Brenna's Six!

Shortly after school got out, it was Brenna's birthday!  She has been looking forward to it for so long since the whole family gets their birthdays before hers, and so it was a pretty special day for her!  A couple of years ago I started doing this streamer thing across the door of the birthday kid so they can bust through in the morning, but now with nighttime potty breaks and nightmares and all of the different interruptions through the night I never know where to put them.. so the top of the stairs it is!  And she came in bright and early to wake me up already dressed in an outfit that she very carefully picked out!  I made her go back and read books for a bit because it was 6 AM, and I hadn't had a good sleep (pregnancy is rough that way).   

 

 

 

 We had breakfast and then went out to check out the pool and make sure that it was ready for the party.  I opened the gate and let Brenna and Mason in, then I turned back to grab something, and Brenna fell in the pool!  It was so funny!  She has like never fallen in the pool, at least not in years.  She had her hair all done, birthday outfit on, and she reached for a pool toy and fell all the way in!  I couldn't stop laughing!  She didn't think it was that funny that her birthday outfit was soaked!
This is her covering up while her clothes dry:

 

 
Brenna has been saying for a while now that she wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday.  Now, last year she said this to, but after I showed her a video of how it's done, she backed out and said maybe when she's a grown-up.  So I wasn't sure if she was serious this time, but she insisted, she was ready to be brave and she was excited!  I was more nervous than her!  There was only one person working, so they had to do one at a time, and I wasn't sure how it would go!

 

 

 

 

 
She smiled through the whole thing, barely even flinched, no tears, no "ouch!" nothing, just smiles and brave faces.  She really impressed me!  And she LOVES her earrings!  She reminds me to clean them all the time and is always spinning them and checking them in the mirror... such a little lady!

We got some ice cream to reward bravery, went to a great sale at a store nearby, then came home to Skype with Grandma and show off the earrings!  She got to open Grandma and Grandpa's present while Grandma watched, and immediately put on the swim suit they got her (thanks for the gift by the way, it is so nice!) and she kept it on for the whole day! 

Her party involved cousins, family, swimming, pizza, piñata, presents, cake and ice cream!  Good time was had by all I think!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching her have a great day!  Thank you to everyone who helped to make it awesome for her! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 (this is by far the cake I am least proud of in my career I think... but a cursory picture was taken anyway)

 

Today her Grandpa Cook came after dinner and took her out for ice cream, and made her feel very special, and so thank you for that too!  She is a special girl who loves to take care of people and is usually very sweet and we love her so much!  It's fun to spend a day celebrating someone you love!

Graduation

So, I have not been blogging much, and so here is a couple of updates, all about Brenna because she has had some special things happen lately!  Starting with her kindergarten "promotion".  It bugged me a little that they wouldn't call it a graduation.. haha but it was very cute.  And I have a full video of their program complete with me sobbing in the background a little, but it's pretty long, and I realize only a few people would enjoy it and nobody nearly as much as me, so I will spare you and stick with the photos! 

So they started it by having the other teacher read a letter about how much the kids have grown and such, which is the part that I cried at the most.  And then they had a song to sing about kindergarten.  Then they had a musical play (Brenna was a star dancer, hence all the stars on her!) which was cute.  At the end they sang a song about first grade and got their certificates from the principal.  He was sure to shake everyone's hands nice a firm, and it made all the kids giggle.  So fun!

 

 This is Brenna and her friend Grace from church and school!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Brenna and her teacher, Mrs. Chew!

The boys were good, but a bit of a handful, especially at the end when Jeremy had to leave for work and the place got crazy and crowded and it was hard to keep track of them!  Troopers being dragged along to all sorts of things!

As a final note, I cannot believe that she will be in first grade next year and go to school all day long.  It makes me a little scared and emotional, but she is growing up fast and I am so proud of her!  I guess you have to let go a little at some point!  Who knew it would come so fast though!!

I feel like I have so much to be thankful for lately, and I haven't written any of it down or taken any pictures!  I am sort of failing in those departments!  But I have felt really bad about not taking pictures, so I promise to be better!  I should have like 100 to post next week of Brenna moving on from Kindergarten anyway! 
So it was my birthday on the 22nd, and I was treated very well!  It was on like a Tuesday I think, so it was a pretty normal day, but the kids were very into being nice to mommy and doing anything she wants for the day, so that was a treat, and Brenna kept spontaneously making presents for me to keep the magic going!  Jeremy came home from work a little early so that he could make some dinner before running out again, and my sister-in-law spent the afternoon hanging out with us too!  She also got me a blizzard to help keep us cook while we watched the kids at swimming lessons! 
A few days later, my parents, and two of my sisters came to town to visit!!  FINALLY!  We had been waiting and counting down so long!  IT had been quite a while since we'd seen them, and we were full of excitement!  We took a mini vacation out to Gilbert for the week where we can pretend like we have no worries!  My sister brought her one year old, and her husband for a few days too, and it was so nice just spending time together!  I definitely enjoy this time more now that it's more rare!  The boys did a lot of golfing - most of their special time was spent on the golf coarse.  And we got to do some girl things too!  The first day we got pedicures, and they were really nice!  A special treat!  We ate a lot, the kids swam A LOT and were in heaven our whole trip!  We did some shopping, we got to see a play at the Hale Theater, which was really neat!  It was lovely weather both for swimming, and for playing outside.  We played lots of games in the evenings and got little sleep... it was wonderful!
Jeremy's birthday was also while we were out in Gilbert, and he got to go golfing at a nice course and was even allowed to beat my dad for his special day!  I made him a Reese's Peanut Butter cake which I think was a hit!  We also went out the whole crew for dinner at Texas Road House!  Always an adventure with 4 little ones, but it went really well considering!  It helped having 9 adults probably!  My Aunt and Uncle were in town too and it was nice to spend time together!
We had to come home Sunday for callings, and Brenna had to go back to school :(.  But we had a great time, and goodbye wasn't as hard as usual since in a few more weeks I get to go up and visit them!  And see my brother and his wife who we missed having here!
We got to see my parents one more time before they left.  We are so lucky that even though we live so far apart, my kids know them pretty well, and love them very much!  They can't wait for our Canada trip, and neither can I!
We have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to, and, it could be the pregnancy making me emotional... actually Jeremy would guarantee that's it, but I am very grateful for our family here, family far away, friends, my sweet kids, and all of our blessings!  And this pregnancy has been going so smoothly (knock on wood) and is quickly coming to an end, which is so exciting since I can't wait to hold my baby girl!  I am 28 weeks today.  Feeling good, feeling her move almost constantly!  Brenna graduates Kindergarten, turns 6, and then we go to Canada, then Jeremy's sister is visiting from Ohio with her family when we get home, and I will be counting down the days till baby's arrival!  Very excited for the next few months! 
I wish I had more pictures or something... soon, I promise myself I will have some! I didn't even get any on Mother's Day, which was also very lovely!  Fail!