When: July 26th 2008
Where: Our house
Time: 11am
We will have lunch and cake!
Breanna has been walking around the house asking about her brithday all week. She is very excited about it!!
This was the scene in my living room on Sunday afternoon. We didn't have a particularly busy weekend. I was doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. I walked into the living room to discover that I was the ONLY person in the house awake. If you look closely even the dogs were sleeping!! sorry about the bad quality, but I just grabbed by cell phone to take the pictures!
Mom and Louise will be doing this....
A plea to all 4 of them.....please, please, please make sure no one ends up like this......
(or at least make sure there are no pictures)
This is the playzone where the kids can play before and after their class. If you look closely you will see Breanna on the slide in the middle of the picture.
Look a the air she caught!
One of her favorite parts, jumping on the trampoline and getting to jump off of it into the foam blocks!!
The end of class, all the girls get together and say "We did it"
If you remember this post http://brinsfield.blogspot.com/2008/02/they-got-me-in-lot-of-trouble-once-upon.html
Here is proof. Tust me this time there will be no call of 800 numbers and running up phone bills!!
It has been toooo long!! Get ready for lots of pictures!! We have been busy with our regular activities we have added a few as well. Breanna and I go to a Mommy and Me gymnastic class every Tues night. She absolutley LOVES it. She asks me all the time if she can go to "nastics". It isn't only an activity for her, but for both us. Since she isn't quite 3 yet, I get to go through the class with her. Jay and I have joined the OHH softball team, we play 2 games in Mustang every Sunday. We have also been to the Circus, no pictures of that though, I thought the kids would love it, but it didn't really keep their attention. We had to leave early.
A lot has been happening, we went to the OHH carnival and rode the rides and ate some hot dogs. Breanna LOVED it, she had sooo much fun. JJ wasn't into the rides or the moon-bounces. He just walked around and did some people watching! 
Jay finally finished his prep class for his unlimited license and went and passed his test, so now he is an unlimited journeyman. YEAH!! He has started a new job and his new responsibilities of overseeing work that is being done. He is doing a little less physical labor and more supervising. He has had issues with his shoulder impingement, it is getting better, but it still bothers him a little. I don't know if I had mentioned this before, but Jay had joined the union. There are some good points and some bad, but he seems to be enjoying it. He goes to his meetings and goes to their classes.
Work for me has been hectic, we had month end (which is ALWAYS hectic) we also have been testing some new things in our new computer system that has taken a lot of our time up as well. Still here, still working!!
We have had some bad weather (like last night, nothing will wake you up like the sound of a tornado siren) and a lot of really warm sunny weather. The kiddos LOVE going outside and running around and having some watermelon.
Breanna loves Watermelon so much that when I was cutting it up and left it on the counter she decided that she wasn't going to wait for her bowl of fruit, she was just going to stick her fingers in and get a little taste (see the whole in the left side of the watermelon below)
The kids love to go out and play in the backyard together, they are getting a long for the most part most of the time. They laugh and run and I even got a picture of them hugging. Breanna will tell JJ, "Your sisters here" and he runs over and gives her a hug.
One HUGE announcement that we have is that Breanna is now, (except for bedtime) in these exclusively. 
Something in her finally clicked (or it could have been the chocolate kisses she gets at daycare) that has made my girl into a potty fanatic. She has only had about 2 accidents in the last two weeks!!
JJ had his 18 mon old appt, he is now 33 inches tall and 24lbs 12oz. His height is in the 72% and his weight is in the 32%. Dr said he is perfect, and was actually shocked at how healthy he has been. He said that all of the other kids JJ's age had been in there 3 or 4 times over the last few months!!
So I will confess. I have seen this scenario on Super Nanny more than a few times, but I have finally dealt with my situation. Since last fall Breanna has not slept by herself. She has slept with me every night since then. In the beginning I know that I did it more for me than for her, which was selfish, and wrong. I needed her with me more than she needed me with her. I should not have done it, but I did. She has been sleeping with us ever since.
A few weeks ago I decided that she should be sleeping in her own bed, and she should be able to put herself to sleep.
So tonight I called on everything that I have learned from watching Super Nanny.
Jo says, put them to bed, tell your child that you will be back in 2 minutes, no matter what they do don't go back until the 2 minutes is over, then stretch it to 5 minutes, then 10, then 20, and so on until they are asleep. This insures them that you are still there even though they are not in the same room as you.
So I did this tonight. Jay and JJ were sleeping. Breanna needed to go to bed. So I went and put her in her own bed, she screamed and screamed. Then she said something that just BROKE MY HEART!!!! Earlier in the evening she had decided since mommy's hair was in a pony-tail that it would be fun to pull mommy's hair. So when I put her in her own bed she said "Mommy, I go with you, I don't pull your hair" uggghhh talk about pulling at the heart strings.
I stood my ground. I told her that she was in her own bed, not because she had pulled mommy's hair, but because she was a big girl and big girls slept in their own rooms. She cried and cried. I went back 5 minutes later and told her that I loved her and was so proud that she was being such a big girl and staying in her bed (even though at that point she wasn't, I just laid her back in her bed) . I went back in 10 minutes and she was still in her bed, and at 20 minutes she was still there too. I think she gets it now. Thanks Super Nanny!! In the matter of an hour I had my baby sleeping in her own room, and thinking that it was a good thing. Mommy wasn't mad at her, and that she was a big girl for sleeping in her own room.
So that is it. I have been a bad mommy, I was selfish and was letting her keep me company, but I have done the right thing and have let her go. Be a little more independent and let her know that mommy is still here, but she needs to sleep in her own bed.
"Mommy those are paper towels for babies"
Guess she thought that the big rolls were for adults and the small rolls were for babies!! I laughed!!
I have to admit that I do go to a lot of cooking recipe websites like these.....
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
http://foods-recipes.blogspot.com/
http://cuisinenie.blogspot.com/
I get great looking recipes off the internet print them out and plan on being a really good cook at home and preparing some of these very home cooked from scratch recipes. I really intend on cooking these great looking things that I print off, but 99.9% of the time it does not happen. Life kicks in and it turns into this......
Take this out of the pantry add water to the pot on the stove and cook according to the directions
Then take this out of the pantry and add a little buttter salt and pepper and simmer for a few minutes.
Then take this out of the frig, preheat the oven and pop them in for as long as the directions say.
In the end we have garlic mashed potatos, corn, and some great tasting talapia. Not too bad for just having to read the directions.
Tomorrow will be a normal day. Although tonight I have to tell you at 6:30pm this evening I am the only person in my household that is awake. It is a quiet time for me to get to relax for a minute.
