People Lied

So, people lied. They said that the best thing to do when it comes time to binky weening is to involve the child. To mail the binkies off to some child that really needs it and then to cut the child off cold turkey cause the binkies were now with some needy children in Africa. Lots of people said this including smart book writing people. The reason we have had so much time to read and listen to so many people is because I have been procrastinating this day for a very long time. It was first that we would do it when she turned 1, but we were getting rid of the bottle and just trying to get her on a good enough sleep schedule that I wouldn't die when T-Ray was born. Then the goal was moved to 18 months. That flew out the window cause T was a newborn and mommy and daddy needed sleep no matter how many binkies it took. Then the goal was when she was 2 but we were potty training and she was moved to a big girl bed and we thought that was too many changes all at once. Well, alas, I have no more excuses so here I am with tears in my ears, yes, MY eyes. Let me explain. Binky weening sounds easy enough until you do it for the first time. I was nervous and didn't really know what to do. Since I didn't think Brook would notice the difference, I just labeled the envelope, "poor babies" thats who we were sending the binkies to. I started by saying, "Now Brookie, there are poor babies who need your binkies..." to which she interrupted, "no there not! I want my binkies.." (gigantic tears welling up in her eyes). The worst part is that she wasn't yelling, it was a quiet pleading. I was determined to be strong. I continued, "...so I am putting your binkies in this envelope and we are going to mail (sniff sniff) them (sniff sniff)..." I couldn't even finish the sentence! I was in tears. Brook was giving me the most desperate look of pleading as she quietly cried, you know those little tears rolling down her cheeks and she just wispered, "no". People lied! This wasn't the easy way, NO WAY. I should have just pretended that they were lost or the all to familiar, "we can't afford them" might have worked. But now her little heart was broken and she and I knew that it was all MY FAULT. I couldn't take it anymore. I know that I sound like such a bad mom, but I wanted her to like me, or at least not hate me! So I did the only thing I could do, I turned to Drew and bawled out the words, "I can't do this!!!!" To which he chuckled and grabbed the binkies and turned to Brook and said, "say bye bye!". Then he walked outside and threw them in the dumpster. Yes, I made Drew be the bad guy, and it kindof worked. We have be taking turns consoling Brook with her new book and new stuffed animal and treats and water and the whole night she has been saying, "daddy take my binkies away!". So, I am a bad mom and a very bad wife, but Brookie still loves me and people lied! Wish us luck, its gonna be a long week.

Dear Craig

Dear Craig,

I love your list! Yes it is true that in the past I bought things that I didn't need for money that I didn't have and wasted so much gas money driving to far off place that it wasn't even that great of a deal. And it might also be said that I wasted hours and hours perusing the free section just thinking of all of the amazing things that I could do with all of that free junk. And I might have wasted an afternoon or two driving as fast as I could to the "first come, first shot" adds only to be bested by the real craig's listers, which by the way if Curling is an Olympic sport than certainly Craig's Listing should qualify. And not to mention the creep-os who use your list as a weapon to pray on the weak and naive. All that being said, I still love your list. We sold our car in less than 24 hours on your list and we bought furniture from your list with the winnings. We have bought luggage racks and camping gear and ski equipment and sconces. But the real reason for this letter is my latest find. My new bike trailer!!!! I love it!! The great thing is that some people post things for sale without watching the craigs list market to see what the going rate is and they WAY underestimate what they can get for their old junk. We found such a sorry soul, and walked away with our two seater, fully collapsable, red and yellow bundle of joy for only $40, plus we took our children with us when we bought it and the nice lady threw in an old kids bike that her son doesn't ever ride anymore. I knew that Brookies big beautiful blue puppy dog eyes would come in handy one day. So Craig, thank you, despite all your flaws I am a loyal fan and peruser!!

Sincerely,
Me

Ps. no phone calls please, and only serious buyers need reply, price is firm.

12:30

Florida Hill. Bike. Dead.

about time

S0, I guess it's about time that I blog again. We have been busy, happy but busy. So enjoy.

I have to admit that I am in love!!!! Yes, with Drew, but more recently with.......

Ta-Da

My wonderful brother-in-law gave me this bike and my beautiful friend let me borrow her bike trailer (which I am totally in the market of buying one if anyone knows of a good deal). We have been having sooooo much fun going on rides but I have to say that I am shocked. Not that we were having fun but that it is such a hard work out!! I know that sounds silly, but I was trying to come up the hill on Dayton and I had to get off and start walking cause I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. Maybe it's my "husky" baby.
The kids seemed to enjoy it too. Random note: Brookies new favorite phrase is "let me do it BY MYSELF!!!!" I probably hear that 25-4000 times a day.

This is proof that we can totally handle another kid! (no this is not an announcement). Simply saying that Brookie looks totally fine with this, right?

So I have to explain why I would include a pic of my pig-sty living room. Partly so none of you are shocked when you come over, and I can stop apologizing for the mess, but mostly to explain my new phiosophy. So this last Friday I watched kids for two of my friends. It totally worked out cause they all got along really well. I decided that I could either run around after them and be totally stressed out about the messes they were making and get upset and frustrated and be totaly ticked by the time Drew got home, OR, I could just let it go and enjoy my time with them. I will admit, it was awesome. I didn't care about anything that they spilt or did and I didn't worry about the mess that it would produce that would later need to be cleaned. I came to a conclusion at the end. I would make an awesome dad!! This is no offense to dads, especially Drew, but now I know what it feels like to just enjoy the kids and not have the house on my mind as well. Unfortunately I did pay for my "dad" time later when I really did have to clean up, but it was fun while it lasted.

Pic of the three girls. They are so stinkin cute!!!

not that smart

So, since I am her mother, I have always thought that Brookie was very very smart. Borderline genius probably! Well, last night there was proof that she is not there yet. I made chicken enchiladas for dinner, which were divine!(thanks Linda for the recipe). For some odd reason Brookie did not want to eat them, along with her veggies. I was about to give up when a light bulb came on, "just trick her!". YES, I tricked her into eating her dinner, and it worked! I kept putting two bites on the edge of the plate and saying, "do you want this one, or that one". I thought I might get a few bites down but she was fooled for the whole plate! It's funny cause she is usually not a picky eater so this is one of my first times using trickery to get her to eat her food. Maybe I'm the genius!!!

Happy Birthday Baby!!

So yesturday was Drewbies B-day. My hubby bubby is sooooooooooo old. In fact, now he is as old as me!!!

Here he is with his birthday cake. As you will notice, all of the pics have to do with food. Coincidence?

We went to the OU game in Boulder for his birthday and here we are at a restaurant called the "Sink". It was deifinitely a happenin college town hangout, but the food was good. It was funny cause we pulled into some random parking lot and asked this guy if he knew any family friendly restaurants in town. He said, "ya, do you like beer?" we both said "no!" and he said, "oh, really?,cause some people say no, but they really mean yes!"then we said, "no, we mean no." to which he replied, "well there is a good burger joint that is family friendly and I think they serve root beer." We thanked him and as we were pulling out of the parking lot, we saw him walk into a medical marijuana icecream shop. Then it all started making sense. The funny thing is that we still took his advise on a nice "family friendly" restaurant.Like I said, the food was great! but I would not call it a family restaurant. :)

This was Drew's birthday "cake". He wanted dark fudge brownies with green mint frosting and mint chip icecream. I must say, it was divine.

We actually did eat dinner first, hehe. Drew wanted spaghetti with meatballs and breadsticks. I tried to make the meat balls healthier so I mixed half ground turkey with half ground beef. They pretty much tasted like healthy meatballs. In the future I will either go with the good ole fatty meatballs, or over compensate for the turkey by adding more spices and flavor. They were a little bland.

And this pic is out of order, but this is Brookie at the "family friendly" restaurant. The gave her seasoned fries and she kept saying, "these are hot". Poor girl doesn't know a good thing when she's got it!

V-Day

So my V-day was great. Drew got me some flowers and a nice date on Friday. He also made me dinner.
--T-Ray let me take a 2 hour nap yesturday!!! Oh Bliss!
--But my best gift was from Brookie. We were in Sacrament and I decided to sit in the middle of the row. (my thought was that Brookie wouldn't escape because she would be surrounded) In Relief Society they had given us little baby bottles full of m&m's to remind us of an activity coming up. Anyway, Brookie found it and was playing with it and didn't think that she would be able to open it. Well, she did. So the m&m's were spilt all over the foor and they were about to start a confirmation. Just as they started the prayer, Brookie announced to me, "mommy, I peed!" I opened my eyes and looked down to see Brookie peeing on my m&m's! I was so sad, poor m&m's, but whats worse is that Brookie was still trying to eat them. Yuck!!! So I had to grab the peed on m&m's in my hand. I had T-Ray in the other and Brookie by my pinkie tellingher not to move. It was the longest confirmation I have ever heard. Finally we were able to leave and we had to have the family next to us all stand up as we shimmied out with Brookie announcing, "I pee peed!" Don't worry, I made sure to glare at Drew when we got back because anyone can see that this was his fault!

Happy V-day!!!

Tis the Season

So this has been an interesting day. T-Ray has had RSV for the past 5 days and we took him to the doctor on Saturday. He seemed to be doing fine and we had to bring him back to the doc today for a checkup. Funny thing is that my friend called me this morning to check on him and I told her that he was sooooo much better. Well, when we went to the doctor they said that his oxygen levels were too low to send him home and that we had to go to the hospital. I proceeded to freak out (which by the way thank you Jen for dropping everything to come get Brookie:), then as Drew showed up I started to calm down. So here we are at the ER at Children's (which we have had excellent service!) and we will have to be here until at least 10:30. And then we get to go home with an oxygen tank of our own!!! wahoo! So here T is in his ER prison as we have fondly nick-named it.

He is still cute when he is sick!!

multi-tasking

DISCLAIMER: I am only putting this pic on here cause it was hilarious and I figure No One looks good when they are asleep. Drew was bewildered that I could feed T-ray while I was asleep AND while he was asleep. And yes, I actually was asleep. I think all those other tired moms out there will appreciate this. hehe

second kid

So, I have learned to appreciate things about my first kid by having my second kid and vice versa. Case in point has been these last few days. Our sweet little angel boy has been a nightmare at night. He has 4 teeth coming in and has been so sad and mad all night long!!! When Brookie was cutting teeth she didn't have a very hard time at all. I don't remember nights like this with her, so Brookie, thank you thank you thank you. I had no idea what I had! And T-bum, we still love you, you little stinker!

Eat more bacon

That's right. Eat more bacon and less fruits and veggies to be exact. You might be wondering who would say this, MY DOCTOR!!!! Thats right, my guts doctor, also known as a gastroenterologist, told me to eat more bacon and less fruits and veggies. I nearly fell off the chair. I have some stomach issues from having my gallbladder removed and they have gotten much worse ever since we started "eating right" so I made an appointment to see if my meds need adjusting and he said that I am eating too many fruits, veggies, and whole grains and that my stomach is too messed up to handle it right now. I am sure he was joking about the bacon thing, but wow! Never heard that from a doctor before. Dr. Burrows if anyone is looking for a great advise giver! hahahahaha

almost

I know that it is a miracle that I have been posting so much but here goes another one. So Drew and I did the usually new years resolution. I want to lose my pre-baby weight (you know the weight that you put on in anticipation of getting pregnant which unfortunatly takes alot longer to lose than baby weight itself). So we started this Healthy Habits challenge which is surprisingly going well. Only problem is that you can only have FIGS (fried foods, icecream, goodies, and sugary yumminess) once a week. For the average person that wouldn't be a problem but for me that is a real challenge. So these are the things that I have learned...

--Kashi dark chocolate coconut bars taste ALMOST as good as Almond Joys.
--Welches makes a yogurt covered blueberry that ALMOST tastes like candy.
--When making spaghetti if you mix the noodles half wheat, half white you ALMOST don't notice the difference.
--Wheat bread takes ALMOST 1 cup more flour than your white bread recipe calls for and rises ALMOST half as high.
--Yummy delicious blueberry lemon muffins taste ALMOST the same if you make them with wheat flour and you do not rub them in butter and sugar in the end. (Ok, this one is a complete lie!! They taste nothing alike and you might as well eat a bran muffin and save your blueberries for a more appropriate fate.)
--After getting your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 4 servings of whole grains, and 64 ounces of water you ALMOST don't have enough room for dessert yet you ALMOST always still crave it.
--Brookie will eat ALMOST all vegetables if you tell her that it's "white" broccoli (califlower), or "orange" broccoli (yam chunks), or "yellow" broccoli (squash) and so on. For some reason the girl has convinced herself that broccoli is sneaky bad-for-you food.
--While walking on the treadmill next to Drew, I ALMOST lost half as many calories as he did in the same amount on time and I ALMOST quit the whole thing out of frustration.
--Whole grain Tostitos are ALMOST way better than the regular ones. (not a lie, I love them).
--Pina Coladas taste ALMOST real when you switch the sugar for a banana.
--You ALMOST don't notice the m&m's missing when you make your own homemade granola as long as you put things like dates and other sweet treats.
--There is a special bond that occurs when you are looking at your egg white breakfast burrito with salsa on a whole wheat tortilla and your two year old comes up to you and tries to convince you that you don't have to eat yours if she doesn't have to eat hers and you know that if you made the deal she would never tell daddy and it could be your dirty little secret.

So as you can see, my tastebuds are ALMOST satisfied, and I ALMOST think it's worth it because I am ALMOST done!

January Fun

I have no idea what happened. I put Bubbie down so that I could get ready and Brookie came in to play with him. When I came back out,Bubbies head was bleeding yet he wasn't crying and Brookie did not have that oh so guilty look that she usually gets so I had no idea what to do. So I patched it up and voila! Funny thing is that we went to the store later and the checker asked me what happened. I said that I didn't know and she shot me a concerned should-I-be-calling-DCS-right-now look. Needless to say we hurried out of the store.

In other news, we went iceskating. It was way fun and entirely too expensive but we did it anyways.
I look like I am posing but it was a fly-by shot.

Brookie on the ice with us.

This is the new iceskater helper and it really does work.

This was a fun shot, it was Sunday morning and the kids were ready so it was time for me to get ready. I usually just prop Bubbies bottle in place on busy mornings like Sunday, but when I came back in, Brookie had moved the blanket and was helping him. So maybe she didn't gouge his head since this is proof that she loves him so much.

Holy Cow

ok, so first off it is ok if you laughed at the last post cause I did too (later). Anyways, holy cow! I learned the most amazing thing! It was that time of the quarter again, where I am bathing T-Ray (that actually happens more than one time a quarter) and he grabs one of Brookies bath toys and he sticks it in his mouth and I think, "yuck, kid do you know how long it has been since those have been washed???" And so I was about to go through the dreaded chore of filling the tub with water and bleach and scrubbing the toys and then turning on all the fans so that we don't die of bleach fumes when I walked past the washer and a light clicked on in my head!!! Why don't I just throw them in the washer with bleach and forgoe the whole ordeal!!!! Yeah!!! It was probably the noisiest load of laundry I have ever done but it was music to my ears because it meant that this bless-ed machine was doing my chore!!! Yeah! And for anyone out there who thinks/knows that it is not good on the washer or toys or something I do not want a comment from you. I whole heartedly believe that ignorance is bliss in this case. Oh, my little washer, who knew you were soooooo fantastic!

one of THOSE days

Have you ever had one of those days? You know the type. Where you wake up on the couch cause your two year old kept kicking you in the bed and she was in the bed in the first place cause you are trying to get both kids to sleep in the same room so you can claim your own again and when they cry they wake eachother up so it is easier to take the crier to your bed even though you know that you are reinforcing her bad habits? Where when you are eating breakfast your husband asks you where the keys are cause he needs to leave for work and you tell him that he was the last one to use them and he gets this aweful look on his face cause he remembers that he let your two year old play with them last night and never found out where she put them? So then your husband frantically destroys the house because he has already gotten paid for that days work cause you needed the money by the 15th so that your car payment wouldn't bounce and your student loans have not come in yet and his boss did an advance pay because your husband is ALWAYS on time and has never missed a day and they trust him? Where you lovingly suggest that we call a friend to take him to work and he informs you that all of his work stuff is in the car and that he cannot teach his class without the materials? Where you think, "lets just grab the spare keys" when you remember that last year you were robbed and the car was stolen and the police kept the keys because they needed them for "evidence" and that they will return them when the case is closed and you didn't get another copy made cause they were going to charge you $25 and you thought that was way too expensive? Where you finally give in and call a locksmith to unlock the car AND your friend to take your husband to work and the locksmith says it is going to be 30 minutes and $65 and you lamentingly think, "should've gotten that spare key"? Where you decide to look through your husbands backpack one more time even though he swears he scoured the whole thing and lo and behold, you find the keys!?! Where you blissfully call the locksmith and you still have to pay the $25 service call fee for bothering him and you think yet again, "should've gotten that spare key!"? Where your friend is happy for you and your husband kisses you and merrily walks out the door a little late for work? Where you turn around from shutting the door only to discover your wreck of a home that you spent 3 hours on yesterday because you were sick of looking at your two year old's play pen of a house and you realize that this is way more than 3 hours of work and tears well up in your eyes and just when you think that you can definitely handle this your two year old some how magically climbs onto the kitchen sink and takes your half eaten bowl of cereal and blueberries (that you couldn't finish because of the obvious) and throws it on the floor with a squeal of delight? And as you are bawling you take a time out and get on teh internet and see the devistation in Haiti and you look at your warm stable (even if it is destroyed) home and remember, "oh ya, given the chance I'd choose this trial over that" and you say a prayer and actually thank Heavenly Father for the morning you had instead of the morning that those people had and you blog about it to release your frustration and you start with the living room:)? Ever had one of those days?

summer of 69'

Getting ready for the concert

Me and some guys from the school.....

...had a band and we really tried hard...

Jimmy quit...

Joey got married...

I should've known we'd never get far....

Christmas morning

Ok, so it was more like Christmas afternoon, since the kids aren't old enough to understand the whole thing yet, and we Bush's like to sleep in :),

My brother-in-law made this cute frame and put pics and him and my sista together from the last few years. I thought it was adorable.

Brook's not so patient, patient face

Group fun

More group fun

T-rays present! He couldn't be happier

Blastoff

While in Idaho, it was really too cold to have the kids play outside, so we forked over $3 for 2 hours of Blastoff bliss.

My sista running through the tubes chasing the kids.
Brookie, running from aunt Bran

Yucky, don't eat it!! This kid is going to have one heck of an immune system.

What a beauty

Daddy and the kids

start the New Year off right

So to start the New Year off right, I am going to have a late post about Christmas Vacation.This is us having fun with the Braziers for a little pre-Christmas birthday bash. We celebrated 4 birthdays that were happening in December/January.

Please be a Red Rider bb gun!
Brookies Bday was one of the four.

Part-of-the-group pic.

T-Ray and his cousin closest in age,little Toni.

Brookie enjoying the flight. The lady next to us was so sweet. She got a free movie cause she is some frequent silver medallion honors member (or something like that :) and she gave it to Brookie cause she was going to sleep. So Brooke was not only on her favorite "airplane copter" but she also got to watch "toons"!

Family Pics

K, huge plug for Target! I love how our family pics turned out this season. The lady was so good with the kids and I have to say that this is one of the first times that we took a family foto and I was pleased at how everyone looked!

I know I am biased, but holy stinkin cow! These kids are cute.
She wouldn't take a foto with T but as soon as she got all the attention to herself, she hammed it up. She loved the foto shoot.

I love Drewby, he loves me, we love kindos yes-ery. They love us and so you see.....
We are a happy family!

BIG updates

These are my two bald boys. The story will follow later.

Drew and I went on a date. A real date! One of those ones where the kids are happily playing back home (thanks Jen) and Drew and I were happily flirting THE WHOLE DAY!!! Yeah for dates. date date date date date!
We went up to Copper and went skiing. It was so fun. Drew is so cool. It was only his second time ever, buthe did so good. Copper is HUGE. and it was soooo beautiful.

Me and my boyfriend, I mean husband.

ok, now for the story. Drew has been talking about shaving his head for a while because of the whole going bald thing. Then the other day he found a gray hair and I think it put him over the edge. So.....I totally agreed since guy's hair grows so fast I knew that it would come back. However, I like it! I think he looks hot! (maybe not in this pic-hehe, but normally he is very good looking)

Thanksgiving

Yeah! Happy Thanksgiving!!! Ours started with the Turkey Bowl

My hotty hubby flexin'
the big hudle!

yummy yummy yummy

We went to my cousins for dinner! It was delicious! Thanks Jen!

for grandma

Hey, here are some random pics for Grandma and everyone else who wants to see updates

A couple of weeks ago we did a FHE on the temple. It is now Brookies favorite pic in the house. She keeps telling us, 'I go to temple to mawwy (marry, but she is not so great at r's).
Everyday I try to take a walk, even if it is cold. Partly for the exercise, and partly for my sanity. I just feel better when I can get some fresh air. I keep the kids bundled though and often T falls asleep.

My big boy is growing up.

hehe, this makes my feet look GIGANTIC

This is Brookies friend that was trying to teach her the abc's. It was really cute to watch.