character~

if nothing else, this kid is a character!

seriously~

seriously, i know i am biased.

seriously, i don't care.
she is seriously, the cutest little thing, i have ever seen.
my boys were super cute too. but she is cute in a different way.
sorry if this blog sounds a little egotistic but i can't help it!

thought for the day~

cleaning house while kids are growing, is like shoveling snow while its still snowing!

this is exactly how i feel today ;0)

keeping our fingers crossed~

so most of you know that kael suffers from a seizure disorder that is called Shuddering.
he started having the seizures when he was about 4 months old.
we took him two a specialist at a children's hospital about two hours away to be diagnosed because our pediatrician wanted to make sure we knew what we were dealing with.
he still has them every now and then but they are pretty infrequent and don't really bother him to much.
however the other day i was holding briea while feeding her and she had one.
garran had mentioned that he thought that he had seen her have one the day before but was not sure. he probably caught the end of one. they are hard to see because the only real sign is that the tense a little, hands clinch, and shake for usually less that 10 seconds.
i am so bummed that briea might have this condition too, for multiple reasons.
1. i just want her to be healthy.
2. they tests they have to run are not fun at all.
3. it is just stressful in general
so i called the pediatrician. because there is no meds they receive he said to do the same as with kael and try to catch one on video. but she has her six month check up in a few days so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we get good news and don't have to go through all those nasty tests again.
last time garran could not go with me due to some things going on at school, so my mom went instead. i was so glad she was there with me. it is horrible to watch them restrain your child while they just scream. uggh! say a little prayer little miss B does not have to go through this too.

tot time~

so this year we did not have enough kids old enough to do mom school, so we decided to do something else.

we meet once a week and work on a letter of the alphabet. we might do a craft, activity or story.

today was the first day.

kael was so excited. he got his back pack and everything.

i taught today and we learned about the letter A. no i did not plan his shirt but i did work it into my activity. we talked about words that started with the letter A and then painted with apples!

i think the kids had a good time!

here is kael on his first day.

he is getting to be such a big kid.

labor day~

today we got kind of a last minute invite to attend a bbq at a local state park with garrans parents. i still was not feeling so hot but the kids seem to be doing much better, so we decided to go for a few hours. first we grilled out and few kites. well tried to fly kites. not really enough wind and the kite was not working that well. we also played some boche ball.
(i'm sure i spelled that wrong. sorry.)

then off to the lake to have some fun.
i really enjoy kayaking but like i said was not feeling that great and had a fun time just taking pictures. (big surprise there, me happy taking pictures!)my strong handsome hubby carrying a kayak down to the water.cullan and kael were really excited about getting in the "boats". They really love water!here is cullan having a bay watch moment.when garran saw this picture, he said that it looks like kael belongs on the sea world special forces team. that made me laugh. it still does every time i look at it.
the next few are just pictures of the kids out on the water with garran and their aunt silara.the boys had a great time. they thought it was so much fun.
briea had a great time too... doing this...she pretty much just hung out. when she finally did wake up, she played a little and enjoyed some applesauce! it was great.
sadly for the boys the day came to an end.kaels little wet suit thing was so cute. if fit him like a glove. we were all commenting on his cute little cheeks. thanks grandma and grandpa for throwing this together. it was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

funny moments of the day~

-story number one-

a fly landed on the kitchen floor right in front of kael.
garran says "hey kael look a fly"
kael bends over and to garrans surprise picks it right up!
garran says "don't eat it, their yucky."
kael says "don't eat...yucky?"
then he walks over and puts the fly in the trash.
surprisingly a few seconds later garran said he saw the fly, fly out of the trash can!
i would not believe it unless i heard it straight from garrans mouth.
i guess kael is like mr. miyagi from karate kid!

-story number two-

this is total little boy.
cullan has discovered burping.
we always correct him and make him say excuse me.
while watching a movie i heard him do it a few times.
i explained that if i heard him again, he would have to sit in time out.
he then said "sorry mom, excuse me"
a few seconds later he says "mom can i please go burp in my room quietly?"
ahhh...so funny how their little minds work.

if you like pina-colada~

well i guess she does. these are the yummiest popsicles ever. i got them from sams. they are all natural and have chunks of fruit in them. i was enjoying this pina-colada one when briea caught sight. so i thought i would let her have a little taste.hmm. happy baby!

then i asked for it back...
this was the look i got.
i don't think she was to in to sharing!

just in case~

just in case you did not know, we are getting rid of our home phone and just using our cell phones.
so if you know us and love us and still want to talk to us, let me know and i will give you our cell phone numbers!
thanks
meg

first day of preschool~

today was cullans first day of preschool. i did not know exactly how it would go.

i was nervous and feeling anxious about it.

cullan did great. he walked right in, set his book bag down.

said "bye mom" and that was it.

i left. surprised. and honestly. a little teary eyed.

i thought to myself, why am i getting upset. this is what i wanted. i wanted him to be happy and have a good time. i guess just the realization of my baby starting preschool was a little emotional for me.

here is cullan outside of his school. he looks so big and handsome.here is cullans new super cool spider man book bag. he loves it and was excited to take it to school today .

********************************************

today was also exciting because garran was offered a position at the university he attends to be in charge of the print making studio. not teaching, just maintaining it. usually this kind of position is only offered to grad students. so we are excited and his professor says that it looks awesome on applications! woo hoo for garran!

just love~

i just love her.
he just loves her.
they just love each other!

my little super heros~

the boys have really gotten into super heroes lately.
they are in love with super hero shirts.
cullan walks around the house singing the "thunder cats" theme song.
(daddy introduced it to him!)

who knew~

who knew brushing teeth with a two year old and a three year old could be so dangerous.
the other night garran came out of the bathroom while brushing teeth with the boys to ask me if maybe just maybe he had something in his hair!

a nice reminder~

when i woke up this morning garran told me that he wanted to read me something out of the ENSIGN. he said that he had been reading it and it made him think of me. here is what he pointed out.

"The best marriage advice I ever received was from my dad, Richard Hopkins, who told me that an accomplishment for one person in a marriage is a victory for both. My husband, Mark, and I have made this one of those rules we live by. For example, if one spouse graduates from college, it brings honor to the family and should be celebrated as a joint accomplishment. (after all, for one spouse to graduate, the other had to support the effort by sacrificing time and perhaps contributing financially or helping more than usual with childcare.) And now the whole family is better off because of it. The same concept applies to other accomplishments - serving well at church, doing well at music or sports or other talents, getting a promotion at work, and so forth. This advice has worked so well in our 25 years of marriage that we decided to apply it to our six children as well. The accomplishment of any child is a victory of the whole family. Other children should not feel pressured to accomplish something similar, nor should they resent the success of their sibling; instead, we celebrate what one has done to bring honor to everyone!"

what a great way to look at it. this was a great way to start my morning!!

socks~

kael has a love of socks. it started off with just his socks. then he moved on to any pair of socks.
i know it looks like he is wearing tights. nope those are garrans socks. kael really wanted to wear them.
this is him doing his super hero kick with his cool socks on !!!
i don't get it sometimes but he sure is cute.

old school~

how many of you remember taking old broken crayons and melting them down to make the fun little circle ones that you make with muffin tins. well my friend did this the other day with her kids and kind of reminded me of doing it as a child. so i went on a hunt to find all our broken and used crayons. then garran happened to come across a huge stash!
so we peeled. melted. cooled. COLORED!!
i love how they turned out. they were so pretty.
ps. the only problem is that i have to continually stress that we don't cook the crayons every day. only on special occasions!!!

update on preschool~

after cullans preschool open house we treated him to some alone time with mom and dad and went to get an ice cream cone.
while eating our ice cream we asked cullan what he thought about his teachers and classroom.
then i said "so cullan, you like your school?"
cullan responded
"yeah i like it cause i'm a genius!!"

excited~

this kid is excited!
today we get to go and meet his teacher and see his classroom.
today he gets to meet all the kids that are in his class.
today is the beginning of cullan officially being a big kid.
today we go to his open house for his brand new preschool!

cuteness~

the moon~

tonight we were driving home.
cullan and kael were talking in the back of the van.
all of a sudden we hear cullan say...
"kael, look at the moon.....IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!"
followed by a round of applause.
garran and i could not stop laughing.