Bless the cheese......

A few lines from Thomas's dinner prayer this evening.....He LOVES to say the prayer.

"Bless the cheese on my plate that I don't like.....and I see it sitting on my lettuce right now...."

"Bless our food to not be hot...."(after the prayer he asked me if the food was just right.)

"Bless Avery my best friend..."

So he doesn't like cheese and I think he opens his eyes when he prays. Eric and I are still laughing!

Life is a bit busier but all in good ways! I took the girls to Costco yesterday while Thomas was at school. I think the sample ladies got a big kick out of Brynnley. Whenever we got close to a sample that she thought looked good she would YELL, "YAY!" with her arms up in the air. It was pretty funny. She is such a fun little girl. The kids are having so much fun with her now that she is able to talk more and keep up with them. They often play house together and from the last posts you can see Brynnley is a pretty good sport and let's them direct her with whatever part they want her to play. She and Thomas are such good little buddies. As soon as Avery goes to school they head down to the basement to play.

Once again we end the night off with a bang after showers......Brynnley was laughing pretty hard at this idea that Thomas and Avery came up with. The kids are big fans of the wood floors and are putting them to good use........Hmmmmm.....maybe I should put a mop underneath them and they can have fun while cleaning my floors!!

El libro de Mormon..........

I walked into Thomas's room tonight and found him fast asleep, holding his Book of Mormon. Before he went to bed he was flipping through the pages and showing me his favorite pages. He wanted me to turn the hall light on so he could read it some more before he went to bed. What a sweet sight when I checked on him hours later.
I am so grateful for this book. I know it will bless my children's lives as it has blessed mine. The words inside this book without a doubt are from God to us his children. The words found inside are what he wants us to read and know. He wants us to have the knowledge of what the plan is for all his children on earth and how we can follow that plan to get back to his kingdom where we will live with happiness an joy for all eternity. I love reading it with the children every night. They may not fully understand its words right now, but just seeing Thomas holding it tonight makes me feel as though he knows it is important and I am sure his little heart feels the peace it brings. When I was a teenager, I decided I was going to follow Moroni 10, 3-5. I decided I was going to read it and pray to know if it really was true. I picked it up one day and started on page one. I soon read a passage when Nephi said in chapter 1 vs. 3 "And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand..." I will never forget the warm feeling that came over my body and I KNEW in that moment that this Book was true as Nephi had said and that it was the words that God wanted his children to know, to read, and to follow. I didn't need to read the book page by page or even have a full understanding of it at the time. I had the desire to know and the Lord lovingly answered my prayer to know for myself. Since then I have read it word for word and my testimony grows each time I read it. I can never read it too many times. I have had many experiences upon reading it that have strengthened me. It is true. What a blessing it is to have another testament of Jesus Christ. There is no better way to learn of him and his teachings.

David A. Bednar, "Watching with All Perserverance," Ensign, May 2010 "
"Regular reading of and talking about the Book of Mormon invite the power to resist temptation and to produce feelings of love within our families. And discussions about the doctrines and principles in the Book of Mormon provide opportunities for parents to observe their children, to listen to them, to learn from them, and to teach them."

Quotes from President Ezra Taft Benson, (Served 1985–1994)
 “Now we not only need to say more about the Book of Mormon, but we need to do more with it.” ( “Cleansing the Inner Vessel, ” Ensign, May 1986, 5.)

“I have a vision of the whole Church getting nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon.” ( Conference Report, Oct. 1988, 5.)

Thanksgiving....

Thanksgiving was a great day. We spent it with friends and had a great time. The kids also had a great time with the Thanksgiving baking. Eric is so good with letting the kids get in and help him especially when he makes his famous apple pie. They squished the crumble mixture for the apples pies and thought that was so much fun! Thomas and Avery each had their own bowl they were mixing and Brynnley wanted her own bowl to mix things as well. Eric put a little flour in hers and right away she started rubbing it on her face. That was one of the highlights of the day.

While I was making rolls, I was walking around the corner and saw Thomas reading Eric's ortho books. He was going through one of them page by page and was mesmerized. He was so into the book that he didn't even flinch or look up for a second when I walked into the room to take a picture. He is such a observant 4 year old boy with so many questions! Oh the places you will go.........as Dr. Suess says!

I never just think of my blessings and all the things I am grateful for only on Thanksgiving, but it is great day to reflect on all that my Heavenly father has blessed me with. I have way to many to list, but I am grateful everyday for my sweet husband and children, my church(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints), my testimony....and faith, and to live in America where I have freedom. These just top the list, but with just these things, I am richly blessed! We are living, we are laughing, and we are loving it!

It's beginning to look somewhat like Christmas.....

Oh yes we did!! We set up Christmas this past weekend, almost a week before Thanksgiving. We are going home for Christmas and wanted to enjoy our Christmas decorations for longer than a week. We blasted the Christmas music(all three kids dancing) and while Eric fluffed the tree, I put garland around the kids pictures along with a wooded Christmas tree on my buffet(that is all the decor I wanted this year.) Sometimes simple is better. And this year I wanted it simple. The kids were beyond excited. I love new traditions! It seems that we add more every year as the kids are getting older. I must say I love sitting in the family room with a sparkly Christmas tree. I love everything about this time of year. It is a bit odd though to be in a state with a mild winter. At least at this time of year. Not complaining though! Note: Brynnley was doing great with not touching the tree however the other day as I was talking on the phone with one of my BF's, she left my sight for what seemed like minutes and had 10 candy canes in her arms and was running for freedom. She cleared all that her arms could reach. So pretty much all the ones that Avery and Thomas did. She was trying so hard to keep them all in her little arms. You could tell she was pretty excited and proud to have conquered the tree of most of it's sweets, but mom had to ruin the moment. It was pretty cute but I had to quickly clear the stripped sweets before she broke, unraveled, and devoured them all! She is my sugar baby!

So tonight went a little something like this....showers, running around, Brynnley can't get enough lotion and was rubbing all over her face, scripture study.......and then some how the bedtime routine turned into.......

I love how when the games began, Thomas ran and got his Indian hat that he made today at school. Now he is READY!

.........then we said prayer and the kids were off to dream land and mom and dad continued to play with the nerf guns(Ha!).....OR even better......they relaxed together in peace!!!

Brynnley and Thomas loved playing around me as I got ready for the day. I had to laugh when I looked down and saw Brynnley trying to cut her own toe nails. I love watching her mimic the things we all do. She loves to explore and figure out the world around her. She is so good at it. I get to put piggies in her hair now except every time I put them in she says, "ouch." She doesn't pull them out though!

I am glad I got some clear pictures. It is hard to take a picture when you are laughing! Thomas matted down his hair and then got one strand to stick straight up in the middle and said, "this is just right mom....now I have a horn."

Thomas being a big goof and wanting me to capture it all....his faces kill me. He makes me laugh more than anyone. He is definitely growing up. He now cleans up his room without being asked(or whining)!!! He is devastated when he can't say the prayer(I must admit I love it when he prays...they are so cute and I always LOVE hearing them....he goes into such detail that I have to bite my tongue to stay reverent as he is so innocently telling Heavenly Father ALL his thoughts.) When he is sent to his room if he wasn't listening or whatever, he always says, "aaalllllright, but I am sorry and I WILL listen," as he marches up the stairs to his room. Oh man is that better than whining! So basically I think we might be phasing out of the whiny phases.....or at least I hope it's here to stay! I never dealt with that with Avery whining, so the age of 3 to 4 with Thomas kinda tested my patience a bit. So it has been pretty nice. Oh and he ADORES his sisters and plays so cute with both of them. They couldn't ask for a better brother!

Bye bye binky!!!

Today was so great as my daughter has finally given up the battle of the Binky. We decided it was time to give up the Binky while there was still a chance. Brynnley LOVES her Binky. I tried to only give it to her during the day when I desperately needed her to give me more time to do whatever I was needing to do. There is a big difference in the pace of life between child #1 and child #3. Some days a 20 min. nap will have to do for the day. She was definitely getting more attached and I don't like it when kids talk through their Binky(which she was starting to do). I didn't feel too bad when Brynnley had her Binky in a few weeks ago as we passed a 7 year old talking to her mom about what clothes she wanted with a Binky in her mouth. I wanted to grab it out of her mouth and take off running but I figured it wasn't my business and she wasn't my child. I just took off quickly before I stared too much in disbelief. Anyways with the help of my partner in crime we were able to keep each other sane while lot's of whining occurred the first two days. It seems there is always an excuse as to why we should wait(for instance her eye teeth coming in) but they have popped through and we know she will survive. I can't tell you how many times I thought of waiting until she was 2 but I knew that only meant more attachment to the sucking device. She was so not her happy self the first few days we took it away but today was a break through(ha!!...that sounds serious doesn't it) and I did a bunch of errands, dropped off and picked up the kids from school, went visiting teaching, and then did another errand all with NO WHINING!! She was even better than when she was corked. I am so happy! Nights are still not 100% but we are getting there. I am just glad it's gone forever during the day and naps. Tonight she almost didn't need it! Oh I am so glad it didn't take weeks!! I am grateful for that!! I was prepared to do it though. I am a BIG believer in following through.....It has worked so far for my kids!

My Brynny is growing up. She is talking so much and creating small sentences. I love how when we passed the target sign today she said, "taget." That's my girl!! She says,"see ya Toma" when we take Thomas to school and it makes his day(she said his name before Avery...must be easier for her to say. Avery is happy that she is now apart of her vocab.) She still loves to explore everything, jump around, keep up with the kids, color, open all the doors(which now all have child locks which so far she hasn't taken apart). I finally got her a mini learning lap top as she is obsessed with mine. If I didn't put it up, I would find her on the floor flat on her tummy typing away in pure delight. It was $15 and she loves it! I loved how she came into the office as soon as she got it and sat hers next to mine. They are so smart. I was going to wait until Christmas to give it to her but when I saw it on sale at Target today I couldn't resist.....and BONUS......it's educational.

The green and white ones below were your favorite kind Brynn. Maybe your kids will like them too?? None of the others would do from the beginning. I loved the glow in the dark ones at night when she would drop it.

I am however a little bummed that the Binky is gone and I never got to partake in these Binkies shown below that I saw today......I also saw a vampire one for Halloween.

I am sorry I didn't get you the $17,000 Shiloh Bradgelina Binky covered in diamonds that could have fed too many hungry babies to count. I am sure your mouth thanks me for the cheap, light weight, very practical one that more than served it's purpose.

Sold by Sears

Catchin up......

Thomas goes through spurts of reenacting certain scenes from his favorite movies. It has been awhile since he has done it. This week he got back into toy story mode. It's funny because he hasn't watched many movies lately or tv for that matter. He started out by marking(with erasable crayons mind you) on the side of his door, woody's growth chart(as seen in the film...not sure which one though). I began telling Thomas that it isn't okay to write on the walls with anything. His reply to me with confidence, "but mom that is what Andy does on his door to measure woody and he didn't get in trouble." The scene from the movie quickly came back into the noggin and I tried so hard to keep a straight face. He then said, "Alright mom I will just clean it up." I had him scrub it clean and told him he could pretend to measure Woody's growing progress with his finger.

Below is a picture of Thomas reenacting another scene from one of the toy stoy movies. The aliens trapped Humpty Dumpty(not in the real movie only found in the movie created by Thomas James Gardner.) He then quickly ran upstairs to have buzz save Humpty from his awful fate. He must have gone on for an hour. I love his imagination and ways of thinking. This boy is always thinking and asking questions.

Another day in the "adventures of Thomas." Eric and I were laughing pretty good when Thomas came up the stairs with the doctors kit and became the surgeon that would save Mr. Gardner's life. He drew me a picture of what the incision was going to look like. He drew quite a few in fact to explain to both Eric and I what he needed to do. One of them had a black spot. Dr. Wety Tomet(that is what we had to call him....we kept saying don't you mean Thomas and he would say, "no, Dr. Wety Tomet) said there was something in Mr. Gardner's throat that he needed to be taken out immediately. I can't remember all the things he was saying but he was hilarious. He would go and explain things to Eric(as though he was the real deal) and I would pretend to be sad and he even took the time out to console me that everything would be fine. I must say he had great bed side manners!!

Moving on to the wee one. I couldn't believe how Brynnley was taking the medical abuse. Thomas was trying to look in her ears, mouth, and even nose as you can see in the pics below. Brynnley was pretty amused by the whole thing and thought it was pretty fun. She would laugh every time he was done with his inspections. Avery joined in as the nurse at one point and Brynnley again allowed them to give her shots etc. I mean check out that nose shot! Ouch!(gotta love his surgical head light. He found his nebulizer mask and figured that would be perfect! When he came downstairs with that on I knew it was a camera moment.)

When all was done she got them back by becoming a vampire!!! She obviously didn't get a clean bill of health. She has another check up in a month once her vampiritis subsides.

Saturday night I went to tuck the girls in while Thomas and Dad were reading and I found them both snug in Avery's bed. Avery begged to let her sister stay in her room and sleep with her. Brynnley did not want to leave either. We have a tradition on Christmas eve where the kids get to build a fort and sleep together(ONE night of the year.) So I reminded Avery of that tradition and unless circumstances were such that they needed to share a bed, it wasn't happening. I just imagined them jumping around laughing until 1 in the morning only to wake up to crabbiness. No thanks! I am still not sure Brynnley will be joining in on the tradition this year. Last year Avery and Thomas did great and it only took a few reminders to go to bed. As soon as we brought the whole, "go to bed or Santa can't come" into the equation they were sawing logs. I am pretty sure Brynnley won't be so easily coaxed. They were pretty cute though and I let them pretend for a few minutes.

Avery shocked me the other day and said she wanted to cute her hair to her shoulders. She has always loved long hair esp. after seeing Tangled. I asked her if she would be sad if it was cut off and she said, "no, it will grow back." Her hair does grow fast and I told her we would donate it if we were going to do that. I kinda want her a bit older so she can appreciate what she is doing. I learned from a friend where and how to donate and the lengths needed for different charities. Anyways, I cut 4 inches to start(in pics her hair still looks long so you get an idea of how long it was getting). I will wait a little bit and then if she still wants it shorter we will donate it. So far she really likes it the way it is and asked me to cut off 2 more inches. She is growing up!! She told me if she cut it short she would be just like mom. As long as it isn't boy short. Love you girlie!!

I can't believe the year is almost over. I am excited to publish my blog with what I have written so far for the kids to have for Christmas. I know they will cherish them so much when they are older(esp. to show their children.) I am going to start a tradition and do a book at the end of each year for them. Until they are older I will put them to the side in their keep sake box. They are the biggest reason for me starting this blog and my motivation to keep it going even when life gets so busy. I have gotten too busy to keep doing their albums on paper and since everything is digitized these days I figure they will have disks of all their pictures, videos, and now memory books from the blog. It's hard with the 3 kids to keep up on everything but Eric and I have made a point at FHE to record them at least once a month with a variety of questions. Sometimes after FHE we will just record them dancing and being goofy. I have LOVED watching the VHS videos(that I need to convert to DVD) from when I was younger. I don't have much but I cherish what I have. They grow up so fast. I know I will enjoy seeing and reading them as well as they will take me back to these sweet moments in a split second.

Another one bites the dust.......

This week went by so fast! I had a lot going on and I am so grateful for Eric who played with, bathed, read to, and tucked in the kids 3 nights this week so I could go to a dinner, activity, and hang out with some awesome friends to help out another friend clean and move into a beautiful (dirty) home .5 miles away from where she is now. I can't believe how some people leave their homes when they move. Anyways, it's amazing how fun cleaning can be when your laughing and talking with friends. I wish I could clean with them at my house everyday. We definitely got side tracked a lot due to lot's talking and laughing, but we worked till midnight and got the big things done. Eric let me sleep in till I couldn't sleep anymore this morning. Wow! I haven't done that in a long time. I must say it felt pretty good. Thanks sweetie! Man did I ever score big marrying you:) I appreciate you so much. Love you.....YST!!!

Tonight we got to relax and enjoy each other. I loved watching the kids tonight. We were all in the front room, Brynnley was shouting ready, set, go....and running across the room, the kids were dancing which turned into karate, which turned into playing with their vampire teeth and ended in turning into mom and dad while playing house. I love soaking in these simple memories and hope just reading the blog will bring them all back someday. They play so cute and adore each other. When they are teenagers and are having those lovely moments I hear teenagers have(I can't relate because I never had them...wink...wink) I can always take myself back today.

I picked up my co op share this week at Kelli's house(there are 8 of us in the co op share....that I LOVE). We had never met before but ended up talking for 3.5 hours. When I got to her house she hadn't divided up the food yet for the shares so I helped her do that and after we were done, she asked me to come inside and talk as we did so we were both enjoying our conversation and it was a lot of fun. She has a baby and the others are older so we talked a lot about raising kids in these days. I really like talking to other moms to get their opinions and advice on certain situations that all kids face when they get older. I embrace these innocent years that I am going through now with my children, but am very aware of what kids are facing. As parents I feel like we have to be on top of these things and making sure we are constantly teaching our children according to their age. We do this a lot during FHE and it has been great. More than anything we want the kids to talk to us and ask us questions young so that it is a natural thing when they are older. I hope we can always have open communication and trust. I love how my parents freely gave us their trust. I knew they trusted in me and didn't want to break that. Kelli and I talked about a lot of things and she had a great perspective on things and gave me some good advice on ways she has taught her older children. We all have so much to learn from each other.

I had to laugh after I left her house. Brynnley looked like she had been working on a farm. She loves being outside so much and while we were sorting the fruits and veggies, Brynnley was splashing in the water her empty flower pots, kneeling in mud, and trying to chase the dog. At one point she was tying to take her shoes and socks off so she could run bare foot in the grass. She is so adventurous. If I don't lock the doors she will open them and head out. People love the child safety nobs on all the doors. I have found they are pretty adult proof too. Who needs an alarm system when you could put child safety nobs on all the door outside.

Oh and I had a lucky day this week and found $50 bucks in a jacket I haven't worn since last fall. Wahoo!! I love that! Double score!

Halloween wrap up......Oh and some desks!

Halloween was a blast. We were outside for 5 hours. I was amazed that we didn't have to go to any doors. Everyone was out on chairs. YES! So many people went all out decorating their houses with strobe lights, smoke, haunted house(that Avery, Thomas and Their friend went into) the house said they would do the mild version. They would ask you how scary you wanted it. Another house had moving legs. The kids thought that was great. We got lot's of candy and then headed back for chili and a bonfire with the neighbors. We also handed out tons of candy while we all chatted and the kids ran around and played. Brynnley was all about busting into the candy. We got the kids to bed around 9ish and while we were reading scriptures as a family, Brynnley was literally bouncing off the walls and talking a mile a minute. I thought she had only had two little bags of licorice nibs but her dad that has her wrapped around his finger must have given her a lot more than that because she was hilarious! In a wrap it was a great 2011 Halloween! The kids don't ask for their candy. I give them one a day when they eat all their dinner and veggies they get to pick one. I of course will eat a few of the good chocolate things and the rest will go to my activity day girls and neighbor teenagers:)

Here is Thomas with Mario. He put one of his shirts on this balloon and told me it was his friend Mario that he dressed in one of his shirts for Halloween. We did leave Mario at home. Mario is still going strong today but I might accidentally pop him soon because I need to wash that shirt.

I made cupcakes for Thomas's party at school and they were a hit. You would have thought the moms and teachers had never had a homemade cupcake. They were fun to make and I put purple cream in the middle for the trick. They were asking how in the world I got the cream in the cupcake. It was pretty funny and it was so fun to see Thomas with his class.

I found this 100 year old desk and refinished it and added a 5. That is the number Thomas wanted. This will be his little study area. Lately the kids have been playing study time and Avery was so excited to have her own study area that I had to find something for Thomas. Just the right fit. Doesn't take up too much space and he can hold his papers and things inside when you lift up the top. He loves it!

This desk for Avery was so fun to put together for her. I refinished this one too and when I surprised her with it she just kept saying,"wow". She has used it a lot already. In fact today I was putting some clothes away and we were talking while she was writing and before I left her room she said, "Mom could you please tell Thomas to come up to my office." Now her cute little sister can't bug her at times when she wants to "study".
As soon as Thomas got home from school today they rushed upstairs to play in Avery's office.

Today was a beautiful 70 degree day and I was feeling happy and grateful for many things today. I thought it was ironic because as I was just having these wonderful thoughts, the day quickly changed. Brynnley exploded(beyond newborn style) in her pants to the point where I had to throw away all bottom coverings. It was not pretty. I hosed her down in the shower(I love that the shower head comes off) cause it took me a good 15 min. to do so. While I was in the cleansing process, I smelled something burning and realized that my dinner was a goner. Have you ever burned broccoli and BBQ chicken? Not a good combo. The candles are just starting to freshen things up. After we got my squealing, happy, and now clean baby all done I soaked the pans and headed outside for some fresh air(the cure for moment like that) and stayed there until our hero came home with dinner. Have I mentioned I love that man!! All was well and it was only a moment! Maybe those earlier positive thoughts kept me from loosing it. I laugh at Avery now as I yelled for her to help me from my bathroom tub so it didn't get all over.(I didn't have time to grab all the sos pads and clorox...just kidding.) She ran as fast as she could to get me a plastic bag and wipes. She walked in and said, "mom that is bad." she then quickly tried to make me feel better by saying, "well I guess it isn't that bad." I looked at her as her face was squished in disgust. She is always the first to be at my side to help and I could tell she really wanted to help me but her face read,"mom you are on you own on this one!"

Well all good days come to an end. I could use a nap.......I love you kiddos!