The Brame Family Happenings

It's good to be back

Seriously. I have been without a computer since....my last post. I have a short in the motherboard of my old laptop so it's basically dead. I haven't wanted to buy a new one because really, I only NEED it for photo storage, and blogging. Everything else I can do on Brian's computer. So, I have put off and put off buying a new one. There are SO many other things that I would rather spend my money on. I could list them, but the list would never end. Well, good things come to those who wait. My lovely, awesome, fantastic, super-duper, utterly terrific sister (and I'll even include her husband in this) donated their old laptop to me. yeah! I hate technology....or rather paying for technology. Because really, I love technology, namely Pinterest. oh wait, THAT is also a different post. I really am a tree killer. I love paper. I love making lists, I love writing on real calendars. I don't have a lot of desire (none to be exact) to keep my calendar on my iphone. (the only reason I even have an iphone is because it's Brian's hand me down, I was fine on one that I could JUST talk on). I KINDA want a kindle, but only because I love to read. But again, I don't really want to pay for one when I can go to the library and check books out for free. Yes, there are other advantages, and I am slowly being swayed by my husband who keeps asking me if I want one, but I'm just not there yet. So anyway, I am back. I have some posts to do. But I also have a crabby baby today with snot rockets running continuously down his face. gross, I know. So, instead of taking care of him between posts, I better post in between taking care of him. I got totally off on a tangent there. What I really meant to say was 'thank you Cindy and Brandon! I lvoe the computer....it is larger than my laptop was and I love the ways the keys sound when I type away!'

 

Just Nolan

Because he's so darn cute:)

 
 
 
 
 

Back to School Photoshoot

Each year I try to take the girls out (and now Nolan, I keep forgetting!) for a photoshoot. I'm not very consistent at it, but I try. I have a few reasons for doing the photoshoots. 1) The girls love it,  2) I hate buying school pictures. They are so expensive for what they get so I'd rather take a few fun pictures and then have the girls choose their favorites. and 3) I need to learn to use my camera better, so this gives me practice!

Here are a few of my faves:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*and just so in the future, when Kennedy looks back at this, the reason I don't have many pictures of her is because she was being a stinker and not cooperating that day!

 

Soccer

Soccer season is upon us in full swing. Kennedy is playing soccer for the third year and Olivia is playing for her first year. So far, we have not had any rain during practices or games, though I think that that may soon change. Both of the girls are loving it. Olivia is extremely funny. Her coach is named Ryan Hamilton. But to Olivia, it's RyanHamilton. She refers to him as RyanHamilton each and everytime she talks to him. It has gotten to be a running joke in our household. Olivia's  biggest hurdle in soccer is that she is so smiley all the time. I keep telling her to put on her mean face, but that just makes her giggle. Soccer here is fairly easy, we have a big park area that has about ten soccer fields. I think that Kennedy only has three games that are not on our field. Plus, all of the games are during the week, so no having to juggle multiple games on Saturdays. I love the picture with the sun glare...It's about time we had some sun, even if we had to wait unitl September!

 
 
 
 
 

Nolan makes new friends at soccer....

 
 

Go Mariners!

At the end of August, we took the girls  kids on a final, end of summer, hiatus. It was just a quick overnighter but happened to fall on Brian's birthday. The plan was to shop, check into the hotel, swim, nap, go to a 7:05 pm Mariners game, then wake up the next day and swim and take our time getting home, ith lunch at our favorite: Red Robin.

Here's how it really went: Got started later than I wanted. Since we weren't on a 'schedule', there was always something else somebody wanted to do before we actually got on the road. Gas, store, library. (Can you guess who needed to go to the library?) We got up there and could check in right away, so we got our room and discovered that I had forgotten to pack mine and Olivia's swimsuit. I wasn't concerned with not having one--and by that I mean, I was okay with not swimming- but Olivia had to have one. There was a Ross and a Macy's just a few blocks from our hotel so we hoofed it down to Ross hoping to find a deal on one since we already own several. They had nothing. nada. zilch. Apparently August is past swimsuit season, even for Ross. So we headed back to Macy's and scoured the place. We found 1 swimsuit on the entire childrens floor. It was a size too big but it ended up serving the purpose. We got that one (for a whopping $3.48) and headed back to swim. They really only got to swim for about an hour before we needed to get showered and ready for the game. Our plan was to go out to dinner before the game but what I found with five children is that EVERYTHING takes longer. Getting everybody showered and ready didn't leave us much time to eat (and the driving around looking for someplace took the rest of the time), so we opted to eat at the game. The best deals were outside of the park, so a few of us got hot dogs and everybody else ate in the stadium.

 
 
 
 
 

The kids did awesome during the game. We had to do a little bit of seat rearranging when Megan couldn't stop touching the person in front of her and I was getting the not so subtle vibe of obvious annoyance from the lady. But other than that, minimal fidgety-ness, they seemed t be into the game and they all, including Nolan, stayed awake the whole time. And the icing on the cake was that the weather was perfect.

 
 
 
 
 

The next morning, we swam, went to Pike Street Market and came home. Kennedy was pretty excited to find her name on the bricks that line the Pike Street Market.

 
We also had out cariacatures  (I think that that is spelled wrong, but spell check couldn't fix it)done. Megan was super excited,but played it super cool.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We ended the day with soccer practice for Olivia and celebrated Brian's birthday with pizza and a Coldstone ice cream cake. Yum!

 

 

3!

 
My little Megan turned three on May 6th. How crazy is that?!! Lucky her, she got to celebrate all week long. On Sunday the 1st, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Brandon came out to celebrate. We ate salmon, potatoes, maybe salad (I can't remember:))  and cake for dessert. From them she got a dress that Aunt Cindy made along with a matching purse/diaper bag and a new swimsuit. They also brought her out balloons, which survived a really long time (2 weeks...and then Hayden and I sucked the helium out). 

She was very excited to wear the birthday crown that day....and for many days after that.

While she is vey tempermental, she also is a joy to be around. Her vocabulary is getting out of control! She is so hilarious with all of her bits of wit and wisdom that she throws around.

The only thing that stays the same is change.

{sigh}

This has been such a year of change for our family. The birth of our son, moving to a new city, new callings in church, and most recently, learning that a dear dear friend is moving to Las Vegas. Even though we moved and lived to tell about it, and I know that she will also, I am also feeling sad. Regretful that I haven't spent nearly as much time with her (or any of my friends, for that matter) this summer. I think that I get so busy raising my five kids (and husband) that I set things on the back burner that I need to nurture me...like my friends.

{sniff...sniff}

This friend in particular, Shannon, has been the glue in our little group. I think that she has kept us grounded and always knows how to keep things in perspective when things go awry in any given situation. She is beautiful and talented, a master decorator, a patient, valiant and loving wife and Mom. She knows what matters. She has bee such a role model for her friends...and I think that we are all older than her. I think that one of the things that I'm going to miss the most about her is that we share a birthday. And that her anniversary is my sisters birthday. Doesn't that mean that we were destined to be friends? I think so. But let me tell you, it was work. I had to become her stalker. She was somebody that I saw and thought 'I'd like to be her friend...I think that she needs me for a friend'. So I made it my mission. I can't remember if I went to a scrapbook night first or if I flat out asked her if she was pregnant first. If it was the scrapbook night, I don't know how we made it past that. I could have said two words and it would have doubled the amount of talking usually done. And anybody that knows me knows that I rarely, if ever, stop at two words. And her scrapbooking talent was amazing (in fact it was from a scrapbook page posted at a little scrapbook store that I found out about our birthday and anniversary similarities). And looking back I can't believe that I had the guts to ask her if she was pregnant. (She was, 12 weeks to the day) My only indication was that the normally perfectly put together girl had her shirt untucked...and she had been eating a banana in the car and it just seemed like something she wouldn't do unless absolutely necessary.

I think that you have to know Shannon to love her. (I hope that that doesn't come across wrong or sound bad). She is very put together (always! 7am or 7pm, that girl looks perfect). I think that she is intimidating in that regard because most of us feel like we are doing everything we can to stay caught up with life. But, when you get to know Shannon, you realize that she holds her family and her friends very very close. She doesn't need a million friends, she needs a few very close friends. She doesn't care that everytime she shows up at your house, you are still in your pajamas. She is classy and funny, adventurous and caring. She is the friend that is first to bring you a meal, or treats, or leave May day treats on your front door, Make you an enormous 'you did it' banner after running your first half marathon. She celebrates 'National Talk like a Pirate Day' and Donut Day. She truly is an amazing, beautiful woman inside and out. I am going to miss you so much Shannon. I know that you will make the move with grace and a smile on your face....your friends, maybe not so much. I promise to visit you every year on or around our birthday....and maybe our 1/2 birthday if I can swing it. While you may be 1046 miles away, you really are never more than a phonecall, facebook or email away! I love you, Shannon Summer Brown!

 (You can click on her name above to link to her blog...you can see for yourself how awesome she is.)

 

Kennedy

 
It was such a beautiful day today that I took the opportunity to do a long overdue photoshoot with Kennedy. Being new to the area, I don't really know any hot spots and I can't just take off exploring without Nolan....and I really didn't want him tagging along, so.....we just went into our backyard. My favorite picture happens to be the one with the trampoline in the background. Of course I wasnt even going for a shot in this picture, I was just testing out shadows.

 
 

 
My shadowing is waaayyyy off on this one!

 

Here's what's been happening....

...in Brameville.

• Nolan had his 6 month checkup earlier this month. Weighed in at 16lbs 1o oz (37%), measured 25 1/2 inches long. (19%) That's off of memory, so I may have to update that. He is defintely wider than he is tall.
• He cut his first tooth on June 13th. 6 months, 5 days. About a month earlier than the girls, but they usually cut their's in pairs and I am still waiting for his second one to pop up.
• He started sitting up at about 5 1/2 months. A little teetery for about a week and then got the hang of it.
• He is eating solid foods. We will finish our very last first foods (peas) today and then he moves onto 2nd foods. Not a huge fan of food, he'll eat it, but doesn't scarf it down like the girls did. I think that his dad ruined him when he spent the afternoon with him. Brian gave him graham crackers and an otter pop. I'm looking for a new babysitter....any takers?
• His sleeping still leaves a lot to be desired. He prefers my bed at night and his napping has turned just about non existent most days.
• Summer break started Tuesday at 11:15am for us! I think that it's my favorite day of the year. I can just feel the air change with all of the excitement. Gives me butterflies just thinking about it!
• First stop of Summer Break: the Library.
• Second stop: Ice cream at Dairy Dan's
• Had the fun of cancelling our credit card today after charges started appearing online that we did not make....one to Wal-Mart in Georgia and one to terriblesinn. That's how it appeared- not sure if that's terribles inn or terrible sinn. Regardless, not a purchase we made and thanks to my husbands analness of checking our accounts everyday, it was caught really early.
• For Fathers Day, we got Brian the components to make marshmallow shooters. On Monday for FHE, we played a game with the girls using them. The best part of the evening was that everytime Megan ran her pants fell down. Really, it was funny.
• After months of deliberation on whether to join the gym or get a piece of exercise equipment for home, and then more months of deliberation of which peice of equipment to buy, we are the proud owners of a treadmill. LOVING IT. I have ran or walked with weights everyday with the exception of Sunday. I ran my standard three mile run in only two minutes slower than I was running it at my best. Looking forward to increasing my speed and my distance and maybe get some races in next year.
• Still need to finish painting. Maybe that will get done this summer.
• Took an idea I saw off of pinterest and made Kennedy's teacher an elephant made out of a handprint (her theme for her room is elephants), I framed it, had my sister make some vinyl lettering thanking her for the great year, framed it and then took it into her classroom. She held the baby in the hall while I had all of the kids sign it and then Kennedy gave it to her. I was happy with how it turned out!
• Found an idea on pinterest about using IKEA spice racks as bookshelves. I bought several, painted them and Brian hung them in the little girls' room. Loving those, also.

********and here we are 3 weeks later*******************

• Nolan now has that second tooth in, and his smile is super cute with those two teeth poking up.
• He is also now a crawler. Man, that came too fast.
• Hayden left for YW camp today. It always makes me sad, I miss having allmy chicks in the nest.
• ....But looking forward to cleaning her room while she's gone (she knows). She will come home to a whole new room...one that has a floor!
• I'll probably try on her pants and take pictures...just to make her mad:)
• Brian went to Scout camp last week. Boy was that fun for us left here at home....I had the flu prety bad one day and only mildly bad two other days. good times.
• SOOOO looking forward to taking the kids on a vacation next week. We are going to visit friends in Idaho. On our to-do list....get some sun in the forms of swimming and riding bikes/scooters. Washington has not been that kind to us this summer.
• Brian has decided that for our retirement, he's like to buy into a Subway  and Coldstone. I decided for our retirement that I want to lay by a pool and read.
• Still loving the treadmill. I was up to doing about 3-4 miles a day before the flu overtook me. I was just happy to turn the thing on today!
• Nolan can drink from a straw!
• And he can pull himself up to standing.
• Olivia had a traumatic bike injury on Monday. She fell off her bike and it appears that the only point that made contact with the road was her chin. She needed stitches (her chin was pretty meaty) but Brian said that there wasn't enough skin to actually piece back together.
• Hayden got back from camp today (see, it takes me forever to get a post done!) It was so nice to see her and to have her back home.
• Olivia has to get some blood drawn in the near future. The poor girl bruises easily and her bruises are so dark. She went into the doctor today and she justs wants to rule out clotting issues.

 
 
 
Have you ever seen a double banana? Shouldn't it be like good luck or something?

 
We went to some friends for the Fourth. Unfortunately, we are wimps and ended up leaving before doing fireworks because it was getting late. (again, we are wimps) We did do a few when we got home, although Megan was sacked out. (we had Christine with us). I managed to get a mediocre shot of the kids. It was dark and my shutter speed was being slooowwww. A shower before bed was a must for the kids. They brought lots of dirt home with them!

 

 

 
The girls' new favorite past time is jumping from the stairs onto the bean bag. Megan jumps from the second or third stair, but Olivia jumps from the landing which is about 7 stairs up. cuh-razy!

 
Maybe Megan walking up the stairs while Olivia is jumping isn't the best idea.

 
 

Sorry girls, he's taken

Two days before Mother's Day, Brian asked me what I wanted (please don't hold the timeline against him, I do the same thing for Father's Day---except this year I already have a plan--go me!) Anyway, my response was 'this chandelier' Brian's response...'seriously?'

Well, yeah, but I don't want you to pay $400 for it, I want you to make it. You can do that, right honey?

Oh, can he ever. My husband is the most handiest guy around (more to come on that later). He started by getting a pack of 12 mason jars, and was going to do the chandelier using 9 of them. But honey, I said, the pb one has 16 jars. See, I'm not that great at visualizing. I am very concrete and need the actual picture. I am definitely not my sister who can pull a room together with pieces from different stores or know how to tweak something just right. I need a picture of the whole room put together and then I just basically need to buy everything in it. Except that really, that is only in my dreams. So, when he wanted to take it down to just 9 jars, I couldn't picture it, so he did all 16 jars to humor me. And man, it looks AWESOME. I don't have many in progress pictures because much of it happened while I was shopping with my sister the day before Mother's Day. And then it sat behind the couch for a couple of weeks. But he pulled it out this weekend and got it done. And have I mentioned that it looks AWESOME? Like, pictures do not even do it justice. You MUST come to my house to see it in person. You are all invited.

 
This is not the chandelier, it's the before picture.

 
 
Ta-Da! It's even more impressive in real life. He did such a great job. Thank you honey, I love you and I think that you are the BEST!