APRIL 2013 - Quick Family Update

APRIL?  May is almost over and I still haven't posted about April events in our family! Ack!

Okay, so the kids had "Crazy Hair Day" at school.  The boys wore multicolored Mohawks and Jaibrian wore Disney Princesses in her hair whilst sporting a Tiara of her very own.


                                                                                                   

Oh boy they were amped up that morning. Shew! 

Then we were off to practice for Daxx and Jaibrian's First Communion.

The day was beautiful and they were just as precious as can be.  They walked up and respectfully took their first Eucharist.  Jaibrian wore a little white, eyelette dress with her favorite white sweater.



She got to see her friend, Elizabeth as they crossed paths to/from church.  Elizabeth was in the first Mass schedule.


There were 3 groups of children taking their first communion this year. What a wonderful thing to witness!

I took this opportunity to have my picture taken with Kazz and Brisan.  Brisan isn't what you would call a church goin' boy.  He says he's a Christian and doesn't need to be Catholic or go to church to be one.  I say....You're 16, work it out for yourself my boy...momma and Jesus love you.

At any rate...Brise DID attend mass with all of us to support his siblings. It was a rare moment indeed that he actually agreed to have this picture taken and even smiled for his mommy.  Kazz took the opportunity to push Brisan's tolerance a bit further. (Notice that I'm posting this picture, even though I'm talking and have my eyes closed.. It's because my boys are both smiling and posing with me.  That's what matters.  I usually look like this in real life anyway so, why not have a picture to prove what everyone already knows? Shelly talks a lot and sometimes in her sleep.)

This is the point where Kazz pushed the envelope and said, "Hey, Brisan let's both give mom a kiss on the cheek too!"  And my Biggest boy goes in for the kissy cheek while my baby boy shows his disgust...ever so slightly...(ahem)

What I ended up with was a very nice kissy from my Kazzbo and an empty arm reaching for Brisan as he non-nonchalantly walked out of the picture. Ah well...I'll take it!

Kazz and Becca's bathtub fell apart.  That's the short of it.  One minute they were showering...the next minute the wall starts to fall in.  The pictures below are of Kazz working hard to fix his home and Beka's handy-work as well.

So here's the neat thing about this renovation.  As they tore out the wall they found newspaper wrapped around the water pipes to keep them insulated.  The newspaper was from April 20th, 1973. Guess what day they found the newspaper?  Yep, you guessed it!  April 20th, 2013....Exactly 40 years later.

Pretty good insulation right there, huh? 40 Year warranty. LOL...ahhhh....I crack myself up.

I am SO proud of those two boogers.  They own their own home, have been married over 2 years and turn 21 this year.  Hard workers those two!!

That's a wrap for April!

MARCH 2013

Jaibrian Hannah-Rae's birthday is in March.  This year she turned 8...I cannot believe she's eight already...(sigh)

She awoke to find that the entrance to her door was blocked that morning.  I was in the livingroom, mating socks and getting the kids' clothes ready for school when I heard her door creak open and her little voice say, "huh."  Just like that.  Not a "huh?!?" like shock.....she just let out a little, 'that's weird' kind of "huh."

I got a kick out of that.  It's just the kind of reaction one comes to expect from Jaibrian.  She isn't easily shocked, scared or otherwise excitable by unexpected, odd life moments.  She takes things in stride, in a more...."What's up with this?" kind of mentality.

I'm telling you she'll be into some kind of science as an adult, trying to figure out things that are odd.  She even likes to watch surgeries and what-not online.  Nothing ever grosses this girl out....but I digress....

Where were we?  Oh, I hear this little "Huh." and say, What's up Jaibrian?  She's all..."I don't know."  I asked her if her light was on and she said no.  I told her to turn her light on and she did.  Then she laughed.  I later found out that she thought she was blind because she couldn't see anything in the darkness when she opened her door!

Yes, my friends and family....She opened her door, saw blackness, thought she was BLIND...and her reaction was "huh." Like, oh well, that's weird. LOL  After she turned on her light and saw the pink banner, she then realized that she wasn't blind and laughed it off!!! ROFL....Yes.  Oh, I love this girl!

So, her brothers get up and start wishing her a happy birthday.  Of course, her guardian...as if she needs one....but her self-appointed-guardian, Daxx, non-the-less has to give her a big birthday hug which she loved....(sarc)  She's not all into brothers hugging her but she puts up with it from Daxx because they are buddies.

I got to do her hair!  Pinterest you are my dear friend.  She picked an easy up-do from the photos on pinterest and I zipped her hair right up in a quick and easy topsy-tail-braid-twisty thing.  She was a happy girl going off to school that day.  She gave her class friends cupcakes with sprinkles.

 

March 2013 was also the month for Easter.  It's a tradition to color eggs at the table.   We use the oven racks, placed on top of soup cans as the place to let our colored eggs dry.  That was Brian's big idea one year and it stuck. He's a smarty pants, but I don't tell him that too often because he gets all big headed. :o)

Egg coloring happened early one morning when the kids just got out of bed.  That's because Brian is an early riser and if they wanted him to help them, then morning egg coloring would be the deal.

I got to sleep in.  Thank you honey. :o) 

March is also the month of Jaibrian's Birthday....as noted above.  She got quite a few things this year.  Her favorites being the entire collection of Junie B. Jones books from mommy and daddy; A real diamond necklace from Kazz and Becca and money from grandma and grandpa.  Oh, and let's not forget the One Direction necklace and wrist-bands.  One Direction is "so cool."

Kazz and Becca became Catholic at Easter Vigil.  Jeff and Jennifer Freeman were their sponsors so we got to spend Easter with them.  Jaibrian and Liza were excited about that.  Aren't they the cutest little boogers?!

My parents were also here to support Kazz and Becca on their big day.  They thought the service was very nice and dad stated that if everyone lived the way the Priest preached, there's no way they wouldn't make it to Heaven.  Just so ya know....I was raised protestant...and my parents are still protestant so I was happy to hear my dad say those words.  I'm sure they were meant for me as a sort of..."I approve, Shelly."  Thanks daddy. :o)

Daxx and Kole were their normal, little mischievous twin selves.  God love them. Even  in their pictures you can tell they're little, playful boogers. I love it!

 Sooo....that leaves the egg hunt.  We do things a little different in our household. We have a night-time egg hunt.  As the kids got older, the daytime hunt was just boring.  They didn't have fun and frankly it was just blahh...

So one year somebody (me) decided it would be fun to use flashlights and have an egg hunt in the dead of night.  Well, that went over like the best thing ever.  We've been doing it ever since.

We might not look all pretty in suits and dresses, but we're having fun and that's what matters really, right?  Daxx is usually the foreman...doling out advice and counting how many eggs are left...as he counts the eggs in everyone's cartons.  Kole just wants to have fun and doesn't care one iota about the egg count.  Jaibrian listens intently to Daxx's observations and usually comes out ahead because of it.

I need to point out that Brisan was involved in many of these events.  He just hates to have his picture taken so, there you have it.  The family in pictures, not in pictures and me behind the camera. :o)

That's our March update.  What's April got up her sleeve? 

BRISAN'S FIRST CAR...and I get to brag about him a little

Brisan has had his permit since he was 14 years old....but he is one of those kids who isn't very excited about getting his driving license.  (I was also one of "those" kids...got mine at 17 and didn't want it even then.)

Who knows why we don't want to drive, but Brise is one who says, 'Okay, I'll get my permit but this whole driving thing isn't very exciting to me.'

So, he's been milling about the house with his permit for a year and a half feeling just fine about that idea.


A few months ago, Brian was at work when he overheard a co-worker talking about a 1990 Cadillac that he was thinking about selling.  The car had been his mothers, but she passed away and it was just time to part with the car. It has 66,000 miles on it, leather seats and was detailed by some famous pinstripe car guy.  I wish I could remember his name.

At any rate, Brian overheard the conversation, realized that the price is just right for Brisan's first car, came home, took Brise over to see the car and lo-and-behold....Brise liked it.

He said it felt big enough inside, didn't make him feel cramped and it drove well.  Bada-Bing...the deal was made.  Brise drove the car home and I caught pictures of his first drive home in his "new" vehicle.  1990 Cadillac Seville, Leather Seats, lots of bells and whistles, including temperature monitor for outdoors, automatic seats, windows, mirrors and what-not.  I am kind of surprised at how cool the car is being that it's almost 25 years old.  It must have been a pretty penny when the first owner bought it.

Well now Brise just has to get his full license so he can drive himself to college. LOL  Did I mention that he has been formally invited to be a member of Phi Theta Kappa?  Yep, 16 years old and nearly a 4.0 GPA after a year in college.  I'm a little proud....Can ya tell? :o)