Fun with Grandma Bruschke

We often get Grandpa Bruschke to come stay with us because of business, but it is not very often that we get to see Grandma Bruschke. She decided to come down with Grandpa on his most recent trip, so Brett took the day off on Tuesday so that we could spend the day with her.

We started the day off driving out to Corona to look at a home. It was big and beautiful, on nearly 1/3 of an acre of land AND within our price range and we all fell in love with it, especially Grandma (I think for a couple of minutes she was thinking about moving back down here.) Unfortunately, it would mean a 50 minute commute for Brett WITHOUT traffic, so as of right now it really isn't an option. But oh, we can dream, can't we?

After going out to Corona, we picked Spencer up from school and then headed out to Laguna Beach. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather. The kids had so much fun running along the beach, scaring the birds, and looking for sea shells, while all of us boring adults took in the beauty of everything around us.

After the beach, we met up with Grandpa for dinner at In-n-out, a perfect meal to end a perfect day. Thanks Grandma Bruschke for spending the day with us. We had a blast!

Outstanding Citizenship

Spencer received an award for "Outstanding Citizenship" this past week and we are so proud of him and the good boy that he is.
Mrs. Peterson, Spencer's teacher, is the one in the black tank top. She is a new teacher at Spencer's school this year (although she has been teaching for 8 years), and so far we love her, and more importantly, Spencer does too.

After we sent Spencer to class, Natalie needed to go to the restroom, so we played with the camera for a little while we waited for her. I thought these pictures turned out cute.

We must be crazy. . .

Brett got home a little early on Friday night and we wanted to do something fun with the kids before it got dark. When we asked the kids what they wanted to do they immediately said go to the pool. Brett somehow decided this was a good idea in the 67 degree weather, so he sent the kids to get their swimsuits on and off to the pool we went. On the way out the door I grabbed my jacket because I knew I would be cold. When we got the the pool the kids jumped right in and had so much fun. Luckily the pool is heated! I thought that they would complain about the cold while swimming, but they swam for a good hour without any complaints. The only complaints came when they had to get out. There was a nice cool breeze just waiting for them and they were cold. . .but they had fun and who knows when we will brave the cold again.

Happy Halloween

Every year Halloween gets better and better. The kids are more excited and more involved in all the festivities. And as a mom, there is nothing better than seeing their faces light up as they see themselves in their costumes. I think that the smiles on their faces are better than words in telling you how much fun our Halloween was this year.

Poor Tanner Boy

About a week ago Natalie, Bailey and Tanner were all sitting at the piano when Bailey decided that she was a little crowded, so she pushed Tanner off the bench. Unfortunately his two front teeth took the grunt of the fall, dislocating one of them (did you know that you could dislocate a tooth? Yeah, me either). Luckily we know our dentist well and were able to get him in right away and she was able to put it back into its socket. This picture is him about an hour after he hit it.

Poor boy wouldn't drink anything and was drooling all over the place. Now, a week later, he is back to his old self, eating fine and letting us brush his teeth without any hesitation. Unfortunately, both top front teeth are turning black. So far the gums look great around the teeth, so mostly like he won't have to get them pulled, but we will definitely be keeping an eye on him and his teeth for the next little while.

Carving Pumpkins

On Tuesday night we had the chance to carve pumpkins as a family. Even more fun was that Grandpa Bruce was able to join us for the event. Earlier in the day I had Spencer, Natalie and Bailey each draw on a sheet of paper what they wanted their Jack-o-lantern to look like, so when it came time for carving we were all ready to go. Dad and Spencer worked together, Grandpa and Natalie worked together, and Bailey and Mom worked together, with Tanner helping anyone that would let him.

We had the kids do the "dirty" work of cleaning out the pumpkins, which I think in the end they really enjoyed, although each of them was not too sure about it in the beginning. I really wish I had captured their faces at the first touch of the "guts", although I think Spencer's face is pretty good.

(Don't you love the difference between Natalie's and Bailey's techniques: Natalie getting the biggest handful she can while Bailey uses the pinching between two fingers technique!)

I was impressed with the different faces that the kids came up with, even if they all look a little bit alike. We had fun and can't wait until next year to carve pumpkins again (Spencer was telling me today exactly what he wanted his pumpkin to look like next year, cute boy).

Spencer's, Bailey's, then Natalie's pumpkins

Binkie and Scissors Please

As I was bathing the kids tonight I called down to Brett and asked him to bring me Tanner's binkie and a pair of scissors. His only comment to me when he got to the room: "I'm losing my baby tonight". That is because Tanner's binkie "broke" tonight (or rather we cut the top of the nipple off) and in Brett's mind the only thing keeping him a baby was his binkie. I let Brett know that it was going to be harder on him than it was going to be on Tanner and I think I was right. Yes, it was a little harder to go down tonight than normal, but we have success. . .

. . .Tanner's first binkie-less night!