Had to have it!

I found this sign at a craft sale early in the fall and just had to have it.

What a 'Funny' guy I married...

I've got to get some work down on the Expedition sometime soon. Kolin and I were bowling last night and one of the guys on the opposing team works at the shop we have all out work done. We won all 4 games last night and the other team wasn't too happy. Kolin and I are putting our shoes and bowling balls away and the only thing Kolin could say to me was:

At least he won't be working on MY vehicle.

Oh Brennan...

This morning in church Brennan looks over at me and says "Do I look handsome?"

Of course everyone around him smile and laughed a little bit. And I told him that he definitely looked handsome.

Before Sunday School everyone who had overheard him was telling Mr. B that he was definitely a handsome little guy.

Good Morning!

Every Sunday at church we greet one another with a small handshake and say 'Good Morning."
In the last couple of weeks Karis has decided that she'd like to do the same.

She reaches out her little hand for a handshake and will say 'Good Morning' clear as day to anyone and everyone around her.

Christmas 2007

Christmas this year was great for the kids. They thought that it was really neat that Santa left footprints throughout the house and that they were able to find reindeer food around the front door and on the area rug.

Mommy and Daddy got them all things they've been wanting for quite a while. Santa was really nice and brought the kids a wii with some additional remotes and games. (We haven't been able to play the wii yet though because the elves sent it too us broken and we had to call to get a replacement)

Christmas Eve Pics

A Herdman like Christmas Program

We had to be at the church an hour early tonight so that the kids could practice a little bit.
We were supposed to have 3 angels in the Christmas program tonight, but Brennan demanded that he be a wise man instead.

The practice hour was complete chaos. It seemed like the kids has no clue what they were really supposed to do and we weren't exactly sure what was going to happen once the service actually started.

Jadyn was the archangel, Taryn was an angel and Brennan of course was in his wise man glory. (I think it had to do with the crown he got to wear and the shiny present he got to hold) The robe was HUGE on him and he could barely walk. During the service he got himself caught a couple of times. He'd try standing up and trip. Then he'd call out "I'm Stuck" "Help Me" I NEED Help" etc. The crown was a bigger than his head and would fall down around his neck. This started a new tyraid of "I'm Stucks" "Someone Help Me" etc.

Least we forget that when the angels were called forward a certain 3 year old wise man decided that he needed to make a devine appearance as well. When told that he needed to sit down he said louder than loud. "NO!"

Jadyn had a scripture reading tonight. She was a little nervous, but did a fabulous job.

Brennan was an absolute HAM! He had everyone smiling and laughing at his cute antics up
front. He was using his present as a harmonica, dancing and just having a great time. He was truly joyful.

Out of the mouth of an almost 4 year old

That's it! I'm going home to go to bed

(said while we were checking out Christmas lights after church tonight)

Thankful!

I'm thankful for a wonderful and loving husband who puts up with my crazy antics.

I'm thankful to have 4 beautiful and healthy children. I love watching them grow up and experience everything around them. I

I'm thankful for FABULOUS friends! Those I see every day and those I wish I lived closer too.

I'm thankful for having everything we need; shelter, food, clothing.

I'm thankful for our extended families. Without them we wouldn't be who we are today.

Out of the mouth of a 2 year old...

Get up! I need a bowl!

(she was ready to eat breakfast)

Bye Bye Baby Tooth #3

After MASSIVE hysterics the darn thing it out. One would have thought I took a sledgehammer to her mouth. Once the tooth was finally out and she saw how cute she looked in the mirror she was happy again.

The amount

of presents already under the tree (and not being messed with) is absolutely staggering and santa hasn't even arrived yet. :thud: Packages have arrive all throughout the week from family and friends. I'm just shaking my head at just the thought of how bad the house is going to be overtaken with wrapping paper and toys.

Almost all done!

Almost all the presents have been wrapped, some have been put underneath the tree. Still no lights up outside, but that's fine with both Kolin and I at this point.

Round 3 is almost over

Taryn woke up yesterday morning bright and early screaming "Daddy!" You know that that is NEVER a good thing. She's got the darn stomach bug as well. This has been an every 3 day occurence. It should be (hoping not though) Jadyn's turn on Sunday.

Taryn is finally able to keep food and water down. Her smarty pants attitude has returned and now she just wants to play...which I've put a halt too for a little bit longer.

Here's hoping to a sick free Christmas!

Karis-isms

MY Mommy (always said when someone else has my attention or is sitting on my lap)
Help Me (self explanatory, but you better be paying attention!)
I'm Stuck (most of the time she's not stuck)
Come Here (said as she's waving her hand for you to follow her)

It's BOY Stuff!

Brennan is figuring out the difference between girl stuff and boy stuff. He's getting to the point that he lets everyone know that his stuff is boy stuff and the girls shouldn't play with any of it.

Karis of course could care less that his toys are BOY toys If he refuses to share his toys, she'll grab something of his and hit him in the head with it. Then of course the crying and yelling starts.

Fun in the snow

We had a great time playing in the snow yesterday. Even Brennan who wasn't feeling 100% came out to play for a little bit with the rest of us after a nap.

Jadyn's new glasses

Her eyes are getting much better. New lenses were in order, but we decided on a full new set since the pink frames had been through a lot in the year she's had them.

Here are the brand new shiny blue frames. I think they make her blue eyes even bluer.

Poor Mr B.

Brennan's preschool Christmas program is tonight and we don't get to go. This morning he was all excited and telling me about the songs he was going to sing. Around 1 he started puking and hasn't really stopped since.

He's upset that he can't go and sing. I'm upset because he's not feeling well, but I really really wanted to see and hear him sing the songs he's been practicing so hard on for the last month.

Here's to hoping he feels better tomorrow....

Miss Karis is 2!!!!!

Here are just a couple of pics. I'll try and get some more up later today.

Growing up way too fast....

No snow day for us....

We got an ICE day ionstead.

All 6 of us are home today. We're supposed to get more ice this morning/early afternoon and some snow later on tonight.

Bummer!

I noticed when Taryn came out of school this afternoon that her jacket wasn't zipped up. I told her to zip it up and she told me she lost a tooth. I of course looked at her mouth expecting to see a gap in her cute little smile. Then little miss told me that she lost a tooth on her zipper. Bummer!!!!

We're supposed to get a nasty ice storm late tonight/tomorrow so miss Taryn and I will be going out and getting a new jacket. Hopefully someone will have what we're looking for on sale.

I'll miss the columbia jacket. This was year #4 that it has been used and it's held up awesome.

Brennan's Christmas List

Mr. B definitely had some ideas on what he'd like to see under the tree this year.

Cars
More Cars
Action Figures
Daddy Action Figures (Figures he only gets to play with with daddy supervision)
Blocks
Legos
Robots
Astronauts
Creep Crawler Bug Maker Thing
Pirate Ship
A Rope
Floppy Hair
Socks
Hats- BATMAN! (Wonder where he got that from?)
Suckies (Pacifier) for baby sister

Taryn's Christmas List

This is exactly what her paper says:

Merry Christmas
I would like littest pet shops
books
Hannan shirts and webkinz pet and shining star.
Polly pokits
School Musical High Dolls(Just a tad backwords) =)

Jadyn's Christmas List

I love seeing what they come up with....

In no particular order:

Littlest Pet Shops
Hannah Montana Dolls
Hannah Montana Backstage Closet
Hannah Montana Books
Hannah Montana Shirts
Webkinz
Shining Star
Polly Pocket Mall Race

I think Hannah is winning out this year.....

Friday Ramblings

I finally got Karis' cake ordered. I was going to try and make it myself with my (somewhat functioning) new cake decorating skills, but couldn't figure out how I was going to find the extra time to do a good job. Karis is going to love her cake and I can't wait to see her expression when she sees it for the first time.

We got more snow last night and the kids are having fun playing it in. Me.....I'd rather stay warm and dry. I'll try and get some pics of them all playing outside this weekend.

Kolin was able to find the last 2 HSM musical dolls we needed for Taryn. I'm thrilled and it helps that Walmart will pricematch Shopko so we got them for a decent price.

I've got cookies to make and take to church tomorrow for the brave souls that are going out caroling. Hopefully I can get them done while the 2 little ones are down for their nap this afternoon.

We still don't have our tree up...we're seriously slacking this year. Hopefully we'll have it up by the end of the weekend.

Holiday Homesickness

I always get homesick around the Holidays. I miss my parents. I miss my sister. I miss my grandma. I miss my nephews. One would think that after 9 years it would get easier, but it doesn't.

I really miss the big family gatherings and everyone being together. There isn't anything like it. Everyone shows up and enjoys being together. No one is in a hurry. The kids all play together and the adults just take it all in.

One minute they are destroying the house

The next I find both of them like this....

Just about done....

with the kids that is. I've got to get a couple more items for Taryn. I'm hoping my raincheck for Target will help me out, but I think I'm going to be stuck.

Taryn really wants the HSM 2 dolls for Christmas. I should have bought them all the first time I saw them a couple of months ago, but decided to hold off. If only I had known what I know now.....

I've got to get her Sharpay (who is easy to find) but would love to get her Chad and Ryan as well. We've got the other 3 dolls already for her. I guess I'm just going to have to start calling assorted stores and see if they've got them in stock and if they do take a drive.

Karis by far has been the hardest to buy for, mainly because we've got a ton of things already that can be handed down.

Miss Mouse

Miss Karis' new name is going to be Miss Mouse. She loves anything and everything with Mickey and Minnie on them. Just can't get enough. Really it's Mickey over Minnie, but she'll take what she can get. =)

I'm contemplating making her a mickey mouse head cake for her birthday, but it'll more than likely come down to me ordering it instead. I can't believe she'll be 2 in 17 days. It just doesn't seem possible to me.

I ordered her a custom shirt today for the big birthday. A friend of mine recommended a lady she buys lots of custom shirts through.

Karis' shirt will have long sleeves and of course her name instead with black ball fringe around the bottom. Should be super duper cute.

The first advent candle

Our little family of 6 got asked to light the first advent candle next week at church. Jadyn actually got asked to do some of the reading. We'll find out exactly what that entails later next week. There was absolutely no way that Kolin and I could refuse, especially since Jadyn was asked first.

We figure we'll be bribing the middle 2 to get them to behave. Kolin figures the church is fully insured incase of mishaps.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone was able to enjoy their day with loved ones. We've all got a lot to be Thankful for.

She soooo wants to believe!

Jadyn has a friend that likes to tell her that certain things aren't really real. Their teacher does a lot of fun things throughout the year and *friend* loves to tell Jadyn that the 'Desk Fairy' who brought them books isn't real or that the 'Homework elf' is the teacher. Drives me crazy! Why can't they just enjoy the FUN of it all?!?!?!?

When Jadyn tells me "Well *friend* said...." I just remind her that *friend* doesn't know everything and that as long as she believes that's all that matters. It's fun to believe and won't hurt anyone.

I can only imagine *friend* opening her mouth about Santa.

Neurologist Appt Today

Taryn and Brennan had appts with Miss Patty this morning. Taryn weighed in at 34.9lb (same as last appt) and has grown almost an inch. Brennan weighed in at 35.9lb (1lb more than last time) and has grown almost an inch as well.

We're still having problems with brushing Taryn's hair. I doubt at this point that the problem will ever go away. We'll just continue to watch her and keep her hair short. We're going to take her off her 2nd medication since it really doesn't seem to be helping with her hair issues and it's no longer sweltering hot outside. Other than that Patty says she looks great and just to keep doing what we're doing.

Brennan is doing great! Talked a mile a minute while we were there and didn't cry at all.
His medication is working for him and I honestly couldn't tell you when he had a seizure last.

Our next appt is in 4 months unless we need to go in sooner. They both got beanie babies as an early Christmas present and they being loved on.

Bed Switcheroo

We spent most of Saturday cleaning the kids bedrooms and setting up new bed configurations. Brennan now has a low height loft and twin bed in his room. Brennan can climb up and down without a problem. Kolin and I love the fact that it isn't as tall as a regular bunk set would be.

Brennan's old bed is now Taryn's new bed. She's not too thrilled with the concept of giving up the trundle like I thought she would be. Yesterday she told us that she didn't want to 'sleep alone.' She now wants to sleep with Brennan...I think more because she thinks the twin bed underneath is somewhat connected (it's not) and she won't be 'alone.'

Tonight we're going to let her sleep in Brennan's room to see how the two of them do together. Hopefully they'll fall asleep sooner rather than later or they'll have to be seperated.

Thanks to our little cheerleader...

the Illini won today!

It was too cold

on Halloween for the tutu. We were a Pooh Honeybee instead.

Miss Taryn

Taryn: Mom, I can speak a little bit of English
Me: Yes, Taryn I would certainly hope so.

You've got to be kidding me!

I dropped Brennan off at preschool and one of the teachers told me she needed to talk to me. I knew it was about the chili dinner fundraiser that we wanted to have next month.

We got the ok from the church to have the chili dinner...BUT and there seems to always be a but. Should a funeral luncheon need to be held on the same day then we (the preschool) would be bumped out. Needless to say they are getting a thanks, but no thanks letter in response.

We have to spend some money to make money with this chili dinner. We'd have to pay for food, advertising, etc that we couldn't get donated. To pay all of it and then get bumped out of the kitchen for a good portion of the day would suck. That and we couldn't decorate until the funeral luncheon was finished and cleaned up after. It's just not feasible. There is just no way we could get everything completed and ready by 4:30 if a funeral luncheon was taking place in the area that we requested to have all day.

We're now working on plan #2 which isn't exciting at all.

New Glasses for Jadyn

Jadyn had her 1 year eye check-up today and the eyes are lookin' good. New lenses are on order...the way our insurance works is that we could pay out of pocket for new lenses or get an entire new set (lenses and frames) with no charge.

Jadyn's getting new frames and lenses. She wasn't too happy about trading in her hot pink frames though. This time around we're going to get shiny blue frames that look awesome with her blue eyes.

She should have them in a couple of weeks. However, we're not going to let her wear them until rolling skating is over in gym at school. Last year her glasses fell off and she ended up rolling over them. We're hoping to prevent the same thing from happening this year.

Back to the dr. today

I took Karis back to the dr. this morning. She's had a cough for almost a month now. Just when I thought it was getting better the weekend hits and of course the cough gets worse. We decided to switch some of the meds she's on and we had some blood drawn to check for allergies. With my luck we'll find out she's allergic to the darn cats. We should have the results back in about a week.

There should be a rule

I really think that there should be some type of rule that states a mommy cannot get sick. One forgets how much we actually breathe out of our nose when we can't do it anymore.

Halloween 2007...a couple days early

A couple days early, but we were leaving for a Halloween party and the weather was cooperating. Wednesday night all 4 will be all bundled up and you'll have to guess at what the costumes are.

Gotta love the tutu...

We were finally able to get Karis in her new tutu without too much of a fight yesterday afternoon before leaving for a Halloween Party.

Cars Addicted

Brennan is going to once again make it really easy on us this Christmas. He's still all about CARS and when going through a wish book or catalog the first thing he does is check out the new CARS items.

Karis' Tutu

I finally finished up Karis' tutu tonight. Super cute if I do say so myself. I just need to get a good pic of her actually wearing it now....It's going to be part of her Halloween costume.

First Completely Full Day

Usually when it's nap/bedtime he'll be put in a pull-up or when we are going to be out of the house for a decent period of time. Today was Mr. B's first full day in underwear and he's doing great. No accidents!! (only going to the bathroom 500 million zillion times) It'll be sooooo nice to have only one in diapers.

Karis has been showing some signs of being ready to start using the potty. She'll come and let me know when she's wet or stinky. Today she even asked to go to the potty. I think she just heard Brennan say it a hundred times today and she loves to copy him.

I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have a diaper free house. Hmmmmmm

Brennan's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Brennan had his first field trip last week and we headed out to the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun. Karis found a huge corn box to play in and Brennan loved playing in the mud. They each got to pick out their own little pumpkin. The owners make the trip a great time for the kids and adults with lots of things to keep everyone busy.
Here are some pics from our day:

My Cake

My final cake decorating class was this morning. Her is my end result. Nothing spectacular, but it's pretty cool if I do say so myself. I had a lot of fun and really learned a lot. I just need to find the extra time to actually get some practice in. I start the Holiday decorating calss next week. I really looking forward to it.