Christmas

This Christmas we stuck close to home and enjoyed the fact that our kids are at really fun ages for Christmas morning.  I got the boys these Imaginext space shuttles that I've been eyeing since last Christmas.  Unfortunately I wasn't willing to pay the steep $45 price tag.  Then I watched as they slowly climbed down the clearance ladder at Wal-mart.  When they were $19, I decided the boys would both love them so I snatched up two of them, took them home, and realized I hadn't saved myself any money. :-D

 We started Christmas morning opening our stockings.  Gracen seemed especially excited to see candy in the stockings.

 When we were almost through opening presents, I realized that Gracen was making the rounds, unwrapping every piece of candy she could find on the floor.  I scooped up what I could find that was left and put it on the table for the boys to enjoy later.  Unfortunately, while I later went upstairs to get ready for church and while Jaron was on Skype with his family, Gracen climbed up on the table and polished off the rest of the Christmas candy.  Nice, Gracen!

Fortunately, the boys didn't notice.  They were too into their new play things.  

Sometimes we all opened gifts at the same time.

 And sometimes we were patient and went one at a time.

 However it worked, we all had a great Christmas morning.  We went to church and enjoyed the music and words of the scriptures that reminded us of the real reason for the season.  

The kids' favorite gifts seem to be the boys' space shuttles and Gracen's garage-sale kitchen set. 

I am discovering a most wonderful side-effect from Christmas.  This week has been so pleasant at our house!  The kids have been pre-occupied with their new things, which translates into less boredom, less fighting, and more imagination.  Awesome.

I hope I never forget...

...that Gracen says "I lub you, mom" every night as I tuck her in and leave her bedroom and that all through the season, every time she saw a Christmas tree she yelled out "Happy tree!"

Christmas Update

Hello friends and family!

The beginning of 2011 found us in Idaho STILL working hard at school.  Jaron had just returned to us from Saba and was studying for step 1 of his national licensing exam.  I  was finishing up a few undergraduate classes in preparation to begin a Master's degree in Psychology in February.  Jaron took his exam in April and ended up doing well.  Hopefully his scores will open some doors for us when we try to match for a residency program in 2013.  

Jaron's scores got back to us just a few days too late to start rotations for the summer semester so we hunkered down for the summer in Idaho.  Jaron got a summer job and the kids and I split our summer between Idaho and Alberta.  We wanted to make as many trips as we could because we don't know if we'll ever be so "close" again!  During the latter half of the summer I also got a part-time job as we prepared for our move to Kansas City.

Jaron started rotations in Kansas City at in September.  He is really enjoying getting to be in the "hands on" half of his education.  He seems to enjoy his time at the hospital and sometimes comes home with pretty wild stories of what he's seen.  I love getting to see that he's loving what he's doing.  Jaron won't have to decide what he wants to do a residency in until next summer but right now he's considering physical medicine and rehabilitation, anesthesiology, and family practice possibly (drumroll, please) IN CANADA!  Hopefully some of Jaron's rotations in the coming year will help cement his aspirations a little bit.

We are living in the same neighborhood we did during Chiropractic school and we are loving being near familiar friends again.  Kansas City is a great city, offering lots of fun and free things to do with the kids.  Five-year-old Alden started school in the fall and attends half-day kindergarten.  He likes going to school but resents the homework he's sent home with everyday.  I'll be honest, I'm a little resentful of the homework as well (I don't think it's developmentally appropriate) but it is helping Alden's reading to improve quickly.  Besides school, Alden is into transformers and pretty much anything else with wheels.  Alden has a really "mechanical" mind - he likes to figure out why and how things work.  Alden and Eli both enjoy the many friends their age who are literally a stone's throw from our back door.  

Eli's fourth birthday happens to be today!  He had a superhero party with a bunch of his friends earlier in the month.  Eli misses Alden when he's at school but he's been attending preschool two days a week that has helped.  Preschool has also helped Eli to become slightly interested in letters and numbers.  Eli's loves are superheroes, trains and cars.  Eli has a really sweet personality.  He's great at sharing and helping out everyone.

Gracen turned two at Halloween and is a busy, busy girl.  Her language has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few months.  Gracen loves to be a little mommy and plays mostly with her babies and stuffed animals.  She likes to feed them, diaper them, and put them to sleep.  I'm thinking she's going to love the kitchen set she's getting for Christmas.  As the youngest of three, Gracie can hold her own but is all-around a gentle, loving girl.  She's definitely one who knows what she wants.  

So that's the Brunson family's 2011!  We hope you all are safe and happy this holiday season and that you can find joy in celebrating the Savior's birth.  Sorry, no family picture this year but the kids are the good lookin' ones anyway! 

We love you all,

The Brunsons: Jaron, Becky, Alden, Eli, & Gracen

Christmas Decor

If you could see the time at which I post my blog posts, you'd realize how much of a homework procrastinator I am.  Right now it is five to midnight.  I'm still 9 pages away from being through the research article I told myself I'd plow through tonight.  It's funny how when I sit down in a (finally) quite house to "get 'r done," suddenly I remember a note I need to send to a friend on Facebook.  And that I haven't checked my e-mail today.  And that I needed to look up just one thing.  And, while I'm at it, what's on Pinterest?  And, of course, the blog needs updating. :-)  It's quite amazing I ever get anything done, actually.

In that spirit, here's the pictures I snapped of our house in its festive holiday cheer.

 We got our tree up pretty late this year (Dec 7th).  At first Jaron was resisting bringing on the Christmas season already.  Then I decided it'd be best to wait until after 11 preschoolers raided our (very, very small) house for Eli's birthday.  But in the end, it did get put up.  The kids had such a blast "helping."

 Would you believe it if I told you that all of Kansas City was sold out of clear mini-lights?!  Well, the two Wal-marts I went to were, at least.  Oh well, the kids like the colored ones.  Our tree decorations are a mixture of garage sale finds and ornaments from Jaron's and my childhoods.  The tree skirt actually doesn't exist and is a fleece blanket instead.  The tree itself was a steep $10 at (what else?!) a garage sale.  I don't have a mantle, so I decorate the armoire.

And here are the fun little stockings I whipped up last year.  Don't mind that the pictures on the gallery wall are crooked - I don't know how, but they can NOT stay straight!  Maybe it's the three kids I house...

 Speaking of the kids I house, this is kind of funny.  The very day that I laid out our decorations, the boys decided these candlestick holders would make excellent rocket ships.  I let them play with them only after they promised that all parts would absolutely be returned when they were done.  Ha.  We have never found the bottom part to the one on the left and as of this moment only the middle piece and the candle are there.  I doubt we'll ever find the pieces! And since this picture was taken, that glass vase in the middle was broken when a monster truck sliding down the railing accidentally went astray.

 And speaking of decorations going to pieces, our tree is now only decorated on the top half.  Partly that is because little boys like to play in the lower branches and partly it is because little girls like to remove ornaments.  Any time I find an ornament around the house, I hang it on the top half of the tree.  The top half is now ridiculously crowded and the bottom half is all but naked!  We also have no presents under the tree because we're pretty sure that Gracen would tear through those pretty quickly.

 P.S.  We had a pizza party at my house for the funnest eight-year-old church class ever.  The kids earned a (paper) pizza topping-by-topping as they were reverent each week.  I'll sure miss this bunch when they move on to a new teacher in the new year!

A Daughter

 I saw Gracen lookin' all cute before church the other day so I thought I'd snap a picture.  I love, love, love having a girl!

 Don't get me wrong, I love my boys to death.  And I'm grateful we had them first.  I can already tell that boys are more mellow overall and not as emotionally demanding.

 But Gracen likes hats and boots and necklaces and dresses and babies. 

I love you Gracen!

Christmas at Bass ProShop

Once in awhile, Jaron has to stay extra late at the hospital (like tonight - he left the house before 6 AM and messaged me to go to bed without him!).  A few weeks ago the kids and I decided to go out after dinner and make a fun night of it at Bass ProShops' Christmas celebration.

It was the first time since we've been to Bass ProShop since we moved back. The kids were impressed with the store in itself.

 I'm not sure what's wrong with my camera - it got dropped in water this summer and ever since I cannot change any settings on it.  It seems to be stuck on this strange setting where no indoor pictures look good but running water looks awesome. :-)

 The store had a bunch of games going on to play while we waited for our turn to get in line to see Santa.

And here it is - that wonderful moment when the kids get to tell Santa all their desires.  Alden asked for "transformers" and Eli said "cars."  When Gracen got close, well, let's just say she didn't tell Santa what she would like for Christmas.

Oh wait, does that picture look familiar?  Oh, that's because it's a virtual copy of last year's Santa picture!!

...But I'm Still A Good Mom

This morning we ran to Wal-mart right after we dropped Alden off at school.  I like to park towards the back of the parking lot and get myself (and my kids) a bit of exercise on the way in.  As we got back to the van, we saw how poorly I had parked - more diagonal-ish than straight-ish.  Eli made it all good, though, when he said, 

"You're still a good mom, even if you can't park between the lines."

 Aw, thanks Eli!

Speaking of being a good mom, I need to record what happened to us at Mardel's a few weeks ago.  Mardel's is a Christian store that has an incredible array of teaching supplies, including a laminating machine.  I went in there to laminate some letters and numbers and job chart stuff.  While I was busy, Alden and Eli were "hiding" from me.  One of them decided to crouch between a stack of paper boxes and some large pictures leaning against the edge of the wall.  Pretty soon, you guessed it, *CRASH*.  The two pictures (that were large -very, very large) got knocked forward, which took out a third picture standing on an easel in front of them.

I was speechless.  I didn't move for a few seconds, but the store people did.  The manager came over and was really, really nice, reassuring me that "the important thing is nobody got hurt."  They lifted up the first picture.  The glass was intact but the frame was dented in a few places.  I'll be honest - I started to tear up when I saw the price (times three in my head!).  The second picture was similarly scathed - dents in the frame.  The third picture (the one on the easel) was shattered.  They started sweeping up the glass as I tried to control myself and not think about how on earth we were going to pay for it.  But when I offered to pay for it, the manager assured me that "of course" that wouldn't be necessary.

Man, I cannot say enough about the good people at Mardel's!  I now feel like I owe Mardel's (and the sister store next door - my favorite store ever - Hobby Lobby) several hundred dollars in purchases over the next few years!  I didn't get angry at the kids.  They're not usually rowdy in stores and they weren't being rowdy this time.  I think they were affected enough by the loudness of the crashing glass and the fact that their mother got emotional over it all! :-)

Eli's Superhero Birthday

I really, really need to be doing homework right now.  I've put off my paper for days.  It's due Saturday and I haven't started.  I'm actually supposed to be writing a lecture for undergrad students, which SHOULD make it more interesting.  But I. just. can't. seem. to. do. it. So I'll blog instead. :-)

 This week we had an early birthday party for Eli.  Unfortunately his birthday is always going to fall during Christmas break.  Fortunately for him, though, that means he gets to have an early birthday party AND celebrate his real birthday with his family.

A few weeks ago we rented the Captain America movie.  It made an impression on the boys, especially little Eli.  He kept asking for a Captain America party.  I decided it'd be easiest to do a general superhero theme and it kind of evolved into a "superhero training session."

 I googled some ideas and came up with a few fun "training" games.  We brought the slide inside and set up the Play Hut tunnels for some agility training.  I love this picture of Scotty flying through the air - none of them used the slide for anything but a jumping off point! :-)  We walked a tape line to practice balance.  We leapt over "tall buildings" (decorated cereal boxes).  And we punched through paper to make sure we were strong enough to be superheroes.  Lastly, we decorated cardboard Captain America shields.

When everyone had passed these feats, all our superheroes were awarded capes and masks.

 

Yes, that is ELEVEN superheroes you count.  We didn't even get all the kids in the complex - only those on our immediate street and the kids in Eli's preschool class.  And let me tell ya - a birthday party with eleven preschoolers is tough.  But a barrel of fun, too.

 It was so fun to get to have Eli be the center of attention.  As the middle child, he doesn't get that near enough!  Alden and Gracen were really gracious about it being Eli's special day.  They seem to enjoy celebrating each others' birthdays as much as I do!

His friends were nice enough to bring him some great gifts.  He got a remote control truck, superhero action figures, ninja action figures, a puzzle, a superhero coloring book, Nerf guns, and a neat set to build and paint different wooden vehicles.

I can't believe my sweet little Eli is almost FOUR!!

St. Louis Trip

 This last weekend our family got the opportunity to go to St. Louis so that Jaron and I could attend the temple.  Temples are not open to the public; not even all church members are allowed to go inside.  Our children had to wait outside while Jaron and I took turns going through the temple.  The reason that temples are so exclusive is because they are extremely sacred places to us.  It is important to us that temples stay clean and so members of the church have to uphold a personal standard of worthiness in order to be able to go inside. 

In the temple, sacred covenants are made with God.  One of the things that takes place in the temple are marriages.  Jaron and I were married in the temple in Idaho Falls.  We believe that because our marriage was performed by a proper priesthood in the temple, our family will be together forever - even after death. 

 For that, I am so incredibly grateful, especially since these three joined our ranks.  I really, really like being with my family!  They are the source of some of my greatest blessings and joy.

Since it's a bit of a drive to St. Louis and Jaron and I were staggering our chance to go inside the temple, we made a weekend of it.  Everytime we've tried to go to the temple we've been able to score an amazing deal on a hotel in St. Louis.  This time we paid $25 for our hotel!

We rounded out our weekend by going to the St. Louis Zoo.  I think the St. Louis Zoo is the best zoo I've ever been to (out of the 6 zoos I've been to in 3 different countries).  And the best part is, it is FREE.

We spent a lot of time looking at bugs this time. The bug exhibits are absolutely amazing. I cannot believe how BIG some bugs are! ICK! But the kids loved it.

This display right before the huge butterfly room (okay, it's not called a "room" but I can't remember the name) has hundreds of butterfly cocoons that are alive and about to hatch!  We got to SEE a BUTTERFLY come out of its COCOON!!!  Amazing.  This is just one of three display cases they had full of cocoons.

 

 Thank goodness for awesome FREE stuff to do.  We didn't have time to make it to the science center (which is also free).  Hopefully we'll be able to make it to St. Louis one more time before Kansas City gets its own temple in the spring!



Cutest Prayer Ever

Eli said the sweetest prayer ever at breakfast this morning.  In it he included:

"Thank you for Jesus and the Church.  Thank you for all of our houses and the earth and all of the planets.  Thank you for the sun and outer space."

SOO cute.  Can you tell we did outer space for preschool last week?  Unfortunately, he forgot to say a blessing on the food. :-)

Pictures in the Park

 My sweet friend Amanda, who has been our friend since we shared the Saba experience together, came over last week to snap some pictures of the kids.  Amanda is one of the classiest people I know and I like to hang around her to have some of that classiness rub off on me.  She is a great photographer, too, so it's a super sweet bonus when I get pictures out of the deal as well!

 Unless you have multiple children yourself, it is hard to believe how difficult it is to get three young kids to all be smiling (let alone looking in the same direction) at the same time.

Sweet little Eli. I think at some point he forgot how to smile.  He got stuck on this "I'm trying to look nice for pictures" face and literally could not form his smile.  Fear not - he found that smile again when we got to the park.

 And I just love this picture.  It says so much.  How determined Gracen is. How tough she thinks she is.  How she likes to be the boss and control her brothers. This picture says it all. :)

Sometimes I Don't Know What To Say

More than once in the last few years, I just can't find the words to answer the kids' questions.  It happened again today.  I was busy baking for a baby shower I'm throwing tonight and Eli walked up to me.

Eli: "Mom, if someone ate the sun, it would be dark, right?"
Me: "Uhh, yep!"
Eli: "And then we would just sleep all day, right?"
Me: "Well..."
Eli: "And then Heavenly Father would get eaten, too, right?"
Me: "...Huh?"

And with that, he scuttled off.  Thank goodness they don't always wait around for an answer!


P.S.  The best idea I ever had was to buy a roll of wallpaper from Habitat for Humanity's ReStore for $1.  We flip it upside down and use it as a good, solid paper for all kinds of good stuff!

Halloween

 To kick off Halloween, we started with a Halloween party for the neighborhood kids.  Katy and Maddie were nice enough to come and help me out because we have  lot of 3- and 4-year-old kids in our immediate neighborhood!

We started off the party with some spooky munchies: spider cookies, bones 'n blood, cheesy ghosts, and monster mouths.

 Then we played some games.  We pinned the eyeballs on the monster, bowled with ghosts (TP rolls with faces drawn on them) and a pumpkin bowling ball, and threw ghost bean bags into a pumpkin's mouth.  Then we read some spooky books together.  We finished the party with decorating paper bags that we used for our candy scavenger hunt.  It was fun but exhausting!!

 Here are the kids in their Halloween shirts that I scored after Halloween last year for $0.25 each.  Does anybody else notice how clearance stuff has been lacking lately?  It seems like more of a struggle lately to find the dirt-cheap clearance deals I used to.

 This year our family sported a Star Wars theme.  The boys were Jedi's and Gracen went as yoda.  I dressed up as Princess Leia for the trunk or treat.  Some people had some pretty great trunks at the trunk-or-treat.  One of the gals I visit teach and her husband dressed up as Hansel and Gretel.  Then they stuck candy all over their van to represent the candy house in the story and laid out a trail of bread crumbs leading to each side of the van.  So creative!  I also liked Kyra's shark trunk, especially since I snapped a picture of her describing how it came about that looks like she's terrified of the shark. :-)

 And the perfect end to a good Halloween was the presence of this oh-so-spooky spider hanging right above our door as we left for trick-or-treating.  I asked my man to "protect the hearth" my finishing this big guy off but he refused - claimed the spider "wasn't hurting anything."  So now I lose sleep thinking about where this guy sleeps at night!