Chandra's 2 Years Old!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Little Chandra!  Bracken and I decorated the kitchen with balloons so you'd be surprised when you woke up. We made a special mountain egg breakfast and let you blow out the candles multiple times.  We went on a long walk so you could push your babies in your stroller and went on a bike ride. That evening we headed to the park and played with your little friends and ate cake and ice cream. 

We love you so much and are glad you're in our family.  As Bracken told you this morning, "Did you know you're everything I ever wanted in a little sister?"  You are spunky and determined and ridiculously cute.  Happy Birthday!

Don't Say Bad Words!

On our way home from church Brian informed me he'd scheduled his home teaching for the exact same time I'd previously told him I would be going visiting teaching.  As I started to stress figuring out how we'd make our appointments work with the kids, Brian started laughing and I realized he'd just said that to tease me. 

"You're such a punk!" I laughed, relieved.

Bracken immediately hollered from the back seat, "Don't say that bad word mom!  It can make people's hearts feel sad."

Brian: "Yeah, you'd better apologize because my heart is feeling sad."

As Brian and I tried to keep straight faces, I apologized and we started getting out of the car.  

Then Bracken says, "It's a good thing you have me around, otherwise you guys might say bad words all the time."

Yes, It's a good thing we have you around Bud.

EMT Hero

Brian has worked as an Iron County EMT for almost three years. He's an excellent EMT, and really loves treating patient's medical emergencies.  He's had some pretty crazy calls, and has helped a lot of people and saved lives.  Since we won't be here much longer, I wanted to get a few pictures of Brian at the ambulance shed.  

Bracken thinks his dad is pretty much a super hero.  He wears his own "EMT" uniform and pretends to work on an ambulance often.  He loves when he's able to go to the ambulance shed with Brian, be inside the ambulance, and turn on the lights and sirens. When Brian gets called out he often says, "Dad's got to go save someone."

I'm so glad Bracken has Brian to look up to. Brian is such a good man, father, and husband.  We love and are so proud of him!

While she should be sleeping

I'd hoped Chandra was napping, but when I peeked in the door to check on her, I found her completely undressed, making towers out of canned food she'd found under the bed.  This has become a regular occurrence.  She asks to take naps, not because she's tired, but because she knows it's the only way she'll get her binky.  Then she strips naked and listens to Scripture Scouts while playing with cans of food.  Silly girl!

Bracken's Store

Bracken wanted to play store. He usually has something very specific in mind when his imagination starts turning.  Today it required moving the kitchen table, taking all his books off his bookshelf to make a store shelf, and going through our food storage and fridge to find acceptable food items to stock his store.  Then we needed a check out stand (he was sadly disappointed with the simple box I had for a cash register), with bags for our items and a pen and paper for receipts. He spent 10 minutes writing out his grocery list: "Strawberries, honey, carrots, beets." He got his wallet made out of packing tape and a paper bag and his fake money and Chandra's stroller for a grocery cart.

It was so cute to watch them shopping.  Chandra wanted to put everything in the cart, and Bracken had to think about each item.  He kept calling her "My little child." Saying things like, "Sorry, we're not getting apples today little child."

Then we switched roles so he could be the store clerk.  He wanted to charge me $73.00 for four items! Since I didn't have that much money he decided my groceries only cost $6.01.  It was a pretty entertaining morning.

"No Sugar for 30 Days" says Bracken

Yes, this is a picture of the bottom of our dumpster.  I felt silly taking the picture, but seeing those Jelly Beans at the bottom makes me so proud of our little man.  And humbles me.  And inspires me. Here's the story:

The kids and I spent another afternoon at our good friend's the Leavitt's.  I overheard Audrey (almost 6) telling Bracken about how their family isn't eating sugar right now but didn't think much of it.  Apparently Bracken did though.

We came home that night and Bracken said, "Mom, I'm not going to eat sugar for 30 days."
Me:  "Oh yeah? Why?"
Bracken:  I'm going to eat more nutritious food.  I want to be healthy so I don't get sick and can play at my friend's house.  Audrey got a beautiful music box after not eating sugar for 30 days.  I think I'd rather have a fast Lightning McQueen car.  I will only eat sugar on birthdays and the holidays Audrey tells me."

I thought, but certainly did not say "Sure Bud.  If you don't eat sugar for 30 days you can have whatever you want, because there is no way you'll stick to it."

The next morning I dished the kids' current favorite breakfast of oatmeal into his bowl.  I added a scoop of brown sugar and started to stir it in when Bracken hollers, "WAIT!! I'm not eating sugar.  I can have honey, but not sugar in my oatmeal Mom."

A few minutes later he was digging in our pantry to find a bag of jelly beans I'd bought the day before at an after Easter sale for the kids.  "I can't eat these.  I'll put them in the garbage."  I might have been tempted to take them out of the house garbage and put them in my secret stash, but he threw them in our dumpster.

Since then he has been offered cupcakes, doughnuts, candy, and fruit snacks, and without any pressure from us has chosen not to eat them.  He had the idea to make a little chart with 30 squares, and at the end of each day he puts a sticker on a square to show he didn't eat sugar.  He made another chart with drawings of all sorts of fruits, vegetables and beans to show me his favorite healthy foods.  He adds extra handfuls of spinach to our green smoothies "because I want more nutrients, Mom."

Today was his 5th "no sugar" day.  He has so much determination and self-control.  I usually think I need to teach my children, and often find they are teaching me.