Braden's First Primary Talk

Today Braden gave his first Primary talk at church (Primary is where all the cuties from 3 to 11 meet together), and he did a great job! I was worried, that I would go up with him and end up doing the talk for him. I never quite know how Braden will do in various situations. He has made himself quite at home at school, but sometimes at church he shies away from doing different things. My worries luckily were unfounded; I whispered his talk to him, and he did the rest.

Here is what Braden said (he assisted with the writing of the talk) :

I am a Child of God.

I love him, and I really love Jesus.

I say my prayers.

I go to church.

I am nice to my family, and I try to be nice to everyone.

I try to make good choices.

I want to always serve Heavenly Father.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Rich said that he could hear everything Braden said (he had come in just to hear Braden's talk), and Braden was so proud of himself when he finished. I guess my little boy is really growing up, not too fast I hope.

Speaking of my little boy, I took a few pictures of Braden today in the backyard to commemorate the first day he gave a talk, and I ended up really liking a few of them. Now is where all of you come in; I want to print out one of these as his kindergarten pictures (I couldn't bring myself to pay the price for his school pictures), but I can't decide which one is the best. Below are my favorites, please leave a comment as to which one you like the best; some of them are the same picture just cropped a little different. I look forward to your feedback; thanks!

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

Halloween Party

Tonight was the Halloween party at church. First order of business, get the food ready; worm cupcakes check, chili, check.

Second order of business, costumes. Luckily, this year was fairly easy; Elizabeth (my wonderful sister) bought a costume for Brooke last year after Halloween (great deal on an adorable ladybug costume), Emma was going to wear Brooke's old Indian costume, and Braden decided he wanted to be a soccer player (easy enough, he is on a soccer team). Actually, Braden first wanted to be a window (yeah, your guess is as good as mine), then he wanted to be a doctor (perfect, he still fits into his costume from last year), and then he decided he wanted to be a soccer player; that is until this morning when he informed us that he wanted to be a pirate, not a mean pirate mind you, he wanted to be a pirate who didn't do anything. I'm sure his sudden change of heart had to do with a certain movie we rented last night for Maseda Movie Madness Night (didn't want to wait for the library; I'm like number 21 on the list).

After Braden's change of heart, Rich and I scrambled around to try to put a pirate outfit together. Luckily, Braden had a pair of black sweatpants someone had given us (which he refused to wear), so I cut the bottoms off of them and then cut fringes. We put one of his t-shirts on him with a white church shirt over it with the arms rolled up; he already had a pirate vest, eye patch, and bandanna in the dress up container, so Rich went to the Dollar Store and got a hook, a telescope, and a play gun for $2 (gotta love the dollar store). Next, Rich went to Wal-mart and bought a pirate hat; it was $6 (we figured it was worth the money; we can add it to their dress up clothes), and he picked up a scarf to tie around his waist. Rich then came home with the goods, and he began the pirate creation, completing the look with a drawn on mustache and beard. Once the children were dressed, I scurried around getting my costume ready for the night, and then of course we took pictures.

The most adorable pirate and ladybug I have ever seen:

Where I dare say is our little Indian? Don't worry, pictures of her are soon to follow. She let us know very clearly that there would be no photo ops until the actual party began. In the meantime, may I present to you...

The Pumpkin Thief

I wish I could take credit for the ingenious idea, but I can't; I can only take credit for making the shirt. Rich presented the idea to me; I simply executed the plan.

Once we were all dressed, the food was prepared, the camera was ready, and the diaper bag was well stocked; we all loaded into the van, and headed to the church for fun.

Here are some pictures of our fun evening (including pictures of our little Indian-who is showing quite the attitude in some of her pictures):

(Emma refused to wear the Indian headband that went with the outfit; it was sooooo cute too, well, while it was actually on her head.)

But wait, before I end this tale of fun and frolic, I must present to you the proud winner of the Best Dressed Boy Award.

Drum Roll please!

Here he is, our cute and adorable Braden Maseda, the pirate who didn't do anything;

yet, he does it soooo well.

My Children~the Rump Shakers

In our house we are three for three, you may be asking three what?!? There are three children in our house, and all three of them love to shake their rumps; I like to refer to them as our resident "rump shakers." They hear music, and it begins; they jump up from wherever they are at and run to the source of the music, and the rump shaking commences. To say they love to dance would be an understatement.

Here is some evidence:

(like always, turn off the tunes at the bottom first)

and here is a little more:

Where do they get this love of dancing? Is it because I listened to music constantly when I was pregnant with them? Is it because their granddaddy loves to dance? Is it because their great granddaddy also loved to dance? Is it because their great grandmama loves to dance? Or is it because their mama and daddy both love to dance? Yes, I think it is in their genes. It is inevitable; they were born with the rump shaking in their genes, there was no way to escape! Dancing is part of their everyday life, and in our house that is how it should be! I leave you now with a video of a mother (yes me) teaching her daughter the fine art of rump shaking, just like my daddy taught me. No alas, my mother is not the one who passed down the rump shaking gene; it was my Casanova, slow dancing, shag dancing like nobody's business daddy who received his rump shaking gene from his father and mother, and now I continue the tradition and pass it on to my children. I have fond memories of being twirled around the living room and shag dancing with my father; I hope my children will remember our impromptu parties of music and dancing and one day share that love with their children (though in this video Braden refused to join Brooke and I in our dancing festivities, which is a rarity).

This video was of course taken back in early May, pre-pregnancy; you will notice the absence of a rather large belly. I hope this video will not just generate a laugh but will inspire you to turn on some tunes and do a little rump shaking of your own. There is nothing a little rump shaking can't cure,

so put on those dancing shoes!

My Little Reader

Here are some pictures of my little reader, Braden. Braden has always loved looking at books. In fact, every night he asks me to bring him a pile of books for him to peruse before drifting off to sleep; often one of those books is still open across his lap, while he however has drifted off to dreamland. Until now though, he simply enjoyed looking at the pictures, but now a whole new world is opening up to him; his confidence in himself is growing, and today he was sweet enough to share his emerging talent and love with his sister. When he was done reading, Brooke excitedly exclaimed, "Braden, good job, give me five!"

Braden was also kind enough and patient enough to help Brooke try to read his book. I love moments like these, and that is why I try to capture them all on film; I like to look at them when they are having a heated disagreement (like the somewhat positive spin I put on that) or coming to tattle to me about some minuscule offense. It helps me remember that there are more peaceful good moments than moments on the battlefield.

I Wanted to Knock Him OUT!!!!!!!

My precious little Emma got attacked yesterday, when we took Brooke to dance class. I wanted to knock the little boy OUT!!!! It happened so quickly; he seemed like he was just playing, and then he attacked! He scratched her poor face in two seconds flat, and she was too shocked to do anything. Considering the little boy is about the same age of Emma, knocking him OUT was not an option, just tempting! His mother apologized profusely, but it did little to rectify the situation; I thought it best just to keep my cool, and take Emma to the bathroom to clean up the blood. Yes, she was bleeding after the attack; can you see now why I was a little livid! It's too bad that Emma was in such shock, because if not, she would have taken that kid OUT by herself! She is one girl that usually has no problem

taking care of business herself!

This is what Emma's face looked like after the attack.

This is how sweet her little face should look.

I must also point out that the mother said she didn't know why he would do that, he has never done anything like that before, blah, blah, and more blah. If I remember correctly, and I do, she was the same woman who before class started (the attack took place after class) told me that the little boy's sister had just that day ripped his pacifier out of his mouth scratching his face. Perhaps that is where he got the idea, where the seed was planted.

Hmmmm, ya think?!!!!?

Preschool Maseda

Well, so far so good with preschool; every morning Brooke wakes up and wants to know what we are doing for school. Here are some pictures I took last week and this week, including some of little Emma painting. The cleanliness of my house is suffering a tad (okay, more than a tad), but at least it is worth it; Brooke is learning a lot, and she and I are able to spend precious time together.