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Here is a video of Emma playing her piano. She LOVES this thing; often you wonder where she is at, and then you hear the piano and you know. This particular video was taken at almost midnight Thursday night; she has had trouble sleeping with her ear infection. She does not look tired at all in this video, but I was exhausted.
If the dishwasher is open, Emma is there, trying to decide what to try to pull out first.
Emma's first time in a swing.
Emma and Braden; she loves her big brother! (I love this picture; well, except for the red eye)
Rocking out on her piano again; she really does LOVE this piano. Braden loved it too when he was little, but Brooke never really wanted anything to do with it. 
If Emma isn't playing her piano, she is usually sneaking into the bathroom. She loves taking baths. Emma crawls in, pulls up on the side of the tub, and stares longingly into the tub; I joke that she is thinking about her next bath and plotting her next splash. Walgreens is where it is at!!!! Where do you go if you have a sick child that needs medicine filled, but you don't want to drag them out of the car once again? Walgreens' drive thru pharmacy of course, one of the best inventions known to mothers around the world, or at least in the great US of A! I had to take Emma to the doctor today, with the other 2 cuties in tow, because I thought she had an ear infection; sure enough, she does, so there is medicine to be filled. In the past, I would have trucked it to Wal-mart, dragged all 3 children inside, turned in the prescription, and would have wasted time in Wal-mart for 45 plus minutes waiting for it to be filled, only to go back and be told it was not ready. No more will I be a victim of the Wal-mart, slow as crud, not well versed in Southern hospitality pharmacy; I have discovered the amazing world of Walgreens. Walgreens came to bless our dear little town a few months ago, and now they have my allegiance; I will fill my prescriptions with no other!
I have a confession to make, I hate tantrums. Wait, I don't think that is strong enough; I detest, abhor, loathe, dislike with every part of my being, condemn, and spit upon tantrums! Why oh why must children have them? Why do my children continue to have them, day after day, week after week, month after month?! It is not like they are rewarded for their flair for the dramatic, but still it continues. "Mama, can I have a piece of candy?" "No, you can not." Then it begins: the whining, the crumbling of the body to the floor, and occasionally the kicking. My response as I walk away, "I don't think that will get you your candy, but if that makes you feel better, go right ahead." Or, "Mama, can I watch a movie." "No, you have watched enough television today." Again, the whining, the body crumbling or the body throwing in Brooke's case (she is a very dramatic child), and for good measure a few ear piercing shrieks (Brooke's specialty). Rich's response, "Come on Brooke, you can do better than that; I've heard you scream louder than that." Brooke eventually gets angry and looses her steam. We also often put the children in their rooms until they can mingle with society in a civilized way, and so we don't slowly loose our minds listening to them; feigning complete ignorance to their tantrum has also been a tactic of choice around the Maseda house, just pretend it isn't happening, and it will go away. You get the point, there are no rewards for the tantrums, but still they continue; they have improved and continue to do so as Brooke and Braden get older, but I want them to disappear, fade, melt away, come to naught, and cease to exist AND FAST!!!
What was supper like tonight? Crazy, chaotic, a zoo; yeah, I think those words would accurately describe what transpired tonight. To begin the evening, Braden informed me that the mashed potatoes and the green beans that I put on his plate were gross. I told him that I loved to know that he didn't appreciate what I had cooked. The conversation went something like this. Braden looks down at his plate and says, "This is gross." I reply, "I'm so glad to know that you don't appreciate what I cooked." With shock on his face Braden says, "I didn't say that." To point out the facts I reply,"You just said that the food was gross." Braden clarifies, "I just mean the mashed potatoes and the green beans are gross." (the only other things on the plate were grapes and pizza loaf) To make sure he likes some of the meal I ask, "So, you are saying the pizza loaf is not gross?" He reassures me, "No, I like the pizza loaf." Then he quickly adds, "Didn't we have this yesterday?" I add a new word to his vocabulary by explaining, "Yes, we are having it again, because we had some left over; we are eating leftovers." "We don't usually have leftovers, because Daddy is here; he usually eats most of it and takes the rest to work." This conversation was followed by a conversation about how Braden calls Rich Swiper the Fox, because Rich swipes our food and takes it to work. If the food is so gross though, I don't know why he cares. I would like to point out in my defense, that Brooke ate three helpings of green beans, three helpings of grapes, her pizza loaf, and her mashed potatoes, and she looked at me in the middle of her meal and said, "Mama, you are a good cooker!" Yay Brooke! Well, yay for the comment, but not yay for her behavior. After the critique of my cooking, Brooke and Braden pretended their forks were a mama and her son, Brooke proceeded to talk loudly in a made up language known only to her, Braden pulled his shirt over his head, Brooke kept getting out of her chair, Braden continued to sing, "Calling all super readers!" and "Super Why saved the day!", Brooke ran around the kitchen yelling to no one in particular, "I'm gonna knock you out!", and Braden then got on all fours on the floor and pretended to be a dog. While this was all going on I was chopping up grapes, beans, and bread for Emma, attempting to eat my own supper, trying unsuccessfully to start conversations with Braden and Brooke, and trying to discipline while keeping my cool, wishing the entire time that Rich was home. Sounds hilarious I know, but the humor of the situation didn't hit me until the end of the meal. At one point during the meal, I was thinking that I would probably look back at tonight and laugh, but I wasn't feeling any tinges of laughter, just frustration, exhaustion, and a longing for Rich to get his hiney home. It wasn't until I looked down at Braden on the floor, down on all fours, tongue hanging out, panting like a dog, that the laughter hit me; in fact, the humor of the situation and sheer ridiculousness of everything hit me so fast, I had to leave the table. I knew that there was no way I could keep the laughter in, so I quickly walked away to laugh in secret and then returned to the table. I thought that I had composed myself, but realized very quickly I was wrong. I had promised Braden and Brooke that we could play hide and seek after supper, but of course after their behavior, that was no longer an option. While Braden and I were still sitting at the table, waiting to see if he could at least stomach two of his gross beans, I told him that we wouldn't be playing hide and seek after supper. He innocently asks, "Why?" I thought, he has GOT to be kidding me, but I kept my cool and replied, "Let's see, you and Brooke have been crazy tonight, you were down on the floor pretending to be a dog...", and that is about as far as I got before I broke out into laughter and so did Braden. SEE, Rich NEEDS to get home; it is usually at this point that I cowardly run away from the table in a fit of laughter, while he stays and deals with the hoodlums until I am composed enough to return and put on the parent face. Don't get me wrong, I don't always loose myself to the laughter, but there are just some times that they are just sooooooooo stinkin' funny! I would like to point out though that I did quickly regain my composure and finish the conversation and the discipline, but I do so miss the other team member of the tag team! Hurry home BOY!
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Well, it is official; Brooke turned 3 yesterday. It is hard to believe that she is 3 already; it seems like only yesterday I was in the hospital getting ready to have her, and now she is here and taking on the world. To celebrate her birthday this year, we decided to have a birthday carnival; the initial plan was to have her party outside, but the weather was obviously not in attendance during our planning meeting. We ended up making it work though; we just scaled back just a tad and brought the party indoors. The night before we set up the games, made the cakes, and Rich and the two oldest cuties worked on painting a clown for the Feed the Clown game. Since it was a party for 3 year olds and a couple older children, we decided simple was better. We had a fishing game, a Clothespin Game, a Bean Bag Toss Game, and a Feed the Clown Game, where the cuties threw bean bags into the clown's mouth. Last Saturday Brooke and I had gone to the store and bought little prizes for each game; we got enough so each child could go to each game 3 times. In addition to the other games, the party goers also played candy walk, just like the tried and true cake walk, just with candy and with a lot less work on my part. After the games, our guests and the party girl dined on hot dogs and chips, followed by two pink glitter smiley face cakes. Initially Brooke had requested a pony cake, but I subtly guided her towards the smiley face cake, with the promise of sprinkling pink edible glitter on them (which you can't really see in the pictures). Next year I might attempt a pony cake, but I knew we were already doing the princess package at the salon, and I just didn't think there would be time for everything. She loved the cakes though; in fact as soon as Elizabeth arrived, Brooke first took her to the kitchen to show her that she had two pretty pink glittery smiley face cakes. Well, after the food and festivities, it was present opening time. From all of her guests and her Aunt Heather she received the following: a bath time Dora (Emma also has enjoyed this gift), some miniature horses and fence, a decorate your own scrapbook, a coloring book (from Braden), books, pink shiny dress up heels (doesn't want to take them off-wore them to church today), a Princess book with a CD player, a Barbie, an outfit for the Barbie (of course loves the Barbie), and a Veggie Tales movie (watched it today). Rich and I got her a bicycle, a helmet, a purse with makeup, and a pink golf club. I guess I should say Rich got her the golf club; Rich has been promising Brooke for quite a while that as soon as she turned 3, he would take her with him to play golf. Now she is three, he is making good on his word; of course he has to make sure she is well equipped first, and did I mention he made sure she had a pink golf ball to practice with?! Brooke had a fantastic time, and she loved everything! I think her favorite gifts though were pink dress up shoes and her makeup. The bag is one of those you find at Wal-mart around Christmas, but I bought it after Christmas; you know $2.88 marked down to $1.44. She has carried that bag around ALL day asking me to open this and that, applying so much lip gloss that her lips are going to shine for days, and begging to paint her nails (which I guess I will have to do tomorrow). I'm glad that Brooke had such a good birthday, and I'm glad she really enjoyed herself; I guess now I need to start planning Emma's 1st birthday party. She is going to be 10 months old next week and a year old in two months; can you believe that?! Children seem to grown up so fast, no matter how much you savor the moments, and no matter how much you beg time to slow down, they keep growing and the time keeps slipping away. I guess I just need to keep grabbing that camera of mine and keep catching those moments in time and keep living each day like it could be my last. Live, Laugh, and Love; that's my motto.
For Family Home Evenings in 2008 we have decided to follow the Primary Outline for Sharing Time this year, "I Am a Child of God." This past Monday was our first week using it, so even though Braden is going to be doing the third weekly principle, we started with the first: 'I am a child of God. I lived with Him in the premortal world. I am created in His image.' Often it is hard determining what spiritual topic to discuss each week, so we thought using the outline would be perfect; it is a way to reinforce what is being taught at church and go a little deeper. At this age, Braden and Brooke have such a desire to learn about anything that has to do with Heavenly Father and Jesus, but it is funny how they each take turns having their angelic moments. Case in point: During the lesson, I read part of the Proclamation on the Family and we discussed the line that states that we were created in God's image: "All human beings-male and female-are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny." I talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus both had eyes, arms, noses, mouths, ears, etc., and that we also had these things. I then asked them what they each could see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Brooke proceeded to tell me that you could hear jungle animals, 'snakes hisssssssssssss, lions ROAR, and tigers ROAR.' Braden however had a sweet angelic moment and said, "You can hear people when they need help." I then talked about how grateful we should be for these wonderful bodies that we have been given, and we talked about how we exercise and eat good foods to keep our bodies healthy and strong. Brooke sweetly adds, "Mommy, you exercise to keep your body healthy." I said, "Yes, I do Brooke; you saw Mommy exercise this morning didn't you?" (of course I didn't mention that I was also exercising in an effort to evict the 5 pounds that seems to have taken up residence) To finish the lesson, we talked about how we lived with Heavenly Father before we came here, and we talked about how if we pass the test we will live with him again as an eternal family. Brooke of course was very curious, "Mommy, what kind of test?" "Well, Brooke we have been given a body and sent here to see if we will do what is right." Brooke continues to look at me with a quizzical expression, so I continue. "We have been given commandments and the scriptures as a guide to tell us what to do and not to do, how to treat other people, and how to live our lives." "If we do these things, we will be blessed by getting to live with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and each other forever." Children have the sweetest spirits; when I finished explaining everything to Brooke, her little face was lit up with excitement. I love it when we have Family Home Evening, and the kids really feel the spirit. I am determined to make sure to give my children opportunities to feel Heavenly Father and Jesus' love for them; I want Braden, Brooke, and Emma to do what is right out of their great love for Heavenly Father and Jesus, not out of fear. I don't want them to live on my testimony or on my light; I want to give them opportunities now to gain that testimony little by little, and I think having Family Home Evening is an important ingredient. Well, after the lesson and closing prayer, we adjourned to the kitchen to enjoy the Dora popsicles Rich had bought for our treat. Overall, I think it was a great Family Home Evening, and you could tell Braden and Brooke really got something out of it. Brooke definitely wanted to read the scriptures and learn more, because later that night Brooke brought me the children scriptures and wanted to read. She noticed quickly that I was busy nursing Emma, so she said, "You read, and I will hold them." She had everything figured out, how could I say no?! Braden however wanted to watch television instead, so he was not pleased when I turned it off; see what I mean about them taking turns having those angelic moments?!
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Can you say, LOVES THE LADIES?! Rich, the cuties, and I went to eat at Chick-Fil-A last night, so of course there were other children there. One of those other children was a little girl that Braden took a fancy too. He looked at her and said, "You're pretty!" (He is too young to understand the art of being subtle) Luckily the little girl was very flattered, and she quickly ran to tell her father that Braden had told her that she was pretty. To which her father replied, "Well, you are pretty." I wonder if her father will answer the same in a few years when his sweet little girl is a teenager. I know Rich is already making his plans of defense for when his girls are teenagers, to protect them from boys like Braden who LOVES THE LADIES!!!
Sometimes when you go out in public with your kids, you just brace yourself and hope they don't say anything too off the wall, but you know they probably will. Having taught school, I understand that young children say the first thing that comes to their minds; they are not being rude, just brutally honest. In fact, as a teacher or anyone that works with young children, you need to be aware and comfortable with any faults you have, because if you aren't they will point them out to you. "Didn't you wear that skirt last week Miss. Crolley?" "I'm going to be bigger than you when I get older." "Girl, you're fine!" (I have to admit I liked that comment, not your typical you're pretty comment, but I'll take it) "I don't think you are really fat yet Mrs. Maseda." (I was pregnant with Braden) "I still think you are skinny Mrs. Maseda." (I was so pregnant, not skinny AT ALL, the dear sweet child) You get the picture, kids open their mouths and you don't know what you will hear (sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes appalling); you just remind yourself that they are just kids and let it roll off your back. Some adults however do not have that ability, like a certain older bearded man in Sam's yesterday. Rich and I were going up and down the aisles picking up various items in an effort to replenish our food storage while attempting to keep Braden and Brooke reigned in and Emma happy. We were almost done with our shopping list when Rich and I both heard Braden shout out, "Hey Santa!" We quickly looked up to see an older gentleman with a long beard, and ponytail I might add (not like any Santa I had ever seen). He quickly walked by with a scowl on his face; I guess he was not too impressed or pleased with the Santa comment, but his wife sure got a good laugh! I say, "Get over it!" "He is only a kid!" "We all need to learn to laugh at ourselves sometimes!" In fact, one thing that makes children so entertaining is that they are so spontaneous, both with their actions and their words; you never know what they are going to say or do next. I still remember my granny telling the story of one of her most embarrassing moments. It started out as an innocent little shopping trip with her daughters and her 3 young granddaughters. What started as innocent and peaceful quickly spiraled downhill, at least in her eyes. One minute shopping was taking place, and in the next minute my cousin Katherine was playing in the middle of the clothes racks, my sister Elizabeth was disrobing at the front of the store, and I was enlightening a woman on her height challenges. Being young and not well versed in tact, I simply stated the obvious, "You're short!" I don't know about all of you, but the mental picture of my granny standing in the middle of the store, watching all of this transpire, wanting to run screaming from the store in embarrassment makes me laugh! Meanwhile, my mama and my Aunt Ann calmly handled the situation; when you are a mother to young children, you become an expert at dealing with chaos and keeping your cool (well, most of the time; we all have our moments).
Every month Rich and I interview the kids: favorite food, favorite color, etc.; it is funny to look back just a month earlier to see what changes and what doesn't. Here are the answers we got from the cuties today. (Emma of course is too young, so I will dedicate a blog entry to just her later)
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Favorite Foods: ice cream, doughnuts, waffles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples (I'm glad he listed at least one healthy thing)
Favorite color: Red, pink, and purple (it is safest not to ask Rich about his son liking pink and purple)
What do you want to be when you grow up? a rock and roll star Why? because rock and roll stars are cool
Favorite Song: Five Little Speckled Frogs and the Twinkle Little Star song
Favorite Movie: Barney and Mickey Mouse
Favorite Toy: my cars
Favorite Animal: puppy
Favorite Book: Bing
Favorite Number: 2
If you could go anywhere int he world, where would it be? a party Why? because I like parties
Favorite TV show: Elmo
Favorite person in the Scriptures: Jesus
If you could have one magical power, what would it be? jump really high
What is your favorite thing to do with:
Daddy? play cars on the floor
Mama? go on dates
Brooke? play babies
Emma? sing and dance
Who is your best friend? Riley (He informed us recently that Riley is no longer his girlfriend; they are just friends. He says he is done with girlfriends; we'll see how long that lasts!)
Brooke
Favorite Food: tacos, chicken nuggets, bread
Favorite Color: pink
Favorite Song: Teach Me to Walk in the Light
Favorite Movie: Barney
Favorite Game: Sally Game
Favorite Toy: Sally car
Favorite Book: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Favorite Animal: Horsey
Favorite Person: Mommy
Best Friend: Sally (Brooke's Imaginary Friend)
Favorite Letter: M
Favorite Number: 6
Favorite Dessert: Strawberry Milkshakes
What do you want to be when you grow up? a rock and roll star Why? because I love rock and roll stars (her answer should have been, "Because I want to do everything my brother does.")
Favorite Thing to do with:
Daddy? go on dates
Mama? go on dates
Braden? play with him
Emma? crawl with her
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? to the park Why? because I like to walk to the park and have a nice fun trip
Favorite Person in the Scriptures? Jesus
Brooke can definitely hold her own in almost all situations. Today we walked Braden upstairs to his classroom, so I could pay for his cap and gown (Braden is going to be sooooo stinkin' adorable) and to talk to Braden's teacher about his progress. While I was busy talking to Christy about graduation, an upcoming field trip, and what things Braden has and has not mastered, Brooke made herself at home. She confidently sashayed (and I do mean sashayed) over to the Housekeeping center and quickly started playing with the girls in Braden's class. When it was almost time to go, I let Brooke know that she had about 5 more minutes to play and then we had to leave; she responded, "Yes, ma'am." Then she looked back at the girls, placed her hands on her hips, and said, "My mama said it is time to go in five minutes." It was so funny to see the other girls working so hard to keep Miss Priss happy, even bringing her a chair to sit in. Later as we were getting in the van, I asked Brooke, "So did you have fun playing with the girls?" Her response, "Yes, but they made me so angry!" I guess they laughed when she didn't want them to laugh. What a sassy priss pot! Luckily for us and this world, she has both sugar and spice! Most of the time we see the sugar, but when she needs to, the big guns come out and the spice starts flying! She can hold her own and then some!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, I did say the bomb; hey cut me a break, I am excited! I am now officially in love, as in love as you can be with a computer program, with Adobe Photoshop. No, I am not an expert, but I am learning about all of the cool things it can do. Here is my most recent creation:
Okay, so what do you think? I admit, it is still not perfect (I am way too much of a perfectionist), but I think it looks pretty good for one of my first attempts. (In case anyone is wondering this is my brother and his fiance Amanda's hands)
*I would like to point out that I had just recently woken up from a Sunday nap (hence the somewhat sleepy look). Okay, I had to write this down before I forgot; I was attempting to wash the dishes (cleaning is always an attempt with 3 children 4 and under around), when Brooke comes into the kitchen and announces that she no longer has an imaginary friend named Sally. She declares that she in fact has 3 imaginary friends all named Sally; one is 12, one is 13, and one is 7 months, and she also informs me that one has yellow hair, one has brown hair, and one has blue hair. The Sally that is 7 months has yellow hair, but I am not quite sure about the older 2. Where does she come up with this stuff?! I love her imagination! There is never a dull moment with Brooke around!
For those that don't know, we, the Masedas, are a dancing family, especially the cuties and I; Rich is a good dancer, but sometimes it takes a little persuading to get him to join the party. We dance while we cook, dance while we clean, and dance just for fun; my question to you is, 'Why would Emma be any different?!' Emma has become our resident Booty Shaker; it started about a month and a half ago, at the ripe age of 7 months (almost 8). For Father's Day I had given Rich a musical card, which played the song Celebration; of course after some abuse from Braden and Brooke it no longer worked when you opened the card, so Rich was going to throw it away. Being the pack rat that I am, I rescued the card from a possible early demise; I knew that I could use it for something, and I was right. I got the card working again; well, during the repair process Emma was sitting beside me. At some point, she really started listening to the music, and then I realized she was dancing; I couldn't believe it! I quickly closed the card to see if I had been imagining things, and sure enough she stopped and gave me that, 'What are you doing?!' 'Open that thing again; I want to hear the music.' So, I opened the card, the music started again, and so did the dancing. At first she could only bop up and down on her little bottom, but now that she can stand she gets her legs into the action. She also has progressed past Celebration to other songs, but her favorite is still Celebration. Here is a video of "our booty shaker" dancing to her favorite tune; I hope you enjoy it! I just wish we would have started filming her a little sooner, when she was really shaking her cute little legs! Isn't she just the cutest little booty shaker?!
Well, it finally happened; I beat Rich's cute little butt at Scrabble! Usually what happens is that I start out with a good lead, Rich narrows my lead, and then passes me to take the lead and eventually win, but not this time. This time, I came, I saw, I pulled out all of my exquisite word skills, and beat his cute little butt! Of course, I must admit that Scrabble is half skill and half luck; if you don't get lucky enough to pull out a good combo of vowels and consonants your little Scrabble boat is sunk, but this time the luck (and skill ;) ) were with me! Obviously, I informed Rich that he and I didn't need to play Scrabble again, because I like being the reigning Scrabble champ of the Maseda house; that should at least give me a couple months to enjoy my new title, because Rich is way too competitive to not want a rematch (a couple months should give me plenty of time to hone my word skills and study my friend 'Webster').
Now that I have basked in my Scrabble glory, I guess I should move on to what we did the rest of New Year's Eve. Last year we went to a friend's house, but this year we opted for a quiet night in as a family. We watched movies, ate pizza, popped popcorn, played games, and watched the ball drop. Besides Scrabble, we also played Twister Moves, which is harder than it looks. After a while, the cuties and I gave up and just did our own thing; we decided that we could do better on our own anyway! Rich however stuck out to the end, and did a much better job than the rest of us keeping up with the dance instructions; Brooke in fact announced, "I am tired of playing this game!"
All in all, it was a fun night and a perfect way to ring in the new year!
