Joe & Brooke Plus Six

Christmas in Oregon

2011-12-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

We spent a really lovely 10 days in Oregon with my family for Christmas. We had fun with cousins, went ice skating, saw movies, went swimming (Madras has a pretty cool indoor acquatic center), opened lots of presents, and just generally had a great time. Thanks so much to my Dad and Mom who worked hard and were so patient having us in their house. I know it must be hard to go from two to ten people in your home. It was truly a Christmas for the record books. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Got to stay the night with Robers up in Sacramento on the way up. The kids picked up right where they left off:

Ice Skating:

This isn't the greatest picture, but it illustrates the first comment the Joe IV heard everywhere we went, "Wow Joe, you're so tall". He hasn't passed me up yet, but he did pass all three of the aunts we saw over the holiday:

These two were fast friends:

As were these two, granted without the public enthusiasm as the five year olds:

A little Christmas Eve wrestling...wouldn't be Christmas without it:

ANd then of course the traditional Christmas Eve present:

Christmas morning lineup:

Then off to church at NINE am:

This boy is looking more and more like the man I met fifteen years ago:

After church it was back home and back to pajamas for present opening:

Maggie made hats for each one of her FIVE brothers:

Maggie and I got some matching Toms - I think I was more excited than she was:

Still couldn't completely keep out the cupcakes:

And no trip to Oregon is complete without a trip to super cool aunt and uncle Jann and Alan's for some target practice:

Don't forget the hearing protection:

This might be my favorite picture of all....all five of my boys out playing together at my childhood home:

Minus the snow, our Christmas was pretty much picture perfect. One I'm sure we'll always remember.

Nine

2011-12-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

With Harry's Birthday, we are now officially 2/3 of the way through Brundage Birthday Season. On Friday, Harry turned nine, and we celebrated. Here's the details...

Wake up to presents...

This kid is always so enthusiastic about presents. My other children should take note. It's more fun to give gifts to kids who get excited about what they get. Here's a little known detail about Harry.... He's never once asked for a video game system, video game, online gaming membership, ipod, or any other electronic device that would require sitting for long periods of time. He has, over the years, asked for many "odd" gifts...crutches, airbrush tattoo kit, costumes, and this year, a pipe. Yeah, a pipe. I don't know why...maybe he's been watching Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter lately. But at the top of a list was a pipe. Second on the list was dry ice to put in the pipe so it would look like he's actually smoking. I know it probably isn't politically correct parenting to give in to these whims. But I have a hard time saying no to such an imagination. So, this year he got a pipe. I did say no to the dry ice. I don't think I took a picture of it, but I wanted to write about it so I don't forget it. He also said to me, "Mom, when we go to Oregon for Christmas, I want to wake up every morning, get my pipe, sit out on the porch in a rocking chair and smoke my pipe". Because in Oregon it's cold enough to see your breath...so it would look more realistic. Again, hard to say no...although I did find it necessary to have a little chat about the Word Of Wisdom. I think we're on the same page there. I hope we're on the same page there.

Anyway, after the morning of presents and pretend pipe smoking, it was off to school. It was a busy day there...last day of school before the break, school assembly in which Harry performed and Charlie received an award and three room parties. By lunchtime, we had had enough, and we checked Harry out and took him to a Firestone Birthday Lunch with Grandpa and Grandma:

He spent the afternoon flying his new helicopter, and then headed to the church for our Ward Christmas Party/Ward Birthday Party for Harry. Again, no pictures. I was pretty much running on fumes at this point. Remember, I still had to pack eight people up to go to Oregon for two weeks and I hadn't even started. Oh! I also had to give a talk in church on Sunday that I hadn't even started to formally write. So things were a little fuzzy for me.

The next day started off with a bang at the Christmas Piano Recital, and rose to a chaotic crescendo as we attempted to take 12 kids, 12 and under to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked. And then back to Coldstone for Ice Cream Cake and a silly string fight. Harry even invited girls to this party. They didn't get anywhere near each other or speak to each other the whole day, but still, that's a pretty big step!

I think, all in all, the day/s were a success. If you consider me not completely losing my mind a success that is.

Happy Birthday Harry. You are and always have been my little Happy Harry. We are so blessed to have you as part of our family.

ELEVEN

2011-12-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

Well the big day has come and gone. Maggie is now officially eleven. We had a fun-filled, event-filled day to celebrate. A day that left Maggie literally sick with Strep Throat for the next three days. A day that left me exhausted for the next five. But a day full of friends, family, fun, and of course, cupcakes!

Here's the birthday girl...isn't she getting to be so pretty? That hair! I would die for it!

She woke up to a breakfast of amazing balls of goodness and bacon. A breakfast whose name did not escape countless jokes from her brothers throughout the morning, but her favorite none-the-less.

On to present opening....where this large package revealed a much smaller gift...after several boxes were unwrapped.

She picked out this print at a craft faire earlier in the week. It really does sum her up right now.

And then onto school and a lunch out with grandma and grandpa at CPK:

And finally, over to the shoppe to set up for the big party. She had invited ten girls to a cupcake making party. This was kind of a test for me to see if such a thing was possible to add to my menu of services. The jury is still out on that one...the girls certainly had fun and walked away with a dozen of their own handmade goodies, an apron and chef hat, and a bag filled with Maggie's handmade cupcake headbands and other cupcake goodies. I'm sure I'll take some flack for these aprons I whipped up the night before the party...sometimes I just can't help myself.

The Batter Station:

The Sprinkle Station:

The pans all ready to go into the oven:

And then off to the back room for ice cream cake, gift opening, and just general silliness that can only be had by 11 ten & eleven year olds.

Maggie finally broke down and started the Harry Potter series...only to fall madly in love.

This picture just makes me laugh...both girls are on even footing, but gives you an idea of Maggie's "petiteness". When buying her gifts this year, I debated long and hard between size 6X and size 7/8 in the girls department at Target. In the end,I decided to go with the 7/8 for my eleven year old, but it was a close call.

And finally, a shot of Maggie's dear friend Jenea, who always seems to make things more interesting!

We had a great day, and almost a week later we have finally almost recovered. Now, onto another party for Harry, a sacrament meeting talk to prepare, Christmas shopping for six, and packing for a trip to Oregon. Should be a piece of cake...or maybe just a cupcake!

Well I can't just let a tarantula hijack my blog!

2011-11-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry sorry, it's just that ever since I put up that picture and video of the tarantula, it's like I can't even see the blog without shrinking away from it. So the fix? Update, right? Yeah, easier said than done for some reason.

Anyway, I've decided to let the pictures do the talking on this blog post...they can tell it way better than I can anyway.

So first, (actually this happened before the spider incident) we were able to take a couple of days to visit our friends the Robers who recently moved to the Sacramento area. Briggs was being baptized and it seemed like the perfect excuse to visit. The kids had fun catching up. It's funny....it seems the longer they are gone, the more we feel the loss...maybe it's just finally really sinking in, but we dearly miss our friends. (come back, come back!)

And then next it was Halloween....in all it's week-long glory...I mean come on! I think there were four separate events that required costumes this year. At some point I just got so tired of it all, I just let the kids fend for themselves. I don't think they did too badly...

Jack warmed up to the idea of costumes by sleeping through the trunk or treat:

Charlie showed his basketball skills at one event:

And Maggie and Ellie enjoyed being goddesses for an evening:

The actual night of Halloween brought us Obi-Wan-Kenobi, a Lego Brick, another Greek Goddess and her counter-part, and a delightful two year old monkey....who finally got into the Halloween act:

And then of course, we had a very special day to celebrate the following day...can you believe this little boy is five?

He had a great day at Chuck-E-Cheese with his buddies:

And I'm still holding out hope for these two someday...aren't they both just beautiful? Sigh:

And lest anyone forget we do indeed have six children...here's the visible proof that Joe still exists...at least on paper. This boy is breaking us in easy to the world of Junior High. He is truly a pleasure to have around, and is obviously thriving in the Junior High environment.

So there you have it, we are here, we are alive, and we are pushing forward, and even taking pictures from time to time. We are gearing up for two more birthdays this month and then a Christmas Holiday in Oregon. We'll talk soon!

House Guests

2011-10-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, anybody want to come visit? Did you know that San Luis Obispo is the home to happiest people in America? Did you know that it is also the home to this?

Joe and I had just gotten home from a movie and thought the kids put a toy spider on the sliding door to scare us. It only took a small moving of the door before we realized that it was indeed very real, and was indeed very much INSIDE our house.

Luckily for us (a family plagued by arachnophobia) a neighbor rang the door bell at just the moment we discovered this unwanted house guest,(Seriously, a tender mercy there who helped us to capture the spider in a shoe box. Then, as a family, we walked the box far far far away and released it into the wild. I sure hope it didn't follow us home. Seriously, I think I'm going to need more than an Ambien to sleep tonight.

See the video here:

Untitled from Brooke Brundage on Vimeo.

Some Birthdays, Some Ramblings and a Confession

2011-10-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

So here we go again, getting behind during birthday season...it simply cannot happen! The blog will simply not recover if I let it go at this point. And I'm not willing or ready to let over four years of family history and journaling go out the window. So, here's the bare bones of it.

Charlie turned seven over one month ago. This child is amazing. He's fully immersed himself in the second grade. He loves math and loves to read. He is kind, he is curious, and sometimes just a little bit silly. You cannot take a bad picture of this kid. He's usually quiet and tends to blend into our family sometimes so much that we have to check, "Charlie, are you here? Did you make it into the car?" Other times he is outspoken and has strong opinions. One evening he was in the car with Joe, and, unsolicited, Charlie began a conversation with his father about his preferences for Beattles songs.

He launches into his critique:

Charlie: "You know what song of the Beattles I don't really like?"

Dad: "Which one?"

Charlie: "All You Need Is Love"

Dad: "Oh yeah, how come?"

Charlie: "Well, it's kind of boring...it doesn't really have very many words, and then all the words are the same, just over and over and over"

Dad: "Well, yeah, I guess that's true...is there a song that you like more?"

Charlie: "Yeah, Helter Skelter...there are lots of different words, and Ringo is so funny at the end when he yells about the blisters on his fingers."

Hmmm...I had to go to itunes to test his critque, but, he's kind of right. Too bad, "All You Need Is Love" has long time been one of my favorites...now it will always be tainted by this seven year olds complaints about it.

So, he had a lovely birthday. For obvious reasons, we're trying to be really conservative with gifts this year for birthdays. But at the last minute, I donated one of my favorite jackets to the birthday cause and turned it into a replica of Luke's jacket in the Return of the Jedi when he gets his medal. John pitched in and made a replica of the medal. By far the best gift of the day.....and I'm only a little bit sad about not being able to wear my jacket anymore.

Charlie and I circled back around again and decided on CPK for our shared birthday dinner. Then we ended up in the back room of Coldstone with an ice cream cake and candles.

I left the following day for five lovely days in Oregon. I celebrated my 35th birthday by lying around all day, reading a book, and then walking with my mom to the Dairy Queen for a birthday Blizzard. You'd think I'd be such an ice cream snob by now, but there is just something about an M&M Blizzard that can't be beat. It was the best.

And now, I'm back and trying to settle into a life that has suddenly become ours. Getting the kids off to school each day, opening the Cupcake Shoppe, helping with homework and piano, making dinners, running kids around to Scouts and Activity Days, packing lunches, dealing with drama and arguments, and basically just trying to keep up.

And you know what? It's tough. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of listening to President Uchtdorf talk at the General Relief Society Meeting. His talks are always right on the mark...and he really seems to "get" the LDS woman, at least from my perspective. His first point was about how women compare themselves to other women, and how we're always down on ourselves because we can never keep up. I admit, there's a certain aspect of that idea which rings true for me....but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the truth of it for me. I'm not comparing myself to other women so much as I'm comparing myself to the myself of five years ago. I try to stay positive about my health, but there are days that I really just don't get it. How am I supposed to keep up with the life I've created for myself when my body simply can't keep up?

President Uchtdorf went on to say this,

"Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

It’s wonderful that you have strengths.

And it is part of your mortal experience that you do have weaknesses.

God wants to help us to eventually turn all of our weaknesses into strengths, but He knows that this is a long-term goal. He wants us to become perfect, and if we stay on the path of discipleship, one day we will. It’s OK that you’re not quite there yet. Keep working on it, but stop punishing yourself.

Dear sisters, many of you are endlessly compassionate and patient with the weaknesses of others. Please remember also to be compassionate and patient with yourself.

In the meantime, be thankful for all the small successes in your home, your family relationships, your education and livelihood, your Church participation and personal improvement. Like the forget-me-nots, these successes may seem tiny to you and they may go unnoticed by others, but God notices them and they are not small to Him. If you consider success to be only the most perfect rose or dazzling orchid, you may miss some of life’s sweetest experiences."

So this is what I'm trying to do....to celebrate the small successes. Maybe it doesn't matter so much that I can't physically do all the things I used to be able to do. Maybe it's okay that much of my time with my children is spent sitting at the table doing homework, or lying on my bed on a Sunday afternoon watching a movie with all the kids. (We really had fun watching Home Alone a few weeks ago)My abilities as a mother have certainly CHANGED in the last few years, but I'm trying hard to remember that just because I'm a DIFFERENT kind of mother now, I'm not any the worse for it, and hopefully neither are my children. I'm looking for the ways to turn this weakness into a strength. And here's one thing I'm starting with...I'm going to take a break from all my craft/sewing/home improvement blogs. I'm going to erase them from my favorites. I'm no longer going to look at all the things that other mothers are able to do, and instead, I'm going to spend time focusing on the things that I CAN DO as a mother.

I'm going to try to be a little more patient with myself.

Anybody want to join me? What will you do to be more patient with yourself?

And now, onto the day ahead. I'm looking forward to finding the bits of success I can today...but I can tell you one thing, it will not include a sewing machine, paint brush or a glue gun!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

2011-08-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Charlie's birthday is in two days, so I decided to finally actually POST this post that I wrote last week and for some reason never posted. If I start off "Birthday Season" already behind on the blog, it may be something I(or actually just the blog)will never recover from! So, this first week of school went something like this:

August 25, 2011

We took two steps forward yesterday and got all five school-aged children off to school on time to three different locations! It took much planning and no fewer than five alarm clocks (seriously), but we managed it.

Joe left for middle school (I am still refusing to call it Junior High) before we could get a picture. Needless to say, our summer {non} schedule combined with my RA symptoms make mornings tough around here. My kids asked the other day if I would ever be out of bed and make them breakfast without them having to come and get/drag me out of bed. Why aren't I like the mom's on TV? You know the ones who have breakfast waiting and ready and wake their children with a happy song every morning? (I actually kind of had a mom like that, so it made it hard for me to tell them that those kind of moms aren't real). Seriously, all my sibs out there, our mom was like that, right? Or am I mis-remembering it?

Anyway, John made it through his first day of pre-kindergarten and was home only five minutes before he had changed into his Darth Maul costume. He was home only fifteen minutes before I found him like this: This is on the landing of our stairs....I don't know what happened...it appears that he litterally fell aspleep while walking up the stairs.

This morning, reality set in a bit more....no one was quite as anxious to get out the door. In fact, Charlie didn't make it there until after lunch. He was just too nervous to go - according to him. That's where the one step backwards comes in. I just had to wait him out...make it more boring at home than it could possibly at school. He finally cracked around eleven and made it in.

The novelty hadn't worn off for John though...in fact he climbed on the bus all by himself this morning without a second look back. I of course tailed the bus all the way to his elementary school (not the same one where Maggie, Harry & Charlie go, because, you know, that would just be too easy) and anxiously waited for him at the school. He looked at me like I was crazy when he saw me at the school. Is it crazy that I want my pre-kindergartner to have a cell phone and text me when he's arrived safely at school? Because I'm seriously considering it. It seems the older I get, the more anxious I become....or maybe it's because he's FOUR!

FOUR!

Who lets their four year old ride the bus to school without even an older brother or sister to help? The jury is still out on this one. I guess only time will tell. Maybe I'll just follow the bus everyday. But that seems kind of dumb.

Big sigh.

And what have I been keeping myself busy with? Yeah, you guessed it. Cupcakes. I guess I should be glad...there's just something about the everyday nature of it that wears on me. And every time I do another wedding I say to myself, "self, you should stop doing this...you don't really make any money and you just drive yourself and everybody around you crazy with your crazy anxiety". But then, I go to the venue and set everything up, and that part is fun..the energy at most weddings is pretty fun. So, again, big sigh, I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this one. After my last post about the Cold Stone corporates coming to check out the cupcakes, I feel it's only right to tell all you that they postponed their trip up to SLO (for other reasons they say). So, for any of you out there who keep going to your local Cold Stone Creamery looking for the On A Lark Cupcake Shoppe, I guess you may have to wait a little bit longer...or you may just have to make a trip to SLO - that might be more fun, and I can almost guarantee faster.

I myself am taking a little trip. Next week marks my 35th birthday.

GASP

"Why does this keep happening to us?!?, I thought we had a deal!"

Extra points if you know what TV show that's from and who said it. But you'd have to be almost as old as me to know it, so, you know, that's pretty old.

I'll be taking advantage of airline miles and a still unemployed husband (not complaining...seriously I don't know how I'd get the kids to school every day if he was going to work) and taking a few days up in Oregon with my parents and sisters...sans kids...at least of my own.

Now, time to get back to work...there are presents to be bought, and presents to be sewn (kind of in over my head on this one, but hopefully it will work out), back to school nights at three schools to attend, and a trip to get ready for. Battle on Girls, Battle on. (Triple points if you know what tv show that one comes from)

What Does Nothing Look Like?

2011-08-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, if you want to know the answer to that question, come on over to our house for a little tour.

We are currently into the long, hot, (well not too hot) dog day kind of summer. You know the kind...where the days are long but the weeks are so short....you stay up late watching shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and My Strange Addiction on TLC, and then quickly flip back to Lifetime for the new season of Project Runway. The kind of of days where, if you're a kid, you play musical beds at night, and just fall asleep in whos ever room you happen to be in when it's time for bed. The kind of mornings where you sleep in and wander into your parents room to find that they too have slept in. Maybe it's because their baby brother Jack has decided to really play up the whole "baby" angle he's got going on and stay up all night...insisting that either mom or dad stay up with him. Right now we're kind of playing tag team right now with him....counting our blessings that this little guy made it into our family, but also counting our blessings that we know when enough is enough.

Joe has a theory about how many children people should have....since I know you're dying to learn this wisdom...here it is, "you only know when you have enough children when you have one TOO MANY children...but what are you going to do about it then?" And really, I hate to admit it, but he's kind of right. I remember a very specific moment driving home from Disneyland, no less, with five children sitting happily in the back of our Chrysler Towne & Country. I looked at Joe and said, "I think we could handle another one...I mean...we just survived three days at Disneyland with five kids...and actually had a good time.....how hard could one more be?" Well,three years later, and we're still finding out, every single day with this kid!

Anyway, that's not the point of this post...but to be honest, there really is no point. Just some updates. Today is August 8, 2011. That means there are no less than 16 days left until school starts. We've started the back to school preparations...new backpacks and binders, markers and erasers. It's funny to see how some children are so excited to get back, while others are a bit more hesitant (No names will be named). Some children are excited about being upper-classmen at their school, while others are worried about starting back at the bottom of the food chain. Some have to worry about having hot lunch or packed lunch, while others are worried about finding each new class in the right amount of passing time.

We've been passing our time, and mostly, our days are pretty full. Joe finished up his transitional work at the bank, and has been home with us for over a week now. That has taken some getting used to, but then I got this email from our ColdStone Area Developers about our cupcakes. Here, I'll put in a little excerpt:

"Good Morning Joe and Brooke,

Congrats on what I believe is a successful Co Branding venture. You have increased your SSS +10.6% through June and our market average during the same period of time is -.9. We have been tracking your weekly sales, since January, and you are averaging $488 per week. With these types of numbers, I think it is time to let the secret out of the bag. However, I think it is important that we all talk about how we want to proceed. There are many areas that we need to talk about so we are on the same page…operations, marketing, display requirements, equipment requirements…and the like. Please let me know the best time (s) so we can arrange a call to start the process."

So, I guess that's good, but scary too....maybe look for an "On A Lark Cupcake Shoppe" in a Coldstone near you? But honestly, the thought of keeping this going in just one store is taking just about every bit of energy I've got...I can't imagine making it work in other stores...oh well...I'm sure the big guys at Coldstone know more than I do. So, with Joe home all the time, I have no excuse to not go in there and really make the cupcake thing work (although I seem to find those excuses every single day).

But, on another note, literally, having Dad home has some definite plus sides....like when you're Jack and you love Little Einsteins. Imagine the delight you have when you discover that your daddy can just play the theme song by ear on the piano for you? You look at your dad like a totally different guy after that. Or if you're six and starting second grade and know your times tables up and down but what you really want is to be able to play some Star Wars song on the piano like your older brothers can. So, one day, your dad just shows you how to do it. No book required...just your fingers and your ears (and a little tongue action) and you're set! I'm sure his piano teacher will be so happy to know that Charlie can play by ear...I'm sure that's just the preparation she hopes all her students will have. Now she'll get to spend the next few months breaking him of this lovely skill.

So yeah, for now we're running on love and faith and prayer, and also of course,on cupcakes and ice cream. So, if you're close, go on down and get some ice cream and cupcakes too...promise they'll make you feel like it's really summer...better hurry though...summer is quickly coming to a close!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this video of my almost seven year old playing some star wars song.....completely by ear.

/

Untitled from Brooke Brundage on Vimeo.

My Week In Pictures (And Some Words Too It Looks Like)

2011-07-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

This was a busy week, even by my standards. It all started late last Sunday night when we were packing Joe for scout camp, and could find neither his Scout shirt or his permission slip that had been signed by a doctor. After a couple of fruitless hours of searching, I printed up new forms and had Joe and Joe run down to our ever so friendly neighbor who just so happens to be a doctor to get the new forms signed. The shirt was finally found (in the costume bin of course) and then I had to spend an half an hour sewing on some new patches. The crazy week continued the next morning when Joe IV came into our room where Joe III and I were sound asleep and said, "You Guys! It's 7:20!!" You see, we were supposed to be at the church for drop off at 7:30. And we don't live in Utah where your church is literally around the corner. It takes us a good nine to eleven minutes even at 7:20 in the morning. Luckily, we had packed everything the night before, so we threw everything in the car and sped over...made it just in time.

So what happened, why did my alarm not go off? Because I set it for 6:30 p.m.,of course. I found that out later, at exactly 6:30 p.m. when I was sitting in a meeting about Transitional Kindergarten for John. He got in by the way! I'm super excited about this. He'll go five days a week just like Kindergarten, but the class will serve as a bridge to Kindergarten. California just recently got smart (about this at least) and changed the cut-off date for Kindergartners from December second to September first. As a result of the new law, schools are required to provide (free of charge to the parents) a transitional class for those children born between those two dates. As a November baby, John is a perfect candidate for this class. Of course, the class will be held at a different elementary school than the one my other children attend, and Joe IV will be in middle school come fall, so Joe and I will have the unique challenge of getting five children to three different places all at the same time...sounds like good times!

So,onto the post title, my week in pictures....I had a wedding I did cupcakes for on Saturday afternoon. This was the first time I used my new "cupcake tree" to display the cupcakes, and I love how it turned out. So tidy and uniform...kind of like I wish my house were. The bride and groom were lovely...they live in Oregon actually, but she grew up in San Luis County, so they came here to enjoy some beautiful SLO weather. And the weather did not disappoint. It was perfect all weekend long.

I keep waiting for a bride to want cupcakes that all look alike (like Martha would do). I think it would be so pretty to just see rows and rows of perfectly perfect cupcakes. But I guess that kind of goes against the purpose of getting cupcakes instead of cake. You get cupcakes so you can have all those different flavors for your guests to enjoy. I suppose I just want to have my cupcake and eat it too.

On Friday night and Saturday afternoon, I was able to provide cupcakes for a local craft faire called "The Stitch Market". It is held at a woman's home 3-4 times each year and is full of homemade and handmade items made by women. It's full of pretty bags and aprons and clothing and jewelry. More importantly, it's full of creative women, who are always fun to be around. I saw a sign for sale there that said, "Creativity Takes Courage", and I thought how right that was. It takes courage to put your heart and soul and effort into something...and then to put it on display for others to critique.....to me, that is brave. But back to the cupcakes...because that's always where I go back to....I brought mini cupcakes for this event...I don't know what it is about mini-cupcakes...they're just so darn cute.

I found this cute little bird jewelry holder at TJ Max and turned it into a business card holder and a display for some of my cupcake toppers.

And a few other things happened this week.

I didn't get to bed before two o'clock for four nights in a row (last night being one of them and then I woke up at 5:30 unable to go back to sleep...hence the long blog post).

Maggie got a new bed frame with some storage drawers under it. She and her dad put it together one night while I was making cupcakes at the shoppe. We re-arranged her room a bit and de-clutterfied it. We'll have to take some pictures when it's fully done. I think Maggie is finally starting to warm up to the idea that being the only girl in a family of six is not an entirely bad thing. No one else gets their own room. Maggie also made dinner for us one night. Once, for reasons I can't recall, I made Hamburger Helper. Maggie loved it and is always asking for me to make it again. Joe IV hates it, and is always asking me never to make it again. So since he was away at scout camp, we got to have it. I was at the grocery store picking it up, and I texted Maggie asking what kind she wanted. She texted back what she wanted, and then, in a separate text, said, "Mom, remember that the meat doesn't come with the box...you have to buy it separately." I don't know why that hit me as so hilarious, but it did. I politely thanked Maggie for the tip and went over to the meat section to pick up some hamburger. What would I have done without that reminder?

I finally tossed out my old laser printer and replaced it with a new wireless color laser printer. I do a lot of printing for Coldstone and On A Lark, so I felt justified in it. Wow, can I say how much I love wireless technology? I mean, I know this is not new technology,but wow...I can print from any computer in my house? I can print directly from my ipad or iphone? Amazing.

Joe returned from Scout camp dirty and tired, but with a good attitude. He had not been looking forward to going...camping isn't really his style. But he apparently loved it. He received several merit badges including one he got for Wilderness Survival. To get that one, he basically had to go out into the woods with a sleeping bag and a tiny emergency kit, make a shelter, and stay the night! He got to do it with a buddy, but still...sounds pretty scary to me...especially when his friend woke him up at 5 in the morning to show him the mountain lion that was 20 feet away from their camp. Joe's friend asked him if he should throw a rock at the Lion, to which Joe furiously whispered NO!!!! Luckily, the mountain lion sauntered off before anything happened. But it was certainly a highlight (or low light) from his week at Scout Camp.

Harry jumped off the high dive at the local pool! May not seem like much to many, but to our family, it was an event three years in the making. I have it on video on my iphone, but it looks funny because I rotated my phone halfway through to catch more of the jump, and it looks like Harry is walking straight down the high dive. Anyway, it was a big day at our house!

Oh, and did I mention that Target opens is just six days? SIX DAYS!

And finally, this post, and all it's contents were brought to you by the following sponsor:

It's good stuff....melts your bones apparently,but good stuff none the less.

And now, it's time to get the children up for church and get going for the day. One thing I know for certain, there WILL BE a nap for me this afternoon. (And possibly during sacramnent meeting too....I've got the Lark headbob napping style down to a science now. :)

All Fuzzy and Dreamy

2011-07-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

See this picture I took with my iphone this evening? I was leaving Costco, and just had to snap a picture of the image across the street. Yes, it's fuzzy and kind of dreamy looking, but that's a pretty good representation of how I feel about a TARGET opening only two miles from my home! Fuzzy and dreamy...like it's not really happening. But, it is...and today I learned that it will be opening not on the 24th of July like I had originally thought, but will actually open on the 18th of July. So, today is the eleventh of July, which gives me exactly seven days to figure out how I'm going to be able to live so close to a Target and still maintain a semblance of black ink in my checkbook.

This fall, it will have been 17 years since I moved to SLO to go to Cal Poly. I was 17 at the time....so I guess that's half my life at this point. But in all my 34 years, I've NEVER lived this close to a Target. Oh...I'm getting all fuzzy and dreamy just thinking about it now.

A Sad Goodbye

2011-07-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Remember this sweet little boy? You know, the one who loves all things trucks?The one who waits with such anticipation for garbage day? The one who had a garbage truck cake for his third birthday, and then dressed up as a garbage can for Halloween?

And then the next year was a UPS man for Halloween,

And celebrated his fourth birthday at the wrecking yard?

He's gone....lost forever to the dark side....and replaced with this scary little character:

I guess it was only a matter of time with three older brothers who have of late immersed themselves fully into the world of Star Wars. I guess the pressure was just too much....but after two years of this truck obsession, I was holding out hope that George Lucas was not going to get his hands on this little guy. But alas..a youngling become he has....

Luckily, I still have this little truck-lover to keep me happy....I'm sure it's only a matter of time for him too...but I'm sure going to enjoy him while I can!

The Third and a Half of July

2011-07-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

So we started our Independance Day celebrations a bit early this year. Last year, when July 4th fell on a Sunday, we had fun creating a red, white and blue Sunday dinner. We liked it so much, we decided to go for it again. So, the decorations:

The food:
(The only time in the year we EVER have Jello)

(Nature's Popsicle)

(The red, white and blue drinks...which didn't really layer up quite right this year)

The Booty:
(mostly left over from last year's celebration)

The friends and fun:
(the kids made ice cream by shaking up baggies of ColdStone Sweet Cream mix, packed in rock salt and ice and then put into pillow cases. The jumping on the trampoline really helped with the shaking!)

And finally, the show:

(the "SAFE-ZONE"- where the kids hung out during the firework show)

After all that partying on the third, we still decided to take advantage of Joe having the day off from the bank and took the kids up the Ravine Waterpark for the day. We packed a lunch, left the lovely 76 degree weather of San Luis, and headed up to the 105 degree weather of Paso Robles. Amazing what 40 miles can do to weather. We had a great day and shut down the park, but opted out of taking the camera on the trip. Sometimes I feel like you just need to step back from the camera and actually enjoy the day...plus I didn't want to take the chance of me being photographed in a swimsuit! :)

After all that swimming and playing, we were hungry and ready for dinner. So we headed 30 miles southwest to Morro Bay for dinner at the kid favorite Bobs Big Boy Diner. Again, amazing what 30 miles will do for weather. We all suited up in our sweatshirts for our coastal dinner.

And, since we had already seen a firework show a couple of nights before at the San Luis Blues Baseball game, we skipped out on havoc of finding a place to park at the beach and then finding a place to see the show at the beach, and then just basically the pain of being at the beach (have I mentioned how much I hate sand?), and headed home for an early bedtime.

After celebrating for nearly 36 hours straight, we were ready for some sleep and relaxation. The fourth of July has quickly become one of my favorite holidays. I'm not sure exactly why. It's been so fun over the past couple of years to start and keep our own family traditions (can I say blow torch) for this special day. I think that next year, though, we'll skip the third and a half day of celebrations and just stick to the main event on the fourth!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday...no matter how you celebrated it!

See there, it's not so bad...

2011-06-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

So, just in case everyone was worried about me going crazy the other day, I'm here to assure you that I'm fine. Although my visiting teacher did just drop by....she doesn't read my blog, does she? :)

Anyway, here's the picture of the Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake...so far it's been pretty popular.

But, I think these little guys will be even more popular. People have been after me for a while about doing cake pops for the shoppe. Problem is, I don't really like cake pops...so it's hard for me to find the passion for making such tiny time consuming little things. Oreo Truffles on the other hand, now that's sometime I can really get behind. (And the size of my behind is really going to start showing my passion for these little treats). Oh well...the problems of "having" to sample all my creations!

Anyway, these little guys go up for sale starting tonight at Farmers...If you're around, come on down for a free sample. But don't say I didn't warn you...or your behind!

Have fun getting ready for a fun Fourth of July long weekend!

Warning - Rant in Progress

2011-06-28T16:07:00.001-07:00

Today has been one frickin crazy day. And, since I've recently decided to stop using the word "frickin" (there's just something about the word that doesn't mesh with the almost 35 year old mother of six image I'm going for) I'll probably owe each of my children a dollar for it's use here in this rant. At least the ones who can read will call me on it. And with the way this day is going, the ones who can read will probably tell the two who can't read that I said it, and then I'll owe everybody a dollar! Oh well...six bucks is worth it for this kind of day. I digress.

It started out great...two boys safely off to cub scout day camp. Babysitter coming over to watch the other four so I could get some hours in with my cupcakes. Got dressed in what I thought was a cute outfit, and headed off to the store.

I had plans for my three hours...unveiling a new cupcake...see here: www.onalarkcupcakes.com, decorating the store with Fourth of July paraphernalia, delivering one cupcake order, meeting Joe at Old Navy to exchange the Father's day gifts I bought one size too big for him, and finally heading back to the shop to work on some fondant trials for an upcoming wedding. Totally doable in three hours, right? Right.

Anywayyyyy.....got to the store and started working on the fondant cupcakes. I guess that was my first mistake...going off plan and skipping to the part that I thought was going to be fun. Yeah...fondant...not so much fun. Or good. This bride is so worried that my vanilla icing is going to melt in the six pm sun IN the tent ON the beach IN late August. So, she asked me to try and decorate them with fondant. So I did some research, watched some tutorials, bought my supplies and set to work. And, well, I don't know, I think I'd rather have cupcakes with melted DELICIOUS icing, than cupcakes with unmelted DISGUSTING frosting. I swear, you couldn't pay me to take a bite of that cupcake covered in fondant. White fondant at that, with opaque white baking cups to boot. All that white, all that fondant...it wasn't pretty. Kind of looked like a big lump of white something. I should have taken a picture...but I was too embarrassed. It was awful. I have a feeling that this is a wedding I'll not be taking part in...which honestly, is perfectly fine with me at this point.

It's now 15 minutes until my cupcake delivery is due..so I load up the boxes, program the address into my phone and take off. Drive to the appointed address, which I soon learn DOES NOT EXIST. So I call the customer, very nicely, ask if maybe we got the address wrong? does he have any further information. I mean the cupcakes have been paid for, and they're sitting in my car...the frosting might possibly be melting (I've got melting frosting on the brain now). But the customer doesn't know where the cupcakes are supposed to be delivered to. He's ordered them as a surprise for a friend..he doesn't even live here. All he can tell me is that she works at some clothing store in San Luis Obispo. He gives me the address he has again...which still does not exist. So I finally talk him into giving me the girls phone number so that I can call her and find out where she is. Kind of ruins the surprise, yes, but what were the options at this point. There are more than a few stores in this town that sell clothing.....I can't just randomly find the one where this girl works. So I call the girl, who doesn't answer, because really, nobody answers their phone when they don't recognize the incoming number. Except for maybe my husband...who somehow feels obligated to answer the phone either at home or on his cell EVERY time it rings...but that's a rant for another day. So I abandon my delivery at this point...take the cupcakes back to the store to refrigerate...because I'm still so worried about the melting frosting, and head off to Old Navy to help Joe exchange his gifts.

We saunter around Old Navy, and I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. From behind. Apparently the cute skirt I had chosen that morning had a slit that I didn't notice....and with EVERY STEP I TOOK, I was revealing my "g's" for the entire world to see.

I mean GEEZ! I'm almost thirty five and I can't figure that out before I leave the house? It was just the last straw in a completely frustrating day. Or so I thought...until I got to the checkout where my GAP card was DECLINED. I quickly mumble some excuse and pull out my VISA, which luckily, was not declined. We head out of the store. I've finally figured out where my cupcakes are to be delivered to, so I head back to the shop to get them out of the cooler and deliver them. I quickly take a peek at the cupcakes out front of the shop and see that the frosting on my new Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes have completely MELTED off the cupcakes! WHAT?!? Today is just not my day for frosting. So I salvage what I can, stick them in the cooler and head off to deliver the cupcakes (which by the way, ended up being on the complete opposite end of town than the address I was originally given). I pull up to the clothing store that's tucked in between self storage units in the industrial section of town...because, you know, that's a great spot to sell clothes from. I go in, ask for the name of the girl whose birthday it is, and hand over the cupcakes. I've checked the frosting...it's holding...this part is going well. But the girl is totally confused. Her birthday was yesterday...why was I delivering them today? Who were they from? When I tell her the name of the "surpriser" I can see that this is not a completely welcome delivery. In fact, I sort of get the feeling that she's pretty creeped out by the idea of this guy buying her cupcakes...especially on the day AFTER her birthday. But at this point, I'm so beyond caring, they've been paid for...I've driven a good 25 miles all across town to get them to her, the frosting hasn't melted, she's taking these frickin cupcakes!

But then, I'm worried about my GAP card. Why was it declined? Did I forget to pay the bill? What's going on? Stuff like that gets under my skin and bugs me until I figure it out. Well, I figured it out...last month the GAP sent me a letter saying that I could earn 50 GAP BUCKS just for using my GAP card two times during the month at gas stations. Sounded like a good idea at the time...I mean I already have to buy gas...why not earn free GAP BUCKS in the process? So I did exactly that, filled up my car TWICE this month, and in the process, maxed out my limit on my GAP Silver card. I'm either spending way too much on gas, or have terrible credit...either way, it's not making my day look much better.

So, nothing has gone to plan, my three hour outing has turned into a very expensive four hour excursion, especially when you factor in the babysitter, (who is awesome and totally worth it, but that's beside the point. It's still hard to fork over cash when your day has been completely worthless.), and the gas I've had to buy AGAIN to deliver cupcakes to someone who didn't really want them.

And now, as I re-read this rant, I think it doesn't sound so bad...maybe I just needed to get it out of my head and into cyberspace. Something about putting it into words always makes things a bit better.

So, now I'm off to make dinner...but at the rate we're going, it's starting to feel like going out might be a better alternative. Too bad I'm out six frickin dollars...woops...make that twelve! Last time, I swear.

By the way...here's a picture of my pretty pretty strawberry lemonade cupcake BEFORE the frosting melted. Nevermind...for some unknown reason, the picture won't upload...I guess that's about right.

A Little Catch Up

2011-06-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally gave up and went back to my steroids....wow....what a difference! I guess I'll just worry about my melted bones sometime later in life. I'm sure there will be a period of time where I won't be quite so busy. (Insert sarcasm sign here)

So, since last we spoke, school got out...
the kids thought it would be fun to do a before and after shot...
so here's the before...

And the after (they all wore the same clothes except for Joe who insists that he outgrew his t-shirt):

We had a great school year, for the most part. Everyone is ready for summer though. I'm sure enjoying the not packing lunches and hurrying the kids out the door at eight a.m. Of course, when the doorbell rang at 9:30 a.m. on the first day without school, revealing friends that wanted to come over and play, I remembered some of the reasons I was dreading summer. But, we're starting to figure out a schedule...Joe IV actually started working at Cold Stone yesterday. He went in for a training shift, and now is asking me about every 30 seconds when he can go back and work some more. Technically, he's obviously not old enough to work, but when your parents own the shop, some of the rules get bent a bit. He's certainly as tall as almost all the girls who work there! It was fun to look on the security camera and see him helping customers. The cupcake business is doing well and keeping me busy. I've got a great babysitter coming in a couple days a week so I can go in and keep on top of that. It's fun to have an outlet to put some energy into. Joe IV helped me to redesign my website a bit...check it out at www.onalarkcupcakes.com. We've been experimenting with some new flavors...my new favorite is the Smore's cupcake....all the fun of smores without the hassle of a campfire!

Sunday we celebrated Fathers Day with Dad and Grandpa... I made these little badges for the kids to wear to church. They were pretty cute.

Then we had grandpa over for dinner and dessert. It was a lovely day for everyone.

We tried to get everyone in this shot, but a couple of boys couldn't be bothered to look up from the ipad:

So, we're off to enjoy the summer...no vacations planned, just sticking close to home and working hard. Two days down....I don't even want to think about how many to go!

Thumper's Mother

2011-05-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

Remember in the movie, "Bambi", when Thumper's mom said to her child, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all?"

Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now with my bog.

But, things will get better soon....having the flu twice in one month (in the same month you dcided to go cold turkey off your steroids!) hasn't helped. But really, nothing bad is happening, so much as nothing great is hapening.

I'll be back on line soon to tell you about our lovely trip to Palm Sorings, and the touching mothers day breakfast in bed I had (suffice it to say that it included a large cup of diet coke) Man do these children know me well!

Well see now, I did have a few nice things to say...it can only get better from here!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

I feel that after staying up last night until 1:30 in the morning making myself an Easter Dress and matching bow ties for my boys, a picture is certainly called for!

My children, however, were not too happy to be dragged out to the bridge on the bike trail near our home. Can you imagine, mom made them stay in their church clothes for an entire two hours after church? The horror.

Happy Easter to all!

Mom, Your Blog Is So Boring!

2011-04-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, my children are 100% accurate in their assessment of my recent blog posts.
I don't really have a response to that except to say that sometimes life is like that.
Sometimes, sadly, I think, my camera is full of pictures of cupcakes, not kids.
It's true...there are no recent pictures of my kids on my camera...lots of pics of cupcakes though.

Anyway, I guess that's what makes my blog so boring, at least to my children.

Maybe I could post the video (in it's entirety) that my four oldest children made last week where they sang, played guitars and drums to the music of the Beatles. But oh yeah, they would be SO mad at me if I posted THAT video. But let me just say, they were pretty good. Chuck plays some mean drums.

Let's see, what else? One day last week Joe came home from school and told me there was a parent meeting at the junior high that night that I needed to go to. We had some discussion/argument about whether or not the school was a Junior High or a Middle School. Middle School just sounds a little less scary to me, as a parent. It took me taking a picture of the school's entrance to win that argument, but win it I did. Alas, I digress. Back to the meeting. I've always promised myself that I would be a woman who would age gracefully...I wouldn't try to dress or act or look younger than my actual age. I wouldn't mind wrinkles or double chins...I'd take those spider veins with pride. Well, that was all well and good until it all started to actually happen. And for some reason, all those things started to happen last week, right when I was supposed to go to this new parent meeting at the MIDDLE SCHOOL, or at least it seemed that way to me. My confidence was not boosted when I saw an eighth grader at the meeting wearing a sweater that I own. That was kind of a low moment...at least I wasn't actually wearing the sweater at the time! So, anyway, I don't know if it was the meeting or the new wrinkles, but last week I really started to feel my age...and it's made me re-think this whole aging gracefully thing. I don't know....is Botox that bad? :) oh well, maybe it was just a bad week.

Actually, to be honest, last week was pretty tough. Things are not easy for our family right now. Things are not perfect. There are days that Joe and I look at each other and wonder if we'll be able to keep up with this busy crazy life we lead. We have certainly reached the limits of our capacity, and maybe that's good to know. I don't want to talk only of the negative....there are plenty of good things happening now too, and we are trying to count our blessings.... Joe still has a job, we still have health insurance, the weather is turning nice and our store is almost always busy, we have six wonderful children. Our oldest son gave his first talk in Sacrament meeting...he is truly turning into an honorable and kind young man. And while it makes me sad to see the time pass so quickly, it makes me happy in those moments when I hear him bear his testimony in church or pass the sacrament with such quiet dignity. We count our blessings and keep moving forward and working hard, its just not always exciting.....which leads, I guess, to a boring blog.

We have spring break coming up. Our school district still thinks its a really good idea to give the children two weeks away from school right before they conduct their state testing (just saying), so we've decided to get out of town...at least for part of it. I made some reservations at a resort in Palm Springs for the week after Easter. Joe won't be able to come with us (he has to stay home so he can FaceTime me with my cupcakes...I have some people now who help me, but I'm still working on letting go of some of the control issues) Anyway, my joints are looking forward to some nice dry desert air. We've never done Palm Springs before, but we're looking forward to a short drive and some beautiful weather and basically just hanging out at a pool and doing nothing. Something tells me the "doing nothing" part will only last for so long for the kids, and then we'll be back to whining and complaining and arguing about who sits where in the car-seriously, do all kids fights about that like mine do?

Well, whatever happens, I'll take the camera, I'll leave the cupcakes behind and take pictures of my other beautiful creations. Who knows, maybe something exciting will happen to inspire a blog post that is a little less boring. If not, there's always that Beatles video!

Dulce De Leche

2011-03-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

How is it that I have made it this far in my life (I mean it's been thirty-four years for heaven's sake!) without a taste of this yummy stuff? I made some from scratch tonight (well, scratch is stretching it when the only ingredients are milk, sugar, baking soda and vanilla, but still) that I plan on incorporating into a new cupcake tomorrow...mmmm...I eat cupcakes every day and I can still hardly wait to try this new one. So far I've had to sate myself with the stuff slathered on Hawaiian bread...but on a cupcake....I think I've finally met a cupcake that I'll put my OWN name on! Any suggestions for a name? How about, "The Cupcake That Pushed Brooke out of single digit clothes sizes"? Unfortunately, it will probably be appropriate.

PS...in the interest of Internet goodwill...this is not my own photo...just one I pulled off a google search. I was too busy eating the stuff to take pictures of it.

Do I complain about my kids enough?

2011-03-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

I guess that's not really the question I should be asking, but rather, do I complain about my kids too much? Do I use this blog to lament about what terrible, awful, unruly, and disobedient children I have?

Well maybe I do, maybe I don't, but right now on this evening, I have the strongest desire to shout it out on the rooftops about what great,wonderful, smart, happy, funny, and lovely children I have.

Maybe it was the two parent teacher conferences I had today. I only had to have two because if your 4-6th graders are doing well, you don't even have to meet with their teachers. So, on this rainy morning when all I really wanted to do was to stay in bed, I had to pull myself out of bed to go and open up the cupcake shoppe.And then I had to head on over to the school to hear about how my kids are doing in school. And as I was driving over there, I thought to myself that for some parents, parent teacher conferences are something to worry about, or to not look forward to. It's exactly the opposite for me, and I know how lucky I am to feel that way.

When I arrived at the school, my older children immediately took charge of the youngers so I could hit the classrooms in peace. Nothing better than seeing your two year old son run into the arms of your ten year old daughter. He sure loves that girl. And in between conferences, I peaked into the book fair to see her sitting and reading books to the four year old. Pure parental bliss. Not to mention all the wonderful things the teachers said about my kids.

So, I'm taking this evening to revel in my children...in the good and the bad. I know they're not perfect, not even close, just like everyone. But tonight I want them to know how wonderful they are, and how blessed I feel to be their mother.

Don't Get Pinched

2011-03-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

You could carry one of these around all day tomorrow to avoid being pinched. But, you might want to have a back up plan for about ten minutes into the day when you decide you simply MUST eat that cupcake!
Happy St. Patricks Day!

Gimme a Break...A Cupcake Break That Is

2011-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I found myself in need of a cupcake break. I think it's a pretty well deserved one. This tutorial has been at the top of my to-do list since my super-cool sister-in-law posted it around the first of the year, so I finally decided to turn that part of my to-do list into a to-done! It's amazing how accomplished a bit of sewing has made me feel....and it surprised me how much I've missed my little sewing machine.

Not wanting to stray too far from the inspiration bag, I pulled out my yellow-striped Ikea fabric and got to work. The only change I made was to make it a cross-body bag (since my mom introduced me to this style at Christmas I've never looked back...nothing is better for a busy mom). I also decided that this bag was the perfect place to use my stash of orange and yellow goose fabric that I'd been saving. If you look closely, you can see the bag has a pocket inside that is perfectly sized for my favorite new piece of technology.

From to-do into Ta-DA!

Are You Getting Bored Yet?

2011-03-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

So, not much going on around here...it's still pretty much cupcakes all the time for me. So not so much time for the funny stories or cute pictures of the kiddos. Last week, Tiny Tigers had the theme, "Healthy Living" and they focused on eating right and exercising. John came home one day and insisted that he needed to go running to get some exercise. He proceeded to borrow his brother's sweat band, donned his crocs (the only shoes this little boys knows he owns) and set out around the block. He didn't make it very far before he tired. He came home a bit defeated, so I told him, "you can ride your bike around the block, that's exercise too." He was so excited to know that bike riding qualified as exercise! I was a little saddened that my four year old has had no steady example from either of his parents as to what exercise is. Oh well...he knows all about ice cream and cupcakes and candy galore. He also knows quite a bid about soda. He has certain preferences when it comes to soda. For example, sometime my husband will mix diet Cherry Pepsi into his Diet Coke. John can instantly detect the difference. He personally has a love of Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. We get it sometimes as a special treat....nobody else in the house likes it, so it takes a while for little Johnny to make his way through a two liter. So, funny story or terrible story, depending on your take on kids drinking soda...On Thursday, I picked John up from Tiny Tigers. While he was there, I had opened up the Cupcake Shoppe, and gone to do some supply shopping at Costco. While there, I {paid for} and filled up my Copco cup with Costco Diet Coke. So, first thing into the car, (after asking for my iphone), he requests my diet coke. He takes a sip, makes a face, and then says to me, "MOM, WHY DID YOU FILL UP YOUR CUP WITH COSTCO DIET COKE?". I just laughed and asked him how he knew it was from Costco. He said that of course he could tell the difference..."Costco Diet Coke just tastes like Costco Diet Coke, Mom". So here's to my little diet soda connoisseur..at least he know what exercise is now!

And, if you haven't grown too terribly tired of my cupcake escapades, enjoy these pictures. I did a little mock up for a wedding I'm doing this weekend, (slightly terrified to do this) and took some photos to send the bride. The toppers are hers, but the giant cupcake was all my own creation. I made the "liner" out of white chocolate, and then filled it with chocolate cake. It was pretty fun, and turned out pretty well. I took it down to the store to display for the weekend, and got some nice comments on it. I'm hoping it will help to let people know that On A Lark also does weddings. So far, I have three weddings booked and ready to go...I'm hoping it will only grow from there. This was also my first foray into fondant. The pretty little flowers are sweet and oh so easy to make...the perfect combination!

Oh...one more thing...remember in my last post when I said the next thing I needed for my business was a commercial mixer? Well, turns out I was wrong. The next thing my business really needed was an iPad2. Yeah...that was a better choice.

A Little More on the Updating

2011-02-28T18:47:00.001-08:00

Well, the past two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, including the school's variety show, Joe narrowly escaping the loss of his job, myself continuing to build a cupcake empire here on the Central Coast (I use the word "empire" very loosely in this context), five sick children, one sick mom, and some of the coldest weather the central coast has seen in literally years. This morning I took John outside at eight am and showed him how when he blew his breath out, he could see his breath. He was appropriately impressed.

So, in order of importance (by my estimation anyway), Joe's job. His bank was taken over two weeks ago by First California Bank, based in Westlake Village. The good news (for us anyway), is that they need Joe to help with some of the transitional work for a period of time. We're not sure exactly how long that will last - probably 4-5 months, but we're grateful for the extra time it does provide us at this point. The bad news is that lots of people did and are continuing to lose their jobs. It's not a pretty thing to see...in fact, it kind of tears at your heart to see your friends and neighbors losing their jobs...especially when some of the people who did lose their jobs are the very people who first started and built this bank. I guess it's a bit of survivors guilt on my part...while I'm so grateful that Joe still continues to go to work every day, there's a part of me that wants him to just stomp around and quit his job in protest for the sheer unjustness of it. I guess that doesn't really do anybody any good, but it might assuage my guilt over the matter a bit.

Secondly, my cupcake "empire". We finally had the corporate bigwigs at ColdStone come up and tour my shoppe and approve what we were doing. Their first question was of course, "well, how are you ringing this up?" meaning, "how are we getting our royalties out of this"? Whatever their reasoning, I'm happy to have their approval, and finally feel like I can spread my wings and really start to dig into this. First item on the agenda is to buy a commercial mixer. My old Kitchen Aid (plus the one that Kate lent me) just can't keep up with demand. So I'm starting the research into a commercial mixer that can keep up. Which means, I'm watching CupCake Wars and pausing it every time I see a mixer, tyring to see the make and model. I'm also meeting with a friend who owns a bread store here in town to see what advice she might have to offer. If any of you out there in blogland have any advice to offer...don't be shy...I need all the help I can get here. I'd like to buy something used if possible, which will probably entail a trip to LA or the Bay Area sometime in the next few weeks or months. I've promised myself that I'll be patient and take my time with this, but, Mom and Dad, how do you think that's going to work out? I guess I'll have to let you know.
In other cupcake news, I've hired three bakers to help me keep up with the baking, and that frees me up for some of the more fun marketing things. Today I met with a girl and her parents about her July wedding. They placed an order and gave a deposit, so we're set for that. I'm also doing a wedding in a few weeks out in Cambria. This to me is just the best part. Meeting with brides planning their weddings, or moms to be planning their baby showers, it's just so fun to be a part of these events with them. Today a lady called me from Sacramento, wondering if I could deliver some cupcakes out to her daughter for her birthday today. I said, "sure". Then she asked could I get some balloons and a card too, and maybe some candles. It just made me think about all the places I could go with this business...and so far, all of it's fun. Being there with people to help them celebrate those special days in their lives is a privilege I can't ignore. It lets me bring all the things I love, baking, crafting, party planning & graphic design together into one fun and lovely business.

Okay, onto the least important things...the schools' variety show, the lousy weather, and the sickness my children have been passing around to each other with the strength of a slingshot for the past two weeks. AGGGG...the sickness stuff is tough for me. When I get sick, I have to stop taking my RA meds. When that happens, I tend to feel pretty lousy anyway, but toss in some freezing weather and torrential rain, and that's just about all my poor little joints can take. I find myself crawling into bed and staying there for as long a possible...which doesn't exactly work when five of your children also get sick and decide to throw up in your bed, or on the floor, or in the car, or basically anywhere they want. It's not my favorite time of motherhood. But one thing I've learned...we always get better...and I come out of each illness actually feeling blessed for the relative good health we do enjoy in our family. I can't imagine dealing with children with chronic illnesses. What a tole that must take on a family!
But here, at our home, the coughs linger on, but the kids are all back in school and we're pushing forward towards better health, and hopefully better weather as well. Did you hear it snowed here this weekend? We didn't actually see it, but I've seen some cell phone pictures from my employees that prove the white stuff really did make it's presence known here on the central coast. (shhhh...don't' tell my kids)

Okay, I think that's it. Everyone should be sufficiently brought up to speed. Thank you to everyone who's been keeping our family in their prayers, and to all those who have been helping us make it through each day (I won't mention names, but Joe and Carole, you know who I'm talking about :)). You guys are seriously the best, and we really do know how blessed we are to have you in our lives.

Just A Little FYI

2011-02-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

So, just sharing a little info from the local paper.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/02/18/1489119/san-luis-trust-bank-closed.html

It's interesting around here to say the least!

Cant. Talk. Must. Make. More. Cupcakes

2011-02-16T21:44:00.001-08:00

But, lest we let this ever so important day just pass us by, here is a bit of photo documentation.

Well that's all for now...no witty commentary or funny stories, but at least we've got it docuemtned! Now off to make more cupcakes...

We'll talk more soon!

The Real Deal

2011-02-11T00:07:00.001-08:00

Okay, go and check out these photos Melissa took.... they are the real deal, and make me remember why I wanted to do this in the first place. (That being said after getting home from the shoppe at 11:30 p.m. after spending 6 hours and baking 600 cupcakes:) It's still fun though!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=269802&id=664603552

Some Pictures

2011-02-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

So I went down to the shoppe this morning and took some pictures. My friend Melissa of Melissa White Photography said she'd come down sometime soon and take some actual good pictures, but for now, here's a sneak peek:

And now for the stars of the show:

I guess I forgot to take a picture of Charlie's Chocolate Factory. Sorry Charlie.

Where To Begin

2011-02-01T00:53:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, the For Sale sign was up at our Cold Stone Creamery. We were getting lots of calls from interested people. As Joe and I were chatting one night about the idea of selling, I mentioned to him that if we did sell the store, I wanted to bring the store's convection oven to my home to put in my garage. We used to use the oven at ColdStone to bake brownies, but now, even that small task has been outsourced to another supplier. So I became pretty excited about the possibility of baking over 10cupcakes at a time, or 7 dozen Christmas Cookies all in one quick swoop. Which got me to thinking....and thinking...and then eventually some thinking more in the area of graphic design. I started to see this picture come together in my mind..it looked something like this...

And now, two weeks later, we are no longer selling ColdStone, and we are now selling cupcakes. I retrofit the second stone at the store into something like a bakery window. I started baking cupcakes and making frosting, and so far, people are seeming to really like it. Unlike a lot of places, San Luis Obispo didn't have a cupcake shop, so we're filling a niche. But most of all, it's pretty fun. Even though it means me working in the store for a few hours every day, I'm having a really good time. Here is what our menu looks like right now:

We named the six Signature cupcakes after each of our children, and we'll be adding daily specials soon. Last night, I baked some yellow cupcakes with raspberries swirled in. With some cream cheese frosting, it's pretty yummy. I'll be sampling them out at Farmer's tonight, so if you're in town, come on down and get a treat!

It's Garbage Day Today

2011-01-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Well here's a point for nurture verses nature. Never had a boy before John who loved trucks, and now I have two? This picture reminds me a bit of an I-Spy picture. How many garbage trucks can you count?

A divine cure for my January Blues came this weekend via lovely weather in the high seventies here on the central coast. We spent the weekend playing in the toy ice cream truck, taking rides on the power wheel jeep, and generally just enjoying the sunny days.

And what have I been busy doing? Trying to find the silver lining in this:

Yeah, if I want to actually feel my fingers, this little baby is part of my life pretty much 24/7. So, the silver (or striped or argyle) lining:

Fun little covers made from socks, old sweaters and baby legwarmers. Now I have an instant accessory for every outfit. Built in, you might say.

And if that doesn't make your day, try this:

Nothing like popcorn and pink m&m's to bring you out of the January Blues.

Happy Tuesday!

Some Not So New Year Resolutions

2011-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

At our home, after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and December birthdays, we have a few days to figure out how to get all the Christmas decorations down and put into some orderly fashion, before we dive head-first into Jack's birthday...which, maybe because he's the youngest, we tend to do each year. Dive in head first, that is. There are always lots of events to post about, and lots of pretty pictures to share, but honestly, not a lot of time to think, or process information, or contemplate about the future.

But then after January 10th and all it's trimmings are put away and organized neatly, I usually get a mild case of the January Blues. Which, really, just means I start feeling a bit sorry for myself, and the weather is usually a little less blue here than we're used to. (I know, absolutely no reason to complain from the Central Coast of California) And it's not as if I'm bored or anything, we certainly have lots of THINGS to do to keep us busy. Four children wanting to be part of the school's variety show, piano lessons and practice, (which I always try to re-commit to after the new year) Scouts, both Boy and Cub now, Activity Days, so many things to do to keep us busy and running. But we sort of put ourselves on auto-pilot and fall into the routine of these very busy lives we live and sometimes forget that there is a purpose to all the things we do.

A couple of nights ago, we were tyring to sit down to dinner. We were having pot roast stroganoff over egg noodles. It may sound odd, but this is a pretty standard meal at our home, probably made once a week, and basically just means that Joe and I and a couple of our more experimental children actually eat the pot roast stroganoff over egg noodles while the rest of our children eat large bowls of egg noddles with butter and Parmesan cheese. We do insist that they use a fork to shovel the noddles in...and even that is sometimes a battle. I know that family dinners are important...you hear about it all the time...it may really be true, or it might just be propaganda given to us by all the Stauffers and Krafts of the world. Anyway, it was one of those nights, and everything was SO loud. People were talking over one another, people were putting one another down, food was being spilled orders were being shouted...it was just one of those nights where it didn't really even feel like it was worth it to try. I was just about ready to take my dinner up to my bedroom, lock the door and let everyone fend for themselves, when suddenly, my brilliant husband had a brilliant idea. He said, "okay everyone...it's 6:04 right now. For the next 10 minutes, or until 6:14, we are going to do nothing but whisper. If you can make it the whole ten minutes, you get out of helping with the dishes."

Ahhh...the silence...it was amazing...even though with seven people whispering and Jack prattling along in his normal voice, it wasn't really silence. But still, the whole level of sound went down, and it was then that I decided I could be bothered to stay at the dinner table with the rest of my family. And for ten minutes, I looked around at my beautiful family, and all their beautiful little faces (even covered with food) and for a moment I really just felt the blessings of my beautiful family and life.

Last year, I made a resolution to decorate my home for each holiday. This was kind of a worldly resolution. It didn't really do anything to grow my testimony or bring my family closer together or to the Lord. But it did serve an important purpose. It got me out of bed most days and helped me to mark the passing of time. The passing of time was the only thing I had going for me last year as far as my health getting better was concerned. All the doctors could say was, "give it time, let the medicine work, each new medicine will take time" But when raising six kids, daily and chronic pain was not something where I wanted the time to pass slowly. And for some reason, the little bits of decorating as the seasons and holidays progressed helped me to remember that maybe my health was progressing too. I had fun too...and the kids enjoyed it as well.

This year, I have another new resolution, and once again it's kind a worldly one. I want to get rid of, or organize, or do whatever it takes with all the STUFF my family has accumulated over the past few years, so that I don't feel like the stuff is controlling me. I want to be in control of all the stuff. I want to know where it is and how to get to it, and what shape it is in, and basically just get things organized and compartmentalized. My ulterior motive for this is kind of a sad one. I don't know what the future holds for us. I don't know if living in this home where I brought home each and every one of my six little babies is going to be a reality for our family in the next year. So, I want to be prepared if and when that happens. Coldstone is officially up for sale. We didn't return our Christmas decorations to the storage area there this year. We had to find room for them in the garage that is already filled with bikes and costumes and tools and lawnmowers and other stuff. And as we worked last weekend in the garage I looked at each item to be put away and tried to decide whether I was in control of it, or if it was controlling me.

The other night, during our ten minutes of "silence", I made another resolution. I'm not ready for any of my children to get lost in the noise that a large family can create. I want to find time each day or each week, to really look at each child, to really see where they are. To take their testimony temperature. To listen to them and to hear from them what they need from our family to succeed in this life. And finally, to put other, perhaps less important things aside, (like laundry, a clean home, sleep) to actually DO something about what I learn during those moments of inquiry. To call the teacher of the child who's having a hard time. To sit down and work through those hard measures of music, or to sit and read a book or even just snuggle up with a child instead of turning on a show for them so that I can get one more craft done, or one more nap in, or one more toilet cleaned - obviously that one shouldn't be a hard choice to make!

And just in case any of you are also experiencing those January Blues, go to eighteen25 and print yourself some of these. Then, get some pink and turquoise spray
paint...there's not much better for those January Blues than some pink spray paint!

Two Be Or Not Two Be?

2011-01-10T21:07:00.001-08:00

Well, it's not really a question, just a statement of fact. When you've lived 730 days on this earth, you have to turn two. No two ways about it. Okay, enough with the twoisms, and ontwo (okay, that was just bad) a Joe and Brooke Plus Six First. It's a big one, so get ready. It's a....

TUTORIAL

I know...I swore I'd never do a tutorial, but maybe your feelings of shock and awe will change when you see the title of the Tutorial:

"How To Turn Two as the Youngest Child in a Family of Six"

Okay, here goes...I've never done this tutorial stuff before so bear with me.

First, the night before, take a bath with your older brothers....this provides some good bonding time for all of you, plus you can tell them all the stuff you want for your birthday.

Second,
Wake up cranky. This is a very important step when turning two. You're not supposed to understand what a birthday is. You're just supposed to be very annoyed that your parents are making you sit on a table full of gifts at seven in the morning and not just letting you watch your shows and drink your chocolate milk (which you've recently switched to in preparation for turning two...no more of that whole milk baby stuff...)

Third, take another look at those gifts on the table. Maybe, like that one day a few weeks ago, those brightly colored packages have fun things in them:

Oh yeah, now it's coming back to you...this gift thing could be fun... especially when this gift was specifically picked out for you by your next older brother at the drug store (who knows you better than that cool guy?):

Next,(I've already forgotten what number we're on), walk the older kids to the bus stop, be a little disappointed when they don't let you get on the bus (they've done everything else you wanted up until this point), but get over it quickly when you go to the grocery store with mom and get to buy the "mouse" balloon you've been mooning over for just weeks. Plus, ask for a candy bar, and try to act cool about it when you actually get it. Maybe if you don't say anything, they'll just keep doing everything you want.

When you get home, convince your mom that you most certainly do not need a nap (do this by kicking and screaming in your crib until she feels so sorry for you on your birthday that she'll come and get you...even if she knows that means you'll be cranky later on when the guests arrive for your party), and convince your older brother (who just learned how to drive that cool green car we unearthed in the garage this weekend during spring cleanup weekend) to take you on a cruise around the block.

Drive around long enough on the cool green car that you see the even cooler big yellow school bus pull up. Yell and scream and be excited for your older brothers and sister to get off the bus. Try and figure out a way to tell them that mom has gone CRAZY. She is letting you do whatever you want ALL day. See if you can figure out a way to tell them they should tell her to take you all back to Disneyland. That was sure a fun place. But, if you can't figure out how to do that, accept fun swingy 1,2,3, rides from Joe and Maggie all the way home...hey, it's almost as good as Disneyland.

Do not even show a care when the cool green car gets repossessed by it's original owners, Harry and Charlie. It's been such a fun day, nothing can get you down.

But wait, something does get you down. You suddenly find yourself very tired. It's almost four o'clock and your guests are due to arrive in only a couple of hours. What can possibly be done? I guess you just have to crash. Your mother is so excited to have a few moments with you asleep that she doesn't even sneak in to take your picture.

Sleep just long enough to wake up cranky (again - hey it worked the first time) and be forced, yet again, into another photograph at the kitchen table. What is the deal with pictures at the kitchen table? Is there no other place we can take them? Don't feel bad that you're frowning when everyone else is smiling...or that you're the only one not wearing a party hat....remember, it's your birthday. You don't have to impress anyone.

Finally, hear the doorbell and run to see that your most favorite person in all of the world has arrived to save you from this whole mess...Grandpa. Nothing like that lap of his. Sit in that lap for a few minutes and everything looks a little better...even when your mother shoves a burning cupcake in your face while singing. What the?

Open a few more presents, enjoy time with your friends, and then still act a little disappointed when the day is over. You're a kid, right? You're entitled.

Finally, and this step is important, watch your parents as they put all your brothers and your sister to bed, but let you stay up. That's what you get when you sleep from four to six in the afternoon. Run happily around the house playing with your new things, occasionally hop on your mom's lap as she types on that computer that she seems ALWAYS to be on, but then hop off and go watch a show or something. John says there are new Team Umizoomi's on all week. What could be better?

Wait long enough, and your mom will stop typing...then she'll come and snuggle up on her bed with you. Just her and you. Just like when you born. Seven Hundred and Thirty Days ago.

That's it...this is the end. What do you think of my first tutorial? Not bad for a first-timer I'd say. Now, it's off to get that snuggling in, and to try and not think about how I'll be doing this all again in a few weeks, but this time for a twelve year old. I have a feeling a tutorial on turning twelve would have a lot fewer steps!

Disclaimer: My husband hates this kind of stuff...you know, like when parents write the Christmas letter from the perspective of a different child each year? It's just one of his pet peeves. So, if you're like him, please, apologies all around.

Happy Monday New Year

2011-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

I accidentally pulled my pre-prednisone size 27 COH's jeans out of my closet this morning and pulled them about a third of the way up my post-prednisone size hips before I realized my mistake. Not a great way to start a new year Monday morning. I celebrated by walking my kids to the bus stop and then returning home and eating an entire maple bar.

Happy Monday New Year to all!

PS: I really am totally happy wearing my post-prednisone size 29 COH's. I just need to put the 27's back further in the closet!

PPS: I didn't eat all FOUR of those maple bars....it's just the best picture I could find quickly on google images. Although, had all four of THOSE maple bars been in my house this morning, I might have eaten them all. :)

A New Year, But An Old Post

2011-01-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

So before we get too far into the new year of 2011 and all the adventures I'm sure it will have to offer, lets round out the year of 2010 with our Christmas adventures and Harry's amazing baptism.

First I guess, would be Christmas Eve. This was spent in our traditional style with a few new twists.

In the early afternoon, we packed a lunch and Joe took his two younger brothers hiking up Bishop's Peak. Do you remember hearing in the news about how much it rained in California over the past few weeks? About how six counties in the state declared a state of emergency? Yeah, that was us. Well Christmas eve dawned clear but cold (for us anyway), and the boys were excited to get out and go hiking. I don't have any pictures of this...I was already sending a cell phone with them, I didn't feel like losing two pieces of technical equipment that day. I think they made it almost to the top...which was a great achievement. But the better achievement? Three brothers working together and having fun together for over five hours! Seriously, priceless!

While the boys hiked a {mountain} (located conveniently behind Grandma and Grandpa's house), Maggie spent the afternoon at their house helping Grandma to prepare the Brundage Family traditional Christmas Eve dinner of SOUP. Yeah, I'm not sure EXACTLY when our how that tradition started, but I LOVE it. Easy, fast, and if rolls are included, yummy for everyone in the family.

Here's the boys preparing to eat- they were hungry after all that hiking!

Jack kind of stole the show that evening for his astonishing cuteness:

And yet more cuteness...all six of my children have worn this Santa shirt from Target circa 1999. It's survived pretty well. When you asked Jack who was on his shirt, he would answer with a simple, "Ho Ho Ho" in a deep voice, followed by a giggle. Too cute. It's really good he's cute. He's really a stinker. Just saying.

After dinner, traditional Christmas Eve Jammies were opened. This picture shows how ridiculously hard it is to get a shot of six children on Christmas Eve after opening just ONE present.

And again, Jack with the cuteness:

Next up in the program, our Samuel the Lamanite Re-enactment.

We upgraded this year by making a drop-cloth/PVC pipe rock wall for Samuel to stand on (well, actually to stand behind).Also, new cookie sheets made great shields. Tin foil balls were thrown, everyone got a turn, and then we moved onto the next activity, which was obviously, breaking sand dollars with a hammer. Again, obviously.

Finally, the evening was over, and it was time to head home and wait for Santa....who made a pretty good showing at our house.

Mom and Dad made a pretty good showing at our house too:

Charlie's stocking was so heavy the hook couldn't handle the weight

But before any presents could be opened, or even seen, the obligatory Christmas morning on the stairs picture was taken. It was easy with five children:

Not so easy with six:

Some random pictures of present opening:

Jack really was more excited about this gift than the picture portrays:

This picture represents the curse of Christmas 2010. Nine days later and we've FINALLY gotten this set put together. And when I say we, I mean Joe.

Some new blankets made for growing boys by mom. One made without my new walking foot, one with. Verdict...walking foot equals awesomeness.

See this Lord of the Rings replica ring that Harry got? If you do, could you return it to us? We haven't seen it since the 2:30 Christmas Day showing of Gulliver's Travels in the Fremont Theatre. Well, you win some, you lose some.

Oh...I'm getting tired of typing..not even my very stylish new wrist braces I received a few days after Christmas following a very unpleasant EMG procedure can keep away the tingling fingers on a post this long. So, let's hurry a bit through the next part.

Harry's baptism:

A big thank you to Barbara for the beautiful rendering of Harry with Jesus. Something I'm sure he will always treasure:

Some children posing pre-baptism. Funny story...I think Harry is the only child that has his own Baptismal clothes as part of his regular wardrobe. He took one look at the jumpsuit that the boys usually wear and said, "can't I wear something else?" So, we accommodated. Only the tie had to be borrowed.

Obligatory pictures with Grandmas, Grandpas, and baptizing fathers:

A quick practice session in the hallway:

And the thing was done and it was on to refreshments...certainly not the highlight of the afternoon, but a definite perk. Harry requested cheesecake and sparkling apple cider.(He really wanted to serve the cider in plastic champagne glasses, but I convinced him that maybe that was not the most appropriate thing to do at his baptism, even if it was on New Years Eve) Other than that, I was happy to accommodate...with a few additions. ALL food courtesy of Costco and my am-ex card:

The "after" shot with the entire family..don't you just love my new RA haircut and sock brace cover? I'm sure it will soon be all the rage in the RA community.:

Well,that was pretty much it...I can't think of a much better way to start a new year than by having a baptism.

And finally, this post was brought to you by my most favorite Christmas gift to myself.

Keeps soda cold and most importantly, virtually unspill-able. It has been well-used these last two weeks of Christmas break. Maybe it will get a break tomorrow when the children all go BACK TO SCHOOL!

The Day Before Christmas Eve

2010-12-23T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Eve today, but we still had to find something to do yesterday, the day BEFORE Christmas Eve. Think, Brooke, Think, what can you do to fill a couple of hours with six kids aged 11-1? I've got it! Ride the city's new double decker bus around the city! Yes, everyone will love it!

(sorry for the small picture...I guess that's all the city thinks of it's new extravagance.)

First though, start off the trip with lunch at McDonald's. It's funny when your own family looks a bit like a school field trip, as in these two pictures...

(Sorry about the small pictures here...you didn't actually expect me to lug around my huge camera AND six kids on the city bus did you?) (also, yes, Harry is kind of dressed as a cross between a shawshank prisoner and a biker)

And then, it's fun when your family takes up the entire back row of the top level of the double decker bus!

We had a fun day...the ride began by feeling like something at Disneyland, but as we neared the end of the hour-long loop around the city back to our car, it felt a bit more like what I'm sure a grey-hound bus ride would!

When we got back in the car we realized we'd left the remote to Harry's new light saber lamp in the bus. We almost gave it up to the lost gods, but inspiration stuck with a phone call to dad who quickly walked to the downtown bus transfer station and picked it up. The bus driver obviously remembered the woman alone with six kids and let Dad on the bus to find the lost item. In the end, all was well.

Now, off to do something "Christmas Evey" as John has just requested!

Merry Christmas!

Twas Three Nights Before Christmas

2010-12-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

And all thru the house....everyone was stirring...but hopefully not a mouse!
Well, here we are three days before Christmas, three days into Christmas break, and I'm sure you're asking yourself, "what in the world could the Brundages be doing to keep themselves busy this week?" Well, let me tell you.

I'm making rolo pretzels by the dozen (many dozen). So easy, just line a tray with pretzels, place a rolo on top, melt in a 200 degree oven for 7 minutes, finish up with some festive colored chocolate, and voila! You've got yourself a yummy and addicting treat. (Every time I eat one I tell myself, "Brooke, that's just like eating a rolo. And a package of rolos has eight in them. You wouldn't sit down and eat a package of rolos right now would you? Then why would you eat eight of these pretzels? ) Oh well, I guess logic doesn't work around the holidays.

Now all that's left to do is slap on the labels and get them the HECK OUT OF MY HOUSE! If you live near me, please do be expecting me knocking on your door soon!

Lets see, what else? We've finally gotten most of the decorations up. We only started in October.

Stockings are hung by the mantle with care:

Homemade snowflakes adorn the sliding glass door. (I did tell my husband he was in the shot...I guess that wasn't enough motivation for him to actually move.)

The tree is adorned with these birdcages:

And these birds:

I went through a whole, "should I put the birds in the cages or just let them be free" kind of discussion in my head. In the end, my laziness won out and the birds just got stuck on the tree.

I took some inspiration from my little sister's wedding this year and made mini pennant garland for my tree. Not a great picture, but I really like the overall result.

Some presents have started to appear under the tree, but since they're so OBVIOUSLY clothes, they are pretty much left alone by the children.

On the piano sits my new subway art that I downloaded from the Internet, and my new ruffle trees, also found on the Internet. I hung some ornaments in this birdcage to finish up the rule of three for my piano top display.

Today, the children had fun putting up the nativity scene on the window. I bought the window cling set at Walmart for $7, and the kids had a pretty good time with it.

In fact, it got their nativity scene juices flowing, so they dug into their huge box of playmobil toys to unearth the playmobil nativity set. Then, I think, distraction set it. This is what I saw when I walked by:

Not quite the scene I had imagined.

Then we got out the tin foil to make our rocks for pelting at Samuel the Laminate...our traditional Christmas Eve activity.

And finally, what's Christmas without a visit from all your local superheros?

Yeah I know, I'm stumped too. I have no idea why these characters have made their way into our home this week. I'm not going to complain though...in general, those superheros tend to get along pretty well! And in a home with six kids home from school the week before Christmas, I'm certainly not going to rock the super-hero boat!

You Are Invited

2010-12-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Don't have plans for New Years Eve? Why not make your way over to San Luis Obispo for Harry's Baptism? I can't promise good weather, but I can promise an amazing experience and lots of strawberry cheesecake!

If you do plan on coming, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email at jbbrundage@sbcglobal.net
Gotta have enough Cheesecake, ya know!

Brundage Birthday Bonanza X 2

2010-12-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, before Christmas hits us, I'll take today to reflect on the two December birthdays we celebrate in our family.

First, Maggie turned 10 on Monday December 6. Her celebration started early with a Friday night sleepover. It seems to be quickly becoming a tradition that Maggie celebrate her birthday by going to the Downtown Christmas parade with friends. This year was no different.

After the parade, we enjoyed chocolate fondue and the obligatory facials and cucumber eyes that must be included in any ten year old girl sleepover.

Saturday morning, we enjoyed traditional {Amazing Balls of Goodness}, bacon and juice.

At this point, we paused our celebrating until Monday morning, Maggie's actual tenth birthday. Those first double digit birthdays are a pretty big deal! At least to the person who it's happening to.

We had early morning present opening, and then it was off to school. At lunch time, Dad pulled Maggie out of school for a lunch-date at CPK (can you tell how sick of these CPK Birthday Dinners I am? I'm doing anything to avoid them). Dad and Daughter both enjoyed the time together though, so I'm thinking the traditional CPK family dinner may transform into a more intimate lunch for two from now on.

In the evening, we decided to go Chinese. We had orange chicken, rice, fortune cookies and other yummies...eaten right out of our take out boxes. Easy? Yes. Fun? Yes!

Finally, it was time for Strawberry Trifle and presents. Grandpa Joe and Grandma Carole really stole the show with this American Girl Doll Nightgown for Maggie and her doll. Thank You Thank You!

And thus ended the ten year old's birthday bash. But don't worry, in just ten more days, we had another birthday to celebrate. Yesterday, on December 16, Harry turned 8. We started the day with presents. Harry has come full circle back to a love of all things Star Wars, in particular, Darth Maul. His haul yesterday included a new Darth Maul Cloak (made by me to Harry's particular specifications), new black pants, black boots, and a double-sided lightsaber. I pulled out my old cake decorating skills and whipped up the double sided lightsaber confection. Have you ever tried the spray-on color for cake decorating? It made making red icing actually happen without the terrible taste of all the food coloring necessary to make the icing red and not pink.

Then it was off to school, only to be picked up by dad (and grandma and grandpa) for Harry's CPK Birthday lunch.

At this point, things got fun. While they kept Harry out to lunch and then running errands, I picked up the rest of the kids from school, as well as three of his friends. We all went home, and hid...waiting for Harry to come home. That's right, it was our family's first official surprise birthday party! He walked in and everything went to perfection. His friends jumped out and yelled "surprise", they blew their horns and then gave him hugs. It was fun...my kids have ALL always said they'd like a surprise party, but I was a little nervous about how they would actually react to people jumping out at them and yelling surprise. Harry's reaction was classic...even a few tears (of happiness he kept telling me), but mostly just so excited that his "friends threw him a surprise party". Apparently that's an ultimate compliment in Harry's book. After the surprise wore off, everyone suited up in Star Wars costumes with matching lightsabers, and had a great time on the trampoline, re-enacting scenes.

After a pizza dinner and lightsaber cake, we headed downtown for Farmers and free night at the Children's museum. We ended the evening at Cold Stone (for yes, even more ice cream), and a silly string fight in the back alley. Doesn't get much better than that. And even though the night ended with tears from Harry ("I'm just so sad it's over") was his only complaint, I think I can say that his 8th Birthday Party was one of the best we've ever celebrated.

So now, we have nine more days before Christmas. The kids are enjoying their last day of school today before break. I also am enjoying the last day of the kids being in school before break :). We have lots to look forward to though, including Harry's New Year's Eve Baptism. Talk about starting out the new year right!

2010 Christmas Card

2010-12-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

Well my Christmas Cards went out a week ago, so if I didn't have your address, I apologize. Here it is... Photography by Melissa White, Design by {ME}.

Front:

Back:

Merry Christmas!

PS - Brundage Birthday Bash X 2 is coming up!

Evening Out

2010-12-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

This year has been an odd one for us. In more ways than one. Literally, we all had odd ages for the bulk of the year. After Maggie's birthday last week, we've evened things up a bit: Five, even numbered, and Three, still odd numbered. But I'm starting to feel the shift as we move out of this odd year.There have been other odd things happening this year. My health has been odd. Joe's job has been odd. Ice cream sales have been odd. All this oddness has added up to a pretty good serving of stress for me and my little family.

Take this little boy as an example.

He turned an odd one on the tenth day of January this year. And for the past six months or so, he seems to be hurtling himself full-speed ahead with all the energy his little boy body can muster towards becoming a two year old. People always lament about the terrible twos, but I say, give me a two year old any day over an odd one year old. But we'll just have to wait and see on that one. He's interesting, this child. I believe he was the child sent last to our family because we needed to be prepared for all the ways in which he chooses to express his joy (or sometimes sorrow) in the new and exciting things he encounters in the everyday life of a one year old. He came at a time when, I can say with some confidence, I've seen pretty much all of it. I've learned a few tricks these last 12 years about raising toddlers...I wasn't expecting to be so challenged by the last little guy who made his way into our family. But, for whatever reason, I am constantly at a loss as to how to handle the stuff he dishes out to me each day. While I say I was the most prepared for this child, I also have to admit that I am, at this point, at the least capable point of my life for handling him. So many things that used to be easy are hard now. Getting him into his car seat can be a minute long battle that leaves me tired, hurting, and even a little sweaty. A trip to the grocery store with one child would have seemed like a dream two years ago. Now, I go only when absolutely necessary, even with just the one. I don't know if it's my age, my arthritis, or him that makes it so hard...probably a combination of all three.

The other night I was putting him to bed. Somehow in all our family's recent travels and my even more recent traveling, putting Jack to bed became at least an hour long ordeal of laying on the bed in his room with him in his crib, or sometimes laying in the bed in his room with him in the bed with me, or me lying on the floor in front of his crib, talking to him until he went to sleep, and then sneaking out as soon as I could. I hate living that way. It's like a one year old is holding me hostage...and really, he is. But the other night, I was lying on the bed in his room with him next to me and I was softly rubbing his arm, in a way that he likes...it seems to sooth him. And as long as I'm rubbing his arm, he's staying quiet, and hopefully heading toward sleep. But when I take my hand away, sure that he is asleep, I hear is little voice say, "Wait,please".

Wait, Please

These are two words in his very limited little boy vocabulary. A few others are NO, Spongebob (yes, I was mortified to hear my one year old say it), Help, and Truck.
But that night, as I was lying there, trying to get him to go to sleep, thinking of all the things I had to do if I could just get myself away from this little one year old terrorist who was holding me hostage, the words that came out in his tiny little baby voice, "wait, please", took on a lot more meaning than I think he was intending. To him, his words just meant, "stay here a little while longer Mama, I'm not quite ready to let you go". But for me, I felt like the words were coming from someone else, and were really telling me to "Wait,Please Brooke". Don't hurry through this task...there is something to be learned here.

And so, during this odd year, there have been a lot of things that I'd just like to hurry up and get done with. I'd like to find some medicine that makes me stop hurting. I'd like to know one way or another where my husband will work after the first of the year. I'd like to know why people seemed to have stopped buying ice cream. But, like most things in life, I don't get the answers right away. I have to WAIT for them. But, like my one year old said, I'm tyring to "Wait, Please", meaning, slow down, take your time, look around and see what can be learned from this situation. Rely on the Lord. Let your children see you rely on the Lord. Just wait, please, and see what happens. And, just as I was lying there with that little boy who kept asking me to wait, I tried to remember to wait, please, and ENJOY the waiting. Enjoy snuggling up with a little boy who all too soon will be to cool for that. Or enjoy making a mess in my house with my children as we play a game or make a craft. Or even enjoy the uncertainty of what our lives might have in store for us. Seems a whole lot better than feeling sorry for ourselves.

So, we're starting into this busy holiday season. In fact, we're fully ensconced in this busy holiday season. In my family, we have Christmas and TWO birthdays. We have four class parties and piano and band recitals. We have church parties and work parties....our lives are pretty full. So, as I hurriedly head out for my next event, I'm going to try and "wait, please". To enjoy the season around me and to give thanks for the reason we celebrate it.

And thus ends the longest blog post with the smallest word to picture ratio.

I'll be back soon...we had some pretty good fun at my house when a little girl who lives here had a birthday and celebrated double digits. And I know we're going to have some pretty good fun in a few days when a certain boy at my house turns eight and celebrates all that comes with that. So much to look forward to...not to hurry up and get through, but to wait, please, and enjoy.

Welcome Baby

2010-11-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

I was so lucky and got to spend four days last week with my little sister as she had her second child. Maggie and I drove down to San Juan Capistrano early Wednesday morning, and got to be there as Stephen Craig Lark made his way happily into the world and into his beautiful little family.

I love this picture. This was taken right before Alyssa began pushing. Doesn't she look so serene, and natural, and focused? She looks to me like she really understands the power she has a woman to help the Lord in bringing a child into the world. Maybe I'm over-thinking it, in fact, I'm SURE I'm way over-thinking it. I'm sure what she was really thinking at that moment was something along the lines of "Just get this baby out of me!" But the former is what I prefer to believe she was thinking. I just love those moments right before and right after a new child is born...I've never been to a birth before, other than when my own children were born. What a wonderful experience...thank you, Alyssa, for letting me be a part of it.

So here's the little guy...all 7 pounds 12 ounces of him.

By the time we got him home on Friday, Maggie and I had done a little shopping, including a trip to the Build-A-Bear workshop. We picked out these little Darth Vader and Mace Windu outfits to bring home to Harry and Charlie. But first, we thought Stephen would look awfully cute in them. Darth Vader didn't fit, but the Jedi uniform did....the force is strong is this youngling.

Before we left on Saturday, we had some time to take a few family photos...
Here's Maggie with Ada. Ada loved her big cousin Maggie. It made us to sad to drive away and see her crying becuase we were leaving. Maggie seems to have made quite an impression on this little one year old:

And finally, a picture of me with a baby that I didn't have to deliver. I think that's a first!

Taylor and Alyssa, well done.
Thank you again for letting me and Mags witness such a special event.
We will truly never forget it.

2010-11-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for two days how to write this blog post in a cute and clever way. But I'm stuck. It's just not happening today. So, how about a photo tour of our weekend instead? Sound good? Good..

These two lovely people got married.
It was a beautiful ceremony, and I got to spend an hour in the temple wiht my parents and ALL of my six siblings. That was a first for our family, and it was pretty cool.

All of my children(plus their numerous cousins) survived being left outside of the temple and left to their own devices during the wedding. I just liked this picture of Charlie.

I also just liked this picture of John.

The wedding reception was perfectly fun...bounce house, dancing, balloon animals, cotton candy, you name it, we had it. Including a fractured elbow for Harry at the end of the night. You know, a vacation for our family is really never complete without a trip to the ER.
(Isn't my brother so handsome? I loved this picture of him with his youngest daughter)

Just when my kids thought they'd never had a better weekend, it got better. We went to Disneyland. We'd been planning this for a couple of weeks, but wanted to keep it a surprise. They were surprised. They kept saying things like, "I can't believe we're actually here". We hadn't been to Disneyland in a while - something like three years. We'd never been without grandma and grandpa or friends to help us out. But we had so much fun with just our own "little" family. We only had one breakdown when Charlie found himself one inch too short for the Indiana Jones ride. Otherwise, he was proabaly our best rider...he did them all...Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, all the other mountains, he even fought Darth Vader! They only thing sad about the day was that we didn't really have any extra time or hands to take many pictures. But here's a small sampling...

I love this picture. I have another version of it from an earlier trip to Disneyland. Except now there are two more children in the photo.

It's pretty fun when your own family takes up almost the entire ride!

A year ago, this picture would have been impossible. It's amazing what turning four can do for a boy afraid of people dressed up in animal costumes.

We had some Jedi training in the afternoon...

And then I took Maggie and the two little boys over to Toontown and Fantasyland while the bigger boys and dad hit up the "scary" rides.

Did you know I had twins? Just born a few years apart.

We closed the park down and headed for home. My husband was a super-trooper and got us all home safely,(but a little cranky) by 1:00 a.m.

And now, two days and thirteen loads of laundry later, we are officially unpacked.
Yes, really, thirteen. I think we'll be staying home for Thanksgiving.

John Is Four

2010-11-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

First, for a Halloween update.

I totally caved.

On Sunday afternoon I was getting ready to make cupcakes for John's birthday when I realized I was out of eggs. So, kind of an ox in the mire situation I decided, and I was off to the the grocery store...just to get eggs. But there was just something about the late afternoon ambience of shoppers at the store on Halloween that got to me. Before I knew it, I was loading eight large bags of candy into the cart along with my eggs. (I know, why did I get a cart if I was really just getting eggs?) Anyway, when I got home three boys were outside on the porch,sadly watching all the neighbors getting ready for Halloween. When they saw all the candy in the bags, they said to me, "Mom, what does this mean?" To which I replied happily, "WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS?" To be there, you would have thought those kids won the lottery. Mom was actually going to let them go trick-or-treating on Sunday?!? And trick or treat they did...up and down the street, around the block, even over the train tracks to the Robers. It was excellent. I was the most popular mom in the house...at least for the evening. And it felt good...at least for the evening.

The late night celebrations kind of exhausted our birthday boy. We had to wake him up at 9:00 a.m. so that he'd have time to get dressed before his friends arrived for his party. As you can see, John did not inheirit the love of early morning birthday celebrations from the Earnest family. But, bedhed and all, he gave it his best shot and opened up every single present.

But then, it was time to get ready to party...four year old style.

We took our promised trip to the auto junkyard, saw some cars moved around by forklift, saw an airbag explode, and John even got to help get this car down off the tow truck. Pretty much a dream come true for our four year old.

We finished up with lunch at the pumpkin patch, some bounce house fun, cupcakes and presents. By 11:30 a.m., we were all pretty much worn out, and in need of an afternoon break.

But by 4:30, we were ready to party again. This time with dinner at Firestone. Apparently when you're four you think it's fun to make silly faces when your mom is trying to take your picture. I didn't mind though...I was just glad we got to go to Friestone instead of CPK for a birthday dinner. Not that I don't love CPK, but with all the birthdays we have around here, even I can get tired of hawaain pizzas and chicken waldorf salads.

We finished off the night with cake and Coldstone. Can you believe we'd never done this before? We sat on the patio of our store, sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candles, and then everyone got to choose whatever kind of ice cream they wanted to go with their chocolate cake. Mint Chocolate Chip, check. Vanilla with gummy bears, check. Even pumpkin ice cream. We had it all.

And today, we are all totally exhausted. But that's okay, because in case you don't already know, today is TOY STORY Tuesday. And John and Jack and I are holed up in my room watching our first blue-ray on my fifty inch plasma t.v. Yes, I should be making bow ties for my sister's wedding...or doing any other of the million things I need to do before we leave on Friday, but, I find lying on my bed with my four year old and watching Woody and Buzz Lightyear save the day yet again is pretty much just bliss for me right now. Happy Toy Story Tuesday to you all...I hope you have a four-year old around to watch it with you...it's the best way to do it!

Halloween Bahumbug?

2010-10-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Can I just say right now how happy I am that Halloween is on Sunday? That I have a legitimate excuse to turn off all the lights on Sunday night and not pass out candy to strangers? I guess I've got a little case of Halloween Ba-humbug (if such a thing exists), and now that Trunk-or-Treat is behind us, I'm ready to put away all things Halloween and just pretend it's already over. Unfortunately, my children don't agree so much with me on this subject. At any rate, here's the Trunk-Or-Treat run down:

Maggie as SuperGirl.
She came home from school yesterday and said, "mom, remember I want to wear blue eye shadow and glitter in my hair." This was a complete shocker to me. She's NEVER asked to wear makeup or have her hair done up fancy. I've always thought it was kind of funny that my one girl is not very "girly" when it comes to stuff like that. But, after a quick run to the drug store, we were able to accomodate the make-up and glitter request. I'm not totally comfortable with this costume. It's a little too grown-up for me...which I didn't expect from Maggie. It didn't seem that way when she tried it on earlier this week, but between the lipstick and the hip-jutting pose she struck for the camera, I'm starting to get a bit nervous. When did this happen?

Anyway, on to an easier topic...Star Wars.

Here's Charlie as a Luke Skywalker...specifically, Luke Skywalker on the Planet Bespin, just like in number four. That despcription probably means more to some of you than others. As you can see, he took the role very seriously...

As did his older brother. That's Harry behind the mask there. We took some time to add some extras to the standard costume...he was pretty pleased with himself.

And this little boy is starting to look very grown up. Three weeks ago when he asked to be a UPS man, I never thought he'd actually stick with it for the big night. But he did. So, even though you've seen it before, here's John the UPS man.

Joe IV is gone this week at Outdoor school. This kind of snuck up on me...he left Tuesday morning and won't be back until Friday afternoon. I ran around all day Monday getting physically ready for him to be gone, (buying bug spray and rain ponchos, and all the things you need to go to outdoor school) that I kind of didn't have time to get ready emotionally for him to go. Which was probably a good thing. By the time I realized what happened, he was already gone...so he was spared of having a big blubbering mother at the drop off.

To demonstrate how really bahumbug I'm feeling about Halloween, here's a little confession... I didn't even really dress Jack up for Trunk or Treat. At the last minute, I put the Old Navy monkey costume top (which is really just like a big sweatshirt) on over his regular clothes, but he had it off by the time we made it too the church. I know, are you so shocked? Me too...but just a little bit.

Really, it's not that I don't like Halloween. Honestly, I usually like the holiday. It's just that this year, we have a couple of REALLY big things to look forward to after Halloween...like my sister's wedding in Arizona in 10 days, and Johns fourth birthday (which will involve a trip to the car crushing yard) on the first of November. I think we're just so excited about getting ready for these two things that we don't have an extra energy to extend towards Halloween.

So stay tuned...I'm sure you can't wait to see pictures of six little boys visiting an auto junk yard....

From Baby To Boy

2010-10-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

Went to Oregon last week....five childless days....a lovely day at the temple...didn't take the camera...returned to find my baby not a baby anymore....

And yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet...but when you're only one and can put your own shoes on, nobody complains...

Only A Matter Of Time

2010-09-27T14:33:00.001-07:00

Really, you could have seen this one coming from a long way off...

Brachs has some serious issues with quality control...these are all the "unacceptable" ones. They are still, however, and unfortanately for my diet, very acceptable for eating.

Now, if it would just stop being 106 deegrees at my house, we might actually start to feel like Fall!

I Heart Technology

2010-09-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

Can I just say how much I love technology?

Because today, instead of cutting and pasting in the literal sense, I just clicked a few buttons and ordered this poster for Charlie's "ME" board at school tomorrow!

A trip to Costco in the morning and $8.99, and I am done!

Not So Regularly Scheduled Programming

2010-09-21T12:22:00.001-07:00

We now take a break from our Regularly Scheduled Programming to bring you....

The Hunger Games....

According to my Kindle, I'm 66% of the way through book number two. Which means, (if my calculations are correct) I'll be back to my regular life by sometime tomorrow evening.

I know I'm late jumping on this bandwagon, but is it just me or do these books feel like a teenage version of the Ayn Rand books I read in college? Except that I read those when I was a teenager....so I might have to go back and read those very "adult" books again now that I'm so much more adult. :)

I did take an ever-so-tiny break to whip up this little creation....and then spent my evening clearing out all the "packages" that had to be delivered. Oh well...as UPS men go, this one's pretty cute.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like.....

2010-09-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Birthday Season!
That's right, these next six months are when we celebrate all six of our childrens' birthdays. I know, super smart parents are we! So, what does birthday season mean at our house? Lots of cake mixes, lots of easy frosting cans, plenty of sprinkles, and even more candles. It's the time of year when the birthday banner goes up and pretty much stays up...even through the christmas holiday.

So already this month we celebrtated Charlie's sixth birthday. He's officially celbrated HALF of his birthdays in the Super Mario Brothers style. I was hoping this year we'd cycle back around to Star Wars or Indianna Jones, but no, we were still stuck squarely in Mario World. We counted his t-shirts. He has 15 Mario T-shirts, 12 Star Wars T-shirts, and 5 of Indiana Jones. I used to take real issue with message t-shirts for kids...as in...I didn't like them. Somewhere along the way, my viewpoint on this issue changed....I don't know why...something about the complete and utter joy you see on a kid's face when they put on a t-shirt that so completely portrays their current passion. At some point, (as we all know from Stacy and Clinton) message tees are not appropriate for adults. So I say to all you six year olds out there, "live it up!". And sometimes I wonder what message would be on a shirt I would wear....something like "I love to sew!" or "I have six kids and they're driving me crazy today!" It might make for a more interesting world sometimes.

Four days later we celebrated my birthday....complete with cupcakes made COMPLETELY by Maggie and a new Kindle for me (Which was backordered and actually just came today...so I'll let you know how that one goes)

And finally, we here in California celebrated Grandpa Joe's birthday with a traditional CPK dinner. I thought this picture was funny....you could see all the kids but barely half the adults. Just a little glimpse of what my family looks like when we go out to eat at somewhere other than McDonalds or Taco Bell. Closely contained chaos is what I like to call it.

So, one kid birthday down, only 5 more to go! Plus Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas...oh...and my sister getting married in November. We're gearing up and getting ready....it should be a bumpy but celebrated ride!

We're Baaaack!

2010-08-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

And we're excited!

Time Doth Sweetly Softly Glide....

2010-08-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

....When There's Love at Home. So how does time glide at a home with six kids and a sick and cranky mom, you might ask? Well not so sweetly, and not so softly, but hopefully with just as much love.

Well....

It's been a summer to remember for me. Not for all the things we did, more for all the things we didn't do. Remember my commitment not to travel? Well, I kept it, but it made these last nine weeks of school break seem like somewhat of an eternity to me. My husband had his fortieth birthday last week (I so relish these three weeks of time before my birthday when I can say that my husband is SEVEN years older than I), but when I dusted off the camera to take some pictures of the cake and festivities, I found that the last time I'd used it was right around the fourth of July.

Here he is...in a few years I know I'm going to be really glad I married someone older than me...thus far, he seems not to age too much.

So, we didn't accomplish much this summer in terms of projects or trips or any of the other ways I usually measure accomplishments. In fact, I spent a good portion of my time just trying to keep afloat, trying to keep the house from falling down around me and keeping some sense of orderliness about it. I learned a good deal this summer about what is "good enough". Not a phrase that I used to use with any positive connotation. I spent a good two weeks at a pity party to which the only invitees were myself and several batches of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies. (It's not a good name for them by the way...they are not your buddies....just about the farthest thing from it.) I had some good words from a friend who said, "you just can't give up hope...when you give up hope, you start to despair". And she was right....I was falling down into this tunnel of despair....I was despairing that I would never feel good again...that there would never be a day where taking my first few steps each day weren't agony, that my kids would always remember me as a woman who sat in bed all day eating muddy buddies, as a woman who was always too tired to play with them.

So I'm taking small steps. I'm getting up every day and combing my hair...I dress my children. I feed them. I try to find something fun for us to do every few days. I tell them that I love them. I celebrate these small things and think not that it's "good enough", but just that it's ENOUGH. Because it is enough...and not just good enough. It really is enough.

I won't pretend that I'm not totally, thoroughly,completely and over-the-moon excited that school starts in two days. I am, and them some. But now that it's almost over, there's a part of me that wishes we could squeeze in one more trip to the water park, or one more lunch at the park, or one more birthday party for dad. But in the end, that's how it goes with most things, we learn to be happy with what we did get, we learn to enjoy it in the moment we have it,and realize, for the most part, it is good. And it is enough.

Not For Nothing

2010-07-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

So my lousy bowl of fabric strawberries proved itself pretty useful today. John had gotten a Toy Story 3 paint by numbers set in the dollar section at Michaels, and then Maggie and Harry just had to join in. I'm working on a fabric covered canvas "quilt" of sorts for my stairway wall, and just happened to have some extra canvas boards lying about, so we were set. Except we didn't know what to paint...imagine, just a blank canvas in front of you with no idea of what to do!

Pretty good renderings I think... and John was pretty impressed with his own creation:

These pictures are for my mom to see that I really can relax and let the kids make a mess of things....

Just look at that counter filled with painting paraphernalia!

Maybe my laissez faire attitude of the day came from reading this article in New York Magazine this morning...(well to be honest, there was a story about the article on the Today show and I looked it up...I'm not really in the habit of reading new York Magazine or anything). The title is "All Joy and No Fun, Why Parents Hate Parenting". Here's the link if you're interested. Just kind of got me to thinking....parenting is obviously joyful, but how often does the happiness of it shine through....hopefully more often than not.

My Kids Went to Washington For 10 Days And All I Got Was This Lousy Bowl of Fabric Strawberries

2010-07-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Seriously...I had HALF of my children gone, and what did I spend my time doing?

Making enough fabric strawberries to fill my trifle bowl.

For any particular reason, you ask?

No, they just looked pretty and made me happy, so I just kept making them.
(Thanks to Vanessa for the tutorial BTW)
Well, there were a few other things....

My take of "Subway" art that I see all around the internet, but in pillow form.

And then these little guys got delivered a few days ago, so it took some time to figure them out....

And then there was one other "little" thing.

That's the view from the head of my bed now. I mentioned to my husband a few weeks ago (while in the midst of an arthritic flare that just about did me in) that I might be more inclined to watch movies with him after the kids went to bed if he would watch them in our room where I could relax in my big comfy bed. To which he responded with distinct disdain in his voice, "on that TV? It's only 32 inches"

Oh the horror.

Thus began the quest for a new TV "for me". I have to admit, it's a pretty little thing. Well, "little" might not be the best word for it. But pretty it definately is.

Bravery

2010-07-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I may have committed myself to staying home for the entire summer, but these two brave people who are literally twice my age (sorry guys) did not. So when Grandpa Joe and Grandma Carole announced that they were going to make the thousand mile long drive to Uncle Nate and Aunt Kate's farm up in Washington, my three oldest seized the opportunity for a getaway and invited themselves along.

They left our house on Monday morning, traveled all day, stayed the night in Southern Oregon, and then traveled the rest of the way on Tuesday. I haven't heard much from them, which means they must be having too good of a time to call too often.

Here are a few pictures I received as text messages...the quality isn't great, but you get what you get. I'm sure they'll have lots more pictures when they return on Tuesday.

As for myself, I'm home with my second "set" of children. It's been fun to watch these three with their older siblings gone. The dynamic has certainly changed, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the first "set" returns. Well, maybe interesting isn't the word...maybe volatile is more the word I'm looking for. I guess only time will tell.

At any rate, thank you to Grandpa Joe and Grandma Carole...you are certainly more brave than I am this summer, and I'm sure my children will always remember this special time they got to spend with you.

We miss you guys!

Celebration Conundrum

2010-07-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

After driving to Utah and back last month, I had to sit down and have a serious discussion with myself about limitations. In particular, physical limitations that my body seems to have placed itself. It used to be no problem whatsoever to put four or five or six kids in the car and drive us all to Utah or Oregon, or wherever the fun was to be found. Sadly for me,I find that not to be the case any longer. So after the last trip, I committed myself to staying home for the summer, and also, trying to be happy about doing that. This committment came with a few challenges.

First, what to do with all these kids for the hundred days of summer?

And second, foremost in my childrens minds'...
"WHAT ABOUT THE FOURTH OF JULY? HOW CAN IT BE THE FOURTH OF JULY IF WE'RE NOT IN OREGON?"

I guess I didn't realize that so many of our last years' Independance Days were celebrated in Oregon. I didn't realize that to my children, Oregon was the only place to spend it. So, we had a little talk. I asked them, "What is it about Oregon that makes the Fourth so fun?" The overwhelming answer that came back was, "Fireworks, the blowtorch, and dancing Grandpa Steve". (I'm not sure about the dancing Grandpa Steve part?...maybe I missed that last year.) Anyway, we found most of these hurdles easy enough to get over. Alyssa brought us some Oregon Fireworks on her way back to Southern California, and I went to Lowe's and bought a blow torch. Easy enough.

Then, we realized that the Fourth of July was on Sunday. Now, you know me, I love to dress the part for holidays. And I love to dress the kids for the holidays too. Joe IV is finally starting to put up a fuss about being dressed like everyone else, but everyone else still doesn't seem to mind. I didn't attempt to get a picture of them all together, but did get some snipets of our day...

I thought these boys looked especially patriotic. Jack was dressed the same, but slept through the photo shoot...

It took some convincing, but I finally got Maggie to consent to wearing her "boyfriend blazer", even though it was really just her little brother's church coat.

And then, we set a pretty table, made some star shaped jello, and poured ourselves some red, white and blue drinks. Dad and Grandpa explained the chemistry involved in it all...

Finally, the lights went down and we got busy in the backyard. Harry was of course the official "torch-master" and all the kids enjoyed some sparklers and fountains of color.

In the end, we all still missed Oregon a bit...but we realized that what we missed about Oregon were the people; Grandma Lark and [dancing] Grandpa Steve, Aunts and Uncles and all the fun cousins. The rest of it though, could all be found at home.

Fathers Day Celebration

2010-06-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of two parts...half to celebrate Fathers and half to celebrate the Lakers winning the championship. (Actually just an excuse to put my kids in these purple sweater vests that I found at The Childrens Place for $2.99 each!)

It's tough to get six kids ready for church...tougher still to get six kids ready for church and then insist that a picture be taken before getting in the car. So, this is what we got. Not great...but not terrible.

Happy Fathers' Day to all those men who spend their time providing, presiding and protecting us. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it...we're glad you do it for us! We love you!

Along The Same Lines

2010-06-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here's another thing my boys will always remember:

The way their dad screamed and jumped around like a little girl when the Lakers won game seven two minutes ago.

Seriously, priceless....

Remembering

2010-06-17T18:15:00.001-07:00

I keep thinking that if I just wait long enough, I'll be able to post something new about what the kids are doing, or write a funny story about what one of the kids did, and I'll be able to just skip over the whole part where my Grandpa died last week and I drove myself and four children to Utah and back in four days. But the more I wait, trying to forget, the more I realize what I really need to do:

REMEMBER

My Uncle Kay spoke at my Grandpa's funeral. He spoke about remembering, and about how we needed to go home and record in our journals our thoughts and feelings; how we need to write about what happened, and share our feelings with our children and REMEMBER what we felt.

So, here's what I remember.

It's really sad and hard and just plain yucky to say goodbye to someone you love. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't matter that he was 83 years old and had lived a full and happy life, it's still just really sad.

I remember watching my mom and and her mother and sisters and brother gather together over the casket and say their final goodbyes to the body of their father and husband. I remember their strength in doing this. I remember that they KNOW the blessings of the temple are true. I remember that they KNOW they'll see him again.

I remember seeing the tears my little boys shed as they watched their great-grandpa being burried. I remember what an extrodinary man my grandfather was. How he always had a joke or a song, or a smile to share with his seven children, 39 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren. I remember that he loved me. I remember that he knew the gospel was true. I remember that he honored his priesthood.

I remember my Grandma's impentetrable strength... Her smile for the man who handed her my Grandpa's navy flag, her words of comfort to everyone who had lost this wonderful man, when she was the one who lost the most - her companion for over sixty years. I remember that she is such a woman of faith...always composed, and always with a kind word or friendly smile for someone else, even when she must be at the depths of her own sorrow. I hope someday to be a woman like her...a woman of faith...who KNOWS she'll see her beloved again. I'm working on it, and I'm glad I have such a wonderful example to follow.

I remember saying goodbye to all my own brothers and sisters as the weekend came to a close. I was crying like a baby and making them hug me while they made fun of me....I was an emotional wreak, but I just didn't even care.

Remembering all this makes me cry, and (despite all evidence to the contrary the entire weekend) I hate to cry. It makes you look funny and your head hurt. But I hope that in remembering, I'll be able to learn, and grow, and teach my own children about the importance of remembering. I know that most of them are too young to really remember my grandpa, but I hope they'll remember how they felt at the funeral, how the Spirit touched their hearts and gave comforts to their little souls. That they'll be able to tether back to that feeling when things are hard in their own lives.

Today was the last day of school for all my children. They've been on edge a bit this last week, being impatient with one another and picking on eachother, looking for ways to be be unkind. I guess saying goodbye is hard to do...even if it's just for the summer and to teachers and friends that you'll see again in two and half months. Sometimes it can bring out the worst in you. But, if we do it right, saying goodbye and REMEMBERING can bring out the best in you... I was certainly a witness to that this weekend.

Okay, I'll end this super-long and super-sappy post with scripture...something I've never done on my blog before. This scripture is from the Book of Mormon, found in the book of Mosiah, as King Benjamin is addressing his people, and it goes like this:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

The Purple & Gold

2010-06-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Oregon in the late 80's and early 90's with four brothers who loved the Trailblazers. Part in parcel with their love for the Trailblazers came an intense hatred of the Los Angeles Lakers. I don't know what it was about those boys in the purple and gold, we just loved to hate them. My mother's family was from Los Angeles, however, so my aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa were huge Laker fans. I remember one Christmas when my Aunt Jodie and Uncle Kelly sent us all a bunch of Laker paraphernalia as a gift/joke. I can still remember the shrieks and booing that my brothers let out as they ripped into their Laker socks. (or gloves,or shirts, or whatever else it was).

Fast forward twenty years. I'm married to a man who grew up as a Laker Fan, and his love has never softened or weakened toward that team. We even survived the whole incident with Kobe in Colorado, keeping our Laker fandom intact. I've always remained pretty much neutral towards either team, and really towards the sport as a whole. I've always just felt lucky that the sport my husband loves is basketball... a game is relatively short to watch on TV, compared to football, or baseball, or, heaven forbid, golf. Plus, he doesn't really like to play it anymore...watching seems to be enough for him these days.

But it's high Laker season around here these days...and it's been fun to watch my boys learn about the sport and start to turn into little fans. Sunday, my boys dressed for church in purple and gold (when appropriate), and after church we had a full blown Laker party.

Too bad they lost that game.

But then they won the next one.

So that was good.

My Grandpa Curly passed away on Monday. He was an awesome man and also a huge Laker Fan himself. So, there's a little part of me that wants the Lakers to win the whole thing just for him. I know that's not the reality of the situation, but in my mind, when they win, they'll be doing it for him. And I know he'd be happy to see all my little Laker fans cheering on his team.

Drop Everything

2010-06-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Leave the dishes in the sink...

And tear open the box....

When the UPS man brings the legos that you'd been waiting and saving your money for,you don't waste any time, you put them together immediately!

Or, sit by and wait impatiently while your sister puts them together for you...

Thank you Maggie!

Mutually Exclusive?

2010-05-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Can I tell you that I hate school Open House and still have you think that I'm a good parent?

Or are the two things mutually exclusive?

Whatever...I hate Open House.

I know my kids love it, and maybe even the teachers love it. But for me, it's just two hours of looking at dioramas (and you all know my feelings about those), art projects, and other "stuff" that I just know is all going to end up in my home in, count down with me, TWELVE more days. Yes, my kids are so excited to tell me that they have TWELVE more days of school. They tell me every day how the number of their school days are numbered...as well as the days of my sanity.

I don't know what I'm going to do this summer, but I'm suspecting that steriods (for me) are going to play a role.

Sigh.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures of Open House.

Harry's class performed some Ballroom Dancing (that was actually pretty cool)

Then the parents got to learn (I know, enough with the headbands already Brooke)

Maggie's class had a plethora of art projects. Here she is next to a chimpanzee she made out of paper. Won't this look nice in my living room in TWELVE days?

Here's Charlie with his life-sized painted self. This is already looking nice in my living room.

And Joe drew this pretty cool drawing of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. This actually might make it up on the wall in my house.

In other news, doesn't this site just make you happy? It sure does me....

See, Mom, the cupcake pincushion IS cute!

And what about these little beauties? I mean, if you're going to way over-pay for a business at the height of the California Real estate market, shouldn't you at least get some lockers for your house out of the deal? They made their way home from Cold Stone a couple of weeks ago and met up with some red spray paint. I think it's funny that Joe keeps his locked up. I wonder what he keeps in there?

Style Guide

2010-05-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

When I was in Oregon, I found this seersucker suit at Target, size 24 months, in the clearance rack for, not kidding, SIX DOLLARS AND TWENTY-FOUR CENTS. How could I not buy it? (Someday I'll give you a glimpse into my closet, I mean closets, full of little boys church clothes.) Anyway, the suit was identical to one that John's friend Ty had gotten earlier in the year, and when John saw it, he thought it was for him and was so excited to have a suit "just like Ty". So I held the size 24 month suit up to my three and half year old, and thought, "why not? He's cute, he can pull it off".

And, according to the latest issue of GQ (which still SOMEHOW finds it's way into our home even though I've thrown away every subscription renewal form I can ever find),he's doing it just right.

The caption of this picture says, "Lighten Your Load: A papery thin, lightweight khaki suit...Crop the pants short and ditch the socks for an even more summery vibe."

He's definitely got some kind of vibe going here...

Pre-Church Antics

2010-05-23T10:25:00.001-07:00

What happens when you have 11:00 church?
Things can get a little crazy.

Channeling Our Inner Chelsea

2010-05-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

Update:
Since all TWO of you asked to actually see the dress...here's a picture that shows it better. I've never understood why people look so funny when they take pictures of themselves in the mirror. I get it now. The pattern worked well...I didn't put sleeves on it, but I think I may since it would be fun to wear without a sweater. If I were to do it over, I would lengthen the bodice (the waistline hits me somewhere between my bust and my belly button...I'd like it a bit lower) and also lengthen the skirt. I added a good three inches to the skirt length and still had to add the ruffle thing at the bottom. But I like my skirts a bit on the long side. I made the size 38 and it was a bit big, but liked it that way because then I just sewed up the back center seam and skipped the zipper. The ruffle detail in the front was super easy to do and really fun. I used about three yards total fabric.

Last weekend, while up at my Mother's Day Retreat, my rockin little sister Chelsea rocked this awesome outfit. You can sort of see it in this picture:

She found this super-cute striped top at TJ Max and then paired it with a royal blue dress for church. I never would have thought to put it together, but once she did it, I totally had to copy her.
So, I bought the super-cute top from TJ Max, but then was stuck on finding the royal blue dress. Then I came across this blog. She does this thing called "A Frock by Friday" , where she teaches people to sew a dress each week. The pattern was free, and it was a really easy tutorial to follow. I got so into the idea that I even turned an old Forever 21 tank of mine into a little shrug/sweater for Maggie and made her wear it with a royal blue dress that she already had. It was fun to go to church today as twins, and even more fun to feel like we were really cool because we looked like our super-cool sister/aunt Chelsea. So thanks Chelsea...this picture's for you!

P.S. The fun feathered headband is something I bought for Maggie at Forever 21. When she didn't want to wear it this morning, I stuck it on myself (even though that's something that is usually WAY out of my fashion comfort zone) I figured if I was going to copy Chelsea, I might as go all the way and do it right!

Campout: Father-Son Style

2010-05-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last night was our annual Father/Son campout. I insisted that Joe take the camera with him, and this time, actually take some pictures with it. Here's a sampling of what I got. I'm hoping this picture will convince my son Joe that it's okay to just smile and act like you're having a good time, and not try to look cool in pictures. Very rarely does TRYING to look cool in pictures translate into ACTUALLY looking cool in pictures.

Fifteen pictures total, and eight of them were a sequence of these boys rolling this log around. I don't know what the story is, and I suspect even if I did, it wouldn't be a story worth writing about.

Apparently, when you're camping, it's okay to have your picture taken without your face being wiped clean first. I'm trying to pick out the foods...chocolate, cheetos, and maybe ketchup?

The one time I had to get stitches as a child was when I was playing with a pocket knife just like this. So, I'm glad the campout ended at my home and not at the emergency room.

Here's a question for you though. How many loads of laundry are required after one father/son campout? My guess is eight. But I just started the first load, so I guess I'll have to let you know.

Update: For all you out there just dying to know, I was right. Eight loads of laundry. Of course, that includes all the sleeping bags. I know not everyone washes sleeping bags after each use, but, well, I do.

Some Before & Afters Plus a Little Religious Propaganda

2010-05-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the "before" pictures.

We were too tired from shopping, cooking, crafting, eating, chatting and laughing to take an "after" picture. I don't think it would have been a pretty picture even if we'd had the energy to take one.

We pulled out the old video tapes while in Oregon. The ones we have from when my Dad RENTED a video camera for a day. They were amusing to say the least. No one knew how to focus the thing, so most of it is blury. It was such a novelty to us that most of the kids spent the majority of the time talking directly to the camera, saying, "Dad, watch this, watch this." My dad spent the enitre time narrating what he was filming. We got to see my grandma and grandpa as the young grandparents we remember from our childhood, it was very....tender...is the word I would use. Watching the tapes also triggered some memories from childhood. One in particular was when we were adding onto our house in the early 1980s. There was a big stack of plywood on the concrete floor of our new addition, and we (the children) thought it would be so fun to use the stack as a stage. So we climbed up, and mom turned some music on, and we sang and danced and jumped around and had just plain fun until, of course, somebody got hurt. My younger brother fell off and hit his head on the concrete corner of the fireplace hearth, gashing his forhead open and sending us all to the emergency room. I've always remembered this experience, but what I'd forgotton what the MUSIC we were singing along with when we were dancing. This weekend it came back to me. Do any of you remember this music from the early 1980's?

This is what the cover of the tape looked like.

This was the music that was playing while we were "performing". It was some classic, feel good about your religion kind of music. Click here to play the actual, "I'm a Mormon" song. The lyrics are pretty hilarious. There were also some songs on the tape that were a little,um, gender specific I would say. Here are the lyrics to the song I remember the most.

When I grow up I want to be a mother
And have a family
One little, two little, three little babies of my own
Of all the jobs, for me I'll choose no other
We'll have a family
Four little, five little, six little babies in my home
And I will love them all day long
And give them cookies and milk and yellow balloons
And cuddle them when things go wrong
And read them stories and sing them pretty tunes
When I grow up if I can be a mother
How happy I will be
One little, two little, three little babies I can love
And you will see each sister and each brother
Who look a lot like me
Four little, five little, six little blessings from above."

Anybody wonder now why I always thought I wanted six children? The puzzle is really starting to fit together now! I guess I'd better get off the computer now though, I really need to go make some cookies so I can give them to my six little babies. And, I'd better go right out and get some yellow balloons...what will happen if something goes wrong for one of my children and I don't have a yellow balloon? How will I be able to fix it?

P.S. As a warning to my siblings, I've been entrusted with the video tapes. They are currently at my home, being converted to DVD. You will all be getting a copy. I do promise, however, not to post any of the video on my blog or youtube. Maybe I should extract the same promise from all of you before you get your copy.

Go Cat Go

2010-05-07T15:25:00.001-07:00

Well it's one for the money,

Two for the show,

Three to get ready,

Now go, cat, go.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women in my life, mother or no. Take a moment this weekend and celebrate what it really means to be a Daughter of God. Personally, I'll be taking the entire weekend!

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors

2010-05-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

What, you might be thinking, is this child and cat looking at? (well, what were they looking at before they realized I had the camera in my hand and instantly turned to look at it instead?)

You've guessed it folks, I got myself a robot vacuum!

Isn't she pretty?

Now, you're saying, "Yes, Brooke, she sure is pretty, but does she really work?" To which I will answer with a resounding, "YES!" I bought it at Costco a couple of weeks ago, on a whim, sure that it wouldn't really work and that I would soon be taking advantage of Costco's generous return policy. But, once I got her home and out of the box, once I watched her as she busily vacuumed my carpet, going under beds and tables and every other place I could never get with my upright vacuum; once I saw her realizing she was running low on battery, and thus promptly returning herself to her charging dock; once I saw all that, it was just love, and there was never a thought of returning her. She has become family, she is a vacuum after my own heart.

I come from a long line of vacuum lovers. My grandma LaRue prides herself on owning nine different models, and as a child I can remember her using the small handheld vacuum to clean the inside of the larger canister vacuum. I have an early memory of my mother teaching me to vacuum...showing me how to follow the lines the vacuum made in the carpet, repeating each sweep four times to achieve the maximum cleaning effect.

This love of freshly vacuumed carpet has been passed onto my own children as well...Yesterday, upon returning home from church to our neat and tidy ROOMBA'd home, Harry said, "It's just so nice to come home and see the carpet look so nice."

Yes, Harry, it certainly is nice.
(And I'm apoligizing right now to your future wife.)

So, welcome home Roomba. You will be well loved and well taken care of. We hope your time with us is long.

(If you don't know me well enough to know, let me tell you I'm half joking about this subject. But only half.)

In other news, Maggie participated in her first "Strings In The Schools" recital. Here she is with her viola. Isn't she just lovely?

And finally, one image from yestderday that I captured and wanted to share. All the children playing together, acting out a scene from Indiana Jones. I don't know which scene it was or who was who, but I do know that they were happy for at least five minutes while they were playing...and sometimes you need to savor those five minutes...

Jones, Henry Jones

2010-04-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

Isn't it great when you're in kindergarten and can wear costumes to school?
What? You can't wear costumes to your school?
I guess you're not dressing up as Indiana Jones then, becuase this attire is absolutely acceptable at my school.....even when you wear it EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Happy Friday from Dr. Jones!

What Would You Do With An Extra Week?

2010-04-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

So I totally screwed up. But, in a good way this time. You see, I was thinking I was speaking at Friday Forum THIS Friday. But I'm not. I'm speaking NEXT Friday. And, I was thinking I only had two weeks until my Mother's Day Retreat to Oregon. But I don't have two weeks...I have three!

For some reason, I completely got ahead of myself this month and didn't realize how much time I had left int it. I had a mental deadline for a few projects to be done by the end of the month, and I had promised myself I wouldn't work on any other "fun" things until I got the "had-to" projects done. But then I realized my mistake, and I had already finished all the "had-to" projects, so I got to move onto some of the fun stuff. So what did I do with my extra week?

Got obsessed with bubblegum, of course.

I set a goal for myself at the begining of this year to decorate my home a bit for each of the more "seasonal" holidays....you know...Valentines Day, Easter,etc.(I know, it's a totally useless goal...I should have decided to read my scriptures more, or have more love and peace in my home, or something really worthwile - but this has just been fun...and we've needed a bit of that around here) And, for Valentines Day and Easter, I did it. But then Easter was over and I was kind of at a loss...how do you decorate for Memorial Day, or Mother's Day? Then, I got inspired, not by those holidays, but by the toy bubblegum machine that's been sitting in my house for years. Maybe I went a little overboard, but it's been fun. I don't know why. Maybe it's becuase my husband HATES gum. Seriously, he hates it. He hates how it smells, how it gets stuck to everything, how people look when they chew it, everything about it. I can only chew gum when not in his presense, and my kids only get it when they're with their grandma. So, me bringing home two giant bins of gumballs to use in my decorating was not at the top of his list of favorite things I've done. But it just says "FUN" to me. And, while no one is allowed to actually chew the stuf, we're sure having fun looking at it!

P.S. - Keep the Mother's Day comments coming....you're doing great, and I'm getting some good stuff. Check out my friend Vanessa's blog and see what she wrote too...
www.vanessachristenson.com

And, my husband just sent me a link to this article. It was an absolutely lovely addition to my afternoon - even better than flowers....

Help Wanted

2010-04-16T21:02:00.001-07:00

I need some help!!!!

I've been asked to speak next week at Friday Forum (a class for college aged young adults), and my topic is....

"What Mother's Really Want"

So, first of all, why am I the expert on this topic? From an eternal-perspective-type-of standpoint, I'm really still in the infancy of my motherhood journey. What do I know what mothers REALLY want? All I really want right now is to be able to take a five minute un-interrupted shower. Certainly that is not the kind of thing my audience is going to appreciate. So, come on, help me out! Leave a comment...if you're a mother, tell me what you really want this year on Mothers Day. If you're not a mother, tell me what you think your mother would really want this year. Tell me everything...from the silly to the serious...I want all the details.

And if you don't leave a comment, consider it completely your fault when I completely bomb out next week and can only squeak through the experience by bribing my audience with free ice cream (which is probably what I'll end up doing anyway).Just trying to get the guilt thing going here....moms are good at that you know.

Thanks everyone....

P.S. YOUR comment is what I REALLY want this year....(sorry, going for the guilt thing again...just picture me, standing up in front of a bunch of people half my age, stuttering and stumbling my way through 30 minutes of pure agony)

The Rest Of The Story

2010-04-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

And now, for the rest of the story:
Our two weeks of spring break were well spent. We started with a lovely Easter morning breakfast provided by dad (who found a great recipe for creme brule french toast). Because Easter fell on General Conference this year, we enjoyed a morning at home without getting dressed up in all the traditional Easter garb. I did make all the boys put on their pink shirts for breakfast though....Charlie was not impressed.

From Spring Break 2010 Pictures

Monday morning at five a.m., I put all the kids in the car and started the trek to Arizona. They all did awesome....it took us ten hours and only two stops to make the six hundred mile journey. We settled in to the hotel and enjoyed some swimming. I didn't even try and count the number of times people counted my kids as we paraded through the hotel, or the number of times I heard, "wow, you've got your hands full", or "you sure are a brave woman". The kids were great and really stuck to our motto: "DON'T MAKE MOM LOOK LIKE A CRAZY LADY."

We met up with Aunt Chelsea and a variety of Earnest cousins. The Allen family treated us to an awesome barbecue and horse and carriage ride through the streets of Mesa. My kids were uber-impressed.

From Spring Break 2010 Pictures

Wednesday found us driving into Phoenix to pick up dad at the airport. I finally took a deep breath and relaxed a little.

Thursday was spent at Jump Street - an awesome indoor trampoline center. They had all variety of bouncing apparatus....I even got in on the action!

We enjoyed swimming with the Earnest cousins...these boys think they're pretty cool:

Finally, we finished up with a very entertaining evening at Organ Stop Pizza...an old favorite destination of the Brundage family trips to Phoenix. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it was SO fun. Probably the best night of the trip. The kids so enjoyed seeing the giant organ and all the pipes and paraphernalia.

We made the trip back on Saturday...which took us a little longer and a few more stops, and had Sunday to settle back into life before school started back up.

I've rested for the past three days and enjoyed the pure bliss of putting my four oldest children on the school bus every morning and snuggling back up in bed with the littlest two.

And that, for now, is the rest of the story.

Just a little glimpse

2010-03-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

It's five o'clock here and I've already run the dishwasher twice.

I've made hot chocolate, cereal, waffles, macaroni and cheese, pizza, toast and top ramen. I've peeled oranges, cut up watermelon and apples. I've poured countless cups of chocolate milk and diet coke.

I didn't get dressed until noon.

I've dressed children up as Indiana Jones and the Ingalls children. I've assisted in "science" experiements that require baking soda, vinegar and food coloring. I've downloaded songs from legalsounds for Joe, and gone "fishing" with John.

Today is the first day of a fourteen-day long spring "break" from school. More like a spring "work" for mom. I can't really complain though...I just returned from a five day long trip to Utah with my mom and dad, and WITHOUT any of my children. It was pure bliss...just long enough to relax and really miss them before I came back. I wish there was a way to store up patience and energy, but I guess it doesn't really work that way.

How many times a day do you think the word "mom" is spoken in my house? I'm seriously considering getting one of those little counter thingies like they use and Costco and clicking it every time I hear it? Any estimates?

Well, time to go....Charlie just came in crying and telling me that the song Maggie was playing on the piano has given him a headache. Harry has just brought me a flyer he made for a "science club" to be held at our house this week. He wants me to make 30 copies for him to take around to all the kids in the neighborhood. Just what I need...more kids at my house. At least THEY won't be able to call me mom.

Happy Spring Break!

Grocery Store Smile

2010-03-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

I went to the grocery store yesterday.

Sigh...

I've made it part of my personal mama-code to never (except in cases of EXTREME emergencies)take more than two children at a time to the grocery store with me. And, it's not because I think it's important to have one-on-one time with each child and thus take a "date" with each one when I run errands. It's really more along the lines of self preservation, and also because I want my children to remember me as a semi-sane person...and not the frazzled, half-crazed person I'm sure I would be if I ever broke the mama-code and took more than two children to the store with me.

Nothing bad happened at the store today...this isn't a sad story. I had two children with me, John and Jack, dressed adorably in green and blue striped shirts with matching shorts. I was in a breezy new spring-green skirt and the weather was fine. I loaded the two boys into the cart.It was one of those terrible, huge, and obnoxiously loud "car carts"...you know, the kind where the kids sit in front and you try and maneuver the aisles without knocking anything over while at the same time making sure your children don't climb out or get their fingers run over. I passed by the complimentary anti-bacterial wipes without a second thought, (because really, what's the point? It would take an industrial strength power washer to wipe away the germs of the thousands of snotty-nosed kids who have occupied this space) and hoped my kid's immunizations and immune systems are up to snuff. I headed directly for the donuts. This is another part of my grocery store mama-code. Go first to the donuts, give each child a sugary treat, (but not a chocolate one...that's just asking for trouble) and hurry on with your shopping before any shenanagins begin. From there, I headed straight to the back of the store for milk. No matter that I'm criss-crossing the store and passing the bread aisle right by...this I know...milk MUST go in the cart first. Then, as I'm loading my eight gallons of milk into the cart, (yes, I said eight and that MIGHT last me six days)I hear someone calling my name. I instantly paste the grocery store smile on my face and turn to see an an old friend of a friend giving a friendly wave. She's there, in her workout clothes, pushing a regular standard cart, and is decidedly NOT loading eight gallons of milk into her cart. She has two children, who are the ages of my two oldest children, and I assume they are in school....given the workout clothes and standard cart. We exchange friendly words, comment on the weather, and she tells me that my boys are so cute. She continues on her way and I am struck by a thought.

She has moved on and is so completely out of the little child stage. She can work out in the morning and take a quick trip to the grocery store. She hasn't bought diapers in years. She doesn't have car seats in her car and probably can't even guess at what a can of formula costs anymore. And while we were once in this stage together, and our occaisonal bump-ins at the grocery store were a time where we could commiserate and share common experiences, she has moved on to a world I still cannot yet imagine. And I am STILL in a stage, I suspect, she can hardly begin to remember. I don't know why this struck me so...and I don't really know how it made me feel. A little SAD for myself that I'm still pushing around the huge cart...a little HAPPY for myself that I'm still pushing around the huge cart....a little JEALOUS of her for pushing around a standard cart...but also a little bit SORRY for her that she's moved onto pushing around a standard cart. My mother once said something to me that made me think (well, she's said lots of things to make me think, but I find this thought most appropriate for this post). She said, "Brooke, take your time...those children are going to leave your home every bit as quickly as you've brought them into it." Ouch...that hurts...while I was busy having children every other year, I never looked ahead to the time where they would be leaving every other year.
So, I'm trying to enjoy pushing around the huge cart, and dressing my boys in identically striped shirts and having the word "mom" spoken (or screamed or whined) hundreds of time every day.

This is my third set of children to enjoy this battery powered jeep...and I've even relaxed enough to let them bring it into the house and drive it all over my freshly polished stone floors.

I've lately not been feeling myself. I'm still hurting quite a bit and am missing the comfort that my steroid treatment provided. I spend a lot of time reading on my bed...because it's the only place I can carve out and claim for myself. I've always wanted a bed full of pillows and a fluffy comforter...you know...like the ones you see in magazines. It's never really seemd very practical however. But, slowly over the past few months, I've been working on making my room my own...a retreat you might say. I've become a bit territorial about it. If you were to count, you'd find I have no fewer than 18 pillows on my bed. I have those cute little wall lamps on either side of the bed. I love nothing more than to come into my room and see this:

I even have a love seat at the end of my bed where I can sit and get dressed:

On days where I'm not feeling so great, this is definately a bright spot for me. I even bought fresh flowers and put them on my dresser. For some reason, it makes me supremely happy...and right now I'm taking what I can get in that department.

Last night, after a long day of work and pain, I wearily climbed the stairs for the last time of the day, ready to settle into my super soft and comfy bed...to put my feet up and enjoy reading the last chapter of my new book. Imagine my distress when my eyes met with this image instead:

And on my pretty little love seat, this:

I almost lost it...but then I took a deep breath, pasted the grocery store smile on my face and reminded myself that just like the time I spend pushing around the huge car cart will someday come to an end, so will the time when my children want to all pile into my super soft bed TOGETHER and snuggle up for a good night sleep. Hopefully, it will be be before they get too heavy for me to carry them to their own beds!

And finally, if anyone else out there is feeling like I do sometimes...unable to keep up with all the craft and sewing blogs, and feeling like an utter failure for not being able to do it all, you might enjoy this image:

Not that I am currently or have any future plans to work on such a project, but I take solace in that fact that I have undertaken such a project six times!

Cub Scouts Countdown

2010-02-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was our Blue and Gold Banquet. Officially, it was Joe's last Blue and Gold, since he turned eleven last week. Unofficially, he still has a few more things to do before he gets his Webelo badge and graduates to the tan shirt and 11 year old scouting. This year was also Harry's first official Blue and Gold Banquet, as he turns eight in December. I'm trying to not even think about how many more of these I get to go to until Jack is done!

From Brooke

Harry also got to take part in the traditional "bad relay race" that happens at every pack meeting. Harry seems to approach life with a certain type of passion, and his approach to the relay race was no different. For some reason, he found it necessary to wear his safety goggles (from his air soft gun) during the relay. Joe IV just about had a come apart to see him wearing them (what is it about little brothers that just really get under your skin?) Harry's team claimed the victory in passing a string and then a bagel through all of their shirts...he seemed to really revel in his win....

From Brooke

And from this picture of Harry rubbing the win in Joe's face, maybe I CAN understand what it is about little brothers that gets under his skin.

From Brooke

Can we get a little Variety Please?

2010-02-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was the Annual Sinsheimer Elementary School Variety Show. I emphasize that this was a VARIETY show, not a talent show. It was an amazing mix of acts...from comedy skits, to dancing, to music performances. Two of my four Sinsheimer students participated in the event... Maggie first with her two friends Ashlynn and Laura. They played the viola, piano and violin respectively. Have I mentioned that Maggie plays the viola? she does...and she's getting quite good....for a first-year student. We're finally past the point where her practice time hurts everyone's ears and on to the part where we can start to enjoy the music.

Stings Trio from Brooke Brundage on Vimeo.

Harry was up next, playing the Van Halen song, "Right Now" on the piano. His dad helped him with this one and he's been practicing hard for several weeks to get it right. He was a pretty big crowd pleaser last night. My favorite part of the video is hearing the other children who were sitting next to us...they were all really supportive of him. His performance attire was also all up to him. Somewhere along the way he missplaced his red sunglasses that were supposed to go with ensemble, but I think that contributed to a better performance, since he was able to actually see what he was playing!

Right Now from Brooke Brundage on Vimeo.

Eleven Years In The Making

2010-02-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

A better day for a birthday could not have been asked for today. It was sunny and clear here on California's Central Coast, and this young man celebrated his eleventh birthday in beautiful style.

He got checked out of school early to enjoy lunch on the patio at Firestone, and was excited with his "year-long" birthday present from Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lark. "The best part is, I get to get something in the mail EVERY month, and it will be addressed to me! I never get mail!"

He was in good enough spirits to even let his sister borrow his new hat for a while:

An afternoon off from school to play NBA2K10, and Grandpa Joe and Grandma Carole over for dinner and birthday brownies:

And a Laker game on TV tonight to boot!

As we were driving home from lunch, I merged into the turning lane, and Joe asked me how I knew when to get into that lane. I answered his question and asked why he was so interested. "Well, it's only four years until I can start driving...I figure I'd better start paying attention." Oh boy, everybody better buckle up...we're in for a bumpy ride!

Sickness and Steroids

2010-02-09T06:16:00.000-08:00

My two littlest boys have been sick this week...that's John and Jack for those of you who are counting on your fingers right now. They've just kind of had that yucky cough, runny nose, fever kind of thing that every kid gets. I was thinking this morning that if they had been my first two children....that's Joe and Maggie for those of you again...it would have been the kind of sickness that brought my world to a grinding halt. I would have been whining and complaining about how sick they are, and how they don't sleep, and how they're so cranky, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm not saying that's bad...you SHOULD whine and complain about sick kids when you have two kids and both of them are sick.That's 100% of your kids. But when you have six kids and two of them are sick, and that's not even half of them, I find that life moves on and I don't have time to whine and complain, and somehow, they still got better. Without my whining and complaining. Amazing.

Isn't my outlook refreshing?

Or, maybe it's just the steroids I'm taking.

Wait, WHAT?

My rhemetologist started me on a short course of steroids to help my joint pain. I finally had to stop taking the other stuff that was helping me because it made me so upset to my stomach that I couldn't eat anything. So, we're trying this. I asked the doctor, "do I need to worry about any side effects with a short course like this?" He said, (pausing and tilting his head) "Well, you might find you have a little extra energy for the first little bit."

Um, yeah.

So, sick kids are nothing. I'm back to painting and sewing and moving furniture just like I did in my old life. I know it won't last forever, but it's sure nice to feel "normal" again for a while.

It's raining again today...but that's okay....I still have two days left on my steroids...I'm sure I'll find something to do.

P.S.: Really, it should be a practice of all pediatricians to give the mother a round of steriods with every antibiotic they give to the child. And, what does it say about me that steroids are what it takes to make me feel "normal?" Maybe I'd better ponder on that for a bit....

Nostalgia

2010-01-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

I'm trying not to be too sappy here, but this video was captured today, almost ten years to the day that my first child took his first steps. I know I have that video somewhere, and someday when my time and energy isn't otherwise engaged, I'll find it. For now, enjoy!

Rain Rain Go Away

2010-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

Rain, rain, go away...
Oh how I wish you would....

I'm not sure if I can handle another day of lego sorting...which for some reason has become our rainy day activity of choice...
Really...how many lego Jabba the Huts does one family need?

I did take a break to re-learn my lost skill of crocheting...
(Although taking a picture of my own neck proved to be even more challenging)

And ate about two big bags of peanut M&M's before I actually put this project together...

Come on Spring...I know it's only January, but we Californian's can't take much more of this!

A Transformation

2010-01-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, my older children get a bit ignored on my blog. The things they do and say aren't "cute" in the way the little ones are. But this week I witnessed a milestone in the life of my eldest, and feel it is necessary to commemorate it.

Joe started to play basketball last year. He's a tall boy, and has that advantage...he's also left handed, so he's got that in his corner. What does he not have in his favor?

HIS PARENTS

We are not exactly athletic or competitive people. I can remember countless times in Junior high and High school gym, just hoping that the hour would pass before I had to touch the ball or be depended on to help my team in some way, no matter what the sport. I don't know a whole lot about my husband's athletic prowess in his early years, but I DO know he was in the band. So, there's that.

At any rate, Joe seemed to enjoy the game of basketball...both playing and watching. He's a very analytical boy and would spend hours with his dad, dissecting the Laker's moves and analyzing their plays. But his time on the court was at first a bit...well...it was painful. At least for me to watch. I would cringe as I watched his skinny arms try to dribble the ball, or his lanky legs run the length of the court. I'm sure like many parents have felt, it was just hard to watch.

He had a good year last year, and picked up a lot of skills. He worked hard and practiced often. He went to a camp over the summer and continued to improve his game. He also grew a couple of inches and came into his gangly body a bit more. And, lo and behold, it's true....practice really does help! He got better...I was able to watch without cringing...I started to relax and even enjoy watching him play.

His team this year practices on Friday nights. Maggie and I dropped him off last week and continued on downtown for some errands. We finished up early, stopped at Cold Stone for a quart of ice cream and two spoons (our new favorite...Cheesecake ice cream with Raspberries and Graham Cracker Pie crust mixed in) and headed back to the gym to watch his last fifteen minutes of practice. As I sat there on the steps of the stage, eating my ice cream from the carton, I saw a completely transformed young man. Gone was my skinny, gangly, uncoordinated child. In his place, I saw a young man making definite strides toward becoming an excellent basketball player. He can dribble, he can do lay-ups, he can play defense and make free throws. The other kids on the team pass to him...he makes baskets! As I watched, I remembered all that time in gym class, when I was just waiting for the time to end, and I kind of wished I had practiced a bit more, and tried to learn how to enjoy the camaraderie of a team sport....being dependant on others and depending on others too. What excellent life experience a team sport can be!
So, while I never learned to enjoy it myself, I'm so happy that this boy, I mean this young man, has learned about the joy of being out on the court...just running and shooting and most importantly having fun.

Here are a few shots of him last week when his team played during the Cal Poly Men's Basketball half-time.

Watching his team....showing his concern....

Running back up court...

Playing defense....

And finally, getting a shot off. I'm not sure if he made it, but I do know he had a great time trying!

One Year Older and Wiser Too

2010-01-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Birthday parties for one year olds are stupid. I know that. I secretly snicker at all the first time parents who throw elaborate parties for their one year olds. But everyone does it...I did it for Joe, and Maggie, and maybe even Harry before I came to terms with what parties for one year olds really are....a lot of work for virtually no payoff except the pictures you can one day show your children to prove that, "yes, I really was a good parent," at least in all the ways the world could see.

Nonetheless, Jack is now one year old. And depsite my said feelings about it, we had a big, elaborate day to celebrate his first year of life. There was a theme and everything. We had guests with hats and cake and decorations. We even had a circus clown and ringleader for entertainment.

From january2010

We had a good time.

And someday I'll be able to show Jack these pictures, and he'll know how much I loved him as a baby...how much I enjoyed his perfect smile and toothless mouth and baby clapping hands.

This is the last party I'm planning on having for a one year old, and I wanted to celebrate it properly...not just for him, but for me as well. This past year has been a tough one for me. My body kind of gave out on me, or at least declared itself ready for a nice long break...from childbearing and everything else I've always asked it to do. And I didn't like that...I'm used to my body doing everything I want it to do...from being able to clean my house to being able to craft and sew and paint to just having the energy to stay awake the entire day. When my body protested, my spirit did too...I just didn't feel like me. And it made me mad, and sad, and everything else inbetween.

The one year mark is important to me...it symbolizes to me a step forward. It's a marker I can use to look ahead, to a time without diapers and bottles and carrying children on my hip. To a time when first steps are taken. To a time when all my children will be in primary or nursery when I go to church! (Only 26 more Sundays of walking the halls!) But it's also a time to reflect... on what a wonderful and fulfilling experience is it to mother a child through his first year of life. To bond with him and watch him grow...to see him develop his own distinct personality, even if he looks almost idendtical to every other male child I've ever had!

So while I've enjoyed these last ten years of one year old parties, I'm starting to look forward to parties for older children...where all you have to do is set out some food and videos, stay out of the way, and worry about an entirely new set of problems than whether or not your cake really looks like a circus tent. But I will always treasure the time when "Mom" is the most important word in a child's vocabulary...where Mom can fix anything and make anything better, just by being her. So here's to being one year older and perhaps a little wiser too.

A Banner Day At the Brundage House

2010-01-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

It's a banner day when John actually outgrows something. Too bad we only got these Frosty Jammies out of storage two weeks ago! Notice the safety pin. The only remedy for this fiasco is to wear them all day long!

Side note to my brother Darin: When I was in Oregon, I found some pictures of you at about John's age. The resemblance is uncanny. I didn't have time to scan them...maybe I can convince Mom or Dad to dust off their scanner and upload them.

UPDATE:
Thanks to Julie who immediately responded to my request! Here are a couple of the pictures I was thinking of:

Uncanny, right? (cool word, uncanny is)

Doink Video

2010-01-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

As requested, the "doink" video. Really only funny if you were there, but good for us that were there to remember.

From december 09

Our Last Two Weeks in Photos

2010-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is going to be about 43,000 words long. I hope these pictures will give you a glimpse into our busy lives during the last two weeks:

First, Harry turned seven. We celebrated by taking him out of school early and having a family lunch. In the evening, Joe's bank had a huge party for him...where all the employees and their families came to celebrate Harry turning seven (or Christmas, depending on your perspective).

Two days later we made a VERY last minute decision and put the kids in the car for an Oregon Christmas. We had so much fun...

Staying up late and drinking diet coke,

Making treats and toffee bars,

Decorating Chrismtas Sugar Cookies with cousins,

Going to the mountain to play in the snow. Some of my kids had never even SEEN snow before!

Throwing snowballs at Cousin Jake (what a good sport he was)

Joe humored me and "sled" down a small hill so I could take his picture:

Charlie after a long day of sledding....A Christmas Story anyone?

Aunt Chelsea was a good sport the entire time...she put up with 11 kids the whole week and never once lost it with them (more than I can say!)

Some more shots enjoying the snow...because we seem to see it only once every six or seven years,

Back at home, Dad and Chelsea got serious one evening,

And my kids got to spend some time with their Great-Grandparents...not every kid can say that!

Of course, we had to have a turn on the famous elephants!

And a group shot with everyone.

We had fun making some last minute Christmas Decor.

Learned to play Shang with Grandma LaRue,

Enjoyed Grandma Lark and Grandpa Steve,

The Christmas Eve Guest list prepared by Harry...all 26 of us showed up!

Acted out the nativity,

And had a great time with the cousins on Christmas eve, listening to stories and opening the traditional Christmas Eve Jammies,

Christmas Morning came a bit too early for our late riser John, but we weren't about to let him miss it,

He wasn't quite awake for the trational hallway family shot,

Or the traditional "sit in front of the presents" shot,

But he figured it out pretty quickly,

Saturday we made the trek back to California, and met Uncle Nate and Aunt Kate in Sacramento for a late lunch. John and Will became instant friends,

These guys are pretty good friends too,

And finally, we made it back to California in time to celebrate another Chrismtas with the Brundage family,

It's just not Christmas without a puzzle,

Well, that's all I got, folks!

We're excited to start a new year and a new decade, and looking forward to all the things our family will accomplish. In the next decade, I will hopefully see four of my boys recieve the priesthood, four of my children be baptized, one of my boys go on a mission,three of my children graduate from high school and go off to college, and five of my children become teenagers. Uh-Oh....I'd better go back to bed for a while!

Maggie's Birthday Extraveganza, Some Wiistruction, a Special Guest and a Visit With Santa

2009-12-15T08:26:00.000-08:00

Maggie's ninth birthday was December sixth. Tomorrow is Harry's seventh birthday. And Christmas is in ten days. So, if I don't want to spend an eternity updating my blog, I'd better get started. So let the good times roll.

We started the birthday weekend on Friday after school with a trip to CPK with three friends. It was very important that they be allowed to sit at the bar together for this dinner. I don't think they realized until too late that this dining configuration didn't allow for the best conversation flow. I was sitting in a booth nearby with a couple of the boys who were allowed to attend, and I heard a lot of "what did you say's?", and "what are you talking about's?" coming from the pack of girls. I was reminded of a particular Seinfeld episode and had to smile at them as they struggled to maintain a conversation. Nonetheless, they had a great time and were ready for the next event.

Which was...
Yogurt Creations
I know, ridiculous that my children love this so much considering how their parents pay the bills. But, on a birthday, sometimes even loyalty has to step aside for proper celebration. There's just something for kids about being able to pull the lever and release your own frozen treat...and then top it with whichever candy or fruit delight you choose. And then, you get to weigh it to see how much it costs...so thrilling when you're nine.

We took a break on a bench to take a quick picture, and then made our way to the patio of Cold Stone (with Yogurt Creation cups in hand) to take our specially reserved seats and watch the annual Downtown Christmas parade.

After the parade (and an exciting wait for the tow truck to fix the flat tire on my Suburban), we made our way home for Maggie's first sleepover party. We stayed upstairs, the girls ruled the downstairs. Everyone was happy...Ambien was involved (for the parents that is). In the morning, we had the traditional birthday breakfast of "amazing balls of goodness", bacon and chocolate milk. We toasted the beginning of Maggie's tenth year of life.

Finally, before the rain set in, we headed to Cal Poly for some Satsuma Tangerine picking. I know, can you possibly think of a more exciting birthday activity? I couldn't either...that's why we did it. But the girls had fun, and I learned that 22.5 hours is the maximum time four girls can be together without falling apart. We took the girls home and ended the party on a happy note. I was proud of Maggie. We talked about not having presents this year and she was happy to forgo presents and just have fun with her friends. We did have everyone bring a book and had an exchange where everyone got to take home a new book.

Sunday morning was Maggie's actually birthday, and she learned that good things do indeed come in small packages. And John proved that he really is named after Grandpa Steve as he hurriedly cleaned up the wrapping trash as soon as it was opened.

After church we had a birthday dinner and celebration birthday Trifle. We're so glad we live in California when our two December birthday kids almost always request Strawberries on their birthday!

Later in the evening when the dishes were washing and everyone was relaxing, I noticed a certain smell in the air. It smelled like something was burning, so I jumped up to find the problem. I couldn't figure it out...the candles were out, the oven was off, no ironing was being done...I started to become concerned. Finally, I thought, "Oh, maybe I accidentally put something in the dishwasher that wasn't dish-washer safe." I opened it up mid-cycle to check, but couldn't find anything. But then Joe took a look and saw what I didn't:

I guess we can all guess what Jack is going to be opening up on Christmas morning!

Next, we had a special visit from Aunt Chelsea. I had asked Harry last week what he wanted for his birthday. His reply was that he would really like Aunt Chelsea to come for a visit like she did last year. Since this is something I always enjoy as well, I got online that evening and booked Chelsea a ticket with my airline miles. When I told Harry in the morning, he was so excited. I joked with him that now he didn't get any presents because we had bought the airplane ticket. When Chelsea arrived a few days later, he confided in her that he wouldn't be getting any presents, but that it was okay because she was here for a visit. When I realized that he didn't understand that I was joking about that a few days ago, I was so sad! And so happy, that he really was willing to give up presents for a birthday visit from his Aunt. He was really relieved, however, when I told him he would still be getting presents!

Things are always just a little bit more fun when Aunt Chelsea is around!

Finally, some pictures of the kids enjoying/talking to Santa.

Well, on to the next birthday! I'm sure it will be just as fun-filled as the last!

Being A Mom

2009-11-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

Anybody else ever feel this way?

By the way, I survived the lesson successfully....Harry said I passed.

A Vote of Confidence

2009-11-28T21:06:00.000-08:00

I'm substitute teaching in Harry's primary class tomorrow. As I was preparing the lesson today, I found him hovering about and asking lots of questions about the lesson. I thought he just wanted to be prepared, so he could act like he knew all the answers to all the questions.

Later, during dinner, he was staring off into space...completely absorbed in his own little world. I asked him what he was thinking about. He replied with conviction, "I'm just so worried about my primary class tomorrow!" I replied to him, "What do you mean, it's not going to be hard" (thinking he was worried about knowing all the answers). To which he countered,

"I'm not worried about me! You've never taught a primary class before...how are you going to know how to do it right?!?"

Geez Harry, thanks for the vote of confidence. I think my life experience has somewhat prepared me to teach 6 six year olds for one hour. Coincidentally, the lesson is on honoring and obeying your parents. On second thought...maybe I'm not as prepared as I thought.

A Day of Thanks

2009-11-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was truly a day of Thanksgiving. We had a lovely day, with wonderful weather, wonderful food, and wonderful company. It's been twelve years since I've been married, and I have to admit something. Until recently, there has always been a part of me that feels like I'm not quite "at home" on the holidays unless I'm with my parents and siblings. But in the last few years (maybe because of the sheer number of children I have), I finally feel settled into my own family. I still miss my other family, but I no longer feel incomplete when we're not together. I do still miss my mom and sisters on Friday morning though. I tried last year to do the Black Friday thing by myself, got up early, stood in the lines, but it's just not the same without someone to share it with. So this year, I laid in my nice warm bed until nine in the morning and called my mom on her cell phone to partake of some of the Black Friday Frenzy. Denfinately better.

I'm attempting to start a new holiday tradition at our home. I call it the Thankful Tree Placemats

I made a placemat for everyone in my family, plus Grandma & Grandpa. I patterend the tree after the family tree I made last year as a wallhanging. I put everyone's names on them, and bought some fabric markers. On the back side of their placemat, I had everyone write their names and something they were thankful for that year. I'm planning on pulling them out every year and adding to them...I think it will be fun in several years to look back on their writing and words. I don't think I can wash them though...I did Scotchgard them, but still spent the entire meal saying, "be careful, don't spill on your placemat!", which kind of took away from the peacefulness of the meal. I guess I'll just have to relax and we can use the stains as memories as well...as in, "remember that year that Harry spilled his pumpkin pie all over the table?"

Before dinner, we got brave and took advantage of the beautiful weather by attempting a family picure. We set up the tripod and set the timer and hoped for the best. Personally, I preferred it, because I was able to yell all kinds of things at my children like, "you're going to smile and like it, or there'll be no wii for you!" without having the photographer think I was a terrible mother. Actually, it did turn out better than I thought, and we were able to get a couple of good shots... here is one of the less successful ones, where someone had bumped the camera while pushing the timer button and we accidently cropped Maggie out of the pictures for an entire series before we realized it.

It was a good day...and now we can look forward to a good holiday season full of love, joy, and peace. Or arguing, bored children, and a crazy mother. I guess only time will tell.

Really, Shouldn't a Mother of Six Know Better?

2009-11-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this photo might be a bit graphic for some of you...discretion is advised.

With that said...here's a story of a mother who should've known better. Sunday's are tough days here at the Brundage household. We have nine oclock church, so Saturdays are spent preparing ourselves for that....getting out church clothes, laying out shoes and socks (because they really will go missing unless you get them out on Saturday evening), bathing, washing and drying hair, grocery shopping, etc., etc. The primary song has never been more appropriate than it is at this stage in my little family's life. This Saturday, we spent the day at the temple....which was wonderful...and terrible. The wonderful part was the three hours Joe and I got to spend in the temple while Young Women from our ward watched our children...great...amazing. The terrible part was getting both to and from the temple. I won't go into details as I'm sure you can all imagine the mayhem involved in transporting six children 500 miles in the space of twelve hours. You've been there...you know what I'm talking about.

So, we got home around nine p.m., prepped for church and fell into bed.

In the morning, things went smoothly, the children were cooperative and actually put down their wii-motes nicely when it was time to hit the road. (BTW...new Super Mario Brothers game is AWESOME!!!). At the last minute, Charlie asked for some hot chocolate. This is the part where my training as a mother seems to have failed me...maybe I've become too cocky...maybe I think my skills are better than they actually are, but for some reason, I agreed to his request. We love hot chocolate at our house. We keep it out in canisters on the counter, and have a little machine that heats up the water really quickly. We even keep Styrofoam cups with lids on hand so spills are not as likely. Even though it's literally 80 degrees at my house today, my kids will all want a cup when they arrive home from school in a few minutes. So I mixed up Charlie's hot chocolate and told him to get in the car and buckle his seat belt, at which time I would hand it to him. He did as he was asked, and the transfer was successful. Everyone else loaded in and we started to drive to church. Then, we realized that Joe and Maggie were sharing a seat in the middle row of the car. Maggie had already been promised the coveted "middle" seat and was not happy with Joe encroaching on her territory. We told him to get in the back as we were driving and then we heard the "uh-oh".
"What?" Joe and both exclaimed.
Joe said, "Don't worry...I just bumped Charlie and he spilled his hot chocolate a little bit."
"How much is a little bit?" I inquired.
"Not much...if he pulls his sweater down, no one will even notice." Joe replied.

Time was short so we decided to power on and get to church. Joe had to play the piano in Sacrament meeting so we didn't want to turn around and be late. We were reassured by our son that it was "just a little bit...no big deal."

(I am realizing how long this story is becoming, and I promise you, the payoff is not that great...just a warning.)

At any rate, we got to church, started piling out of the car,and I had almost forgotten about the hot chocolate incident. (What with all the arguing about what song we would listen to on the way going on). But as Charlie climbed out of the car, I gasped at what I saw:

Now, in what world is this just a "little bit" of hot chocolate? And in what world could this "little bit" of hot chocolate spread on Charlie's pants in such a perfect imitation of a diarrhea accident? I mean, did Joe think the sweater vest would stretch to cover his knees?!? Joe and I made a quick decision, placed Charlie directly in front of us and walked him into church...sheilding his pants from view. After Sacrament meeting, I considered taping a sign on his back that said, "Don't worry, it's just hot chocolate", but took pity on him and drove him home for a fresh change of clothes. So, crisis somewhat averted and lessons learned, and Charlie was sure a good sport through it all.

Unrelately, later in the day, John took himself to the bathroom and actually did have diarrhea. He didn't call for help and pulled his pants up without even an attempt to clean himself, and returned to playing with his trucks. When I came downstairs a few minutes later, I was greeted with a replica of Charlie's pants from earlier in the day. Unfortunately, this was the real deal. Fortunately, I didn't take a picture.

So now it's on to Thanksgiving and Christmas light hanging and Christmas tree decorating. Happy Thanksgiving to all...I hope your day is as blessed as I'm sure mine will be!

Happy Halloween, Going Green with John and some Star Wars Catch-Up

2009-11-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

Halloween weekend kind of hit us like a tornado this year. Friday the 30th was "Teacher Work Day", so the kids were all home. I started the weekend off bravely by taking all six children to the pediatrician's office with me for Jack's 9 month appointment. I could have gotten a babysitter, but I had an ulterior motive in taking them all with me. I was hoping they'd take pity on me and give them all the H1N1 vaccine while I was there. Well, it only took two hours, but we were successful in getting the mist vaccine for the five oldest. I know there is some controversy concerning this vaccine, but with an infant at home, I just couldn't see not getting them for the older children. I tell you what though....it was exhausting taking all six with me to the doctors office. Not to mention all the looks and questions I got while there. We had a big pep talk before we went in, and everyone did pretty well, but it's still weird to see people actually counting you as you walk somewhere. And people are never shy to ask me, "are these ALL yours?" I've gotten some pretty rude comments over the years, but mostly, I try to put a positive spin on it. And my kids try extra hard when we're out in public to make us not look like crazy people. I give them credit for that, and I think it teaches them a lot about teamwork and personal responsibility. Anyway, I'll stop on that tangent.

After we were all properly vaccinated, it was time to let the weekend party begin. We spent the afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch, and the evening finishing up our costumes and making last minute adjustments.

Here are the kids at Trunk or Treat....If you can't tell, I'll translate...
Joe: Peewee Reese (an original Brooklyn Dodger...he's been really into 1930's baseball lately.

Maggie: Dorothy - and yes, she is wearing her baptism dress under her pinafore. (sorry mom). It felt a bit sacrilegious, but I just couldn't seen making another entire white dress when we had a perfectly good one just sitting in the closet. The crux of the costume for her was the wig. She saw it at the Halloween store and decided to be Dorothy just so she could get the wig.

Harry: A Lego Brick - I think he looked great...we saw it on Family Fun and thought it was appropriate for Harry. We worked hard to make it (jig saw involved). He thought it was great and was really happy until a little girl (who wasn't trying to be unkind - she's one of Harry's good friends) asked him if he was a muffin tin. Then he got self-conscious and wanted to take it off. It made me sad to see him so affected by what one other person thought. Lots of people told him how cool he looked, but he just couldn't get past the muffin tin comment. Who has red muffin tins anyway?

Charlie: Luigi - This is the second year for him as Luigi, and I was SO grateful he wanted to be him again...one less costume to make, and I think he makes a very debonair Mario Brother.

John: A garbage can - this one was obviously the most original. He at first wanted to be Oscar the Grouch, but I knew enough about little boys to know that he wouldn't tolerate being painted green, so we compromised with this costume. First I painted the trash can silver, but he looked much to much like a robot. Then we did it black, and Charlie still thought he looked like a bullet from the Mario Brothers games, but we decided it was the best option. He had so much fun and looked so cute with his little legs toddling around.

Jack: Baby Mario - there was much debate over this costume. Since he couldn't pick, everyone else wanted to choose for him. We considered him being an apple (get it, Apple Jack?), and Maggie wanted him to be the Tin Man as an accessory to her costume, but I've done costumes enough for crawling babies to know that it had to be functional too. So, we settled on Mario. It's very fitting actually, since he looks so much like Charlie.

The rest of the pictures are ones we took on Halloween night when we trick or treated at our friend's, the Robers house. We had a great time...thanks for inviting us!

With Halloween over, we had to turn immediately around and gear up for John's third birthday. We decided to Go Green for this big day. He was super excited for the big day and really enjoyed his new garbage truck and car wash toy (his two favorite things). We made a garbage truck cake and had our friends over for dinner.

Sometime late Friday afternoon, I got the idea that it would be fun to make a replica car wash for John to play with on his birthday. (Because you know, I just didn't really have enough to do). So, after a quick trip to Home Depot for some PVC pipe, the kids and I fashioned this crude car wash. We used plastic table cloths and swimming noodles for the brushes and rollers, set up a bubble machine for the soap, and turned on the "Car Wash" song for added ambiance. John had a great time all afternoon driving his ride-on Tow-Mater and Lightening McQueen cars through his car wash.

It was a long day, and a nap was required late in the day - sitting up at the counter in his garbage man costume.

Finally, some Star Wars Catch Up... last month Joe took JoeIV and Harry down to LA for a Star Wars Concert. I don't know exactly what it entailed, but there was a live orchestra playing music from the movies, set to scenes from the movies up on giant screen. A laser show was also part of the extravaganza. Before the show, there was an exhibit set up in the lobby where the boys could look at real costumes from the movies. Harry even got to try on the X-Wing Pilot's helmet. They had a great time, and it was fun for they boys to spend some time together.

Well, that's the longest post ever...but that's the way it goes sometimes...nothing happens around here for days, and then BAM, everything hits at once. I'm just taking it one day at a time and trying to keep up and enjoy these children. People PROMISE me that this is the best time of my life, and before I know it, they'll all be gone and living their own lives. Some days, that promise is the only thing getting me through the day - knowing that they'll all be gone someday! Most days though, I just try to relax and breathe deep and count my blessings.

Happy November!

That Special Time Of Year

2009-10-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well it's that special time of year again....my house is littered with all sorts of costume paraphenelia. I won't give away what all their costumes are, but let me just give you a list of all the tools I've used to create this year's Halloween Creations:

Sewing Machine (obviously)
Power Drill
Jig Saw
Spray Paint (several cans)
Glue Gun
Iron
Printer
Screwdriver
And last, but not least, hours and hours of time.

Don't misunderstand me...I'm not complaining. I LOVE the process of watching the kids decide what to be and then figuring out how we'll make it happen. Some efforts are more successful than others, but I think this year everyone will be pretty happy. (not like last year when Joe's mummy costume literally fell apart as he trick or treated). I still vividly remember a halloween when my mom made my brother Darin a REALLY cool Ghostbuster costume. It was an awesome grey jumpsuit that zipped up the front and had a badge and everything. She must have worked really hard on that creation. And, I still remember Darin coming home from a party at Reed Barker's house (not sure why I remember that name), so upset because no one knew what he was. I guess he was a boy ahead of his time. So, I think about that when making costumes....how will it translate to the general public? I mean, not everyone knows that John is obsessed with garbage trucks and garbage cans and might not understand why he's dressed as a trash can. But that one I couldn't resist...he makes a darn cute trash can...even if no one knows what he is!

In other news...I'm finally getting some relief from my joint pain. Ever since Jack was born, I've had pretty bad pain in all my joints: wrists, hands, elbows, knees, even the tops of my feet. I started some medication for Rheumetoid Arthritis about a month ago, and it's finally started to work. I'm still not admitting that I have RA (although my response to the medicine seems a bit telling), but I am feeling very grateful that I can once again sew without pain, or mix up a batch of cookies, or even pick up my baby without wincing. Pain is an amazing thing...and this last year has given me so much empathy for those who suffer from chronic pain. It can truly be debilitating.

Well...our Trunk or Treat is tomorrow (or Trick or Trunk as our friend Briggs called it...much to the delight of all the children in my car at the time), so if all goes well, we'll have six happy children and one happy mother - because of course, I get first dibs on all their candy.

Happy Treating!

No More Ruffles????

2009-10-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

I was devastated last night on Project Runway when Heidi Klum asked the designer, "What woman of today wears ruffles?"
(And this show was taped MONTHS ago!)

Am I the only one who didn't know that ruffles are out?

Tell me the truth...I can take it.

PS - my "ruffle dress" of an earlier post was a total disaster. Maybe the fashion gods were trying to tell me something?

Spoiler Alert

2009-09-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

SPOILER ALERT!
If you've been telling your kids that you're not going to get them a pet and using me as an example of someone who doesn't let their kids have a pet, stop reading now.

Also, if you're like my sister Chelsea who hates it when people post pictures of their pets, stop reading now.

Okay, anybody left?

So, yeah, I broke down and let the kids get a pet.

Meet Kit Kat...

I'm not now, nor have I ever been a "cat person". But with six kids and a tiny yard, we decided this was a better option than a puppy.

The oddest thing we've discovered in this venture is how much my husband enjoys this animal. I didn't know that about him. I find him playing with her even when all the kids are in bed. Last night I was nodding off in bed and he came into the room with the cat in hand and said, "she's crying...what should I do?" I rolled my eyes and said, "put her in her bed...she's a cat...or rock her to sleep if you want...I've had enough babies, I'm going to sleep".

And that's exactly what I did.

Jack Man

2009-09-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Jack, at 8 months old. Couldn't you just look at him forever? Maybe I'm a bit biased.

From September 2009

Some Privacy Please?

2009-09-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

I caught John getting pretty the other day....

He was NOT pleased with the intrusion....

Can't a two year old get some privacy around here please?

I've Had A Birthday, Shout Hooray! (and some other stuff too)

2009-09-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

So I turned 33 last Sunday. Now I'm one year old and wiser too! (as the song goes)
We had a nice day (as nice a day as a mother of six can have on a Sunday...really the longest day of them all)
Thanks to Grandma Carole for organizing a dinner, and letting FIVE kids help her make it. They were pretty happy, and so was I.

We've gone through a bit of a dry spell in the costume area. Harry has somewhat grown out of the game. He'll still put them on, but not every day like he used to. Luckily for all of us, there seems to be a never-ending supply of 2 year old boys at my house who have fallen in love with the costume collection. Here are a few shots of John as a garbage man one day, and a car washing fireman the next. This kid's got a smile like none other.

And, I've been trying to get back into some sewing. Today I spent THREE hours putting these ruffles on the bodice of this dress. IT TOOK FOREVER. I had to give up and put it away for awhile. I've made several versions of this dress and thought some ruffles would be fun. Fun is not the exact word I'd use to describe it now, but hopefully I'll like the end result. Don't mind the weird duct tape dress form. That's a story for another day, but basically, it involves being wrapped up in saran wrap and duct tape. It's a useful tool for sewing for one's self, but VERY humbling to see a cast of your body in duct tape. I should be hitting the gym and not the sewing machine!

So, Happy Tuesday, here's to birthdays, costumes and sewing!