I appreciate this snow today. I don't plant spring flowers and we need the moisture. It's not sticking to the roads, and aside from the wind, it wasn't even a problem running my errands this morning. Cory had the day off, so instead of golfing like he would have preferred, he's been home helping around the house. We updated our 72-hour kits (FINALLY!) and I found a pair of 4T jeans in there for Brady. Oops!
I'm not a very good housekeeper. I have a really hard time prioritizing house cleaning. Monday has been laundry day for years, but the other things are more difficult for me to incorporate into my week. However, a few weeks ago I got the kids involved in cleaning bathrooms with me. They are receiving my attention and we're being productive at the same time. (Yes, this is kind of a new concept for me.) Since Brady gets home from school early on Wednesdays, I determined bathroom cleaning will be our after-school activity each week. So we did that, had scripture study (which is another goal we've made for our family), and I've got a chuck roast in the crock pot. Colin is going on two hours for his nap, so I finally have time for a blog post.
Here are some photos from March:
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| Brooke: our little princess and yet happy to play Star Wars at the same time. |
We found this Darth Vader helmet at the Brantner (elementary school) garage sale for $5! I love garage sales. You never know what you'll score, and this thing is probably $30 at Walmart. Yay for garage sale season!
My mom came to town late March. We kept busy at the zoo...
playing with cousins, going to the dentist, playing at the park, trying (and FAILING) at roller skating, and hitting up a local Easter egg hunt.
Brady has been making his 2013 Christmas list. "Dear Santa, I would like:" and he adds to it all the time. I'm hoping he'll lose the list, but so far he's hung onto it. A few items include:
Wii and remotes
"baskittball"
iPod
Lego Batman Xbox game
Brady recently prayed, "Please bless me to be helpful tomorrow and not annoying." He's usually pretty helpful, and when he's "annoying" it's because he's asking for things that I'll say no to, usually multiple times.. At school they've been talking about being a good helper, and he brought home a chore chart to fill out this week. He'd written four or five items on the list, but since he's had it at home this week, he's added all the other things he does to help. It's a long list! But since his teacher has given him a little incentive for filling it out and bringing it back, he's even more willing to help out around here. Have I mentioned how much I love his teacher?
I had to capture this on video so I wouldn't forget about it.
He took a dollar's worth of change in his wallet and only spent a dime. The thought of him not spending the entire dollar never crossed my mind. Let's just say we are very proud parents, and it's nice to see we can trust in Brady's sensibility.
We had a fun double date with our good friends Tom and Rachel Bjorkman a couple weeks ago. With our babies staggered the way they are, it's hard to get together with these guys. Fortunately Rachel and I manage to enjoy our birthday dinners at Lone Star twice a year.
We owe Brooke's new favorite song to the Bjorkmans and their karaoke machine. I finally got it on video, but she was acting a little shy.
In addition to her singing and dancing, Brooke is such a sweetheart. The other day she came in the kitchen and asked, "Mom, what can I do for you?" (By the way, that just melts my heart!) I smiled and hugged her and said, "You're so sweet," to which she smiled and replied, "Yeah I am." She knows she's adored.
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| We're all about the "over easy" egg on toast for breakfast. |
Brady's Christmas talk is contagious. Brooke prayed for "our friends, our other friends, and our jingle friends," and later explained that jingle friends are Santa friends. Then yesterday she prayed: "Please bless Santa to come tomorrow." Wow, they're really getting ahead of themselves here. Maybe once the snow is gone for good and we're spending our days at Water World, they'll take a break from all this Santa business.
Lately I've been reserving movies at the library. Brooke is familiar with the Disney princesses, but now she's finally seen Peter Pan and realized that's where Tinkerbell came from. We also checked out Cinderella, which Brady enjoyed as much as Brooke. Tonight they watched part of the original Parent Trap, which I had to sit down and watch too because I loved that movie as a kid.
Cory had a birthday Sunday. He requested vanilla cupcakes. Isn't that the most boring birthday dessert ever? I made his requested filet mignon, loaded mashed potatoes and asparagus for dinner. I was willing to pull out all the stops for dessert. Anyway, here are the cupcakes. I had to "Jess" them up a little bit. When we decided it was time for Cory to open his birthday cards, Brooke announced she had one for him and ran up to her room. She came down with her favorite birthday card (from her birthday six months ago) and ran to give it to him. What a little sweetheart she is!
And this is my new little happy place. Since before Brady turned 5, for probably 18 months now, Brady has been a crafting maniac. I've posted some of his creations. I never wanted to put a wet blanket on his creativity, if you will, but the mess was out of control. For a while we had a storage bin under the counter where he would throw everything into, but it was too big. Inspired by my sister Becca, I bought this stack of 12x12 drawers which contain most of their supplies. The wipes container has markers and the other thing has crayons and colored pencils. I know everything needs a place, that's not rocket science, but I realize now he didn't have boundaries as to where it should be kept. And the 8 feet of counter space he was using just didn't work for me. So those of you who've been at our house for more than a couple hours can understand my enthusiasm. The kids and I decided after we clean the bathrooms each Wednesday we will sort through the top drawer, which contains their completed crafts. Honestly Brooke doesn't care about keeping anything she's colored, and today I caught Brady while he was playing a game on the iPad. He told me I could throw it all away if I wanted to. I'll have to remember this strategy next week!
1 comment:
Love it all!! :)
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