A Birthday for Nash!

This year I get to share Mother's Day with Nash!  The year he was born, he was born on a Thursday.  How do I remember that?  Because my dad made the comment that if I didn't have him before midnight I'd have to keep him in for another full day because I couldn't curse him & let him be born on Friday the 13th!

Nash is my most verbally caring kid.  He tells me 100 times a day, "I love you mom."  He will always come up and give me a hug with it too.  I won't trade those!  I know it won't be long before he's in fifth grade & saying I love you mom and giving me a hug isn't cool.  I'll take it while I can!  Especially since he wasn't a snuggly baby either!

For Nash's birthday cake this year he wanted Darth Vader (because my mom scored the pan for free for us) and then my girlfriend told me about the Lego Minifigure cake pan she saw on ebay.  So of course he wanted both cakes!  I figured I'd end up being asked to make a Darth Vader Lego Minifigure!  He was good to me though and when I told him I just wasn't going to be able to make both Darth & the Minifigure & Brookelyn's cake he told me he was ok if we just did the Minifigure for the party & saved Darth for Mother's Day.  Who else gets to have Darth cake with their eight year old on Mother's Day?  Probably not a lot of moms!

Since Travis isn't home for Nash's birthday this year we had a family party on May 5th for Nash & Brookelyn.  Nash is such a good kid about sharing his birthday with his little sister.  He let her open presents & blow out candles first.  How many other eight year old boys do that?  Pretty sure he'd be the odd man out here.

For Nash's birthday he has been DYING to get a pogo stick.  The neighbor next door has one & has been kind enough to let Nash bounce on it (I was informed his record was 318 consecutive jumps - until tonight when he reached 510).  Grandma Terri was the hero & found the pogo stick - talk about gift of the year!  He wanted to take it to school with him today to play with at recess.  I think he was pretty bummed out when I told him no.  He was good about it though!  He got another extreme dot to dot from Grandma & Grandpa Reeder (and some cash).  He got a Diary of the Wimpy kid book from the Bradshaws, 6,000 BBs & a target from Grandpa Scott & Grandma Kris, a fun beach bag with lots of fun surprises from the Atkinsons, a new lego set from the Snyders, and cold hard cash from Chad & Shanah's family.  We got him a set of "I can draw" books.  He is my artistic child, hands down!

 

Some things about Nash:

Favorite Foods:

Nash is a GOOD eater.  He inherited his dad's hollow leg.  He is constantly in search of food.  I'm afraid I will be eaten out of house and home when he turns 13 & starts bringing friends over regularly!  He LOVES spaghetti.  He likes most breakfast foods, he loves fruit (especially cantelope, watermelon & strawberries), & his food of choice is probably steak (smart kid!)

Favorite TV shows:

Nash is a good sport & will pretty much watch watever is on TV.  He even watches quite a bit of "Full House" with his sister!

Things to do:

Any & all video games.  He's got pretty good hand-eye coordination (thanks piano lessons?).  He is getting a lot better about telling people he plays with how to do something rather than just take the controller and do it for them.

Legos - the boy will build for hours and hours.  Not just with Legos either.  He got a rickter set on clearance at Hastings & put the entire plane together by himself in no time at all with no help from anyone.

Art - He loves to draw and color.  He has also developed an addiction to these extreme dot to dot books that have 1,400 dots in a picture!  He even colors them after he gets them finished.  I'm amazed at his dedication in finishing them!

Read - much to my delight Nash has finally learned to love reading!  Last school year it was like pulling teeth to get the kid to read for the required 20 minutes.  At the beginning of this school year we went through all my books and pulled out a bunch I thought he might like.  One of those books was Captain Underpants.  That was all it took.  He has blown through all 10 books in that series.  He started on the Conspiracy 365 series in about February and has read the first one and part of the second.  I was looking at his AR report and he's reading an average book level of about 4.6-5.0.  That's HUGE for a kid that I was worried had dsylexia last year!  The other awesome thing about what he's reading is that he retains what he reads - sometimes better than Sam!

Math - Nash is like his dad & numbers just make sense.  He has an easy time with math and actually likes doing it.  He's started whipping out answers to multiplication problems in the last few months.  I think he may out do me in the math area before it's all said and done.

Bounce on his new pogo stick - as I mentioned before, his previous record was 318 consecutive bounces.  Tonight he reached 510.  He informed me his new goal is 600.  I told him he needs to have Alex from next door teach him to jump rope while bouncing on the pogo stick too (because dude, that was impressive!).

Things Nash doesn't like:

Practicing piano - I'm not delusional.  I know the only reason he's still taking lessons is because he wants to play the drums so bad.  I keep telling him they only let the kids with piano background play drums.  We'll see if the drum dream outlives his distaste for practicing his piano or not! 

Caleb's ability to irritate him in about .25 seconds.  Caleb's good at it - there's no denying that!

Getting told "Just a minute." - patience is not a strong point for him (but he is improving!)

Nash is a really good kid and very thoughtful of others.  I really can't imagine what our family would be like without Nash.  He is so good with Brookelyn - she adores him!  Which makes me happy because he wasn't exactly thrilled when we told him he was getting a baby sister for his birthday!  Happy birthday Smash!

A birthday for Brooke!

It has happened again....One of my babies up and had another birthday on me!

This year Travis isn't home for Nash or Brookelyn's birthday so we celebrated on May 5th when he was home!  We invited family and friends over for cake & ice cream.  Brookelyn was spoiled by everyone of course!  Grandma Terri gave her an I Spy blanket.  She hadn't planned to give her one until she turned three but seeing as how she constantly swipes her sister's Grandma felt it would be better to give her one now!  Grandma Kris & Grandpa Scott gave her some cute new jammies & a Barbie Jet Ski  (Sket G as my kids call them :) ).  We got her some felt play food - when I found it I was excited!  No more plastic food that gets pulverized within an hour after opening it!  She also got a cute outfit from Chad & Shanah's family, a Minnie Mouse Movie from the Bradshaws, a cute crocheted dog purse from Grandpa & Grandma Reeder, a baby doll from the Snyders& a bag full of fun surprises from the Atkinsons.  See what I mean about spoiled? ;)

 She was so funny to watch open her presents.  She had to go around and show everybody individually everything she opened right after she opened it.  "See!  See!"  You had to oooo and ahhh too or she'd keep showing it to you until you did!

Sister loves Minnie Mouse these days so we made her a Minnie Mouse cake.  I thought I had a hair bow on one of my Cricut cartridges, but I didn't.  So, we made do and gave Minnie a party hat!  Brooke was pretty excited about it.  She wasn't sure quite what to think about the whole candle blowing idea though!

I need to schedule her 2 year well check so I can get all her stats.  I do know that she weighs: 31 lbs & Caleb weighs 35 lbs.  Caleb better start eating more!  She's also only a head shorter than Caleb.  I'm afraid my boys got the short genes and my girls got the tall genes!

Some of Brookelyn's favorites:

TV Show: 

Spongebob Squarepants - thanks big kids!  You should hear her sing the theme song, it is quite entertaining!

Food: 

Well, girlfriend likes food in general, however, she LOVES "nacks" (fruit snacks).  

She also loves her some cookies, cookie dough (she does NOT like sharing this), licorice - I haven't tried black or brown but she likes all the other colors, waffles - with syrup thank you, spaghetti - with sauce thank you, easy cheese (yes, I did just say easy cheese.  I blame Travis.  The girl brings the can to you and just stands there with her mouth open like a baby bird!), & cupcakes - anything with frosting really!

People: 

She loves her sister "Nam".  

She also quite likes Nash "Na".  

She's on again/off again on Caleb "Doobie".  

She LOVES Grandma Terri & when she's extra sad I call Grandma & tell her she must come visit the very sad Bob.  It's the only thing that cheers her up!  She loves the dog, Charlotte, too.  

Oh!  And any baby in sight!  She LOVES babies!

Things to do: 

Dance - she will shake her little booty like there's no tomorrow!  Three years old & dance lessons just can't come soon enough for this girl!  

She also likes to sing & has taken quite a liking to Sam's Karaoke machine. 

 Anything with water - seriously.  From drinking it to stomping in it to swimming in it.  She's part fish I think! 

 Reading - Brookelyn takes after everyone else in this household and can't pass up ANY book.  She loves them all.  I've caught her in on her sister's bed "reading" one of hers!

Having her nails painted.  Although, she's recently decided she's big enough to paint them herself and gets right ticked off at you if you try to do it.

Things she doesn't like:

Sharing...anything....ever....especially with Caleb!

Getting left home with dad while mom goes to work.

Getting in her carseat.  I've bought her a new carseat that I let her pick out.  I've put it in the very back seat like one of the big kids AND I've started bribing her with flavored tootsie rolls.  She still hates it.  She's fine once she's in it, it's just a matter of getting her into it.

Getting told "No." about anything...ever.

This cute girl has brought lots of fun things to us.  She loves to pull faces (and is disturbingly good at it - Thanks again Grandma Terri), she talks up a storm, she's learning to use the potty, she's funny & she knows it (I've told her she's a nut so many times that when she does something funny & I laugh she just looks at me and says, "Nut!").  I can't imagine our family without this little ball of fire.  She is going to keep all of us on our toes for sure!  Happy birthday baby girl!  I can't believe you are TWO!

Slow down Spring!

This Spring seems to have flown by right before my very eyes!  We have been super busy trying to keep up to everyone and everything!  I'm honestly glad I missed the soccer sign ups for Nash.  I'd be pulling my hair out right now if I had managed to register him to play.  I did promise to sign him up for Fall soccer though so we'll see how that turns out for me!

Samantha competed in Clearfield on April 19th.  She competed down there last year as well.  She really likes to do competitions.  She likes seeing all the other costumes, hair, makeup, dances, etc.  I even managed to get her to participate in the free style competition they do at the end.  She got the medallion for participating in the free style/dance off competition and she got the trophy for participating in the competition.  Their dances took second and third in their division.  The dance that took second there were only competing against one other team.  The dance that took third they were only competing against two other teams.  Not fantastic, but not bad :)

I took the kids to church last weekend.  I had them all looking really cute.  We managed to be ready before we had to go so we ran down to my mom's to drop something off.  My dad happened to be out mowing the lawn when we showed up.  All the kids had to climb on the mower and help.

Brookelyn promptly took her place in the blue Jeep.  I was impressed she let her brother drive her around instead of just screaming at him to get out!

After mowing my dad got the tractor out to till up the garden.  Caleb HAD to get on the tractor.

And then Brookelyn wanted to join the boys up on the tractor.

But once the tractor started moving....

Brookelyn wanted off and she wanted off NOW!

I sort of managed to get a nice picture of us all together :)

And then we got one that showed our true personalities!

This week while Travis was home he took Caleb up to the church & took the training wheels off his bike.  Travis said he took to it like a fish to water!  Wondering how long it will be before a major wreck?

This past week I also held my big Evening of Excellence for work.  I had all four schools & 99 students come to one school at the same time and on the same day to present their final projects to parents.  Samantha did an Images of Greatness project.  She had to choose someone who had made a positive, significant contribution to society.  She chose Samantha Reed Smith - a 10 yr old girl that wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov in 1982.  She died at the age of 13 in a plane accident.  She was the youngest goodwill ambassador & helped relieve tensions between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  When she started this project we went to the city library to see if we could find any books on her.  The librarian didn't even know who she was!  I ended up having to purchase 3 out of print books on her through Amazon!  She did a lot of work for this project & I'm really proud of how she presented.  It was set up similar to a biography fair but she had to actually "be" her person.

Yesterday Samantha participated in the America On Stage Nationals dance competition down at Lagoon.  They did their Jazz & Hip Hop numbers.  Her Jazz dance took 2nd!  We didn't figure out where they were hanging the postings so we won't know how her Hip Hop placed until she goes to dance class on Tuesday.  They did really well though and I was proud of her!  I was happy her dad was home to go.  He won't be here for her final dance review on May 18.
Sam's Jazz routine

We left Brookelyn with Travis's parents on Friday night because we had to be at Lagoon at 10 am.  We took both the boys with us.  We were going to go to this competition last year but things got messed up and her team didn't get to go.  We had told Nash last year we'd consider it as a trip for his birthday.  He was super bummed we didn't go last year.  So, we told him this year we WOULD go and it would be for his birthday.  He was stoked!  I didn't think there would be many rides Caleb could go on - the kid is a measly 42" (only a head taller than his sister who is 3 years younger than him).  There were enough he could go on that were big kid rides that he was content.  When we found the kiddie section though, he was in heaven!  He LOVED the Tilt a Whirl!  We had to go on it two times in a row! 

Sam's Hip Hop routine

Nash was fearless when it came to going on rides.  He went on the re entry ride twice & the blast off once.  He went on Colasses, the Spider, Wicked - anything his dad wanted to go on, he was right there next to him!  He will make a good amusement park buddy for Uncle Zack!

Travis & Caleb both took a shot of water from a dolphin to the head on this ride!

I don't know what it was about this whale ride, but Caleb loved it!  It reminded me of the Dumbo ride at Disney but on a much smaller scale because it only got about 3 feet off the ground and the whales were tiny!

I let Caleb get his face painted.  I was not at all surprised when he said he wanted Spider boy!  After he got his face painted everywhere we went I heard, "Look!  It's Spiderman!"  Caleb just grinned ear to ear.  He didn't want to wash it all off this morning and was quite bent out of shape that I made him!

I hope time slows down a bit!  We still have 19 days of school left (13 work days for me).  In those 19 days Sam has her first Wellsville Mile!  She is SO excited!  I'm excited to go watch her!  I will get to watch a bunch of my students run too.  It's going to be lots of fun!  Before we know it summer vacation will be here!  Which reminds me, it's May & I need to do swimming lesson sign ups soon!

Easter

Apparently since getting my new phone in February I've become a photo taking slacker when it comes to my camera!  I've been taking them on my phone and posting them to facebook but I haven't been taking them on my camera anywhere near as often.  New goal: take pictures on my phone AND my camera!

 

These first few are from earlier in March:

 

Little sister got ahold of Sam's pink chap stick and proceeded to put it on herself!

 

She then found the hand sanitizer and proceeded to use that by herself too.  At least her pants were very germ free!

 

Whenever we get a moment of sunshine the kids run outside as fast as they can.  The big kids both have flat tires on their bikes.  So, they've resorted to other forms of entertainment....like making Little Sister think she's bigger than her britches!

 

Easter snuck up on me way, way too fast this year (big surprise, it always does!).  We got to dye eggs while Travis was home.  Fun.  Travis hasn't been home for Easter since he started working at Halliburton in February 2009.

 

I attempted a few different things I'd seen on Pinterest.  One idea I tried was using Kool-aide.  That was different.  Turned out better than I thought it would (not pictured).  I also put some oil in some of the dye.  I used what the directions I found on Pinterest said and it was way too much oil.  Note to self use like a teaspoon!

 

I opted to stay home for Easter this year rather than go to Manti.  I hate making the trek without Travis.  Plus, Nash had been sick earlier in the week and Brooke was acting like she wasn't feeling too hot.  We went out to Paradise on Saturday morning for their Easter Egg Hunt.  That was lots of fun.  I think the kids' favorite part was the chicken and the bunny races!

 

Brooke found 3 eggs in the 0-2 hunt but didn't win any extra prizes.  That's ok because she was perfectly content to sick and suck on her dyed egg!

 

I realized after the fact that I had 8 chances for my children to catch either a chicken, a bunny, or both and bring home by allowing them to do the chicken and bunny races.  I'm really glad no one caught either one!  Brooke got kinda close a time or two though!

 

 

Travis was able to come home on Saturday afternoon.  This is the first Easter since 2009 that he's been home to celebrate with us.  The kids were ecstatic (I was pretty happy too).

On Sunday we went out to my parents' house for dinner, an egg hunt and egg knocking.  Egg knocking?  Well, it's a random Bown tradition.  Everyone gets a hard boiled egg and you match up with someone and knock your eggs together.  If your egg breaks you're out.  If your egg doesn't break you move to the next round.  You keep going until there is only one person whose egg isn't broken.  Winner gets $10.  My kids love egg knocking.

 

Brooke was full of attitude in her cute levi dress and new shades.  She did NOT want to share the jeep.  She's actually opening the door for Caleb and telling him "Get out!"

 My mom hid 64 candy filled eggs for the kids.  They each got to find 8.  They loved every single second of it.

After our egg hunt and egg knocking we had a yummy dinner.  Then we sat around and visited until 9 pm!  That was nice.  We haven't done that since Christmas Eve!  Much less stress for this holiday than that holiday!  The weather was beautiful and we had a fire in the fire pit.  So fun.  The kids roasted the first s'mores of the season too.  Nash mentioned a week ago he's ready to have Grandma Terri bust out her swimming pool.  I told him that would likely have to wait a day or two!  They did ask me on Sunday if they could run through the sprinklers (It was a toasty 66!)  Before we went to my parents' house we worked outside a bit on the yard - I got sunburned!

In the middle of the night Sunday Brooke woke up after throwing up all over herself and her bed.  She also had a raging fever.  Made me extra glad we hadn't gone to Manti. Travis had to leave at about four am today.  We are bummed but he'll only be gone one more week and then he'll be home!

It rained today so that was kind of a bummer way to start Spring Break.  But, I hear the weather is suppose to be nice again starting tomorrow.  Here's hoping that it is!