Progression

If you don't mind I am going to have one of those moments where I spew off some thoughts and hope they make sense. I had a great day today. I just had Mason and Brennan (the van was very quite). Maybe that is what provoked so many thoughts. We had to run a few errands and then go on the ultimate experience of a serious commissary run. I am talking the huge load that weighs 5 tons and you pray you will be able to push the cart again after your momentum has been stopped by someone who is obviously in a bigger hurry than you and cuts you off.
We had been to the BX and the BXtra already. Mason had successfully tried his best to get me to buy some Cinnabon and I diligently refused. He helped with getting the items needed and walked out nicely. That is a HUGE achievement for Mason. At the commissary we had the opportunity to wait for a cart that Mason can sit in. You know, the one with the attachment at the back with two sitting portions. Mason likes to sit and that is fine with me. Mason was touching every few people and wanting to say, "Hi." It was funny to see him actually reach out and attempt some communication with people he did not know. This is again something that is out of the norm. Mason sat the whole time, helped with the shopping some. :) Mostly he just wanted to be there and observe people. On the way home Mason and Brennan were watching Signing Time. That is a favorite in our home and something that has helped Mason and the family with communication. Although Mason can't really do any of the signs perfectly he knows them and tries to do quite a few.
This gets me to my point, I think. At the end of the DVD there is a song about doing things in your own time, about everyone shining at some thing and that they are fabulous for what they do. I met a mother just a few months ago who's son was born without a femur bone. That portion of his leg had to be amputated and she was just so sad that this all was happening.(they had been tol deverything was fine from the ultrasounds) I took my four kids over to meet her and just spend some time with her so that she knew someone else went through that, "Trip to Holland when you expected Italy moment with having a child." She was visiting her sister here in England at the time. My kids were crazy for the 5 hours that we were there that first visit and I didn't know if I helped or just made things worse. She went back to Scotland and we hadn't talked since. However, she came down again this last week and saw me again. I do need to say that her boy has this smile that is fabulous and just this happy spirit about him. I adore him and have since the first time we met. He is almost 6 months old and is really doing great. She looked SO much better, so much more alive, smiled and laughed with me, it was so great. I had the best time just being with her and her son. Her and I were talking about the sting of other mothers 'bragging' about their children's accomplishments. Please do not take this wrong. I am so tickled when my kids do something, I brag and have to say a few words. I enjoy hearing about others milestones as well. It is when conversations steer in that direction of, "My kid did that at 5 months and hers was 10 months, he is so good blah blah blah." I do know most of you that read this, I think, and I can say that I really don't think any of you are that mom, but never the less they are out there. This song I was listening to really made me appreciate Mason for all he can do and all he can't do yet. He is fabulous for who he is. Carter amazes me with his mental abilities to get things that some adults don't get. Taylor blows me away with her need for independence and to be a free thinker from the pack. Brennan has this sweet loving personality and is always giving and always thinking. I have realized that my children are so individual and unique. They are truly separate from one another in who they are as human beings. I hope that I can foster in each of them their uniqueness and their talents. That they will stand proud of who they are and what they can do. They will each shine in their way and their time. I always believed this, but today I guess I finally came to know it.

**it is now 2am and if this didn't make sense and you actually had to read it all..well done. :)**

Aggresive Female Driver...

In my defense I honestly did still think it was 60mph, I was lucky I wasn't even going that fast. Apparently it had changed to 30mph. Seriously, not everyone has the priviledge of having evidence of their speeding. :) This is what happens when Hollie is on her way back from a RS Pres. meeting and she just can't stand that long drive.....
Mike calls me an aggresive female driver..whatever that is suppose to mean. :) Dad, I want no comment from you. :) Because I have an idea of what is going through your head right now. I sure as heck can't deny this one, that is without a doubt my little head behind that steering wheel. At least it gave me something to blog about other than my children.

Mr. Postman

Another Muscial Number with the family. Mason, Mike and Hollie participated in this one. Royal Mail has been on strike, with that in mind you can understand this video a bit better(at least part of it). Mason was so excited to play a part in this and so were the kids to help him be included. He made a handsome postman. However, after the number you see him being led off by a friend. At the top of the stairs he decided to escape and make his own way out. He walked towards the stage front, being blinded because the curtain was covering his face he walked right off the stage! So he sprained his ankle and didn't walk on it that night. He is doing much better tonight and I'm sure it will be totally fine in a couple days. We are very lucky that he didn't do anything more severe. Despite that it was a fun night and pretty entertaining as well.

Life Could be a Dream

Ipswich Stake Music Festival. Mike was part of this fabulous number. The guys sounded fabulous and looked even better. It was great fun to see them perform.

My sister is awesome.....

So this is a small shout out to my family for my November 3rd blog post. I wanted to brag that Mindy is my sister. Everyone looks fabulous, however, Mindy you are awesome. She made her and Kevin's costumes and a little Ariel costume for Sahara(Jamie and Mike's little baby). I was so impressed with these and what a fun family I have. I love to see pictures, but it does make me homesick for them. Chili cook offs and costume contests. Skye, you scared me...geez...no wonder Joshua is crying..you are great!!

King Triton and Ursela...Mindy you are one talented lady!!!
Cards, sewing random costumes with NO patterns, creativity of 10 people, you are amazing.

Step in the right direction

Good news, Mike's car is fixed. At least it was tonight and hopefully will remain fixed for awhile. Finally took it in as Mike had attempted all his tricks.
We received good news today, Mike is going to be lifted from his profile. He has been non-deployable for almost a year and we were concerned about a medical board happening, but that is not the case. This of course means he will be deploying soon, but we are fine with that in our house. It is part of our life. The kids do not know yet, so if any of you far distant relatives are talking to them please don't ask about it. :) We feel it best to announce to them what is happening about 2 weeks before. That way they don't stew over it for too long.

Okay, it is November blogging month and I am suppose to try and post everyday. I don't know that I have that much to say, but it might be fun.

Yes, I know I missed yesterday.


For anyone who could not figure out the clue from the last post now is that time that you will feel just like I did. MONSTER is the answer. seriously, how come I could not think of that? If you are more intelligent than I and it didn't cause you any problems...well keep that to yourself so I don't feel bad. :)

A small adventure

What's a girl to do when her house is finally clean and she doesn't want the children to mess it up. She has to leave the house of course. It is half term here in the UK which means that Taylor and Carter are both off for the week. It was gorgeous yesterday and we had to take advantage, so off to Framlingham Castle we went. It was great to just walk around, there weren't too many people there and the kids had a great time.

My favorite part of any castle is the front gate, I love the doors. It's a small obsession. :)

This was an attempt at a picture of the four of us. You can see that didn't work out.

The leaves are vivid colours(you can not see that in this picture that well) and the sky was sunny. I would say it was about 70 degrees. All in all the perfect day out.

Brennan loved that he had freedom while exploring at last. He was just walking around at his own pace and crawling in every space possible. He especially loved the stones on the paths.

There were buckets in place through out the castle with little Halloween trivia questions on them. Let me enquire after you about the one that stumped us and Mike's office. Yes, I used the mobile to try and cheat for the answer. "A nasty creature, also a word for something very big."

It is 7 letters. That is all I had and my mind could not get it. I do know what it is now because we asked on our way out. I will let you all have a go before giving it away. Don't make fun of me if you find it easy...I was trying to keep track of 3 children by myself.

What's a castle without a lot of climbing. Although we did have a 9 year old English boy tell us that in his country that is illegal. :) I wanted to laugh out loud.

Halloween

Our Halloween night was fabulous...well okay it was a Trunk or Treat at the ward, but that might be as good as it gets here. :) It was fun and the kids were super excited. Our ward is small and fabulous and we love it. All essentials of Halloween were covered, we got dressed up and we got sweeties, is there anything more?
A few highlights:
*Mason LOVES Halloween, what's not to like, you get candy for doing nothing. Mason finds this quite motivating to get his bag around the car park quickly. Then he sits in one spot and eats just about everything. One of the guys in our ward was helping Mason with opening the candy and Mason started to tease him about sharing his loot. Mason finally did share a few Reeses Pieces.
*I loved that Taylor was told to get her shoes on and grabbed her 'Wellies' or rainboots for the people that read this who have no idea what Wellies are. When I saw her walking through the building I thought of "Ever After" when she says her shoes are too big and her friend Gustof says, "No one will be looking at your shoes."
*Also, who names a candy "Banana Skids" doesn't sound like the end result would be worth it. :) Sorry, had too.

Super Heroes

Princess with her Prince

Pirate lovers..okay, just Pirates, but that sounded boring.

Car Troubles...still

When you get that call from your husband saying the drive shaft fell out of his car you know it is going to be a problem. I don't exactly know what that is, but I figured with the word drive invovled it wasn't a good thing. After replacing that and a few other tid bits, the battery dies, you find your alternator is bad, you fix that and still the car won't stay charged, you get a new battery as well, but alas it still won't work. What's a person to do? You run an extension cord every night to charge what has now become an electric car until the problem is fixed. Good thing we always having willing helpers to stand there and laugh at Dad while he tries something new to solve this mystery.

Funny Faces

Brennan

I just realized the other day that Brennan is 16 months old. Wow! Time really does fly by. Brennan and I were waiting for our ride to get to our house and it was nice outside so we enjoyed some fresh air. Brennan walked right up to a dandelion and started to blow on it. It was so cute, I didn't realize he had caught on to that concept. I ran to grab the camera and got a few shots of our boy that is growing so quickly.

Brennan LOVES birds. I don't know if I have mentioned this, so if I have I'm sorry. Brennan can sign bird, say bird, and loves every morning seeing the birds on the roof of the house across the street. This is him pointing them out to me. Whenever we get out of the car his head immediately looks up. Always excited to see those fabulous birds of his.

I am just really in love with this little guy. He just loves being happy, loves to give love and he also has a little bite if things aren't going his way. He growls or yells at you and then smiles again so quickly he forgets why he was upset.

New Vacuum

So we decided after using the shop vac for a couple weeks that we had to get a new vacuum ASAP. By ,"we" I mean me. :) Like we have said before, Brennan loves when the tools are brought out. This time mommy got to share in the fun of putting something together with him. Our new toy is fabulous. Nothing fancy, but it does a great job of picking up the food storage worth of crumbs on our floors.

Random

I just don't even know what to say about these fabulous child of mine. He is so sweet and funny!

Inside the mini tent that we got when Brennan was a tiny baby. This was our Sunday afternoon fun. Brennan was coming and laying on top of us at first. Then Brennan continued to go to the outside and stick his face against the netting.

You can't see it, but we did some more tooth pulling for Sunday. Mason is a fight, but Mike got it out. :)

This was amazing! Okay, I am being a little over the top because Mason has been willing to share on many occasions. This was the first with Brennan. He was rewarded with fruit snacks for letting us get his tooth. Brennan was hounding him and was then quite pleased that Mason did share!

Mike's Helpers

Brennan got right to work when he saw Mike was working with one of his projects. Brennan has a passion for wood working already. Carter came down and set to work as well. They love helping Dad!

Balloons

Fun had by all.