Meanest Mom

The Meanest Mom Ever.
Isn't that a title that all of us Mother's secretly strive for?
We stay up at night plotting ways to torture our children.
I know I definitely do.
You know what else I do?
I make sure that there is a lunch packed for my kids everyday.
Go me.
Well last week Jack walked off and forgot his head lunch.
I saw it sitting there on the table shortly after he left for school.
Well naturally our school system won't let him starve when he forgets his lunch.
So he came home with a $2 bill for the hot lunch he ate that day.
Right next to it was a big smile on his face telling me all about the pizza and milk and cookie.
Not so fast, Mister.
I told him that since I had already paid for a lunch for him that he would have to earn the money to pay back the cafeteria for his hot lunch.
And do you know what it takes to earn 2 bucks around here?
We really don't pay well.
I marched him to the backyard, threw a few bags of mulch in the wheel barrow
and helped his little twig-let arms push that thing all over the yard.
Then he had to dump the bags and spread the mulch around the perimeter of our backyard.
(Which looks lovely, by the way)

He may or may not have been doing a bit of grumbling.
Which I cheerfully (and maybe a little bit sarcastically) responded with something about how delicious that lunch was.
Which really wasn't nice.
In the end he told me that I was THE Meanest Mom ever
because no other kids have to work for their lunch.
All my planning and hard work has paid off!
Do you think he has forgotten his lunch since?
Nope!
But Brooklyn has.
Her torture had something to do with weeds and dog poop.

Brooklyn's Trip to Conference

Brooklyn recently had an experience of a lifetime.

Her grandparents acquired sweet tickets to general conference.

And (because they are awesome) they decided that since Brooklyn is now old enough to go into the Conference Center, that it would be a wonderful experience for her.

Lucky for us, she had her own camera, so we get to see her experience through her eyes.

Brace yourself.

There were many "selfies" to choose from.

I thought this one was particularly charming.

You'll have to excuse her, she was a teeny weeny bit excited.

Also understand that I only had about 5 zillion pictures from this trip to choose from.

Sheesh, I really wish she would have given me a bit more selection.

 In my in-laws true fashion, they nearly saw the entire state of Utah in 2 days.

This Is The Place Monument

 Pioneer Village

(And further proof that she was there with her grandparents...pony rides?  Yep, definitely with her grandparents.)

 She was super pleased with her stilt-walking abilities.

There never was a happier girl than the one petting stinky goats.

 Do you think they would have let me stay for free?

One of Brooklyn's favorite things is to have her Grammy tell her all about the day she was born.

About how we were all waiting, (and waiting and waiting) for her to come out.

She (along with who knows how many concourses of children) was born in

As part of this trip, her grandparents took her on a little personal history tour.

This is the  hospital where she was born.

The stadium where I may or may not have roasted a few times.

And here was our humble abode.

Apartment #6

She was probably frightening some poor young mother.

Like there was some private investigator taking pictures of her apartment or something.

 And of course, no trip to Provo would be complete without a trip to the Creamery.

The little punk called me while she was eating this...just to rub it in.

I told her to eat some extra for me, but I never quite got the satisfaction I was looking for.

 She also got to visit her Great-Grandfather & Grandmother's grave.

She was sad that she didn't have any flowers to leave so she found a feather to lay by their grave. 

 After all of this activity, it was time for General Conference!

She loved being able to go inside the Conference Center.  

Aaaannnddd...she loved the cake that she said was as big as her head.

Wait!  Was she with her grandparents?

Oh yes, yes she was.

Spoiled rotten, she is.

That looks like what I would like to eat for lunch everyday.

I am so grateful that Brooklyn got to have this experience.

I truly believe that it was life changing for her.

When I picked her up, she was telling me all about the trip (for the whole 1.5 hours home.)

At one point she started tearing up and told me that she had no idea that Conference would be so amazing.

 (That giant dude is totally photo bombing my picture)

And it looks like Brooklyn is floating...

I was happy to have my girly back, 

but I am very thankful for these two for making that experience possible.

It takes an entire village to raise a child - 

and I'm really, really happy to be in the same village as these two.  :)

Future Engineer

I've mentioned before what a quiet and somewhat mischievous boy Bradley is.

The thing is, is that he really isn't mischievous for the sake of causing trouble as much as he is a curious little fellow and wants to discover things about the world on his own terms.

When he is curious about something, he quietly 

plays/experiments/watches/blows things up.

A trait that I do believe will come in handy later in life,

but one that can cause a few concerns for a busy mother.

Last Saturday we decided that we had to reclaim our garage.

It had been discombobulated for way too long.

I was going nuts.

So, we opened up the doors, 

pulled out all the junk 

and then did our best to get everything back in it's place.

The kids were in and out of the house, 

but mostly they were riding up and down the sidewalk on their bikes and scooters.

After about 2 hours of this I paused to count heads (for the 50th time).

1...2...3...

Uh, where's Bradley?

Do you have any idea how many times that question has been asked?

Yeesh.

So I walked into the house, and to my alarm smelled something cooking.

Not good.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen to see Bradley's little face beaming.

"Mom, check this out!  It's amazing!"

I cautiously came around the island to find him with the toaster.

Which he had gotten out of the cupboard and plugged in.

He carefully placed 2 pieces of bread.

 Pushed down the lever.

 And then popped it back up.

Sending that bread flying.

He was positively thrilled to discover the amazing abilities of our toaster.

My favorite part though was how he would then take the bread out and peer inside of the toaster.

Dying to know how such awesomeness was achieved.

I'm starting to think that I should be thankful I didn't come in to find my toaster completely dismantled.

I seem to remember a story about my grandfather doing just that.

I imagine it won't be long.

I just hope that he sticks to toasters and toys - 

and stays away from computers and minivans.

Only 2 slices of bread were burned to an absolute crisp in the making of this post.

Aubrey's First Haircut(s)

See that beautiful golden hair?

I love it.

My favorite thing about it is watching it blow behind her when she's running around.

Well...lately, Aubrey hasn't been such a fan of her long, tangled hair.

She doesn't want me to brush it or pull it back.

She basically just wants me to keep my mitts away from her head.

That's a problem when you are two and your hair goes half-way down your back.

I've been debating having it cut for awhile now.

But I just couldn't do it.

So Bradley did it for me.

Eek.

I was cleaning the garage while the children were running wild constructively occupied.

Aubrey was eating a sucker and apparently got it stuck in her hair.

Soooo...Bradley cut it out for her.

Good gravy.

It wasn't horrible, but there were definitely some short pieces in there.

(No pic, sorry.)

At first I decided that we would just roll with it.

It wasn't that noticeable.

But then I looked at her while we were at church and she basically looked like an orphan.

It was the best I could do to get a little clip in to hold it out of her face.

It certainly wasn't the beautiful golden curls pictured above.

Much more like the picture below.

So this morning I took her in for her first "official" haircut.

We had to bring Scooby Doo along on the Ipod because she wasn't a big fan of sitting in that chair.

And I didn't get any pictures of her in her lovely little apron because I was in the chair with her.

But here are the remains of her long hair.

(Well, besides the ones that Bradley already removed.)

I am happy because it will be 100 times easier to take care of.

And look, it still blows behind her when she runs.  :)

Doesn't it make her look so much older?  

Waaaaaa.....where's my baby?

3rd Grade Rocket Launch

 Brooklyn's 3rd Grade class had a rocket launch last week.

I took the two little bambinos to watch.

But I should have left them behind.

Because they were kind of naughty.

They didn't have the patience to wait for Brooklyn's launch.

(Or any launch for that matter)

They were running around and messing with the water fountains.

Stinkers.

But that's besides the point.

Brooklyn built and decorated her rocket.

Pumped it full of air.

 Stood back, pulled the stopper....and....

Blast Off!

It was fun watching all the kids (and parents) get so excited.

I love going to these special activities.

I'm continually impressed by the number of parents who show up to be supportive.

I am not impressed though, by the 15 minutes of Jack pouting because he wanted to be a 

Rocket-Launching-3rd-Grader.

Life really isn't fair, you know.

Christmas Part 2

Brooklyn has the coolest school teacher ever.

Let me tell you just one small reason why I think this.

She decided that the kids would benefit from an evening caroling through the neighborhood.

She had to boldly advertise that this was not a school event.

It was her event.  

Her spare time.  

Just because she wanted to create memories for her students.

Awesomeness.

We loaded up our crew and spent the evening bringing a little joy to a handful of families.

It was planned many weeks in advance, 

but happened to land on the evening of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Hearing the kids with their teacher and families singing songs about our Savior brought a little peace to my heart that day.

Here are a few of her classmates.

(With a handful of siblings thrown in.)

All acting like their most charming selves.

The whole time we were out caroling, 

Bradley kept asking if it was time to have hot chocolate yet.

Clearly, that's what he came for.

Unfortunately for him, the comfort of the rolling stroller and Christmas carols was just too much for him.

He didn't make it to hot chocolate time.

And neither did Aubrey.

But I did want to eat their little faces.

I think that's just more cuteness than one stroller can possibly handle.

In other Christmas tradition news,

we did bust out a gingerbread house.

Well, actually grandma came to the rescue and gave us a kit.

Which is pretty much awesome.

Although, thanks to the Hansel & Gretel syndrome we seem to be experiencing,

these bad boys definitely weren't around to see Christmas.

Upon inspection of the picture above, 

I should mention that even though it looks like Jack is in pain due to Dave giving him a giant ear twist,

I do not believe that was the case.

We do like to give those floppy ears a twist here and there

(only in love, of course).

On second thought, after consulting the father,

he believes that he just might have been twisting that ear.

I guess we'll never know for sure.

Because there must always be one,

here is our most refined picture of the kids in their Christmas clothes.

Not bad, right?

Although don't let Jack fool you.

In every other one of the 6 million pictures,

he was slumping, or pouting or just generally giving me a full spectrum of faces and body language that says,

"Why must we always take these ridiculous pictures?"

Only to torture you, my boy.

Only to torture you.

Whenever we are in S. California,

we like to make sure we stop in for a visit with Nan Maureen.

(Who happens to be the most adorable and hilarious person, ever.)

She got Jack to sweeten up.

And Bradley is taking his 'guardian of the 20 dollar bill' job very seriously.

Christmas Part 1

I felt particularly festive this year.

We were spending our first Christmas at home

which seemed to light a new flame within me.

At the beginning of December,

I strapped my boots on and got prepared to have a wonderful and memorable Christmas.

Which we did.

BUT, there are certainly a few things that I will do differently next year.

When we got the tree out, 

I realized that it looked kind of pathetic with only a few decorations and no garland.

No garland?

We can fix that.

We will have a lovely family moment where we sing Christmas carols, drink hot chocolate and enjoy one another's company while we string popcorn for our tree.

Riiiight.

This looks more like reality, right?

Mother stringing, pouting Jack, naked Aubrey, busy Father, missing Bradley,

and picture taking Brooklyn. 

That could be some kind of Christmas carol of it's own, don't you think?

Needless to say, that wasn't exactly how I had envisioned it.

It didn't take me long to switch to Fruit Loops only.

Popcorn is kind of hard to string - no wonder the kids were prematurely quitting their post.

Well, after what felt like hours of stringing Fruit Loops,

our tree looked a bit more cheery.

Only to be repeatedly attacked.

We have our own little Hansel & Gretel at our house.

By the time this tree came down, we were missing the Fruit Loops on the whole bottom half.

Despite a fair amount of grumbling over the garland,

they all loved decorating the tree.

Or in Aubrey's case,

she loved decorating that ONE branch.

I just loved this picture that I caught of my girls hanging ornaments.

Once we prepared the house, the real fun began.

Now, I know this is a controversial topic, 

but I am personally a HUGE fan.

I have been wanting one for a few years,

but struggled to dish out the $30.  (Thanks grandma!)

Our elf's name is Roy.

And I am not sure who enjoyed the tradition more - the kids, or me?

One morning the kids came into the kitchen to find Roy flying through the air!

Brooklyn was beside herself with excitement.

She knew that Roy could fly.

And this proved it!

She ran upstairs to tell Jack.

(picture beyond giddy excitement)

Jack walked in the room,

stood there with one hand on his hip and said,

"I can see a string."

Then he sat down to eat his Cheerios.

Well Merry Christmas to you too, Jack.