Happy Birthday Joe!

Today we celebrated Joe's 38th Birthday. (Can you believe I'm married to someone SO old? :)) This year for his birthday and mine (coming up next month) we decided to forgo presents and buy ourselves iPhones instead. So, even though he got his "present" over a month ago, we (the kids and I) thought it was necessary to have an iPhone themed party, complete with an iPhone cake! (I'm so excited birthday cake season is coming up in my family....I love decorating fun cakes!)


Anyway, here are some pictures of the party. ( And yes, for some reason, Harry has a mustache, and Joe has a tattoo).




Oh, after the party, Harry asked if he could "shove his face in the cake". He's asked this many times before, but I'm usually so greedy with the cake that I can't stand to see it wasted. This time however, I let him do me a favor and go for it. You see, I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes (I also had it when I was pregnant with John, so it wasn't too surprising), and so I can't have any sugar from now until the baby comes. I'm usually able to withstand, but I decided half an iPhone cake sitting around would be too much temptation. So, we let Harry go wild. As you can see, he had a great time!

Joe on YouTube

My nine year old has become an author on YouTube. Here he is giving a tutorial of how to solve a 2X2 Rubik's Cube. He did this entirely on his own...the filming and everything.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_PrHqCmLgY

Here is another one that he says is his best one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXZ3qiEjE4s

P.S. Anyone want to tell me how to actually add the video here to my blog? I know you can do it somehow

Oh, Where to Begin?

So much has happened in the last three weeks (is that that all it's been since I last posted?), somehow I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll just start with where I left off.....where were we?

Oh yes, Oregon...Harry was lighting things on fire with blow torches, and Charlie started throwing up. And kept throwing up, and kept throwing up. For over two weeks, Charlie was throwing up. I took him to the ER in Oregon TWICE, and TWICE had to subject a three year old to the insertion of an IV, just for them to tell me that they didn't really know what was wrong, and that they were sure he would just get better on his own. He wasn't getting better on his own, and I had to make the next leg of our trip to Utah to pick up Joe at the airport. By the time we got to Utah, Charlie had lost about 5 pound (he only started at 35 pounds), he wasn't eating or drinking anything, and he just laid around everywhere we went. Finally, on Monday the 14th, something else happened and we took him back to the ER. He started getting this weird rash-like thing on his hands, feet, and hips. The is the best picture we could get.

When we took him to the ER in Utah, they said it wasn't a rash, but rather the blood vessels and capillaries under his skin bursting. Usually, this is a sign of some sort of infection. The Dr. ran several tests and finally brought us a text book with a picture of a man whose rash and symptoms exactly matched Charlie's. Apparently it's pretty simple. He had a strep infection (I had always thought you could only get those in your throat), and his body was allergic to it, and couldn't fight it off on his own. So, with the miracle of good ol' antibiotics, Charlie was back to normal within a few days. It was very frustrating to have to have waited so long for such a simple diagnosis, but I was so grateful that it was so easily fixed. Also grateful that we had already reached our maximum out of pocket with our insurance, so everything was 100% covered! :)

So, moving on, we were able to have a good time in Utah, visiting Grandma and Grandpa Simmons, seeing Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Friends. We got to catch up with the Dupaix Family, and Joe IV and TJ got to spend a few days together before leaving for opposite coasts again. We hit up a few of Utah's best water parks, got to visit the Church History museums and see the view from the top of the Church Office building. We had a great time, but needless to say, after three weeks, (two of them with a very sick child) I was ready to get home. We left on Saturday the 19th, stayed over in Vegas, and rolled into SLO on the 20th.

When I got home, Joe had a fantastic surprise for me. He had had my kitchen cabinets and banister painted for me while I was gone. This was at the top of my wish list for my house, and it was so nice to come home to it done, and to not have to have been in the house while it was being done. Here are a couple of pictures....

The following weekend, I got to take a couple of days and go to see my sisters who were together in San Juan Capistrano. We had a great couple of days of shopping, eating and just hanging out. It was the vacation I needed after the vacation I had just taken!

And finally, as most of you already know, I'll have to be re-naming this blog soon, as we will no longer be the BrundageFive. While visiting my sisters I had a "mall-ultrasound" (another experience entirely), and learned that we will be blessed with another boy in January. Seeing as this will most likely be my last child (I'm just getting so tired), we of course were thinking a girl would be nice. But after some time to reflect, I'm so excited to have another son. Having five sons is a pretty cool thing I think. Now, if we can just figure out what to name him!

Now, we're just killing time, waiting for school to start (Only 22 more days!), filling our time with swimming, bike riding and tree-fort building. I'll leave you with this last picture of my children in the "tree-fort" they built. Harry said, "it's really more like a tree-bench", but when your only tree is only 10 years old, this is what you get!

Images From Oregon

Here is just a sampling of what we've been up to in Oregon....

Fun days at the lake....

Nothing beats a Fourth of July Parade in Madras....

John appreciates the fireworks as any one year old does...

Maggie & cousins treat us to some dancing entertainment...

And finally, didn't you know that the best way to light fireworks is with the blow torch? And, didn't you know that the most responsible person to put in charge of lighting ALL the fireworks is the 5 year old who already has pyromaniac tendencies? Oh well, we all made it out with our eyebrows!

Some Housekeeping

Nothing really new to report...life is just moving on. Here are some of the highlights....

Had a great time with my family in Utah...a much needed vacation for mom....thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to spend 5 days without children!

Brought home a toy replica of the Liahona, courtesy of Deseret Book (can you believe people doubted me when I told them that OF COURSE they would have a toy Liahona!?), as well as $175 worth of Book of Mormon action figures that have brought much pleasure to all my children. Harry was quite pleased with the Liahona for about 20 minutes until it promptly broke. I told him, you have to be REALLY obedient for it to work!

Charlie celebrated his first Tiny Tiger Graduation.....didn't want to wear the hat, but there's always next year for that!

Charlie with his friend Avery....

Joe and Maggie both completed Futsal (indoor soccer). No picture of Maggie because we missed her party to go to the beach to see Darin, Annee, Taylor and Alyssa...

Had a GREAT time at the beach visiting aunts, uncles and cousins....went out for pizza.

Actually got to take this picture before the security guards kicked us out (notice the children are on the second tier of this fountain)

Had some sibling bonding time as Alyssa demonstrated her hair cutting skills, and Darin revealed just how detail oriented he really is (sorry Annee...I had no idea it was THAT bad:)

My children fell in love with the Lark's dogs...this dog inparticular...WE LOVE CHICO!

Had fun playing at the beach with Uncle Taylor and Aunt Alyssa (the only adults who actually have energy to PLAY with the children!)

Maggie got to build a sandcastle....And Joe got burried in the sand!

Since then, school has gotten out and the weather has heated up. We've spent the last three days in 105-110 degree heat...which is basically unheard of in our part of the state. We've done lots of swimming, slip and sliding, and popscicle eating! And finally....Harry lost a tooth! I've never had a child lose a tooth before the end of kindergarten...much less before they even started. It made me surprisingly sad to know that he's old enough to lose teeth.....a

And lastly, one Kidism I heard this week that made me laugh. Maggie and Harry were playing Lego Star Wars on the PlayStation. Maggie was Leah, and Harry was Anakin. I just thought it was amusing when my seven year old daughter instructed her brother, "Harry, we've got to work as a team...I'll stand on this spot, and you use the force to move those bricks.", and then once the bricks were moved, Harry yelled at his sister, "No Maggie, Jedi First, Jedi First!", to which Maggie calmly replied, "Actually Harry, the term is Ladie's First, not Jedi First." I don't know...just made me smile.

We're off to Oregon next week for two weeks and then over to Utah for a week....should be interesting if nothing else!

The Liahona

Today, Harry spent a good portion of the day trying to figure out how he could get his hands on the Liahona. (For anyone wondering, we recently inherited the entire set of Living Scripture Videos...thus the preocupation with all things Book of Mormon)

Anyway, on the way to school he asked if maybe I could bring it back with me from Utah when I went next week. When I explained that that probably wouldn't be an option, he suggested that "maybe you could ask the Lord to give it to me as a gift when I get baptized." I said, sure, I could ask for him, but maybe it would help for him to ask too.

Later in the day, he decided that a replica Liahona might suffice until he could get the ACTUAL Liahona. And so, tired of hearing about it, and knowing that I wouldn't stop hearing about it until he had one, we got in the car and headed off to Michaels for some supplies. He had gone through lots of options, and about a half an hour, and had about $20-25 worth of Liahona making supplies in our cart, when a voice came over the loud speaker at Michaels. It announced that there was a possible fire in the building and could we all please leave our purchases where they were and evacuate the building. On the way out, much to Harry's delight, we saw two firefighters on their way in. AND, they were actually carrying axes! It was just about the best thing Harry had ever witnessed. Telling the story to everyone at home was almost enough to make him forget about why we had actually gone to Michaels in the first place. ALMOST. So, as a last resort, I rifled through the Christmas decorations in the garage and pulled out a glittery golden bulb-type ornament. Shockingly to me, this seemed to fulfil the requirements of the Liahona (so glad I found this out before I spent the afore mentioned $25.00). He wrapped it in a dishcloth, packed it up in his Pirates of the Caribbean treasure chest, and was completely content for the entire evening. I was happy too, because he took me very seriously when I reminded him that the Liahona would only work if he was obedient.

As he was going to bed, I noticed that the glitter had rubbed off and was all over his face and chest. He looked and himself in the mirror, completely pleased, and said, "yeah, now I look like Moroni." I can already feel a costume headache coming on. :)



PS - here's the picture of Charlie as Indiana Jones...you can just see the look of satisfaction on his face because everyone thought it was so cool.

The Mysteries of Blogging

This is what I don't get....the times when we are really busy and do really fun things (like having Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit, taking my nine year old to a Michael Buble concert, going on the Father Son Campout, etc...) I can't seem to find anything to blog about. I mean, these are the things I should be writing down, right?

So then I was thinking about what I do blog about...just the silly, daily, mundane things we do. And I thought, well, maybe that's right - maybe those are the things that need to be documented. I mean, the kids and I will always remember the vacations and the visits, but will we remember what it was actually like to live a day in our home? ( And on the flip side, do I really want them to remember some of it?) I can't say I remember that kind of stuff from my childhood.

So, for now, I'll stop feeling guilty about not documenting all those fun things, and focus on those little things, like Harry praying every night, saying, "Dear Heavenly Father, oh Please Heavenly Father, let me have a dream about Nephi", or Harry coming out of the bathroom in nothing but his little whitie tightie underwear, a toothbrush in one hand and a tube of hydrocordisone cream in the other and asking loudly, "what in the HELL is this stuff?" ( ala Dad, I have to admit).

Or, seeing the look on Charlie's face after dressing up like Indiana Jones and going to show his brothers, who were for once, so excited for him because he looked so cool.

Or changing my cell phone ring tone to the Indiana Jones theme song, and having my kids think I'm pretty dang cool when they hear it ring. "Wow, mom, cool ring tone" was Joe's comment.

These, and so many others are the things that make up the joys (and sometimes agonies) of living in our home, and I'm so glad I have the chance to be able to remember them. :)