a girl and her blanket and her paci

Gracelyn is battling an ear infection so the last 2 nights have been far from sleep-filled for the two of us.

 This is her today at "school." poor girl. She is plain tuckered out.

the reason behind...

Brandon selecting drums in ensemble....

yes, what you see is a REAL drum set, for my 8 year old. oh.my.goodness. they are from :::drumroll please::: Ryan's boss, yes his boss. Brandon loves him now, myself, not so much.

It all started at the company Christmas party. I was chatting with the boss' wife. She was telling me about all the instruments their girls have wanted, received and abandoned. I told her B1 had taken piano lessons but now he wants drums. And that was it. or so I thought.
Several weeks ago boss-man brought the guys their Christmas gift, new coats and had a little loud something for Ryan out in the pickup.
Brandon was/is ecstatic. I didn't even have to mention that he needed to write a thank you. He immediately told me and he did that very weekend to put in the mail Monday. It was a proud parent moment.
As of today, they are still at the office and I plan on them being there for a very.long.time. The wife of one of the guys at the office is a percussionist so she taught him a few beats. I have a feeling the guys at the office, as well as my husband, will put a muzzle on me the next time I'm around the boss and his wife.

our little drummer boy

Brandon's ensemble group from school performed with 4 other schools at OU on February 19 for the Orff Festival. The students all met at the school at 7AM.on a Saturday. This group is completely optional. The kids meet weekly at 7am before school for rehearsal. At the end of the first semester, their "term" is up but they can choose to come back. ALL the kids came back the second semester and the group even added a few.

Brandon is having a blast because this semester they have an expanded array of instruments. He is getting to play the drums and is LOVING it!

Brandon and his buddy Jackson

He had a speaking part.

our group.

They looked so nice and were so well behaved.

the group.

Sun Fun

It was only 1 week ago that Oklahoma was setting record low temps and the kids (including Ryan) were playing in the snow and today we set record HIGHS! Craziness! It was 80 and such a gorgeous day today! The kids and I were so thankful to God for the sunshine, it was amazing to feel the warmth.
After CDO we came home and I started supper and we all headed outside with snacks and drinks in tow.

G swinging!

B3

G hijacked B2's pickup

a little jumping

Gracelyn as their cheerleader!

teamwork makes it go!
and they actually worked together!

Britton at bat.
That boy has a year before he can play T-Ball and he may be a pro by then. He loves to hit the ball off the tee.

Miss G is 16 months old!

Gracelyn Paige is 16 months old as of Wednesday!!!

that smile lights up my heart.

Gracelyn is our ultimate strong-willed child. no question. She doesn't say "no" but she says "uh uh" for no to every.thing. If she isn't a fan of what's being served she screams and refuses to eat it. Unfortunately for her (and all of our children) I don't make more than one meal so after awhile, sometimes up to 15 minutes of protesting, she usually gives in and eats. Her favorite foods...not quite sure besides fruit and pasta because it, like everything right now, depends on her mood.

wanting her paci, it's her addiction.

Gracelyn and Britton
words cannot describe how much he loves her.

she can go from this look...

to this in a millisecond!!

Gracie is such a joy in our family. She and her daddy are becoming pretty close. She actually sometimes chooses him over me now, which says ALOT. Miss G loves to bang on the piano and be a part of her brother's band and if they lay on the floor, she never misses an opportunity to tackle them. Britton really is the only one who like that, Blaine really is not a fan and Brandon is occasionally.

would not take a picture without her brother's guitar!
I'd say it makes the outfit!

Gracelyn can sign quite a bit now: please, thank you, more, all done, eat and milk. She can sign those but again, she does depending on her mood. :) Besides mama, dada. still undecipherable words for her brothers, she only says cracker. She says words but none that we can make out but what she lacks in words, she makes up for in expressions and attitude.

As you can tell I have NOT been strong enough to tackle the paci battle...

The boys never exhibited tantrums like hers. Gracie can give looks with furrowed brows in an instant. It's funny, 2 moms I have talked to with daughters G's age and only boys , we all say the same thing, how different our girls are from our boys and already at such a young age. From their mannerisms like making anything with a strap into a purse, putting on necklaces and bracelets and then fits, fits that only a girl can throw.

16 months old!!!

this picture cracks me up with her fingertips up.
Ryan put some salt on the porch last week because of the winter weather. Gracelyn wanted up on the porch to go back inside but she was NOT a fan of the salt on her hands.

My Little Valentines

All 4 kids had a party Monday but I was THAT mom who didn't have her camera for any of them, except one. (which actually was the best, I'll explain in a sec.) And I didn't get pics of the little boys in the V-day shirts.
Immediately following Britton's class party at CDO, Ryan had to pick him up because he was sick. Blaine had a fun party and he made me a card (which are just the best!) Gracelyn's CDO class enjoyed bananas thanks to one of her classmates mom. Those babies love bananas!
Regarding Brandon's party...Back after the Christmas party, which I had to miss because of sick kids and Ryan was out of town, I promised my saddened son that I would be at his next party no matter what. Well all of his parties have always been on Fridays. But not this one. Since Valentines Day was on Monday the party was on Monday as well. Mondays are CDO days so B1 came home saddened again because he knew I had to work. This was at least 3 weeks ago in the making. I didn't say anything to him but asked my boss and coworker if they minded if I left a little early. They said yes so I showed up Monday, him still not having any idea that I was going to be there. The that spread across my oldest son's face was just awesome! I love that boy!

I wasn't able to catch his first reaction to seeing me but this smile is pretty darn close!
It totally made my day.

my Valentine-ette!

one of the valentines from one of his friends was building a paper airplane.
He was concentrating hard.
and in the meantime his sister was eating his snacks...

G wiping her hands

Big bro let his shake his candy to entertain her.

By this point, we'd been there 30 minutes, she had warmed up to the room and wanted to run around, not sit and not take a picture.

That night I made a family favorite, everyone's except mine, meatloaf and then we watched a movie and the kids opened up some treats from mom and dad!
*my camera had been messed with by one or more of my little Valentines and I didn't have time once I realized this to properly adjust. such is life.

My little Valentines!
I love them so much.
Britton was not feeling well at all by that evening. He was running a 102.7 temp when I picked him up from Ryan's office after Brandon's party so he changed into his jammies when we arrived home.
Since Britton was in his jammies, Blaine wanted to be in his jammies.

Blaine and Brandon

Gracelyn checking out her goodies.
I love how she just lifted her leg up so easily.

Britton and his new watch

this cracks me up. G just dumped her bag out and surveyed her trinkets.
Then she was looking over at Britton's to check his stuff out.

modeling her new purple shades!

my card from my oldest, including a rose petal!

Snow Fun

With 2 weeks of snow that we received I had lots of activities planned inside, colorforms, coloring, play-doh, puzzles, just to name a few.

B3 with play-doh

Gracelyn did a lot of snacking, just like her mom!

B2 with his Wiggles colorforms!
Britton was quite upset that they didn't stick. I tried to explain that this way he could play with it again. He gave up and moved on to play-doh.

Ryan took the boys outside to release some energy and run around. With the cold temps it may have lasted all of 15-20 minutes. It was bitterly cold.

Berkley and Britton

Blaine

Brandon
with Ryan just a big kid himself, I sent the camera out with him but he got caught up playing so all I got were snow angels. The important thing is that they all had fun and came in a little tired and a lot cold and ready to cuddle with their mom!