My Kind Of Pet

We are not a pet family...we tried having goldfish, but they have all ended up dead. The kids would really love a pet, but I don't want one, I have enough people to clean up after. My kids have really taken to a couple of stuffed animals that they have. First it was Parker with a stiffed Dalmatian that he named pup pup(quite original don't ya think?) He would make sure pup pup was with his each night and he carried him around with him for a long time. Now he usually just sleeps each night with Parker. Now Paige has taken to a stuffed puppy that she got for Christmas 2 years ago and has just now seemed to notice it's existence. She named her puppy Cheddar. All on her own, I thought that was quite unique for her to come up with that name. Cheddar now sleeps with he each night and keeps he company in her room when it is dark. These are my kind of pets. They don't shed, the don't bark, they don't chew up furniture, they don't require feeding and watering and they don't make messes. For now this is what I can handle and the kids love having their stuffed animals with them. Whatever makes us all happy.

Other Happenings

I have been slacking on the blogging, but I am trying to stay with my goal of 10 posts a month.

Parker is doing good in school and seems to like it for the most part. He was sent home with a note last week saying that the teacher was having problems with some students in her afternoon class not obeying the rules. After calling and talking with his teacher, I found out that Parker has been disruptive in class letting out random screams being the coat closet. The teacher had told him that he couldn't do that, because it was disruptive to the other students and wanted us to reinforce it at home. Parker is a loud boy and I am sure it is hard for him to be quiet for 3 hours! Hopefully he is doing better, I will check in with the teacher later this week.

Paige says she loves preschool and always is excited to go on the days she does have school. But she has cried in class 2 times! 1 of which I had to go and pick her up because she wouldn't stop crying and the teachers couldn't figure out why. I think she was tired that day. Yesterday she cried a little bit when she was overwhelmed with the work and when she didn't have enough tickets to go to the treasure box. So I guess I need to work with her to not be so emotional over little things. It may be an eventful year. She is still little and some things are still hard for her, so she may just have to do what she thinks she can and call it good.

Paxten is getting big! He is squirmy and trying to move all over the place. He can roll from his back to his tummy. He can stand along the coffee table for quite a long time. I said to Matt the other day "I want another new baby, he is getting too big!" Matt looked at me and said, "No you don't, not right now." he was right, I don't, but I miss having a tiny baby that cuddles and sleeps! I love every stage, but Paxten has grown up faster than my other two. (It seems that way!)

We celebrated my mom's birthday on Sunday with a family get together. Matt made his famous ribs and wings for her, she loved them and loved not having to cook anything. We had fun spending time together and enjoyed what may be one of our last outdoor BBQ's. My mom was recently put in as the Relief Society President and has been very busy trying to figure out that calling. So I am excited to be working with her in the relief society and having her in class on Sundays.

Our ward Primary program was this last Sunday as well. Parker had a small part and did pretty good reciting it. He said. "We are blessed to be led by a living prophet." I worked and worked with him and I thought he had it memorized, but when the time came he still needed help at the microphone. Maybe it was nerves looking out into the congregation and he forgot what he was supposed to say. Nevertheless, the did a good job. I especially enjoyed the program because I actually got to sit and watch it and didn't have to write it, or help the kids. The first time in 5 years!! It was great!

I have done quite a bit of canning this month peaches, pears, pickles, and chili sauce. I also went and took advantage of the case lot sale. My shelves are full and I love that feeling!

Charyn's Baby Shower

 

My mom and I threw my sister a little baby show on the 17th (I am a little behind on blogging). When we were planning, somehow we got the idea for baseball something or another and before we knew it we were planning a themed shower. The invitations went out and had something along the lines of celebrating the soon to be newest member of the Brooks team. It was super cute. We didn't tell Charyn what we had done so when she arrived it was a suprise. We served peanuts, cracker jacks, pig in a blanket, chips and dip, pretzels, cotton candy, baseball cupcakes, M&M's, and we had a veggie tray. It was super fun! We played a few games with our small crowd one where we had to unwrap a present one layer at a time and after each layer there were some instructions on a piece of paper. The instructions were either a gag or a gift, like uh-your baby is messy, wear this bib the rest of the game, or your baby is hungry, drink this bottle. Or on the other hand it said you had a good day and you recieved a prize. The last layer the intructions said to pass to the mom to be and she opened the gift and there was a cute new outfit inside. The other game we had a sheet try full of different candy bars on it and we had to write down what we though it had to do with having a baby. Some of the answers were hilarious... for example milk duds represented non-lactating breasts, Milky Way was breast feeding, Goobers were baby boogers, 100 Grand was the hospital bill, Skor was the night of conception, ect... It was so funny! We had a good time spending it with family and friends that came. Charyn ended up with a lot of nice things that will be so handy when the baby gets here. We are looking forward to his arrival in November.

7 Months Old

 

Paxten turned 7 months old yesterday! Another month has come and gone, he will be 1 before I know it. I tried to get picture of his 2 new teeth yesterday and he wanted nothing to do with that. After me poking him and pulling on his lip trying to get a good close up he just got plain mad at me. So being the photographer that I am, I tried to get his cute little sad face. I know that is mean of me as a mom to try and make my kid cry, but he can get his bottom lip out soooo far and I want to always remember how darn cute that little pouty face was. Well because I was trying to get the picture all by myself he was doing more of the mad face than the pouty face. I will have to catch the lip another day.

He is just getting over the Croupe and seems to be feeling a lot better. He finally slept pretty good last night. Yay!! When I took him into the Dr. he weighed just over 14 lbs and was about 26 inches long. So he still isn't very big, but I don't mind, especially since I am usually carrying him around.

He now had 2 front teeth, and they are very sharp! (if you know what I mean). Once the teeth come in, I can't wait to be done nursing. As soon as I can get him on a cup I am done!

He can sit up all by himself for long periods of time, but gets bored of sitting in one place. He usually tries to reach for a toy just beyond his reach and then face plants on the floor.

He still isn't rolling over very well, but we have been working with him and he can sometimes roll from his back to his tummy. Once he gets the rolling down, I am sure he will be crawling.

He is really getting his personality and loves to be the center of attention. He loves it when people talk to him and he usually gives them a big smile.

It makes me sad that he isn't so little anymore. Before long he will be a toddler and I won't have a little baby to hold and cuddle with. The time goes too fast!

Smartie Pants Fair

 

Paige is just loving school. Everyday she asks if she is going that day. She talks about it all the time and is so excited to be there on the days that she does go. This last Thursday they had their Smartie Pants fair. Paige loves to help me cook in the kitchen, so for her "exhibit" we made pink cookies. She got a first place ribbon (along with every other kid!) and she was excited about that. They also gave all of the kids cotton candy and a culligan hat with a feather on it. She had a fun time and was a wound up from all the sweets, but that is what a fair is all about!

Face Painting

 

As we were walking around the fair, there is all sorts of things for people to do...they all just come at a price. One of the things Parker really wanted to do was get into a giant inflatable ball and roll around in a big pool. It did look like a lot of fun, but it was $8 a person, and I am not sure how long you got to be in there for. So instead we talked to the kids into getting their face painted. They had to choose a picture from the $3 pictures and each of them were able to find something they wanted. Parker a dinosaur, and Paige a unicorn. After waitint in line for almost a half hour the kids got their turn. The lady was amazing! She was so fast and before I knew it the paint became a picture. I didn't take her ver long and the kids each loved the result, as you can see. That truly is a talent to be able to do that, and she was working hard, the line didn't seem to ever slow down.

Fair Week

 

We can't live right by the fair and not go there. As soon as the kids could see the ride going up, they were asking when we were going to go. I took the three kids by myself, well with a friend and her family, on Saturday. We mostly walked around and saw the animals and all the stuff along the edges. So Matt and I took the kids back on Tuesday for wristband day. We decided last year that this year we would get our money's worth better if we bought the kids wristbands. It cost us $25 a kid! We have never blown $50 so fast! I then kept track of how many tickets a ride took and how much that would cost so after the kids reached what would have cost us $50 in tickets, I knew we got our money out of it. There were several rides that they did 5 or 6 times, just because they could. I think they liked not having to choose just a few rides to do and that they could go on their favorite ride more than once. Poor little Paige is still not tall enough for some of the rides. Some of which I didn't really understand. She wasn't tall enough to ride the train, but she could ride the dumbo ride that went in the air? It didn't make much sense to me, and she was sad when she had waited in line and then they told her she couldn't ride. But she made up for it on all the other rides that she could do. They each had a blast and after 2 hours, were still not ready to go. Paxten was a good boy and slept a lot of the time, otherwise he was content to be held and to just see what was going on. I could not leave without having a giant pickle. It was good and reminded me of the old days when I was a kid!

We knew this was the last day we would be coming and so Matt and I tried to eat as much as we could. I had trout, fried teryaki rice, and a cinnamon roll. The kids each had a hot dog, and Parker had a pretzel as well. Matt was the winner eating a Hansen Hoagie burger with grilled onions, a double outlaw burger (which if made on a doughnut instead of a bun), a pork burrito, and chocolate dipped cheesecake. WOW!! Believe it or not I still wanted to try a few other things, but I was so stuffed, I really needed to go about 3 more times to get in the scone nuggets, ice cream, bread, Indian Taco, and a few others I wanted to try like the deep fried candy bars, tortatoes, craw fish, and a Gyro. Well maybe next year huh! That is the only reason anyone goes isn't it?

Paige's First Day of Preschool

 

Paige was so excited to start school too! She could hardly stand the first week, when Parker was going and she wasn't. So on Tuesday she asked about 100 times when was it time for her to leave. She had gone into the preschool last week to meet her teachers and to see the school. So she was thrilled for the day when she would get to go and play and make new friends. I do have to say how weird it was to have both the older kids gone for a few hours at the same time. I din't quite know what to do with myself. But I will get used to spending some one on one time with Paxten. Paige had a great time and came home with a few fun new projects she had created. When I dropped her off she told me to go home! She wasn't the least bit nervous or scared to be there by herself. When I picked her up she told me she missed me! Glad to hear that! She has a hard time saying one of her teacher's names Miss Allyson. Instead she says Miss Assylynn, it is quite cute to hear her say it. She will have to work on that throughout the year. She is excited about making new friends and doing art projects. I know she will love school, she is my social butterfly and she will flurish in the school environment!

My kids are growing up so fast, but I love each stage that they go through.

Fish Pictures

My Sister-in-law posted these pictures of Parker and I had to put them on here. He was so proud of himself for his great catch. I hope he keeps up his fishing, he needs an activity to calm him down. Thanks for feeding our whole family with your fish Parker!

Date With Grandma #2

After waiting for 3 weeks Paige finally got her turn to go on a date with grandma. During that 3 weeks time period she was constantly reminding grandma that they needed to go, she was not going to miss out on her turn. They went on their date on the 31st, the week before Paige was going to start preschool. Mom said that Paige was on a Pink kick and would not even look at anything that wasn't pink. She said there were some really cute outfits that were purple and some that were blue/brown, but Paige wanted only clothes that were pink. She ended up with a cute black zebra/pink dress, a pink shirt, pink shoes, black and white tights, and a pink and black plaid skort. She did end up with an adorable denim jacket to go with jeans. My silly girl!! They also went to McDonald's for lunch before shopping, but came home after only one store. Paige wasn't feeling well and had a tummy ache, so their date was cut a little short. But they still had a fun time with one another. I am so glad my kids have a close relationship with their grandparents (all of them!) and that they are all around this area so my kids get to grow up knowing, and spending time with them!

Date With Grandma

My mom decided that it would be fun to start the tradition of taking the kids individually on a "date" right before school starts to let them pick a new outfit and to spend some time with her. Parker went on his date with grandma back on the 10th of August, but I just got a picture of them the other day and it sometime takes me a little while to sit down and blog about it. On their date they went to lunch at Mcdonalds (Parker's choice) then they went shopping for a little while and Parker picked out a few new shirts, some pants, and a jacket. He wasn't interested in trying things on and somehow my mom ended up with a bigger size and had to go back to exchange some of the clothes. Lesson learned: always try on clothes! After they shopped Parker wanted to play at the play area in the mall. Then they went to the movie Smurfs and had dinner at Arctic Circle on the way home. I wasn't expecting them to be gone the entire day, but Parker had so much fun with grandma all on his own. He is still talking about his date! Paige was sad that she didn't get to go, but was promised a date of her own later!