My Wife!

So, I did not get tagged by anyone, but I still wanted to pay tribute to my wonderful wife and what better day to do it than leap day.

There is no one else like her in the whole world. The other day I came home from work to find that the entire house had been dusted, all the carpet had been vacuumed, the kitchen was mopped, the dishes were clean, the laundry was done and dinner was on the table when I walked in the door. All this, while taking care of 4 children, 1 of which was sick. I think she even managed to post a new blog as well.



When she has to go somewhere and she leaves me with the kids I get nothing accomplished. Did I mention that she has also been up quite a bit during the middle of the night this week with children as well. Yet, she never complains. Thank you Rachel for the wonderful life you give me and the sacrifices you make for our family. I love you!

Just wanted to give a quick picture update of the kids. They grow way to fast. I thought this first picture was so cute, even though Tanner was sooo sad. Sometimes their sad faces are just too precious.Tanner has learned to roll over from back to front. It has made for a few long nights because he will wake up and turn over. The only thing is that he can't roll back and so he just cries until we come and roll him back to his back and give him his binkie.
The girls continue to love "hanging out" with Tanner. With him rolling over now the girls go over and lay on the ground with him and entertain him. Most of the time they call to me to come help them because Tanner has grabbed their hair.
I really need to get a good picture of the kids all together, but we struggle with the setup and with getting everyone to look at the camera with smiles on their faces. This will have to do.
And to finish, our sweet Tanner boy. The evenings have been really cold so he has been sleeping with a beanie on. My favorite part of the day: seeing their sweet content faces as they sleep. . .

My Husband!

I got "tagged" with the Husband tag and I thought what better day to do it than Valentines day. I love my husband so much! Here is a little look into our relationship.

What is his name? Brett Herman Bruschke. I know, I know. What a middle name, huh!?! And he wanted to pass that on for posterity!

How long have you been together? We have been married 5 years, but started dating 9 ½ years ago.

How long did you date? 4 1/2 years, kind of. We took a two year break while he was on his mission, but we got married 4 ½ years after our first date.

How old is he? 26, poor boy has a lot of responsibility for being only 26.

Who eats more? Definitely him.

Who said I love you first? Brett did. It took me a couple of months for me to tell it back to him. I just wanted it to be for sure before I told him.

Who's Taller? Him.

Who can sing better? We are probably both equally as bad, but somehow I can remember words better than he can, although it is amazing how he can come up with words that go with the beat and rhyme.

Who is smarter? Brett, I am sure, especially when it comes to anything technological. I used to know how to do things, but he is so much quicker at it that I always use him and I have lost whatever ability I had.

Who does the laundry? Me. Brett gets frustrated when he tries to help because I am a little particular about how things are folded.

Who pays the bills? Our computer or the internet, or however you want to say it. Everything is on auto pay, but Brett does go through and check things more often than I do.

Who sleeps on the right side? Brett does, well, that is if you are looking at our bed from the foot, if that makes sense.

Who mows the lawn? Neither of us. Who would have guessed that fake lawn could be such a blessing. We do have “real” grass in the front yard, but the association takes care of it.

Who cooks dinner? I do. That is one thing that I always try to make sure I have done when Brett walks through the door from work.

Who drives? Brett does when we are together.

Who is more stubborn? I would definitely say I am. Poor Brett is so good at putting up with me.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me, sort of. He went in for the kiss, so I kind of met him half way. He wasn’t expecting it and it scared him so he gave me a hug and drove away leaving me in the street.

Who asked who out first? I asked him out. We were having a big group date for my first date when I turned 16. You would have thought I would have waited until I got asked out. I guess I wasn’t that kind of girl. I don't know what kind of girl it makes me though?!?

Who proposed? Brett did, thank goodness. Can you imagine having to pop the question?

Who has more friends? Brett. I am so not the good friend, sorry guys!

Who is more sensitive? Probably Brett, although we both have our moments. That is one of the things I love about him, his sensitivity.

Who has more siblings? An obvious one, I do, by almost four times!

Who wears the pants? I do, although I try to make him think that he does.
Thanks Brett for all that you do for our little (ok, big) family. I couldn't ask for a more incredible husband or father for my children. Happy Valentines Day!!! I love you babe!

Random find

So I was sitting here at the computer going through blogs and once I finished going through my list I decided to go through the lists of those that I visit regularly. Yes, there are dishes in the sink, bathrooms to clean, laundry to do, and even children to take care of, but it has just been one of those days, so anyway. . .I am sitting here wasting time when I came upon this (http://mel-bel.blogspot.com) blog. I totally had to take a double look because I thought it was someone that I knew. Does anyone else agree?

Can you say twins

I have been told that Tanner looks a lot like Spencer, so I decided to go back and look at pictures of Spencer when he was a baby. All I can say is that I have twins, they were just born four years apart. I will definitely have to label all of our pictures so that I know who is who!

Now I am just waiting for one that has any resemblance of me. . .

A not so friendly visitor. . .

Sunday morning I looked out the window to see this on the fence outside:Yes, that is a gianormous raccoon! It was definitely bigger than most house cats, and even bigger than a lot of dogs. I called Brett over to look at it with me, and of course Bailey came over to see what was going on. She bumped the window and I thought for sure the raccoon would run away. I was wrong. It just stared her down like this:
I was honestly wondering if the window was raccoon proof because I was sure it was going to attack. Luckily it finally turned and walked back along the house and over the back fence. Brett wanted to try to scare it away so that maybe it wouldn't come back in the future, but to no avail. It wasn't a bit afraid of him and just moseyed on its way. Definitely don't want to meet that thing in an alley!

Why is it so natural?

It is amazing to me how natural being a "mother" has been to Natalie and Bailey. The other day Natalie asked if she could use one of Tanner blankets. I told her it was fine, but had no idea why she wanted to use it. I later came into the room and she had put all of her dolls to sleep with the blanket over them. Then she wanted me to bring Tanner in to join them.
Bailey has been going up to her room during the days lately, only to come back a couple of minutes later. Brett decided to go and see what she was up to and found her putting her babies down for naps. She did everything from putting their blankets on right down to the kiss on the forehead (the last thing we do before we leave the room when we put her down for her naps). I guess we follow more of a routine than we think we do. It just goes to show you that we truly do come to the earth with very distinct and divine personality traits.

Feed the birds

When we lived in Clearlake we always kept a bird feeder up in the backyard. It was neat to look out to window and watch all the bird come eat. We hadn't used our birdfeeder since moving down here, but the other day I finally picked up some bird seed from Wal-mart. It has been so much fun to sit down for our meals and watch the birds chow down outside. I can't wait for it to get a little bit warmer so that we can leave the screen open to listen to them churp. I just wish that I knew a little bit more about birds because Spencer asks lots of questions about them and I just don't know how to answer them. At any given time you can look outside and see 5+ birds and many different varieties. Spencer is funny because occassionally he will get up and hit the window and all the birds will fly away. I finally asked him why he was doing that and he said it was because there was a bird that was being mean and fighting over the seeds and he wanted it to go away so the nice birds could eat. Such a thoughtful boy.