THE BRYNER REPORT

Family Update - January 2012

2012-01-29T23:04:00.002-06:00

I wrote this in an email to Ben's siblings but felt like I should post it here for others who might be interested too. I am horrible at keeping up this blog! :/

Ben:
He passed his 2 year mark of being bishop, so only 3 years left. Woot woot! :) He is still enjoying his job and just hired a new employee last week. The employee that left actually filled a spot in Southlake, so Ben was able to give a good recommendation for that guy to his old boss! He plays basketball 3 times a week with his boss and another co-worker before work and plays Wednesday night with the guys from church and wishes he could play more. Actually he'd prefer to play soccer but it's just not big here! :( He was playing keyboard in a rock band for the past couple of years but the lead singer and organizer of the band got deployed to Afghanistan for a year, so the band has broken up (so sad). ;/ It's actually nice to have him home on Thursday nights!!! :)

Jillian:
She is in 3rd grade and LOVES her teacher and has a lot of her old friends from her 1st grade class in her class again. It's been nice for her to have some BFFs and she is always having them come over and "hang out." Her current obsession is Harry Potter and she loves to play Lego Harry Potter on the Wii or on the DS and has read all 7 books twice in the last year. Almost every conversation brings out an, "Well, in Harry Potter..." comment and it's driving her mother batty but it's kind of fun to have an HP expert in the house. Who knew that everything in life relates to Harry Potter? Ha ha. She is also in the community children's choir for the 2nd year and her voice keeps getting better and better. Her director is amazing to take this group of chatty, fidgety kids and get them to perform so well! She has a speaking part (in the middle of the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious") in the next performance and it cracks me up when she does it. I think we might have a drama girl on our hands. :) We took a break from piano lessons for budgetary reasons but Mom has decided to start teaching her own children piano (the horror!). ;) It's actually going pretty well but I think they'd do better with a real "teacher." Maybe some day...

Miranda:
She is in 1st grade and does very well in school and tells me all about her friends. When I volunteered in her class last week, people were talking to her and hugging her and paying attention to her but she just kind of goes about her way and rarely responds. I asked her why and she just shrugs. I guess she can't be bothered by too much socializing??? :) She is our giggly, boy-crazy girl. Recently she started wearing her pink-tinted sunglasses to school. I asked her why and she said that Drake wears glasses and she wanted to be like him. I asked who Drake was and she said, "The cutest boy in my class!" ;) She also loves to read. She's currently working through HP #1 slowly but takes breaks for Rainbow Fairy books and other short chapter books. :) She also joined the community children's choir this year and is really coming out of her shell. She loves to sing but is actually doing the actions and dancing as well now. I started teaching her piano (only 3 weeks so far) and she is super excited because she can already play, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." It must be the fabulous teacher. Ha.

Natalie:
Super funny little Nat is 5 and will start kindergarten in August. We have to tell her how far away that is every day. :) She has started to read but gets bored with it after a few pages and says, "Ok, now you read the rest, Mom!" She is obsessed with horses and loved riding a real one when we visited Kansas a couple of weeks ago (all the girls loved it actually). She has a new friend that moved into a neighboring ward and we have play dates almost every week. It's so nice for her to have a friend since all the kids her age in our ward are already in kindergarten or go to preschool and there's noone to do play dates with ever. Miranda doesn't have anyone her age in our ward and her friends from school haven't been able to work out a play date yet (parents schedule conflicts!), so she's awfully jealous of her sisters always having friends over lately! We measured and weighed all the girls today and found that Natalie is only 1 inch shorter and 2 pounds lighter than Miranda. And Miranda is a stick, so I guess we have two sticks. :) I checked their BMI on a health website and it shows Jill as normal and the other girls as underweight but I can't get them to eat more! Any suggestions??? Natalie enjoys singing with her sisters and by herself. She's actually quite shy but ask her to sing a song and she'll belt it out. She sang with her sisters in church at Christmas, then again a couple of weeks ago in my Dad's church, and then today she gave a talk in Primary about the creation of the world and sang, "I Will Follow God's Plan For Me," all by herself. Then she sang it over the phone for Grammy to hear tonight. :) So that's kind of fun that my girls can all enjoy doing that together.

Lucas:
Adorable, crazy, cute, funny, talkative, bossy, sharing, talented with a spoon, always on the run. That about sums up Lucas. :) He does like his own way like all 2 year olds but he's getting better about sharing and when he does he says, "Uh! Uh!" in this little squeaky voice that makes it sound like he's saying, "See? See? See how good I was, Mom?" It's so cute. He's still a rough and tumble boy and other than the literal run-in with the desk last month resulting in stitches, he's been pretty coordinated in his craziness and hasn't been hurt lately. Now to pay off the $1000 stitches bill. Yes, I'm serious... $1000. I tell the kids every time they're being crazy, "Be careful! I can't afford to take you to the hospital!" :) I didn't measure him (he wouldn't stand still that long!) but he's very tall and most people think he's 3. His favorite way to greet a friend is to grab them around the middle and throw them to the ground. Yes, unfortunately, I'm serious. He is a born tackler and I hope he makes millions with that talent some day. :) He doesn't try to be mean at all but he acts like he's giving them an exuberant hug! :) Most of his friends love it and they love to wrestle on the floor but some don't appreciate it and I have to keep a watchful eye when I'm babysitting! He's always gentle around babies and all girls (other than his sisters) but little boys watch out! He's a pretty good eater when he wants to be and can get 90% of his food actually in his mouth with a spoon, which is pretty impressive to me. :)

Brandi:
I am... tired. Ha! I'm doing well. I'm the Relief Society secretary and feel like that's been a crazy busy job lately but hopefully things will slow down a bit. I'm the Attendance Taker for the girls' choir and that is fun because I get to see all of their rehearsals and I exchange my time for tuition which makes it affordable for us! I have a million projects I'd like to get to around the house and at the school but I think I'm doing ok accomplishing a couple of things each day. :) So what are YOU up to??? :)

2011-10-05T22:25:00.013-05:00

Well, since school started not much has happened. Except:

It was my birthday! I am officially 34 and my body is falling a little more apart every day. :) Our summer was good but a little stressful at times but now that we're back on a schedule, I think things will be a little easier for me and I can get back into a groove. My official birthday was the pits (Stake Conference, which I really do love, took my hubby away most of the day and the kids weren't in their best form!) but the next day was great and my family made me feel loved. :) We ate cake after church and one of my girls snapped this photo of me being old now. :)

Miranda lost her first tooth FINALLY! And then her second the next day! They have been loose, wiggly, TRYING to come out for four months! Finally I asked my dentist for a good way to grab on to the tooth so I could pull it. She suggested a damp paper towel. Worked like a charm! I pulled one out and seeing the blood about made her throw up on me! But the next day she was brave enough to let me pull the other one out. So no bottom middle teeth. Correction. She has adult bottom middle teeth. They were coming up behind the baby ones for all these months, so she never really had a gap! ;)

Labor Day! The first school holiday after the rigorous first 10 days! :) On Saturday we were invited to dinner with some friends, which was nice but Lucas was in his usual crazy mood, so I was chasing him most of the time. On Monday, we had some more friends come over for a BBQ. We had a lot of fun eating out on the back porch (yes, it was pleasant weather unbelievably!) and playing outside. Such a change from those four long months of horrid heat! I took all kinds of fun pictures of everybody and... I can't find them. BUT we had so much fun. :)

Jill & Miranda are involved with a community children's choir and I'm the Attendance Taker this year, which means I take roll and a whole lot of other stuff (from taking kids to the bathroom whose cousins taught them about Bloody Mary and now they can't go alone to filling in as accompanist when the real one is out of the room to awarding points to those who brought their music/got in position quickly/listened to the teacher/sang their part well, etc.) It's actually fun but really busy. I take one of Jill's friends to rehearsals too and it fills up a lot of our after school time on Thursdays but we all enjoy it. The girls got to sing with their group on a float in the West Texas Fair Parade last month. The first concert is Saturday!

The West Texas Fair came to town. We NEVER go and Ben never wants to, so I don't go by myself. Well, this year I was determined... and Ben got sick. Seriously! Anyway, he stayed home with Lucas and I took the girls. It was hot, they got tired of walking around (I didn't know where stuff was because it was my first time and I didn't have a map or anything), and they wanted to ride the rides. And they only accept cash in the whole place! I pretty much never carry cash. Woodburys to the rescue! Luckily our great friends found us floundering in the fairgrounds and took pity on my poor, pitiful girlies. They lent me some cash and the girls rode some rides. I will be more prepared next year!!!

Jill turned 9!!! Man, that makes me feel old! She is such a joyful, kind, and loving girl! I'm so happy that girl came to me in Grapevine, Texas through C-section on a wonderful September afternoon! Surgery never felt so good! :) Hee hee. She is a HUGE help to me and I don't know what I'd do without her wonderful friendship too. As she's getting older, we have more fun conversations and love just hanging out together. I wonder how long that will last! She got her EARS PIERCED as a birthday gift and she was thrilled. No screaming or drama and she's taking great care of them! Her adorable friend Courtney came along and explained how to do everything because she's had earrings for 4 whole months! ;)

She had 8 friends over for a party and her Grandpa from Kansas showed up 10 minutes before the party with pizza! He surprised us all! He called me and asked how I was. I had been sick and wasn't feeling great. I told him that I just had to frost the cake and pick up the pizzas and he said he'd take care of the pizzas. I laughed it off and he said, "No really, I'm in Abilene!" Such a great grandpa (and dad!). He brought my uncle Sam (his big brother) along for the ride and it was fun to see them. They went to church with us the next day and then drove back the 7 hours. They must really love us! Sadly, because I wasn't feeling well I totally didn't remember to take pictures!!! I snapped one on my phone and it's not great quality at all but enough to capture who was there. :)

The next weekend was the Ward Campout and for some reason... NO PICTURES! Man, I'm doing horribly. Anyway... we had an ok evening. I got everything all packed up and ready to go and... left a grocery bag full of our dinner and snack things. Luckily the state park was only 20 minutes away. I came back for it and the drive home and back was the best part of the evening for me! ;) Ha ha! Ben had all the kids, so I got to blare MY music and enjoy the drive with NO interruptions. I didn't realize how much I missed that! We ate our dinner but since there was a burn ban, we couldn't do s'mores. We brought graham crackers, chocolate frosting, and marshmallow creme to make an easy version of them. I enjoyed them more than anyone else. :) Some of the Scouts took the younger kids on a hike. Jill & Miranda went. About 1 1/2 hours later... they were STILL gone and it was dark! We were getting worried and some parents went to look for them and found them. None of the kids seemed too concerned about how long they were gone! They saw some neat wildlife and flowers and were fine. Jill did say to the Scouts that she thought they should let the parents know where they were at one point but they just kept going. I don't think I'll let my kids go off on a hike like that again. I'll just go with them! That night we tried to all bed down but I knew Lucas wouldn't go for it. People were running around and screaming and flashing their flashlights through our tent as they went by and that's all well and good for older kids but mine were exhausted and wanted to go to sleep at 9:30. So I packed Lucas up and went home. He went right to sleep in his crib and then woke up every hour on the hour screaming. He was fine the next day, so I have NO idea why but I got less sleep than the campers did! Oh well, maybe next year he'll be camping age. :) We did go back to pick them up and went on a family hike with some of the others. That was quite nice even though I was holding Lucas, Natalie, or Miranda most of the time. My little girls are NOT hikers apparently. :) Lucas really loved it though.

The next weekend was General Conference and we went to Dallas to hang out with family. We saw Ben's two brothers and their families, plus old friends from Abilene and Roanoke and it was really fun and relaxing. The last 45 minutes of the drive home was the usual madness of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, of course. Unfortunately, no pictures again, so... I will challenge myself to bring my camera more often! I almost always have my phone, which takes pictures, so I really have no excuse except forgetfulness!

Yesterday Jill was in her 3rd grade program. I went to watch it with the rest of the school at 9:30 and went back at 6:45 to watch with the family at the PTA meeting. The theme was US History and they did a great job. Jill sang with a few other girls the 2nd verse to "America the Beautiful" and did a great job. I actually teared up when the curtains opened (I know, I know) and then was openly crying when they sang a song about 9/11. I was so proud of my girl and all of her sweet friends that were up there.

Lucas is getting to be big stuff already. He is saying his sisters' names (clearly to us but probably not to anyone else). He crawled out of his pack and play while visiting relatives, opened the door, and went down a flight of stairs to go play with cousins, all while not waking me up in the next room! He stands up on his changing table after I change him and pull up his pants and he JUMPS at me! I can be 2 feet away and he'll leap towards me! The kid has no fear! Well, he always waits until I'm watching him and I know he's going to jump. :) He is extremely coordinated and physical and wears me OUT! We have a futon mattress up against our fireplace bricks, like an extra couch and he'll jump off the fireplace bricks on to the futon and he jumps high and lands hard and loves it! :) He can totally do a somersault off of the bricks on to the futon but also just flat on any floor. That amazes me! He's also clearly adorable. This pic is perfect because you can see how handsome he is AND also see that glint in his eye. We were at the zoo and he was ready... to... RUN!!! :) I LOVE THAT BOY!

So I guess we HAVE been pretty busy just like normal for us. Ben is at a work conference in Austin this week, so I'm just sitting around wishing he was here, or rather that I was there! But alas, no sitter. :) Another busy weekend ahead of us... stay tuned. :)

1st Day of School 2011

2011-08-22T21:01:00.002-05:00

My cuties got off to school today and had a successful first day. I'm so proud of my girls being confident and happy to get on the bus and totally expecting the day to be fun and full of making friends. I love these girls so much! :)
Just click the collage to see the pics bigger. :)

Long, hot summer!

2011-08-08T14:34:00.003-05:00

Hi all. We have been enduring a long, hot summer here in Abilene and I am so tired of it but Fall will come someday, right? :) Here is the quick run down of what we've accomplished this summer. :)

MAY:
We finished the school year on a high note. Both girls did great and will miss their teachers. We had both of their teachers eat dinner with us (one in a restaurant for Miranda's birthday & the other came to our home). The girls had dentist appointments which they love and they still have healthy teeth, so yay! :) Miranda is officially six and LOVED her birthday party at Bonzai Japanese Steakhouse. We all enjoyed the Hibachi experience and the gong they rang for her birthday. It scared Natalie to tears. Ha ha. ;) I threw her the first friend party she's had. It was at the park across the street in 103 degrees with a princess castle pinata. It was fun for her, so that's what counts. I was so hot and exhausted. :)

Our air conditioner needed a new coil and we didn't need $1,800 sitting in the bank anyway! :( It's a good thing we got it repaired before this INSANELY hot summer started, so I'll count my blessings. The Easter hail storm last month did a number on the roofs in our neighborhood and I finally called our insurance to check ours out since everyone was getting a new roof. Ours was totalled and the process was begun with our insurance.

Ben performed his first wedding at church and did really well. I played the piano for it and it all went off beautifully. Happy for Brenton & Tabetha! :)

JUNE:
Jill & Miranda took swimming lessons at a local university. It was WAY better than the teenaged teacher at the YMCA and Jill is quite a good swimmer and getting better every day. Miranda is less and less scared of swimming and actually love to jump into the water from the side, go down the slide, or let dad throw her high in the air (as long as she has her life jacket on). A VAST improvement for both of them. Jill did an Art Camp at the library (love free summer activities!) and has kept busy all summer with Activity Days.

We visited family in Kansas and on the way we stopped in Fort Worth for my dear friend Meredith's baby shower. SO fun to catch up with a bunch of friends at once. Then we headed on up to Kansas and saw my family for a week. Ben was at Scout Camp while I was gone. We went swimming, rode horses, and played with cousins! Super fun! When we got back, Jill & Miranda went to Music Camp. Two people backed out at the last minute and my kids got to go for free! Pays to know the person in charge of filling the class! :) Both girls will be in Chorus Abilene next year. Miranda backed out of her original audition date in May but changed her mind and did great! I will still volunteer this year but am the Attendance Taker this year and will go to every rehearsal, concert, event, etc. BUSY times!

We talked to a roofer and we started discussing what kind of roof we want (I want the exact same kind because it's the best curb appeal of the house!) and we decided to go with a certain company but they would start in July some time.

JULY:
The ward had a swim party and the kids did great. Lessons were so worth it! We have some very generous friends who have pools and let us come over all the time. Thank you Ugazio family, Davis family, and Woodbury family! Taking all 4 swimming is easier now but still not a TON of fun for me. I am always hanging on to wiggly Lucas and I'm constantly watching to make sure everyone is ok and happy and safe. It's exhausting. :)

I took Lucas for his 18 month appt and he was doing great. The dr said he should have 6 to 8 words by now but he had only 3 or 4. She asked if I wanted a referral to a speech therapist!!! Um, no thank you. I should just work with my kiddo and make sure his sisters don't fulfill his every need without making him ask for what he wants. :) So we started paying attention to it and he has more than a dozen words that he can say just six weeks after that appointment. I think he's good. :)

Our school kids got free tickets to Six Flags for reading a lot, so Ben & I left Natalie & Lucas with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Andy and took Jill, Miranda, and our nephews, Jacob and Brady, with us. We had so much fun! It was about 105 and smog alert was on high. Ha ha. The worst day to be outside for hours but we really had fun. We went on water rides to cool down and we stayed nice and cool (and soggy-shoed) the whole time.

Later that same day, we went to see our wonderful friends, the Coopers, who deserted us and moved to Dallas a couple of years ago. :) We went swimming with them (and Lucas fell in the deeper part for about 5 heart-attacking seconds and I seriously had a nightmare about it later that night!) and had dinner with them and the kids played hard! It was such a great time. We dropped the girls off at their cousins' house in Allen, so they could sleepover and then we stayed the night at Ben's parents' house in McKinney. It was so nice to hang out with family.

The next day we met the Coopers at the temple and did a session and then ate lunch at the Purple Cow. I highly recommend it! :) We went back to Ben's parents' house to pick up the kiddos and then headed home. A quick, whirlwind trip that was VERY full of fun! Uncle Andy entertained Lucas most of the time and he has a new best friend! :)

We came home and the next day our friends had us over for Parents Day. Their kids decided it was a holiday and invited some families over. I was vigilantly watching my Lucas at the top of their stairs as I was telling a friend about the swimming incident. Suddenly he fell down the stairs! Ben launched himself across the room and caught him halfway down the stairs!!! Of course he had been looking at Daddy when he stepped off the top step without looking, so Ben saw the whole thing. I about had a heart attack AGAIN and Ben had sent an end table sliding across the room and scared the dickens out of one of the ladies there as she jumped up and screamed. It was SO hilarious! Everyone laughed and it made it not so traumatic for me. :)

The next week Jill had a Science Camp at the library. She brought home a tornado in a bottle and a lava lamp. Pretty fun stuff for her. We also fed the missionaries a ton in June and July. With everyone going out of town this summer, their calendar has been pretty blank. We have four guys now, so it's a lot to feed but they are very fun dinner companions.

A friend of mine had to go out of town for a couple of days and I watched her two kids during the day and her husband came to get them at night. They are really good kids and had fun playing with mine. One of the days that I had them, I also watched another friend's five kids for about an hour and a half. I had someone from the lumber company come here to measure my doorways because we'd like to replace our old, yucky doors and he said, "Oh, do you run a home daycare?" Ha ha. No, I do this for free. 11 kids in the house but it was fun! They all entertained each other, so my part was easy!

I accompanied my friend who sang twice in church in July. She has an amazing voice and I like to be a part of that beautiful performance. :) I am playing for her again at Stake Conference at the end of the month and I really need to get practicing on that song. Why is 2 sharps so hard for me to play???! :)

Book Club happened all summer too, of course, and I really enjoy going to that. In July, we were able to see the movie adaptation of one of our favorite reads, "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett. It was premiering early on the Air Force base and we got FREE tickets. Seven of us went to see it and it was amazing! I'm so glad they lived up to the book!

We signed a contract with a roofer and materials were dropped. Then the crew's truck broke down in Houston and we were set back a week! We decided to have our garage sale that we had been postponing and just worked around the roofing materials on the driveway. I made my goal of making $300 and cleared out so much stuff! I still had a bunch of baby boy clothes and little girl clothes and shoes, so I donated them to people at church and they were so grateful! Does a heart good. :) I'm glad people I know are using those adorable things.

Our hot water heater stopped "heating" our water, so after several days of tepid showers and baths (the kids loved that!), we paid a plumber to come out and adjust it. We didn't need that $50 anyway! :( I'm loving the hot water again and am grateful to not live in a time with no air conditioning and no heated water. Count your blessings, name them one by one...

Ben & I went on a date to see "Hairspray" at a local university and we loved it! I have always loved live productions and musicals are my favorites. Ben has really come to like them as well now and that makes me so happy. :) The other guys in the group we went with were grumbling about being there instead of watching "Cowboys & Aliens." Ha ha. Thanks for taking me, honey!

AUGUST:
The nightmare that is our roof continues. The roofer even told me our house is cursed! A local crew started working Wednesday and just didn't come back on Thursday!!! They said they had a bigger, better job and just left! So no work Thursday. Roofer going crazy finding another crew. They showed up 4 PM on Thursday and worked for a few hours. They came back on Friday but by 3 PM, they were gone. I text the roofer and he says they are too worn out from the heat and will be back Saturday. I TOTALLY don't blame them. Can you imagine working on a roof for hours in 105 or higher heat!!!!!? They were supposed to get the huge dumpster off my property by 4 PM Friday and they weren't done cleaning up, so I said they could leave it until Monday. They were supposed to start bright and early Sunday morning and... the crew leader had a family emergency. REALLY???! So the crew (totally separate crew out of Houston) was supposed to be here this morning to put the new roof ON and the old one was still partially on! There was a layer of wood shake shingles under our metal roof and that is not up to code anymore, so they were removing two roofs basically. ANYWAY, both crews showed up this morning and went to TOWN! The old roof is totally gone and they've decked it and will start putting on the tile tomorrow. It is FINALLY getting going and the president of the company was even here today to smooth things over with me and he really got things back on track. Yay! I wasn't being mean but I made it known that I wasn't thrilled with the progress of this project! Should be done Wednesday or Thursday morning at the latest, so cross your fingers for us! :) The storm was only FOUR MONTHS AGO! Let's hope we don't get another one right after this!

My dad, his wife, and my brother's three kids came to visit this weekend and it was so nice to spend time with them! My nephews are 13 and 10 and my niece is 10 days older than Jill. They love to entertain my children and I wish they would just move in with me! :) My oldest nephew stayed up late chatting with me and playing games. We've always been close and I love that even though he's a teenager, he still thinks his "Aunt B" is cool. :) The other kids all slept on the floor in one room and stayed up way too late having fun. That is a wonderful part of childhood that I have fond memories of as well, so I allowed it but now I'm paying for it. They are tired and grumpy and sad their cousins are gone. Oh well, it's worth it!

We have had a TON of baptisms at church lately and I'm so excited for these missionaries that are working so hard! I usually get asked to play the piano at the baptisms. Either last minute before the meeting starts or 30 minutes before it through a text. :) I am trying to be willing to serve but I wouldn't mind a chance to practice!!!

On Saturday we had a ward Fiesta to welcome the new Spanish-speaking members in our ward. We are holding Spanish classes and we have Spanish missionaries, trying to build up a group big enough to have their own branch. It's been really neat to have people bearing their testimonies in English and then again in Spanish. We are very blessed to have MANY people in the ward who can speak Spanish! Ben even conducted a baptism in Spanish and I could understand 90% of it! I can't speak it worth a darn anymore but oh well. :) So someone had the idea of having a Fiesta but everyone thought someone else planned it! So I called around to those who I thought might be involved and no one knew of anything being planned, so I went with it. I sent out an email, posted it on Facebook, and bought some cheap and easy decorations. 24 hours later we had a rockin' Fiesta! :) I was so glad that so many people came. It was a great turn out with great food. We had an "Enchilada Throwdown," there was a candy cannon shooting candy into the parking lot for the kids to scramble for, there was Mexican music playing in the background, and I think everyone had a good time. The missionaries thanked me over and over for doing it and they say they owe me big time. Ha ha. I didn't do much but now they're offering to do yard work and stuff for us. Score! :)

If you've read this far, you must be really bored right now. :) I wanted to right it all down to look back at later, so it's mainly for me but now you all know what we're up to. :)

Jill is still growing like crazy and she looks 12 but will be 9 next month. She wants pierced ears and painting supplies for her birthday. She starts 3rd grade two weeks from today. She is beautiful and kind and tries so hard to make everyone happy. She is very helpful at grabbing the phone for me while I'm changing a diaper, getting something I forgot out of the van, unloading the dishwasher while I make dinner, preparing parts or sometimes all of dinner, and she is my "Mom, let's talk!" kid. Just like I was with my mom! :) She's also the only one who calls me "Mama" and I have no idea why. But it just fits for her. :)

Miranda is growing taller now and looks much more grown up. Her beginning of the year kindergarten pictures look so different from her now! She is ready for 1st grade! Natalie is still growing like Jill did and is the same height as Miranda and now they have to share clothes and shoes!!! Oh the dread! They have totally different styles (I know, styles at this age? I definitely did not have a "style" at this point) but there are still several items that they love to fight over. In fact, their favorite thing to do together is FIGHT!!! Miranda is stubborn and feisty and doesn't mind throwing a punch. *SIGH* I do not like that! Natalie is a screamer who dissolves into tears at the drop of a hat these days. Can you say, READY FOR SCHOOL TO START!!!!! BUT... Miranda is my most helpful hard worker when she's in a good mood. She seeks out opportunities to help me and can clean up a room (the correct way!) faster than anybody! And Natalie is the sweetest, cuddle bug who just needs a LOT of attention. With her sisters home, she doesn't get as much.

Lucas is AWESOME! He is so much fun and I love this age. He is unfortunately in the HIT and THROW stage that I knew would come with a boy but oh my goodness! I can't count how many times a day I say, "Don't hit!" "Do not throw!" He totally knows what I mean in almost everything I tell him. It's amazing he's only been here for 19 months but knows so much about this big ol' world. :) He is also oh so handsome. He still has his nice big head (ha ha) and I think it's bigger than Miranda's and Natalie's! :) He fits in 2T clothes and has outgrown his size 6 Sunday shoes. :( Growing so fast! I sure love that cute boy!

Ok, so I have taken about an hour to go back through my calendar and remember all we have done this summer. It's been fun to remember. I've had some hard times with having ANY motivation on some of these super hot days when I'm trapped in my house with my kids and they're BORED with their DS and TV and the computer and the Wii and all of our board games and books, etc. :) I hope to get back in the swing of things with our school time routine and get some projects done around the house. Painting and stuff. Wish me luck! Ciao for now. :)

Progress

2011-04-11T08:02:00.004-05:00

The first weekend in April we went to Dallas to spend time with Ben's parents and brother's family. Since Ben's parents are leaving on a mission soon, we wanted to get in some good bonding time. :) It was a nice, relaxing visit AND we got to watch Conference, which is always a treat.

Lucas was kind enough to sleep through most of almost every session and I actually was able to watch it. Yay! I brought bottles with us to Dallas but once we were home gave him only the sippy cup. He wasn't happy about it at all but he got pretty thirsty by the end of the first day and figured out how to drink out of a sippy. Yay! He dribbled a lot and made a mess but whatever. He is off bottles! He is improving every day and it's actually not too messy anymore.

Natalie finished joy school for the year and even graduated! The other teacher taught them the last day and took pics of them in a graduation cap and printed out a certificate with their name and picture on it. She felt pretty special. :) She is a smart cookie and ready to read, so I need to just sit down and work with her a bit. She's already figured out a lot on her own and can read words that she sees often. I catch myself saying, "How did you know that?" all the time. :)

Miranda has THREE field trips in the next 10 days of school. Crazy, huh? She had one to the zoo last Fall and now this. Today is the Planetarium, Thursday is Western Heritage Days at Hardin Simmons University (which is pretty cool but I'm getting a sitter for the little ones, so I can actually enjoy it this time!). When I went with Jill's class, I was pregnant and dragging/carrying Miranda and Natalie across the huge campus in the heat. Not so fun! Next week she's going to May Farm. This sweet older lady runs this farm with horses, donkeys, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. and she lets the kids come out and feed/pet/hold the animals and we all get a hay ride. I've been there for birthday parties and they let you ride a horse too. It's a fun time and there's not enough room to bring siblings this year, so darn! Have to get a sitter again. :) I love spending time with my kids one-on-one. They are so much more fun that way! :)

Jill is totally miffed that 2nd grade has not had ONE field trip this year! Luckily her class did a radio show, so her teacher took them to a radio station. But there was no planned field trip for all of 2nd grade. Strange, isn't it? Anyway, Jill is finishing up her ALPS program (the Gifted program) and is so sad that the school cut the budget and there will be NO Gifted next year! Isn't that crazy? ALPS has been so fun for her. She gets bussed to another school every Friday and all day learns about medieval times, knights, heraldry, composers, arts, etc. of the time. It has been an awesome experience for her. I wish the budget cuts didn't have to effect that and that class sizes weren't going from 22 to 24 next year. How are these teachers supposed to teach in a group that size!?? ANYWAY... she is excited to be finishing 2nd grade and looking forward to summertime and play time with the cousins.

Ben & I are going to see "Pirates of Penzance" on Thursday at Abilene Christian University. I haven't seen it since a date back at BYU, so that was a LONG time ago. :) I'm enjoying having actual planned date nights with Ben lately. We put those on the back burner long ago and it's nice that they're back now. :) We have a great teenage sitter who is awesome with my kids and I don't worry when they are with her! I also have a dear friend who has watched our kids here and there lately and I appreciate it SO much! I love love love my kids but a break from them is so nice too. Makes the heart grow fonder, right? ;)

Good times

2011-03-31T08:17:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated for a while because I always think I need a lot of great information and pictures and I just don't have a lot of time for that. So... I'll just give a little update. We are doing well here in Abilene. Things have been really busy but I have actually made great strides in balancing out my life. I have been going to bed early (which I hate because I'm missing out on the "me" time where I can watch 24 on Netflix and fold the laundry or whatever in peace), I joined the YMCA and have been going to work out about 4 times a week (would be more but kids get sick or something comes up and I miss a day or two here and there but I'm actually enjoying this!), I've been trying to eat healthier (which is an up and down thing depending on the day), and I've cut out a lot of my volunteer responsibilities (I even told the PTA president that I will not resume my position next year, which was SO hard to do because I love it).

So, after feeling out of balance for a long time, I think I'm making some great strides. I'm far from perfectly balanced but I'm trying. I think it's actually made me more lazy to sleep more and not have something scheduled all the time. :) I actually sat down and read a book yesterday. Didn't accomplish much else! So maybe I've gone to the other side of the balance beam... A work in progress. :)

I took Lucas for his 15 month check up yesterday and he's doing really well. Hasn't gained much weight since his 12 month but he's always been a big boy and now he's running around everywhere, so it makes sense. We are ditching the bottle since I've been halfheartedly trying for a while and then the dr said something about catching him with a bottle, like it was a bad thing. And I've never had a baby use the bottle this long (not that it's horrible but I'd like him off it), so today should be interesting. :) He loves to bang his sippy cups on everything and chuck it across the room. Not so fond of trying to get a drink out of them... hmmm. :)

My dad got remarried on St. Patrick's Day, so we went to Kansas for Spring Break to be a part of that. I feel ok about it but it's kind of sad that my relationship with my dad will change again. After Mom died, we actually got a lot closer. Now I feel like he'll be involved in his "new life" and not need me as a listening ear anymore. His new wife has two daughters, a son-in-law, and a grandson, so it's kind of neat that our family has grown. I still miss my mom a lot.

The girls were flower girls, along with my brother's daughter, Maren. They were so beautiful and I WILL put some pictures on here if I ever get any. I was really busy doing things at the wedding and took maybe 4 pictures. I'm waiting for people to share their pictures with me! The girls felt so special. Ben played Pachebel's Canon in D while they came down the aisle and he did a great job. I was holding Lucas a lot during the wedding and reception because there were a ton of people wanting to pinch his cheeks or hold him and he clung to me like crazy! :) I also realized that his new church shoes were uncomfortable for him (a little big), so he didn't want to run around. I figured it out at the very end and took off the shoes and then he was happy to wander around. :)

I got two new callings in March too. Thanks a lot, Bishop! ;) I was released as the Primary Pianist and am now the Relief Society Secretary and Youth Sunday School Teacher. I like them both but I am still a little busy on Sundays! Lucas will be 2 months away from nursery age on the Sunday after Conference but the nursery leaders said that I can go ahead and bring him then, since I'm having to find someone to watch him every week for two hours! Hooray!!! He will love it, I'm sure, and I will be so glad to not impose on people to watch my toddler every week!

For General Conference weekend (this weekend!), we are going to Dallas to see Ben's parents. We've been so busy that we haven't seen them since Christmas! That seems ridiculous since we're only 3 1/2 hours away! His parents decided to put in their papers to go on a mission and I'm so excited for them. We will miss them while they are gone but time is just flying by these days, so it won't seem like too long.

I'm grateful for good friends who listen to me, make me laugh, and support me in my endeavors to improve myself. I've been very blessed. :)

The Promised Pictures

2011-01-19T16:51:00.009-06:00

The saddest little birthday boy...

These are pictures of Lucas on happier days including today (in the brown)...

Some other random pics of the kiddos. I forgot my camera at Christmas, so all of those photos are on my father-in-law's camera and I need to get those sometime... :)
SLY GUY

SERIOUS

NATALIE SMILES

MIRANDA SMILES

LAUGHING LUCAS

JILLIAN SMILES

NATALIE RUNNING DOWN THE PATH

JILL & MIRANDA RUNNING DOWN THE PATH

JILL & LUCAS

HAPPY BOY

GIGGLE MIRANDA

GIGGLE JILL

ESCAPING

BRYNER KIDS

BRYNER FAMILY

BEN & BRANDI

BRYNER SISTERS

BRYNER BEAUTIES

NAT HAD A LONG DAY

MIRANDA'S CLASS & TEACHER - THANKSGIVING PROGRAM

CUTEST PILGRIM EVER

MOM & MIRANDA PILGRIM

GOING OUT TO PLAY

STAGE MANAGERS JILL & COOPER

JILL'S CLASS THAT GOT BAPTIZED LAST YEAR

Always running behind...

2011-01-19T09:26:00.004-06:00

on this blog and in every aspect of my life but I don't see it changing any time soon. :)

December was fun because of all the Christmasy stuff going on (parties and music and decorations and such) but very busy and all of the kids were sick twice! They all got something, got better, then got something else! All at different times and different sicknesses, so I was nursing everybody ALL MONTH! But the biggest blessing is that I didn't get sick at all! Ben even got a cold after Thanksgiving and then another one at Christmas.

We spent Christmas with Ben's family in Dallas and then after a day at home, my dad drove down to drive up to Kansas with me and then drove back down with me and then drove home. Yes, he's crazy and such a good dad and grandpa! He didn't want me to have to travel alone with the kids. Our drive up there was the worst ever! Lucas slept MAYBE 45 minutes and cried 80% of the time. Sometimes he'd just yell and I'd turn around to look at him and he's SMILE so big! He was adorable! Then if I wasn't feeding him or paying attention to him, he made a LOT of noise! A dr visit after that trip found an ear infection, so I'm not too upset at him anymore. ;) Anyway, I bet Dad was regretting this trip! The way home was TONS better.

While in Kansas, my dad told me he was getting remarried. I had been upset about the prospect but then I just felt so peaceful about it. I think my mom was sending me vibes of, "It's ok, don't worry," and I've felt good about it since. We are planning to go up to Kansas in March for the wedding and I'm helping to plan it a bit. Trying to focus on all the positives of the situation. I am sure missing my mom these days.

Jill & Miranda are happy to be back in school. They loved the break but they love school too. The best part of the break was getting to see Daddy so much.

Natalie is back to doing joy school and is amazing me with what she can learn, memorize, and remember from week to week. She just learned the 1st Article of Faith and recited it at church to get a sticker and a sucker! :) She did it so easily, she could probably have done it a long time ago but I didn't realize it.

Lucas is SO AWESOME! He has been my hardest, high maintenance baby but he is really getting into a happy and fun phase and I am SO GRATEFUL! He just smiles and talks and wanders around (super speedy crawling or cruising around) and he LOVES his Daddy and his sisters and not just me! He's actually good with babysitters too but when I come in the door he squeals so loud and starts clapping! Can't beat that response! :) My "little" Lucas is looking more and more like a big boy these days. He is standing on his own quite a bit and I actually just watched him stand, bend over to pick up a ball, and place the ball on a chair without holding on to anything. :) The little cutie is going to just take off walking any time now but I am in no hurry. He has been so slow to do certain things like put ANYTHING in his mouth. No little toys, crayons, etc. Awesome! Don't have to worry about the choking hazards! But... he wouldn't put a Cheerio or pacifier or bottle in his mouth either! Seriously! Luckily he overcame that and started holding his own bottle at 11 months (finally!) and started the oral stage right before his birthday and now I have to be careful of everything but at least he can feed himself! Yay! I think he was just lazy but now he realizes he'll get stuff faster if he does it himself! :) His birthday was kind of sad. He was sick and he didn't feel like eating cake and he didn't know how to put anything in his mouth yet, so he just squeezed his cupcake in his fists and made a mess and then had a fun bath. ;) Not much of a party. We may have to celebrate a half birthday for him in June!

I think 2011 is going to be a great year for our family and I'm determined to get myself healthier (not a new year's goal, just a necessity since I've had a few minor health issues that can be fixed with diet and exercise, so I'm committed!). One of my wonderful friends is helping me and keeping me going, so I plan to be successful! ;) I got super busy toward the end of last year and hope to keep a little more balanced this year. Always hard for me! I can't say no! I did 4 Christmas class parties (and I only have 2 children in school!) and things got a little crazy with sick kiddos and commitments at the school. Luckily Ben took a sick day to take care of our kids, so I could do school parties for other people's kids. Yeah, crazy. :) But it's fun and I love it.

I'm still the Primary pianist and I must be improving somewhat because people keep asking me to accompany them and I guess that's a good thing??? :)

Ben got an Ipod Touch for his birthday since his last year's Christmas present Ipod stopped working and we found out it was a fake! We got refunded since it was a knockoff and so he got an Ipod Touch this time (a real one). :) The girls have had a blast playing on it (whenever they can get it away from Daddy) and I got a new Android phone (just the free one for renewing my contract) and now they love to play with that too. So if you try to call me and can't get through, it's probably because the kids have my phone. :)

I got an electric blanket for Christmas and it was my favorite gift! :) I love crawling into a warm bed in the winter time! My dad bought us a Wii and we bought a trampoline, so we are feeling pretty spoiled around here with fun stuff to use when we spend time together.

Other than not seeing my husband enough, I really can't complain. Life is good and keeps getting better. I hope you are all happy too! I will post pictures soon!

Quick catch up

2010-11-07T21:45:00.008-06:00

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I wanted to post pictures of Jill's birthday and baptism in September but... my aunt took those photos and then her computer died and she has them saved to a disk but I haven't gotten any...
:( SO... pictures of that will follow.

Jillian was excited to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on her 8th birthday, September 18th. We had my dad, my brother & his family, my aunt, my uncle, and Ben's parents here with us to celebrate. A TON of people showed up to the baptism, which was wonderful but unexpected. The program was short & sweet and Jill said she felt, "Awesome," after being baptized. :) Jill & Miranda sang with their Crain cousins, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me," and they did a great job. We had a little slideshow of pictures of Jillian from blessing day to baptism day that we played before the program began. It was to the music, "What Heaven Sees In You," and it set a nice tone for the baptism, I think. I was a bit emotional when one of the pictures flashed up and it was my mom cuddling Jill when she was about 4 years old and I glanced at my dad and we both had tears in our eyes. It is so sad that she had to miss this special day and so many others with the people she loved so much. Jill is still very tenderhearted when we speak of Grandma Nancy. It's hard not to cry when we talk about her because we miss her so much. I know she was watching over us though and saw everything. :) We actually went to my niece, Maren's baptism in Edmond, OK, the week before and I felt my mom's presence there too. She is definitely still a huge part of our lives.

So, my baby girl Jill is EIGHT! I'm so proud of her and, although sometimes I think she's turning into a tween, she's still a darling girl and I am happy to have her in our home! She is loving 2nd grade and her special ALPS class (Gifted & Talented), where she is bussed to another school on Fridays. They are doing really neat projects in there and learning about important character traits like perseverance, honesty, and cheerfulness. I love that part! :) They are learning about the medieval time period, learning how to play chess, sewing a banner with their self-designed coat of arms on it, and doing papier mache projects. Fun stuff! Her regular class is doing a radio show set in the 1940's World War II era and Jill is the stage manager and an interviewer of the talent on the show. They perform it for the school on November 22nd and I've been helping the kids learn their lines and gather props and even sewing things for the set. I spend about 2 hours up at the school every Monday and it is a blast! I swap sitting with a friend who volunteers at the school on Wednesdays, so that's been nice!

Jillian joined Chorus Abilene's Children's Chorus this Fall and had her first concert in October. Grandma & Grandpa Bryner came out for it and we had a fun time. She did really great and Ben could tell I was itching to get up there with the Adult Chorus but not right now. Maybe someday... The Primary Program was the next day, so the grandparents stayed over and saw that too. I played the piano for it, so I was SO grateful to have them there to watch Lucas as well!

Miranda is still loving school and seems to be doing better now at sleeping. She says she can't go to sleep at night (it'd help if she put her book down and closed her eyes!) and she's hard to get up in the morning. Instead of yelling at her to get moving, we've resorted to carrying her out of bed and dressing her! Yes, I'm serious. Not every morning is like that but many are and we find it's easier to get her going if she's upright and half-dressed and then she kind of wakes up and takes over. She does extremely well on all of her work, which the teacher is happy with, and she says she's just adorable, sweet, and well-behaved (which is always nice to hear!) but she's bringing home some bad behaviors that I'm sure she's picked up at school. She actually had to "move her clip" from green to red on Friday for choking a little boy in her class! Evidently they were playing and another girl pretend choked him and then he said, "Na na na na boo boo, you can't choke me!" (WHY he said that, I'll never know) and Miranda said, "Yes, I can." As she did it, the teacher saw her and she got in trouble. Mortified, I am. I made her make an "I'm sorry" card to give the boy on Monday and hopefully this is the end of her behavioral issues! Yes, I know kids get in trouble at school but honestly I never expected my girls to get a Red. Miranda was pretty mortified about that, as well, so here's hoping we never see it again!

Natalie is 4! We had a Trunk or Treat party at the church on Saturday and gathered way too much candy, so we stayed home on Halloween (didn't want to go on Sunday anyway and no one came to our door, so I guess a lot of people felt the same) and just enjoyed each other's company. It was a nice, peaceful day. The next day was my sweet Nat's birthday and as if we weren't sick from candy, we got to eat birthday cake and ice cream! ;) We went to Chuck E. Cheese's (tradition!) and had pizza and games. Then we came home for the cake & ice cream (rainbow cake with m&m's & marshmallows). I had made the same cake for Jill when she was 4 (I think) and Miranda when she was 2. Natalie liked the pictures she's seen and I think it's fun to make, so we made her one. Funny memory... when I made Miranda's, I wanted to keep it a surprise, so I wanted to hide it in case she came in the kitchen. My mom had the idea to hide it in the oven. A few hours later we wanted to make homemade pizza and my mom preheated the oven. Uh oh! The marshmallow clouds got a toasty light brown, the frosting started to run, and the m&m's were melting. I thought it was hilarious and my mom was so upset that she'd ruined my cake! Luckily I took pictures of it before she stuck it in the oven, so I had proof that it HAD looked good at one time! :) Natalie got a Radio Flyer Spring Horse for her birthday but I found it on Craigslist in my in-law's city, so we bought it a few months ago and they brought it out in September and she got it early. She LOVES that thing and she also got a pre-school workbook (she loves school just like her sisters), new markers (we go through them like crazy), and a Ty Girl doll to play with online just like her big sisters! She sure is a cute & sweet girl! Plus, our funniest child by far! ;)

Lucas is a moving machine! He started REALLY crawling on hands and knees and going quickly on October 16th. He was pulling up by the 23rd. That boy gets ANYWHERE he wants now and is pretty good at stopping when I say, "No!" He loves cords and trash cans but I'm trying to re-direct him constantly. :) He is so much happier now that he can move around and that's been so nice for me! He is a major mama's boy but is starting to warm up to other people now (thank goodness!). He is adorable and getting taller every day! He's stayed about the same weight for the past couple of months but is thinning out as he grows and is looking more like a little boy to me all the time. He & Natalie have a great friendship already and they enjoy their days together. He laughs so much these days and I still love every giggle.

I just transferred 285 pictures from my camera to my computer from the past 6 weeks. Whoa. I'm way behind. I'm guessing some of them are photo sessions Natalie has taken when I wasn't paying attention... :)

I went to Time Out For Women in October with some friends and had a great time. My awesome sis-in-law & their family watched my kids and I was able to enjoy time with friends and awesome speakers at the conference. Lately I have been busy with Jill's class radio show, going on field trips with Miranda's class (zoo & tee pee village), being room parent coordinator for the PTA, making Jill's Halloween costume (she was Hermione, so I sewed her a robe & crocheted a scarf), teaching joy school 2 days a week for Natalie and her friend, making cloth diapers for a friend, volunteering 2 hours a week at the Chorus Abilene office, and helping make food for a wedding reception. No, I'm not super mom like some people say. I definitely have a problem with overcommitting when it's so fun to help out everywhere. :) My house is not in tip-top shape and some things like hot dogs & chili and free-for-all in the fridge have been passing for family meals lately. I hope to find greater balance in life and spend more time at the park with my kids. :)

Ben is still busy being the Bishop. He's excited about being in 2nd place in his work Fantasy Football League and hopes to work his way up to 1st. :) He still likes to watch UFC fights and listen to music loudly while dancing with the kids! :) I miss him a lot but he's busy doing good things and who can begrudge that. I'm very proud of him and love him more every day. We'll celebrate 12 years this month! Crazy!

That's all for now!!! Check out this collage. Click to see the images bigger. It's faster to do this than post them all separately on here! ;)

Updated Pics of My Kids

2010-09-14T12:12:00.003-05:00

For those of you who love to see my children... :)

These girls are school buddies. They tell each other everything, so when they get off the bus and I ask what one did, the other one fills me in. Pretty funny! :)

My tween. :( I LOVE this kid and she is growing up way too fast. She will be 8 this Saturday and I love her more every day. We have such fun together! I get sad when I look at her and see a young lady. Where's my baby girl??? She loves all animals and loves to read. We've been reading the same books lately and discussing them in our own little "book club." She loves school and I think she really enjoys having her sister with her on the bus.

Miranda is 5 years and 4 months old. She is a super star kindergartner and is friends with everyone in her class. :) She is an avid reader and wants to read anything Jill is reading, which is funny because Jill is an advanced reader. She is now reading "Fablehaven" (which I think is a 4th or 5th grader book) and I told her it may scare her a little with all the goblins and witches but she says she's not scared. :) She has dazzling blue eyes (which aren't visible in the picture) and a winning smile. Her favorite things are hugs from mom!

Natalie is 3 years and 10 months old. She loves to color and play computer games. She is obsessed with horses of all kinds and is HILARIOUS! I love this kid! :)

Lucas the Menace. This handsome little dude will be 9 months old on Jill's 8th birthday this Saturday. He is not crawling yet (all of my kids crawl around 8 or 9 months, so it should be soon) but he moves around rolling and scooting a bit. He LOVES his mama and wants me in view at ALL times! Such a happy baby who loves to splash in the tub!

Blessings and Trials

2010-08-24T20:40:00.006-05:00

My life has been a series of ups and downs lately. Mainly up because of my amazing family but man, I'm tired of the downs. We've had appliance issues, (bought a new dishwasher, washer, and dryer in the past 6 weeks!), the A/C went out today (but I fixed it... somehow, no idea how, just messed around for half an hour until it came back on!), I've had some annoying health issues causing problems (and HUGE medical bills :P), but we had a fun summer and are ready for school to start!

Yesterday was the 1st day of school here and my girls were ready! They were so cute all dressed up, backpacks on, ready to go! They have been practicing for several weeks to get up and be ready by 7:15 (the time to run to the bus!), so even though I took them to school on the 1st day, they were ready, so we left! And drove behind the bus the whole way! ;)

***Click on this collage to see the picture bigger.***

We took some pics in front of the house and in front of the school. Then we sat inside waiting for the bell to ring to let us go to class! Jillian found friends and went off to 2nd grade. She has a fabulous teacher that I was really hoping she'd get. The teacher already knows her from when she was a kindergartener and would go to 2nd grade for reading time. She said, "I've been waiting for YEARS to get Jillian in my class!"

Miranda was a little more reserved... just taking it all in. I walked her to class and took more pictures, which she happily posed for and then we put her bag at her cubby and she got to pick a seat and start coloring. One of her friends from church is in her class, so I thought that would make her comfortable but her friend was running late that day and when I left at 8 AM, she still wasn't there! Miranda was totally fine though and the friend showed up a few minutes later, I was told. :) The only problem of the 1st day was that she didn't tell the teacher she'd brought a lunch in her pretty, new pink lunch bag. So the teacher bought her a cafeteria lunch. Way to make me look like a lame parent who didn't send her kid to school with food or lunch money! :) I wrote a note to her teacher and included money to pay her back, so she actually ate her lunch today and all is well. :)

Natalie has LOVED being the big girl at home. She's been very helpful and obedient. Lately she's liked to talk silly (like a baby) and act like she doesn't know what I'm asking her to do. :( Not anymore. She is doing what she's supposed to do without me asking and no more baby talk! Seems she was just wanting more attention... oh, is THAT the problem??? :) Yeah, never enough individual attention around here. A couple of cute things I want to record for posterity... the other day I was looking for some framed pictures of Christ that I had put down and forget where I put them. I asked Natalie to look with me and she said, "Jeeesus, where arrrre you?" Hee hee! Also, we were playing Disney DVD Bingo and Rafiki (the baboon from Lion King) came on the screen and I said, "That's Rafiki," and she said, "No, Mom, that's FREAKY!" :) Love that girl's personality!

Lucas is driving me INSANE! I love the boy to death but I'm struggling to figure him out. He is spitting up, throwing up, ruining his outfit and mine several times a day, crying whenever he can't see me, and kind of moaning any time I'm not holding him, feeding him, and looking at him! I know some of this is normal baby stuff. He's teething. He's 8 months old and has separation anxiety. But the throwing up is REALLY bothering me. Something is wrong and the dr said he's a happy spitter, so it's just a laundry problem. Not so! He seems to be in pain when he's eating at least once or twice a day. Bite, bite, shriek, boo hoo, sniff sniff, bite, bite, repeat. Seriously he is a big kid and they think because he's gaining weight he's fine but I think he's in pain and that's why he's only calm in my arms. When he's in my arms, he is in heaven and he smiles at me and touches my face and "talks" to me. He is a joy in my life. I just want to help him be happier.

More on the positive side, he is rolling, scooting, clapping, smiling, playing with toys, sleeping 11 hrs straight every night, taking 2 naps a day (about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs each), reaching up to be picked up, developing wonderfully... maybe he'll crawl someday... but I'm seriously worried about him. I've changed his formula umpteen times and he's on Zantac now for reflux (it's gotta be that, right?) but it's not helping. I've tried Mylanta too but haven't noticed a difference. Any experienced mamas have advice for me???

So there have been some frustrations since I last posted but a lot of good things too. My birthday is on Friday and I'll be the big 33! What a cool number! ;) I was asked to accompany someone singing in church last Sunday and I was nervous. She has an incredible voice and I don't practice much, so I really didn't want to mess her up! I was shaking like a leaf and Ben sat beside me to turn the pages and I played it better than I ever had before, so I was happy. One friend told me I did a great job and I said, "That's what I have to do to get to sit by my husband in church for a few minutes!" :)

Ben is still the bishop and crazy busy. He's out doing bishop visits right now. Wednesdays he's at church, Thursday he has home teaching... I might see him on Friday for my birthday! Cool! :)

Summer Vacations, Baby Milestones, & Busy-ness!

2010-07-07T16:14:00.005-05:00

So after Julie went home, we packed up and drove to Utah! The kids were a-MAZ-ing and we had a pleasant and uneventful drive to Gallup, New Mexico. We stopped for dinner in Albuquerque and just happened to find a restaurant in Old Town and it was fabulous ambience and really good Mexican food. Yay! My favorite! We got to our hotel that evening and it smelled like smoke. UGH! Oh well, we were too tired to complain. Ben took the girls swimming. I got Lucas and myself ready but when we go to the pool, Ben & the girls said it was FREEZING. So I opted to just feed Lucas a bottle. :) They had fun swimming and the next morning we had breakfast and left that yucky place vowing to never return. :) Then we had an UGLY and BORING drive through New Mexico's reservations and THEN we entered beautiful Colorado. Loved it! Then we entered Utah and stopped for lunch in Monticello at the cutest little place called The Peace Tree Juice Cafe. It had healthy food and we were tired of junk food after the day before of McDonald's (yuck) and we got wraps and blue tortilla chips and fresh squeezed lemonade. Yum! It was the cutest place and I wish I had taken a picture! We ate outside on a little deck on multicolored chairs and tables and had a view of gorgeous mountains. I said, “I think this is the prettiest place I've ever eaten a meal!” Natalie said, “Yeah, and there's a car wash!” Hmm, ok. :) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

Then we made our way to Moab (Ben's dream place to live) and went to Arches National Park. By this time it was 103 and the kids made it to a viewing area of Delicate Arch and were done. Ben & I walked around Balancing Rock while the kids watched a movie in the van (we could see them the whole time, of course). They didn't want to get out again!

Next we drove to Provo and showed our kiddos where we met (The Colony Apartments – woot woot!) and had dinner at one of our favorite places – Stans! I had my banana cream pie shake and BLT and it was heavenly! We saw my cousin Emily for a few minutes (she lives near there and dropped by to say hi) and then headed to Kaysville where we stayed with my Aunt Connie. My kids LOVED her and I think they were happy to have her as a Grandma substitute (she is my mom's sister). She totally spoiled us and fed us great food and played with the kids. Uncle Ferren told the kids stories and they kept asking him to repeat them. We played with her grandkids (and I hung out with her daughter who is my closest cousin, Gini). Actually when we left to go home, Jill & Miranda said, "Bye Aunt Connie!" but Natalie said, "Bye Grandma!" Connie thought that was pretty special and so did I. :)

We visited my grandparents' and cousin's grave in Bountiful which is close to the temple where we were married, so we walked around the temple grounds and took pictures of the kids there. Then we went to West Jordan to visit Ben's aunt and uncle who just came home from their mission to Korea and his parents were there too (also visiting from Texas). The kids had fun with their grandparents and Ben's aunt & uncle who are also like grandparents.

The next day we went to Temple Square in SLC with my cousin Gini and her kids. We rode the Frontrunner train down to SLC, which was so nice and so fun! Unfortunately the weather stunk. I had packed one pair of jeans and light jackets for the girls but not for me! So I was shivery as we walked around Temple Square. When we got back to the train parking lot, it was 49 degrees and pouring rain! At least we did our touring around before the rain hit! The rest of the trip was unseasonably cold and wet. YUCK! No zoo or swimming like we had planned. On Saturday, Connie & Ferren had a barbecue for us and the kids “burned marshmallows” according to Natalie. Ben went to see a UFC fight on base with Gini's husband, Matt, and they had a great time as well.

On Sunday, we went to Ben's aunt and uncle's ward to hear them report about their mission and then went back to their house for lunch and visiting most of his wonderful cousins. We saw so much family on this trip but still missed a bunch too! Off and on Jill wasn't feeling well (actually threw up a few times one night) and this day Miranda got a fever and didn't feel well.

We packed up to head home on Monday morning and Natalie promptly threw up, I cleaned it up, then Lucas threw up a whole bottle. LOVELY! We packed up and left knowing we'd be stopping a lot. We went a different way this time to see some more of the country and went through Wyoming and Colorado. The kids did need extra potty breaks but no throwing up. Yay! We got to Colorado Springs and stayed in an AWESOME hotel for less than the nasty place in Gallup! Ben & the girls swam again and enjoyed it more this time. We ordered Pizza Hut into our room and had a great night. Woke up to head home and everyone ate a great breakfast and we got started. Less than 40 minutes later, Jill was throwing up. Again? Seriousy? So we stopped in Pueblo for a potty break and cleaned up a bit (luckily we had a plastic bucket that Jill threw up in, so no mess in the car!). While there, Ben noticed a low tire. It only had 18 lbs in it and he suspected a nail. So we drove to the Discount Tire down the road and got it patched (for free!). We were feeling grumpy but also blessed because that was the last city for a LONG time where we could have gotten that tire repaired. We drove and drove and drove that day and finally got home late that evening. I vowed to never travel again. Ha ha!

A week later I took the kids to Dallas while Ben went to Scout High Adventure Camp! I had a fabulous time catching up with my dear friend, Natalie, who up and moved to Dallas last year. Sad! :( But we had fun at the Fort Worth Zoo and swimming in her backyard and staying up 'til 3 to talk. Seriously! We also had another great reason for being in Dallas. Ben's sister, Jocelyn, brought her family from Minnesota to Texas for a visit with her parents. We were able to let cousins play and catch up at a Splash Park, a Jumping Land, and at the house. I sure love my family!

So, that's our summer in a nutshell. It sure seems like we've done a ton!

Lucas just had his 6 month appointment yesterday (he was 6 months on the 18th but the dr's office is busy!) and he is doing everything wonderfully, of course. He is 19 lbs. 12 oz. (75th percentile), 28 in. long (90th percentile), and his beautiful head is perfectly in the 90th percentile. :) The dr asked if he'd gotten any teeth yet and I said no because the upper canine ones he got a few months ago kind of worked their way back up into his gums (exactly the same ones that Miranda did that with) and today at lunch I noticed... HE HAS HIS FIRST TOOTH! It's one of the bottom middle ones just like you are supposed to get first! He rolled from front to back on June 4th, back to front on June 11th, and starting sitting up on July 1st. He also started eating solids when we got back from our Utah vacation, around the 16th. He is growing up so fast and is just so adorable! Check out the pic of him wearing his first tie! :)

Ben is busy at work and as Bishop and takes off time here or there to help other people but hasn't had a lot of RELAX time. Luckily (I guess) there was a furlough day on July 2 (unpaid time off due to budget issues) and he had the 5th off too for the holiday, so he had a really nice lazy weekend and it was so fun to have him home! He played with the girls and Lucas (he's finally old enough for Ben to find him fun!), I won some fireworks (my name was accidentally drawn from the wrong raffle box I guess and I got $150 of fireworks that I didn't even sign up to win!), we set some off with some friends on Sunday (& had birthday cake too since their son turned 4!), set off fireworks with other friends the next day (& I brought a red, white, and blue trifle!-yum!), and we went to Family Storytime at the library last night. The kids and I also caught a puppet show at the library earlier in the day. Summer time is awesome! :)

Last week my dishwasher quit draining, washer quit agitating, and dryer quit heating. SERIOUSLY! So after a trip to Best Buy for a new dishwasher and a service call for an appliance repairman, we are poorer but back in business! Hooray! Never a dull moment around here.

Life isn't perfect but it's really good! :)

Parties and awards and visits... oh my!

2010-07-07T13:00:00.006-05:00

Catch up time again! We had a very eventful June and I told Ben he needed to help me blog about it but he's never around, so...

I guess I should start with the last week of May actually. I threw a surprise baby shower for my friend Kim and it actually surprised her!!! Woo hoo! I sent out e-vites to a lot of our friends at church that I had e-mail addresses for and then told them to spread the word and we had a great turnout for dinner and a movie. I told Kim I wanted her to have a girls' night out with me and my friend who would be visiting. Then my friend got stranded at the airport with a cancelled flight and I told Kim that my friend wouldn't be here that night but I still wanted to go out. She was thrilled, thank goodness, or I would have had a really hard time making another excuse up to get her to her shower! So I picked her up and people were texting me to say they were at the restaurant and ready to say, “Surprise!” I was at a stop light and said, “We're at the intersection! Be ready!” I know Kim thought I was funny to be texting while driving (I was stopped though) and talking to her at the same time. I made a comment about how Julie was texting me all day updating me on the flight situation. We walked in and they yelled and she was truly surprised. Hooray!!! It was a great turnout and we had so much fun! She got a lot of cute clothing for her baby boy and money towards a double jogging stroller. We ate our dinner and then served up a Trifle that I made and it tasted as good as it looked! Eliza (our fearless RS leader) was thirsty, so asked the waiter to just bring her a pitcher of soda. :) Then some of us headed to the movie theater to watch, “Letters to Juliet.” A pretty cute, clean movie and some hilarious, crazy friends to watch it with – great night!

The next day was Jill's 1st grade Awards Assembly. She got lots of certificates for wonderful things but I was especially proud of two things. She received the 1st grade music award and I'm not sure what it's for but I love that she loves to sing and she'll always sing or play the piano on music share day. A girl after my own heart! In so many ways, really. Love that kid! She also was the #2 reader out of the 5 classes of 1st grade. She got to go to Midnight Madness (all the kids with a certain amount of Accelerated Reading points got to go to the school from 8 to midnight and play games, do crafts, eat pizza, and watch a movie) and I was a chaperone for that. It was fun for both of us and only three 1st graders got to go, so that was neat. She received a $15 gift card to Books-A-Million, which we have already spent on some childhood classics. She's almost done with “Anne of Green Gables” and she started it yesterday! I was in such a rush the day of the assembly that I couldn't find my camera and asked my friend, Sharla, to take pictures of Jill for me. It was hilarious when all the parents went forward to take pics of their kids, I just sat there and Jill looked at me like, “What's going on?” Sharla was waving at Jill and calling her name and Jill could NOT figure out why Cherith's mommy wanted to take pictures of her. Ha ha. I felt like a pretty lame mom. I told Sharla that if anyone asked I could say I hired a “professional” for my kid's pictures. :) She hasn't sent them to me yet, so I can't post how cute she was that day.

My dear friend Julie from my college days came to visit at the end of May and beginning of June. She missed the baby shower and the awards ceremony that she was looking forward to but we still managed to have fun. We went to Buffalo Gap Historic Village, Frontier Texas, the Center for Contemporary Arts, the Abilene Zoo, the Paramount Theater, and the Grace Museum. Basically everything to do in Abilene. :) My girls LOVED her and were sad to see her go. I felt like I could be easily replaced. One time I was trying to open a bottle and Jill said, “Do you want me to get Julie to do it?” Wow, I guess I'm not as good as Julie! :) I really enjoyed having her here and can't wait until I can go see her someday...

More updates to come...

May Days!

2010-05-25T12:55:00.006-05:00

This month we celebrated Miranda's birthday! She turned 5 and we celebrated with a gymnastics play day on Saturday, her favorite meal (tacos) on Sunday, and Chuck E. Cheese for dinner plus cake at home on Monday (her actual birthday). She is such a sweet thing (most of the time) and a great helper to me. She is reading everything she can get her hands on lately and is SO excited to start kindergarten in August. Jill spent the whole day calling her "the five year old" and she really enjoyed that. :) I am glad my girls have each other, so they always have a best friend (and a nemesis). Here are some pics of our festivities.

Other things we've done in the past month... baby showers, birthday parties, field trips, dentist appointments (Natalie is tongue-tied, who knew?), Echo was neutered (and is a bit calmer surprisingly), Jill gave a talk in Primary, Ben gave a talk in church, I got an additional calling (Primary pianist), Lucas got a double ear infection (and is 18 lbs of adorableness!), I made some really great chimichangas (ha ha), and we're all here and happy. We're looking forward to a visit from my dear college friend, Julie, this week and hope she's going to start the "Let's go to Abilene" vacation trend! :)

We're Still Here!

2010-04-12T08:10:00.012-05:00

Ben has been asking when I was going to update our blog. I just kept thinking it would take too long and I don't have any big chunks of time to myself (really, I'm serious!), but I'm starting now. With a baby on my lap and my three girls asking me when they get their computer time. Now is as good a time as any! :)

The last update was on Christmas Day when Lucas was just 1 week old. We are loving having him as a part of our family. He is sleeping through the night most nights now and is just a joy to be around. He will be 4 months old on Sunday! He has been such a good baby and I have felt WONDERFUL the whole time. I was on some meds from the day after his birth to keep my post partum depression from kicking me down and it worked! I NEVER felt bad like I did with the girls and I have enjoyed this newborn stage so much! I've weaned off of my medicine and still doing good. So many blessings!!!
2010 started off with a bang. And a shock. :) Ben was called to be the Bishop of our church congregation. For those of you who don't know what that means, this is the official definition from our church: "A man who has been ordained and set apart as the presiding high priest for a ward, or congregation. He has overall responsibility for ministering the temporal and spiritual affairs of the congregation." So, yeah, a LOT of responsibility. He was more than a little bit overwhelmed and humbled by this but we both said yes (he said yes and then they asked if I would support him and I said, "Absolutely."). This calling has definitely blessed our lives already. He has been very busy and has meetings a lot but we're doing ok at balancing our lives.

We had planned to have Lucas' baby blessing in church in February but since Ben was made the bishop in mid-January, we bumped it up, so that my dad and Ben's parents could be with us for both occasions. It was really great and I know my mom was there too in spirit. Lucas was so handsome and well-behaved for his blessing, of course. :)
Later in January we went to Ben's employer's (City of Abilene) health fair and had fun at different booths and we signed up for raffles and guess what we won? A free pet adoption from the city shelter! Ben was less than thrilled. Especially when some of the other raffle things to sign up for were free insurance premiums for a month or a Wii. Admittedly, I would have preferred those as well but they had a million people trying for them, so the odds weren't good. :) So we started the search for a pet but I wanted to take my time and get one we really wanted.

In February, my friend Kim & I decided to start doing babysitting trades, so we could go on date nights without paying an arm and a leg for a babysitter. It's been nice to get to go out with Ben a couple of times a month. We usually go to the High Priest Group Social where we eat at a nice restaurant once a month. That's pretty much the only time I get to go out to eat, so I look forward to it! :)

We also had a fun ward activity that month. An Adults Only Valentine's Dance! I guess there were a lot of people out of town or sick (everyone seemed to be sick in either January or February around here!) because we only had about a dozen couples come but it was so much fun! Our activities coordinator is really talented and made the gym look beautiful and we had prizes for most romantic couple, most reverent couple, and there was an award for "How did he get her?" Ha ha.

The next weekend was the youth Valentine's dance at the church and Ben went to chaperone, so I went with him and that was our date. :) Nothing better than FREE! :)

Miranda & Natalie took swimming lessons at the YMCA in February and it wasn't too successful. ;) They didn't like someone shoving them under the water. I find that an odd approach but they always do that in lessons around here. Natalie doesn't ever want to swim now. Miranda actually did quite well and I was surprised how well she listened to the teacher and how willing she was to try new things. Natalie just kept repeating, "I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to." Oh well. It was... an experience. :) The teacher said they would both need to repeat the beginning class before moving on. That kind of surprised me because I thought Miranda did great but she is still a little hesitant and the next class requires them to swim independently for 15 feet and she probably wouldn't be comfortable without a noodle or life jacket nearby. I would love to just take the time to teach them myself one-on-one but that would be a little hard right now since I'd have to get a babysitter to do that!

We have had such a cold winter with several snowfalls and I am so glad Spring has sprung. It sure was pretty though and the kids had a great time playing with Daddy in the snow. I didn't want to take the baby out in the cold, so I just ran out to snap some pictures and then watched them through the window. :)

On Saturday, February 27th, Jillian fell in love with a puppy at the shelter and we brought him home on Monday, March 1st. We named him "Echo" and he's half miniature schnauzer & half they-don't-know, but I would guess border terrier. He was 3 lbs when we brought him home at 8 weeks old. At his last check-up he was 5 lbs, so he's getting huge! Ha ha. I'm hoping he'll stay under 10 or 12 lbs.

He's a pretty smart puppy and has done really well with house training overall. He has started nipping at the girls whenever he can and gets really hyper around them, so they are dying to play with him and then screaming and running away from him. *SIGH* I'm going to sign up for a puppy kindergarten and learn how to train him a little better. He used to come whenever I called but now he knows he'll probably get put in his crate, so he likes to make me chase him. He does well with SIT, LIE DOWN, UP, and I can get him to dance on his hind feet and twirl for a Goldfish cracker! :) He doesn't do so well with DOWN but we're working on it. He does pretty well on a walk with me but if the girls are with me, he just runs right, left, forward, back, around my legs. *SIGH* Again, working on it. Puppies are a lot of work and I knew this going in but I just wish he was sweeter with the girls. It'll happen though, I'm sure, as he gets older.

March brought us to SPRING BREAK! Yay! We finally went back to Kansas to see my family! We hadn't been back since my mom's funeral in October because I had a baby! Ben and my dad don't think it's smart for me to travel by myself with 4 kids, so I had to wait until Ben had a break to come with me. So my relatives there finally got to see the baby and of course they all adored him. We only spent a few great days there with my Dad (wish it had been longer) and then headed to Dallas to see Ben's family for a day and a half (again, wish it had been longer). We were able to attend the Dallas Temple while we were there, thanks to my wonderful in-laws babysitting. It was a whirlwind trip (with 4 children and a PUPPY!) and it was surprisingly successful and almost stress-free. We were happy to get home though.

We had a Scout Spaghetti Dinner and Service Auction at church. It was to raise money for the boys to go to Scout Camp this summer. It was really fun and we ended up bidding on a lot of things and ended up paying $25 for a dessert! All for a good cause, right? :) And it was SO yummy! ;) We also paid $50 to have one of the Scouts help us with yard work for 5 hrs. Well worth it! :)

The beginning of April brought our ward Chili Cook-off (which was way fun and so yummy to try everyone's different chilis), Jill's field trip to a tv news station (I loved going to check out the studio & it made me miss my days at Community Cable News in college), General Conference (love to listen to a prophet's voice!), and Easter (Ben's parents visited for the weekend & we had a nice time dying eggs, hunting eggs, going to the zoo, and eating ham & scalloped potatoes!).

In between all of that stuff is play dates, story time at the library, playgroup visits to the park, zoo, fire station, and grocery store, housework :(, and just general taking care of the kiddos. We are all happy and healthy and so grateful for that! Actually, Jill is home from school today with a sore throat and a fever. *SIGH* We expect many happy and exciting times in the future and I will try to post about things more often! :)

Lucas is here!

2009-12-25T14:30:00.006-06:00

Lucas Benjamin Bryner joined our family on December 18 at 7:45 AM. He was 8 lbs. 7 oz., 20 1/4 inches long, and PERFECT! He is so adorable and is a great eater, sleeper, smiler (not gassy ones!), and we just adore him. Unfortunately everyone in the family is taking turns getting sick (everyone is on their 2nd cycle now except me!). I am so hoping that Lucas does not get sick! We are loving having a boy and he just fits right in! We've had a great Christmas and wish you all the same!

I love November

2009-11-08T19:42:00.011-06:00

I love November mainly because October is over! That was a physically and emotionally draining month! I traveled to Kansas twice and Las Vegas once. I said goodbye to my mom (aka best friend in the world) and then went to Ben's brother's wedding (which was relaxing and fun to attend) and then came home to the news that my mom had passed away, which by this point was a relief because I knew she was finally not in pain anymore. I love her so much and miss her but I am surprised at how well I'm handling it. She must be sending me major comfort from the other side because although I really want to have a conversation with her, I still feel as if she's with me a lot. The funeral went well and I tried to help my dad get things at the house organized as much as possible. My mom hadn't been able to really do much there for weeks and my wonderful aunts did their best, but I tried to get it back to the way it was for him. He's lonely but he's busy with farming and hopefully getting by the best he can by keeping busy. I think that's helping me too. Back to the busy-ness of my life here with my kids. I am 40 days away from having my baby boy, Lucas, join the family and I can't wait! A little nervous and feeling unprepared to start the baby journey all over again but ready too! My great family in Kansas threw me a shower when I visited Kansas in early October and my great friends here threw me a shower last week, so I have SO much great stuff for this baby. I feel so blessed and so spoiled! Although the past 2 months have been really hard to get through, I think I have grown a lot and learned a lot through my trials. At least some good has come from the tragedy of losing my mom so young. I love you Mom. :)

Ok, also some good stuff happened. Halloween, Trick or Treat, Natalie's 3rd Birthday!!! Here are some cute pics.

Way too much

2009-09-25T07:59:00.006-05:00

Well, way too much has happened in the six weeks since I last posted.

Most of you know my mom is dealing with breast cancer. Well, the past few months she's been having pain and problems and we almost lost her the week of her birthday (2nd week of September) due to hypercalcemia (cancer was causing the blood to leech out of her bones and into her blood). She was very fatigued and depressed and my dad took her to his great doctor. He tried to get the calcium problem fixed with a basic approach that usually works but it didn't. He had her come in to check her levels a week later and while entering the clinic, she barely stubbed her toe on the door threshold and broke her femur! Yeah her bones were in bad shape!!! She said it was the most painful thing ever and childbirth is nothing compared to the pain. So they took her to the ER and she was in surgery the next day to get a rod put in her leg. Turns out there was cancer in the bone but the part that had cancer in it is what shattered and was removed, so as far as I understand, she doesn't have it in any other bones as of now. After a couple of days her calcium levels were still rising and I was so worried but was told to not come by her and everybody. "Take care of your kids. We'll keep you updated." Yeah right. It was miserable. Two days after she broke her leg, I couldn't take it anymore and Mom was getting worse. So I found sitters for my kids for the next several days (thank you so much Ben, Kelli, Kim, and Natalie!) and raced up to Kansas to see my mom. She looked pretty bad when I got there. She was so tired and the doctors were amazed she wasn't in a coma yet from the calcium issue. She was kind of telling people she was ready to go (I can imagine why after all that pain and worry of the last year) and I really thought that was the last time I'd see my mom. The next morning everything had changed. Some time after I left that night, the dr came in to try what I think is the 4th medication to try to fix the calcium problem. It worked! I came in to see my mom sitting up in bed and smiling while she ate her breakfast. She had color in her face again and she said she had slept great that night. WHAT??? It was such a miracle. I know that she has had a ton of people fasting and praying for her (and many friends of mine were fasting and praying as well for her and me) and the miracle was amazing. She has continued to get better. Exactly a week from that scary day that I drove up there, she went home from the hospital! She's doing great walking with her walker or scooting around in her wheelchair. My dad put new carpet in the room (needed it anyway but it's nice and flat to make it easy to maneuver) and rented a hospital bed and things that will make it easier to recover. One of her sisters came to help take care of her all this month and I was able to come home to my family but it's been hard to not make sure she's ok every day. I have had such an emotional roller coaster in this past few weeks. I know she still has cancer and she's not going to live forever but I am SO grateful for the extra time we've been granted together. She has been so excited to meet her grandson in December and that's a possibility now!

On to better news... baby boy is growing and as of last Monday, he weighs an estimated 2 lb. 1 oz. and is still very much a boy. He's always moving and flipping and I'm starting to feel body parts now, which is cool. I'm still doing water aerobics 3 or 4 mornings a week and that's been fun. I've only gained 12 lbs so far and everyone says I look tiny (not to me!). I'm definitely carrying different this time though.

Jill started school! She really enjoys 1st grade, loves her teacher and their class parrot Murphy, and already has a boy that picks on her or bugs her every day (I'm guessing because he thinks she's cute). She is loving being back in school and Miranda is SO ready to join her next year!

I turned 32! I'm liking this age too. My parents came down to see me that weekend and although my mom was in obvious pain and couldn't do much with us, it was just so nice to see them. Luckily Mom isn't in pain anymore. Yay pain meds!!! The Young Women from church got me a cake for our regular Wednesday night activity and there was a ton left to bring home, so I didn't even have to bake my own birthday cake! Yay! I ended up going to a 1st Grade Parent Forum on my actual birthday. Yay? :)

Labor Day weekend was fun. We went to the zoo and just hung out and had fun. No traveling! On the Monday, we did some much needed yardwork and although we don't enjoy that at all, we appreciated the fruits of our hard labor. :)

Jill turned 7! We went to Dallas for the weekend of Jill's birthday and spent the time with grandparents and cousins. Ben was able to go to a live UFC event in Dallas with two of his old friends and he thoroughly enjoyed it. The girls were well behaved for the most part but I've never heard them say, "Are we there yet? How much longer?" more than they did on this trip and it's not even as long as our Kansas trips!

Miranda is doing karate at the YMCA and Jill does a KidzFit class there. Natalie loves the nursery there ("The Playroom") and it's nice for mom to get a break! :) Jill is also doing Daisy Girl Scouts and piano lessons. Things have been busy lately but I'm not sure what to cut out because it's all good stuff, right? Miranda & Natalie are playing really well together with Jill in school. They fought a lot more when there was 3 of them here but I guess if they want someone to play with them, they have to be nice to the one that's here with them! :)

So as of now, life really is good. I worry about my mom and about having another baby (PPD nightmares!) but we are healthy and happy and I am trying to appreciate the good in every day (and downplay the bad). :)

Better Late Than Never

2009-08-14T12:00:00.004-05:00

I haven't been updating lately but a lot has happened. The most exciting news is we are having a BOY! We just found out this week and the girls are all excited, as well as Ben of course.

Second biggest news which is actually HUGE is that Natalie is finally potty trained!!! I thought this day might never come! Now I'm knocking on wood to not undue this wonderful change!

Quick update...

We went to Kansas for the 4th of July and had a great time with my parents. Spent most of July just going to the library and play group and field trips, etc.

Went to Kansas again the first week of August to visit my family and TO SEE WICKED THE MUSICAL WITH MY MOM!!! It was SO amazing and it was so much fun to just have a night out with my mom. We went to this quirky little deli and split an awesome sandwich with potato salad. Yummy! Then we walked to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. It wasn't too far to walk but I sure was tired by the time we got there!

We would love to see it again if we ever have the opportunity! That was my birthday gift from my mom. Isn't she awesome? My dad babysat my girls and put them to bed and everything! He's awesome too. :)

August seems like an avalanching snowball. Keeps going faster and faster but it's exciting because at the end of August is my birthday! And Jill starts 1st grade!

We joined the YMCA last week and have been going every day. It's been fun. Jill is doing her KidzFit class, Miranda is doing Karate, Natalie LOVES the play room, I'm doing water aerobics almost every day and Ben is playing racquetball or basketball or just doing the cardio machines. It's been good for all of us and I'm glad we did it. I hope I can keep it up 'til the end of the pregnancy and then get back to it quickly.

Things are good here and now you're caught up. :) I'll post pictures later...

Another Update: Daddy's Work Party

2009-06-11T15:09:00.002-05:00

I forgot about this really fun work party of Ben's. We went to the zoo and had a behind the scenes tour and saw some cool animals up close (some of the tour was boring even for our animal lover). There was a bounce house, a petting zoo, a place to make "green" grocery bags, games, food, and I even got to play "Who Wants To Be A Negotiator" with the cops. Very fun! :) Here are some pics of the day.

Best News of All

2009-06-10T17:10:00.003-05:00

And to catch up the best news of all... I've been sick and tired a lot lately. We are expecting Baby #4 in December! Feel free to pray for me. I have a lot of anxiety about the baby stuff and the depression that is sure to follow after the birth but we are thrilled to be having another baby. Miranda knows it's a boy ("It IS going to be a BOY!") and Jill is really hoping for another baby sister (I think kindergarten has taught her that boys are annoying and icky - ha ha!). Either would be fine with me!

Catch Up Time: Birthday, Graduation, Playing at the Park

2009-06-10T16:46:00.002-05:00

Miranda turned 4 and we had a fabulous celebration that I videotaped but I took only a couple pics of her eating cake, so it looks like I have no record of it! Oh well. :) She is a beautiful, hilarious, and very entertaining 4 year old. My parents and a niece and nephew were in town and we enjoyed their visit so much!

Jill had her kindergarten graduation a few days later. I left the little girls with a friend and Ben couldn't get away at work, so it was just me and it was great! No running around after kids or trying to keep them quiet. :) Unfortunately Jill didn't see me in the packed house, so she was a bit moody-looking until she KNEW I was there. Of course I would be there! Her teacher kept telling her, "I'm sure she's here Jill. She's at everything!" :) Ha ha. A good reputation to have, I guess. She did a fabulous job on her kindergarten program and sang and danced her heart out!

We like to get out to a park at least once a week with our church playgroup and I included a couple of pictures of Natalie at a park recently. She's cute too and deserves some pictures of just her in this post! :)

Catch Up Time: Field Trips

2009-06-10T16:17:00.002-05:00

Yes, school is out but we went on another field trip. A friend of mine at church had a great idea to plan outings with the kids this summer and we had our first one on Monday. We went to Buffalo Gap Historic Village and it was a lot of fun. A nice hot day, of course, but the kids enjoyed seeing all the old-time stuff and got to rope animals, play on an old-time merry-go-round, and do a scavenger hunt for items in most of the buildings we toured. Here are some cute pics of our day.

Update

2009-05-14T12:39:00.005-05:00

Jill has her piano recital tonight and is a little nervous. She's had her piece memorized for months and I think she'll do great if she doesn't get stage fright. :) I'm so proud of her. She's done girl scouts and piano this year and been excited for all of it. I think she's ready for a little break though! Yay summer time!

Miranda is really wanting to read, so I've been working with her some on it. Today in the car, she was holding something and wanted to know what it said. She said, "Mom, what does M - A - blah, blah, blah, L - L - C spell?" I had to laugh. I said, "You can't say blah, blah, blah, and expect me to figure out the word!"

Natalie is speaking much more clearly these days and saying new words all the time. We were talking about Christmas the other day and she got all excited like she knew what that meant and said, "CHRISTMAS!!!" perfectly. So cute. Then when I tried to get her to repeat it for Ben, it was like, "Kwissmus." Try again. "Plisba." Yeah, nice. Make me look dumb in front of Dad! Oh well! :)

Ben got his Lasik surgery done last week and everything has gone well. He said he's never seen this clearly even with contacts or glasses. Yay for Lasik!

Young Women's is always busy and I feel so behind but we're getting ready to camp this weekend for a little practice run before Girl's Camp next month. Wish me luck!!!

My cute girls

2009-04-22T16:03:00.007-05:00

JILL: Mom, I just saw {Ben's co-worker} on Strawberry Shortcake!
MOM (quite befuddled): He was on Strawberry Shortcake?
JILL: His name was in the credits. It's {First Name} {Last Name}.
MOM: How did you know his last name?
JILL: I just know. I do my research, you know.
***
Natalie was waving at a baby over my shoulder in church.
NATALIE: Mommy! Baby!
MOM: Oh she's so cute, isn't she? Should mommy have a baby like that?
NATALIE (scowling): NO. I'M your baby!
***
My girls are keeping me laughing and having fun lately. We're also in the middle of potty-training (yes, again) with Natalie. She's actually done great today but it's all been her decision. Argh! I hope she decides to be totally trained soon! :) I've had her in panties for the last two days and she really is improving, so I shouldn't complain. I'm aiming for a goal date of 5/1 since she'll officially be 2 1/2 that day! :) Yeah right, like she'll stick to MY timeline!

I'm having a good time in my YW calling at church and love getting to know the girls. It is a VERY busy calling but I hope they will get something out of all of my effort and planning on their behalf!

Ben is scheduled to get Lasik surgery next month and I am so excited for him. He has had problems with his glasses and contacts since his last eye exam and it's just such a pain to deal with, so hopefully he'll be 20/20 this time next month!

Jill is BORED of school and wakes up every morning asking if it's the last day. She loves her friends and teacher but is tired of the kindergarten routine evidently. She is jealous that her sisters get to stay home with me all day. Lucky girls! :)

One of the favorite activities at home is coloring. Jill is making a book about animals. I print out an animal for each alphabet letter. She colors it with markers and then writes a sentence or two about each animal. (Strangely, she complains about all the boring coloring she has to do at school.) Miranda is making a princess book and is phenomenal at coloring. Great fine motor skills there! She gets really upset with herself if she gets out of the lines. Poor OCD child! She rarely gets any marker on her anymore! Natalie is actually REALLY good at leaving the markers alone! I have some Color Wonder paper and markers for her but mainly she uses crayons and colors right next to her sisters who are using markers. I'm proud of her for her restraint! :)

We are all looking forward to the summer. We'll have Miranda's birthday next month, YW Girls Camp in June (and Grandma is babysitting), Youth Conference in July, and school starts again in August! I hope we'll have time to spend a week or so in Kansas too. It actually hit 98 today and I'm wondering where Spring went???

Spring's evil twin

2009-04-08T11:49:00.002-05:00

Well, Spring's evil twin has arrived at our house too. ALLERGIES! A doctor told me last year when we moved to Abilene that pretty much everyone in this town is on allergy meds. Grrrreat! :( My poor little girls have problems year round and are on meds for that. Jill & I are usually only affected in the Springtime and we got hit full force this week. I just loaded up on meds at Walgreen's and the cashier asked if I had an army of sick kids at home. :) Hopefully what I bought lasts us a long time!

We had a great weekend in Dallas with Ben's family. We watched General Conference and just hung out with cousins. On Monday, Jill & I went on her class field trip to a farm and we were very excited. Too bad it decided to be 40 degrees and hurricane windy that day! A lot of the kids had these thin jackets on and one little girl asked if I could please warm her up. Luckily Jill & I were bundled in big coats and gloves (this is April in TEXAS remember) and we weren't too frozen. Jill got to hold a bunny and a baby goat (so cute!) and fed horses, donkeys, goats, and sheep. She got to play fetch with a really awesome dog named Bliss and it made me wish I could get her a pet. But I'm just not willing to take care of a dog at this point in my life! Do any of you know of a kind of dog that is extremely clean, good with kids, and won't bark constantly??? Let me know, if so. :)

Tomorrow Jill has another field trip and the teacher asked if I would go again. This time I get to bring the little girls. We're going to Western Heritage Days at the university here. Supposed to see sheep shearing, quilting, roping, weaving, chuck wagon cooking, roping, storytelling, and strolling musicians. Should be a blast! It's supposed to be 80 of course. What is UP with this weather???

Spring is coming...

2009-03-20T08:05:00.004-05:00

I found this graphic on an awesome blog and it sums up my attitude exactly. The trees in my front yard are blooming and today I'm taking the girls to the nursery to pick out flowers for our flower beds. In the morning, there's a nice crisp chill in the air while we walk to the bus stop and then it's perfect park weather later on. I LOVE Spring!

This morning I had a memorable conversation with Jill. She was telling me how sometimes she lets her friends borrow her jacket for PE which is first thing in the morning when it's still a little cool. She said, "It's ok because I'm not cold at all!" Then she said, "Well, actually it's a little cold but I don't want my friends to be cold. I'm trying to live by the Golden Rule." I just love that kid! Can I take credit for her? :) Yes, the Golden Rule is a big thing around here but she understands it and is applying it in her life. It made me happy to hear her being so selfless. Today I told her to pack an extra jacket (just in case) for a friend so she could still wear one too. She thought that was a great idea! :)

Still Here

2009-03-18T07:43:00.006-05:00

Yes, we are still alive. That was quite a long break from blogging. This is what we've been doing.

I was called to be the Young Women's President at church. Yikes! Overwhelming and I really think I'm better at supporting than leading but we'll see how it goes. I miss our previous president but she had to up and move to South Dakota! What in the world??? :)

We went to the Winter Carnival at Jill's school, which was a lot of fun. The girls got corn dogs, cheetos, and root beer and thought they were so lucky! :) We played putt-putt, cake walk, ring toss, etc., and really had a fun time.

I took the YW and one of the YM to a dance in nearby Sweetwater and it was fun to watch the kids be all crazy. Our youth are really fun and the life of the party everywhere they go. They are always the ones dancing in the middle of the floor, doing the line dances, or singing the lyrics at the top of their lungs! :) Fun kids! The building was tiny and easy to miss, so we had to turn around twice. I'll do better next time! :)

Miranda gave her first talk in Primary. It was about how God's creations bless us. I printed out some pictures of some of His creations and she colored them and we were all ready to go and she came up to the front of the room about 3 minutes before she was supposed to and just stood there which was adorable. She was so excited! She climbed up on the step and repeated the first line I whispered in her ear but she was a little quiet, so I asked her to say it again and she went shy and wouldn't say another word. I think she was excited to speak into the microphone but they don't have it plugged in unfortunately and then she was too shy to speak loudly enough to be heard. So she held up the pictures that I passed her while I gave her talk. It was still cute. :)

I was offered a job to work for the Census Bureau as an enumerator -- someone who walks around and asks you who lives in your house. It was a part-time temporary job that I thought I could do with the kiddos but it turned out they wanted me to work 30 hr/wk, not 20 like was previously said, and they wanted me to cover rural areas in the county next to ours! I was thinking I'd be in this city, at least! So, I turned down the job, which made me sad since I had FINALLY found a way to help pay the bills while still taking care of my kids. But I have realized my job is really more than a full-time job and I need to focus on it in that way, rather than worry about bringing in more money. I take care of the kids and the house and the finances and I have my new calling to work on, so I will try to do each job better and forget about finding ANOTHER job for a while.

Ben's garage door has been acting crazy for months but recently stopped working altogether, so I thought I'd be sweet and surprise him with a new garage door opener. I researched, I went to the store and bought one on sale, they were going to call for the installation time... I left to get my haircut one evening (the only time all week practically that I wasn't by our home phone) and they called to set up installation while Ben was home and he said, "I didn't know we bought a garage door opener!" They said, "Well, this is the name and address on the work order," and he said, "Well, I guess we did!" Dang! I was so annoyed when I got home and he said, "Were you trying to surprise me?" with this knowing smile on his face. I immediately knew what had happened and was pretty miffed. I can NEVER surprise this man! But they came the next day and put it up in less than an hour and it is quiet and works wonderfully. And he is grateful. :)

Stake Conference came and Ben was asked to speak on temples. I helped him get some info together and he wrote the talk the night before. The morning of Conference I woke up feeling awful. I had a stomach flu or something, so I missed hearing his talk (I heard he did great) and missed all of Conference the next day too! Luckily it was only a 48 hr thing and I was fine by Monday.

Spring Break came and went too quickly. We all went to Kansas to see my family and had a great time. We went bowling, went to a neat place in Wichita called Exploration Place, ate out WAY too much, and just had a lot of fun with family. We came home to some rainy days that we DESPERATELY needed. As we were bringing things in the house and unpacking, Ben went out to get the mail (which he NEVER does--I do that every day) and he opened a package to find 2 brand new CDs that I bought him to SURPRISE him. See a pattern here? He's wanted these certain CDs for months but he never buys anything for himself. I thought he deserved a special treat and then he went and spoiled the surprise! I was so upset again that I took them and hid them. I told them I will give them to him eventually when I think he'll really be surprised. Ha ha. :)

We came home from Spring Break and got visitors a couple of days later. Ben's brother and his family visited from Dallas. It was their first time to see Abilene and our house. We had fun playing games, going to the zoo, eating out even more, reminiscing about the good ol' days, and discussing our travel plans for a younger brother's wedding this Fall. The cousins played non-stop and it was great.

This week the weather is HEAVENLY (although I'm hoping heaven doesn't have as much wind as Abilene) and we've been to the park every day this week. The sunshine is doing me good. I've been a little overwhelmed and frustrated lately and the gray, cool days were not helping my attitude. Yay for the sun!

The girls got dressed up in green yesterday for St. Patrick's. I didn't get a picture of Jill with her "The Leprechauns Made Me Do It" shirt but here are the other two girls. I forgot to tell Ben, so he got a few pinches and then colored his thumb green! :)

So that's what we've been up to in the last month. Well, a lot more than that but that was the exciting stuff. Pictures will be posted soon!

Fuzzy headed, yet romantic

2009-02-16T11:47:00.006-06:00

I had a nice weekend trip to Nauvoo, Illinois to witness my brother being sealed for eternity to his wife. It was a beautiful experience and I'm glad that I could be there for it. I flew to Dallas, flew to St. Louis, drove 3 hrs to Nauvoo, and then did the reverse two days later! The trip was fun and although it snowed a lot the night I got there, it was melted enough to be safe to drive on by the time I left. Perfect! However, I had a bit of a cold before I went and I still have it along with a killer sinus headache. So although I am back with my family whom I missed so much, I'm not much fun for them at present. I am so fuzzy headed and exhausted. I guess travel really takes it out of me.

On the upside, I got to read the whole book "Pride & Prejudice" by Jane Austen on this trip. What a great book to read over Valentine's weekend! I had never read it before but my friend loaned it to me and it was FANTASTIC! I love the flowery writing and the very reserved love story. Imagine a handsome, rich man offering a proposal of marriage after just talking with you for a few weeks. What a lovely idea! It's too bad that today romance is so perverted and people are shacking up before even declaring love or any kind of commitment! Anyone who hasn't read it, I suggest it highly and I'm now looking forward to watching the 6 hr movie version of it starring Colin Firth. Woo hoo! :) My wonderful in-laws visited over the weekend and helped Ben take care of the girls and I am so appreciative! They all had a great time too.

We received wonderful news yesterday that my brother-in-law popped the question to his girlfriend over the weekend (it's about time! hee hee) and they'll be getting married in the Fall. Yay! Welcome to the family!!!

I hope to feel better and get back in the swing of things soon! I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Shadows, Fashion, and Tantrums

2009-02-02T11:21:00.006-06:00

Well, as you can tell from Miranda's choice of attire today, she was really hoping that Punxsutawney Phil would NOT see his shadow today. I am very sad to learn that he declared six more weeks of winter. But since he's just a big rodent, I don't think I'm going to take his predictions too seriously. I did not let Miranda out of the house in that outfit (it was 35 degrees outside), but she took a lot of cajoling to get her to put pants on. And then she wanted to wear the shorts on TOP of the pants. I said, "Sure!" It was a bit of a struggle, so she gave up thankfully. :)

Miranda has always been the little diva in our family in more ways than one. But the main way she's shown this is in her desire to pick her own clothes. She comes up with some very interesting outfits but most of them are quite fashionable. Jill has never been one to care what she's wearing. If I give her a choice, sure, she has a preference. But every morning I pick out some clothes and she puts them on and goes to school with nary a comment about the clothing I picked. I doubt that will last forever but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Natalie is following in Miranda's footsteps by shrieking if I pick the pink striped shirt, when she wanted the yellow one with flowers. Oh yay.

Today I got up and actually showered early! I was all ready to go deposit a check at the bank and get groceries at my least favorite place with the cheapest prices by 9 a.m.! I was going to get a lot done before my kids were hungry, tired, cranky, etc. Yeah, right. We had a pretty uneventful shopping trip except that the girls took turns getting in and out of the cart (the 2 seat kind that are a mile long and impossible to push and turn, etc.) and Natalie finally broke down when I wouldn't let her grab, peel, and eat a banana right there! It was my last item on my list and it all went very downhill after that. She kicked, she screamed, I strapped her in, I did the best I could to get checked out and OUT of the store as soon as possible. Nat proceeded to kick my chair and SHRIEK the whole way home. I tried all of my usual tricks and finally resorted to the "drown her out" method. I cranked up the radio and Miranda and I sang and danced in our seats all the way home, while trying to ignore Nat's shrieking. "Sweet dreams are made of these..." Ha. Hardly. I know she's TWO but good grief. This is going to be a long year...

Also, Nat is doing EXCELLENT with the potty training but now she won't sleep at night. At least not in her bed. I refuse to let her in our bed anymore. She's a big girl, she's not sick or anything, and we need our sleep!!! Which we don't get when kiddos are in the bed too. So she usually gets the option of her bed or our floor. I'm tired................ ZZZZZ.... This too shall pass, right?

You'll notice in this picture that her shirt says, "Sweetie." I specifically put it on this morning to remind myself that she really is a sweetie. Hidden deep inside that tantrum-throwing kid that I have to live with these days. *Sigh*

NEW

2009-01-21T14:02:00.004-06:00

Things are going well this month. It's been a great start to a NEW year so far. Other than Jill getting strep throat, we've been relatively healthy around here and Jill is the bounce back queen and was pretty much 100% improved 24 hours after the antibiotics. The sun is shining and the weather has been nice, if only a little too chilly for my preference. :) But as Ben reminds me... It's January!!!

I decided that Natalie seemed ready for something NEW... to be potty trained, so we started this week and she's been awesome! Very few accidents and is in panties all day except for naps. DORA panties, of course. I think that has been key in the process. :) We love our DORA! :) I hope she continues to do this well. *KNOCK ON WOOD* I haven't even had to clean up a mess because her accidents were on a towel or a chair that has a removable, washable cover. NICE! I am really hoping to be totally out of the diaper phase, unless we have a new baby and then I will gladly start all over again! :)

Some friends and I went to a NEW movie last night. It was a fun night to hang out with my friends but "Bride Wars" wasn't the best movie I ever saw. At all. Some cute moments but not a "must see," in my opinion. Has anyone seen something really good lately that is not crude, filled with innuendo, violence, or bad language? Let me know, if so. :)

I have volunteered A LOT lately and I've been running myself more ragged than I want to be. I have a NEW goal to not overschedule myself, so I was very proud of myself last week when a note came home asking for help with the school's winter carnival. I threw it away. Then I felt a little guilty but mainly ok. Then another note came home and I threw it away. Now I'm feeling a lot more guilty. And if they send another one, I will probably break down and help run the whole thing. Let's hope there isn't another note! :)

How do you all balance your many duties? I LOVE volunteering but then I have to dump my kiddos somewhere to fulfill what I've volunteered to do and that's hardly fair to the kids to do that very often. A couple of weeks ago my bishop just happened to call me in to his office when I was really frustrated with all of my many responsibilities. He helped me put things into a NEW perspective and I have been trying hard to put my family first again. He's so great. Sometimes you just have to hear that you're doing a great job and that you don't have to do everything!

Today some of my wonderful friends came over to make and have lunch together. One friend brought a recipe, so we could learn something NEW. We had homemade tomato basil soup and stromboli. YUM! It's so nice to have a weekly "Girls Gathering" at my house. All of the kids play and we just hang out, learn new things from each other, or help with projects. We've made baby shower invitations, learned new things to cook, learned crochet, painted a bedroom, and just had a lot of fun!

So far 2009 has been great for us and I hope it's going well for anyone that reads this too! :)

Recent Conversations, Medical Updates & Family Fun

2009-01-06T13:58:00.005-06:00

[Miranda saying something nobody knew that she already knew.]
JILL: How did she KNOW that?
MOM: She's really smart and remembers everything lately.
MIRANDA (with a proud smirk on her face): Yep, I know things!

MOM: What would you like for lunch?
MIRANDA: I don't want anything.
MOM: Really? I'm hungry. Let's go eat.
MIRANDA: I don't want ANY FOOD!
MOM: How about a yogurt drink?
MIRANDA: That's JUST what I was thinking! I want a yogurt drink!
MOM (shaking my head and laughing at how silly she is): Miranda, you make me smile.
MIRANDA (very excitedly): Mom, YOU make ME smile TOO!!! :) But not Natalie, she's not smiling.

MIRANDA: Mom, I want some chocolate pudding.
MOM: Sure, after you finish a healthy lunch.
MIRANDA: I just want pudding.
MOM: Let's have some applesauce.
MIRANDA: I'm NOT HUNGRY!
MOM: Then why do you want pudding? Pudding is food too.
[Miranda gives up and walks away without finishing lunch... again.]

MIRANDA (whispering): Mommy?
MOM (whispering back because she's usually just put a baby doll to sleep when she whispers): Yes?
MIRANDA: Can I play a game with you?
MOM: Sure. (looking around for a baby doll) Why are we whispering?
MIRANDA (still whispering): I don't know!

[Jillian getting frustrated with something.]
JILLIAN: Oh, this is so vexing!
MOM: Where in the world did you hear that word?
JILLIAN: On my Nintendo DS. One of the girls on "My Sims" said that. It means frustrating or annoying.
*I guess I have my very own Word Girl! I'm so proud that my daughter is learning from her video games. Hee hee.*

My kids certainly keep me entertained and amazed. We are all finally feeling well and it makes a HUGE difference in the home atmosphere. :) Miranda & Natalie had both had a bad cough and fever during the New Year's trip we took to Kansas. They were basically over it but we went to the dr yesterday anyway for Nat's 2 year checkup. I scheduled it a bit late and she was 2 for over 2 months before they could fit her in. She has grown 3 inches and gained 4 lbs since her last visit to the dr in April. My kids grow fast! She had to get her last immunization until kindergarten (one small Hep A shot) and she didn't cry or flinch or act like she noticed a needle was in her leg. I just sat her up and pulled up her pants and she was ready to go get her sticker and mosey on out of there. She walks by kind of hopping up and down when she's excited. Almost a skip. Totally adorable. I need to get it on video.

After Natalie got checked out, I asked the dr to just check Miranda's ears because she had cried from ear pain a few times in the last two days. He said she had a beautiful ear infection going in one of her ears, so she's on antibiotics but seems to be feeling great now. So as soon as that's done, we'll be on the probiotics to build up her immune system again. We want to not be sick again for a REALLY long time.

The rest of us are all better too. Hooray!

We had a great trip to Kansas and the girls did great in the van both ways. I think I had a harder time. I was so ready to get out of that van! I'm enjoying being home. :) I am so glad I got to spend a few days with my parents, my brother & his family, my aunts & uncles, and my grandma. I even got to talk to my best friend since kindergarten for half an hour at her jewelry store. We both had sick kids, so we didn't get them together this trip. I was so blessed to have so much family and so many great friends when I was growing up. My kids don't have the family close, which is kind of sad, but hopefully our church family and our great friends will make up for that a little.

So that's the update. I'll get pictures on here soon of some of our adventures. Unfortunately, I didn't even get my camera out during most of the holidays. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-29T09:08:00.003-06:00

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 :)

2008-12-17T10:18:00.001-06:00

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

2008-12-17T09:11:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-05T14:45:00.005-06:00

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

2008-12-05T12:50:00.006-06:00

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

2008-11-20T08:16:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-19T11:59:00.000-06:00

Conversations

2008-11-14T12:14:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-07T10:18:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-05T07:49:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-17T11:55:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-06T20:17:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-01T08:33:00.005-05:00

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

2008-09-24T14:01:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-18T23:39:00.008-05:00

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."

2008-09-11T09:03:00.005-05:00

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

2008-09-11T08:57:00.001-05:00

My newest favorite musical. They crack me up!

What Was I Thinking?

2008-09-09T12:53:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-04T09:02:00.007-05:00

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

2008-08-25T08:46:00.005-05:00

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

2008-08-13T14:07:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-13T12:10:00.008-05:00

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

2008-08-06T09:50:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-30T06:12:00.006-05:00

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...

2008-07-28T08:34:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-07-14T23:11:00.005-05:00

*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

2008-07-14T23:11:00.001-05:00

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

Bryner Look-alike Meter

2008-07-14T23:06:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Last names

Bryner Look-alike Meter

2008-07-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family photos - Pedigree

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My Gosh!

2008-06-30T13:48:00.002-05:00

The title of this post is M's favorite misquote from "The Wizard of Oz." J always tries to correct her but she continues to say this to my great delight. It cracks me up every time! She has always been my scrawniest child and I'm always trying to get her to eat more but I have made a break through recently that gives me hope! She kept eating less and less of her sandwiches at lunch. We have P&J every day at her request. I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't eat it all (one piece of bread folded over) but I think I know now. She didn't want to get messy! It is a bit messy to hold the sandwich if jam is dripping out or if Mom happened to get a little crazy with the peanut butter while she was spreading it. :) So I tried something new. I cut up the half-sandwich in small little rectangles that are bite-size and she gobbles up every one. She picks each piece up gingerly and plops it in her mouth and loves it. Now J is requesting the special "rectangle sandwiches." Whatever it takes to get them to eat! At lunch today, another great feat was managed. I got M to eat a grape! Those of you who don't know M well might think, "Big deal! Who doesn't like yummy grapes?" Well, this kid has wanted to stick a grape in her mouth so badly her whole life but it was always followed by a quick spit out. Normally if a kid doesn't like something, they'll remember and not try it again. With grapes, that has never happened for M. She always thinks she'll like it and then spits it out as fast as possible. Well, today I figured I would try yet again to get her to eat a grape. I told her that grapes were special because they had grape juice inside them! She likes all juice, so she thought that was neat. I showed her how they roll around on the table and she played with hers a bit. All of a sudden she stuck one in her mouth and I knew what to expect. But she didn't! She bit into it and I could see her start to make a funny face from that explosion of juice in her mouth that she wasn't ready for and then she exclaimed, "I LIKE it!" as if she could not believe she could like some new food! :) A lot of my friends say their kids devour blueberries and raspberries and carrots and green peppers (eaten like an apple). To all of you... phbttt! :) Just kidding! But I am so grateful for every healthy food I can get into this kid! Hooray for small victories!!!

Mid-June update

2008-06-19T13:35:00.004-05:00

M has been having issues with sleeping ever since we moved here. She'll sleep on the couch, the floor, the futon mattress, but not her bed for more than two nights in a row. She kept complaining that the bed was "bumpy." Well, sure enough when I feel the mattress, there are deep grooves in it where the seams are and it probably needs a nice foam pad. But the next two nights after she would complain, she'd sleep in her bed just fine! So I'd forget about it until I found her on the floor or couch or wherever the next morning. So last night I asked J to switch beds with M and guess what? They both slept like babies. Yeah, I know, it's only been one night, so we'll see how it goes. But J said she liked the higher up day bed and M loved J's bed. What cracks me up is that M has slept on this "bumpy" bed since she was 20 months old with nary a complaint until we moved here! Strange. We need to buy a bed for N soon anyway, so we may play upset the fruit basket, I mean beds, again anyway. I had some friends growing up that would always switch beds and bedrooms every few months. There were 4 girls, so they would have to share with one sister, then get sick of her and switch it up again. I have a feeling my girls will be the same! :)

J has made some huge steps in progress towards being a full-on school-aged kid! One I'm particularly happy about is that she has gotten the whole "PUMP" thing on the swings down! We got a swingset for M's birthday and the next day J was just swinging so high and never asking for someone to push her! YAY!!! That is a momentous event when you've got two other kids screaming for a push! She actually loves to help N get on the swing and will push her and M for me too. Love having this big girl around! J is doing karate and gymnastics and will start swim lessons on Monday. Karate is kind of a joke (but it's free through the YMCA) and she gets a lot of her energy out. Everyone goes to bed better after an "activity" day. Gymnastics has been fun for her as well but Princess N is really tired of me restraining her when her sisters run out on the floor. I hope swim lessons go well for her. She's taken 2 years of lessons where we used to live but the levels are different here. Here they have two levels: basic skills or you have to be able to swim 15 feet by yourself on your front and back. I mean, come on, there's nothing inbetween? So I put her in level one because she can't swim 15 feet by herself. I hope it's not totally boring for her!

M is hilarious lately, now that she's reached the ripe old age of 3. She loves to do knock-knock jokes (especially the impatient ghost one which she finally got the timing perfect on!), she loves to tell anyone who will listen, "Last night... I saw an ant in the corner!" (after which we all groan and say, "Why do you keep saying that?" and she giggles like crazy), and she loves to eat her "barbacube" chips for lunch. She's having a blast in gymnastics and when I ask her if she did one of the activities, she'll nod her head and with the most serious face, say, "Yep, I did!" She loves to color and she's getting really good at navigating her computer games. Today she asked me to print out a picture of Daphne (from Scooby Doo) for her to color. She said, "You click on the orange button and then you go down and down and down and down and then stop. And print it." Pretty smart cookie. :) When she thinks a driver in front of us needs to go or she thinks the printer needs to spit out her picture faster, she says, "GO MA'AM!" Hee hee. Where could she have gotten that?

N is running everywhere, whooping it up in the pool, squealing as she goes down the slide (which she gets up to all by herself over and over again!), and is very interested in the potty. Now, don't roll your eyes. ALL of my girls have been interested at exactly 19 months. So I got the potty chair down and the Dora ring to go on the toilet. Anytime I ask if she wants to go potty, she grabs the front of her diaper and speeds to the bathroom. It's hilarious. She sits on the potty chair, then the Dora ring where she says, "Dada, dada, dada" (being interpreted is "Dora, Dora, Dora"), then back to the potty chair. She will do this for a LONG time until I pronounce that she's done. Nothing has been "produced" so far, which is fine. She (as my other girls) is not afraid of the toilet or flushing or anything like what I've heard from other friends, so that's a positive step forward! She also will, of her own volition, pat the front of her diaper, and drag me to the bathroom. She is kind of getting it. :) But I'm in no rush. If she was keeping up with M, she'd be totally trained in 3 months, but I'm not holding my breath on that one! I really wanted M to be trained at 2 because I had the new baby to take care of but she beat me by doing it all herself 2 months early. I don't have any need to hurry this one along yet. :)

B is REALLY busy at work and stressing some times. The other day he brought home a print out of an e-mail his boss had sent the division managers. There were 12 bullets on his list of what needed to get done in the next few weeks and 7 of them had Ben's name attached to them, like this.
Ben: blah blah
Ben & someone: blah blah
Someone & Ben: blah blah
Ben, someone, and someone else: blah blah
Ben: blah blah
Ben & someone: Blah blah
Someone, someone else, and Ben: blah blah

I think he's being a little overworked for sure! Hopefully we'll be able to take a few quick vacations this summer to visit family. He earns his vacation days next month!

I'm doing fine. I like running the kids to their activities and I've been doing a preschool curriculum with Miranda (and Jill loves to do it with me as well), while Natalie naps. They love the preschool stuff so much, they beg me to do it all. day. long. Ugh. But I'm glad they love me so much they want to be around me all. the. time. :)

This morning Jill sweetly said over her breakfast,
"Mom, I love to communicate with you." What? So funny. :)
"What do you mean?"
"I just love to talk to you."
"Why didn't you say that?"
"I was trying a new word."
"Where did you hear that?"
"On TV, as usual."
"Do you ever learn anything from ME?"
"Oh yeah, I learn a lot more from you than I do from TV."
"Well, that's good!"

I'm glad to know I'm still beating out the tv for educating my children!

Caught Princess N in a fun mood!

2008-06-04T11:50:00.000-05:00

Kitchen has a backsplash now!

2008-06-04T08:14:00.005-05:00

Thanks to my wonderful, talented brother, my kitchen has a backsplash and is looking more and more finished every day. Still needs a little work but I'm very happy with it!

Miss M is Growing Up!

2008-05-29T12:21:00.004-05:00

Miss M celebrated her 3rd birthday on Saturday. She was lucky to get BOTH sets of grandparents, an uncle, an aunt, and 3 cousins to come help her celebrate! We got the swingset put up, a great-grandma bought us a little backyard pool, and we were ready to party! It was a lot of fun having everyone here to party with us and Miss M felt VERY special (which she is)! I love that little girl so much, even when she's driving me NUTTY! :)

More changes!

2008-05-21T10:58:00.004-05:00

I've been using our old kitchen table as a desk because Ben has his computer on my old desk in our bedroom but I want to use the table as my sewing table again, so we got an inexpensive glass desk for our "office" area and got it set up last night. We also replaced our awful carpet this week! Last week Ben's co-worker said he wanted to downsize his patio furniture since their kids are all grown and they don't use them much, so we got a great deal on a table and 6 chairs, 2 ottomans, a side table, and a glider! So we have been thoroughly spoiled this month! No more for a long while I think!

Kitchen in Progress

2008-05-14T13:10:00.003-05:00

Girls girls girls

2008-05-08T08:58:00.004-05:00

No one cares that much about the house -- you want pics of the girls! :) I'm so way behind in the picture department but here are some from last night and a few from the past few weeks. Enjoy!
P.S. Yes, I cut bangs on Princess N because her hair was ALWAYS in her face unless I have it up in the fountain ponytail and I didn't do a perfect job because she is not yet the perfect salon client but she's still adorable!!!

Long time gone

2008-05-07T08:04:00.004-05:00

I'm finally posting pictures I took of the house a month ago. I've been busy with a trip to Kansas to see my family for my grandma's 80th birthday and then came home to sick kids (imagine that!). We are officially allergic to A-Town I believe. The doctor said this is the worst place he knows of for allergies. GRRREAT! So we're all being properly medicated now and I hope that keeps my kids healthy for a LONG while.

Miss M is going to be 3 at the end of this month and we are so excited because both sets of grandparents, my brother, his wife, and their three kids, are all planning on coming to visit for the weekend! Thank goodness we have a bigger house now but I just hope I can be a great hostess for all of those people! My dad has never seen where we live yet and that really bothers him, so he is going to do his best to be here. He's always so busy with farm life but I hope he can come with my mom.

My new kitchen will start being installed next Monday!!! So hopefully everything will be put back where it belongs and it will be totally functional in time to feed 14 people at the end of the month!

We bought a swingset yesterday and although we had planned on getting a nice, wooden one, both J & M picked multiple times from a list of pictures which one they wanted and it was a large metal one with a lot of swings and other fun things on it. And it was half the price of the one we had planned on! So hooray for saving money AND making the kiddos happy! Now we just have to get one of B's co-workers to use his truck to pick it up at the store and help him put it together! :) We're planning to have a backyard birthday party and play on the new present!

I hope you enjoy the slideshow of our master bedroom and the girls' bathroom. We painted the MB and decorated the bathroom a while ago and haven't done much work since. We're tired of it but we'll get started again really soon. Princess N's room needs painted next! Our Master Bedroom is HUGE and so I tried to do a panoramic view of it for the slideshow but you don't see that there's a ton of space in the middle of the room that's just empty. I like that part of the house! :) There was supposed to be a "sitting area" but it's the part that I dubbed "B's man cave." It's good he has his own space. :) We painted it "streambed" which is a greenish gray color and I love it! I hope the pictures do it justice.

I like how the girls' bathroom turned out because it's so much brighter than before. It's really small compared to the one in our old house and the floor tile is atrocious (ignore that part of the picture) but it's better than it was and B even replaced the nasty faucet with a beautiful brushed nickel one that my mom and brother gave us for a housewarming gift. :) Enjoy!

Bad Example

2008-04-10T12:06:00.004-05:00

Lately I've noticed I may not be setting the best example for my kids. Missy M is quite often the cause of Princess N's cries these days (whether she's trying to help or hinder her) and I automatically assume Missy M is to blame. This morning I was putting on my makeup and Princess N wanted to be held RIGHT THEN, so she was sticking her little fingers between my knees as if she could climb up my body, and I ignored her for the 30 seconds it took me to finish what I was doing. She was wailing really good when Missy M comes running in and in her best imitation of MY voice says, "WHAT HAPpened?!" Ha ha. I say that multiple times a day and it is usually followed by M's innocent voice, "I was just...(fill in whatever her excuse was this time)." It was so hilarious but I realized I should probably give Missy M the benefit of the doubt because sometimes Princess N cries without provocation (can you believe that of my little angel!?) and oftentimes Missy M really is trying to help.

I've caught Lil' J reprimanding her younger sisters in my voice with my words too. It's really awful hearing what you say coming from your children. It's not like I'm swearing at them or saying hateful things by any means, but I definitely want to re-think what I say to them and treat them with more respect. I don't want my shortness with them to be something they use themselves when they grow up and try to talk to people in school or wherever.

As I type, Princess N is doing her best crocodile cry and Missy M is saying, "What? What?" so innocently as if she doesn't know what in the world could be the problem. Maybe that she's pulling her favorite blanket away from her. Again. AAAAH! Deep breath. Going to solve the problem. :)

Learning by Experience

2008-04-08T15:46:00.002-05:00

I would much rather learn from OTHERS experience but yesterday I got first hand experience of how to deal with a backed up sewer line. GROSS! I got some carpet damage in our guest room but the plumber fixed the problem and were good to go. I guess this house had sat vacant for several months with no flushing going on, so everything hardened and then starts coming out in spurts. Nice! So anyway... I hope to never have THAT experience again in my life!

We are remodeling our kitchen! BIG expense but hopefully we will enjoy it for many years to come and it'll help us sell the house someday. We will have it fully done in about 8 weeks from now. 4 to 6 weeks to build the cabinets and countertops and then scheduling a 6 to 10 day installation period. I hope to visit family while it's being done, so I don't have to keep my kids out of the demolition zone. :) I hope this remodeling experience is a good one, as it's our first, and we'll need to do it a few more times with this house! :)

Miss J is growing up so fast. She's 4 feet 1/2 inch tall, weighs 57 lbs, and wears a size 7/8. Is she ever going to slow down?! Today at lunch, M was saying something that wasn't very clear and J said, "Little sister say what?" I about died laughing. She has great timing and says little things like that all the time. That's something that Hannah Montana says, if you all aren't into that yet. I swear my 5 year old is a 'tween already and I just don't think I'm ready for that!!!

Funny Miss M

2008-04-04T15:20:00.007-05:00

The other day I was teaching the girls how to play "Mother, May I?" in the backyard. Lil' J was starting to get the hang of it but Miss M needed prodding every time to say the words before she moved. Her version of it was "Mudda, may-o!" She couldn't wait for it to be her turn to be the "mother." So she told me to take 2 baby steps forward and I said, "Mother, may I?" and she nodded and said enthusiastically, "Yeah! Sure!" SO cute! And she did it every single time! Had she not heard me say, "Yes, you may," after every time she and Jill asked? Ha ha. Just too cute. This pic is a little outdated from right before we moved but so cute! Easter hat from the year before, Dora costume shirt, Dora pajama pants, pink high heels from the dress up box. Great combination!

More of our Easter pics

2008-03-31T14:03:00.000-05:00

Quotes from the weekend

2008-03-31T12:53:00.003-05:00

B: "I hate painting."
B: "I really hate painting."
M: "I live there? It's so pretty!"
B: No more toys. Ever.

The Zoo, New Calling, Visits, Easter, Friends

2008-03-26T10:07:00.006-05:00

We checked out the A-town Zoo last weekend (as a family) and then again last Thursday (with friends) and it is really fun. The zoo can be seen in its entirety in about one hour, which is as long as we can stand to be there anyway with three little ones. :) We got a membership that is reciprocal with the Dallas Zoo, so whenever we're in town we can go to our wonderful zoo that we've been to SO many times and still enjoy every time! This zoo has a bridge to walk over the giraffe's area, so you can feed them and one of them stuck their tongue out and almost licked Little N! They also have a pier to walk out over the lake to feed the ducks (and the big mouth fish!) and the girls loved that.

I started my primary chorister duties on Sunday and it was actually a lot of fun. Not as nerve-racking as I thought it might be and the kids really liked the game we played to pick songs to sing. The bishop asked if I would like to sing in Sacrament in a few weeks. I told him I love to sing with other people, so hopefully there will be no solos in the near future. The choir isn't up and running currently but maybe we can do some quartets or something.

We STILL don't have much painting done. B did the kitchen and together we did one wall of our bedroom before bed the other night. I LOVE the color but finding the time to do it when the kids are asleep and we're not exhausted is going to be the hard part!

B asked for one small thing to make this home just right for him, so we got a basketball hoop! The girls love playing with Daddy out on the driveway and he's enjoying getting exercise. We had a most pleasant surprise last Saturday when our good friends, the Rappleyes, called and wanted to come visit since they were out our way. Crysta and I had a great time chatting, the girls all played together, Spencer was sweet and ended up going to sleep, and Chris & B got the hoop up and were able to play some basketball! Thanks for visiting guys!

We dyed some Easter eggs this year (usually just do plastic eggs) and I'm not so good at hard boiling eggs without cracking them (any tips, all you experts?) but we made a few and it was fun having the short egg hunt on Sunday morning. Then they got baskets that were already full of little toys and plastic eggs with candy in them. We watched a great video called "The Lamb of God" to show the kids what Easter was all about. J thought it was amazing. I love that she's old enough now to kind of get the spiritual messages behind the stories we share with her. She is an extremely sensitive child and, in this case, it's a good thing. :)

Our RS had an enrichment last night to celebrate the birthday of the RS and we had birthday cake and played Bunco. So fun! It's fun to get to know everyone through a game like that. We're really enjoying being here. I joined a Stay at Home Mothers group on meetup dot com and we went to storytime at the library with them and are going to a petting farm next week. Fun stuff. I sure love being a stay at home mom despite what I tell Ben every evening. Hee hee!

Play Group, Family Visits, Projects from You Know Where, Credit Cards, and Callings

2008-03-10T14:03:00.005-05:00

I took the girls to the ward Play Group on Thursday and trudged through the snow to get there. It was so beautiful but it left too quickly. Evidently we missed a HUGE snowstorm in our old neighborhood (it never did that when we lived there!!!!). We got about 4 inches here and it came down really fast but was mostly melted by the time Ben headed home from work. Amazing how it can be snowing and then heat up so fast. I met a lot of nice women from church. So weird to be the new one that doesn't know what's going on. But I'm going to book club in a couple of weeks and Enrichment is at the end of the month and I'll go to play group on Thursdays, so hopefully I won't be "the new one" for long.

B's parents came to visit for the weekend and we had a lot of fun with them. We put up all the new blinds in the house and took a lot of old fixtures and things to Good Will and decided to install the new kitchen faucet that my mom and brother bought us for a housewarming gift. The old one leaked and obviously needed repair, so Ben thought he could tackle the project with his dad assisting him. Sadly, the faucet was in SUCH bad shape that they could NOT take it off (B even sheered a bolt he was trying so hard to get the nut off!) and after 7 hours, the faucet was installed. In a new sink. Yes, he just took the whole dumb sink out of the countertop!!! It wasn't in the best shape anyway, so we just got a nice, shiny one from Lowes and put the faucet in that one! I am amazed at what B can do. He is SO strong! His dad said it should have just been a 30 minute project but things like that always happen with kitchen projects! :)

On Friday night we went to Pizza Hut and I let my screaming banshee (a.k.a. Little N) play with my wallet. No biggie. She plays with the cards and everything is always back where it should be before I leave the room. Well, we got home and I realized my Discover card was gone. I didn't think it had been in the wallet when we went to the restaurant because I was paying some bills beforehand and thought I left it on the desk. Couldn't find it. Pizza Hut couldn't find it. The next morning I reported it lost (I couldn't believe this had happened!!!) and later that night I put the older girls to bed and Little N was messing around in the living room. She opened our video drawer in the entertainment center (still empty) and pulled something out, walked over to me, and handed me my Discover card! AAAH! I called Discover right away and asked them to please not cancel my card and make me update all my automatic payment info with every company I buy from and they said, "Sorry, it's been cancelled. Just throw it away and your new one will be there within the week." Ugh! It's our only credit card, so this is a major pain but at least I know that I didn't lose it by letting my baby play with my wallet at Pizza Hut! I lost it because I left it on the desk that was within her reach! Dumb dumb dumb! I've learned my lesson. :)

B and I showed up at church on Sunday (our 2nd week!) and both were approached about callings. I am excited but very nervous to be the new Primary Chorister. I love music and I love kids but I know how much preparation goes into teaching these kids the songs, so I know I'm in for a lot of work! I think I'll beg my buddy Melissa for tips, since she's a pro! B is the 2nd counselor in... duh duh duh DUH... Young Mens. Big surprise! Oh well. He is really good in there and I guess he'll just be a forever youth leader!

The house is getting better every day and most rooms are at least 90% unpacked except for the office because we're still deciding where to put things and hoping to buy a new desk. So we're doing good. Next project is PAINTING! Anyone wanna come over for a painting party??? :)

We're HEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!

2008-03-03T11:45:00.002-06:00

Hey all-

We are all set up in A-town. It has been a positive experience overall. I did forget one little thing... having the water turned on! So we had to wait from 11 to 4 before the water guy got here, so I could clean! But the movers were really good and everyone I've met in A-town bends over backwards to help you, so things are good! My across the street neighbor gave me a bucket of hot water to start cleaning with and said he'd drag his hose across the street if I needed more. :) A little girl J's age and her mom stopped by to say they were thrilled to have girls on the block! Church was pretty fun. The ward is actually smaller than our last one (B had said he thought it was about the same but maybe there were a lot of visitors that first week that he went?) and I think it'll be easier to get to know people this way. A lot of people introduced themselves before the first meeting and then they announced that they received records for new members (us! -- hooray for a ward clerk who works fast! -- thanks Taylor!)and afterwards a lot of people came up to meet us. They were thrilled that we're boosting the Primary with three more kids and there about 15 of us in Relief Society, so they're probably glad I'm filling a seat in there too!

The house has been great so far and it's getting better. After about $1500 spent at Lowe's we are really loving it! :) My awesome mom and brother came down to help out and did SO much. My poor mom was even sick and came later than she planned but still came and watched my kiddos and cleaned and unpacked a ton. My brother who is just a master at anything electricity-related or anything really (he impresses me, ok?) did a ton of work updating nasty ceiling fans, lights, outlet covers and switches, switched out the dryer receptacle to fit our dryer cord, fixed the back porch post, put up new smoke alarms, and a bunch of other stuff. B helped him do a lot of these things plus he put up towel racks (they had none in the house!), toilet paper holders, new knobs and pulls on every drawer and cabinet in the house, etc. This place is looking nice!!! Next project is new doorknobs which should arrive today. Yay Ebay! None of them match in the whole house and there's 16 doors in this house! The carpet is in poor condition (feels like no pad underneath in most rooms!) and the kitchen cabinets should be axed down but... :) we'll live with those for now. The house is very livable and even nice and HUGE! The kids get kind of lost and say, "Mommy, where are you?" and because we don't have enough furniture to fill all the rooms, there's an echo and it's hard to figure out where I am even when I say, "I'm in here!" :)

I am SO grateful for my friends. Marilyn called the day we closed on the old house to see if she could do anything to help. I was running late, so I swallowed my pride and asked if she could start vacuuming. By the time I got to the house from my in-laws (where I was staying), she had finished vacuuming the whole house, plus cleaned up the laundry room, and I am SO grateful for her!!! I never would have had time to finish it all and get to closing on time.

Meredith called me once I was in the new house to see how things were going. How nice to hear from a friend when I'm in the midst of being the new person and knowing noone here! Thanks Mer!

So things are good here and I think we've made a great decision to become A-towners. Keep in touch everyone!

Glamorous & Spoiled

2008-02-23T18:11:00.006-06:00

Last night J was yelling at her tooth to "just come out already!" and around 9 PM she got her wish! She ate an apple, we wrapped floss around the tooth and pulled, and a bunch of other tricks but there was one root that just would NOT let go. B told J to leave it alone and it would come out when it was ready (by this time it was hanging down and was twisted backward!) and as soon as he said that it came out! So she got another visit from the tooth fairy (last one was two weeks ago!) and got another $1 bill!

I had wanted to get my haircut at my favorite place here before we moved and Jill needed a cut too, so we went together and it was so fun to share a "salon day" with my grown up girl. She asked if we could get our nails done too but we didn't have time or money left for that. Maybe another time!

I feel very spoiled today because a couple of friends threw a "farewell" party for me and it was a lot of fun to sit and chat for a couple of hours. I have great friends and I hope I can find new friends that are just as great in A-town! :)

We're packing the computer tomorrow, so ta-ta for now!!!

All wrapped up!

2008-02-22T16:06:00.007-06:00

I was on the phone with my brother as I was cleaning out a closet in the office and I said, "How am I supposed to pack wrapping paper? It's kind of long and skinny and I'm not sure I have any boxes that size." He started laughing at me and said, "Throw. It. A-way! It's a dollar a roll, B!" I said, "Yeah, but there's still paper on all of the rolls and I don't want to waste it! Maybe I can find a friend to donate it to." He had a good laugh over that and we went on talking. A few minutes later as I was in another room, I hear some ripping going on and walk back into the office to find this.

So I DID find a good use for it and after they'd pulled all the paper off of the rolls I realized there wasn't that much, so I don't feel too bad about wasting some. :) I guess this is how my kids are "dealing" with their moving anxieties. Hee hee!

All packed up with nowhere to go!

2008-02-21T09:24:00.003-06:00

Well, my awesome mother-in-law called yesterday and said she thought I might want a little help packing. Yeah! So she said she'd be here in an hour and spent about four hours with me yesterday packing up my kitchen! I didn't know it would take so long, so I am SO glad I had help. So we left out a few dishes to use but nothing to cook with. So we're finishing up all the frozen stuff we can microwave and we have sandwich stuff and chips and applesauce for lunches, so we'll have to get inventive for dinners, but it's kind of fun living a minimalistic life! ;) B will be home TOMORROW!!! Hooray. We haven't seen him in almost 2 weeks and the girls are going crazy. We get to pack up the garage on Saturday (yippee) and hopefully relax in our boxed up house on Sunday. The movers are showing up at 9 a.m. Monday and I have two good friends who offered to watch my kiddos, so they won't be getting in the way of the movers. I just can't wait for this to all be over and to be surrounded by boxes in my new house. :)

We spent several days in Kansas last week to attend my brother's wedding reception and visit with family. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I got to "get away" for a bit, so I could come home ready to pack. We'll be in A-town soon!!!

Our new house

2008-02-13T09:37:00.003-06:00

In case anyone is interested...

A picture a few months back with leaves still on the trees.

Backyard a few months ago.
Recent picture from front

WWF at the Bryner Home

2008-02-12T11:32:00.001-06:00

There was weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth! An arm was pulled out of socket, a hand was smashed in a door, a tooth went flying, and in the end they were all best friends again. :) No, we didn't have a knock-down drag-out fight between the lovely Bryner sisters. There sure is a lot going on to keep me on my toes though!

On Friday evening, J ran up to me to tell me that her tooth was really loose. I figured she meant the one that's been getting looser for about 3 weeks but it was one of her center bottom ones and it was barely hanging on! I wanted to get my camera to take a picture of my little beauty's last baby tooth smile but before I could get it, out the tooth came! She was SO excited. She put the tooth under her pillow that night and the tooth fairy left her a one dollar bill! I was actually checking on the kids before I went to bed and saw her start to roll over and put her hand under the pillow. She pulled out the strange feeling material and looked at it and realized the tooth fairy had come! What a fun moment to witness! The tooth right next to that one has been hanging on my a thread since Friday and I just know it's going to come out any minute now!

On Monday morning we went to the park to play with our good friends Mer & Syd and as we were leaving J hopped in the front seat of the van (something I was experimenting with for short rides because she likes being big stuff) and shut the door but didn't notice little M had tried to climb in with her and got her hand stuck in the door. I got to her in about 10 seconds and amazingly her hand was fine but J got a big lecture and will NOT be sitting in the front seat anymore for a long while. It's just too much temptation to play with the vents, buttons, mirrors, etc. There's a good reason kids are safer in the back!

Later that evening the kiddos were watching Scooby Doo and M was laying on the floor right in front of the tv. Bossy big sis J told her she needed to scoot back (I was vacuuming in the next room or I would have told her to as well!) but she wouldn't move, so J took matters into her own hands and grabbed M's hands and pulled her back. The screaming ensued. I wasn't sure if she was just a little hurt and a lot mad but when she stopped using the arm completely, I knew something was wrong. I wasn't sure if it was a dislocated elbow or a wrist sprain but she told me it hurt from her wrist to her elbow. We got her through the night with some pain meds and then this morning we took her to the doctor (who I swore to that we were REALLY moving and I PROMISED we wouldn't come see him again! -- I've done this 4 times and my kids keep getting sick or injured!) and he said I was absolutely right about the elbow dislocation and he told me to hug her and he lifted her arm up above her head and pop! She cried for a minute because he had touched that hurt arm but then she realized it didn't hurt anymore! Hooray! We love you Doctor Scott! She is about ten times happier than normal right now because she has use of both arms again!

One cute thing happened as I was putting her in the van after the appointment. She looked over at the medical building and said, "B-A-Y-L-O-R R-E-G-I-O-N-A-L M-E-D-I-C-A-L C-E-N-T-E-R." It still amazes me when that little girl just starts spouting off things as if she's known them forever but the really cute thing is that I remember J doing the EXACT same thing at the same age when I was pregnant with M and leaving my OB appointment. But J also said, "That spells doctor!" :) I can't believe how fast time flies!

N managed to stay out of the fray thankfully!

So we are all doing ok but I do NOT, repeat, do NOT like being a single mom right now! I don't know how people do this all the time! I need support and assistance sometimes and there's no one right there! Of course, I have great friends and that REALLY helps!

So, we're closing on our house in two weeks from today and I still have a lot of packing to do that I'm trying to just put off until the last minute. :) Not really, I'm going to get started on it today, I promise! :)

Hip Hip

2008-02-06T19:34:00.000-06:00

Hooray! We submitted an offer on a home yesterday morning and they accepted within 12 hours! No negotiating even and we think we got a great deal! Of course, B said, "Man, we should have started lower, I guess!" But I know how these people feel and I hope they're happy it sold without a lowball offer! This isn't the house that I've been telling my friends about for the last month or two. That one is great but it was just a little too small for us. And it isn't the house we put an offer on last week that was about to go to foreclosure and was trashed but was in an awesome neighborhood! We decided to withdraw that offer before we knew whether they would accept it or not because we decided a much bigger but older home was the right one. We had looked at it twice and both times felt like it wasn't the one. But then we both had a feeling we should look again when the price dropped some more. And this time we saw the potential and thought about how we could change things to make it work for us and we went for it! It's really close to EVERYTHING which I'm not used to, being way out here where we are but it's about 1 minute to J's soon-to-be school, the mall, McDonald's (very important to M!), Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, our new credit union, etc. Church will be about 10 minutes and B's work is 15. Not bad at all. Plus A-town has NO traffic issues. Heaven really! There is a great park and lake in walking distance and the yard is much bigger than what we currently have. Of course, the house is 765 more square feet too, so I will have to clean a bigger house but that's really the only downside. :) And it's a year older than me, which will be an adjustment since I've had a nice, new home. But a lot of things have been replaced recently (roof, windows, etc.) to make it energy efficient and we'll have to re-paint pretty much everything but I'm excited. So... hip, hip, hooray, things are falling into place so well! Oh and our realtor said that the sellers initially didn't like that we asked for some money towards closing costs without giving their full asking price, but their realtor said, "Well, they are making an offer on another house, so if you don't want to lose them, I'd accept this. It's a good offer." So... maybe the whole reason we felt we should put an offer on the other house (only to change our minds two days later) was so that this offer would work out! I feel very blessed and VERY nervous about all the changes coming but I'm excited! Please everyone come visit! A-town is on the way to everywhere! :)

House Swap

2008-02-05T09:54:00.000-06:00

Well, hallelujah, our house is under contract! If all goes well (please everyone cross your fingers!!!), we will close on our house on February 26th! We put an offer (contingent on this one actually selling) on a home in A-town this morning, so we're waiting to hear back on that. It's an older home but in a nice area and the size we wanted, so we'll get to do some HGTV-esque renovations. I hope they'll come "spice up my kitchen" for me! :) Of course, you have to have $40K to $50K for them to use to do that renovation, so... yeah, it'll just be us. I am so excited that we might be able to "move on" and live with B again soon! J was a little emotional about the thought of leaving her house. I told her we'll take all of her things and the most important part is that she'll have the people she loves coming with her. She'll definitely miss her friends and the familiarity of this home but I think just having EVERYTHING change at once would be hard on anyone. I think it will be exciting though and I'm trying to encourage her to see it that way too. We're going to A-town again this weekend to set up our bank account, mortgage pre-approval stuff, and attend church there. I can't wait! :) Am I going to miss it here??? Yes, of course. But I can't think about that or else I'll get too sad, so I'm just focusing on the positive! :)

Just living my life

2008-01-29T20:40:00.001-06:00

I kind of feel like I've already moved. My stuff is all packed and stored mostly in the garage. My house is basically empty except for essential staging furniture. I haven't "hung out" with any friends recently and the only thing that's gotten me out of the house for a week is grocery shopping, church, and a gynecologist appointment. Thrilling. I really need to just start living my life again. I feel in limbo waiting for the house to sell but I really should try to give my children normal experiences like playdates and going to the park. So I'm going to do better!

We're taking a road trip to A-town tomorrow to house hunt some more but basically it's just an excuse to go visit Daddy! We're going to have a sleepover in the cruddy apartment! Hoorah! Should be a lovely experience. :)

A good friend posted on her blog that New Kids on the Block are back together. WHAT!? They're not exactly new anymore, or kids for that matter, but I'm excited to see what they sound like together now. I brought up some old music videos of theirs on Youtube and had my girls come watch. They went crazy dancing, screaming at the cute boys (I showed them the proper technique), and even Miss N was boogying and clapping and giggling! She then proceeded to take off her clothes and dance in her diaper (which I did NOT show her how to do) but it was a lot of good, clean fun! I'll have to take video of the madness next time!

Men's and Women's Brains

2008-01-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

You all have to check out this video. It is so hilarious and so true. It helps me understand B so much better! :) http://marriageresourcecenter.org/videogallery/4/med/VideoWidget8.htm

Kansas Trip

2008-01-21T18:45:00.000-06:00

We had a fun time going to Kansas last week to visit with family and friends. Ben even drove up from A-town for a day and a half visit! :) It's nice to be home in our nearly empty house. We lowered the price on our house and hope that it moves it quickly. We all want to move to A-town. Even Ben doesn't feel like he's "moved" to A-town -- he's just staying there. So the housing thing is on our minds a LOT but we've managed to have some fun and enjoy our sweet girls. J is acting like a pre-'tween (how did this happen???), M has a vocabulary that grows by the minute, and N is practically running everywhere and she just started to walk! Fun stuff!

Here are some current pics of them.

Still Kickin'

2008-01-11T16:01:00.000-06:00

Hey all... we're still alive. It has been CRAZY lately and every member of my family has been to the doctor in the past 3 weeks. Yuck! But I think we're mainly better now. Poor M has a double ear infection now but surely that has to be the end of this cold/flu/sinus infection/ear infection/throat infection misery that has infested our household!

Our house has had several showings but no offers yet, unfortunately. Selling a house in this market is awful. We dropped the price some this week. We've found a house in A-town that we really like but can't do anything about it yet. B moved into a lovely (ha ha) little one bedroom apartment in A-town to start work this past week. It's anything BUT lovely and he's very lonely but he's loving his new job and he'll come home tonight after being gone all week and we are ALL thrilled! Being a single mom is SO draining. I don't know how people do that all of the time. I guess I'm spoiled because I have a husband that helps and when he's not here, I am extremely affected! :)

M and I were sick for Christmas which was miserable but we're going to make up for it next Christmas in our new house where everything will surely be fabulous! :) I keep telling the kiddos that. I really am anxious to just get moving and start our A-town life together! So that's all about us. I'm going to Kansas next week to visit my parents and attend my brother's fiancee's bridal shower, so I'll have a lot of people to hang out with and help with the kiddos. Yay!

I've felt pretty house bound with sick kids and then once they were better, pretty much all of my friends have had sick kids too, so the past few weeks have not been much fun. But it's 60 degrees today and for that I am grateful!!!

My computer died this week (2nd time in two months), so we bought a new computer that should be here soon. As long as my computer holds out, I will try to keep the blog more updated now.

My kind of holiday entertainment!

2007-12-12T09:30:00.001-06:00

For those of you who know me, you know this is the ultimate kind of holiday entertainment for me! I hope you all enjoy this awesome talent!

Looking forward to a holiday break

2007-12-09T11:35:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday we put our house on the market and yesterday we had our first showing. We haven't heard feedback about that yet but we're crossing our fingers that somebody will love our home enough to buy it very soon! I've been busy all week with errands and getting things wrapped and replacing the lights that had already gone out on our tree and making food for the church Christmas party and then... I got sick. Imagine that!

N has had something going on where she is happy all day and then won't go to sleep at night and then is grumpy the next day or two after that. It's been hard to not get enough sleep AND deal with my doll N being miserable for some reason. I'm assuming it's teething. Yesterday she was PERFECT again all day long! And went right to bed at bedtime. I hope she's back to her normal self for a LONG time! But now I have a cold and I'm sitting here with Natalie while the rest of my family is at church. I hate missing but I doubt anybody wants me spreading my germs around right now.

I am planning on going to A-town to house hunt next week. Anyone want to come with me??? :) B is busy finishing stuff up at work and doesn't seem to think he can take time off right now, so I'll have to go by myself I suppose. I'm anxious to get out there and see everything!

I'm going to miss my friends around here like crazy but I'm also anxious to just move on and start this next chapter in my life. Should be exciting!!! :)

I feel like I'm just waiting all the time for something to happen. I need to remember to live my life one day at a time! I'm so ready for a vacation to think about nothing but holidays, family, and fun!!!

Stressed out!

2007-11-29T14:23:00.000-06:00

Man, this week has been nuts. We've been working like crazy to get our house ready to sell and we've accomplished a TON since we had my mom and Ben's parents come over to help but I am still stressed about when it will sell, of course. I have lots of holiday-related things to do, I'm still babysitting another little girl for 8 more days this month and then I'm done forever (hooray!), and today on my way home from picking up J from pre-school, I was rear-ended! With all of my little darlings in the car, plus J's classmate who lives in our neighborhood. It was stressful and I feel achey but I'm pretty positive that it's because I was scared and tensed up when we got hit, not like I'm actually injured. Ugh. I so don't need this. At least everyone is ok. The kids just kept watching their movie like nothing happened, while we exchanged insurance info. N actually slept through the whole thing! My bumper is cracked and has indentions from his license plate. It doesn't seem like a big deal but it felt like we got hit hard so I figured we better check it out. When will my life be peaceful once again? Yeah, never is probably right.

Moving, Zoo, First Step, Birthday

2007-11-19T22:39:00.000-06:00

Well, it happened. B got offered a great position with a new city... wonderful opportunity for his career, better benefits, a little bit more money, and a move to a bigger home is imminent! But it's to... Abilene, Texas! We had been applying all over the DFW Metroplex and then someone from Abilene saw his resume at a Planner's Conference in October. He called him, set up an interview (we said why not?), and two weeks later.... we're moving to Abilene! (2 1/2 hours West of Fort Worth for those of you who don't know)

We are very excited but also nervous since this will be our first experience selling a home (and in a Buyer's Market no less!) and housing in Abilene is quite a bit more expensive than here. Hopefully we can find something to meet the needs of our family and when B is ready for the next step in his career, hopefully we can step back towards the DFW Metroplex and get our dream house really cheap! :) Or we may end up loving Abilene and staying there forever. Who knows?

It should be exciting and I actually like change. I'll just have anxiety about everything for a while! So what's new? J is excited but doesn't understand why we can't bring our friends with us. But she was relieved to hear we ARE taking her bed! Silly kid. :) I just hope we can sell the house quickly and join B since he has to start in about 30 days!

Today I took the girls, plus the little girl I babysit, plus a friend and her daughter, to the Dallas Zoo today. We had a great time and enjoyed the nice weather. The only downside to the trip was the lock on the stroller not working! I tried to lock the stroller, then stepped in front of it to take a picture of the other girls with a turtle statue, and Jill started to yell. I turned around to see my precious N rolling down the hill! The stroller hit the curb and it flipped over but amazingly... she was fine! Very scared and annoyed at me, I'm sure, but she just got a yucky road rash on her precious cheek. Definitely the dumbest thing I've ever done as a parent. Good to get it out of the way now though, right? And to her credit, she cried for about 1 minute total and then was her regular, happy self! For those of you that know N, I'm sure you can believe that. :) AND... later the same day, she took her first step! So I guess I didn't do too much damage! Or maybe she decided that if she started walking, she wouldn't have to be put in the death trap stroller anymore! :)

Today is B's 33rd birthday. We had a joint party for him a couple weeks ago with Natalie and last night we had dinner and cake here with some friends (one of which was celebrating a birthday a little belatedly), but today he came home and I went to the gym for Yoga class and he put the kids to bed and then worked all evening. Some birthday! Hopefully this new job will not put as much pressure on him and we can enjoy our evenings together more. Abilene doesn't have ANY night meetings -- only afternoons! Love that!

So that's us. I've caught you all up. We are VERY sad to leave our wonderful friends, ward, doctors, community, but we think this is the direction we are supposed to go now. We may still be around for months but when we do leave, I hope everybody will keep in touch!!!

Six Things

2007-11-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

I got tagged to do this from Nicole, so here we go... SIX interesting things about me.

1. I love musicals. Pretty much anything from "back in the day" with Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire or Dick Van Dyke and I love the modern stuff too. I have to say I am a MAJOR "High School Musical" fan but it's ok because I have a 5 year old daughter who loves it and so I can say I'm watching it for her sake. :) I would LOVE to see "Phantom of the Opera" or any other Broadway show (that's clean!) someday. I recently rented "Singing in the Rain" and "The Sound of Music" to enjoy with Jill and she has inherited this wonderful quality of loving musicals!!! It's so fun to share that with her.

2. White hair. I started to get white hairs around my sophomore year of college at the ripe old age of 19. I have quite a few now. :( One day I had my hair pulled back (showing all the white) and someone told me they loved what I'd done with my hair (meaning highlights) and I just smiled. I guess I can save a ton on salon appointments!

3. Favorite curse word. No, of course I don't curse! But when I get frustrated, I am known to occasionally yell out the word, "peacock!" Yes, strange. It makes Ben laugh and whoever is around me laughs and then I usually laugh too. Calms down the situation quickly. I have NO idea where I got that.

4. Double anatomy. I was born with 2 uteruses and 2 cervixes. Very exciting. They both work. I have had 2 daughters out of the right uterus and one out of the left. But my cervixes never dilate so I guess they actually don't work. :) Thank goodness for C-sections!

5. News anchor. I have a degree from BYU in Broadcast Communications and wanted to be Katie Couric. But I got burned out on reporting by the time I graduated and realized that might not be the best career for me if I wanted a family. I loved the classes, the major, the anchoring on Community Cable News, being published in the Daily Universe, etc. but I doubt I'll use my degree in the way it was intended.

6. Good memory. One thing that is interesting but might not be as true anymore... I remember names and faces really well. A lot of my friends at BYU were blown away by how I could remember someone's name, where they lived, who their roommate was, who they were dating, what their major was, etc. after meeting them once. After having 3 kids, my brain is no longer what it used to be, but I can still remember quite a lot after meeting someone, as long as I'm not corraling my kids at the same time that I meet them! I can also remember numbers. I still remember pretty much all of my friends' birthdays (if I ever knew it, it's still in my head!) and my locker combinations from middle school and other random, useless stuff! Someone at church recently asked if I was one of those people who could look at something once and have it memorized. Evidently they think my memory is still sharp!

Ok, that's it. Oh so interesting... I tag Amy, Meredith, Cheryl, Angela, and anyone else reading my blog! :)

Happy Birthday Darling!!!

2007-11-07T21:41:00.000-06:00

Our precious N turned ONE this past week (how is it possible that a year has passed since I had her?) and we celebrated twice. It was a rough week for her poor mom, so rather than a big cake, she got... A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! That's what she gets for being born the day after Halloween! :) She didn't complain at all! Then on Saturday we celebrated again with her Bryner grandparents and I actually made a cake!!! Enjoy the pics! Most are from her birthday celebrations but some are of her in the last month or so just being so darn cute!!!

Carnival, parade, and Halloween -- oh my!

2007-11-07T21:35:00.000-06:00

We went to my hometown for their annual celebration -- Arkalalah! It's just a bunch of fun stuff -- parades, games, carnival, yummy food booths... the good ol' Small Town Americana at it's best! The girls got to play with their Crain Cousins and then came home in time to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. It's been a busy month but lots of fun and good photo opportunities!!! :)

So behind...

2007-11-07T21:10:00.000-06:00

I'm really behind on updating my blog. We've actually been having a lot of fun. I'll try to update you with my slideshows!!! :) Here is our trip to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch in the middle of October!