Handsome Guy

I had to get a picture of Braeden in his new suit...doesn't he look sharp?


Oh...and for his birthday cake he decided he didn't want cake. He wanted a big trifle bowl full of dirt and worms.

Take the Toothpaste!!

Braeden has his first official "Deacon's Quorum" camp out this weekend. As his mother I think I over prepare for him. I send him with way to much food and snacks and way to many pairs of socks and underwear. He will only be gone overnight....but you never know what might happen, right? This afternoon as I was questioning him about this and that and making sure he checked and double checked that he had everything we had this conversation...
Me: Braeden, did you get your toothbrush and toothpaste?
Braeden: Mom I don't need it. It's not like I am going to brush my teeth...I am camping.
Me: Braeden, go get your toothbrush and toothpaste.
Braeden: Mom, I am not going to brush my teeth.
Me: At least take it to make me feel better.

Boys are gross!

Dance, Dance!

This is part of my new exercise program. I get so tired of the treadmill that I needed to add something new. So, while I may look like any idiot on my dance mat it does make me sweat, burns calories, and is lots of fun!

Only 6 more years....

Braeden turning 12 this week has made me do a lot of thinking. Thinking isn't always good for me.....my mind tends to start spinning. As I was laying in bed last Sunday afternoon for a nice nap, my brain would not let me go to sleep. I was thinking about Braeden and his upcoming birthday and what an important birthday it is. I thought about how time goes so quickly and before I know it he will be in High School, driving, and dating. YIKES! Then in 6 short years he will be off to college, then on a mission, then he will come home from that mission find a beautiful, nice young lady and he will love her more then he loves me. That is what I want for him but it is hard to to wrap my brain around. So in these next 6 years I am going to hold on to him as tightly as I can and try and savour every last minute of it!

12

Today is Braeden's 12th birthday. He is super excited!! He has been wanting to be 12 for a really long time. Now he is official.

I took him out of school to go to lunch. His place of choice.....Taco Bell. He was very happy with his 5 layer Beefy Burrito. He said his friends were so jealous.

Next up Baskin Robbins for his free birthday scoop.

Tonight he will be off to Mutual for the first time. He is beyond excited about that. We offered Dave and Busters instead of Mutual. He declined. Braeden is such a good kid! We are so very lucky to have him. He has so many good qualities and we are so very proud of him. Love you, Braeden.....more then you will ever know!!! Happy Birthday!!

The Lowdown

So here is what has been going on around here.....
1. working in the yard...A LOT
2. spring cleaning
3. finding new ways to exercise and shed some lbs
4. trying to keep myself from being depressed because Braeden will be 12 tomorrow
5. trying to keep Joshua from disappearing
6. getting ready for lots of family visits
7. gearing up for the end of school and summer!!!
8. working on my PP because we WILL beat those YW in the Throwdown (for those of you who don't know what PP is you can find out here)

The Bunny Robber

Kate had to write a newspaper article for a class assignment. This is what she came up with....

In Little Elm on Saturday afternoon several Egg hunts were scheduled all over town. The only problem was there were no eggs. Police Officers were searching all morning and all night for the egg snatcher. Who ever did it left several clues. The first clue was tiny, cute paw prints. The second clue was carrot crumbs. And finally the third clue was light brown, furry hair. The police had found the thief. It could be no one else other then the Easter Bunny!!!

**sigh**

Braeden is officially the same height as me. I have been holding on to the few inches that made me taller then him, until yesterday. We were walking along side by side when Cary said, "I think Braeden is taller then you." Of course, I disagreed. How can he be taller then me already? He's not even 12 yet and it doesn't seem that long ago that I was holding him in my arms.
So, today I pulled out the measuring tape. We are both 5' 5 1/2". I use to be 5' 6"........I want to know where my other half inch went.

Holes in his pants, holes in his pants...looking like a fool with the holes in his pants

I love my Joshua. He is one of the funniest kids I know. He is sensitive, creative, cuddly, and he adores me.....

BUT this is what he does to his pants. Any and all pants. I don't know how he manages, but he does.

I would like to think I am a proactive mom in trying to prevent this from happening. I patch his pants from the inside to reinforce them from the very beginnings of a hole. I have even patched them when they are new, just because I know how harsh he is on them. This morning as I was getting his clothes for him to get dressed he had absolutely no pants without any holes in them. I thought for sure there had to be just one, but no. I pulled pants after pants out of his drawer with no such luck. I could not send him to school looking like a rag-a-muffin. So, I went to the attic and starting digging through Braeden's old clothes to see if there was anything worth wearing. Down in the bottom of one bucket I found a pair of jeans. Size 12...too big and he still looked like an urchin, but it was way better then any of his other pants he had to wear. Poor kid....I guess we are going shopping this weekend.

Where does he come up with this stuff?

As I was getting Joshua out of the shower tonight he was shivering. I asked him why he was so cold. He told me that he turned the shower on freezing cold for about 30 seconds. I asked him why he did that. His response, "It builds character."

What's been goin' on..

I have been consumed the last few weeks with getting ready for our Youth Pioneer trek so the blog has been somewhat neglected. The trek is over now and I am finally back to "normal life". It took me a few days to recover, but here I am. I have had several things I wanted to blog about so I decided to make one mass post. So here it goes.....

We have done several school projects. One on the great state of Texas, one on how Taco Bell hot sauce can clean pennies, and one (not pictured) on static shock. So glad to have all these done.


Kate has a million animals. I am not exaggerating. One day I found this up in her room. She lined a few of them up to play school. Notice the black stallion at the front of "the class". That's Black Beauty. She was the teacher.

I was invited to an Oscar party a few weeks back. Heather always out does her self. It was a lot of fun, but the Oscars were way to long. We even walked the red carpet.

We have had several Den Meetings in the last few weeks. From baking cookies, to learning about tools, to going over the Bobcat trail....loads of fun! (wink, wink) I still need to post a pic of me in my very stylish Scout shirt. :)

Last but not least....my garage. This is how it looks today. When I got home from the trek on Saturday the tents, sleeping bags, tarps, dutch ovens, and myself were covered in mud. So our garage has become the clean up/drying area for all this stuff. The trek was hard....very hard, but I would do it all over again. I saved the amazing details for my "real journal". I may post on it more later...but this is all you get for now.

It's almost that time again!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Bedtime Stories

We have a nightly ritual of bedtime stories. We read all kinds of books from Skippy Jon Jones to Judy Moody to Artemis Fowl. Last night was a real snoozer. Joshua brought home a book from the school library called "Architecture Explained...The worlds greatest buildings explored and explained." We have been reading the Percy Jackson series so that is what I fully expected to read last night. Joshua insisted on reading the architecture book. This is a sampling of what we read....

"The individual dwelling house has been endlessly interpreted by architects throughout history. The flexibility of the form provided architects with opportunities for experiment and investigation, generating ideas that may later emerge as seminal influences on subsequent trends."

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........I miss Percy Jackson!

Drumroll please

I know all of you out there in blogger land have been dying with anticipation to see what my new favorite place is, so without further ado it's...

I have only 3 things to say about this place:

1. Cool atmosphere

2. Interesting people

3. Delicious tacos

ps. Thank you to Emily for being the only one who played my little game!! :)

Take a Guess

Do you know where this is?

Maybe this one will help you out.....

Cary took us to this place on Saturday. It just might be one of my new favorites.