be better than last year when I was SO sick the whole time. But it really was great.

On the 23rd, we made some candy for our neighbors and went around delivering little bags of it with an ornament for each neighbor on our culdesac and it was way better than I even thought it would be. Most of the neighbors invited us in and wanted to visit for 20 minutes or so and our girls are quite popular now, especially with the older couples who are empty-nesters. :) It was a great experience and I'm glad we did that because we've been here for 10 months but we hadn't met most of our neighbors yet. This was the perfect opportunity.

On Christmas Eve, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (a new tradition we started this year and Ben voted to keep) and enjoyed reading Christmas stories and singing carols with the kids. A nice, low-key day. Ben got off at noon and got to spend most of the day with us! We drove around the neighborhood that night looking at the Christmas lights while I read the original Christmas story from Luke 2 and then we listened to Christmas songs from Trans Siberian Orchestra. I think the girls have a pretty good understanding of what Christmas is truly about and that the lights, presents, and singing are just a fun way that people have come up with to celebrate the most wonderful gift the world has received -- the birth of our Savior. It was a really special night for our family.

Christmas was a blast! Jill & Miranda didn't wake us up until 7:30!!! Yay! We did have to wake Natalie up but she was all for it when she saw the presents. Since we have a kid at the "unwrapper" stage, we can't put our presents under the tree until Christmas morning. Our kids were amazed at one of the neighbor's houses because they already had presents under their tree two days before Christmas! :) The girls all loved what they got (yay, we did good!) and then we were going to have a big pancake breakfast, then pack and go to Grandma & Grandpa Bryner's house. But since we all were excited to get going, we opted for frozen waffles and a quick pack up. We had a great drive over (thanks to new Christmas presents to play with -- DS & Leapster!) and were able to enjoy the next few days with ALL of Ben's family. We had people visiting from Georgia, Minnesota, and Nevada and it'll probably never happen again, so we took family pictures, played games and did puzzles, had a talent show, and of course there were more presents and lots of food.

Fun was had by all and the fun doesn't stop yet. We are home for two days and then we will head out on New Year's Eve to go see my family in Kansas. The driving is not my favorite but it is so nice to see family and have Ben and Jill home with us so much. We love the holidays!!!

Our family's new favorite song to rock out to :)

This is the edited version, so be aware if you try to listen to it elsewhere. There's just one word that's derogatory that's dubbed over in this video. I can't help but dance when this one comes on! :) Even Ben likes it!!!

Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows everywhere

Ha ha. I loved that song. Ok, so none of the above are around here but things are going well. It's been SUPER cold this week. It was 80 degrees on Sunday and we were enjoying time in our backyard and the next morning it was 20! Someone told me the cold front that came through changed the temperature 40 degrees in about one hour! Crazy! I feel bad making Jill stand at the bus stop in this weather (and I don't enjoy standing there with her!) but we're getting used to it. And it's supposed to be in the 60's this weekend, so it's all good. :)

I (Brandi) was sick last week and Ben was wonderful enough to come home from work and take care of the girls for me. I was really down and out with some flu or something. Then I had almost 24 hours of health when I lost my voice! Luckily that was some fluke that had no other symptoms and I've been feeling good since. I REALLY don't want to be sick for Christmas like I was last year, so I'm fine with having it out of the way now!

We've been partying big time lately. The YW hosted a dance for the couples in the ward and they provided childcare but I was too sick to go to that one, darn it! But we had a church family party on Friday and last night was a church women party and tomorrow is Jill's class party at school. School gets out at 1 PM on Friday and then I have my Jill all to myself for a couple of weeks! We're both excited about that but I have a feeling she'll be begging to go back to school before January starts!

Ben was on tv this week. Woo hoo! He's hit the big time now on a local Abilene nightly newscast! He gave a great quote and was very articulate and handsome. :) But the caption at the bottom of the screen said, "Ben Bryman." :( Oh well. They can't report ALL the news accurately. :)

Jill had her first piano recital last week and did quite well on her "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer" piece. She does way better in the comfort of her own home and was nervous but I was so proud of her. I asked the teacher what to have her wear (I had assumed a dress) and she said, "Oh I just say no jeans. We have everything from pants to dresses." She made it seem very casual (and she, in fact, wore nice dark JEANS to the recital), so Ben & I suggested to Jill that she wear these cute pin striped trousers and a pretty pink shirt (she had originally wanted a dress). She looked great. We walked in and every other girl was in a frilly dress. Ugh! Way to go Mom! She didn't even seem to notice and didn't say anything but next time, she will be wearing a dress! Also, she memorized her song and I was impressed but sometimes she'd play an occasional wrong note (not a bad sounding note, but like a different part of the song). I noticed she was looking at her fingers and not the music. I was trying to convince her to play the music. So at home she practiced and did a great job but at the recital, she got flustered trying to look at the music ("to make you happy Mom!") and didn't play it as well as if she was looking down at her fingers the whole time. Ugh! Way to go Mom! So I'm going to leave the teaching to the teacher and just enjoy her playing without critique! She didn't get upset at all that she didn't play it perfectly and I was so proud. I was a bit of a baby when I was younger and if I couldn't play perfectly, I would cry and quit. My poor mother. :)

Miranda is so stinkin' smart. I know my kids are all geniuses but really she is amazing me. It's that great age where they want to learn and they retain so much of what you tell them. A lot of times I think or even say, "Miranda, you're not old enough to do this," and she does everything she can to prove me wrong. I definitely underestimate her when I consider her one of "the babies." I've always called her & Natalie that but really they aren't babies at all anymore. It's fun to be teaching her to write her letters (Jill has already taught her a lot) and she asked me to teach her how to read, so that she can read the cards on a family game that we play together. "I want to read it myself!" So she comes up with something that she thinks it might say and then grins her beautiful grin and hands the card to us for us to tell her what she's supposed to do in the game.

Natalie's new favorite phrase is, "Zat mine?" We'll be dishing up food... "Zat mine?" We'll be folding laundry and she'll see her pile... "Zat mine?" She's very possessive and her favorite thing to do with Miranda is say, "NOOO MINE!!!" They will do this back and forth all day long if I don't stop them. She also thinks that Miranda's name is Natalie, so anytime she wants to talk to her, she bellows, "Nat - a- leeeee." Very funny. Perhaps she picked that up because we often mistakenly call Miranda, "Natalie." :)

Presents around the Christmas Tree

Many of you know that we replaced the carpet in our house in May and I'm happy to say it has been unscathed since then. No spills or accidents of any kind. Until today. I was just checking a friend's blog when I heard a gagging sound. I had given Natalie a banana a few minutes before and I looked over toward the Christmas tree just in time to see her throw up a banana on my carpet. :( I was so sad about the carpet and a little worried about Natalie. :) She was totally fine. I guess she just gagged on something and couldn't control it. Three times. :( At least I have a carpet cleaner and some great stain remover, Folex! :) Not exactly the kind of presents you want to find around the Christmas tree.

We set up our tree and decorated on Monday for Family Night. It's beginning to feel like Christmas even though it doesn't totally look that way. There's no snow here but I have about 10,000 huge yellow leaves on my lawn, on my walkway, on my driveway, on my porch, and on my welcome mat. I should probably do something about that. :) But it's way too cold, so I'll sit here and blog and watch more yellow leaves fall outside my window. ;)

Catching Up... Thanksgiving & Family Vacation

Ok, so I've waited too long to post again but here goes the catching up...

Jill joined Daisy Girl Scouts and just received her official daisy pin and is enjoying getting to know the other girls.
We decided that for our 10 year anniversary, we would have a family vacation to Sea World. Jill seems to get heat exhaustion on all of our summer family vacations, so we figured November in San Antonio would be ok and it was! :) We asked our friends to come with us, since they were too far from family for the holiday and they accepted. We had a traditional Thanksgiving meal at their house the Sunday before our trip and it was SO good! I made a pumpkin pie that turned out great and I brought some other things as well and my friend made the turkey (which Ben is STILL talking about) and all the rest of the fixings. It was fun and I'm glad we didn't miss the "feast" part of Thanksgiving. :)
Jill had her kindergarten Thanksgiving program and it was great. And yes, I did get teary-eyed. She was sick on Monday but well enough to go back to school Tuesday for the program. Yay!

We went down on Wednesday and checked into our hotel. It was small but worked great for us. All of the girls slept great in the hotel and that was a great relief! We went to Sea World on Thursday and Friday and then went to the San Antonio Zoo on Saturday before returning home. It was a nice, relaxing vacation that we all thoroughly enjoyed. We crossed paths with our friends in Sea World and had dinner with them once but we kind of did our own thing, which was nice because then we could all do what we needed to for our own families. We got to the park earlier, they liked to stay later, we wanted to do the zoo, they wanted to go shopping (and got killer deals, so I probably should have gone with them!), but overall it was just a great time.

Handmade for Holiday Cheer

Hey all-

I know many of you are super talented and have probably planned a year in advance to make homemade gifts for all of your friends and relatives. Or maybe you're like me and it takes more than a year to bring any of your crafty ideas to fruition. So... buy something beautiful and handmade from these super talented friends of mine and make everyone happy! :)

One of my friends from church has just opened her new etsy shop and it is full of beautiful handmade items. She opened her store just in time for the holiday season and has some gorgeous hats, scarves, hair bands, bows, and Christmas decorations available. Please check her out and spread the word about this cute shop! :)

Hollidaisy

Also, one of my wonderful college roommates makes her own soap and I've heard great things about it, so I'm ordering some! Check out her etsy shop too!

Growing Season Soaps

Hilarious

Conversations

Miranda: I don't like [insert her friend's name here].
Me: Why?
Miranda: She always picks purple!
Me: That's ok. She can like purple too. But your favorite is pink anyway.
Miranda: No, it's not. I like PURPLE!
Me: Since when?
Miranda: Since about noon.

Me (looking at e-mails): I just need to find the message from [insert PTA person here].
Jill: What's the reject?
Me: Reject? Oh, you mean subject!
(Most of them do have an RE: in front of it!) :)

Our neighbor is a boy named Zack and one of his friends is a boy we sit with at the bus stop, named Dylan. Zack has been having his friends come over every afternoon this week to jump off the roof onto their trampoline. Yeah, scary. Yesterday someone accidentally threw something over the fence and Dylan asked Jill to give it to him. She went to pick it up and handed it to him and he said, "You're awesome! Thanks!" She shyly said, "You're welcome, Dylan" and ran back over to our swing set as Dylan proudly said, "See? She knows me." I could have sworn Jill was blushing. Ah, 5th grade boys!!! :)

Showers

There have been a TON of baby showers lately and I love them. Last night we did a joint shower for two lovely ladies who moved here and started coming to our church right about the time their babies were due! So we let them have their babies and get back into the swing of things and then some awesome ladies through a shower for them. We had a lot of fun and I thought I'd post some cute pics of my great friends and their adorable cherubs!

Late

Ok, I know I haven't posted in a while and the blogging community is crying out for more pictures of my kids, so here you go. :)

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and my camera battery died right after we got there. My friend Natalie (mom of the adorable kids you don't know in these pics) took a bunch and is supposed to send them to me but her computer is kaput, so instead of waiting for those pics I will post these. A couple are from a nursery we went to in Dallas that let the kids decorate free pumpkins. Yay! I didn't even buy one this year!

Halloween was fun. Jill was a cheerleader again this year. AMAZINGLY my kid has not outgrown everything from last year (first time in her life!), so she was totally fine to wear her High School Musical cheerleader costume again this year. It was especially cool since her elementary school mascot is the WILDCAT! :)

Miranda & Natalie got to be fairies. I bought these costumes on sale about 9 months ago and luckily gauged the sizes right to where they fit for Halloween! Now they can be dress up clothes and they're so excited. I kept them up high in a closet so they wouldn't be ruined before Halloween!

I took my little fairies to Ben's office to trick or treat. I guess they had a bunch of daycares and preschools coming, so they said I should bring the girls. So we drove there and Natalie (who had a hard night and was so tired) fell asleep on the way there (at 10 in the morning!), so Ben came out to get Miranda and took her by herself. I think she loved being the only one with Daddy and she got enough candy for both girls!

After school and work, we headed to the church's Trunk or Treat and Ben put on his old prisoner costume that he's had forever. I was the only one costume-less. I guess I should plan better for next year. Tons of people were dressed up and decorated their cars so well for the Trunk or Treat. One family passed out hot dogs rather than candy, which was AWESOME because we didn't have time for dinner before we headed up there and we needed more than candy in our stomachs! They must have cooked hundreds of hot dogs for people. You guys rock! Jill & Miranda got their buckets filled again but Natalie played in the van the whole time clicking car seat straps and pushing buttons. Who cares about candy? :)

***Oh yeah, forgot to mention that our van started having steering issues and the A/C went out and it was surpassing 110,000 miles, so we traded it in a couple of weeks ago for a newer, bigger 2007 Grand Caravan. It's got leather and buttons to open the doors and hatches and we feel thoroughly spoiled. It's not brand new but it's awesome to us! Only downside is we don't have DVD player in this one (yet) and the girls are really missing that!***

After Trunk of Treat, we came home and trick or treated on our culdesac. We have such great neighbors that I really want to get to know better! They all thought the girls were adorable (and I had to agree) and were very generous with the candy, so the buckets were all but overflowing by the time we got done with the 8 houses on our street. As we were heading back toward our house, we heard shouts of "Jill! Jill!" There were some friends of Jill's that she knows from the bus and they were so excited to see each other. I took a pic of some of them at our door. It's so crazy to think that my kid has a social life that doesn't involve me! Kind of bittersweet actually. :)

Then on November 1st, my baby girl turned 2 and we celebrated by waking her up early, putting her in a van with no Dora on the DVD player, and driving 4 1/2 hours to Oklahoma City! :) My nephew, Kaleb, got baptized that afternoon, so we met my mom at the OKC Zoo for lunch and perusing of the animals. It was a fun time and then we went to the baptism. Then we turned around and came home. Yeah, LONG day!

I took Nat to get her pictures taken at Wal-Mart on Monday morning while Miranda was doing her weekly preschool/play group. You can't beat getting a whole package of pictures for $5! She did really well until the last two pictures. She started to want down but I had brought her little Puma stuffed animal (really a BYU cougar but Diego calls them pumas, so whatever!) to give to her if she got grumpy. She hugged Puma and smiled and that was the picture I ended up choosing. So cute!

We had a birthday celebration for her on Monday for our Family Night. We put together her new big girl twin bed and had birthday brownies. We gave her a CD of fun kid songs and the girls danced the night away. :) Then our friends, the Allreds, came over and left their two girls with us for a slumber party, so that they could get up early the next morning to go have a baby boy! The girls loved having their friends sleep over and they were actually asleep by 9, so not TOO late. Nat slept all night in her big bed and I think she really likes it. Yay! I am very sad that my baby is so big now but she is also a whole lot of fun!

So there you go. My humongous update. I'll try to keep up more regularly, so as not to have you falling asleep before you finish my posts. :)

Official

It's official. We have yet another Dora fanatic in the house. Natalie has decided that Dora is the best thing ever and she'd rather watch that than play, eat, or sleep. I don't indulge her in her obsession every day but today she's on her 4th Dora (I've been busy!) and is the sweetest, happiest girl ever! Luckily Miranda still likes Dora too (although she never asks for it), so they're both happy at the moment. I love how she says "Tico" (sounds kind of like "taco") and when she sees Swiper, she holds up her arm to stop him from swiping but she doesn't say anything. :) She is also saying a lot more words lately (maybe thanks to the educational value of Dora the Explorer!) and she gets really annoyed when people take her toys away lately! Yesterday at my friend's house, Miranda said that Natalie bit her. My friend asked if Miranda took anything away from Natalie and she realized that she'd kind of provoked her and stopped harping on the fact that she'd been bit. :) I didn't see any marks and I didn't witness the event but I guess I have to watch out for that now. I've never had a biter before, so I'm thinking Miranda might be elaborating the story a bit.

It's official that Miranda has a great imagination and might be turning into a really good liar. She tells me stories every day about her family at the beach. It started with her "other dad at the beach." Now she has a mom and a grandma and a baby sister there. She'll tell me things they've said, things they've done together, etc. She also tells me what her teacher said at her school and who's having a birthday and who brought treats. It is HILARIOUS! She wants to be like Jill so bad, so she has to create stories to rival what Jill comes home with every day. She acts like these things are very real, so hopefully it's just a great imagination and not voices in her head telling her things! :)

It's official that my daughter is a great student in school. We had our first parent/teacher conference yesterday and it was such a highlight of my day/week/month! Her teacher really adores her and says she's always polite, well-behaved, kind to the others, and willing to do anything the rest of the class is doing. Who doesn't want to hear that??? Even when the teacher says, "Jill, you don't have to do this activity," because it's way too easy for a kid who has been reading for a couple of years, Jill always says, "But I WANT to do it too." So she does what all the other kids are doing, plus extra worksheets and things. She has a 1st grade curriculum book that she brings home to read out of every day and this week her teacher started sending her to 2nd grade for an hour every day to read with those kids and do Accelerated Reading tests. She is having a blast in school and my favorite part that the teacher said was, "She knows almost everything I'm teaching in my kindergarten curriculum but she never lets the other kids know that she already knows it. She never acts like she's smarter and she never rolls her eyes at me when I tell everyone to sort their shapes or do patterns. She just does it and genuinely enjoys it." I was so happy that she doesn't act bored or like a know-it-all. My two biggest worries for this year. She's never been a snotty know-it-all kid but I thought since she does kind of know it all that it might be a problem. Guess not! The teacher did say she was running out of things to teach her and that's why she does Accelerated Reading and other things with the 2nd grade class now and she's working on finding new workbooks for Jill to work in. She said Jill enjoys playing and being a normal 6 year old kid, so the teacher said not to worry about her not being in 1st grade this year because the social part of kindergarten is a good building block for school success and I guess she's right.

It's official that I'm a bragging parent. :) Ha ha. This is my full-time job, so it's obviously the thing I focus on most in life. :) I am the PTA's Room Parent Coordinator this year, so I met a lot of the teachers, the librarian, and several office workers yesterday to try and get to know the school. It's such a fun place that I know why Jill loves it so much. I told her yesterday that I was glad she loved school so much and if she didn't it would be SO hard for me to send her off every day. She looked me in the eye and with a very serious look on her face said, "Mom, I will NEVER not like school." Ha ha. I hope that attitude stays throughout the college years. :)

It's official that Ben is a work-a-holic. He came home last night feeling horrible with a high fever. He went straight to bed and woke up for a quick dinner and then went back to sleep. He got up this morning and the fever was gone, so he went to work. Ugh! Allow yourself ONE SICK DAY! He said, "I feel responsible. I need to make sure things get done. Maybe I'll do a half day." But it's after noon and no sign of him, so I think he's staying there!

So that's the update for today. I'll try to post pictures later of our pumpkin patch trip this week.

Positive

I'm dealing with things, my mom is doing ok, and I'm trying to stay positive. So I'm going to update with good things.

We got to visit Ben's parents this weekend and we had a nice visit. The 3 1/2 hour drive there went as well as could be expected. There was only one quick potty break off the side of the road because she couldn't tell us BEFORE we passed the last rest stop for 30 miles! And the drive back was ok with only minor issues. Miranda dumped a half full water bottle on her lap (on accident of course -- "I was TRYING to be really careful!") but we were only five minutes from home, so we all had a good laugh about that. :) So typical travel with kids, I guess.

Ben's sister is moving to Minnesota and stopped by Texas on her way, so it was fun to see her and her three boys too. Ben's brother in Vegas called home while we were there to let us know he's bringing his girlfriend home for Christmas, so we're all excited to meet her!

Jill is still loving school. She started Girl Scouts and her first activity was last week at the roller skating rink. She was so good! No pro of course but, being my kid, I really thought she'd be on her bum most of the night. She wanted me to help at first but then she kept pulling her hand from mine saying, "I think I got it Mom." So she went around the whole thing twice with no help and no falls. Then she wanted some company, so I just walked around with her but she really only fell a few times and we were there for over an hour. I was so proud of her for wanting to try something new (I was always such a 'fraidy cat when learning anything new and if I didn't do it perfectly the first time, I wanted to give up!) and she really did a great job. She is such a sweet and sensitive girl and I can always count on her to cheer me up when I feel like crying. :)

Miranda is as adorable as she is aggravating. I love her like crazy but she sure pushes my buttons every single day. Today I took dinner to a VERY pregnant friend of mine who is on bedrest. I had the girls with me and they wanted to come in. I told the girls I was just going to give her the food at the door and come back. But when I got there, she invited me in to see the baby's room (it is SO beautiful and everything is handmade and looks like it's from a posh baby boutique!). I really wanted to see it and I didn't want to hurt her feelings by NOT going to look at it, so I took a quick 1 minute tour and then told her I had to get back to my kids. The entire ride back Miranda told me that I had lied and she was so upset! :( I faded the speakers to the front of the van and turned the volume up on a great Phil Collins song and blared it the whole way home trying to remember the days when I could listen to something other than Dora or Primary songs. She of course was repeating her, "But you lied!" mantra the whole time. Ugh. She started to tell the horrible betrayal story to Daddy at dinner but I nipped that in the bud! I do love her and she was amazingly well behaved at the grocery store today, so I should give her credit for that. She also asked me why Daddy and Jill weren't home yet over and over again. Starting around 11 a.m. Ugh. :)

Natalie is on the verge of being more verbal. She's telling me exactly what she wants and needs and I just am not bright enough to get it. That's how I feel anyway! She grunts, points, screeches, etc. I can't wait until I can understand her better! She's been saying shoes, socks, ball, and lots of other stuff in French and Chinese, I think. :) She insists on removing her diaper several times a day and I'm getting really tired of that. She is a snuggle bunny and I love to hug her. She and Miranda love to fight and she definitely knows how to let Miranda know to leave her alone! We're working on the no hitting thing. :(

Ben got two new suits over the weekend while we were in Dallas, so he's set to look more like a High Councilman and a Planning Division Manager. :) I'm really busy trying to get the little kids some enrichment, Jill to her piano lessons and Girl Scouts and school activities (field trip this week!), and myself some "Brandi time." I'm going on a temple trip with the RS (morning) and youth (afternoon) this weekend in Lubbock and I'm going to the Time Out For Women conference in San Antonio in two weeks. Lots of baby showers, play groups, and PTA work inbetween. Yikes, I'm tired and I may go to bed now. It's only 8:30. If only... :) Thanks for all the people who commented with nice thoughts for me. Love y'all!

I Feel Hollow

My mom called me last night and told me she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is worried about me having a hard time. She is worried that I will worry about her too much. She's worried that now my risk of getting breast cancer has tripled and I need to get checked yearly from now on. She is the most selfless, wonderful mother I could ever ask for and an incredible grandmother and I am so upset that she has to go through this awful, miserable experience of a mastectomy and chemo. But she is a strong, healthy person and I feel strongly that she will be fine. It just REALLY stinks that she has to go through this at all. She's only 55! Please keep her (Nancy) in your prayers please. Thank you.

Party Madness

So we had a great weekend celebrating Jill's birthday with friends at a local arcade, celebrating another friend's birthday, having dinner with some of Ben's co-workers, and having a youth fireside here at our house. I even got to go to a movie theater for the first time in a LONG time to see "Mamma Mia"! I love musicals, so that was a special treat. It was pretty good but a lot of stuff in it I wouldn't want my kiddos to see or hear, so I doubt I'll own it anytime soon. Anyway, we were BUSY and somehow I happened to get sick! Just a minor cold but it's still annoying. :P

The girls are doing great and I hope they don't get sick. Jill is still enjoying kindergarten and after the monthly rearranging of chairs, she actually sits at the same table as the aforementioned "hot" boy, so she thinks that's great. :)

Our Kansas grandma and a cousin are coming to visit today and spend a few days here, so we're all excited about that. Enjoy the pictures of the parties.

SIX

The day has come. My baby is six years old. It's been a fantastic day for her and pretty fun for me! I can't believe that the tiny baby I met six years ago today is this beautiful, fun, smart, social butterfly who loves to tell me all about her day, play games with me, read mystery books together, and giggle or guffaw depending on how funny something is to her. Yes, I'm bragging and every mother has the right. :) I just love her so much and I wanted her for so long and she was the beginning of fulfilling my dreams of motherhood and I couldn't have asked for anyone better. I LOVE YOU JILL!

The week started off with her Texas grandparents coming to visit a couple of days early and celebrate her birthday. We went to dinner and the wait staff sang to her and she was a bit embarrassed at first but enjoyed the chocolate cake! I think she was shocked because the waitress asked her to stand on her chair so the whole restaurant could see her. She looked at me like, "You're not supposed to stand on chairs at dinner!" Ha ha. What an obedient child! But she got up once I said it was ok. :) Then she got their presents and enjoyed starting her birthday early! Today I took Miranda and Natalie to playgroup and my friend Eliza offered to watch them at the park while I went to Jill's school to have lunch with her in the cafeteria. Yay for friends who are so generous!

I walked into the school and passed the library where a cute girl was chatting with friends and holding her library books. It was Jill! :) I tapped on the window and she saw me and started telling her friends that her mom was in the hallway! She knew I was coming but was totally thrilled. Made my day! So she showed me where to get my tray, where to get my chocolate milk carton, and where we needed to sit. They have a parent's table, so she didn't sit with her class today. I met a lot of her little friends in line and they were hilarious. Some were quite friendly and wanted my attention; others were shy but curious about this adult in line with them. :) I loved putting faces with all the names I hear about daily.

Then after school, we worked on her Student of the Week poster for next week, decorating it and coloring it. Then we went to IHOP for dinner and ate her favorite food--pancakes! We came home and gave her presents from us. No cake because her "friend" party is Saturday and there will be cake there. Plus, I'm bringing the Friday snack for her class tomorrow and I'm making cupcakes. So because I wanted to do something different (and because I totally procrastinated putting the presents in bags!), I had Jill cover her eyes and Miranda and Natalie handed her gifts one at a time. Jill thought that was great and the little girls loved participating. Miranda kept insisting the Barbie clothes were really for her Barbie though.

I bought Miranda a Barbie as something to work toward. She has a sticker chart and if she gets a small sticker in each category each day (morning routine, obedience, kindness, evening routine), then she earns 1 BIG sticker. We've been doing this chart for about two months. She usually gets 2 or 3 stickers every day; rarely four. I told her she could earn the Barbie with three big stickers. I'm afraid it's never going to happen! She does so good for a while and then is talking back to me, throwing a tantrum, hitting a sister. *Sigh.* I know it's typical for her age but I though the Barbie was such good motivation! She has earned one BIG sticker and today she did pretty good, so I'll probably give her one for today too. Maybe I need to lower the bar a tad. :)

Anyway, the party was fun and I just love my kids. I really need to appreciate them this much every day. Enjoy the pics of my cute girl! (I added two adorable pics of my other cuties for your enjoyment too.)

"I just think he's hot."

Yes, these words were uttered around our dinner table last night by my FIVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER! Yes, she'll be 6 a week from today but STILL, she's way too young to talk like that. She just calmly started the conversation with... "I have a boyfriend."

Me: "You mean a boy who is a friend?"
Jill: "No, a boyfriend."
Dad: "You mean a boy who is nice and you play with?"
Jill: "No, a boyfriend!"
Dad: "I'm not going to let you go to school ever again!" (I'm cracking up inside and trying to be serious on the outside.)
Me: "Sorry, you can't have a boyfriend yet. Not until you're 16. Boyfriends are boys that you like to go on dates with and you can't date until you're 16."
Jill: (only slightly disappointed) "Oh."
Me: "Why do you call him your boyfriend? Did he say he liked you?"
Jill: "No."
Me: "Do you play with him at recess?"
Jill: "No, he sits at the red table and I just think he's hot."

WOW! We were so not prepared for this conversation during her 3rd week of Kindergarten! I explained that it's kind of disrepectful to say you like someone because of their looks. I told her to get to know people and like them because they are nice and friendly, not because of how cute they are. She said, "Ok," and then we went on talking about other things.

I seriously can't believe my baby is already boy crazy. I remember running from a boy named Jeff in kindergarten who wanted to kiss me. Yucky stuff back then. I think I was in 4th grade before I got bit by the love bug and got asked to "go" with a boy named Chad. My mom found the "check yes or no" note in my backpack and gave me a similar talk that I gave to Jill last night. One of my friends said she thinks she was "boy crazy from the womb" so I guess everyone is different! :) I have 3 girls, so I probably won't be able to avoid all of this drama until they're all married in 20 years! :)

Wicked - Popular

My newest favorite musical. They crack me up!

What Was I Thinking?

I don't know how it snuck up on me. I've known for quite a while that it would happen but I didn't realize how bad it might be. The "terrible" phase has hit full force and I've got TWO in that phase! I don't know how people with twins (or more) do it. With Jill, she was a dream two-year-old and once three hit, we realized what everyone was telling us about. But still she was a mild and calm child even in that stage. Miranda has been a challenge since about 9 months old, so I knew we would probably be in for a few years of trouble but all of the sudden, Natalie has made it known that she is almost 2 and boy is it showing! Wow! Tantrums, yelling "no," throwing things, meltdowns over everything, etc. Miranda hasn't exited that phase and Natalie has entered. That's not fair! Not that Miranda isn't much more mature and able to verbalize what she needs these days but she's still only 3 and acting her age. I really miss having a baby who just wants to cuddle and be held or will sit and play by herself with blocks for a while. Now she wants me and she wants me NOW to get this toy down for her or re-fill her cup with juice or put her shoes on NOW! But ONLY after SHE does it FIRST! And then realizes she can't quite do everything and will demand my help at that time. Ugh. I knew she would most likely follow Miranda's example and she certainly has. Perhaps when Miranda emerges from this phase and is a helpful, sweet, calm child (and she is this more and more lately), Natalie will emerge soon after by following that great example. Hopefully!

Holiday

We took a nice holiday vacation to Kansas last weekend and had a lot of fun in a short amount of time. My brother's kids were up for the weekend too, so the girls got a lot of good cousin time in and, as always, got a lot of nature time. They were outside as much as we would let them and had so much fun with Grandma & Grandpa's animals. We got to see my cousin's wife and their cute twins, my uncle threw a party for the girl cousins and they watched "Ariel's Beginning" (and ate ice cream and cookies!), we celebrated birthdays for me, Maren (9/8), Mom (9/13), and Jill (9/18), my uncle took me on a shopping spree for my birthday where I got new clothes and an actual purse (not a diaper bag!), and we got our whole family picture taken together for the first time since Jill was 3 months old!!! It was SERIOUSLY time for an update. One of my friends since middle school is getting really good with her new camera and took them for us. I think she did a great job. Too bad Miranda and Natalie didn't smile their cute smiles in our small family picture but it's still cute. :) So we had fun but since the air conditioning in the van gave out 2 hours before we got home, we were really glad when we got back home to A-town. Well, Miranda wasn't. She says about 12 times a day that she wants to go back to Kansas. I told her that Grandma is coming HERE in only 3 weeks. She said, "Hmmm, how 'bout 2 hours?" She thinks everything is a negotiation! :) Jill is only happy because she gets to go to school. Otherwise, she'd be wanting to go back to Kansas 12 times a day too. :)

The Big Day

My baby is gone for the WHOLE day! I took Jill to Kindergarten this morning. We woke up early and got everything ready. Ben stayed home with the little ones (still sleeping!) while I took Jill for her first day. I was pretty camera happy and Jill was sweet to go along but I think she was getting tired of it by the time I was leaving. She seemed a little nervous and was pretty quiet in the classroom but she didn't seem scared or sad to see me go. I finally said, "Ok, well I guess you're ok with me leaving now," and she gave me a really big hug and stuck her bottom lip out a little, like she didn't want me to leave . I think that was just a little show for me. I'm sure as soon as I left she started having a great time! :) There was a little girl at her table who was whimpering and her lower lip was quivering and her parents had already left by the time we got Jill seated next to her. She was trying so hard not to cry. Her friend from church, Courtney, is seated at the next table and they thought that was neat. Yes, that tiny little girl in the picture is in Jill's class! Most of the other kids are between their heights, I think. :) The teacher said they'd only be in their classroom for about 10 minutes and then they'd go to music and then gym. Sounds like fun to me! I know she will love every minute of it and I'm just counting down the hours until I get to hear all about it! I'm just extremely proud of myself for not crying and I'm glad that Jill didn't cry either. I guess we were both fully prepared for this. :)

I'm also surprised at how fun it is to just have two kids at home again. I DO miss my sweet Jill who is always ready with a hug and is always willing to do anything I ask her. But now I can give more individual attention to the other two obviously and there's no fighting between my two big girls about who is going to wake up, play with, read to, etc. Natalie! :) I've already read about 10 books to Miranda and she is totally loving it. Running my errands today will be a lot easier with just two to look after. So I'm very happy too. What an emotional day!

Kindergarten Here She Comes

Many of you know that we had Jillian take the acceleration exam to skip kindergarten. She's been reading well for two years, she's 4'1" tall, and everyone who knows her thinks she should already be in school. She took her exam and did an awesome job. There were 4 exams, 50 questions each, and she had 3 days to take them. She finished all 4 in the first 3 hours on the first day. The counselors were so impressed and said based on the pictures she drew alone, she should be in first grade. But... she had to get a 90% in each portion and she got a 98, 96, 94, and 88. Darn that social studies! On the day of the exam, I spoke with a man who was there with his son. The boy had tried to skip a grade when he moved here but he missed one too many social studies questions because they moved from Louisiana and it was a Texas history question. So they were taking the test again because he'd had a way easy year in 1st grade and they wanted him to skip the next year. Her principal said there is another student who did just as well as Jill on the test and got the same results, so that student will be in Jill's advanced kindergarten class too. The principal told me he's placing them both with the teacher over the advanced program and Gifted and Talented, so she'll work with them to really stretch them and make it a positive experience and not boring.

So I guess the social studies get a lot of people! I think they need to change that test! Anyway, it's nice to finally KNOW since registration is TOMORROW! We are so excited to go to registration and meet the teacher night next week. We already bought school supplies and she's ready to go. I've told her the whole time to not be disappointed no matter what and she really doesn't seem to be upset at all, even though she's been saying all summer how excited she is to go to first grade! :)

Collages

I have a lot of magazines that have been read and enjoyed but that are taking up space now. I don't know why I have a hard time throwing them away. This week I decided to make collages with the girls. We all cut out pictures of things we liked or things we do and pasted them on construction paper. Our masterpieces are hanging on the fridge and it was really fun to make something out of the magazines before they went in the trash. :) Jillian's has a girl playing the piano (she starts lessons next week), some HSM characters, a girl swimming, a lot of animals, and babies (which she loves). Miranda's has a lot of moms with babies, some sisters, a family surfing together (ha ha), Wall-E (she wants to see the movie), a bottle (no idea, she hasn't had one for over 2 years!), and a kitty (which she's deathly afraid of). Mine is mainly moms in various states of sleepiness (ha ha) doing work on the computer, shopping in the store, hanging out with kids, a money tree (wouldn't that be nice!), cute baby feet and babies sleeping next to each other, a washer and dryer (I spend a lot of time with them), and muffins (which I love to eat!). Here are our creations.
***Also, I've given up on keeping their names off here. Their names are on their collages anyway. :)***

Healthy Diets and Good Manners

As a mom, I strive to feed my children healthy diets and teach them good manners.

Well, I'm not as good as a lot of my friends who do all organic and have their kids eating tofu and sushi and loving it. I'm not even close to that. But I try to get the basic food groups in at most meals. The other day I bought some groceries, including celery, to make B's favorite dinner (no, he does NOT like celery but it's in this casserole that he loves and you can't even taste it). When I got home, I realized I already HAD celery but it was in a different part of the fridge than I normally put it (yes, our new fridge is big enough that I can lose things!), so I ended up with a whole lot of celery. So not wanting to waste precious produce or make said casserole again so soon, I came up with the great idea of getting my kids to eat celery for their "salad" at dinner. But because I never enjoyed when my mother had this great idea, I decided to smother peanut butter on them. That is a totally normal thing to do for a snack and I've seen other kids eat and enjoy that, so I thought "What the heck! They might love it!" Alas, no. Miss M, surprisingly, picked it right up and stuck the end in her mouth. She sucked off some peanut butter and tried her very best to bite through the stick but her little teeth just weren't really doing it. B tried to help her and she finally got a bite broken off and she made the funniest face ever. We applauded her efforts and said, "Do you like it?" She just looked at me sadly as she crunched along and shook her head ever so slightly. Lil' J cautiously picked hers up and after deliberating for about a minute, tried to take a bite. Again, not easy, but she knows more about how to take a bite of something crunchy (she would eat apples slices all day!) and she got a mouthful. Her face was even funnier and she moaned and groaned and said she did not like it at all and she hated it (we don't use that word, so she digressed) and swallowed the bite and said she never wanted another bite. This was a short little celery stick. I told her she had to finish that one celery stick and I would never again force her to eat celery (except in that casserole we all love!). She moaned and groaned and finally finished it. I'd have to say B's reaction was the very best. He VERY MUCH DISLIKES celery and has told me this before. But he knew I was trying to do something healthy for the kids (who knows, they might have really liked it!) and he was trying to be a good example, so he ate two. As he ate them, his forehead creased as if he was in pain and I could not keep from laughing. I ate 5 of these things (waste not, want not!), even thought I wouldn't mind not ever eating celery again either. But anything smothered in peanut butter is palatable enough for me! :) Poor celery, we just don't have the kind of taste buds it takes to appreciate you! It's not your fault! :) Anyway, B and I just giggled the rest of the meal away. Miss M obediently ate the rest of her celery stick without complaint even though her face was showing plenty dislike. I decided not to try that again and maybe I'll just make that casserole again soon!

Manners is a little easier for me to teach and enforce and I will happily say my kids are pretty polite girls. I've had enough kids at my house to play that don't seem to have any manners to see that my kids have a pretty good grasp on manners. Not that they always use them, of course. Today Princess N woke up in her normal, extremely happy mood and immediately her sisters ran into her room to play with her. I changed her diaper and got her dressed and then ran to the kitchen to grab her some apple juice. I walked back into her room and they were in full play mode with the food and dishes. I handed Princess N her sippy cup and she clearly said, "Thank you," and kept playing. I was astounded. She has said this before but usually after a, "Say thank you," from me or her sisters. Even though she was distracted with playing, she automatically said, "Thank you!" I must be doing something right!

My life is so fun. :)

A real (long) post

Ok, I can't let July end without a real post on my blog. I have been slacking. I keep up with everyone else's but not mine. :) Well, July has been a big blur and it was mainly fun.

I got my haircut (end of June actually) and cut bangs again. First time in 10 years! I immediately decided to grow them back out. :) I'm actually getting used to them now but I still think I'll grow them out. It's so nice to have a different style for a change though.

Miss M had her 3 year checkup with the Dr and was so well behaved that I was shocked! Her reward was a Happy Meal but she didn't want to open it until we picked up her sisters, so she could share. Again, shocked. :)

July 4th was a fun-filled day. It was SO HOT but we went to the free festivities in the park by the zoo (and even crashed some bounce houses until we realized you had to pay $5 to jump in them -- out you go girls!) and had a traditional 4th of July dinner at McDonald's. Ha ha. The girls were so hot and they enjoyed the freezing A/C of the restaurant. We went home and did our own fireworks on our back patio. Just sparklers, black cats, and snakes (which scared Miss M -- go figure!)and then piled the girls into the van in their jammies to go see the big fireworks that went off over the zoo. Everyone here in A-town just pulls off the highway and parks to watch them. Not the safest thing and B did NOT want to do it but once I convinced him it's just "the way they do things in A-town," he pulled off and we had a perfect view of the fireworks from our weedy, just-off-the-road parking spot. The girls oohed and ahhed (after my coaching) and seemed to enjoy the show. I had a Great Aunt Darlene who would always lead the family in oohing and ahhing when I was a kid. She passed away a few years ago but it gave me a thrill to pass on her tradition to my kiddos. :)

A few days later Princess N was jumping on my bed (much to my chagrin since they are not ALLOWED on my bed because they cannot refrain from JUMPING) and fell off and split the skin above her left eyebrow. I didn't realize at first. I just picked her up and cuddled her (I was in the room with my back turned, so I didn't see it happen but I got to her pretty quick!) and then blood started oozing out of her eyebrow. Poor thing. I panicked a bit. Well, only after the blood was all cleaned off and I saw the gaping hole on my child's face! Ok, it was probably miniscule but my children are very overprotected and this had never happened in our little family before! But after a quick check with my pediatrician, I realized I had done the right thing to just wash it and put on a butterfly bandage. So now she only has a small little line with I REALLY hope will keep healing and not scar (B seems to think scars are awesome but I do NOT agree!).

A few days after the “tragedy,” we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Dallas! Good times! B’s brother who lives in Vegas had not been home to visit in a year, so we made a special effort to go when he would be there and B’s sister from Mississippi came up then too, so it was a mini-reunion, missing only one brother whose wife just had their first baby, so we excused them from the reunion graciously. :) We had a really fun time hanging out with siblings and the cousins had a blast playing the whole time. Lil’ J stayed the night at her cousin’s house. First sleepover and she did great! It was a little nerve wracking for me though! The siblings and spouses got to take a child-free trip to the Museum of Art in Dallas and that was amazing. I don’t get to do things like that very often, so it was wonderful. Thank goodness for a grandma who likes taking care of 9 of her grandkids at the same time! :) We ate a lot of good food and were thoroughly spoiled and then headed home on Sunday, stopping at our old church in Fort Worth. It was so fun to see everyone. We weren’t there long enough to chat with everyone but just to see the new babies born and how all the girls’ friends were growing up. It amazes me how much everyone else changes. :)

So we got home that evening and 15 minutes later our bishop calls us and wants to meet with B. Long story short he is called as a High Councilman! He is only 33, so he was a bit surprised by the calling but he’s ok with it now. A lot of traveling and a lot of speaking in our 2500 square mile stake! He is FINALLY not in the Young Men’s organization and I think he’s already missing it! I am still the Primary Chorister and happy being that but now I’ll have at least 2 Sundays a month where I’ll probably be doing church with the kids all by myself. Blah. Oh well, I can do it!

B’s parents came out the next weekend to ordain him and see him receive his calling. It was so fun to see them again sooner than we thought! Then a few days later my mom visited and brought my two nephews and my niece with her. The kids all had so much fun playing together and I got to hang out with my oldest nephew, H. He is such a cool kid (almost 11 now!) and we’ve always had a special bond ever since he was born. If I ever have a son, I hope he’s just like him! I remember when he was little, I thought I would never be able to love my own kids more than I loved him! Well, I didn’t know a mother’s love then, but I still think he is awesome! While they were visiting, we went to the zoo and to a jump place with a ton of major jump houses with slides and things. I even got in there and jumped and slid and it was so fun! I mainly did it to make sure Miss M was fine on everything. Some of the other little kids there would ask me to slide down with them because with my weight added they went really fast! I should be offended but oh well. :)

Lil’ J has been doing swimming lessons and has improved so much this summer! She could always do the things they asked her to do but now she has the confidence too! She took her exam to skip kindergarten right before we went to Dallas. It was a 3 day testing window, 4 exams, 50 questions each. They said she could just take as much as she wanted and then come back the next day. Well, this kiddo LOVES tests (and anything having to do with school) and finished all 4 exams in the first 3 hours! The testing proctor said she was “sharp as a tack” and if she happened to miss too many questions to skip all of kindergarten, she would at least be in the Gifted & Talented program for sure. I was so proud of her. She just genuinely loves to learn and is so good at reading and memorizing things lately. I wish my mind worked as well! We will find out the results any day now. I will be registering her for school on the 14th of August, so I have to know by then which class to register her for! She starts piano lessons the next week. It should be a busy and exciting year for her no matter what!

Miss M is as stubborn and independent as always but her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds and when I happen to misunderstand her, she sighs and repeats herself as if Mommy needs extra help understanding things sometimes. :) She is hilarious and will do anything for a laugh. As long as it’s HER idea. Typical 3 year old, eh? Her favorite thing lately is to get Princess N up in the morning or after a nap. If Lil’ J or I get to the bedroom door first, she has a meltdown. She likes to let her out and then as N emerges, she introduces her, “Heeeeeeeeeere’s Princess N!!!!” How nice it must be to be introduced as a princess wherever you go! :) She loves singing and I heard her singing a song she learned in nursery the other day. The song is “When we’re helping, we’re happy, and we sing as we go. And we like to help mother, for we all love her so. Tra la la la la la la. Tra la la la la la. Tra la la la la la la. Tra la la la la la.” Of course all I ever hear her sing is Tra la la la over and over but it is so cute!

Princess N had her first major boo-boo, as mentioned above, has learned a TON of new words, loves to speak in gibberish when she’s not speaking English (sounded like Chinese a few months ago and now I swear it sounds French), and has been experimenting with just sitting on the potty until yesterday when she actually figured it out! Accidentally, I’m sure. But Lil’ J and I were sitting in there with her and we were so excited and she looked so happy, like she’d really done something amazing! So there you have it, the most exciting moment in July! :) Just kidding!

I was asked to sing a solo as a part of an entirely musical sacrament meeting program for church and B accompanied me. I also lead the Primary kids in singing two songs. It was a busy day and I was pretty nervous but I am happy to say that I felt great about it afterwards and didn't screw up! :) I haven't sung a solo in a long time!

I woke up at 5 AM not being able to go back to sleep, so I hope this is coherent. It’s the only time I have to work on this uninterrupted!

Memory Lane...

I saw this on my friends blog, and thought it looked like a lot of fun...

Here are the directions...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember...

2. Next, repost these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool(and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave a memory for you.

Not even one!

*Check out the picture displays below this post.*

When J was little, people would ask me if she was adopted or if my husband was Hispanic. I know she doesn't look much like me but I've thought maybe as she's grown older (and she has started to act like me) that maybe we look more alike. No, she looks like Dad.

When M was little, I wasn't sure who she took after but didn't look anything like J! As she's grown older, I've had a ton of people say things about how much M looks like me. Well, she's adorable, so I've always been thrilled when people say that! Alas, no, she looks just as much like B, as she looks like me.

When N was born, people commented on how she was B Jr. and I wholeheartedly agreed! Of course, she was a beautiful, feminine version of B. :) And this look-a-like meter agrees.

Well, maybe we'll have to try for another baby eventually just to see if I can get just ONE to truly look like me! :) Not that it matters since they're all so adorable and I can claim them as mine!

Bryner Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph