good post

I might not have many enlightening posts, by I can repost some...

http://bravegirlsclub.com/archives/2151

Dinner and Conversation

So tonight's dinner is bloggable and around here that's usually not the case, so I'm not going to let it pass. It was really just tacos, I found this on pinterest...

http://www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.com/cafe-rio-chicken/

and had the ingredients. I really wasn't sure about it, but it was yummy and Brandon agreed. Usually if I like something he doesn't so much.

Then I was supposed to make crepes for Cole yesterday, but we got a dinner invite and took it. So we had them today and they did not fail us. I had nutella, raspberries, whipcream and if we're being honest...powdered sugar. It was divine.

The conversation part was really a one liner. Cole is really good at many things, finding/looking for things is not one of them. He's severely colorblind so I often left him off the hook with that although I don't think it's as much of a hindrance as other possibilities.
Tonight he was looking in the refrigerator for strawberries, for said crepes. I said Cole they're right there, no luck. I get up and get them...right there! I think he then compliments my finding skills and says... I am going to marry a woman that "looks good".....get it...looks...good.. It's hokey in type, but it was so funny at the time. :) Hope you had yummy fun dinner.

Changes

Tomorrow morning, after about an hour of acid level action and jamming out the door, my life begins a new chapter. I will be alone for six hours and twenty minutes, five days a week. This freedom for the low price of sending my babies off to be taught, nurtured, disciplined, attended to by a teacher and about 20 of their counterparts. :(. I remember when there were days I dreamt about such a time in my life...some just during the past three months of summer (we survived). Now that it's here my heart is screaming, hold the phone, please wait, it's all happened too fast. And then there are the nagging questions. Is Hannah too young to be a Kindergartner and at school for so long? Will Laura make friends and be happy and not die over the stinking fcat? Will Cole handle being separated from the majority of his friends who are all in a class together? I didn't imagine the stress of the weight of these questions and my perusing into Florida virtual school, but alas it's true. It's not something we'll jump into lightly, the summer is too fresh on our minds :), but it's defintiely a consideration which I would've never anticipated.

I'm going to miss them so much and worry about them, for them. I keep going back to the fact that I made it through and if I baby them, then what happens when the real world comes knockin..and it will.

But I'm excited for the good things school brings and I'm not so foolish not to be excited for myself and the time I'll have (when I'm not subbing or working at target).

Here's back to school tidbits:

Cole is the one most dreading school. So tonight I said, "Ok, Cole what if I tell you we're pulling you out, you'll be homeschooled, starting tomorrow." He said all disgruntled and torn "I need the playground and my friends here and I'm good". I said, "Your friends will be at school." He replied, "I need something bad to happen to the school." :) Always has a plan that guy.

Laura has been a quiet ball of nerves, she's expressed her anxieties over random things and pretty much internalizes everything and then explodes over the little stuff, but once she's done exploding for a little bit she's good. She should be good for a while now. :) She said on the way to church this morning, "I don't want to be the middle child." She couldn't cite me an example of how this a bad thing, she just knows it is. I do rely on her a lot and am so appreciative of her help. She's the child I'm having the hardest time sending. :(

Tonight Hannah asks me for the third time to lay down with her, she'd been pinging off the walls for much of the evening. As I lay down with her, again (cause tomorrow's the first day of school and I'm a sucker) she says, "This time Mommy, lay down with me for a long time" I say " I'll lay down with you for a little time". Pause "Mommy, a little time is not even a word".

Here's a pic of Cole and Laura meeting Hannah when she was born, the day before Cole started Kindergarten. Time has flown and the song is true.."you're I gonna miss this".

My kids :)

don't wanna forgettables..

Cole thinks 103 degrees is great weather!

Hannah calls people different things when she's correcting them...(hard to explain)
My mom asked for another kiss and hug and Hannah said "you already got one missy!", her tone adds to the humor. She called Laura, cowboy girl and young lady in the same tone today. It's really cute.

Hannah got her kindergarten shots today and was like whatever. The first shot she laughed through and then she was stunned for the next three but she made it. But still gave that look of why would anyone do this to another person look.

Laura did not want to be in the room while Hannah was getting her shots and she waited outside. I didn't know she was squeamish about these things.

Laura's learning to jump rope, it's really cute and we have to watch her do it every attempt. She's up to 15 consecutive jumps.

Hannah sings..all the time. she make ups songs, she makes up songs to church tunes. She sings sentences that she would say to me.
She's doing it right now..
"he stoled it and
the sneaky man took this away a long time ago"
while holding a lego airplane.

Hannah says her name will be Crystal Lemonade when she's 17.

Cole reads as much as he breaths.

Laura can make a ponytail in her hair and is rightly very proud!

They all love their dad very much and I can't blame them.

In honor of father's day here some of thing they love about him...
Cole...
he loves and cares about us
he takes his time with us
he helps us with learning

Laura...
he plays with me
he tells me stories at night whenever I want one
he goes to work for us

Hannah
I like to tickle with him and tuggle with him and play rolly polly
and snuggle
and eat with him
have fun with him
and learn about the Holy Ghost with him

Cole Ps Stories

Cole has been writing for a long time. He used to make little books and write stories. He's come up with some creative stuff in school lately so I decided to document them. This is just a start...

http://cpsstories.blogspot.com/

St. Augustine

on our way home from Orlando we popped through St. Augustine, hit the beach for a little bit and the whatever fort is there. Cole, my history fan, loved it. We did learn some cool stuff about the psychological warfare they used. I need some psychological warfare.

pooped out

educating us

kids didn't mind playing in the water w/o suits

more vacating

the fireworks were amazing

giddy with exhaustion

racin'

dancing at disney

Dumbo

Vacating

Ryan, Andrea and the kids came down to do Disney and other fun Florida things with us...here are pics in reverse order and more to come to prove it... dancing at Disney a Hannah sized door

feeling Singing in the rain? Ryan obliged

no comments or autographs

the disc landed on the zero

a beached pixie

shuffleboarding

ugghh

not the picture perfect post.. Has it been said lately that parenting is really, really hard? I guess the president has some tough decisions, but no doubt parents are at least on level with that position. It's the thing I thought I'd be really good at. Love 'em, squeeze 'em, help 'em along. I used to think things were hard when they were so young as babies and I'm pretty sure people told me it would get easier. Well, they were wrong. The difficulties change, but really only get more difficult. And we are so hitting pre-teen early and SO.NOT.FUN! I realize this may not be the case for everyone and I'm happy for you if so. Over here, it's hanging by a thread. back to the picture perfect posts...

More

of kids funny stuff


Laura -
I almost forgot to blog about this and it was so funny!
Cole had surgery and one Sunday only Brandon made it to church, so whenever we're home like that we institute Primary in Pajamas (the pajama mainly applied to just this one time, but may become a regular thing). Laura was thrilled and of course asks to be the Primary President. She comes to me a little later with a babydoll as the acting PP and says would you like to see my baby I just had? And I goo and coo and then she says "and they say I'm going to have another one" and she did and conducted Primary with two babies. I don't think she's ever had a pregnant PP, I suppose she just understands the general idea. It was hilarious.

Hannah -
This morning Brandon startled Hannah and she exclaimed "Daddy, you scared me, pause, but not to death, you just scared me". She cracks me up all the time with stuff like this. I'm an easy target, but I enjoy it so.
Another time today, Cole was getting on to her about something and she said "Golly Geee", in a tone like gosh Cole, get over it. We all busted out laughing and I guess she felt the need to defend herself cause she said Laura says it.

Cole-
This child of mine. His mind is always ticking. He's ALWAYS thinking up games, he says mom I thought up a game, like this is something new. I love the creativity he has, it . is. constant! Today it was a card game named grenade, it would have 5 bomb cards and 20 safe cards. If you got a bomb it would blow up your hand...get it?

If you ask him to do something he doesn't want to he'll say "i'm good". And if I tell him not to do something he quickly quips "I will, worry".

We had such a wonderful day, we apparently haven't played go fish in a while and it was Hannah's first time playing by herself...sooooooo cute! Then we played crazy eights (first time) and old maid, first time for Laura, sadly. I told her she'd love it and she did, the suspense, she could barely stand it. We popped popcorn and laughed a lot.

I really have the greatest family!!!

I could never

A little diddy bout me....

so when I was a young lass I would go with my mom to get groceries and I would watch the cashiers at the grocery store check us out and wonder how they did it...so much to do...handle money, deal with all the people, make change, stressful. It freaked me out. I thought to myself I could never do that. At fifteen I needed a job and ended up as a cashier doing just that and did it for I can't remember how long. At one point I was offered an office position that I couldn't take because of school, so I must of been decent at my job.

our store didn't look this nice :)

A few years after that Nicholson Farmhouse restaurant was opened by our former stake president Paul Nicholson and I LOVED going to eat there. I would watch the waitresses and wonder how they did it..taking orders, carrying those large trays, dealing with all the people, stressful. It freaked me out..for real. I thought to myself, I could never do that. When Brandon and I got engaged I needed extra money and found employment at..you guessed it Nicholson Farmhouse restaurant as a waitress..
This all of sudden makes me wonder why I didn't choose something else, b/c the "I could never do that" was very specific to these places, go figure.

Anyway, I digress, well maybe I digressed when I started. I was a waitress there for 7-8 months and one of my biggest fears was dropping the tray...it happened, only once, which surprised me...those trays were heavy and the doorways were old farmhouse doorways. I wish the restaurant was still open..yummy stuffed potatoes, bread, ranch dressing...I gained a good 10-15 lbs. there. But I did it and got good tips...the best during valentines and football season, rich people sometimes don't make good financial decisions...while drinking :), but I definitely worked for it. Moving on...

my mouth is watering..these are pics of plates from Nicholson's...best green beans!


When I came into 1st ward 13 years ago I would watch the Gospel Doctrine teacher and wonder how he/she did it.. for real! the prep, the questions, dealing with all the people (looking to you to lead the discussion.....shudder). It freaked me out..I truly said to myself...I could never do that. Years later I was eventually able to make comments and then I would say to Brandon, please don't let me comment and stew about it. Add to that, that everytime I think I know what my calling is going to be, I'm surprised, as I was a few weeks ago when I was called as...the Gospel Doctrine teacher....it took a lot of faith to say yes and I really almost called the Bishop the morning of my first class to bail. I didn't and I survived the class. I told the Bishop this past Sunday (on my day off) that I was enjoying my calling..when it's not Sunday. My spare thinking time is constantly on the lesson and helps me to be better, stronger..I really like that part. I don't know the end of this one yet, but I hope that like a little girls fears of cashiering and a young woman's trepidation with waitressing I can continue the outcome pattern. That I'll work for it and be a decent teacher, cause the tips and advancement of this job are certainly worth much more! :) :)

"but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19


Thanks for indulging me on this little diddy bout me. Back to posts generally about the bosses of my full time endeavor...Brandon, Cole, Laura and Hannah.

So what do you do after "ice skating" in Florida?

well start your spring garden of course...

we like to start with seeds, just to make it more challenging

Hannah writing on her garden markers

Cole..this picture doesn't show it, but he worked hard..kind of ..he had an excellent knack for supervising, but he did do his part

I love this picture

jalapenos, jalapenos or jalapenos

it's for salsa, there were no vegetable she was interested in

oh Brandon says she planted squash

wish I could throw looks like this

see Cole's working :)

all ready to grow!


Spot, such a sweet cat!!!

Ice Skating in Florida - Really?

Yeah not really, the city bought a skate type floor. Years ago they had real ice and it would get a little slushy. Nicole warned me it wasn't realy ice, but I had already promised Laura we'd go and off we went. It surely wasn't ice and was actually harder to skate on. Ah well, Laura enjoyed it.

Our spectators, not so much, but don't worry they didn't stay the whole time.
They got Dairy Queen.

Hannahisms: edited to make more sense

I swear, four years old is definitely one of the funnest ages. There are no inhibitions and the cutest things come out of their mouths..Here's some of Hannah's recents....

she calls a statue a statua...Brandon explains the difference between spatula and statue, she could care less.

and her prayers are priceless, here are a couple
"please let Heavenly Father care about things that are funny and laugh at things that are funny and not things that are sad and bad". :)

"please help those people that don't have houses and help us to give our house to them and then we can get a house with stairs"

she was in our bed the other morning after a particularly cranky day for her and we sent her to bed early (read I layed down with her to make sure she was alseep before 8), when I woke her up she yawned and said "see mom I yawned, that means I need more sleep so I'm not cranky"

the day before this same particular morning..it was a school night and the kids asked Brandon if they could sleep outside and of course he said no..

so a few minutes after Hannah's cranky comment..she very seriously said. "Mom when daddy is your child and he's in your tummy and you're in charge, you let us sleep outside and there will be no more school days". I'm sure it was funnier coming from her, but not something I wanted to forget.

She calls McDonald's, Old McDonald's...she tries to remember the right thing, but always falls back on this. For the past few weeks she's been begging to go to Old McDonald's and I kept putting her off and last Friday they were going to my mom's so we got McDonald's before they headed out. Today we went to Sonic's happy hour and she's sipping her watermelon slushy and she says "Mommy, thank you for getting me Old McDonald's. It was SUPER sweet.

She calls me mama more often than anything else and it's kind of weird b/c I don't recall either of the other kids calling me that this late in the game. It's sweet and so Hannah.

She likes to look at books and very loudly tell the story as she sees it. It's really cute to watch.

I'm sure there are a million others and I'll try to keep better track of them. I watch her and see the "fourness" slipping away and it's pretty sad. I'd sure like to just bottle it up along an 8 and 10 year old I know. Parenting....hard, wonderful stuff.

A Decade

Cole is a decade old. How did that happen? Furthermore how is it that in another decade he'll be somewhere in the world on a mission? Actually we can fast forward to that part. As I understand it it's all up hill from here till then :( :( :(. Cole is a treasure, he's honest, can remember so well, particularly things he reads. He has the best sense of humor (which really just means he finds me funny and I really like that). He loves animals. He's a great writer..sample to come...and he still snuggles with me on occasion.in between video games, legos, heroscape, nerf and his greatest hero his dad---I'll take the in betweens. We had a low key bday because we had his friend party for his 10th during the summer. I"m sure we ate pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes, strawberry shortcakes and had a great time. Looking forward to seeing my little boy turn into a young man. I have no doubts that I will be astounded by who he becomes in the next decade.