Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas Lights

With everything that has been going on with Brenda, I can't forget that it is almost Christmas! Lee and I took Breken to the Thanksgiving point lights. He loved it! We had so much. If you haven't been before you should go, it's worth the $8. We continue to watch a Christmas movie every night, and breken sings Christmas songs all day long. I am loving this year with him. He completely understands the concept and it is going to be a blast come Christmas day, even though Lee has to work :(



Happy Holidays!

Our Last Goodbye

Brenda's funeral was held on Saturday. It was beautiful. Much needed for all. My mom did an amazing job with her talk, she held it together while making everyone else burst into laughter and followed by tears. I know that she is truly happy, healthy, walking, smiling and watching over all of us. We love you Bren!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Brenda 1963-2011

I am going to try and compose myself long enough to write this post.

For those of you that don't know my mom's best friend Brenda. Here is a little bit about her.

She is loving- kind- FUNNY and one of the sweetest most down to earth people you could have ever met. Brenda was blessed with two boys, who today are 15 and 21. She always wanted a girl, so my mom would share me. She never forgot a single thing. I could count on a phone call from her on my birthday every year, no matter what!

May of 2010 she was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer.

And she was one hell of a fighter. She wouldn't give up for anything. Brenda lived in St.George so it was more than a hop, skip, and a jump away. That didn't stop my mom. She spent more time in St.George than she did at home these last 18 months.

Mom received a call on Monday with news that it wasn't looking great for Bren. She got in car and was there first thing Tuesday. She sat by her bed side every second she could. Controlling the pain, holding her hand, laughing with her when she was able, and going along with stories when she wasn't.

Saturday took a turn for the worst, my mom held her hand until her last breath. And wouldn't let go until quite some time after.

My mom was just as brave and just as strong as Bren was. I am grateful to have such strong people in my life, and I am so grateful to have been apart of Brenda's life.

Thank you for all your love and support! She is finally at peace-and that is what will get me through this rough time.

With all the love in the world, I love you Bren!



























Wednesday, November 30, 2011

They need our help!

Good morning everyone! I was speaking with the director at Brekens school this morning, she had expressed to me that there were several children this year that could use our help for Christmas. There are 3 boys ages 4, 7, and 8 and a little girl age 10. If you want to donate a new toy or a couple of dollars let me know. This is the time of year to help and to give, every little bit counts. Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The holdiays are here!

I hope everybody enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend as much as we did!

We went to Lee's parents this year, and we had a blast. Breken of course had to bring his costumes so the boys could beat up on uncle Lee all day.

We wrote letters to Santa, a tradition we do every year, The kids love it.........So do I!

The food was of course fantastic. Lee's dad Deep Fry's a turkey and if you haven't had one, well you are missing out!

Breken, Lee and myself went and picked out our Christmas tree, put up all the Christmas decorations and took a trip to see Santa. Breken loved it. He is at such a fun age, this is going to be the best Christmas ever.


Happy Holidays!












Monday, November 21, 2011

Spend time with your children!

Breken goes to the most wonderful school during the days. Everyday is wonder of how he is progressing. I finally told myself to just let it go, and enjoy the days and times that I have with him. If there is an issue they would be sure to tell me about it. Today I received an email from Brekens school director. I wanted to post this to remind everybody that it's not always a competition. Spend time with your children, that's what is important.


What should a 4 year old know?I was on a parenting bulletin board recently and read a post by a mother who was worried that her 4 1/2 year old did not know enough. "What should a 4 year old know?" she asked.Most of the answers left me not only saddened but pretty soundly annoyed. One mom posted a laundry list of all of the things her son knew. Counting to 100, planets, how to write his first and last name, and on and on. Others chimed in with how much more their children already knew, some who were only 3. A few posted URL's to lists of what each age should know. The fewest yet said that each child develops at his own pace and not to worry.It bothered me greatly to see these mothers responding to a worried mom by adding to her concern, with lists of all the things their children could do that hers couldn't. We are such a competitive culture that even our preschoolers have become trophies and bragging rights. Childhood shouldn't be a race.So here, I offer my list of what a 4 year old should know.

1.She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time.
2.He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn't feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up.
3.She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs.
4.He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he'll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud.
5.She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she's wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it's just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that-- way more worthy.

But more important, here's what parents need to know.
1.That every child learns to walk, talk, read and do algebra at his own pace and that it will have no bearing on how well he walks, talks, reads or does algebra.
2.That the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement and high ACT scores is reading to children. Not flash cards, not workbooks, not fancy preschools, not blinking toys or computers, but mom or dad taking the time every day or night (or both!) to sit and read them wonderful books.
3.That being the smartest or most accomplished kid in class has never had any bearing on being the happiest. We are so caught up in trying to give our children "advantages" that we're giving them lives as multi-tasked and stressful as ours. One of the biggest advantages we can give our children is a simple, carefree childhood.
4.That our children deserve to be surrounded by books, nature, art supplies and the freedom to explore them. Most of us could get rid of 90% of our children's toys and they wouldn't be missed, but some things are important-- building toys like legos and blocks, creative toys like all types of art materials (good stuff), musical instruments (real ones and multicultural ones), dress up clothes and books, books, books. (Incidentally, much of this can be picked up quite cheaply at thrift shops.) They need to have the freedom to explore with these things too-- to play with scoops of dried beans in the high chair (supervised, of course), to knead bread and make messes, to use paint and play dough and glitter at the kitchen table while we make supper even though it gets everywhere, to have a spot in the yard where it's absolutely fine to dig up all the grass and make a mud pit.
5.That our children need more of us. We have become so good at saying that we need to take care of ourselves that some of us have used it as an excuse to have the rest of the world take care of our kids. Yes, we all need undisturbed baths, time with friends, sanity breaks and an occasional life outside of parenthood. But we live in a time when parenting magazines recommend trying to commit to 10 minutes a day with each child and scheduling one Saturday a month as family day. That's not okay! Our children don't need Nintendos, computers, after school activities, ballet lessons, play groups and soccer practice nearly as much as they need US.They need fathers who sit and listen to their days, mothers who join in and make crafts with them, parents who take the time to read them stories and act like idiots with them. They need us to take walks with them and not mind the .1 MPH pace of a toddler on a spring night. They deserve to help us make supper even though it takes twice as long and makes it twice as much work. They deserve to know that they're a priority for us and that we truly love to be with them.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

This is Halloween-This is Halloween- Halloween Halloween

Oh I love Halloween, it's all about tradition. The annual Hamilton Halloween party that I love to host for all of my nieces and nephews. We eat great food, play fun games (the mummy wrap game) and the kids always get a treat basket with a fun Halloween movie.
On Sunday Breken, Lee and I all carved pumpkins. On Halloween day my family comes over and I make Potato cheese soup and Root Beer of course! I hope everybody enjoyed their Halloween as much as we did. Here are an enormous amount of pictures from last weekend.
















Breken and Lee ready for Trick-or-Treating

CREEPY!




That's a CREEPY family picture!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Our favorite time of the year!

Halloween is our favorite time of the year! What have we been up to? Well the pumpkin patch of course. Breken also had three dress up days at his school. All in the same week!! There was a witch and wizard day, a prince and princess day. and a superhero day. Now we all know that we have superhero day under control. But it was up to me to figure something out for a wizard costume and a prince costume. with a little bit of sewing and cardboard and we came up with a decent outcome. Now on to planning my annual Halloween party that I throw for all of my nieces and nephews. So much to do! So much fun!





He wanted to wear two costumes Just in case someone in his class

doesn't have one, he wanted to share.



Wednesday, October 5, 2011

DISNEYLAND!

So the trip we have been waiting for has come and gone. My mom and dad took us to Disneyland for lee's graduation (we all know the trip was for Breken) We had a BLAST!! I can't even put into words how much fun we had! Combining our 2 favorite things-Disneyland and Halloween- How could you not have fun. My brothers couldn't come because of school and work-whatever! I was so mad they weren't coming. Well ..... when my mom and dad came to pick us up at 6:00 in the morning Chad jumped out of the truck and surprised me! I was so excited. Casey on the other hand really did have class and couldn't come. Bummer!
We spent 4 days in Disneyland one of those days, being Lee's birthday- he received a cupcake from Pluto and a whole bunch of the characters sang happy birthday. One afternoon we spent the day at the hotel watersides and pools. Breken is such a brave big boy going on all the watersides by himself.
He loved all the characters, in his mind the characters are small. So after we saw Goofy I asked him what he thought his response "Him is really....big" he got to dance with phineas and ferb and mike and sully from monsters inc. And BUZZ..... " OH...MY....GOOOOSH" was his response. The world of color was amazing. And getting to dress up in his Halloween costume like all the others kids was just plain fun. And before our plane even took off to come home, Breken was sound a sleep in my lap. I want to go back! So many great memories were made. Here are a ton of pictures from our trip.