Reason for procrastinating posts

So the reason I have not posted anything in so long is because I have gone back to school, well online school anyway. I am studying to become a medical transcriptionist so that I can work from home and bring in some extra cash to be able to pay for groceries and gasoline, Matt's paycheck just doesn't cut it thanks to the great economy. So keep me in your prayers as I am trying to pass the grammar section right now and am doing poorly at identifying the different parts of a sentence. I knew my skills were sad but I had no idea that I couldn't even pass a third grade english class. It is very humbling.

Cricket and Dressing Up

Just so you know, Cricket is not a dog that likes to dress up. She gets very shy and just looks at you like "Why is this funny? This is extremely degrading. I want to curl up in a dark corner somewhere and never be seen again." This outfit is one of her chew toys, she takes this and shakes it like she is trying to break its neck. Poor dog.

Here we are on a day trip with some of Matt's cooworkers. Brenden decided that he wanted to drive the boat while it was ancored, he turned the blower on and freaked us all out because the boat was in two feet of water. That was the end of his driving. We had a really fun time that day and Cricket was in heaven because she was aloud to run and be a crazy dog in the woods.

Happy Independence Day!!

On Independence Day there was no debating on which pair of pajamas Brenden was wearing to bed. These are his "Mr. Independent" PJ's and they are the cutest pajamas I have ever seen. They also show off that Brenden does not have the Poulton sticks for legs. Sorry grandma, this one didn't get the long legs, maybe next time.

Visiting with Old Friends

Our friends Russ and Rebecca from West Virginia (now in Georgia) came to visit his family here in MO and we decided to meet up for lunch in Kansas City. Unfortunately it was during the week so Matt was at work and Russ had been recruited to help his father so it was the girls and the kids. After lunch at a French bistro, we went to the botanical gardens in Kansas City where we took our photos.
Brenden loves to give little babies kisses so we took several until we got it just right.
Rebecca had to take care of "baby ana" (brenden's pronunciation, it is really Ariana) so we went to look at the flowers and fountains. We were playing in the water until we found a dead bird at the other end of the fountain, that was a real buzz killer. It was really nice to see Rebecca and meet baby Ariana. Whenever I ask Brenden about Ariana or show him pictures he says "Baby Ana loud" which is funny because she slept all through lunch and then when we got to the gardens she started wimpering because she was hungry, she wasn't loud at all. I guess he doesn't like it when a baby cries. Hopefully he'll be more understanding when he gets a sibling.

Brenden and his fruit snacks

So here are a couple of funny photos of Brenden and his fruit snacks. More often than not his fruit snacks are not fruit snacks, they are toys. It takes him a really long time to eat a pack because he plays with them like they are the characters in his movies. And there are times when he just takes out the ones he wants and leaves an open bag on the couch for Cricket to eat (unintentionally). And then I found him one night with them stuck to his face, I could not stop laughing when I discovered him.

In this photo he asked me to take, he is showing you Spiderman and The Sandman which he played with the whole boat ride. And he did not want the rest of the pack. They didn't get eaten either, I eventually was handed a very sticky Spiderman and Sandman to throw away.

VA trip

Okay, okay, so it has been a couple of months since my last posting and I have had a couple more adventures that I need to post. First we went to Virginia for a week to babysit for my brother Eric and his 5 kids + a dog! Crazy, I know! They did let us bring along Cricket so the photos will show Cricket and her mommy Honey. I forgot the fact that I brought my camera so I only have pictures from one day while we were there. It was when our friends Miya and Hunter came to visit us at the crazy house, Jacob was taking a nap like a good little boy while Brenden and Hunter decided that it was more important to hang out with each other than it was to sleep. It was one day, who cares about nap time for one day.
It was a fun trip/experience, I don't think I am going to have that many kids of my own, especially with Matt never home, I barely made it the one week on my own. It wasn't the older girls, they were pretty much able to take care of themselves and were actually really helpful, it was the fact that I had an almost three-year-old, and a two-year-old and the only time to escape them was during sleeping times. If one wasn't asking for something the other one was and vice-a-versa. There were plenty of times where they were both asking for something different or complaining that the other one had their toy. Bed time was also a headache because neither one ever want to go to sleep. Brenden is pretty good about staying in his room even if he is crying but Jacob gets out of his bed and crawls into Olivia's bed who then starts complaining that he is in her bed. And if he isn't in her bed then he is leaving the room and trying to sneak off to another room.
My last night there I found him in the twins room with a bottle of nail polish on the top bunk telling me that his tongue was burning because he had tasted the polish. I didn't really want to go to the ER or call Poison Control so I just called Matt and asked him what to do. His counsil didn't make me happy which was to keep him up for an hour and pump him full of liquids. I was really looking forward to some quiet time but didn't get any. Everything turned out okay, Jacob eventually went to sleep and I got to watch whatever movie it was that I wanted to watch.
Next time I am asked to babysit for anyone with three or more kids for longer than a day, I will seriously have to think about it.

Brenden and I did take a day off and went to visit his Great Grandpa and Grandma Clater. It is always nice to see them and visit with them. It took Brenden a few minutes to decide whether or not he was going into their house and then if he was going to be nice to them. That was the first time I have seen him be shy towards anyone. Now it happens quite frequently.

Here is a video of the kids playing bubbles.