Champions

Brandon loves to play sports.  He is a good sport because not very often is he on a team that wins.  Remember his football team who has won 1 game over the last two seasons?  His prior Jr. Jazz and baseball teams have won games here and there, but never done well.  Enter in this years Jr Jazz team!  Brandon and several of his good friends all playing on the same team, and winning.  Last Friday night was the first game of the tournament and they won.  Then on to Tuesday night for the next game, it was intense, but they won again.  An hour later they were playing again for the championship.  It was super intense.  Lots of fouling, yelling at refs, coaches getting told to sit down, parents who couldn’t sit still (me) and the end result…….Brandon’s team by 5!  It was very exciting for him, even though he thought the rec center would have done something for them to celebrate, I told him this is Jr Jazz not the NBA finals.  I am proud of him for playing hard and with a  good attitude.  Lots of fun to know what a winning team feels like.

#14

Davis, Jonah, Zeke, Sam, Brandon, Ryan, Thomas, Marcus.  A cute bunch of boys!

Fun Friends Again

I told Tiffany to go on vacation so we could have her kids come stay.  She put up a fight, but finally agreed .  She left last Friday morning to California and I got to be in charge of 5 extra children.  It may seem like a big deal to have 5 extra children around, but really they are so good and so easy to have.  It helps that they are all best friends with my children.  The only time it was a big deal was at meal time, I am not used to feeding that many people!  Everyone had such a great time, at least I think her kids did.  Mine were so sad yesterday when they got home from school and realized they were not coming back.  Her two youngest only got to stay with us until Saturday evening when her in-laws wanted a turn.  I am not going to lie, it was much easier getting everyone to church without them, but other than that I would have loved for them to stay.

It was a minor ordeal when her two year old put all of this, including the garbage can, in Jacob’s fish tank.  I quickly got the fish out and the whole can of fish food out and everyone survived!

Megan sat through Brandon’s basketball game and then he sat and watched her sew.  They are a great team.

The boys had lots of fun outside.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of everyone racing down the hill in wagons, everyone of course except for Jonah who would gingerly run along side them.

Drew makes me wish I had a two year old again. 

An almighty pen war which left scrapes and scabs.

I loved the sounds of the older 4 kids laughing and joking until 12:30 a.m.  It reminded me of the fun times I had with my cousins.  The kids all tell other people they are cousins, which worked until people at church asked them who their mom was.  Like we always say, it is just easier to say cousins than to explain!

Four….ish days of fun and memories.

Not the night of all nights

Quite possibly the funniest moment of my life happened tonight, well at least for this moment the funniest.  Relief Society birthday dinner party (nothing like the night of all nights).  My life saver Jolene Cash and I made 3 different salads for the event.  We did all the prep work at home and then mixed them at the church.  I had made 2 different salad dressings, one was a basil dressing and the other a lime tarragon…..both so delicious I considered eating them for lunch as soup.  (Oh and P.S. both of them from My Foster’s blog here)

OK so if I was a clever writer this would come out so much better.  I was giving instructions to someone as to which dressing went with which salad.  Jolene walked over and said, “are you sure this is the tarragon one, it looks like the basil?”  I said, “yes I am sure, they look the same”.   We discussed it for a few minutes.  She then tasted them both and said to me, “I really think this is the basil one”.  I gave her a disgusted look and said, “I know which one is which, I MADE them.  I then tried the one she was insisting was basil and started laughing hysterically.  I had forgotten that I had switched the containers I had made them in.  Oh boy did we laugh and laugh and laugh.  I told her, “Like I always say, never believe anything I say.”

May not be funny to anyone else, but we thought it was the best moment.  Good thing she was there or else two huge salads would have been ruined!  I would never make it through these activities without her, and actually I wouldn’t want to be at them without her.  We are two peas in a pod.

Our own version of Plates and Palates, it was so so good.  I would never have noticed that we had 3 green salads on green plates, but you know, people who know that kind of stuff did!

I didn’t get a picture until the clean up was almost done.  One hour set up, that was the best part!

Here and There

I still can’t just upload my photos to my computer without me doing a lot of steps that I don’t always remember……therefore I am not blogging very much.  Hopefully something will change, either the ease of uploading or me remembering to blog!

Apparently the dinner was too hot and spicy for Jacob.

Jonah and Ellie having a sleepover and some fun with chocolate pudding.  I think Jonah first got some on his face so then Ellie had to get it all over hers.  They enjoyed themselves very much!

Brando getting around a late night game that I didn’t let him go watch with Nate.

Girls trip to Midway a few weeks ago.  Me, Bethany, Jen, Aliska and Katie.  We didn’t do much more than sit and read and talk and EAT.

Long Sleeves

Why have I ever bought my children long sleeved shirts?  They won’t wear them,  and by they I mean Brandon and Jacob.  I used to get so mad at Brandon for not wearing the nice, cute shirts I bought him.  Now I know not to EVER buy him long sleeves.  Jacob begged for a certain long sleeved shirt a couple of months ago.  I bought it for him.  Then I bought him one for Christmas.  He has worn them about 2 or 3 times.  Every morning he puts on a short sleeve t-shirt and I ask him about the shirt he HAD to have.  He yells that is is too hot at school.  I need to just accept it like I have with Brandon.  I have some great never worn long sleeved shirts if anyone wants some.

On another note, Jonah was being so helpful the other day and helping Brandon clean his room.  I left him putting clothes away in his dresser while I went to get in the shower.  As soon as I got in the shower Jacob started yelling at me to get out because Jonah had pulled the dresser over on him.  I jumped out, threw on my robe (good thing I have one, which is only ever worn in times like this), and ran imagining Jonah’s little smashed body.  Luckily for Jonah’s little size and the way the drawers were opened when it fell he was not hurt too badly.  The poor little thing.

Lessons learned this week…..don’t buy Brandon and Jacob long sleeved shirts and don’t let Jonah help put away Brandon’s clothes.

Valentines

I don’t do holidays very good.  I don’t know why, but I run around like crazy on every one.  I didn’t even have that many extra things happening on Tuesday, but I ran like crazy all day and evening.  I make the same dinner every year, Chicken Parmigiana.   I also always make sugar cookies which we then deliver to people.  This year I didn’t make the cookies because Brandon is following an eating plan that doesn’t allow for cookies.  I could have made them, but I am trying not to tempt him too much or fail him.  It was a good thing I didn’t because I don’t know when I would have made them!  I have been seriously missing the sugar cookies.  I still check the porch several times a day to see if anyone happened to drop some off….even though the day is long over.  Anyways I was crazy and thinking I am not doing this anymore, we will just have pizza on valentines day from now on, and then Jacob tells me how much he loves Valentines day and he loves the dinner we have and that we eat it by candlelight.  So, yes I will continue to do it.

I gave them all a very small gift and Jonah acted like I had given him a million dollars when he saw the hot wheels car attached to his balloon.  He is so easy to please!

One of these days I am going to learn how to not be crazy every holiday!

Superbowl

***This is a very delayed post because I have been waiting for my camera to upload to my computer, something is wrong and I can’t get any pictures! 

We usually go to a superbowl party at Nana and Grandpa Peter’s house (Tiffany’s parents).  This year with Nana out of town awaiting the arrival of a new baby and the fact that her two sports loving sons moved away was the perfect opportunity for Brandon to host his own party.  He was very excited about this.

This was his party.  He extended the invitation to those he wanted to come.  Planned the menu.  Kind of helped get the house ready.  Made the cake.  Realized again that it takes a lot to host a party.  Got irritated that I wanted him to be setting out the plates, cups, food, etc….while he was watching the National Anthem being sung.

The party was a hit.  He has been watching episodes of “Cake Boss” on Netflix and came up with his idea of the perfect superbowl party cake.  He recruited his good friend Megan to come and assist with the decorating.  They spent several hours having a great time making the cake.  By the time it was all said and done Brandon had spent 4 1/2 hours on the cake.

I love the look on Megan”s face here.

He even had a little contest for people to guess the score of the game.  How in the world Tiffany, who knows nothing and cares even less about sports, won we will never know.  She was thrilled to win a box of Mike and Ike candy.

We all had a great time at the party and I think Brandon should throw more!