Quite the gentleman. . .

I drive a carpool to school in the morning so that I only have to drive to the school once a day. Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this. . . One of the other children that I bring to school is in kindergarten with Jax. She is an adorable very girly girl little redhead. She loves her dresses and cute shoes and her hair done. We love little Taryn. Anyway, for those of you who know Jax, you know that he has no interest in girls. One asked him to be her boyfriend once and it did not go her way. .. He is into sports and all things boy and definitely not into girls.

Well, on the second day of school, I asked him not to run ahead, but to walk with Taryn. She was wearing a dress and little flats and didn't want to run. So, being the gentleman, he stayed behind. These pictures are of what happened. First she grabbed his hand to hold it and he let her for about 5 seconds and then took his hand back and put it on his backpack straps. That did not deter her, she grabbed it again anyway determined, of course. So next he thought if he ran really fast she wouldn't keep up and would let go. Nope. She held on with all of her might and kept up with him. So, again being a gentleman and not wanting to come out and tell her he didn't want to hold hands, he slowed down and just let her. . . Even when they walked through a group of much older kids who all looked at them and smiled (at how adorable it was!). Anyway, we girls are determined to get our "man" to hold our hands right! Taryn's persistence paid off. . . I was really proud of him for not hurting her feelings even though I could see that he was DYING inside. . .

Sorry about the picture of Gray uploading in the middle of these . . . He seems to think he's going to kindergarten too. Two more years Gray! And - can you see Taryn's hair bouncing from running in the second picture?

We girls don't give up. . . If you look closely, when Jax got to the playground he wanted to play until the bell rang. Taryn did not - but didn't want to part from Jax - so. . . she waited for him at the edge. What a cute cute little girl . . . Debbie - if you read this - she is so adorable - thanks for letting us take her with us in the mornings . . .I love the conversations I get to have with her. . .

Results of Emma's Haircut

Here's the final result of Emma's haircut! These are the best picture shots I could get of her - it's hard to get her to sit still. . . .

School

It's that time of year again and I LOVE it. Some mom's are sad to see their kids go off to school but I seriously love it. I love seeing their independence, the opportunity to have something they do that is simply theirs instead of all 3 or 4 of theirs, and how they love being at school - at least my kids do. . . Here are the pictures from their father's blessings before school started. . . I feel so blessed that I have a husband worthy and willing to give that gift to his children. . .

Happy school year!

Look what I did!

Okay - couple of things. Emma had old man hair. Plain and simple. So, after a phone call to Auntie Candy I took matters into my own hands and evened some things out. Basically, a little bit off of the top and some evening out of the bottom back hair. See the hair I cut off? Pre-hair cut- see what I'm talking about?

PS - She hated hated hated the hair cut and was soo mad at me for awhile after that . . . totally worth it.

Addie's first day of school! School is FINALLY here, I love the school year for my kids. All three of the older ones will be in some form of school this year and I couldn't be happier. . . Why the pose you ask? Because it's Addie. . . enough said.

I did it!!!! I got Emma to go to sleep in her bed WITHOUT swaddling her. We've had a love hate relationship with it over the last couple of days and so I've decided to leave it behind altogether. Well today at afternoon naptime - she fell asleep like this within 2 minutes. Rock on. Is she a little Brousseau baby or what?

What do you get?

What do you get when you combine a little boy who loves baseball, a rainy day, and a wall? This. . . "Sorry mom." Is what I heard. I'm still trying to find the humor in it. . .

A big girl. . .

So a few new things have happened for Emma. She loves to stand so much that we got her a jumping toy. Even though she's not really tall enough for it and we have to put something under her for her feet to touch. This is her first day in it - she stayed in it for so long that she fell asleep there. . . I'm such a great mom. . . She was dressed and ready for swimming so I moved on to help get the other kiddos get ready. Poor 4th child right - totally neglected. (totally not - that girl is spoiled)

I love love love this picture. Emma is eating cereal! I started her this morning and she loved it. I could tell she was ready because she has been getting up during the night again instead of her normal sleeping for 8-10 hours at night. I wasn't sure how it would go - thought she might hate the cereal and gag on it but. . . She's a Brousseau and loves her food! Doesn't she look happy? Sorry the last picture didn't rotate - I was trying to capture the cereal on her face.

Lagoon

Sorry I don't have any pictures but we had the best experience taking the kids to Lagoon on Friday. . . Matt's mom was the best grandma and agreed to take Emma for the day so that we could take the kids without the littlest one. And, Matt's sister Michelle came along with her husband and kids. . .which meant that Addie had a riding buddy with her cousing Kenzie. That, long story short, meant that Matt and I could go with the Jax and Gray. It was the best time ever. Those boys went on every possible ride that they could and we stayed till it closed. Gray, no surprise, was tall enough for all of the roller coasters this year. We took him on the ones we thought his little stomach could handle. His favorite was the bat because according to him, he was flying like Buzz Lightyear. (The bat is the one where your seat hangs from the rail above you). Addie went on the "loop-de-loop" roller coaster that loops twice, 10, that's right 10 times. She also went on the free-falling ride. That girl has NO fear anymore I swear. Jax was my riding buddy for most of the time and we just had the best time. He wanted to try EVERYTHING.
There's just something about having reconnecting, making new memory time with your kids. Thanks to Grandma Kathy and a BIG thanks to Mona for the help getting there!

A Bad Moment. . .

So - last sunday was a rough one for Grayson and I. . . he found himself in trouble in Primary - multiple times. Let's just say there was a little of him sticking his tongue out at me, a little NOT staying in his chair, a little scripture tossing, and a little of who knows what when in his classroom. So - Matt decided to have a man-to-man conversation with him and the two of them walked home from church while the rest of us drove. Here's how the conversation went -

Matt - "So, what happened during church today Gray?"
Gray - "Dad, I was just having some bad moments."
Matt - "Well, what were you doing?"
Gray - "I stuck my tongue out at mom, I wouldn't stay in my chair, and I was kicking."
Matt - "You were kicking? Who were you kicking, was it your teacher?"
Gray -"Dad, I wasn't kicking anyone (with an exasperated look and hand gestures), I was just practicing my karate!!!!"
Matt- "Gray, you are a great kid, you're right, you were just having some bad moments today. Let's work on not doing karate during church okay?"
Gray - "Okay Dad, I'll try."

How many 3 year olds will tell their parents they are just having a bad moment? That's the new saying around here, it's like the get out of jail free card. . . . Just having a bad moment. I've had some of those. . . .

Painting Part 2

Here's the second half of our Saturday. . . Project - downstairs bathroom . The pictures make it look like black but it's really dark brown. . . We let the kids help with this one. . . One more to do - upstairs bathroom hopefully this week! Grayson was a great painter. He loved it. BUT - when he was done he felt the need to leave his mark on the wall. . . Can you see it?

Finally did it!

We've talked about it for a while - and on saturday we finally did it. . . Notice anything different?