This is what mommies dream about

Last night I dreamt that I got fired (from which job I'm still not sure) because my van was too messy and my pantry was poorly stocked and had too much junk food in it. Guess what I did first thing this morning? Boy is my van nice and pretty now! And guess what I'm doing first thing after Marty gets home? Leaving the kids and going grocery shopping for some nice, healthy food.

All About Us

Good-bye Red Dragon...

Hellooooo Golden Bullet!!! We sold my little red car - the first car I ever bought back when I was 19. Then we bought a Gold 2003 Honda Odyssey! I can't BELIEVE I bought a minivan! I was so determined to not have a minivan until I had at LEAST three kids. Marty is pretty persuasive, I guess. Not hard when ours cars were constantly breaking down. In fact, Marty's car broke down the night before we went to the hospital to have Bryce, and my car got a flat tire on the way home from the hospital two days later. Boy, was I glad my mom drove to Queen Creek instead of flying! Plus, Marty is also persuasive when you see him in a Sedan with a big old car seat right behind him and he is driving with his knees practically up to his ears. Anyway, we found an AMAZING deal on this van and so far it has been SO nice to drive!

I got my first pair of glasses!

In other words, my house is not NEARLY as clean as I thought it was. My eyes got pretty bad while I was pregnant with Brynn and I wish I would have gotten glasses sooner! It is SO nice to not have to practically park next to street signs to be able to read them.

Marty turned 28 on Sunday! It was a really nice day. For our wedding we got a pizza stone, so when we were first married we made pizzas all the time, and I must say we are pretty brilliant pizza makers. But I stopped making them when Marty got hired and I realized what a HUGE mess I was always left with in the morning (it was usually pizza-game-night). So I promised to make a meat lovers, Hawaiian, buffalo chicken, BBQ chicken, and a couple others without saying a WORD about the mess. :)

And my parents were able to fly out for the Labor Day weekend! My dad hardly EVER gets days off, so when he does we sure do pack a lot into three or four days! This one was packed with my dad and Brynn playing with Transformers (he is a kid at heart) and Legos (he's also an Engineer), and coloring (he is also a cartoon artist!). My mom's weekend was full of reading books to the kids (she is a children's librarian) and as many hugs and kisses as my all-too-willing kids would give her. She has had quite a rough summer trying to take care of my grandparents. My grandma fell and broke her shoulder and hip, then fell again in the rehab center and broke her other hip. That left my grandpa, who has very advanced Parkinson's disease, alone. So she has really had her hands full. Since there's nothing quite like a Brynnie-hug and Brycer-snuggle to cheer you up, I think she was even more excited to get her hands on these happy kids than I was to have a break from them!

The night they left, Marty woke up and began to puke his lungs out for a couple days. It was so sad! This is only the second time I have ever seen Marty sick and the first time he has thrown up since he was 16. MIRACULOUSLY, the kids and I didn't get it! I don't know how that happened, I have always had a weaker immune system than Marty. We did keep him pretty well quarantined, though. In fact, Brynn was so upset by Marty not hugging/kissing her back, she cried and cried and then kind of snubbed him for a little while. It was heart-wrenching for poor Marty! But he is feeling just fine now, and so are the rest of us.

All About Bryce

Just as I expected, Bryce is changing way too much and way too often. We have started him on rice cereal. Which, also as expected, was a big disaster. He still hates the stuff.

He is also playing with lots of toys.

And He is rolling all over the place! This video was taken a few weeks ago, but at this point I can't keep him in one spot to save my life. He is constantly running into things and getting himself into really uncomfortable-looking pickles.

Some things never change, though. While grandma and grandpa were here, Bryce actually got his fill of snuggles, which I didn't think was possible. Bryce has turned out to be a pretty high-maintenance and needy kid. Also big. So yes, my weary arms were very grateful to have my parents here for the long weekend.

All About Brynn

So what's new with Brynn? Well, I had had just about all I could take of this...and this...





when finally...


...Ahhhh, now that's more like it. I removed every single toy, and everything that could in any way be considered a toy (so basically everything but her bed - wait...she considers that a toy, too). That didn't work. So then I left the door open and checked on her a lot, which gave her lots of attention and didn't work. Then I was so fed up, I just rocked her to sleep a couple days in a row, which I knew was NOT going to work....but then it did. :) I think she just realized how much happier she is when she naps. She had been pretty darn miserable.




Brynn is such a little mommy. For instance, this picture was taken at 11:00 a.m. She is still in her pajamas, has a baby doll in my baby carrier, and is wearing a rubber glove. JUST like her mother.

The way she is not like me? She doesn't like to be messy. I thought we were going to have the time of our lives one night painting with pudding. But Brynn refused. Pudding is for eating, and PENCILS are for drawing. In this picture she is grudgingly wiping my pudding examples off of her paper. I finally gave in and went and got her crayons.
And here is Brynn looking WAY too old with strait hair. Well, sort of strait - have you ever seen that mass of curls? I will never again attempt to straiten it.

She was helping me put away the silverware, but got a little distracted when she realized she was amidst dozens of dinglehoppers.

As for Brynn's personality, she still loves to sing, and loves princesses,

(this is the Pink Panther)

And LOVES to TEASE!!!!