Super Soccer Star Cassidy!!

Today was Cassidy’s final soccer game…possibly forever, possibly not?!?  She was a really great sport today and even made the FIRST goal!! She thinks that she “made the other team kick it into our goal” but she actually got the ball away from the other team (just as they were going to kick it into our goal!) and managed to score the goal on her own!! Of course with my awful camcorder skills I got the grass…not the goal.  But! The Royals did awesome today – I think partially because the other team wasn’t on their “A” game…but mainly because their persistence with practice & teamwork paid off!

We don’t keep score in the 3-4 year old league … but it was 11-1!! We ROCKED that field this morning!  Cassidy was very proud of herself – and we were too!  At the awards presentation, Cassidy was given “The Braveheart” award.  She started the season off as a less than willing participant but turned her attitude around and became a wonderful team player who assisted her teammates to victory!  We are very proud of her and hope she will continue to try new sports and just have fun being a kid!

Will's First Fiesta!

Will turned 1 on Wednesday, we threw him a "First Fiesta" party on Cinco de Mayo - complete with pinata, pin-the-tail on the donkey, and make your own sombrero! We had an endless plate of chicken & beef flautas, black bean & corn salsa, nachos, quesadillas...veggies, fruit, sugar cookies...oh, and cupcakes! It was a crazy, whirlwind party -- but I think everyone had fun! We surely missed Daddy's presence but he was there in Daddy Doll form :) We had a wonderful turn out - 21 kids and 12 adults - yep, that many people fit into our tiny house and backyard...the weather was awesome, but should've had some full-fledged margaritas -- I think I needed one the most!

What do you get for a third child's 1st birthday?? Not much -- I asked everyone NOT to bring a present, we already have SOOOO many toys that I figured he wouldn't know or mind much if we just didn't have gifts. But of course, people brought them and what kind of mom would I be if I didn't get a couple of gifts?? So Will made out like a bandit! A Little People A to Z Zoo from Mommy & Daddy; a Little People Plane from Cass & Jake; a basketball hoop from my mom; clothes, balls, books, & a shake 'n go car from Grandma Teddy; Cold hard cash from Auntie Lisa, Uncle Jody & the girls; 2 tugboats, swim trunks, more balls, musical shakers, water/bath toys, and more balloons & paper than a 1 year old knows what to do with!!

My mom was a great help and none of the food would've been ready without her help! I think next year I'm going to keep it MUCH more low key...perhaps a combination Welcome Home/Birthday party! I cannot believe that my baby is already a whole-year-old...looking back through his first year of photos really makes me yearn to have another super-duper-cute Brannon baby...then the chaos, crying, whining and "mommmiieeee" comes screaming in from the background and well, I think we are COMPLETE! I love this sweet little family of mine and we are truly blessed by the Hand of the Father!

Happy Hump Day!

Well, today Cassidy stayed home again from school ...I say "again" because I got called up to the school Tuesday morning to come pick her up - she had been sleeping in class and was running a low grade fever...the school nurse reminded me she had to be fever-free for 24hrs before returning to school -- since she's in Pre-K and she only goes 3 hours in the  morning, it dismissed her for today as well.  It's probably for the best; she has been running a fever on & off, her lymph nodes are pretty swollen and she's been having a tough time sleeping lately.  If I try to put her to sleep in her own bed, she tosses & turns and comes out complaining that she "can't sleep" although she looks as though she could sleep standing up -- so as soon as I let her go to sleep on Daddy's side of the bed - she's out like a light! I move her back to her bed before I go to sleep, but she usually comes back in sometime in the wee hours of the morning.  But all-in-all she seems to be on the mend -- fingers crossed that she's fit for school tomorrow :)

At any rate, today was kind of a pajama day...we watched some movies, did some housework and played.  I finally ventured out to Costco at dinner time to pick up a few things and grab some dinner.  Suprisingly, Jake wanted to help me eat my caesar salad over sharing a slice of pizza with Will!  I cannot tell you how uplifting it was to receive 4 compliments about my children...the first two were the usual "oh wow, they ARE cute!" Usually older couples are drawn to my children...not sure why, but I get lots of comments about how cute all my kids are (very flattering of course, 'cause I totally agree!!)  But tonight, I got two compliments at how "well behaved" my children were! And they WERE behaving :)  This is ONE PROUD MOMMA!!

Will cannot WAIT to be tall enough - he whines until I brush his teeth too!

We are raising some pretty stellar kids! I feel truly blessed to have children that are healthy and happy (mostly) and care about one another and love to be loved on and love on each other!  I love this little family of mine!

Easter Weekend in Review

Okay, okay..so I'm STILL terrible at blogging! I will make sure that along with my "quiet time" that I also make time to update our day-to-day. This weekend was a busy one for sure! My mom came to visit, Uncle Jody celebrated another birthday and then we celebrated Jesus' Ressurection on Sunday!! I think I liked not having an egg hunt on Sunday...considering we had one Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday...we didn't need another egg hunt either! We had a playgroup lunch/egg hunt on Saturday morning after Cassidy's soccer game -- which she was a team player again this week and actually attempted to kick the ball more! After lunch we headed home for naps and then welcomed Uncle Jody, Aunt Lisa, Landry, Reagan & Grandma Teddy over for dinner. Sunday we went to church and had an awesome service, my mom brought the kids home after the early service so that I could help out in the preschool area for the second service. Then we chilled out for the rest of the day -- Cassidy got to jump on her "early birthday present" -- the trampoline :0) Then we Skyped with Michael one last time before his departure to the sand-pit. That just about sums it up -other than I forgot to take pics of the kids in their Easter outfits...oh well, they were cute, that's all that needs to be said :0)!!



Will loves to push around his car!



Chaos! Completely fun, crazy CHAOS!

Toy thief!

Cassidy being reminded by Coach Joe that she is right there with the ball, she just needs to kick it!

Cassidy attempting a block -- you go girl!!

Enjoying her early birthday gift :)

Jake catching some air!

Pre-hunt rally...go Team Brannon!

And they're off!

Why wait when you can enjoy some right now?!?!

Reagan's loot

Cassidy's loot

Landry's loot

Jake's loot

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Uncle Jody

Enjoying his new "bike"

Auntie Lisa helping Will get his legs ready for walking :o)

Skyping with Daddy!

A game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos with the Grandmas -- not sure who had more fun!

Wishy Washy Wednesday

Today has been kind of gray - much like the sky.  I stayed up way past my bedtime last night watching 'Property Virgins' .. its been so long since I've watched HGTV I didn't even remember what channel it was! I can't really figure out why I was up so late other than I was missing Michael and I guess deep down worried about how I'm going to hold it together through this mess...it didn't help that I had watched my favorite show {Parenthood} earlier in the evening and it had a dramatic, tear-jerking plot line.  I LOVE that show!!

Anyway, the lack of sleep probably contributes to my blue attitude.  I also have a tremendous guilt about a Groupon I used to a photo scanning place...$875 later (after $200 worth of Groupon credit!) I am sorry that I even bothered.  I haven't even gotten my scanned photos back yet, I just saw the charge to the credit card and about DIED!! Of course, the pics that I sent in are our wedding, honeymoon and maybe some college stuff...a few old videos of Michael playing high school football, Senior video from Squadron 2 -- things that I think the kids would like to see when they're older and have no idea what VHS or 35mm film means!  But, the timing of such a large "mistake" couldn't be worse.  Let's just say, I've been having the IRS blues lately too! They're withholding our tax return because of an "internal error" -- and with only one income -- that $875 could've been used elsewhere.  Lesson learned. :o(

But the great news is..the kids had an awesome time playing at our playdate today...I've gotten a few loads of laundry done...I've only yelled 2x today...I managed a small nap...AND the kids are all gleefully playing together (giggles and screetches abound!) -- so that makes me smile and think the day may be gray outside...but inside...well, we're playing with sunshine :)

Hello Monday...

Well, I said some prayers last night to the tune of "please help me to find motivation each day to keep myself & the kids happy" -- sounds pretty simple right?  Well, not if you're dealing with the IRS...since January...and they're withholding your tax return because of their error!! But after holding for a mere 30 mins I was kindly told my refund would be available in as little as 6 to 8 weeks...are you kidding me??!?!? So, I went for a walk...the boys (Jake, Will & Ty) and I walked to Cassidy's school to pick her up.  Surprisingly, they all did really well there and back -- but poor Ty hasn't walked that long in a long while -- he slept most of the afternoon :)  But it definitely got the grumpies out for sure!  We had a nice afternoon just  hanging out -- I'm glad we went to the park at 10:30 a.m. because the high today (per my thermometer) was 101F!! But the humidity was only in the 30% range so it wasn't too bad really -- now, August it WILL be a different heat!  The baby has been fussy - he's just milimeters from cutting those two bottom teeth (that'll make 8 total!) -- he pretty much only wanted to eat cantaloupe all day!

The one thing I found to be really thankful for today was how well the kids are starting to play together.  They have rediscovered the plastic cupboard...they all three try to fit in there at times...and today we used kitchen ware as drums, safari hats & of course, weapons :)  All in all, I didn't find myself loosing energy or patience until the game of Princess Memory after bath time went a bit long and everyone was determined to finish no matter how tired they were... so, yet again, He does listen!! My motivation pushed me through to the end of the night and I think everyone had a nice Monday. 

Day 365-ish - "So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye"

Today was bittersweet -- we drove Michael to the airport a sad task, but hopeful at the same time.  This journey has begun - thank the Lord! The build up to this deployment has been gracious.  We've been able to see Michael for 5 weeks out of the 6 months we lived apart - we were also able to Skype and talk on the phone regularly; making the time spent apart a little easier. 

Now, the hard part begins.  Unsure of where he will be, what kind of "issues" (safety, technical, logistical) he will face, what kind of issues WE will face (hey I haven't locked myself out of the house or car yet & we haven't had any ER visits -- total score!!) -- but so far, he's safely landed in Ohio (completing his deployment outprocessing -- again) and the kids are all tucked in bed asleep.  I am so thankful to have finally started to make progress towards his return...I keep reminding Cassidy, "the sooner he leaves, the sooner he returns" - it seems to help her not feel so sad and in turn reassures me too!  

He leaves the country in one week -- but the countdown for us began today.  We'll see how well I can keep up with my "remember Daddy" initiative -- countdown calendars, special dates planned, reading books about Daddy, the list goes on and on.  One thing that I'd like to master is updating this blog more often.  So when we can't speak with Michael, he can check in on our blossoming family to see what crazy things we're up to! 

I updated my status on Facebook and a friend said that she saw a devotion that was very appropriate for a military wife -- and I agree!

"I am called to be a military wife. God knew I could do it when He gave me the assignment."

And I'm taking a cue from another friend, it's called "Project 365" -- a photo journaling of your daily life -- one picture to sum up the day or a special event that day.  Today, I am starting my Project 365 --

Day 1: