School Is out!!!

Bree is officially done with first grade!! She did really well in her first year, and is so excited for summer she can hardly hold still. 

Here is a cute picture of her class. This is actually two classes that are split. Her teacher Mrs. Maiava had a baby in May so Bree had Mr. Nielsen as a sub for the last month in her Spanish class. Mr. Nielsen is funny and Bree really enjoyed his gift at the end of the year... his funny head shot. I guess Mr. Nielsen is an actor in real life (what Bree said!). Tom and I laughed. Tom and I had many worries regarding Bree's ability to stay on track with all the things they learn in Spanish, which is mainly math. Bree did awesome with her testing so I guess we are good, and we will continue with the program. In the summer Bree is going to a Spanish program for a couple of hours during the day, mainly because Tom and I don't want her to lose what she has already learned( Tom and I only speak pretend Spanish ya know!!), and so that she will become more comfortable socializing with others using Spanish. Bree was excited because she brought home all her spelling tests for the year and she had 100% on all of them including bonus words and the majority of the tests were challenge lists. My favorite is that Bree could spell words that Tom and I had to look at the paper to make sure they were correct....seriously tell me you can spell amphibian without looking to make sure you did it correctly. Lets say mom and dad are brushing up on our skills!!Good Job Bree we are so proud of you!!

easter and other things...

spring break was last week, and the kids and i were really good at doing nothing and it felt so good. poor bronson was sick for the last couple of days, and then the day he starts to feel better his mean mom takes him to the doc for his 15 month check up and he gets a shot. bronson and the girls are doing really good, luckily they are a bunch of healthy kids, which makes me so grateful and happy.

for easter the kids had fun at two easter egg hunts with both sides of the family. we missed seeing papa and grandma jane this year but i am sure they had a great time down south.

easter and spring break highlights:

• watching bronson figure out what his basket was for, and then laughing as he tried to quickly get eggs with all the big kids around.
• bree and sophie having a sleepover with nana
• bree so excited about her first pair of high heel shoes. she almost twisted and ankle three times but oh well.
• holding our new chandelier with my head over the balcony so that tom could reach it to hook it up. i was laughing so hard and he thought i was crying.
• after taking the ladder down from hanging the chandelier, we notice that toms left two square dents on the ceiling where the ladder was wedged. not good.
• watching all my tulips bloom.
• watching bronson freak out asking me what all the tulips are over and over. "wat that mam" in the cutest voice ever.
• bronson being the grumpiest little boy ever. we can't decide if it is the 6 teeth coming in at the same time or the MMR shot, but seriously the kid does not stop screaming and crying over everything.
• bree successfully taught sophie the majority of the alphabet, and i think it might be because sophie gets a fish when she can tell me all her letters. she has a couple more so any advice on fish?
• tom re-grouted our shower and it looks a million times better without the black and pink who-knows-what in the grout. thanks babe!
• had a sleepover with meg and the kids thought they hit the lottery. too easy to please.

• lots and lots of reading, coloring, movies, walks, and yard work.

• bronson will sit all through breakfast and a while after watching all the birds in our backyard. he might bark at them but he gets the idea!!

• sophie and i have the same hairdo now and she thinks it's so cool.


• dying easter eggs. tye dye ones are really cool.

hope everyone had a wonderful easter and spring break!

Birthdays Galore!!

today is my sweet bree's birthday and she turns 7. it is crazy to think that 7 years ago my world changed forever. but wait. i was a slacker and sweet sophie turned 4 two weeks ago but i thought i would wait (wink wink) so i could blog them together since we did their party together anyways! Sophie had a birthday weekend that was filled with yummy food and a movie. she really wanted to go to the movie theatre and that is it. tom and i only do friend parties every other year so we just had a big combined party for the family and close friends. sophie and bree wanted a rainbow party so we had so much fun figuring out how to make pom poms, and tom and i stayed up all night seriously making the rainbow cake. we were drunk on frosting and frosting galore and woke up the next morning feeling like we still had frosting in our mouths. the girls were spoiled as usual.

and since i am so great at blogging..... i am going to include some fun things we have been doing the last little while. bree doing some of her tricks from tumbling, and sophie who is so big and learned to ride a bike without training wheels. it almost feels like when you potty train them and you don't have to do diapers....OK maybe not but it feels so good to watch your daughters grow up and accomplish hard things.

that is all the butter for the cake and frosting.

2 am tom took a snooze.

you all know he is better at this stuff. i just watch!

bree surprised sophie with this dress sophie was thrilled. bree paid half for it with her own money... she is so sweet.

watching danny and Bronson was in heaven. not sure about danny!!

seriously tom put her on and gave her a little push and off she went. it was crazy and amazing.
balance bikes really do help or she is super woman ha ha!!

he loves to be outside doing anything. he grabs his shoes in the morning and bugs me until we go out. his favorite thing is working in the garden with mommy. at first he would stand on the grass like a statue but finally he realized it was fun and that grass would not kill him.

oh darn its blurry.

is she not beautiful seriously. we braided her hair in 11 braids last night so it would be crimped and it looked awesome.

bree has been doing her ariel for a while but has been too scared to do it without mats. she will finally practice them at home, which means i finally get to capture it on video.

for bree's birthday we are surprising her by picking up her best friend and going to pizza and bowling, and who knows we might end up at our favorite ice cream place Farr's. hope everyone is doing well and that you all have a wonderful spring break and easter weekend!

600

remember way back in the fall i planted 600 bulbs. well today sophie and i found our first sign of spring and the hope that all that hard work will be beautiful soon. can't wait!

Bronsons Room Complete

Bronsons room had a leak so we decieded we would just fix it all at once.

New paint, new trim, new baseboards, new closet build out, new fan, etc.

Tom has been working long and hard on this and his happy to be done, but I want him to move on to the next room.

Here are some before and after pictures..

Yes, the door is still brown.  Tom wont paint any doors until the whole upstairs is done.

updates are ugly.

i know i hate love them... you know you do too. as i sit here and do this update sophie is asking me how to do a letter s and a letter b, while bronson is running around with pens and crayons coloring on who knows what. i get really frustrated when the before mentioned child sophie wants to write everyone a note and asks me how to spell everything. the problem is...
the problem is she does not know all her letters yet. so we write letters to ty guy with the same letters over and over again. but this was supposed to be an update post and all i can focus on is that sophie thinks ty's name has two l's in it. so do i correct her or do i let her continue so that i can do a blog post?

lets see where to start. first since I last posted in December my mom is doing so much better. she has recovered from that horrendous surgery where they gutted her (literally). she does chemo once a week for 18 treatments. she feels really good and is excited for the end of chemo and for her hair to return hopefully in the summer. weird fact is that her hair is supposed to come back curly. who knew! i shaved her head about two weeks ago and since then i think there are a few more bald men and young children walking around this country. they all look really good and so does my mom. people ask me if i am ok and i would just first like to thank everyone for prayers and thoughts toward my family. that being said i don't think i have thought why us ever. I have been so touched with so many stories of cancer that i can't comprehend how i could ever say why us. cancer affects everyone. if it has not affected you or your family i pray that it does not but chances are it will some day. we are all in this together, and luckily it is not a lonely disease for me because so many people can relate and understand. moreover, i do however reflect on my life more and the things that matter the most to me and the things that i want to experience before i die. its a wake up call of sorts.for now there is hope that this will all be ok and that we can enjoy every moment we have.

christmas was different but we still all managed to enjoy the season together as family. we had the party at our house this year and had a killer ping pong tourney and ate loads and loads of food. my highlight of the night was trevor my brother in law wearing his one piece pajamas that i so graciously gave him for christmas. nothing makes you feel better than a full grown man in a one piece pajama outfit that has sock monkeys on the feet. the girls had the most fun riding there new scooters around the house until finally tom and i had enough. bronson is now equipped with more trucks and cars than any little boy would ever need.

new years came and we had the best time watching the kids celebrate early with the harris family down the street. i guess it is also the rohbacher family too. the kids had a blast on the roller coaster. yes a roller coaster for little ones in the middle of the living room. then we came to our house and partied the night away. the kids all had fun and other than bronson and danny they all stayed awake past midnight. we have awesome friends.

bronson has changed the most since i last updated. duh. he turned one on january 21st and we had a joint party with my dad because they share the same birthday. tom saved the day after i had a melt down over my lovely homemade cupcakes being destroyed. bree had to get to gymnastics. he brought home the cutest football cupcakes and eclairs that made me so happy. tom was not so happy with my meltdown but what is a girl to do when she slaves all day making something special, and then for those special cupcakes to just die. die. the party was great and bronson was spoiled yet again by wonderful people we like to call family and friends.

my birthday was soon after and i turned old. had a fabulous day with food food and more food. most of the food was shared with my little family, but i had a great lunch with all the girls too.

we had a leak in the chimney which caused a problem with bronson's ceiling and wall so we have been re-doing his room for the last couple of months. luckily we have the extra bedroom, otherwise the room would have been done faster. tom has done a really great job, and i love love the paint color. i want to paint the rest of my house the same color.

kid update. bree is doing really great. she can only speak spanish and absolutely no english in her spanish class at school. it is amazing how well she is doing. her gymnastics is going really well. she is getting really strong and her class is starting back tucks. 

sophie is loving all her activities and really loves all her boyfriends. i think we might have a problem. or tom does. sophie really likes boys. her best friends are of course ty, james, and charlie. i will ask about the girls and she just says that sometimes she plays with kate, if kate will be her dog.for now it is really funny.

sophie and bree sit in the back of the car and fight about jesus. i know that sounds weird but they fight about if he is dead or if he died. we try to explain but it is so entertaining for them to scream abut this subject. sophie will say "jesus died for us so that we could live, but he is not dead". then bree freaks out saying "he is dead but that they are the same thing dead and died". then sophie freaks back and then sooner or later sophie will say "yeah that is what i said" and oh how that irks bree. tom and i just smile.kids are great. they do shock us by knowing so much about everything. bree will pull out resurrection and crucified and tom and i are like what? did she just use those words. your kids might use big words but ours usually use the words like crap holes and poop.

bronson is walking and talking now. dr. v is worried about his growth and weight, which worries me but i can't get the kid to gain weight. i feed him all the bad stuff now but he still refuses to get fat. go figure right. so unfair.

Bree's gymnastic program

christmas tree is up. thanks koby and em for switching trees with us!

Tom preparing to put lights up on the house. he is a sissy and ends up doing them the safe way. i don't blame him, our house is so tall.

bree painting the secret room in the playroom

my step mom jane watched the kids all day while tom and i were at the hospital. she had a cake and everything when we got home that night. thanks jane your the best. tom is old.

tom took the girls skiing. bree loved it. sophie liked it but was over it after the first run.

treats for neighbors and friends. last minute!

elite property management snowman.

christmas with toms family

all the schrievers.

santa gives our family dart guns as he leaves so we can shoot each other for an hour after.fun.

christmas eve pj's

santa for bronson

santa for the girls

good times good times.

sledding at the big hill and bronson was so done.

new years eve. late late.

bronson birthday breakfast

they love the hot tub. me not so much.

drive in theatre at preschool.

cheese heads for the super bowl

bye bye hair. my mom fell and hit her head that is why her eye looks awful.

shaving toms head

 we don't make the kids wear seat belts after church because we live seriously two seconds away. tom decided to slam on the brakes to be funny. poor sophie slammed into the seat and her nose was so swollen. she laid here for 20 minutes with frozen peas on her nose. parents of the year right!

update complete. do you think the kids will like this one day? tom has a cousin megan who published all the journals of tom's grandma and sent one to all the family. lets just say that i have never ever ever walked into my bedroom at night to find my husband reading a book. so this makes me realize the interest that my children and their children will have in this blog, so for them i will continue to write about our lives.