Our Favorite Hero

Last week was Father's Day and I have been thinking a lot about the wonderful father my kids have been blessed with.  Louis does so much for all of us, without thinking of himself.  He is endlessly serving us.  He is patient, he is smart, he is kind, he is strong, he is fun, he is silly, he is Christlike, he is selfless, and so much more. 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  I was able to sleep in a bit today and woke up to breakfast (toast with cookie butter) made by the kids!  I think it is one of Avery and Mary's favorite things to do.  Avery had cut out tiny arrows and taped them on the walls leading me to the present she made for me, so after breakfast she helped me follow the arrows to my gift.  We did our home church, then got ready to have my Mom, Dad, sister, and niece over for lunch.  Louis made grilled salmon and bratwurst, we also had pasta salad, cantaloupe, chips, and a few desserts.  It was a really nice afternoon having a few family members over.  Late this afternoon I was able to take a bath while Louis folded laundry (something I have been terrible at keeping up with lately) and made dinner.  We ended the night with Avery teaching a little lesson on Moms, she had everyone go around and say something I'm good at which was sweet!  Ethan thinks I'm very good at turning on video games for him to play.  

I always hoped motherhood would be a part of my journey here on earth.  I tried to prepare myself for that role throughout my life.  I babysat, I took several classes (that I loved!) in junior high and high school that taught me different homemaking skills and taught me about the development of children, I worked in a day care, I was a nanny for a year, and I loved on my nieces and nephews!  Nothing can really prepare you for this role though!  There are things I feel I do well as a mother and things I feel I struggle with.  I'm good at organizing and scheduling.  I'm good at teaching my children.  I'm a good cook and am good at meal planning.  I like to think I'm really good with newborns.  I struggle with patience.  I'm not good at keeping up with cleaning my home, it's almost always tidy, but not cleaned.  I'm bad at remembering to take one on one time with my kids.  And Avery says I'm not so good at letting them stay up late!

I still have a lot to learn and a lot to work on, my kids are helping me with that every day.  Throughout the last 9 1/2 years of motherhood, I've been so grateful for these little ones that call me Mom.  I'm so grateful for all they bring into our home.  Avery is fun and helpful.  Mary is thoughtful and sweet.  Ethan is funny and has the best laugh!  Wyatt is curious and smart.  Logan is smiley and sweet.  I'm so grateful I get to be the one to care for, love, and teach them.  It's hard, but it's worth it all.  I look forward to next Mother's Day when all of our children will be here with us earth side!

Easter 2020

The day before Easter we were supposed to be in Ephraim at the Pugmire's house for an Easter egg hunt.  With the current COVID 19 pandemic, that was cancelled.  You can't have social gatherings of more than 10 people and the Brandleys are slightly more than 10 people.  That night we were surprised with a phone call from Tifannee, they had set up a social distanced Easter egg hunt in the front yard for our kids!  Nana, Papa, Kami, Tif, and Kaileb stayed in the van while our kids ran around collecting their eggs.  It was a sweet surprise for all of us!

On Easter Sunday we stayed home pretty much all day, the only time we left was to drop off an Easter surprise at my parent's house.  We started our day doing a 12 eggs of Easter lesson led by Louis, he had hid the 12 eggs around our living room and the kids took turns finding an egg and reading apart of the Easter story inside.  After we did that we ate breakfast followed by searching for Easter baskets.  Last year Louis made a rule that if you need a clue to find your basket that it would cost you one piece of candy per clue once you found it!  Both Avery and Mary needed a clue this year and Mary needed some extra help finding her basket even after her clue.  We had hid it in the laundry room in a hamper full of clean clothes!
We had two different Zoom sessions that day, in the morning we got on with my family to do a testimony meeting including the testimonies from all of the returned missionaries in the family.  In the afternoon we had a meeting with Louis' family doing a little primary lesson.  The kids loved being able to virtually see cousins and aunts and uncles that they hadn't seen in weeks.
That night we enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared entirely by me, usually Louis does most of the cooking for holidays.  I made ham, yummy potatoes (funeral potatoes), rolls, and roasted broccoli.  We had a wonderfully simple day together.  I am so grateful for our Savior and that because of Him I get to be with my sweet family forever.

Christmas

Christmas 2019 was an interesting one because we were in the middle of everyone getting sick!  Somehow Louis and I missed it, but all of the kids took turns being sick.  On Christmas Avery and Ethan were getting over the sickness, but Mary was right at the beginning of it and was just miserable.  She didn't even want to sit up to open her presents, she just wanted to lay there.  So sad!  We still had an enjoyable day together, I love spending these special holidays together as a family.

Halloween

We hosted a Halloween party for some of the neighbor kids, they all had so much fun doing a few games and just running around playing together!  We started the night out by painting some small canvases for the kids to take home.  We then ate our dinner, we had mummy dogs, pumpkins, pumpkin guts, spiders, and ghost juice.  After we ate our food we played a couple games, ghost bowling and poisonous frog.  Then all the kids just ran around playing together!  I'm not sure if it is something that we will do every year, but it was fun!

This year for our costumes we did a superhero theme.  Avery was Wonder Woman, Mary was the Flash, Ethan was Superman, Wyatt was Batman, and Logan was Wolverine.  Wolverine's real name is Logan in case you didn't know!  The kids were so excited to wear their costumes to school and for their class parties!  That night we went to the church for the trunk or treat and then we drove around to a few neighborhoods for the kids to go door to door.  Halloween is really not my favorite, but it is so fun seeing their excitement, especially Wyatt who really got what was going on for the first time!

I just about died over the curl Louis put in Ethan's hair!

Easter 2019

We started our Easter celebrations a week before Easter with the annual Pugmire Easter Egg Hunt.  They moved to Ephraim last summer and it was our first time being able to visit them there.  The kids love this tradition and I'm glad we were able to make it!  Especially because the majority of us had all been sick the majority of the week.

The night before Easter we slept at our new house for the first time!  The upstairs bedrooms are set up, the two basement bedrooms still need fixing up, but we made it work!  It was fun to wake up and get ready for the day in our own home.  It was also really special to see two rabbits in our front yard on Easter morning, the kids thought it was so awesome!  After church the kids were able to go look for their Easter baskets.  Louis told the kids that if they needed a clue they would owe him a piece of their candy.  Avery was the only one that ended up needing a clue. 
Easter evening Avery taught a special lesson about Jesus Christ and His last few days earth and ending with His resurrection.  We are so grateful for our Savior and all that is possible for us because of Him. 

Valentine's Day

Louis and I will be in Italy visiting my parents over Valentine's Day!  So we decided to do a little celebration before we leave and celebrated last night.  I got Louis this cute little Lego set of a couple having a picnic, and I used that as my inspiration for the night!  We can't exactly go have a picnic outside with the three feet of snow that is on the ground (I'm not exaggerating with that number) so I did an indoor picnic for us instead!  I laid out a red checkered tablecloth and put some battery powered candles around it.  I prepared some lasagna, broccoli, and French bread.  I put out the Lego set for us to do together and called it good!  We enjoyed our dinner while listening to music, after we were done we heart attacked our kid's doors!  We ended the night by putting together the Lego set.

It was a simple, but really sweet night together.  There is very little that I love more than just being with Louis.  It doesn't matter what we're doing.  I am grateful for the love that we have shared these last 10 years, and I am so grateful for the eternity we have left together.

Today we did our annual candlelit pizza dinner!  I think it is one of my favorite traditions as a family.  We had a few extra people join us this year, Louis' parents and his younger sister Kami.  We had pepperoni pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and bread sticks.  Louis even made everything so I could finish a project I was working on.  We enjoyed our dinner and we also went around the table saying what we all love about each person.  Most of the kids whined the whole time because going around the table was taking too long, but it was still a nice time as a family. 

Christmas 2018

We had a nice quiet Christmas at home this year.  The Keeffer's got together on Sunday for a Christmas dinner, and a nice nativity put on completely by the kids.  The Brandley's are not getting together until the 30th to celebrate Christmas.  It is a nice change to just be home with our little family for the holiday.  On Christmas Eve morning we had a knock on our bedroom door.  It was Avery and Mary.  They had made us breakfast in bed!

Louis had a job interview that morning and was gone for most of the morning. (possibly more on that later) 

We watched a Christmas movie and built Christmas creations out of Legos while we waited for him to get back.

The rest of the day was spent playing games and relaxing together.  That night we had our annual $5 Christmas Eve dinner.  The kids call it whatever we want dinner.  What we do is we give each person $5 and they get to go into the store and pick whatever they want for dinner!  

We always get the craziest variety of foods, but the kids love it!

After dinner we opened our Christmas Eve jammies and took a bath before watching a 

Christmas movie together and heading to bed.

The kids slept in longer that I expected them too on Christmas morning, the older three were up around 7:30.  Wyatt is our kid that sleeps in (bless him) so we ended up gathering in our bed and watching a movie while we waited for Wyatt to wake up.  I can't even count how many times the kids asked if we could wake up Wyatt yet.  Finally at 9, we went in and woke him up and headed downstairs to open our stockings.

Santa always bring each of us a little box of cereal for breakfast, so after the stockings were opened we ate our cereal and read the story of the birth of Christ.  The kids were definitely getting antsy to open the presents under the tree!  It is so fun to see twinkle of excitement in their eyes as they each get their turn to open a present.  The rest of the day was spent playing with their presents, eating too many treats, playing games, and relaxing while listening to Christmas music.  It was a sweet Christmas and we are very grateful to my parents who are letting us stay in their house while they are on their mission and that we have had such a wonderful place to celebrate.

Christmas 2017

Oh how I love Christmas!  It's such a magical and fun holiday.  It was especially fun seeing Ethan and Wyatt be able to get into the fun as well.  This Christmas season we were able to get together with family to make gingerbread houses which ended up being a lot of fun, we went to the Willard lights for the first time, and of course we played in the snow!

  

For Christmas this year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home.  Christmas Eve started out with going to church and that night we went through the story of the birth of Christ before opening up out jammies and watching a movie.  This year we watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I was awful this year and procrastinated wrapping presents until Christmas Eve so that is how Louis and I spent the evening!  Hopefully I'll be better this year!  Christmas morning came and we enjoyed opening stockings and our presents.  That afternoon we headed to Ogden to be with Louis' family, while we were there Wyatt started really walking!  He's now walking all over the place and it has been so cute watching his wiggly walk.  It was a nice simple Christmas and wonderful to be around family.