On our way to our second swimming lesson, Icka started singing, “I don’t like Donahoo, I don’t like Donahoo.” (Gretchen’s last name.) But by the fourth lesson, she and Scout were in love with Gretchen. In fact, they pray for her nightly, and if Icka forgets to mention her, Scout whispers over to Icka so that she will remember. They absolutely love her, and immediately look for her once we get to church.
So although it is great that my kids love her — the better part is that I love her! My favorite things from Gretchen — are the lipstick kisses they come out with all over their faces (she is like their very own grandmother), and her “old school” / no nonsense ways. The best example of this was when Gretchen arrived at the lessons and RoRo began crying and crying to his mom as he made up every excuse in the book of why he couldn’t swim (needed to use the bathroom, had a sick tummy, etc.). Britni tried to talk to him and console him — even bribe him to settle down. Nothing was working, until Gretchen marched right over and said to him, “You stop crying or I will throw you right in.” As the parents giggled, he immediately stopped and had a very successful lesson. And as a side note — Royal is a little fish due to Gretchen!
Scout has graduated! He no longer needs lessons, and is a literal fish. He even swam to the bottom of our 8 ft. pool a few days ago to retrieve a toy! According to Gretchen, “In all of the years [she has] taught, Scout is the very best at following directions.” That made me happy, and he totally gets it from me! Icka, on the other hand, had different reports from Gretchen. When she was supposed to “kick” she would cross her legs as tightly as she could. Gretchen would tell me she was as stubborn as a fox, and I would just have to laugh — because I already knew that! Then would Gretchen would have Icka on her back to practice floating, she would sing a song to make the time go by quickly. As Gretchen would sing, Icka would shake her hips and dance along — another thing Gretchen has never seen in all of the years she has taught.
RoRo and Grey joined the group a few weeks after we started, and after lessons, there is always a little love fest between RoRo and Icka.
Although Icka might just have the younger hunger for Grey.
—
In the end, Gretchen is amazing! I give her my highest recommendation! And my kids do too!!!
One Sunday afternoon, our family headed to Newport Beach to walk the temple grounds. It was really beautiful, and I just expected that my kids would immediately turn into reverent angels once we got there. To bad that I might have had to reprimand and scold them both quite a bit while we were there. But regardless, we had a great time seeing the grounds and teaching our kids about the temple.
Here is one of our not so reverent moments — but it does capture our kids as they are.
But to be honest — this is also how the kids are. They adore each other.
The temple grounds are always maintained so perfectly.
Here is Icka trying to get in.
I love that ever since, every time Icka sees a big white building, she thinks it is a temple. I am trying to show her that most temples have the Angel Moroni on top — and that is a pretty good indication that she actually has a temple in her sights.
Throughout the winter, I gripe about not having a big grassy backyard. But when summer finally rolls around, I couldn’t be happier about having a pool to let my kids swim in. They are obsessed with swimming, and it is the perfect way to tire their little bodies out for nap time or a good night sleep. And then when lunch or dinner time rolls around, we make it into a picnic which avoids big messes, and lets the kids feel like they got something special.
When they picnic, they always lay on the warm cement to keep their little bodies warm.
We usually go pretty basic on the food scale — toast, fruit and chips were on the menu today.
Scout is my little pool safe boy. Gretchen has worked wonders with him, and he is now used as the example to the other lesson takers.
Sweet thing puts her all into swimming. She literally exhausts herself, but is about the cutest thing in the water. She is fearless like Scout, and might need a little help on understanding what danger really is.
We headed to out garden to pick our weekly bounty. We got a TON of green beans, a japanese cucumber, some squash and zucchini, a bunch of sweet peas and OUR FIRST CARROT!
Scout and I have been eying that carrot for a while, so when we finally picked it and ate it, Scout just kept saying, “This is the most delicious carrot I have ever had.”
He was kind enough to share his goods with Sissy.
And my sweet and sharing boy went around the house to give everyone a bite of the deliciousness.
And I will admit….nothing tastes quite like fresh, out-of-your-garden veggies and fruit!
Every day, I anticipate a few times. The first is when NayNay gets home from high school because my kids always break from me for just a few minutes and hang with her. But I will have to be honest….the very most anticipated time of the day is when B gets home. The same thing happens like it does with NayNay, but then B always wants to read to them or play with them. My kids are obsessed with BKaNayNay….but that is mostly because B is part of the equation.
Here is one such day when NayNay had them both mesmerized with Sesame Street.
(Ka — I love when you get home too, but lately you and Scout seem to butt heads, and it is REALLY annoying!)
While we were all eating at Cafe Rio, the cousins took Scout and Icka over to PetCo. To my surprise and disgust, they came home with a fish for each of my kids. Named by Scout was Boa Constrictor, and Nemo was by Icka. I gave them three days of survival, but the kids were determined to have them be life-longers.
Unfortunately, Nemo only lasted a day. And Boa’s obituary was written just a day after that.
I’ll admit that when they bought the fish, they forgot to buy any food. (Probably because food wasn’t “only 15 cents!”) So maybe it was all the bread that made for an untimely death of two promising fish. It was a sad day. Sadder when I realized that the fish would never get a proper burial/flush, because one day they were there, and the next, I was emptying the glass vase out of the dish washer.
I think it would be easy to say that if any mother out there is looking for tips on keeping “reverent” children in church — I won’t be getting any calls. There has definitely been improvement in the past year — especially from the day that Icka head-butted me twice which brought tears to my eyes while Scout was just naughty! But when I look around at all of the nice and quiet kids in church, I ask myself where I have gone wrong.
So my tactic this week was, “Hey kids….whomever is reverent in church gets to help pick and make our dessert after dinner.”
Well guess who was reverent!!
BOTH KIDS!
So no need to call all of you moms out there.
Promise what I promised, and you will have golden children like I do!
So a chocolate cake with pink and yellow frosting.
We settled on a chocolate cake, with pick frosting and yellow writing that said, “Scout and Navy were reverent.”
Baker/Cake decorator I am obviously not…..cool mom I obviously am!
It really is UNBELIEVABLE that the first cousin has officially graduated from high school. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach to think that the sweetest and nicest boy won’t be around my kids as constantly as he has been all of these years. I guess Micah should have asked me to marry him sooner so that we would have had less of a space between the cousins. But all is well, because the time we have had with Jake has been perfect. He is so good, so nice, so respectful, so motivated and so Christlike. If only my kids can grow up to be just like him — I would be one happy Mama!
—
The festivities started at SDSU for his graduation, and ended at the Brockbank home for dinner and hanging out.
—
I was so excited to bring in my air horn to really give Jake a hand when his name was called. As we were walking in, I realized a big stack of air horns on the security desk. I immediately called my mom back, who was holding all of my loot in her purse. (Because we all know by now that I don’t carry a purse. Or a diaper bag for that matter, but I won’t go into that because my mom will be commenting on how many cute diaper bags she has bought me over the years, and how they have all gone to waste!) Anyway, I called her back, and stuffed that air horn in my bra. I walked in without a problem, and was very proud. Poor Bryan and Megan weren’t as proud, but they kind of know what to expect with me and Tristen. I would say that about three other air horns made it in, and in an effort not to be outdone, when Jake’s name was called, I really let her blow. At that point, I was kind of like a celebrity in the eyes of all of the other cousins — which really made it worth it. But the immediate text that Bryan got….”I am sure that wasn’t a Brockbank air horn I just heard that is against all of the rules
” really made me proud. But nothing made me as proud as when I showed Jake the air horn afterwards, and he just said, “THAT WAS YOU!” Mission accomplished!
Here is Mama Mia AKA Nonnie with her first grandchild!
Look at that reaction — kind of rude!
Some of Jake’s best looking supporters!
Look at the weasels, who weren’t half bad during the ceremony. Thank goodness to an open snack bar, and a little cash I had tucked away.
But once we got outside, this little thing was in full force. She kept finding openings in the grass, and just sprawled out. Notice the high heel behind her — it is a miracle that some bystander didn’t step on her.
Here is obnoxious Tristen, posing for a thousand pictures so that one would turn out good. So I was determined to be in every single shot she was in.
Until things took a turn for the worse, and she caught on to my antics.
Don’t worry — during her great idea of a jumping picture, I got her back!
Poor Jake — to have an aunt like Tristen!
Congrats Jake — Love You!!
We headed up north to Bree’s house. The kids were in heaven. But what kid wouldn’t be with nonstop swimming, playing, movies for quiet time/naps, and Sesame Street Live. We had a ton of fun, and hit the weather just right!
The kids are gearing up for Sesame Street!
Popcorn is always one of my go to tricks to keeping the kids decently still and contained. It worked for quite a while, but Icka’s attention span deflated after intermission.
But she did head back to dance with Scout a few times.
The kids especially liked the art project where Bree let them use pens!
Thanks Bree for the fun weekend, and even though Scout is pretty determined to be moving there — I think we will stick to visiting you!
Scout is in LOVE! He got a trophy for his TBall season, and he sleeps with the thing, he shows it off to everyone, and even lets Icka hold it if she is lucky. The trophy is so loved, the batter no longer has a bat — was it Icka or Scout — probably the younger of the two weasels! The awards ceremony was first thing Saturday morning, and Scout was loving it.
He just sat patiently until his team was called up.
It did get a little ong as they were the first team to sit, and quite possibly the youngest team out there.
But just as if it was REAL gold, the kids were SO excited to get their trophies.
Since I was on picture duty, I put Micah on Sissy duty. Guess who had the harder job? ME! Since he had to rn out and “take a few phone calls.” Yeah right! Likely story.
So my girl spent over an hour playing in the dirt. I guess a light pink dress and white sweater weren’t the ideal picks for a day on the field.
After Scout got his trophy, I caught him just staring at it. We immediately had to call B and tell her all about it.
Scout and I would like to thank the coaches who made it all worth it.
Favorite coaching moment?
When in the middle of a game, John was on a business call, and Jim was texting as they were both in the outfield with their athletes. When I gave Jim a hard time, he just said, “What? I am ordering hair bows.” (Does that make it any less ridiculous?!)
Thank goodness for Coach Eric!
Just Kidding — John was a great coach.
Jim — well I guess it is no secret that LNLL doesn’t want you back!
BUT I DO!
Nothing is more hilarious than a little bitter Jim Z. on a Saturday morning!
| DESIGN BY