Miracles DO happen!

Big miracles are really neat, but I think I like the little ones just as well.

We have been praying and fasting about our sons recently. We have had some issues lately with each of them, as every family does and today our prayers were answered, albeit in simple ways, on both accounts!

First, Kaeleb has been struggling with severe separation anxiety. He has always been fine until he got "lost" at a birthday party last month. (He wasn't really lost, but he thought he was.) Since then he has refused to go play with friends and has cried desperately every time I leave him, even with Kwint. He won't go to sleep unless one of us is in his room and screams bloody murder if we try to leave. He has thrown full blown tantrums every school day (and he LOVES preschool-it was totally weird)and refused to go to Primary. I walked past Elder's Quorum to get water for the nursery and I saw Kaeleb's little head in the sea of Elders. What 4 year old would rather sit through EQ than Primary?

We tried everything from threatening to forcing him and things just got worse, especially at school, because I refused to pay 75 bucks a month to have him sit at home, so I was yelling (which is something I NEVER do with my kids), forcing him kicking and screaming into his car seat and dragging him into school where I handed a flailing, screaming child off to his teacher, then I cried all the way home, every day for two weeks.

Kwint had been feeling prompted that we need to honor his agency and let him stay home if he wanted to, with attached consequences. I was being stubborn about it but finally consented. We all sat in time out together (because Kwint and I had been just as naughty as Kaeleb with the whole thing), then we each apologized and said what we would do to make the situation easier. We said we would be calm and offer him choices and he said he would not throw conniptions and try to be more brave.

We told Kaeleb he could choose to go to school where he would have fun, play games, learn, and be with his friends, then come home and have fun, too OR he could choose to stay home but that meant sitting in timeout for the duration of school,and no friends, no tv, no toys for the rest of the day AND he had to work off the debt of the 8.50 dollar a day school fee.

What was his choice? Being the stubborn son of stubborn parents, he chose to stay home on Monday. I calmly and kindly said "Ok, that is your choice. I will get the timeout chair ready." He immediately yelled "NO! I will go to school!" He whimpered a bit when I left him at the door, but that was it. We praised him like CRAZY all day for how brave he was and what a good choice he made.

Today he didn't even put up any sort of fuss. When we got to school his face contorted with fear but he just said "Will you walk me to the door?" I am so proud of him!! It was such a miracle!!

Now, about the Brenster. We love Brennan completely, so when I say this, don't take it wrong. Brenny is a bit mischievous. He loves to play- life is a game to him and it should be fun, fun, fun!! When we say no, he laughs maniacally and does it anyway. Then we pick him up, say no again and remove him from the situation, at which point he yells loudly and hits us or pinches our faces with his razor sharp nails. I don't think he is trying to be naughty and doesn't understand that he is hurting us, he is simply determined to have fun and his will to play overcomes the rational thought of "Hmmm, maybe I should obey."

So, we have prayed and fasted and received many answers, and the results are slow in coming- but today one came! Some of the inspirations have been that he is so filled with joy and we shouldn't squash any of that out of him by yelling "no" in his face all day long. We don't want him to believe that he is bad or that we think he is because of our exasperated tones. So, we try to speak kindly when we say no and teach rather than scold. Like today at lunch, he kept climbing onto the table. Instead of saying "No!! Get down!" from across the room like I usually do, I walked over to the table, picked him up and calmly said "Tables are for eating. Chairs are for sitting. Please sit on your chair." He kept climbing up, but neither of us threw a fit and it just felt better.

That wasn't the miracle though-the miracle happened earlier this morning. He is an early riser so I usually have to shower after he wakes up. If I let him run free he destroys the house. Especially the bathroom. He pulls things out of drawers, throws things in the tub and turns on the water, throws himself in the tub and turns on the water, etc. Sometimes I put him in the tub and shower while he takes a bath (our tub and shower are separate), but then he splashes water all over the floor and throws the tub toys out. So I usually end up putting him in his play yard- which he hates. It feels like no sort of play to him at all. Once I am done I take him out and let him play while I do my hair and make up, but he likes to climb up the tub and onto the counter and into the sink where he puts soap on our toothbrushes, then pulls things out of the medicine cabinets.

The rule is, he can get out and play if he doesn't climb up. So I tell him every day, "I will let you out if you stay down. No, No up. If you go up, I will put you back in here." But every day, what does he do? Climbs up. Then he throws a fit when I put him back in the play yard, as if it were a surprise.

This morning when I got out of the shower he said "Ah wa down." (translation "I want down.") He repeated, "Ah wa down..." then pointed to the counter and said "No, no up. Ah wa down, no, no up." So I took him out and I'll be darned, he didn't even TRY to get up! He played happily on the floor with my bobby pins and shoe polish for a whole half hour!! A miracle!!

Parenting is the hardest job on the planet, hands down. It feels so good to have two little successes in the same day. Sigh....

Everything boke.

I haven't had time to blog lately and I still don't, but I am getting so irritated about the chaos of life that I am rebelling against bedtime and blogging anyway.

This may be long, and I have no pictures, so if you get bored, feel free to stop reading at any time....

Life has been a bit busy, as usual for all of us, right? It has been filled with lots of moments to remember, though, so let me start with the funny ones.

My kids have been saying the funniest things! Here are the top two:
Bren was walking around with an Xbox controller saying "Butt. Butt. Butt." Kaeleb was appalled and said, "He's saying a bad word!!" I finally realized that he meant to say "Button." and said, "Yes, you are pushing buttons." He smiled and said "Ah puss butt!"

Kaeleb was helping Kwint do the dishes yesterday and Kwint complimented him that he was doing a great job at putting away the pots and pans. Kaeleb said, "Yeah, it's my job. I have two jobs: cleaning up and saving the world."

In other news, this month has been the month of breakage. Our washer broke, the Xbox 360 broke (aka red ring of death for all of you gamers), the vacuum broke, and our camera broke (hence, no pictures this time). But, the Lord has been good to us. The washer was just a simple broken clip, cost 50 dollars to repair. The Xbox was still under warranty, and the vacuum was a 10 dollar switch fix. We will be buying a new camera, but I am glad we are not buying a new washer, Xbox, and vacuum... that could have been a couple thousand bucks altogether.

One of Brennan's favorite words is "boke" (broke). He has been livin' it up all month, talking about all the things that "boke". His all time favorite thing, if you remember back to his birthday, is the vacuum. He wants to vacuum every day. He has a toy vacuum, and his favorite thing is for us to vacuum together. He once threw a fit in Wal-mart when we we passed a row of vacuums and I wouldn't let him out to play.

You can imagine his devastation when we left the beloved Oreck at the vacuum repair shop. As I carried him out to the car he was reaching for the door screaming "Yoom! Yoom boke! Yoom! Yoom boke!"

One more on Kaeleb before we move on to the exciting story of the week...
If you know Kaeleb well, you know that he is a very literal person and although he loves to have fun, he is very serious and inquisitive. If you tell him a joke he will often say, "Are you teasing?" and if you say "yes", then he will laugh.

In preschool they read a story about a rainbow fish who had beautifully colored scales. His friends loved his scales and were sad that they didn't have brightly colored scales. The book is all about how he decides to share and gives a scale to each of his friends so that they all have one. Kaeleb's teacher asked at the end, "How do you think the rainbow fish felt when he shared his scales?" Kaeleb piped up and said, "Well, he did the right thing, but it really isn't possible for a fish to take his scales off and give them to another fish." She thought it was pretty funny.

So, the breaking news of the week is about our cat.

This is Howie. Howie is the best cat ever. He loves to snuggle, loves kids, and always stayed around. He played in the backyard (ie, weeds) or sat in the stroller in the garage all the time. Until... we went up North for Christmas. We were gone for 8 days, longer than we'd ever left. While we were gone he ran away. We think he got lonely and thought we'd abandoned him. We were so sad. We left his food out and the cat door open for so long, waiting, but he never came back.

We discussed the possibilities and although we knew the likeliest thing was that he had been hit by a car or died from some cat disease, we hoped that he was adopted by some nice family who thought he was a stray. (He had a collar but it fell off a few months before and I was too lazy to replace it.) So, we went on with life for two months.

Tuesday I was at the park with some friends and made a random comment about our cat who had run away. One of my friends jokingly asked, "He's not big and gray is he?" I said, "Yes, actually, he is." She said that around Christmas a big gray cat had appeared at her parents house and her mom was too nice to ignore him, so they started feeding him and he has been going back every day. I called her mom when I got home, and I'll be darned, it was Howie! He is skinny but massive because of how mangy his winter coat is, and matted- holy cow- he is a tangled mess of hair clots. But he's alive!

We brought him home and he warmed up to us quickly, purring and rubbing on our legs. We can't keep him inside because Kwint is allergic, so we tried keeping the garage shut so that he couldn't leave, but he escaped on Saturday and went back to his adopted family. We will try again, but I don't know if we can keep him from leaving us every time. We are just glad he is ok and that someone nice has taken care of him. He is living the life of a stray, but he knows he has somewhere to go.

We have been busy little beavers with work and family stuff. We had a great President's day weekend with Kwint's family and have been on a couple good hikes. We are going up on Thursday and hope that we can see all of our friends who are up there on Thursday night. We are scheduled out the other days, but get the word out- If we don't call you, call us or any of the friends and make sure we don't forget anyone!! We haven't had the whole group together for sooo long and we'd love to see you all.

Punxatawney Phil was right!

Move over Live 5 Weather Vipir! Apparently, the good old groundhog never fails to predict the weather. I had my doubts on Groundhog's Day when I sent Kaeleb off to school with no jacket. And, as you can see we have been enjoying some lovely weather... (sorry about the fuzz, the lens had a smudge, no doubt a tiny fingerprint)

This is us at Johnson Canyon with Nathan, Mary Lynne, and McKay last Saturday.

But, what do you know.... this week it was winter again! This snow lasted about 5 minutes, but it has rained and been chilly all week. Tried and true, Phil was right. (Check groundhog.org for more details!)

Here's the Brenster wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Who says you can't be rich, healthy, and save the planet all at once?

I have been so excited about some dorky things this week. Like most of you I am always looking for ways to save money on groceries. I keep trying to do the coupon thing like my savvy sister-in-laws and I am not having the best luck. (Maybe I need a mentor) It seems like the things I spend the most money on are dairy and produce, which there are not coupons for (except for yogurt sometimes) and the things that I find coupons for are things I either do not buy or can find a generic cheaper.

So, I have been super frustrated. This month I decided to stock up at Costco on things that are best priced there and it worked fabulously for me. Based on my estimations I think I will just need a few things at Walmart and I think I will have saved quite a bit of money. I am so excited!

The other issue I have is that, as you know, Kwint and I are major health nuts. It's not that we don't have sweet tooths, cuz we do, but we are into whole wheat and fruits and veggies and we don't eat a lot of boxed-treat-like foods. For whatever reason, healthy food just costs more. It makes no sense to me. For example, at Costco you can buy Krusteaz pancake mix in an 80 serving bag for about 6 bucks. The whole grain pancake mix is 8 bucks and only provides 30 servings. What gives?

Or bread- you can buy a knock-off Wonder bread for 99 cents but the Orowheat healthy stuff is 3 dollars a loaf.

So, I buy a bag of whole wheat flour for 3 dollars and make 10 loaves. I also found a recipe for pancake mix and made whole wheat pancakes that were great.

I love saving money. ah.....

Finally, I am becoming as obsessed with recycling as my sis-in-law is with coupons. There is a new recycle station by Albertsons that recycles everything. I have 5 garbage cans full or more each week that I haul over and feel so good about myself as I dump them into the bins. And, the cool thing is, on garbage day for the past two weeks there have only been 2 bags to be taken to the dump. I only need to take the can to the street once a month.

I love saving the world.....

My boys are all well. Kwint's new obsession is facebook. I have not joined yet. Many of you have told him to get me going on it, but I don't even have time to blog, let alone do that. I would get nothing else done because I would be on it all the time. He loves it, though and I am glad.

Kaeleb is a sweet little guy. His two best friends are moving away. Mikell is already gone and Hudson is moving next week. He is a one at a time kind of guy when it comes to friends, so it will be hard for him to make some new friends, but I know he will.

Kaeleb also has a new obsession- it is dipping graham crackers in milk.

Brennan has been talking up a storm! A few of his new words and sentences inlude "Go away" which he said to his blanket as he pushed it to the floor, "bubee" for his favorite blanket (which we call "funny blanket" because he cackles every time he sees it), "tuck" which he says when he or one of his toys gets stuck, and "boke" which is "broke." In fact he has a story...

While we were watching the Super Bowl he was playing with a balloon and kept biting it. We told him it would pop but he wouldn't stop. Finally it popped in face and he sat there dumbfounded for a few seconds. Then he said "Balloo-boon boke!" Every day, all week he has been telling us the story about "balloo-boon boke. Balloo-boon boke." It has been so funny.

Today while Kaeleb was dipping his graham crackers Brennan walked up and said "Dip. Ah wanna dip." Kaeleb loves it when he says sentences and tells us over an over all the things his little bro can say.

Anybody have any good ideas for separation anxiety? (Besides the cry it out method-it's not for us) Little Brenny just needs his mom and dad but we need a date sometimes. We always end up coming home early from dates or just staying home because he cries from the minute the door closes to the minute it opens again. We went to an EQ social on Friday and we only stayed an hour. When we got home he was red-faced with snot and drool running all over the place and he was so very sad. If nothing else, I suppose he will soon outgrow it.

That is that for us, I guess. I am sure Kwint is keeping everyone up to date on facebook better than I am here... but for posterity's sake I will keep on blogging.

Brennan's Bad Day

Brennan the Destroyer as we affectionately refer to him as...


Yesterday Brenny had a rough day. 'Nuff said.

Random babblings

I feel like I should blog because it has been awhile, but I can't think of anything to share.

When all else fails...kid stories are always good.

This morning Brennan pulled a thumbtack out of the wall and walked around, grinning, saying "danger, danger, danger" in his cute little voice.

His vocabulary is really growing. Most of his words are incomprehensible to anyone besides Kwint, Kaeleb, and I, but it is really fun to watch him learn about his world, make connections and talk about it. He has also started jumping off things. Not good.

Kaeleb now fully believes that he is a superhero. He told me once about some amazing stunt he pulled to get a bad guy (they usually entail lightning, poison darts, and smacking) and I said "Wow! That is way cool!" and he said in that "duh Mom" way, "Well Mo-om, I'm powerful."

Yesterday he was daydreaming out loud about being a super hero kid with a really powerful sword. I heard him say "There are some kids and I can hear them saying 'Look! A kid with a powerful sword! We better run!!'"

At this very moment he is behind me in the office with a sword saying "A super hero sword! Yes! I am a super hero so I have to have this sword! I've been wanting this forever! I have moves that I can do, too. I'm just like a panda! There are 8 guys I can use my moves on. I have power moves, too. Here they are!" I only wish you could hear the sound effects.

Kwint and I are plugging along with our noses to the grindstone. He is working super hard. I am too, but occasionally I get rebellious and refuse to cook dinner. Anyone else in a slump like that?

Holiday cheer

Brenny's cheesiest Hello to all!

Ah... the Christmas season came and went too quickly. We had sooo much fun!! We didn't take enough pictures- we were too busy having fun, but here are a few....

This is our tree the night before we left for Layton. We decided to sleep under it. It was not as fun as it sounded. Kaeleb slept great. Kwint left when I wouldn't give him any room on the couch cushion. I couldn't sleep because Kaeleb kept flopping on me.

Once up North the fun began immediately. Monday we relaxed and enjoyed some time with Grandma and Grandpa. In the evening we went to dinner with Dan and Dee, which was sooo nice. We were so excited to go on a kid-less date... so guess what we talked about all night? The kids.

Tuesday was Kwint's birthday. Woo Hoo! He's finally my age!! He went snowboarding with Dave, Tam, Kris and 4 of our nieces and had a blast. That night we had the first of several big family shin-digs to celebrate the December birthdays. Lots of fun, great times together and oh yes, lots and lots of food.

Christmas Eve was spent in Heber at Kris and Barbi's. They host a good party, let me tell you. There was laughter, singing, and oh yes, lots and lots of food.


Christmas morning... Holy pile of presents Batman! We were completely amazed by the bounty that surrounded us. Before you think that we spoiled our children beyond belief, you must recognize that this was 3 families worth of gifts. Our kids had a blast and all of us were truly happy and grateful to be together. Other than a few people coming down with fevers and the stomach flu we had a perfect Christmas.

This is Kaeleb's favorite present... it was free. Kwint and Coby made magic wands. (Kaeleb likes to pretend he is Harry Potter.) His other favorite present is the Superman cape that cost 1.00 for Santa's elves to make. I feel nearly sick when I think that we could have spent 1.oo on Christmas and it would have been enough.

Here is Bren with his new toolbox. He likes the drill and hammer best and finally has some toys that Kaeleb wants to play with instead of him always stealing Kaeleb's toys.


Here we are the day after Christmas for the annual family brunch at the Little America Hotel. Lots and lots of food. It is always fun. We are always amazed that it has been a year since we were there.
We enjoyed visiting the Packers that night and were sorry to miss the friends we didn't get to see.

Once back home the fun continued. Pictured above is Harry Potter playing basketball with Brennan. Kwint got back to work for a couple days and I cleaned the house (finally) before we had a New Year's Eve celebration at the Robinsons. We had pizza and watched movies, but alas, only Kwint made it to midnight. He tried to give me a New Year's kiss at midnight but I wouldn't wake up. Oh so lame!

New Year's Day we spent with the Miller's. We do so love Nathan, Mary Lynne, and McKay. We went to Pirate Island Pizza- the new restaurant in town that will make all of you want to come visit us. Then we watched a movie at home. We had a great day.


Last but not least, this is Kaeleb at Owen Powell's birthday party again, at Pirate Island Pizza. It is a seriously cool place. Kaeleb had so much fun! Thanks to Chris and Kim for that. It has been really fun to hang out with them and have a connection here from "oh so long ago" and far away. Kaeleb really loves Owen.

So, that is the last few weeks of our lives in a nutshell. Can't wait to read all of your blogs and see how you are doing!