Me, according to Olivia...

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
"Come here, Liv!"
2. What makes your mom happy? "When I obey you."
3. What makes your mom sad? "When I throw a fit."
4. How does your mom make you laugh? "By tickling me."
5. What was your mom like as a child? "You looked like me."
6. How old is your mom? "Right now? Um.. 31?" (she's right!)
7. How tall is your mom? (she's measuring me with her hands right now...) "20 feet long"
8. What is your mom's favorite thing to do? "Type on the computer."
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "Talk on the phone."
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "A child carrier" (???)
11. What is your mom not really good at? "Playing games... because you never win!" (Hmmm...)
12. What is your mom very good at? "Driving!" (Thank you very much!)
13. What does your mom do for her job? "A substitute teacher."
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Meatloaf."
15. What makes your mom proud of you? "When I do good work at school!"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "Spongebob!"
17. What do you and your mom do together? "Play games"
18. How are you and your mom the same? "We both like eggs!"
19. How are you and your mom different? "You are bigger than me."
20. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? "The mall! And BJ's." (Pretty darn accurate.)
21. How do you know your mom loves you? "Because you hug me and kiss me!"

Memorable Moment

It's 8pm at night, Brennen has been laying in bed already for a half an hour.

"Mama? Mama?"

"Yes, Bren?" coming down the hall

"I need a drink..."

(Got the drink, even though I know he's stalling.)

"Go to sleep, Bren."

5 minutes pass...

"Mama? MAMA?"

"What, Brennen?"

"I need a tissue!"

"Okay, here... Go to sleep Brennen!"

10 minutes pass... (Of course I think he's sleeping by now.)

"MAMA! MAAAAMMAAAA!"

"WHAT, BRENNEN NATHAN! No more talking!
I'm not getting you anything else! What IS it?"

whispers:
"Can you wuv me just a tiny bit?"

Silent pause.... Guilt.... Adoration.... LOVE...

Sigh.

"Yes, Brennen, I will love you for a tiny bit."

So, I cuddle him and he falls asleep in one minute.
And I get one more undisturbed minute to stare at his three year old face.
I love him to the moon and back.

January trip to the mountains

This January we took a trip to the "snow" with our Grammy and Grampy, Nate's parents, and Scott and Lin. We also got to spend lots of fun time with Nolan and Kenna! Even though I was really hoping to find a big hill of snow for our kids to sled down, there was hardly any snow and it just rained most of the time we were there. We did manage to find a small patch of icy snow a little distance from our cabin, so that's where these pictures came from.

Olivia LOVED the snow, of course. If she could have buried herself in it, she would have. Liv is always adventurous and unconcerned for how dirty her clothes are getting. But she sure does have fun with whatever she is doing... like making the world's smallest snowman!

Brennen on the other hand hates things out of order, is unnervingly clean, and just isn't that adventurous right off the bat. He was unsure of the snow and downright perturbed about his freezing cold feet. He only sat on the sled to be pulled by Nate for a minute, then HAD to go back to warm up his feet. Fun.

This is a video of Nolan's first sled ride and it didn't go so well... (sorry it's sideways!)

Overall, we had tons of fun playing dominoes, eating constantly at the camp's cafeteria, and just hanging out with our family. And hopefully Nolan won't hate snow from now on!

My Valentine

This post today is inspired by my friend, Lindsay W., aka. the "Lindsanator." (She can be found at Wags on the Web.) She was inspired by our speaker this week at MomSpace and decided to post 10 things she loves about her husband for Valentine's Day. I thought this would be fun, so here I go...

TOP TEN REASONS I LOVE NATE

1. He works hard for the money... so hard for me honey...! I'm not sure if those are the right lyrics, but it is true of Nate. He gets up early to drive over an hour to work and spends his days staring at a computer screen and talking on the phone, which we all know guys hate.

2. He is clean. I'm not talking about around the house, although he is great about cleaning the house after I have gone somewhere for a weekend. I mean his body. He is meticulous about taking care of himself and I am glad for that. Who likes dirty fingernails or stinky pits?

3. He is a player. No, not that kind of player... He plays with our kids. He is a really, really, really good daddy and our kids adore him. I think the thing they love the most about him is that he is always willing to play with them. They ride skateboards, do Wii games, and wrestle on the ground. He compensates for my lack in this department, so I am grateful for this quality.

4. He is really funny. I mean really funny. He has already been able to make me laugh, and 11 years later he still can.

5. He keeps my car very clean. Although this used to be a source of annoyance for me because of the length of TIME it took to do it, now I see it as a labor of love and I rarely hassle him for anymore. I love that I never have to wash the car, vacuum the seats, or clean the windows.

6. He brushes my hair when I need him to. I LOVE to have my hair brushed, so I LOVE him when he does this at night when we are watching TV in bed.

7. He loves God. Nate desires to please God with his life and I respect this about him enormously.

8. He likes the same shows as I do, for the most part. I like being able to watch TV with him and I appreciate that he will sit with me and watch Jon and Kate when I ask him to, or that we will laugh our heads off at Ellen. American Idol is our ritual and 24 rocks!

9. He always gets up with the kids on the weekend mornings. This should be #1. I love to sleep in and he is a morning person, so he just gets up and hangs out with them quietly downstairs until I wake up. How great is that?

10. ________________________________ (I'm leaving this one blank because if I've learned anything these last 11 years, it's that there are always new things that I am learning about Nate and new things I am learning to love about him. So, #10 is for all of the future ways I will love him...)

This last week all of my aunts flew into town for a surgery my grandma had. My grandma has 7 daughters, four of which live out of state, so it was a family reunion of sorts to have them all here at one time. One night we all got together at my mom's house to play games together and just plain laugh...

One of our favorite games to play is called L-C-R. It is a dice game and someone always wins a pot of moola! There is inevitably tons of screaming and laughing and, of course, shouting over one another to be heard. In the end, Courtney took it all and was the big winner of the night...

Fore!

I have a challenge for you, fellow bloggers...

Here are the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

Here is mine:

This picture was taken 3 days before Christmas this year at my dear friend Cara's house. We were having a "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" party for all (and I mean all) of the kids. Olivia is shown here with her two best boy buds, Bryce and Noah. We also had the pleasure of spending this time with Zeke, Selah, Ella, and Halle, Aunt Kelley, Uncle B, Uncle Jarrod, and Aunt Cara. We read a book about the first Christmas, ate pizza, opened presents, and then sang happy birthday to Jesus and ate delicious cake made by the afore mentioned, Aunt Cara. We also made a personalized tree ornament with each child's handprint on a ball, but we now only have one because Liv's didn't make it out alive. Of course. All in all, we had lots of fun with our friends.

Nate was sitting at a curb in the car with the kids and Olivia saw some signs out her window...

"Look, Daddy, the signs say NO Skateboards....

NO Bicycles...

And NO Old Ladies!"

Meet my brothers...

My youngest brother, Johnny, is 22 and 9 years younger than me. That means I used to change his diapers, give him baths, and push him in a stroller. He was one of the cutest babies I ever did meet, not exaggerating. So it would then be reasonable to assume that I would have a hard time imagining this baby brother growing up and ever becoming a husband. But, alas, it has happened! Johnny is now engaged to be married to Courtney and I am very happy for them. Courtney is a fun, lively character who makes our family better and most importantly, makes John happy. One of these days I will be posting pictures of their wedding day and I will introduce you all to my new "sister."

But you may ask.... the title of this blog is "Meet my brothers..." Where is the other brother?

Let me show you....

This is my brother Brian. He is only 15 months younger than me and I did not change his diapers. I did play Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah with him in the backyard and I did pass notes between our bedrooms when we were supposed to be taking naps. He is the father to my super cute niece, Avery (see previous blog postings), and his wife is Rachel, my friend. Brian is lots of fun and has a very big heart, but mostly he can take all your money at poker like no one else.

Tonight, when I put Olivia to bed, I said, "Sleep well, Liv. Tomorrow you will wake up a six year old!" She then said, "Mama, this is the last time you are going to see my five-year-old face!" Sniff. Sniff. I know. I love you, Livy girl.

We went to go visit the snow in Temecula last night. It was Brennen's first time touching the stuff and he loved it! Actually, he was hesitant at first because he is above all else cautious and leary of unknown substances, but once he built up the courage, he thought it was great fun. Olivia, of course, was trying to make snow angels out of two inch deep packed down icy snow and she was throwing it in the air to make it snow on her head. Outside of Pennypickle's Children's Museum they had snow pumped in the parking lot and the museum was open for our viewing pleasure. The kids had lots of fun and we got our Christmas card pictures out of it, so it was worth it for all of us!