Brandon

My handsome guy. My only son. My "Bud." I can hardly believe it's been 10 years since he was born. I don't know what to say except that I am so glad to have him in my life. He is so full of energy and life. He doesn't sit still, he loves to make funny noises and tell jokes and tease his sisters. He loves to be read to and have his back scratched. He loves to play games and have fun. He is a math whiz and awesome lego builder. He's great at playing the piano (too bad he doesn't want to take lessons anymore). He is a good helper and enjoys being in the kitchen (especially to eat). He loves cheese pizza, macaroni and cheese, cheese enchiladas, cheesy broccoli, queso dip--notice a trend here? :) He's very cheesy. lol!

He is awesome at Guitar Hero and playing any computer or video game. He's quite a little copy of his dad when it comes to computers. He managed to lock his dad out of the computer and change some settings. Ha, ha. Not very funny, but totally smart kid. :)

He's kind of goofy, but he's a great kid and I just love him so much. He makes me smile and laugh. I love his reddish blond hair and blueish-green eyes. I love when he shows me his lego creations and he's so proud. I love when he gives his baby sister, Brooke, hugs and kisses. It's so sweet when he holds her. What a great big brother.

He has challenges with his ADHD, but he takes it all in stride. It's just how he is. He's my Brandon and I wouldn't change him, even as hard as it is sometimes, for any other boy. All 27 hours of labor were worth it to have such a strong spirit here on this earth.

Happy Birthday bud! (I can't believe I have a child in the double digits)

Pretty in Pink

Don't you just want to eat her up? She is soooo precious!

Easter Happenings

What a wonderful Easter weekend. Today was a really neat day. I did sharing time in Primary and it really helped me to feel the spirit and think about the true reason we celebrate Easter, our Savior Jesus Christ, than worry about all the baskets and candy and dinner, etc. We got few fun pictures this morning, but unfortunately, I didn't get individual shots except for Carli. Even poor Brooke didn't get her picture taken except for the group. Then she spit up all over her cute dress at church and had to be changed. Oh well. We'll do "pretend" Easter pictures another time. Hopefully I get to that this week while her dress still fits her. She's growing so fast! She's up over 11 lbs and almost 2 feet long. I cannot believe how much she is growing. A friend at church was holding Brooke and another friend walked in and said, "That's not your baby, is it?" LOL! She was awake and holding her head up so well and looking around. She was adorable today.

On to the Easter pictures. We woke to fun finding baskets and candy-filled eggs. The kids had a great time and it took all of about 5 minutes. Woohoo! On to breakfast, a to-die-for quiche with a hashbrown crust, thanks to Paula Deen's recipe on foodnetwork.com. All the kids, except Carli, loved it (and it even had yucky stuff like green onion...). :) Ben and I devoured it as well. YUM! Then it was on to getting everyone ready in their Easter best (have you ever tried getting 4 girls ready in the morning?). I must say Ben and Brandon both looked quite handsome as well. Then there was me...hence the no family photo this morning, just the kiddos.

Brandon coloring eggs Saturday.

Ben joined in the fun as well and this is his "Mr. Potato Head" egg.Carli was concentrating pretty hard on getting her eggs colored. It was pretty funny to watch. At first she was only coloring them green. She would just dunk the egg in and pull it right out.Kate enjoying her Easter stash.Megan loved finding the eggs. I love how excited this girl gets about things like this. She's too cute. :)Each one of these is a bit different. They all have different looks on their faces and, of course, they each had to hold Brooke for the picture.

Carli in her orange dress. She picked it out all by herself. She was totally the cutest girl around today!

Carli

I just love these eyes...

Giggles!

I just had to document that Brooke giggled for the first time tonight! Such a sweet darling sound! I love this baby girl to pieces. :) What is it about a fake sneeze that babies find so funny? I love it!

Kate's Birthday Bash

Kate wanted a big party this year. She wanted a sleepover, but I talked her into a pj party instead. I was not about to have a bunch of girls overnight. :) I used the "new baby" excuse this year. I don't know if that will work for next year. She'll still be baby even if Brooke is 1, right? Ha!

Anyway, we ended up with 14 friends along with Kate, Megan, and Carli at this party--17 wild and crazy girls! It's was quite the bash. It was a rock 'n roll pj party and it sure was rockin'!

The girls played freeze dance to kick things off and they were dancing the night away. Then we had pizza, decorated cupcakes, sang "Happy Birthday" and opened presents. The last one she opened was from us and it was the DVD "HSM 3" so the girls headed upstairs to the big TV to watch the flick. There was much screaming and drooling over the boys in the movie. It was hilarious to see and listen to them swooning over "The Boys." The replayed "The Boys are Back" several times. Too funny. :)

The Conga lineThe opening of the gifts "The Boys are Back"

They were more than willing to let me take pictures at the end. They are not all in the pic, though. Two of the girls had already left and one did not want to be in the picture. Can you tell it was a little crazy? LOL!It was wild and crazy, but Kate and all the girls had a blast. Next year, small party.

On her actual birthday Ben got up early and made her favorite, ham and cheese omelet, for breakfast. I went and had lunch with her at school and then she requested tacos for dinner. It was a fun day.

Kate's 9!

Last week my oldest daughter, Kate, turned 9 years old. I can hardly believe it. She's such a beautiful girl. She has these gorgeous blue eyes and cute round face and perfect lips (she didn't get those from my side of the family). ;) She has been in charge from the beginning. I was pregnant with her 3 months after Brandon was born. Can we say, "Surprise!" She was ready for this earth life, I guess, and wasn't going to wait any longer.

She didn't want us to know she was a girl until she was born. I think we had 2 ultrasounds while I was pregnant and they couldn't tell us for sure boy or girl, so we assumed she was a boy since we already had one and figured this would be another. He was going to be named Tyler Benjamin. One week before her due date I woke up early in the morning feeling some back pain (around 6 am). I sent Ben off to work not thinking much of the pain since with Brandon I was in labor for 27 hours. This one wouldn't be any different, I figured.

A couple hours later my sweet mother-in-law called me to check in as they were going on a day trip to the other side of Michigan to see Ben's ailing grandmother. I told her I wasn't feeling very well and she suggested I call Ben and tell him and then to call the hospital and see what they thought. I called Ben and told him, but again, we weren't in any hurry since we'd been sent home from the hospital twice while in labor with Brandon. We had a long day ahead of us. This was at about 9:30 am. The contractions were not regular, but I was very uncomfortable and in quite a bit of pain. The nurse at the hospital suggested I take a hot shower to ease the back pain and call back in an hour. Ben arrived home about 10 am and we called his brother, Andy, to come and stay with Brandon so we could head to the hospital. The pain was not letting up and it got worse when I was in the shower, so off to the hospital we were ready to go. Andy arrived about 11 am and he and Ben were "chatting" on the sidewalk by the car as I was writhing in pain in the front seat. I finally yelled to him that we better get going or I wasn't going to make it to the hospital. We lived on the outskirts of Ann Arbor and had to get to the U of M, downtown.

It was like a scene from a movie, as I remember. Ben was weaving in and out of traffic, impatiently waiting at red lights, and honking his horn at everyone in his way. I had the seat back and trying not to push as my body was involuntarily doing. Ben kept telling me NOT to push and I kept telling him I'm NOT pushing, the baby is!!! I did not think I was going to make it. He called the hospital on the way to tell them to have a wheelchair ready at the door to help us upstairs to the labor rooms. I was in horrible pain as we got there. The finally realized this and let us through to a room without all the registering and paperwork. We got into the room and they had me change into a gown. In the process my water broke. They got me onto the bed and checked me. The nurse said, "You're 9 1/5 cm!" They rushed me into a delivery room. My dr. was not able to rush up in time (her office was in the building next door or something like that) and there was a midwife on call. She was amazing. There wasn't time for an IV or any kind of medication so this was a completely med-free natural birth. She was able to slow everything down so it wasn't too crazy and 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital we heard the news, "It's a GIRL!" I could not believe it! Really, a girl? I was so excited!

She had the most perfect little round head (poor Brandon had the worst conehead I've ever seen) since she was born so quickly and a bunch of dark hair. She was so precious. She weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz and seemed sooo tiny. We made a bunch of calls to very surprised family members and that was a lot of fun. I felt so good, too, after having such a quick labor! I felt like I could have gone home that afternoon. They did keep us overnight and we took our sweet girl home the following morning. Now I had 2 babies at home! Brandon was exactly 11 months old when Kate was born. I have to say, I don't remember much about those next couple of years when it comes to the day to day happenings. I was busy with babies!

Now she is 9, going on 15, at least. She's quite a character. She loves to draw and color and write stories. She's a dancer and singer and plays the piano. She is a great speller and a very creative kid! She loves to play with her friends. Kate loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up and a mom. She also loves to talk! She'll talk to anyone and everyone. This is not such a good thing in the middle of class at school. :) She's working on it, though. Another love of hers is shoes! She spent all her Christmas money on new pairs of shoes, I spent mine on books. LOL! She's a sweet, sweet girl (when she wants to be) and we love her very much!