Spring Break

Brandon was on spring break this week. It was interesting weatherwise. We went fishing at the reservoir on Tuesday and it was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but the kids still had fun. A couple of bites but no fish. There were two geese that kept scaring the kids though because they would come right up to us trying to get food and that was a little too close for their comfort. Then I took the kids to see GG at her apartment on Wednesday and they had a tea party and played over there for awhile. On Thursday we went to Walmart to get some batteries for a flashlight before the predicted winter storm hit and it was chilly but sunny. By afternoon the blizzard hit. Only in Colorado can you have sunny skies one minute and whiteout conditions the next. It snowed really hard all night into Friday. Mom stayed home from work because of the roads and so we all went out to play in the snowdrifts and build snowmen. The kids had a blast sledding and trying to walk in the drifts. Some of the drifts were a couple of feet tall and Jessie got stuck in one of them while I was getting the sled. They haven't had snow like this since before Jessie was born. The dogs thought it was pretty great too and they were acting like puppies jumping in and out of the snowdrifts. Saturday the snow started melting but they could still play in it and by Sunday we were outside wearing light jackets and most of the snow was gone.
Brandon and Jessie's snowman with Fearless


Brandon and Jessie climbed into a snowdrift and I am rescuing them


I included this picture because Mom told me that there was interest in what Chris's girlfriend Rachel looks like. The necklaces are ones that Jessie got for her birthday, Chris put them on her.

Jessie's Birthday

I can't believe Jessie is already three. Time goes by so fast. She can't decide whether she wants to be a big girl or little. One time she'll say she is a big girl and then she will turn around and say she is not big, she is little. She had a great time on her birthday. It was princess/tinkerbell themed and she loved it. She loves the princess, tinkerbell movies and wants to watch them all the time. I love watching her play and learning new things. It is so amazing to see her learn and grow and discover new things and get so excited over the smallest things.

Brandon is doing well also. He is doing good in school, a little trouble learning to write his numbers to 100 but is doing above average in reading to make up for it. They are both looking forward to spring and getting to play outside more often. Of course they also don't want to take naps either. Brandon is big enough to get by without one but Jessie becomes a roller coaster of emotions when she doesn't get enough sleep and I have enough trouble getting her to sleep at night much less fighting with her during the day also.

Christmas

Christmas was a hectic but fun time. This is the first year Jessie really understood what was going on. It was a little sad also as it was the first Christmas without Bill. In some ways it was a blessing that he passed away before Christmas because he wouldn't have been able to be there with us anyway and at least this way he wasn't sitting in the nursing home alone. Grandma did pretty well considering and I think the distraction was good. We took her with us to the mall to see Santa, and Jessie wouldn't sit on his lap, but she and Brandon talked to him. Then we wandered around a little bit, and they rode the kiddie rides. Then we took the kids to the playground where there was a little boy that was the same size as Jessie but probably only about maybe two, if that. He was having trouble on the slide and Jessie was trying to help him. Then he decided that he liked her and they went around holding hands. He took her to meet his mom and then Jessie took him to Scott, who was sitting in there with them. She was running around telling us she had a new friend and Brandon was following them around like a protective big brother making sure that he wasn't going to hurt her. I had to tell him to relax and that it was okay and then he relaxed and went back to playing.
Bill knew this was going to be his last Christmas and he wanted to give the kids a special present just from him, especially Brandon because they always had a special bond. Grandma suggested children's bibles that he could write an inscription in and they could have them always and pass them down to their kids. He wasn't able to hold on before Grandma could buy them, so I took her to the store and we bought them and she wrote the inscriptions for them that she thought Bill might have wanted to say to them. The kids don't completely understand the whole death and heaven stuff yet but they both seemed to understand the importance of the books and got very quiet when they opened them. Brandon especially because he is so sensitive about things. I think they will really appreciate them when they get older. All in all it was a good Christmas with lots of presents, family and happiness.

Jessie is causing us some interesting problems regarding her and Brandon sleeping arrangements. They have bunk beds with Brandon on the top of course. She keeps coming up with ways to get up on his bed. When we first got them, she just climbed the ladder so we got a ladder cover. That lasted about two weeks before she figured out how to wedge her little toes into the cover and shimmy up. so then we just take the ladder off when he is sleeping and I put it back after they are asleep. He can climb down on his own if I forget. That worked until the other day when I came in because they were very loud during "naptime" and Jess was on his bed with no ladder. She climbed onto the rocking chair that is in their room, onto the dresser next to the bed and then over the railing. We switched out the dresser with the chair thinking that solved the problem but then yesterday she was back up again. Now she is climbing up the headboards. The back of the beds are a metal with openings and there is a pretty good gap between the beds and she just swings up them like a monkey. Now we have to try to figure out how to block those or take the beds apart which then loses a lot of space that they need plus Brandon loses his personal space above. We'll see what happens.

Brandon's a power ranger. Mom made the helmet for him.
She really worked hard on it. Thanks mom.




Jessie was a angel with devil horns holding up her halo.
A perfect fit for her. She was very proud of her costume.

Halloween went really well. We went to Brandon's party at school and then met up with Aunt Betty to get their treats from Scott's side of the family. Then we went to lunch with mom and dad. Later that night after dinner we went trick or treating at the mall. That works out really well for us because they still get candy but it is safer and quicker. The kids don't get as scared that way either. After the mall we went to GG's and Bill's, well the nursing home anyway and Bill got to see the costumes. We didn't stay very long though because he was pretty tired. The final stop was Uncle Chris. The kids got to wind down there a little and run around and we got to visit with him for a little while. Then we went home and put everybody to bed we were all exhausted by then. Good day all around. Thank you to everybody that gave the kids treats. They appreciate it. More pictures will be posted on shutterfly.

Brandon and Jessie were playing dressup one day when the weather was cold. He was prince Brandon and she was Princess Binky because she refused to take the binky out of her mouth the whole time. We took a movie of them acting out their "play" and they really got a kick out of watching themselves on TV.

We took the kids to the Pantaleo farms (a farm nearby that does activities for kids) for their annual Halloween thing. The kids got to go on a hay ride driven by a tractor, which of course Brandon loves, and see all the pumpkins. Then they rode the pony rides and there was a petting zoo where they could feed animals. Jessie has no fear whatsoever. There is also a corn maze but the kids are a little too young for that. There is a giant blowup slide that is probably about twenty feet up and last year Brandon got scared so he didn't want to do it this year but Jessie did and Scott said I would need to go with her but I said she is a little monkey so let her try. She started to climb and went up like nothing. All the other adults that were watching were cheering her on because she looked so small climbing. When she got up there I wasn't sure if she would go down by herself or if I was going to have to go up there after all but we were all standing there at the bottom cheering her on and she went for it. About half way down she started not looking so sure of herself and then she hit bottom. Anybody who has seen these big slides have seen that at the bottom it is a big blowup pillow and when she hit that it stopped her quick and when I picked her up she started crying for a second because it hit her then what she had done all by herself and then she was scared. We all told her how proud we were of her and then she was fine.

Brandon got his first report card from kindergarten. He is doing really well. They had literacy testing like two weeks into school and we didn't get the results until the conference. Brandon was afraid he flunked and had come out in tears, so I was a little worried how he actually did but I didn't need to worry because he aced them. He is well above where he needs to be. The only thing he needs to work on is asking for help and he needs to be a little more focused but then what six year focuses on anything for very long. He is having a little trouble with writing but I think that is because he is supposed to be left handed and he refuses to write with his left hand. He is still abidextrious for the most part but he picked which hand to write with I think because he sees more people writing with their right hands. It is coming along pretty good anyway and luckily I can write with my right hand when I am helping him with his work so as not to confuse him any worse. All in all everything is going well with him.

Brandon is doing well in school so far. He keeps asking me why he has to go because he thinks he is already smart, at least we keep telling him so. It's amazing the difference between him last year and this year though. It is like everything he learned last year is kicking in this year and he keeps popping up with little tidbits of info that I didn't even know he knew and showing us stuff that I know he learned last year but wouldn't show us. It is so amazing to watch both of them growing and learning and getting so excited over things we take for granted.

Jessie was making crafts the other day while Brandon was in school and I showed him the picture she made. He assumed it was for him and asked her "you made this for me?" She just went along with it and said yes (luckily). Then he told her that it was very pretty and asked me if he could hang it up. I figured he wanted it on the fridge with the others but he had me hang it in the living room so he could see it from his chair so that he can admire it any time he wants to. Then the other night, Brandon started crying because his sister is not a baby anymore and he misses the baby things she used to do, and because he won't be able to pick her up much longer (he wasn't able to pick her up until recently anyway). I had to remind him that she will always be his little sister and he teaches her things everyday and there will always be new adventures as they both get bigger. He is such a sensitive little boy and sometimes he acts way older than six.

Jessie is as entertaining as ever. She is learning so much from Brandon that I forget that she is only two. She already knows her alphabet and can count to thirteen consistently and higher sometimes with prompting. She is recognizing her colors to a point and her vocabulary is through the roof. It is funny to watch people's reactions in public when they see this tiny blond thing that looks younger than she is and then she starts having these big conversations and saying things very clearly. It tends to take them back slightly. For example, the other day we went to a book fair at mom's work. Mom was carrying Jess so she wouldn't get into trouble and there was a lady looking at books right by us. Jessie all of sudden pointed to her arm and told mom that that was her arm bone and that she has bones in her body and so does mom. The lady had to do a second take because she was so surprised that someone that small would say something like that and it was so clear. The only thing baby about her is she still has her binky. It makes me a little sad sometimes because I feel like I didn't get my baby for very long but I guess that happens when you have an older child teaching them stuff.

By the way dad's 60th birthday is this year so if anyone has any ideas on how to celebrate this milestone that doesn't cost a lot of money, we would appreciate any suggestions.