Bulow Family Blog

Monster Mash!

2012-01-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

Brahm's birthday was a monster of a good time. Brahm is a funny boy. He is scared of monsters therefor, they intrigue him. So naturally he wanted to have a monster party. I wanted to show him that monster can be fun (and not so scary )!

At the last minute, I made each of my kids monster tees out of old tee shirts they had and scrap fabric. I wish I would have thought of it earlier ( I would have made them for all the little boys). My kids were soooo excited to wear them. Beside making monsters fun, my other goal was to do it for as inexpensive as possible. So all the things I got at the dollar store or things I had around the house (except the dry ice).
I have some wreaths on my front door that I change with the seasons. These are my "Monster Wreaths".

We also made monster footprints out of poster board that led from the sidewalk all the way to the front door. Monster Eyeballs for effect.

My little monsters!

I mean angels:)

I kept the food simple with little tags relating them to monster parts.

Now, I don't claim to be a cake artist but here is my attempt at a monster cake. I know pretty poor. Vallie's comment was, "Why is the monster wearing a mustache?" It is suppose to be a mouth, OKay.

The Monster Slime was a huge hit. There was not one left after the party.

Monster Blood, I mean homemade rootbeer.

We read the book GO AWAY, BIG GREEN MONSTER! the kids loved it. Made monster spray out of water and special monster elixir and went for a monster hunt outside spraying any monster that came in our path.

Coloring!

Monster Feet

Monster Mash!
Monster Family Portrait

Monster Bowling

Cake and

Candles

Monster bubbles!

(If you have never done this with your kids, you must! A good friend taught me this years ago. You take hot water, dish soap, and dry ice and it creates this amazing mixture of bubbles that smoke when they pop. I am telling you, hours of enjoyment!)

Monster Art

Phew. We are over with birthdays for almost a whole year.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing quite says Christmas Eve like new pajamas at our house and I wish I could up load a video I took on Christmas Eve to show our kids personalities. But picture this: BR reading the Christmas story from the Bible, Vallie and Barry Bretton carefully listening to each word, Brahm......Where is Brahm? Oh yeah, JUMPING on the couch, spinning circles around himself, and talking just about a mile a minute. Needless to say, he was so excited for Christmas to come. Doesn't he just look too excited? It made all the kids SOOO excited. They all had a hard time falling asleep. So hard they slept in until 7:00 am to compensate. Aren't kids so funny but I have to say I still get to excited to sleep on Christmas too:)

Barry's Spy Party

2012-01-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Barry Bretton turned nine back in November. We had a great birthday party for him back then but I got busy with the holidays and did blog about it. So here it is. Barry Bretton is totally into anything spy. So naturally he wanted to have a spy party for this birthday. So here are all his guest (minus 2) in disguise mode before they had to go on their big rescue mission. They each had a mustache, glasses, and spy badge. Of course we had spy music playing the whole time. For the invitations, I thought a little outside the card. We used some voice disguising software and burnt all the information on a CD they could listen to. It had all the information about the drop zone for the mission (Operation Birthday) and that if they survived the mission what time they could be picked up. OF course the message would self destruct in 5 seconds and also they needed to RSVP on a secure line so the mission would not be jeopardized. They were put in a manila envelope, marked confidential, and hand delivered by Barry Bretton in his Halloween costume (spy suit). All the boys were so excited and were totally engrossed the whole time.
He wanted his cake to look like a bomb so this is the best I could do. We also had pancakes for food because Nate the Great always eats pancakes to help him solve his mysteries.

We set up a training facility before the boys got released around the neighborhood to solve the crime. I didn't get pictures taken of everything. I was busy running everything but here are the few I did. We had a gun range where the boys got some target practise with an air soft gun, laser beam challenge, a memory challenge, decoding practise, and an obstacle course. In the obstacle course they had to go under a bunch of trip wires without setting them off, run through tires, push-ups, toss a grenade in a bucket, and finally knock down a target with a little homemade pneumatic machine gun they each got to take home (they promised not to aim them at any siblings, friends, or neighborhood cats:).

Laser beam challenge

Decoding

We had a great time. The boys solved all the riddles. Each one led them to the next one until they solved the whole puzzle. I think the highlight was either launching off a real rocket over at the park near our house or defusing a bomb. We had a great time and all the boys survived the mission which was even better:)

(Two parties down just one to go. Stay tuned next week for Brahm's party details)

Vallie's Birthday

2012-01-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

What I love best about children's birthday parties is that they imagine things so real. That being said, Vallie wanted a chef party this year (perfect, we can totally do chef at this house:). I don't know who was more excited. I think if I was a little girl I would choose a chef party. Anyhow, I thought we had made most of the plans until I told Vallie we needed to go to the fabric store to get some fabric for the aprons. This is how the conversation went:

Vallie-Chefs do not wear aprons (all annoyed that I would even suggest such a thing).
Me- Well I just thought it would be cute. Plus it will help you with your sewing so lets do it anyway.
Vallie- Well, they have to be all white then.
Me thinking- (White aprons are not cute. They need ruffles AND frills AND patterns on them. Can you just imagine 10 cute little girls with frilly aprons. So cute!)
Vallie- Can't we just make chef coats?

That is when I caught the vision she meant serious business.

So chef coats were made.

Dough was made. Pizzas were rolled, topped, and cooked.
Fruit was chopped and fruit platters were arranged. I have to add all the children were so intense. Pizza and Fruit Kabobs were devoured in the "Restaurant".

Milk shakes were drank.
And cakes were decorated.

Instead of presents, Vallie asked every friend to bring a recipe of their favorite food (she wants to start her own cookbook). Since her party, we have had lots of fun cooking up her friends favorite dishes in the kitchen. I have to say the party was a HUGE success. Happy sixth birthday Vallie.

Ballet Pictures

2012-01-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

These are the pictures one of my older ballet students took at the dress rehearsal. She approach me and asked if she could do them for a young women project. I said perfect! She did a great job. I just wish I could upload the video of the performance:( These are my 4-5 year old classes (Vallie gets to take class in both of them, lucky duck).

Piano

2012-01-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

Being the holidays, it is time for holiday concerts. The kids just adore their piano teacher. She is really great with them. She doesn't have many students though. Just my kids and hers. So her recital was just going to be low key at her house with just our family and hers.....until her children got sick. So just my kids performed at my house. Here a sneak peak of the recital (they played more than just one song each but these are my favorites).

PS-I have tried multiple times today to post Barry Bretton and blogger will not let me up load it. It took Vallie's just fine. Barry Bretton is glad because he says he messed up and is releaved it won't go on, Turkey.

Ballet Recital

2011-12-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

Vallie had her first ballet recital. Which also means I had my first recital. It was tons of fun for the girls to perform, get costumes, and have their pictures done (which I don't have back yet). Here are all my students backstage right before the recital started. I have 36 students in all but a few were missing in the photo. It was tons of work only because I did everything (costumes, editing music, choreography, rehearsals, and scheduling) but it was totally worth it and will do it again yearly. This year there were 8 dances. Vallie was able to dance in two: Devil in Disquise (the one with the angel wings) and Mr. Sandman (the little ones with the black hats). She had a quick change.
Stretching backstage before the recital started.

Grandma and Grandpa Bulow got to come for the event to show their support.

My boys were the ushers. So cute.

Grandpa Great Waite was staying with us so he also got to attend. He also did all of Vallie's stage make-up for the dress rehearsals, pictures, and the performance (he use to do women's hair and make-up before he retired years ago). So that was a special treat.

BR's Birthday

2011-12-18T10:31:00.001-08:00

BR turned 36 this year! We celebrated at home with a steak dinner and french silk pie. We are so lucky to have a great husband and father in our lives. He is so giving and kind to all of his children and especially me always thinking more of us than himself. We love you!

Barry and I recently were released from wolf leaders in the ward (I think they thought RS presidency and cub scouts was a little too much:). They called Barry as Cub Master! He has had his first pack meeting and did a super great job. The scouts had tons of fun. These pictures are of Barry Bretton and the "pie eating contest" to get there awards for the month of November.

Halloween Costumes

2011-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year Vallie wanted to be a peacock. Terrific! I knew this could be easy. So I ordered some feathers and using some fabric I had, made her a shiny dress. Viola, a peacock!

Brahm wanted to be, "anything that has a sword." Well I happened to have an adorable Prince Charming costume that I had made Barry Bretton. I just altered it to fit Brahm. Viola, Prince Charming with a sword:)

Barry Bretton has been going through a spy faze to say the least. Everything is about spies. He has even started his own spy club with some of the boys around the neighborhood and at church (secret meetings and everything). So naturally he wanted to be a spy for Halloween. I just altered one of my trench coats. Viola, Spy!

So Halloween costumes were pretty simple around our house this year but the kids all loved them.All my neighbors are crazy into Halloween. I think they have more decorations up for Halloween than they do Christmas (which is really saying something). Our house is totally out of sort with the rest of the neighbors houses with only our paper crafts the kids and I have put together hanging up. Anyhow, here are the kids approaching their first doors (our neighbors right next to us). Totally spooky. BR took them around and I passed out candy (and made caramel and hot chocolate for when they arrived home).

Happy Halloween!

Pumpking Carving

2011-11-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

We love two things about Halloween at our house. 1. Carving pumpkins and 2. Costumes. So here is our traditional pumpkin carving day. Of course Brahm and Vallie still need help doing their pumpkins but they do enjoy gutting them, tracing out the design, and helping in any way they can. Barry Bretton wanted to do his all by himself this year. Help from Mom and Dad is totally babyish so he was determined. This is Vallie's design aided by me.

This is what Brahm picked out aided by BR

And Barry Bretton's goal was to have the scariest pumpkin. I think he totally successed beating our kitty cat and Frankstien for the scariest category. AND he totally did it all on his own! Way to go.

All lit up on Halloween night.

Hey batter, batter!

2011-11-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

Brahm is almost finished with his first season of T-ball (he just has one game left). He has had so much fun. BR has been the coach of his little team. They are all 3 and 4 year olds so most of the time it is like herding sheep but he has done a really good job with them. Brahm has learned alot this season and can't wait to play again. These pictures are of his first game. Brahm is by far the littlest one on his team and probably on most of the teams in his league weighing in at about 25 pounds and a head shorter. So it is funny to see him come up to bat. All the parents from the opposing team always comment how cute he is when he steps up to the plate the first time. And then......he cranks one off the tee and they are all flabergasted. The next time he steps up, the coaches all say, "Here comes the big hitter. Back up!" Too cute.

Just another day in paradise for Brahm.

Back to School

2011-10-23T21:56:00.001-07:00

So I know what some of you are thinking....Wait, she homeschools. Do they really go back to school? Plus, do homeschool kids really get excited about going back to school?

I have to say that is a big YES on both accounts in our family. We take a bit of a break in the summer to do summer learning like swimming lessons (which I am happy to report all my children were swimming by summers end this year) and warm weather play and work. Our garden is in full production and that takes time and energy to store food away for the winter. So summer is a time for different kinds of learning as in most homes.

So when the cool evenings begin to come on, there is a itching to get back to the books. My children LOVE learning so most of the time their contagious energy is easy to get back into full swing of study. So here are pictures of their first days back along with some of their favorite things they love from a random set of questions I ask them every year. Brahm-3

I asked him what the best thing about himself was and he said he is fun to play with. He loves carrots, blue, coloring, and Popsicles. He wants to be Prince Charming when he grows up. His best friend is Tyler (his cousin), he likes to eat cereal for dinner, play Buckaroo, and watch Elmo. His favorite chore is getting dressed and he likes to wear his striped shirt and "Big Pants" (jeans). His favorite sport is sword fighting, loves country music, and reading Curious George. If he had $100, he would buy a sword. And finally, if he was invisible for a day, he would sneak into mamas closet and get the sword down and play with it (Side note- he got his sword taken away from hitting his sister with it:).

Barry-8

I asked him what the best thing about himself was and he said that I will always have someone to talk to. He loves broccoli, green, science, ice cream sundaes, and his mama's fried chicken. He wants to be a spy, a writer, or an engineer when he grows up, he isn't sure yet. He loves to wear jeans and a t-shirt, watch Wild Kratts, play with Ronnie up the street, and Monopoly. If he could meet anyone is history it would be John F Kennedy. He would like to live in New York and buy a motorcycle. His favorite books are the Spiderwick Chronicles, is pretty sure he is going on a mission to California when he grows up, and is going to have 10 children. If he could choose to be royalty, a movie star, a genius, or a politician he would choose to be a genius. Finally, if he was invisible for a day he would scare people.

Vallie-5

Vallie is most proud of herself when she is helping out Brahm. She love broccoli, red, math, skittles, and spaghetti. She likes Chutes and Ladders, wearing her butterfly shirt and a pair of holey jeans, and wants to be a scientist when she grows up. Her favorite sport is biking and loves any song by Taylor Swift. If she could meet anyone is history it would be Joseph Smith and would choose to live in Las Vegas over than any other place in the world. She is pretty sure she is going on a mission to Alaska when she grows up and wants to have 3 children. She either wants to ride a motorcycle or drive a Jetta when she can. If she could choose between being royalty, a movie star, a genius, or a politician, she would choose royalty because they are beautiful. If she was invisible for a day, she would scare people by saying Whooooo or BOO!

Grandpa Great Waite

2011-09-19T07:34:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to have my Grandpa live with us for about three weeks while my aunt and uncle were on vacation (he normally lives with them in St. George). Having a three year old and a ninety-three year old live with you is quite a fun adventure. It really makes you focus on the cycle of life. My grandpa is amazing we miss him already. I didn't want to take him home. I wanted to keep him forever. Having my grandpa with us is a time my kids, husband, and I will always treasure.

Young Love

2011-09-17T21:17:00.001-07:00

My niece got married last week! Congrats Ashleigh and Tyler. I just had to post this adorable picture of Ashleigh and Brahm right when she walked out of the St George Temple. Can you tell their cousins:)

Triathlon

2011-08-07T20:47:00.001-07:00

Barry Bretton loves to ride his bike and run so a little while back he asked me if there was such a thing as bike racing as a sport. I knew there was bike racing but I wasn't sure if they had races for children. After looking around for a while, I found some children's triathlons. Can I just say my children are in love with them. So Vallie and Barry Bretton participated in their first one a little while ago. We trained as a family and Brahm was super bummed we wouldn't let him do it this year but we promised next year he could. Vallie was the youngest competitor to complete it all by herself.

So here is a little run down of the race. Both of them killed on the run length finishing in the top of their age group (which I am not surprised, they are their father's children who is a track athlete). Swimming wasn't so good but they both completed it. They need to be stronger swimmers to compete well. Barry Bretton was average on the bike and Vallie crashed hard. Can you see the bruise on her forehead in the picture below? Good thing for helmets. I was just glad there were no broken bones. But she shook it off, finished very tentatively on the bike, ran her guts out, and can't wait until the next one.
Here she is finishing and might I add looking very stylish in her tutu:)

Here is Barry Bretton finishing.

This is the first sport my kids have loved and can't wait for more. So we are super excited for them to find something they like:)

Toothless

2011-07-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Nothing quite says your all grown up to me like loosing your first tooth. And that is just what happened to VALLIE! Really, is she that old. She woke up telling me that her teeth felt really....."spacey". Sure enough those two front bottom ones were just hanging there. She hadn't even noticed they were loose before that. So we took the first one out and the second one was close to follow (she had Grandma, the professional, take that one out). Her grandma is a dental hygienist, Vallie is so funny.

The tooth fairy totally delivered. Vallie told me when she woke up, she was dreaming about watermelon gum and that is what the tooth fairy brought. "She must bring what you are thinking about," Vallie said. If only tooth fairies always have ESP:)

May Piano Recital

2011-06-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Barry Bretton's piano teacher moved in May so she had a final recital. Being the mother I am, I forgot my camera so I recorded it the next morning at home. I know, terrible but here it is just so I can keep record of his progress. Piano is really difficult for him. He has to work really hard to grow at it but he does love it and he LOVES his new teacher. He is having so much fun with her. I started Vallie when we switched to the new teacher and she is loving it too. It seems to make sense to her and she is cruising through her books which is a struggle for Barry to see it come so easy for her. He is always making comments about how it took forever for him to pass off that song or even get to it in the book. But I totally relate to him on it. My sister, Marcee, always was exceptional at piano while it was hard for me but it is so good for him to work hard to achieve something and learn music in the process. Way to go, Barry Bretton!

Playing catch up

2011-06-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have a few things that have loooong since past that I wanted to blog about in no particular order.

Barry Bretton received his Wolf! He loves cub scouts and is trying to get everything he can. He says he wants to get every requirement and elective done and he is well on his way. He often works on it all by himself and already has 7 arrowpoint, 15 beltloops, his religious square knot, and world conservation award and he doesn't go to Bears until December.
He is totally a super scouter. The cubmaster jokes with him every pack meeting that he needs a wheelbarrow to carry all his awards around with him.

We spent Easter up with Grandparents. Here they are dressed in their Sunday best (yes, I made Vallie's dress). We spent the weekend having dutch oven dinners, BBQ's and smores over the fire pit, hunting for eggs, and just loving being around family.

Brahm counting his loot.

Barry Bretton falling in a bush to get an egg.

Here the cousins are before the big hunt! I really am the worst picture taker and always forget my camera so I only have pictures at the Christensen's house. Just in general, my kids will have little picture to remember their childhood. I never have my camera with me.

Vallie searching for eggs in the grape arbor. I have to say, my parents yard is the best place in the world for Easter egg hunts. My kids are SOOOO lucky. If you have not seen their yard, you must. It is amazing.

Brahm turned three.......in January! I know, how terrible am I considering it is the end of June. Brahm is such a cutie. He is high energy, mischievous, competitive and defiantly adds some spice and spunk to the family. He is a huge mama's boy, still! I keep waiting for him to out grow it but I am beginning to think that it is just his personality. He still cuddles with me daily and needs physical reassurance for love and a job well done. That being said, he is very physical and will swing a punch at you (or his sister:) if a line is crossed. We are working on that. He loves babies. He will sit and hold, feed, or play with babies for hours at a time. Also, he loves baseball. Everyday he hits balls outside by himself. One day, I didn't know where he was and he wasn't answering me. I was starting to get worried when I found him outside hitting wiffle balls off a tee. Now it is to be expected. Everyday he pulls the tee, bat, and balls out and practises all by himself. Not your typical three year old but he can already hit a wiffle ball over the neighbors fence (now these are Vegas yards so only about 30 ft). We have signed him up for T-ball this fall and he talks about it everyday. He is our ball boy.

Barry Bretton participated in his first science fair this year. He wanted to test how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie roll pop. We had tons of fun helping him get his data. With the help of his Grandma and her students at Fossil Ridge we ending up with about 200 samples to use as data. Then he compiled the information and created graphs to get the max, min, and average amount of lick to the center. Which was 489. Then he used the variables of age, sex, and color of pop to see if that altered the data in any way. He had a great time with it and we can't wait until next years science fair. For his display he had a board with his data on it and a computer hooked up with some of the old fashion tootsie pop commercials playing, like the one with Mr. Owl. Super Fun!

Watching my garden grow

2011-06-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

It is no surprise I have let my blog go for a while. Not that it hasn't been on my mind. I have just been keeping my head afloat in life- end of school, gardening, dance classes, cub scouts, swim lessons, piano lessons, treasurer for LDS homeschoolers in Las Vegas, and my new church calling. I got put back in the RS Presidency in my new ward. I am over RS meeting or Enrichment whatever it is you call it anymore. Needless to say, it is never a dull moment around here but they are all great things to involve my time with. I think so often as mothers we give, give, give hoping to create great experiences and opportunities for our children to grow and develop but the fruits of our labors are often unseen by our children (and ourselves). We watch and we pray and we hope and we tend, sometimes there are tears and sometimes there is great joy but one thing is for sure the results are never immediate. Years can pass before we see our efforts. Here I am in my thirties and now I just start to realize all the things my Mother and Father did for me. Anyhow....

I think that is why I love gardening so much. It takes alot of heart and effort to get things to grow right and then time passes before you see the results of your efforts. It is so comparable to life and raising children but with much faster results. I found a bunch of picture on my camera that one of the children must have taken (my guess is Vallie because she is not in any of the pictures:) but I had to post some of them to show the fruits of our labors even though they are blurry. So far this year we have had lots of radishes, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, beets, onions, strawberries, corn, huckleberries, ground cherries, gooseberries, blackberries, cucumbers, basil, dill, parsley, sage, thyme, cilantro and artichokes. We have yet to see any summer squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, melons, or carrots. Hopefully next year we will have limes, lemons, asparagus, peaches, apricots, apples, and grapes (we have picked all the fruit off this year to make strong plants). See, I told you we have been busy but worth every second!

Yes, that is a radish!

Barry by his prize winning tomato plants (not really prize winning but they are spectular)

An artichoke when it first appeared. There are a TON on the plant now.

Tops of the corn

One picking of beans. We get beans about every other day. We have kept up with them and I have frozen about 6 pounds.

Until next time.....Hopefully sooner than later.

Spicing Things UP!

2011-04-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

I saw a friend with this idea a couple months ago and immediately 3 thoughts whacked me over the head.

#1 thought- That is amazing!

#2 thought- I waste so much time searching through my unorganized spice cupboard; why didn't I ever think of that?

#3 thought- My mom's spice cupboard is way worse than my. She definitely could use this idea.

Shopping for my parents is sometimes hard but I knew this was something she could definitely use, enjoy, and think of me every time she opened her cupboard:) This could be the perfect birthday present for my ultimate chef mother! I mulled over it for a while and then ordered enough empty spice containers online for her and I. Then, I begged my darling husband to build two stair like shelves out of wood to display them all on. And Presto! 40 of my favorite spices and herbs organized at my fingertips. It is now past her birthday so I could blog about it with out ruining the surprise. Plus, I had to share this idea just in case some of my cooking friends have mod podge spice cabinets like my old one. Whoever thought of this was pure genius. I smile every time I open my spice cupboard door. Now I don't have to empty my whole cupboard to find that little bottle of ground ginger or whatever pushed all the way to the back. What a time saver!

A Work in Progress

2011-02-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

I wish I could title this post FINISHED but for those of you who garden know yards are never finished. We have been making major headway though so I wanted to post some pictures. Our goal was to have everything ready for planting in time for spring planting. We were close. We did not have things ready for peas, lettuce and spinach to be in the ground and be productive before it gets too hot but we will be ready for most things. We have tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and a few other things under grow lights and doing well. They and the garden will be ready for transplanting at the end of next month. I can't say we did it all ourselves. We did hire some things out this time around (in our last backyard we did everything ourselves and I have to say our yard was the only sad part I had about leaving that house) but we learned alot from that yard and knew exactly how we wanted things this time. You have to remember Vegas' yards are small so we have to use every square inch we have to be productive. Here is what things look like:

Along the north wall, we have two dwarf lemon and two dwarf lime trees planted so far. There is also one pomegranate in the back corner (you can't see it from my picture). In the front by the patio is a place for compost. We will be planting a row of strawberries in front of the citrus trees along the curbing (we have 50 plants to transplant) and in back of them we will put some grape vines to run the length of the wall on trellises we have yet to make.

Along the back wall we have 5 ft of gardening space that runs the length of the yard and down the south wall. We will be planting asparagus down the south wall among other things.
Between the grass area and gardening area we have planted thornless blackberry bushes to make a hedge to separate the two area. We have not yet finished trellises for those either.

Small spot for an herb garden right off the back patio.

We made three raised beds. Each one is 16ftx8ft with a rock pathway between them.

We laid sod and in the grass area there are two peach trees and one apricot tree starting to bloom out.

Here is a close up of the gate Rakel gave us that once the hedge fills in will be in entrance into the lawn area from the garden area.

Here is a close up of one of the beds which might look like nothing to you but we hauled out ALOT of terrible desert dirt and rock that nothing can grow in from all over the yard. In turn we hauled in 23 TONS of organic compost and top soil (can you see the blackness;) that is not desert dirt my friends). This is what was the most time consuming part. I have no idea how many wheelbarrows full of dirt that was but I can say it is alot of sore muscles worth.

We also had concrete poured around both sides of the house which both sides tie into the patio around back. There is a 1 foot border between the house and the sidewalk I will use to plant a plethora of flowers. I pray we have a productive garden this year and can't wait for next five or so years when we have everything planted, fruitful, and filled in!

Boys will be boys

2011-02-17T21:19:00.001-08:00

Barry Bretton and BR were working with their bows tonight. Brahm couldn't be left out. So I had to get a picture of my boys with their bows. Brahm thinks he is just as big as Barry Bretton:) and if you don't think he is, he will tell you he is. He is pretty sure he is a cub scout already and spends every den meeting absorbing everything and playing the part. If he was eight, he would even have his bobcat. What a cutie!

From the mouth of babes

2011-01-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

Every morning before school starts for the day, we read scriptures and do a few other things. One thing we do is learn a different President of the U.S each week and some minor facts about them and their presidency. Brahm is only two so he is usually doing his own thing for most of the time (coloring, standing on his head, jumping off the table:) So imagine my surprise the other day when I learned he was not only listening but retaining information so I had to tape it. I only hope he is getting this much information out of scripture study;) (You will have to pause the music on the bottom to hear it)

The other two have learned to #20 (James Garfield) but I'll take to #11 unassisted anytime from a two year old.

Vallie's first day of dance

2011-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Vallie started dance! and loves it of course:) Happily, I get to teach her.
We are having so much fun together and she is loving being able to dance anytime she wants in our converted front room. Let me tell you, she is in there all the time. BR says he never thought he would have a formal front room become a dance studio but he is a super sport about it. Really he is my biggest supporter. So I opened up a class to see if I would get any interest from families who wanted there little ones to dance. The response was overwhelming! So I am teaching quite a few little ones (and teenagers too:) It is so much fun. In college, I always hoped I would be able to open up a little dance school but never really thought it would happen. Yeah!

Here she is playing with a few a of the girls in her class who arrived early. I totally forgot to take any pictures after we started.

Bobcat in the house

2011-01-20T21:39:00.001-08:00

Tonight was pack meeting. Barry Bretton received his bobcat. This ward has a tradition of when a boy advances in rank they get to have war paint loving applied by their mother which can only be removed when a good deed is done by the scout.

Here he is with his paw (good thing I went to Pine View and has lots of practise making paw prints:)Finally his first patch! He was so excited. He could not wait to get it. We didn't have pack meeting in December because of the holidays so it has been a long time coming. He wanted to keep his war paint on all night because he was so proud (funny he wanted to keep it on). Little boys are so cute.

Vallie's "Real" birthday party

2011-01-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

So Vallie told me this year she wanted to have a "real" birthday party. You see when I do parties I might go a little over board (okay, so it might be a little bit of a sickness but it is all in good fun). Being 5, she is finally old enough to realize for herself the fun we have had at Barry Bretton's past parties and her birthday is sandwiched in between Christmas and New Years. I have just always laid a little low on her birthday and she is feeling a little bit ripped off. We couldn't have that so I promised I would plan an "event" for her. She wanted it to be princess themed. Not to bag on princess parties but that is WAY to common. We needed something with a little bit of sparkle so we decided on an ice princess party. Then I remembered this old song for the 40's or 50's called "Suzy Snowflake". That was it!

We made enough paper snowflakes and chains to cover all the downstairs ceiling. It was enough to give even Buddy from the movie ELF a hand cramp.

So here is my "Suzy Snowflake dressed in her all white gown" I made for her.

My mom was a super trooper and help with everything. She can't wait for Vallie's wedding (I think she was a little cheeky about that;) The menu consisted of homemade chili with garlic cheese snowflake tortillas, popcorn "snow"balls, meringue snowflakes, cheese "snow"ball and crackers, snowball punch, and hot chocolate.

We played tons of snow games like freezing snowflake (very similar to hot potato), freeze dancing, catch a snowball in your mouth, snowball hide and seek, and we built ice castles and cut out paper snowflakes. The most amazing thing was that it actually SNOWED in ST. GEORGE on her birthday. It was amazing!

This picture of these 2 year old cousins (Brahm and Taelor) could very well be one of my all time favorite pictures. They were oh so cute trying to keep up with all their older cousins.

Here is my second fondant cake.

Vallie blowing out her candles!

Even ice princesses need to warm up by the fire sometimes. Happy 5th Birthday Vallie Mae!

Santa Came!

2011-01-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

Santa was good to us this year. New jamies on Christmas Eve!
Oranges and gum in our stockings.

a Barbie Dream house

and new bikes. Basically a huge success! The kids are already counting down til next year.

Barry's Baptism

2011-01-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

Barry Bretton was able to be baptised last month. It was a terrific day for everyone. We were shown so much love and support.

Really I can't believe I have an eight year old but no matter 8 or 28 he will always be my little boy. I have to say I was a little worried Barry Bretton wouldn't feel very much support because we just moved into a new ward 3 months before his baptism but as you can see my worries were a little in vain. We have amazing family and friends that would support him wherever we are. We sure are proud of you, Barry Bretton.

Christmas Play

2010-12-23T10:59:00.000-08:00

One of our highlights of the Christmas season this year was Vallie and Barry Bretton got to perform the play A Christmas Carol. They practised every Friday for about 8 weeks with the little group of homeschoolers we do things with. As you can see from the picture, there were a tons of families involved and we performed it 4 times (3 times in rest homes and 1 time at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission). It was amazing to expose my children to the lives of others around us and for them to see how fortunate they really are to have their health and a place to live. It really brought home a reason for the season. The picture above is of them singing Christmas Carols with the homeless after the play (it was a real tear jerker).
Vallie got to play the role of a Caroller and sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman". Here she is with her fellow carollers.

Barry Bretton had the role of person #3. He had two little lines that he got to say and the others in the picture were the children in the scene with him. I was able to be over the choreography for the dance scene. It was a huge success and we can't wait to be a part of it next year.

Piano Recital

2010-12-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

Since we moved we had to find a new piano teacher. We are glad we found Sister Pettit and are super sad she is moving in the summer so we only have 6 more months with her. She does not mess around and will not accept sloppy practising from 8 year olds:) Anyhow, Barry Bretton is definitely improving. The recital wasn't his best performance (dang those nerves) but we sure are proud of him.

Our New Callings!

2010-12-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

So before we moved into this ward, I was so hoping our new ward had a killer scout program. When we arrived we were informed one of the bishopric members was a professional scouter. Needless to say, this ward really takes scouting seriously. Well, one week before Barry Bretton turned 8 we received callings to be over the wolf den in cub scouts! We have had 4 den meetings already and can I just say we are loving it. Barry and I haven't had the opportunity to serve together in a really long time. It is great! His strengths are my weaknesses and my strengths are his weaknesses so as a team it rocks. Both BR and I are really familiar with scouts so we hit the ground running and have already had some great successes. One of the companies Barry does the accounting for owns some incredible construction equipment. We got to take the boys for a tour to test it out. The yard had over 50 huge trucks. AWESOME! and even better all the boys (and equipment) came out safe.

We also got our computer beltloop. Check out this action shot of BR! We had a broken computer and BR was in the process of rebuilding a new one so why not dissect it and turn it into a scouting adventure. The boys loved it. We can't wait for more. I do have to say I feel a little sorry for Barry Bretton because besides piano we teach him EVERYTHING (school, scouts, gymnastics, and Barry is his basketball coach). He doesn't seem to mind though (and when you have parents as cool as us, why would you :) One thing is for sure. You can't say we are not involved in our children's lives.

family pictures

2010-12-18T07:40:00.001-08:00

When we went up to St. George for Thanksgiving, I asked my brother if he wouldn't mind taking some family photos of us. We were so grateful he agreed to do it. Here are some of my favorite ones.

Thanks so much Brett!

Twelve years together....

2010-12-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

Eight is Great!

2010-12-16T21:01:00.001-08:00

You will have to pardon my absence from the blogging world. This time of year I have to put things on cruise control and hold on because there is so much going on. I will catch up this week (hopefully).

Barry Bretton turned eight this past month! What a huge birthday. He was so excited about getting baptised, he wanted everything to be about that. He wanted a baptism cake. To quote him exactly he wanted a carrot cake that was all white with a picture of his dad and him on the front getting baptised. Besides that being a little sacrilegious, I think he over estimates my artistic abilities. But I did make a carrot cake and tried my hand at fondant for the first time so the cake would be all white and added blue to represent water. It turned out okay and definitely something I will try again another time. An eight year old wouldn't be complete without a pocket knife! (don't mind Vallie picking her nose:)

We also gave him all his cub scout gear.

Lego from Grandma and Grandpa Bulow are always a hit.

He got eight dollar from Grandma and Grandpa Christensen for turning eight. He was over the moon about it. It was the first time he received money for a present. So what exactly did he want to do with his money?........Open a savings account at the bank (he definitely got his Dad's genes on that one). He is a little penny pincher.

Other things about Barry Bretton:

He loves GREEN.

He always has more than one book going at a time.

He knows random facts about everything and anything and isn't afraid to enlighten you about them.

He wants to turn my kitchen into his chemistry lab.

He has two speeds with anything he doesn't want to do- slow and stopped.

He hates wearing his glasses and insists he can see just fine without them until I try to have him read something on the wall.

He can build with legos for hours.

His favorite TV show is Arthur.

He is a super fast runner.

He is loving basketball and gymnastics.

He couldn't become a cub scout fast enough and is loving every minute of it now (actually he has been a cub scout for a little less than a month and has already earned his bobcat, his first bead and two beltloops). Way to go Barry Bretton!

We are so glad he is with us in our family. He is the cutest big brother and adds so much to our home. We love you.

One year older........

2010-11-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

And wiser too! Happy Birthday to you, babe!35 years young

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to the ward trunk or treat this year on Saturday. They had alot of fun sporting their costumes I made for them.
(After changing his mind 4 times)
Alvin

The Ballerina

The Scarecrow

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T07:48:00.001-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Things kids think!

2010-10-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just right around the corner and I try to make it a big deal with my kids. Every year I make their costumes and try to come up with some sort of theme so their costumes match. This year the kids aren't having it. They want to pick out their own costumes without any help. Which is just fine (I had an eight year run with coming up with them. They haven't really cared up until this year) but I am a little sad they don't want to have a theme together. Vallie just has to be a ballerina so I tried with my best convincing to get Barry Bretton to be a nutcracker but he wouldn't even think about it. Barry Bretton wants to be a Union General from the Civil War so I tried to encourage Vallie to be a Southern Belle (wouldn't that just be adorable). Needless to say, they are going their separate ways with Halloween costumes this year.

However, I remember when I was around Vallie's age I totally wanted to be a ballerina for Halloween so I wanted to dig up a picture to see if it was the year I was four/five too. We happened across this picture in my book and Vallie says, "Oh my gosh Mom! Look it is the Chipettes!" And she really believed it was too. So I might not have have my children's costumes match this year but I will be on a singing tour with my sister as Jeanette, Brittany, and Eleanor:)

Odds and Ends

2010-10-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some random odds and ends which have been happening at our house lately.

Brahm fell asleep on me during conference yesterday. When it was over I just laid him down on the couch instead of putting him in bed. Well, he rolled off and got a tile facial knocking his two front teeth back, cutting his lip up bad and a big goose egg on the forehead. I feel like a real winner (bad mommy). I guess we will have to see if his teeth are dead.
I french braided Vallie's hair today (this picture was taken after a full day of playing). I love to braid hair and when I was a little girl I couldn't wait to have a daughter so I could braid her hair. She loved it:) I can't wait to try new braids on her.
Barry Bretton has found a new love in Cat's Cradle.

Barry Bretton has had two basketball games this year so far. I signed him up for basketball so he could get some PE (BR wasn't too happy with me). You see, Barry Bretton isn't so coordinated and BR loves basketball so it drives him crazy but I have to say he is greatly improving from the first of the season. (Disclaimer: BR does not have an issue with Barry Bretton's lack of coordination. Basketball is a long story that BR typical does not share with anyone. He has spent 18 years trying to forget the said story. BR is very proud of Barry Bretton's talents and abilities. BR loves blogs, he will be forever know as a horrible husband and father. Thanks Dear!)

Finally, I just have to ask, What does this remind you of? Do any of you see what I see?

This is our front room in our house. You know where all your formal furniture is suppose to go. Well, we don't have any yet and probably won't for some time so it remains empty. However, every time I pass this room it seem to call "dance studio." Part of me is serious about slapping some mirrors and barres on the wall, adding some mats and teaching gymnastics and dance to my children all day long:) Wouldn't that be fun! Those of you that know me well know how truly serious I really am. Except for the all day part. I mean we would have drink breaks every now and then;)

This weeks happenings

2010-09-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to quickly post a few things that happened this week!

We got our barstools and our kitchen/nook is officially done.

Next, Barry Bretton lost a top front tooth! He is so excited to drink through straws all the time with his teeth clinched:)

Finally, we got our front yard finished this week. In the subdivision we live in, they give you a month to get it done so we were under the gun but if you know us well, you know we love gardening. We couldn't be happier about how it turned out especially because at the beginning of the week it was "moonscape" (everything was completely dead). We even had to redue all the irrigation because all the pipes were broken.

We planted two almond trees! I can't wait.

Now on to the back yard!

Meet Barky!

2010-09-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

My children have always wanted a pet and I will be the first one to tell you I am not a pet person. I do believe pets teach responsibilities to children so I am torn on the whole issue. Anyway, my Barrys are both allergic to cats and Barry Bretton is extremely allergic to almost any animal with hair so I thought we were "safe" from ever having a pet. However, that didn't stop the kids from continually begging me to get a pet. Finally, I promised them "when we get into a new house we will get a pet" thinking that day would never come and also to keep them from asking me continually. Well that day is here and I couldn't put the kids off anymore. So we took the kids to Petsmart. I thought we would get a simple fish in a bowl and that would suffice. But the kids were not having it. That is waaaay to ordinary. Now remember we are very limited to what animals we can have because of the no hair thing and I am sorry but I will not have reptiles or rodents (they just sick me out). My kids ALL just fell in love with the hermit crabs! So that is what followed us home.

This is Barky! I have to say he is pretty intriguing to watch. They named him Barky because hermit crabs live in and love to eat coconut bark.
They don't seem a bit excited, do they.

Here are some of the extra shells we picked out for Barky to change into. Now a pet that changes it's accessories depending on its mood you have got to love. It is kind of like shoes for girls:)

Here they are getting the "Crabitat" ready (ha, ha). I just hope we can keep the thing alive considering I read all about hermit crabs AFTER we got home from the pet store. They can be a little temperamental with temperature and humidity levels. And I don't know if anyone else thinks this is funny but HERMIT crabs are SOCIAL animals. I pretty much thought hermit and social were the opposite of each other but they live in groups and get lonely without "others". So now we might have to get Barky a friend cause we would hate for him to die of loneliness. See what pets do to you. It is just one thing after another and I know I am going to be the one cleaning out the tank and giving it baths (yeah, that is right you are suppose to bathe these little crabs, sheeesh). What you wouldn't do for your children. Barry Bretton even said with pure joy when I was putting him to bed tonight, "I can't believe you let us get a pet." It makes it all worth it. I just pray I don't kill Barky.

School starts!

2010-09-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks of painting, fixing things up, moving and unpacking, I am finally to a point where I can sit down to blog a little bit. I wanted to get everything done before we went back to school on Monday. I have to say I was close. I still have a few token boxes around that need to be unpacked but I will get there soon enough. We did start school on Monday! I am thrilled to say the kids are so excited and things are going great so far. Our house has a little loft in it that I turned into our classroom.

Barry Bretton started 2nd grade this year and I am trying a few new things. We are going to learn all the presidents of the U.S. together this year on top of all his regular studies. I am also trying a box system where all his work is located in the boxes for the day in sequential order. I am hoping this keeps him on task if I get caught up and can't be right there with him to move him along.

This is just a picture of our school and kids at work.

I have decided to start kindergarten curriculum with Vallie this year mainly because she is ready. She doesn't turn 5 until December so she can't officially "start school" but she already writes her name (and some sentences) like a pro and reads way better than Barry Bretton did when he entered Kindergarten (and he was by himself in the top reading group). So it will be interesting what happens next year. I don't really want to wing it on my own (that is why I love Odyssey) but they will want her to start kindergarten and she will be way beyond that. So I may just have to.

I think my hardest dilemma this year will be keeping this little man busy. Wish me luck with that one!

Drum roll please...........

2010-08-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

Introducing an event so BIG it took just over a year to happen!

Defiantly the event of the summer (in the Bulow household)!

Come one, come all. Step right up to see the unveiling of Chateau De Bulow.

You heard that right! Yes, we signed on our home today and I am sure you would have guessed we are over the moon about it. It needs quit a bit of work done to it before we can move in but we are hoping to be able to move-in in a couple of weekends.
My favorite feature about the house is the kitchen. It is huge! I can't wait to whip something up in it (like a whole Thanksgiving dinner in August). This is what it looks like today but we are going to make some minor changes to it (ie. paint) plus some not so minor ones like installing a double oven!
We spent the day there getting quotes on fixing things. The kids are so excited!

This is the kids favorite feature of the house. One of the cupboard doors is missing in the butlers pantry (remember me saying there is alot of work to do, well this is a minor one) and they think is their little playhouse. They just climb right inside and eat (there is a shelf in there that makes a perfect table), color, or anything else they can imagine. We might just have to keep their "playhouse" for a while.

So if you are in the neighborhood, stop on by we will give you a tour. Better yet if you have a truck, we'll load you up and meet you over there:)

Crazy Idaho People!

2010-07-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Barry Bretton HATES macaroni and cheese. Vallie LOVES it so it can cause some drama in our house around lunch time. Today Barry Bretton decided he was done with having macaroni and cheese and wasn't going to eat it EVER again. Well, one of my pet peeves is picky eaters so I just say too bad, you eat what you are given and you like it. So I decided to have a conversation with him.

ME- When you go on your mission you will probably go to some crazy place that they eat roasted dog and you will be thankful your mom will ship you boxes of Macaroni and Cheese.

Barry- I already told you I am going on my mission to California (which by the way he is for sure he is going to California on his mission and has told me numerous times) besides people in Idaho eat roasted dog all the time.

You crazy Idaho people!

Healing

2010-07-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

(I just wanted to warn you the next story is a little gruesome and really personal)

For those who know me, know I love babies and would love to have a large family but for those of you who know me WELL, know I really struggle with pregnancy. Seriously being pregnant is one of my favorite things in the world but things don't always happen as they are suppose to in my pregnancies. A couple weeks ago we found out I was pregnant for my seventh time! We were so excited and hoping we would be able to finally invite a fourth child into our family. Because of my history, my doctor has me come to his office every couple of days to test my blood and monitor everything to make sure I am okay. Everything was looking good and we left up to St George for the 4th of July. While up there I started to have some sharp pains in my lower right side of my abdomen. I just took it easy and thought everything would be okay. Surely it was just all in my head. Well by Tuesday night the pains were so intense I couldn't see straight and my body was shaking. I just figured I would go in and see my doctor in the morning. To make a long story short, I was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. I was placed in the hospital and had to have surgery. The egg was in the right fallopian tube. The tube had opened and I was bleeding internally. Lucky for me a blood clot had stopped the bleeding and saved my life. My doctor had to remove the entire right tube and got the blood inside cleaned up. Right now I am just trying to heal and count my blessings. I am fortunate I have three healthy children, I am alive to be able to teach them and watch them grow, and we have modern medicine (which until a few decades ago ectopic pregnancies were often undetected and took the lives of those they affected). In this life I know the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away and I can't see the end from the beginning like our Heavenly Father does but I know all things happen for a reason. I do have to say my heart is a little broken right now and through my tears I am praying things get better and we will be able to have another child someday. I do want to thank my husband, mothers, fathers, and sisters for all the love and help they have and are still giving to me. I love you all!

Salad Sticks and other inventions

2010-06-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Move over Thomas Edison, Barry Bretton is on a mission. Barry Bretton's driving force since we have been out of school is to invent something useful. Something that everyone in the world can use. He thinks the world of Thomas Edison and all his useful inventions but honestly thinks he can invent something more significant than the light bulb or his other 1000 inventions:) So whenever I have something to do, he tries to find a better way (using some contraption) to make life easier. Usually it drives me crazy cause it makes my life longer but I don't want to crush his little swelling ambition.

Yesterday he was scouring the house and came up with a few different items he thought were usable: a vacuum tube, string, cork, some wood, and plastic odds and ends. He transforms them into something and begins to describe its function to me. "You place it out side in the ground and it tells you what way the wind is blowing." Then he looks at me waiting to hear if his "new" invention is something every household needs only to be crushed when I say, "It is a weather vain". He looks back at his invention now with different light and knows he has totally invented something he already knew existed but didn't realize it.

But his desire to invent goes way beyond contraptions and dips into the realm of food. I always have a hard time trying to come up with dinner ideas and prod the kids to get something out of them (Vallie always answers Mac and Cheese so I don't know why I even bother asking). But Barry Bretton is always trying to invent a new recipe. His latest recipe he loving named "Salad Sticks". It has the same idea as shish kabobs but with only salad ingredients such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, whatever you can dream up, chuncked up, placed on a skewer and then drizzled with salad dressing and served as an appetizer. Quit tasty and a fun way to eat salad.

Anyhow, maybe by the end of the summer he will have invented a useful contraption. In not, maybe he has a promising future in the culinary world.

Schools Out!

2010-06-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

If you are anything like me, you get so excited for the last day of school and this year was no exception. I could even say I was even more excited than usually. I couldn't wait for a break and to have some fun with the kids this summer (this teaching your child stuff is no joke). We were sad to say goodbye to Mrs. Nelson for the year (Hopefully, we will get her for a teacher again. It was great.) Odyssey had a close out assembly for the year at Artemus Ham Hall where families could come and the children got awards for their accomplishments for the year. My parents were able to come down and join us.

Barry Bretton recieved a few awards this year. He was on the Straight A Honor Roll, he got the principals writing award (for an essay he wrote) and also received The Shinning Star Award (given to k-2nd grade students who have straight A's and E's for the whole year). So we are super proud of him.

I have thought back through the year and remember many of the things we have done and how Barry Bretton has grown. He has came a far way but the one thing I have to write about is reading. Some kids like sports; Some kids like video games; Barry Bretton is a genuine book worm. You hardly see him with out a book in his hand. So I started to make a list of all the books I remember him reading since September and it is crazy! So here is the list (the list only contains the chapter books I can remember and doesn't included all his 1st grade required reading or picture style books):

23 Nate the Great

26 A to Z Mysteries

34 Magic Tree Houses

10 Magic Tree House Research Guides

5 Horrible Harry

6 Ready Freddy

12 Amelia Bedelia

5 Arthur

6 Dinosaur Cove

5 Stanley

Nessie and the Living Stone

Pippa the Poppy Fairy

The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo

Homer Price

Frindle

Wayside School is Falling Down

Ramona and Her Father

Dear Mr. Henshaw

A Flying Birthday Cake

The Mount Rushmore Calamity

That is almost 150 books my freinds! and some of them he read more than once. I think that is more books than I have read in my life (I guess that is why I think it is so amazing). So if you have any summer reading suggestions, pass them our way.

Bulow's Bad Day

2010-05-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today started off nice enough but somewhere between this morning when I woke up and right now, there was a hex cast on me. If you don't want to read me vent about today's happenings, I suggest you quickly close off this page. If you are still here, great but remember I warned you.

Today I made my monthly trip to Sam's Club. These days are usually great because we all love to go to Sam's Club. Barry Bretton had some prescriptions that needed to be filled so I would pick them up and it would be a two for one (he has really bad allergies the poor kid). So after getting my shopping done I went to pick up the medicine. The oh so sweet pharmacist behind the counter said, "We didn't fill the prescription because your insurance no longer covers that medicine." Okay, well exactly how much are we talking here. $281.00! Cough, Cough! What! Okay, so we will figure something else out because that will not fly every 30 days.

We make it out of the store and home pretty much in one piece except for the one little incident where Barry Bretton slammed Brahm's hand in the door. But no broken fingers and I did get him to stop crying after about 15 mins. We arrive home safely and I am unloading the groceries from the car when I hear a blood curdling scream from Vallie in the house. Now this is not one of those my brothers are picking on me cries or I can't do it because I am only 4 years old cry. This is the real deal. I run into the house to see what the trouble is and Vallie tells me she shoved a Lego up her nose. What? Aren't you four years old? I mean I would expect this from Brahm but really you are a really super smart 4 year old. You know you shouldn't be stuffing things up your nose. I march her into better light and sure enough I can see the tip of a Lego up there. I tried to suck it out by placing my mouth over her nose and sucking really hard but no budging. I tried to blow it out by placing my mouth on her mouth, plugging the other nose hole and blowing hard. No luck. It was lodged. I had her smell pepper until she sneezed hoping the force would get it out. Nope. So I called Barry on the phone and told him we have a situation here and explained it. He said simply just have her blow her nose and that I blow things way out proportion. So I told her to just blow her nose and she took a deep breath in through her nose and the Lego sucked back into her nasal passage. It was gone. I could no longer see any more it was so deep. I was ticked that Mr. Smartypants on the phone thought the situation was so simple. Well, I was defiantly now overeacting.

So I took her into the ER to get it removed (yes, I was completely humiliated having to tell the people in the ER that MY child stuck a Lego up her nose). All the while Vallie was asking me if she was going to need to get a cast on her nose. When we met the doctor, he had ME blow through her mouth just how I did at home. Really, is this what medical school and however many years of residence gets you? Then, they shoved a probe about 10 cm up there with a balloon on the end hoping to pull it out. Nothing. I do need to say that she handled it like a champ and didn't even cry. Just a little bit of food for thought-Legos don't show up on X-rays because they are plastic. So somewhere is the missing Lego. I am hoping that since your nasal passage is connected to your esophagus it made its way to her stomach and will make it out that way. But we will never know for sure because I am not checking.

When we were discharged from the hospital they gave us discharge papers just like you always get. I would like to type what was written for advise to handle this situation. "Teach your child not to put objects in his/her nose, in the future". Really? I had no idea. In the words of Billy Madison, "Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it".

And just for good measure, our day doesn't end there. Barry is an ordinance worker in the temple. He calls me from the temple tonight and asks if the cars air conditioner was working when I took Vallie to the hospital. I replied, Yeah. Well, it is not working anymore. Which isn't really a big deal except for the fact that we live in LAS VEGAS and it is already 90 degrees. We did suffer through one summer without an air conditioner in our old Grand Am when we were poor college students because it was way to much to fix. I can just see the car mechanics licking their chops when we bring our Jetta in because they know no one in their right mind would not have it fixed.

So that is our day in a nutshell. I am sure hoping/praying tomorrow runs as smooth as butter.

Independence

2010-04-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

Barry Bretton has had a streak of independence lately which for the most part I love. Such as he wants to make pancakes in the morning all by himself (which he can't successfully do it but he is learning). He also wants to pick out his clothes all by himself (I always set clothes out for my kids so they can get dressed by themselves in the morning). To this point there has been very little arguing about it he just puts them on (Vallie on the other hand is always concocting some outfit). Well, he is done with me picking out his clothes and thinks he can do a better job. So this is what he picked out this morning.

After I informed him that it doesn't match and he needs to change, he insisted they both have blue and they are both plaid. "Of course they match!" he said like I was crazy. This is one morning I am especially glad he doesn't leave the house for school.

The Kiss

2010-04-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Vallie tells me yesterday, "Jackson kissed me."

Now let me preface this by telling you Jackson is this oh so cute little boy in Vallie's primary class. They are in love and are getting married (or so they say).

Me: What?!

Vallie: Jackson kissed me! (while she says this she is just glowing in the back seat of the car)

Me: Where at?

Vallie: In our class.

Me: No, where at? Like on your cheek? (I asked hopefully)

Vallie: On my lips.

Me: Where was your teacher?

Vallie: He was right there but he didn't see cause Jackson kissed me really quick. Then I kissed him back really quick.

(Now I am thinking how do I even respond to this. We can't have two 4 year olds kissing in Primary class.)

Then Barry Bretton pipes in: That's real great Vallie! (said facetiously) Now you don't have a choice. Now you have to marry him.

At least one of my children understands there is no kissing until you are married!

Sunday clothes

2010-04-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

We have had a bout of sickness in the Bulow household so today is the first day I got all the children dressed in their Easter clothes. Don't they look beautiful!

Anyhow, I have a story about last Sunday. I stayed home from church with some of the kids, sick. Since it was the sabbath day and I still wanted the children to get something out of it, I decided to download the songs the children are learning in primary so we could listen to them while we lay around. No biggy cause you can just download them from lsd.org. Then his thought occurred to me, If I burn these onto a CD we can listen to them in the car or wherever. Great! Well any of you that know me really well know I am technology illiterate (really, I use to never use the Internet) which I am just fine with because Barry really covers that area in our household. I thought how hard could it really be. I am sure people with really low intellectual levels do it all the time. So I was determined to figure it out for myself. So I read through the help section of the burner to try to figure it out. Now I have a very short fuse for computers and things usually end in me slamming the mouse down and growling frustrated at the computer because the thing won't work. That is when Barry usually takes over and all is well.

Since it was Sunday and I am a church widow on Sunday's that was not an option. It wasn't all pretty and I had Barry Bretton in the background exclaiming every couple of minutes, "Will you just call Dad!" but I have to say I did it without Barry's help. I was so excited. I couldn't wait until he got home so I could show him what I had done. This was really something. I could be peaking on a whole new world of intelligence here. So when he got home I told him and I will quote what he said, "Welcome to the 1990's, babe!" Really! Have some people really known how to do this for almost 20 years? Needless to say, I am really proud of my accomplishment and I might just burn myself another CD.

Tribute to Dr. Seuss

2010-04-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

March marks the celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday and what adult and child alike doesn't love Dr. Seuss. For a school assignment, Barry Bretton worked on writing a tribute to Dr. Seuss. It is a little past March but here is a video for Grandmas and Grandpas (and anyone else who is interested in 1st grade poetry) of the finished product while sporting his homemade Cat in the Hat hat.

Our Alma Mater

2010-03-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is really the middle school Barry and I graduated from. My sister-in-law, who teaches in St. George, sent this to us. Fortunately, both Barry and I were "unsuccessful" according to the sign. Pine View Middle School sure has changed since we have been there;) Truly I am glad to see there are still naive children in the world (the kids who put the sign up thought STDS was a good abbreviation for STUDENTS).

Mr. GQ

2010-03-18T21:57:00.001-07:00

Check out Barry Bretton's new look. Doesn't he look dreamy!

We took the kids to what I thought would be a routine check up to the opthamologist only to find out Barry Bretton is near sighted and needs glasses. He is really excited about them and even got to picked out his glasses himself. Now he thinks he is just like Jack (His favorite character from The Magic Tree House series books. He even has the troublesome little sister:). He is finding great joy in truly seeing. You know how after the fact you connect the dots with things. BR and I have been doing this and wondering why we didn't pick up on it earlier (but to our defense his last eye appointment was normal). Such as, we would point out things to see while driving in the car and he could never spot them. We just assumed he was not looking in the right spot or how Vallie would always kill him playing Slug Bug. I just figured he was always reading in the back seat (which most of the time he is). He was so amazed he read every street sign on the way home from picking his glasses up today. He couldn't believe it! Seeing is such a gift.

This is his thinking pose!

Happy St. Patricks Day

2010-03-17T20:26:00.001-07:00

In Social Studies for the past couple weeks, we have been learning about "The Emerald Isle". Even the Scholastic News was on the history of St. Patrick's Day and Leprechauns which intrigued Barry Bretton. He thought if all he had to do to get a whole pot of gold was to catch a Leprechaun and get him to take him to the end of the rainbow he was guaranteed a pot of gold. Pleeeease, this is sooooo easy. So by himself, he devised a plan to trap a leprechaun. He found an old 2 liter 7-up bottle and filled it with 50 peas. He figured the green bottle would catch the leprechaun's eye and he figured since leprechaun's liked green, they would love peas. He figured 50 peas would give him enough time to trap the little guy inside by putting the lid on the top. SCORE! pot of gold, right? Well little did he know leprechauns are so mischievous. When he woke up this morning he found a note by his trap.

It read:

I see you left a trap for me

but I am too smart you see.

So now I am mad and have been quite bad

and left 3 green tricks for you little lad.

We leprechauns are way to quick

but never can resist a trick.

Find your 3 tricks and count them one, two, three

and I will be hiding and laughing as quiet as can be.

I also left a treat for you.

Run in your room and check your shoe.

Larry Leprechaun

All the kids had chocolate gold coins in there shoes.Trick 1- That crazy leprechaun spread green grass all over the house. We could even hear him snickering when we were cleaning it up.

Trick 2- He took all the green fruit loops out of the Fruit Loops box and spread them all over the table. He even put a green bowl full of green fruit loops for each child. Trick 3- He colored the milk green and even left a trail of peas going out the back door.

Well this little lad is determined not to let a leprechaun out wit him. Now that he knows what he is dealing with he has a no fail plan for next year. He says he has a few tricks up his sleeve and a trap that will never fail. It has something to do with a sensor attached to an electromagnet which will trigger an invisible cage (this little guy cracks me up). All the leprechaun has to do is walk in the house. All I know is Larry Leprechaun or one of his little buddies better pull out the big guns next year.

It's the simple things in life...

2010-03-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Simple things always keep my children's attention the best. For some reason the oven light in our old house never would work but it does here (this could just about be my favorite feature about this house and yes I am saying this cheeky because most of you know I can't wait to be out of here)! My children can find few things more pleasurable then watching their favorite treats cooking in the oven. They will sit and watch the entire cooking duration with their little faces pressed up to the glass. Gives whole new meaning to watching the grass grow.

Easter Sewing

2010-03-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

Every year since Vallie has been born I have made an Easter Dress for her. Well here is the finished product for 2010! I just HAD to try it on her today because I couldn't wait until Easter! I went with a tu-tu theme this year since she is so into dancing. Now I have to hide it away for 2 weeks, Ughhh (that is the problem with getting things done early).

I am just throwing this out there for anyone who might be interested. I bought a whole bolt of tulle because I wasn't sure how much I would use. I have half a bolt left (just enough for one more dress) and would love to use it up because I have no place to put it in this house. So if any of you would like a replica of this dress for a little one, I am at your service. The dress can be size Child S (5/6) or smaller and I would charge $35. Just leave me a comment saying you want it and I will get right on it.

I had to add a picture with Vallie in it cause the hanger just doesn't do it justice.

PS-The dress is sold!

Matching Aprons

2010-03-09T16:02:00.001-08:00

I have been a terrible blogger lately. So I have tons to catch up on over the next little bit.

For Vallie's birthday (yes I know her birthday is in December:), my sister made her an apron that matches mine and mailed it to her. Can I just say Vallie was in heaven. Not only did she get an oh so cute apron and thinks she is so big because it matches mine but she got a package in the mail. The excitement immediately initiated a cookie baking session. Love it! Thanks, Kel.

This is for my sisters

2010-03-08T13:47:00.001-08:00

We are having tacos for dinner! (Sorry inside joke for the rest of you that are not my sisters)

Just wanted you to know we really are having tacos for dinner and I never have tacos without thinking about you two. Hope you have a great day!

PS-Do you know where the jewel is?

Brahm turns 2!

2010-02-15T15:30:00.001-08:00

This sweet little thing just turned 2. I can't believe how time has flown yet I can't remember life without him. Both sets of Grandparents and cousins came down to celebrate the day with a BBQ, cake and ice cream. It was great! Here are some picture of the day and a few flashbacks.

The cake he picked out all by himself (of course it had to be a basketball cake)

Legos because he wants to be just like his brother.

Opening presents

When we finally got to take him out of the NICUnit (I know I am a wreck:) It was a really long week. I can't imagine parents who have their children in there for a long time.)
Sleeping peacefully at home
loving his daddy
learning to crawl up stairs

Other interesting facts you may not know about Brahm!

He seems quite and shy but at home it is a whole new story
He still likes me to carry him everywhere
Everything tastes better off his mothers plate so I always have a buddy on my lap for meals
He is very determined
He potty trained himself and has been completely out of diapers for 2 months now
He loves the colors orange and yellow
He loves his grandpa and almost every morning when he wakes up askes me, "Is Grandpa here today?"
His favorite part of the day is when daddy comes home
He lives for his brother and sister, showers, balls, outside, coloring, fruit snacks, yogurt, dogs, music, daddy dates, and airplanes.

Bulow Bobsled Team

2010-02-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

We love the olympics!

Is anyone else so excited?

Only 11 more days till opening ceremonies

which at our house is like a holiday.

I must admit I do like summer better than winter

(who doesn't) but there is just something

magical about the olympics.

Look who's 4!

2010-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

Vallie is now officially four. I just love this age. She is my little helper and is now really big enough to "help" and do stuff all by herself. She had a great birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Bulow came all the way to Las Vegas to take her out to lunch which she just thought was fabulous.

Here are some other things about Vallie. My mom gave her this Shirley Temple movie for her birthday. Vallie loves Shirley Temple. My mom introduced her to Shirley cause my mom thinks she looks and acts a little like Shirley Temple. I couldn't get her to look at the camera for this picture but she loves singing, "Goodship Lollipop."
These next two pictures pretty much sum Vallie up. She can be a little bit timid at times. Like how she is all nervous about the candles being lit.
And then in the next second carefree and crazy.

Other things Vallie loves (in no particular order)-

PINK
PINK shoes
PINK dresses
PINK purses
Macaroni and Cheese but I draw the line at breakfast:)
Cats especially her stuffed one named Rajah
Ariel (although she has never seen The Little Mermaid)
Her Grandmas and Grandpas
Reading her books
Singing Karaoke
Cutting "coupons" (basically this consists of cutting anything she can get her hands on of paper like quality into little squares and then toting them around in her purse:)
Dresses and Skirts especially the ones that twirl good
"Straight hair" which can I say breaks my heart
Dancing
Taking baths
Playing house with Brahm in my closet
Swinging so high on swings it scares me
Flowers
Did I mention PINK

Vallie absolutely LOVES life and is almost always happy. We are so glad to have her bubbly personality in our home and she brings a light to it like no one else does.

Christmas

2010-01-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

I know I am a few week behind but I am posting about Christmas anyway. Christmas was great besides the fact I told Barry back in October if we were still in this house at Christmas time (which I thought there was no possible way we would still be here) I was not putting a tree up. Of course, I couldn't resist putting a tree up. What is Christmas without a tree and it was one of the best ever.The kids in their new Christmas PJ's. They were so excited they wanted to go to bed at 6:30.Santa brought the usual stockings full of candy, oranges and of course socks.A microphone for Vallie (which she rocks her little heart out to Taylor Swift)

A science kit for Barry Bretton (which if your kid loves legos and putting things together this thing is perfect. It is like SUPER LEGOS with electronic wires you can connect to make things like cranes, bridges, automobiles work static or mechanically. This company also make a pneumatic set for little older kids.)
and a Basketball hoop for the ball boy, Brahm.

He brought me a steam mop which I am loving with all the tile in this house and Barry a new temple bag.

Our talented grandparents made the kids the nicest gifts this year. Grandma Bulow made each of the children quilts with their names embroidered on them.

Grandpa Christensen made Barry Bretton and Brahm each a horse to ride and shotgun to shoot.

Even BR had to get in on the horse riding action.

Grandpa Christensen made Vallie a bed for her dolls which you can see all her cats taking a little nap on right behind her.

Grandpa Bulow made this little train for Brahm.

Our children have some of the most loving and talented Grandparents in the whole world. I know all these gift took so much love and effort to make and they will be cherished for many years to come.

Other things they got were church clothes, church shoes, legos, car ramps, a flashlight (Vallie hates the dark), and scripture cases.

With all the Christmas unwrapping to do, all Brahm wanted was to eat Mama's homemade orange rolls (a man after my own heart). I think he ate three straight before wanting to open anything. That will put some weight on this kid:) We also had the missionaries and a family Barry and I home teach over for Christmas dinner that night. We really had a great day!

Suggestion to toy makers

2009-12-31T10:36:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Christmas this year which I will post more about later but I have a great suggestion for toy companies. Vallie's Grandma and Grandpa gave her this cute little vacuum for Christmas this year. It has been played with constantly. My children have even all fought over who is going to vacuum the floor next. This little toy has seen more usage in the past week than my vacuum has seen in the whole year combined.

So here lies my suggestion. Could you possibly make one of these oh so cute little vacuums in working order? Do you realize how clean my floors would be? I have tried to get them to push the real vacuum around and for some reason they do not find the enjoyment in it:) Yet they spend hours pushing this one around by choice. Are all you toy companies afraid of child labor law suits? I promise most mothers would enjoy and even stand in line to get a toy like this for their children. Oh and by the way, let's not just stop at vacuums. How about child size and working dishwashers, laundry machines, lawn mowers....the list could go on and on. We are talking about a billion dollar toy industry people. So whenever you get around to making a whole line of child size, working cleaning products know I will be a spokesperson.

Goal accomplished (somewhat)

2009-12-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

I made the goal last year to be able to a play a hymn out of the real hymn book by the time the year ended. I have practised (pretty faithfully) when I can throughout the year and I am reporting that I can play quit a few hymns now. Last night, there was a baptism in the ward and I actually played the prelude because the pianist was running really late (all the time I was praying she made it for the opening song:). I did okay. Nothing to write home about but defiantly worth a blog post.

But now I am in a pickle. I am afraid I am no longer a closet pianist anymore since a member of the bishopric and RS presidency were there and both went out of their way to say, "I didn't know you played the piano." I quickly tried to say that I am in the learning stages and still need lots of work:) They tried to convince me it was beautiful so I think I smell trouble since our ward is really lacking pianist.

Busy Times

2009-11-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

November is always busy for me. So here is a quick update to catch up everyone since I have been lax at blogging lately.

I have been canning like crazy which has been an adventure since all of my house is STILL in boxes but when fruit is cheap you have got to can:) I have gotten a bunch of apples and blackberries put away for the year.

My love turned 34! He is officially in his mid-thirties which may I say I tease him about endlessly. Mid-thirties just seems to be so old when you are only 30:)

We also celebrated our 11 year anniversary this week. Love you, babe!

Barry Bretton and Vallie had their primary program for church. This one was Vallie's first being a Sunbeam. She and Barry Bretton both did great and had their part memorized.In school we have been studying about Native Americans. So here they are transformed into Indians which may I add doesn't take much since they are usually renegades:)

It is also Barry Bretton's birthday. This year he actually had a friend party. He has been saying forever he wants a science party. So we did lots of science experiments and had lots of fun. I forgot to take lots of pictures so here are a few.This is his cake. I know a am not a great cake maker but it is suppose to be a volcano.

Here are some of the scientists make molecules.

Some of the scientist posing for a picture.

And through all of this can anyone tell me what Brahm is freaking out about all the time? Watch the video for the surprise (Pardon me laughing and tormenting him. I just had to catch it on video for proof after I figured out what brought the fits on). Sorry the video is sideways.

Aaahhhhh...that fells much better!

Apparently, Brahm is done with diapers. Now if only I could convince myself to be done with diapers. I always potty train my kids before they are 2 but the plan was to wait until after the holidays. The hustle and bustle of the holidays and a newly potty trained child mix like oil and water so I have been trying to put it off. I took this video about 2 weeks ago and since then he has learn to pull his pants off and remove his diaper which has brought his fits to a whole new level of excitement. Much to my reluctance I may be potty training this child in the next coming weeks just to keep my sanity.

Beware of the Bulow house

2009-11-07T19:17:00.001-08:00

This has been one of those draining days that every mother loves:) The stomache flu is at full swing at our house. All the kids have it and I have managed to get covered in throw up seven times today. Not to mention the times it luckily hit couches, beds, and floors:) Today I am very grateful for healthy children and can't wait until I have three healthy children back and about again. Until then, I am grateful for bleach, laundry machines, carpet cleaners, spray nozzles on sinks, and locks on bathrooms (to have a quite, crying moment to myself for a minute:) Really, motherhood can be so hard sometimes.

Finally!!

2009-10-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

Many of you know I have been in the market for a new fridge/freezer lately because there isn't a chance I can fit anything more that a slice of cheese in the one I have right now. It is just jam packed full. Well we finally bit the bullet (and when I say we I mean Barry) and bought a second fridge! We got it at Sam's Club (Vallie's and my favorite store) on Serene this evening. It is a GE and is pictures above. Any guesses on how much this beaut cost today which is normally priced at Sam's for $1225?.....Can you believe $637! and the better news is that there is one more left. So if you are in the market for a fridge RUN over there. It is the floor model so they told me they would even bring the price lower (as if the price wasn't good enough already). We are talking in the $500 range for a clean stainless steel, 25.4 cubic sq.ft. fridge. Hip Hip Hooray!

Turning lemons into lemonade!

2009-10-27T13:20:00.001-07:00

Every so often I find a product that I don't know how I lived before I had it. Well this my latest and greatest.

My mom gave me this old fashioned citrus press for my birthday. Can I just say that I am obsessed with it! I have no idea where you can buy one cause I tried to find a picture of one on the Internet before I took this cheesy picture myself and I couldn't find one sold in any store online (my mom said she got it at Williams Sonoma). My mom told me when she gave it to me her mother use to have one just like it. She thought she and all of her girls needed one. Well, for the past month I have been a lemonade making machine. I literally try to find recipes that call for lemons, limes, or oranges just so I can us it. I am contemplating growing a lemon tree in my back yard just so I can have more fresh lemons to juice. It is that great! So if you happen to see one of these funny little contraptions in a store near you pick it up for you and all your loved ones too. You will not be disappointed and if you are still skeptical about it, stop on by. I would love to put my citrus squeezing talents to good use by making more lemonade for friends. Just think, you too can become a lemonade making machine.

Fancy Vallie

2009-10-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

For all of you children's literature lovers, I think the Fancy Nancy books are just fabulous. I also think Jane O'Connor has a bug in my house to watch Vallie in order to come up with her next book. Vallie is so fancy (truly I have no idea where she gets that from:).

Anyhow, I have been trying to get my Christmas shopping done and almost have my children done except for Vallie. I ask Vallie what she wants for Christmas and it is always some crazy thing that doesn't exist. For instance this morning I asked her what she wants for Christmas this year and she replies, "A magic tomato that can turn into either a wand, a glove, or a trophy." Honestly, come on now! How about a doll or a Barbie? So I was wondering, do any of you mothers of sassy girls have some great gift suggestions for a fancy, imaginative almost 4 year old.

Doesn't her outfit today just speak for itself. Those pink cowboy boots are hand me downs that I basically have to pry off her (at least today they match).

House Update: Today marks the 3 month mark for the seller's accepting our offer and still no news from the bank:)

I Love Fall

2009-10-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Any guesses to what can keep a 1 and 3 year old actively engaged, sitting with their feet out the back door for just over an hour?

Pomegranates!

These little ones love promegranates and sat for a great part of the day picking them apart outside. I love fall! Fall brings some of my favorite things: pomegranates, chilly air, caramel apples, beautiful colors, sour cream cookies, Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), and cleaning clothes drawers out to get ready for sweaters. Hooray for Fall!

Economics 101 (Vallie Style)

2009-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Barry Bretton had his first economics lesson today (which may I add made his Dad proud since that is his field). In the lesson, he was suppose to understand the vocabulary words: goods, products, services, consumer, needs and wants. Vallie always listens to what is going on. So I am asking them to tell me if an occupation provides a service or a good. Our conversation went like this:

Mom: Does a mailman provide a good or a service?
Barry Bretton: A service

Mom: Does a baker provide a good or a service?
Barry Bretton: A good

I asked them about five more before I asked them...

Mom: Does Barack Obama, the President of the United States, provide a good or a service?
Vallie quickly responses: A bad!

I swear we don't even talk about Barack Obama much but there you go. Out of the mouth of babes:)

These Boots Are Made For Walking

2009-09-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

Because of my love for oldies, I had to do a shout out to Nancy Sinatra for this post.

Last week, Brahm hurt his foot trying to walk in adult size tennis shoes. My first thought was that it was broken but I was calmed down quickly that it was probably just a sprain. After all mother always overreact. Well he limped around on it for a week trying not to put weight on it. So I made an appointment with our favorite Podiatrist, Dr. Wood to see if there was something more serious. I found out a couple of things on my visit. 1. Babies feet are still mostly made up of cartilage so if there is a fracture in the foot there is little way to see it on a X-ray and 2. Fractures in babies heal in about 2 weeks. So anyway, Brahm is in this little boot for the next little while to try to help him walk better.This is what I have been seeing alot of lately. Him hanging on me, wanting me to carry him everywhere. Poor little thing and poor mommy!Barry Bretton also had his first piano recital this past week. He did terrific. He played four songs the first one we blanked out 3 notes from the end and didn't know what to do:( When he sat down he said, "All those people looking at me made me really nervous. I couldn't remember my song." But he killed the next three songs and was so proud of himself.

These last two pictures I just thought were so cute. Even Brahm is totally trying to get into school. They grow up way to fast.

School

2009-09-08T20:35:00.001-07:00

I have had a few people ask how exactly Barry Bretton's school works. To be quite honest, at first I didn't know what I was in for but he is now in this third week of school so I think I am getting the hang of things. So here is the low down about his school. It is a charter school which means it is a publicly funded school which tries to meet the needs of a group of children. This one specializes in distance education so it is all done in the home setting. The parent is the main teacher on a day to day basis. Each child is assigned a certified teacher who meets with Barry Bretton and I once a week for an hour. In this hour block, she records all of his test scores, reviews over his assignment which he did the week before, gives him a pop quiz, reads with him, and gives me the curriculum for the next week. All of the teachers are school district certified and have 18 student in their class anywhere from K to 8 grade. If I every have a question I can call, email, or text message (if I had a cell phone) anytime to have her assist me. All of his tests and quizzes are done on a program on the computer.

It is going well. It is alot of HARD work especially with Brahm and Vallie so little still. School and learning basically consumes most of our day which I am happy about because we have alot of fun doing it together. Now trying to fit daily life things (ie. grocery shopping, visiting teaching) into the picture is a challenge. Hopefully it will become easier as time goes on. I do like the fact that I can play a major role in our children's education yet I still have the school district and a teacher to guide me to make sure I don't miss anything. That is one of my major fears about homeschooling- totally missing something essential to know. Another thing I love is that we start each day with the pledge of allegiance, prayer, and a devotional (gasp, I know way out of line) and liken secular learning to spiritual learning. Barry Bretton loves it. I asked him which one he likes better: a traditional classroom setting or school from home and he said, "that is a tuffy....hummmm.....Both." He misses seeing his friends everyday but he like staying at home and learning with this program. It really is alot of fun. Vallie wants to do it all the time. So she shadows me around all day absorbing everything. We even started her on their reading program because she was basically doing it anyway. She read her first book to me today and she was over the moon about it (the book only had 7 words in it but hay, she did it). The picture above and below are of his computer and workspace BR set up for him to do his stuff on. Notice Vallie sharing the chair while he is playing a reading game. He does tons of worksheets a day so I have started little preschool worksheets for Vallie to do when he is writing and whatnot. She thinks she is so BIG. She carries them around with her all day writing in her "journal". It is really cute to see.

All in all we are doing really well. I am trying to keep organized so house, home and family all run smoothly. Sometimes I feeling like I am going back to school a little bit. I can't tell you the last time I thought about dissecting a simple sentence into subject and predicate, only capitalize proper nouns, or how exactly to teach fractions but so far so good:) I am just thankful it is not Geometry proofs yet. I swear I have not used that a day past 9th grade Geometry and the day I have to teach that is the day I am in trouble:)

P.S- Still no news on the house!

August Update

2009-08-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well here is a long overdue August Update.

New happenings with Barry Bretton:

He is officially done with Kindergarten. He said his highlights of the year were Mrs. Barlow (she is fabulous) and when his mom came to help in the classroom (Aaawwwe). What a sweetie!

He will now be moving on to 1st Grade, Yippee! I am really excited/nervous for this new year to start. He starts school on Tuesday. I am nervous because we are trying something new this year for school. Since he will have to attend two different elementary schools this year, Barry and I decided to enroll him in a Charter school so he would not have to switch schools in the middle of the school year. I am nervous because I will be teaching him at home. Most of you know I have wanted to home school for a while now and we are taking this year as an opportunity to test it out and see if this is the route we want to go with our families future. I am thrilled to say I know the teacher that has been assigned to work with us for the year (she is actually my old Stake Relief Society President). I almost cried when the office lady at the school told me she was the teacher assigned to us!

Warning!

If you come to the Bulow's house please watch your boys carefully. Vallie is trying her hand in fashion and she doesn't care on who. Your little man could sport something like this:

Or Heaven forbid, something like this:

Doesn't Brahm just look thrilled. Speaking of Brahm, he has hit two very important milestones this month. 1. He has started to attend nursery (or should I say WE have started to attend nursery)! Really I don't want to talk about it much cause it is not going well at all but picture this: as soon as we cross the threshold of the nursery door his arms and legs become permanently super glued to my neck/body. Hopefully he will get the hang of this soon. 2. He got the okay to turn his car seat to the forward facing position! I know he is almost 19 months old but his doctor asked me to keep him facing in the rear position until he got some more weight on those little bones. Sitting forward has made our most recent road trip very enjoyable.

I took the kids camping with my parent for a week. Barry couldn't take a week of vacation off so he met us up there on Friday. We had so much fun. Nothing is better than eating breakfast by a campfire in a pink chair and playing all day outside. Vallie was in heaven!

We even did some hiking
Brahm "swam" in the dirt. So on about day three he had to have a bath.
Barry Bretton was determined to catch some squirrels. He made a "trap" and actually caught quite a few rodents all of which he let go. I swear he did this for hours.

House news:
I can be very superstitious and I haven't wanted to say anything to anyone cause I think it will jinx it but we have been in contract with this house for just over a month now. We are crossing our fingers that everything works out in the crazy Las Vegas market and getting this house. It is just taking FOREVER and may take FOREVER more, who knows? I certainly don't at this point since returning phone calls is just way to much to ask. But here is a picture of the house and if any of you happen to be the agent for Countrywide over getting this house on the fast track to being closed I make some pretty mean Orange Rolls:)

There is always one in every picture

2009-07-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

First I have to apologize for being a crapy blogger lately. Not because we have had nothing going on to blog about. Mostly becuase we have been crazy busy and I haven't taken the time to sit down and write.
Anyway, the school year is coming to an end which means class picture time. So here is Barry Bretton's Kindergarten class. Can you spot him? He is the goofy one in the top right corner. I know there is always one goofy looking kid in the class but I feel bad it is Barry. So I asked Barry Bretton, "Why is the world are you smiling like that?" He response was, "I was trying to smile my best smile but they were taking forever." So anyway talk about break my heart. At least we will always have this picture to remind us:)

Also to all you moms out there that have children in school, does it get any easier? I mean, everyday I take Barry Bretton to school and everyday I drop him off and watch to see if he gets in the gate safely and everyday I get all misty eyed and start to cry. Really now, I don't consider myself a baby that cries over everything but come on, the school year is almost over and everyday I still cry? I know school is great and he absolutely loves his teacher and attending class but am I just the biggest nerd or do any of you have this problem? Honestly, this is kindergarten and he is gone a whole 2.5 hours every morning. I can't imagine what a wreck I am going to be when he leaves on his mission (it brings a whole new admiration for all those missionary moms out there). Any pointers? I think I just worry to much.

As for house shopping, it really takes up way to much time. We have put a few offers in on a few houses but no takers yet. We have one offer on a short sale home that we heard back from the bank today saying there were a few offer and for everyone to submit there final and best offer. Can I just say that is completely annoying. Why waste my time? I already submitted my FINAL and BEST offer a month ago thank you. So anyhow we submitted the same exact offer....again (we should have submitted a lower one just out of spite) although the house is beautiful I am not holding my breath. Banks and the house buying process are really starting to get on my bad side. I mean how hard is it to look at a fact sheet and see which offer has the best bottom line. Really does it take a month? Only to start the process over again. Come on people! So SOMEDAY we might get into a home again.

Update

2009-07-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Our house is officially closed. It took just over twenty day to complete the whole process from listing to closing and packing a house in between, CRAZY! We are renting the cutest little house over in Southern Highlands that we rented sight unseen. My sister told me over the phone she would live there so I said, "Great, we will take it." Barry and I are both pleasantly surprised how cute this little house is apart from only three bedrooms. I know I am completely nuts but it is one story and anyone that knows me well knows I am petrified of someone kidnapping my children at night. So I have all three of them sharing the bedroom by ours so I can hear everything. Needless to say, the children think bed time is party time! I don't think they will ever want separate rooms again. We are grateful for this little place so we have time to figure out what to do in buying a house and where to go. The house we are in is out of the ward so I will be getting released which I have mixed emotions about. My calling has opened my eyes so much and stretch me in so many ways but I know Barry and I can and are willing to serve in whatever aspect, where ever we are. This week has been extremely hard and emotional keeping up with Relief Society and moving but I can safely say we are all settled and doing terrific.

Dad's Picture

2009-06-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

KSL in Salt Lake hold a photo contest for a calendar they make for the state of Utah every year. This photo of my Dad's is one of the 4 finalist for the picture of the month of June. Please click here and vote for my Dad's picture if you feel so inclined.

When it rains it pours!

2009-06-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well it has been pouring at the Bulow house for the past 2 weeks. Literally the past two weeks have been out of this world. I don't have time to tell all the details but we are moving....SATURDAY! Our house sold in two whole hours and it has been a miracle that we have found somewhere to rent on a month to month term while we find a new house to buy. Things have seemed to have fallen right into place so either this is all meant to be or Heavenly Father is going to teach us one giant lesson. We are thrilled to be able to sell our home in this terrible economy and take the little money we made on it to embark on a new adventure. But for now I have a house to pack and 3 days to complete it. Wish me luck!

Family Fishing

2009-06-14T20:51:00.001-07:00

So last Saturday Grandpa Barry took us out in his boat fishing. We had a great time and I even caught my first fish! Not that I have never gone fishing before, I just always did a whole lot of fishing and not alot of catching. So here is the Beaut!

Operation get the truck in the garage

2009-05-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

The heat is on in Vegas and we happen to have a smokey HOT black car. Although I love it, it is like a huge oven. Barry mentioned to me a long time ago that the Whittacre's could fit their Excursion in their garage. Well that was the wrong thing to say to one determined, hot women. So we spent all Saturday (much to Barry's dislike) cleaning out the garage. Now, I am embarrassed to say that it took us all day to conquer this task because the garage was in utter chaos. So sorry my picture is in the dark but it was dark by the time we were finished.

So you might ask, exactly how much room is there in the garage now that there is an Excursion parked in it? Not much! The picture on the left is the front bumper all but touching the front wall. The picture on the right is the two inches between the back bumper and the garage door. But hey, it is in and I have a super clean garage!

Piano Days

2009-05-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Barry Bretton has been taking Piano Lessons for the past couple of weeks. Here he is at his last lesson with his oh so wonderful teacher. He has what I like to call the Dory Syndrome when it comes to concentrating. You know Dory on Finding Nemo who get distracted over anything. That's him with piano. I swear it is like Ooohh, did you see that flash of light or Aaaaww, a speck of lint, it doesn't really take much for him to loose his focus. But he is practising everyday and he is improving. Hopefully he will be able to focus his attention here soon or I might go bald from pulling my hair out.

So I have learned my first Hymn, Hooray! Take a listen. Plus, I am close to being able to play a second one. But I am really nervous to play in front of people and when I make a mistake I have a hard time keeping on the beat without completely loosing it. But our ward is in desperate need for Piano players so hopefully I can pick it up quickly.

Finally, I was washing the dishes tonight while Vallie hopped up to the piano to "practise". She started to clap the notes and play the notes while trying to say the finger numbers. I thought Sister Jex would get a kick out of this so I ran up to grab my camera. I haven't done any piano with Vallie but obviously she is getting something from Barry Bretton's piano lessons.

We've got a first timer here!

2009-05-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Warning- The following commentary is not suitable for fairy loving minors.

Sunday afternoon I was away from home and Barry Bretton was eating an apple and kept telling BR he needed a toothpick cause something was caught in his tooth. Upon observation he noticed his permanent tooth had popped up behind his baby tooth and was making his tooth feel like there was something stuck behind it. The apple made his tooth really loose. When I got home BR told me to check it out. I took a last picture with all of his baby teeth still in and said, "Come on, lets rip that tooth out."

He was great about it and we had it out in no time. He couldn't believe he really lost his first tooth and was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. He wrote a note to the toothfairy which read:He tells me he can't wait because the toothfairy brings gum (apparently, Ashlyn and a few other friends mentioned the toothfairy brought them gum). Now we are not gum chewers at this house and he could care less about the money. All he wanted was gum. It was the sabbath and our toothfairy told me she was fresh out of gum. So what do you do? Can toothfairies break the sabbath day? Fortunately, our toothfairy borrowed a fresh pack of gum from a neighboring toothfairy who had plenty to spare! So he woke up Monday morning to a pack of gum and four quarters all from a couple of generous toothfairies.

While the cats away the mice will play

2009-05-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

So Father's and Son's is always a big deal at our house. BR's dad, Barry, always comes down and they go off all together. I think it is so important to have these bonding moments to build memories for everyone and learn together. But I have to admit I always felt a little bit cheated that the boys got to go out and have all this fun while I often stayed home with babies by myself and I hate being by myself. So I thought we girls needed a fun tradition we could do together. So I asked Vallie if she would like to host a Grandmothers Tea Party and invite them to come down for the weekend too. Fortunately, we live close enough to family that they can travel down to join us for these fun events. We had a blast. I asked each Grandma to bring something they loved to eat as a little girl to share with Vallie at our tea party. We did arts and crafts, watched a movie, and stayed up all night talking. I might even dare say we had a funner time than the boys. So here are some pictures of our Tea Party. These are our hats we made.Enjoying our Tea (aka-apple Juice) in our fancy hats.

An ugly picture of me but it was the only one so I had to post it.

Vallie using her fan we made. Next time we will have to remember the white gloves.
Vallie telling the Paparazzi, "Please, no photos".

Of course Brahm attended the girls night in because he is way to little in join the menfolk yet.
Here he is playing doctor with Grandma Christensen.

Enjoying his yorgurt. My little messy face:)

Chilling in his favorite place to sit.

Fishing Trip

2009-05-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

Barry was invited to go to Lake Powell with his father for a fishing trip. It was great for him to get away. They caught over 30 fish. Mostly small mouth bass with a few large mouth bass. This picture is of one of the small mouth he caught (Barry wanted to make sure I added the fish was "over 2 pounds which is a good size small mouth"). Barry was grateful for the invitation to go with his dad and he had a fantastic trip saying, "It was just like old times." I am just grateful he traveled home safely tonight. He never leaves much but when he does I am always paranoid something terrible is going to happen. We are glad to have you home!

Freezer, Yikes!

2009-05-04T20:31:00.001-07:00

Please tell me I am not the only person whose freezer looks like this! I thought every ones did until I had some "friends" over the other day laughing at me saying "Wow, I have never seen anything like this." This is where my mad Tetris skills come in handy to make sure the door shuts but it is organized chaos. I do know where everything is however it just might take a while to pull everything out to get to it. So you might ask what exactly do I keep in there? Well here are the essentials I always keep on hand:

Loaf of wheat bread

French Bread

frozen juice concentrate

bacon

sausage (logs and links)

Pepperoni

hamburger

chicken

roasts (pork & beef)

ice cream (of course)

hot dogs

cheese

Vegetables (peas, beans, corn, broccoli, peppers)

yeast

pie crust

cool whip

cream puffs (you never know when these come in handy:)

meatballs

french fries/tater tots

dinner rolls

emergency homemade dinners for "those" days

cinnamon rolls

strawberries

Popsicles

So my"dirty" little secret it out. I guess now that we have finally bought the piano we need to save for our next major purchase, a deep freeze:)

Flashback Friday

2009-04-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

I have had these two roles of film sitting on my counter for awhile. I always intend to take them to get developed when I leave to the grocery store but realize when I get there I have forgotten them, AGAIN. Well, I couldn't remember what was on the rolls but I finally remembered to take them to store the other day. Can anyone guess how long they sat on my counter for? 2 Years! So here are some highlights from the oldie but goodie rolls of film. Man, now I what am I going worry about forgetting to take to the grocery store now that the film is finally taken care of:)Vallie learning to crawl

Barry Bretton and his still favorite dog "Robin Hood"

Vallie's 1st Halloween (Octopus)

Barry Bretton's 4th Halloween (Prince Charming)

Vallie's 1st Birthday

All dressed up for Easter Sunday and Easter Egg Hunt

Foxtrot

2009-04-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

Do you all get the Sunday comics? We recently started taking the paper and Barry Bretton just loves the Sunday comics. He makes sure he reads every single one of them even though I know he doesn't understand them. I was looking at the comics with Barry Bretton and commented to BR, "I bet the Foxtrot one really says something if someone figured it out". Soon after I left for church and didn't think much more about it.

Meanwhile, Barry stayed home with the kids because they were all running fevers and I had meetings. Well apparently since they were sick and up most of the night. They slept all morning while I was gone. I came home to this (picture below). Yes, Barry figured out all of the math equations. What a goof! but I have to say I am a little proud. I don't think I can remember all that math. I just thought it was hilarious that he took all that time to figure out all the math problems. Well anyway if you didn't take the time to figure it out it says-PAIGE FOX IS BAD AT MATH. Just in case you were wondering:)

Calling all T-birds

2009-04-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have to do a shout out to my Flippin' Birds at SUU today. I am not sure if many of you know but I was the assistiant gymnastic coach at SUU for 3 years before I "retired" at the ripe age of 23 so I could be a stay at home mom. I was their beam and floor coach. I miss gymnastics a ton so Barry and I follow my T-birds faithfully every year. SUU gymnastics always finishes in the top 30 in the Nation every year which is huge for this "little" school since they compete against schools like UCLA, U. of Utah, Georgia, and Stanford. But today they made school history. One of their gymnast finished 6th in the NCAA on beam and was named an All-American. Coach Bauman said the crowd really got behind her cause she was an underdog coming from such a little program. I just had to share my excitement and hope this slingshots SUU's gymnastics program to new heights. Also, if you happen to be a Level 10/Elite Gymnast and are reading this, look into SUU. You will be pleasantly surprised!

88 Keys!

2009-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

After saving for FOREVER we have finally purchased our first piano! I know your next thought. Does Tara Bulow play the piano? NO, not really (but if it would get me out of my current calling I might take it up really fast :) Only kidding, I had lessons for 5 years when I was younger but was always really grumpy about it so I am not good. Actually I think I just about gave my mother a heart attack when I told her we bought one because she was so shocked (I really fought her tooth and nail about lessons and I a completely sorry about it). One of my goals for the year is to be able to play A hymn (yes that is ONE hymn) by Christmas. So I have a far way to go. Barry and I have both been involved in music since we were young and both think it is so important to have good music in the home and for our children to be able to read and play music. The kids are so excited about the piano too and play it all day long. It has made Spring Break fly by. Barry Bretton can't wait to start lessons but he already thinks he is a concert pianist and has composed 3 songs. I swear this kids knows everything:) Anyway, the picture below pretty much sums up our Spring Break. We hope there are many more years of this piano bringing our family together in years to come.

Jury Summons

2009-04-09T19:45:00.001-07:00

I received my first ever Jury Summons in over 10 years of being a registered voter. In some ways I think it is great to be able to serve America in this small gesture. I mean there are people out there who risk their whole life for the freedom of our country. Certainly I can give up one day or so in service to this wonderful nation, right? But in others ways I find it irritating that Barry has to take an unpaid leave from work to be able to stay home with the kids after all stay at home moms can't just call in a substitute.

I just find it humorous the day it showed up in the mailbox. I had my annual OB/GYN appointment and usually I just trek all three kids with me there, no big deal. However, Barry Bretton in getting to the age where that is weird and I know he would ask a whole bunch of questions that I just don't want to address at his age so I asked BR if he would take a lunch to come home and watch the kids for me. I have NEVER done this! He graciously said yes and I went on my merry way to the doctor. Now, I know I have written before that Brahm loves his mom. Well that is an understatement. I truly think this little guy thinks he is a part of me and is incomplete without me. I mean he is literally attached at the hip and makes it known that he is not happy without me. I can't put him down without him thinking his little world is ending. So I come home to one unhappy little man and to find a jury summons in the mailbox. Barry says he didn't cry the WHOLE time, he did fall asleep for a little while:) Anyhow, that will be one interesting day. I sure hope Brahm (and Barry Ryan for that matter) survive and heaven forbid what would happen if I actually got selected.

Mmmmm....Cherries

2009-04-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

So it is almost Easter and I always make Vallie an Easter dress. This is one of those years that I am glad I only have one little girl so there is only ONE Easter dress to sew (due to time of course). With that in mind and having no idea of what to make I ran to the fabric store to feel some inspiration. I ran into this oh so yummy cherry fabric and had to scope it up. Now I have to confess because I totally cheated this year. You see this delicious fabric was already smocked and the dress took me all of 20 minutes to do (that is why it was so yummy). After finishing it, I feel completely guilty cause I know I cheated. In order to make myself feel a little better I made her a matching pair of shoes like somehow that would fix the dress. So here is Vallie's "Not So Typical Vallie" Easter Dress and matching Ballet Slippers.

Our "little"man

2009-03-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and so is one of my favorite chores! I love to clean out drawers, put winter clothes away and break out the new spring/summer clothes. Truly it is one of my favorite chores maybe because I can see an end result (not like cleaning the windows to find 3 pairs of sticky hand prints all over them) or maybe because I just love clothes:)

Anyhow, I have been getting out Barry Bretton's old clothes for Brahm. However I have failed to blog before that Brahm is tiny. I mean, I have no idea where this kid came from. All of my other babies were pleasantly plump by the age of 4 months. No, not Brahm. At his twelve month check up, his doctor was really concerned when he didn't even make it on the chart for weight and height. He was in the ZERO percentile and sent me to a specialist to help him gain weight. So they put him on a diet. Basically the diet is anything that is fat, feed it to him. You know like put a scoop of Vanilla ice cream in his milk cup, melt a stick of butter over everything, or cover everything with cheese. If he wants a Milky Way bar for breakfast, Great! Feed him three, you get the picture. Well, he is successfully weighting in at 18lbs after 2 months on the diet. WHOO HOO! So I just had to take a picture of his saggy old britches that I have to roll over to get them to stay up because I just can't believe it. Oh yeah, and these short are his same ones from last summer. Check out the tag, 9M. Man do I wish I could give him 10 of my spare pounds.

If kids really knew what they were saying

2009-03-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I thought this was funny because I usually find crude things just plain repulsive but Barry and I couldn't help but chuckle tonight when we were listening to the kids play.

Barry Bretton was playing with a long ribbon tonight whipping it around. After a while, he turns to Vallie and says, "Here, you hold this side of the ribbon. Let's play Tug a Whore!"

Now this simple childhood game of "tug of war" will never be the same.

Feeling Sentimental

2009-03-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

So like I said we got our family pictures back and pictures always make me so sentimental. So I wanted to post some of my favorites (hold on cause there is a whole bunch) and add some sayings I have really come to know since becoming a mother. Isn't it funny that as a teenager I knew everything and as a mother I know so very little. My children are always my best teachers. P.S.-Thanks Krista, you are awesome.Sometimes you need a shoulder to lean on. Kisses always make things better.
There is always someone watching over you who you seldom know is there.
Little feet are always close by.Two heads are usually better than one.
You have to travel the straight and narrow and cling to the iron rod with everything you've got.
Sometimes the best thing that happens is nothing.
When you have had enough, being carried along by those you love is sometimes necessary.
Life can be so scary but you have got to hold on.
Never bite off more than you can chew.
One great leader is all you need.
Traveling life's roads with those you love make the roads seem shorter.

Favorites of Barry Bretton

Favorites of Vallie

Favorites of Brahm

Family Favorites

What black eye?

2009-03-10T00:55:00.001-07:00

Yeah we got our pictures back! I will post more when it is not 1:00 in the morning (truly what is the world am I doing up) and have a second but they turned out great. I can't what to post them but I just had to show you all how amazing Krista/Photography is that it can just pretend that it not even there.

Super Great Find

2009-03-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

Friday night we had little to do so we decided to wander through Target to see if we could find anything. Well, I sure am glad we did! We found the best deal. They had mens suits on clearance. We found 2 suits for $74.92. Yes, that is $37.46 each. Wow, I couldn't believe my eyes and the best part about it was they fit perfectly so I didn't even have to alter them. What Luck! He actually got lots of complement on his new $37 suit at church today (he wore the brown one) and he wears a suit every Sunday. Really the are pretty nice. They are 100% wool! So if you live close, go and see if they have anymore left.

Are you kidding me!

2009-02-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

I know you moms out there can feel my pain. Here we are one day away from our family picture and CRASH! a big old shinner to the eye. I just knew this would happen. I mean, why don't kids get bumps and bruise to like a foot or their bottom. I have had this date on the book for a month now since we were unable to book with the photographer before Christmas. I slapped some Arnica on is as fast as I could (thanks Karen) but this is what is looks like with my crappy camera 2 hours after impact. I can't imagine how detailed it will look on a nice close up with a professional camera. So Krista I hope you have some great editing program or I guess we can only take picture of the right side of his face:)

Dining Room

2009-02-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

Yeah! everything is basically back in place. It really took alot longer than I figured but I did have three kids to HELP (I think that is what you call it) and some of the busiest times I have had yet with Relief Society so I am glad I got this far. We have basically finished the dining room so here are some before and after shots.

I made curtains and painted the wall brown (same as the bathroom) however it is hard to see because the sun is beaming in the window.

I painted the table, chairs and the hutch black. Moved the clock to the living room and placed what Barry likes to call my Modern Art Piece in its place. Replaced the plant on the hutch with some vases.

Hung pictures of the Las Vegas and St George temple plus the Proclamation. Painted our Family Home Evening Board to match the wall but I am waiting for the vinyl for it and a wooden ordainment that is going in the square in the middle.

Here is a picture of the tile plus the base boards Barry and I put in.

I reupholstered the chairs and added a thick plastic so little hands would not wipe spaghetti sauce or other fun things on them. Yeah! We are no so much more kid friendly around this joint. It brings a whole new meaning not to cry over spilled milk. I have loved just wiping up messes with a rag. What a luxury!

Family Photos

2009-02-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

We are getting our family photos done next week which I am thrilled about cause it has been an awful long time. Our photographer asked us where we want to have the photos taken.....I am stuck. Anyone out there had a successful place to take family photos here is Vegas?