This is a picture of bright after opening his first present. A calico critters "general store". it's basically a girls toy, but we won't tell him that. it's a miniature grocery shop with tiny fuzzy animals being the shoppers. everything in miniature and bright is really into miniature things right now, hence the legos. Here's bub playing with his boat trailer lego's and calico critters store thing. Here's asher watching him play. It was hard for asher to leave all the new toys alone, but he did really well. Bright just plays on the table with them and asher can't reach them to ruin them. if you look closely mabe you can count the teeth!
Bub had so much fun on his birthday. with each new box he was as excited as the first. he kept asking, "mama, is it still my birthday?" I was asked this about 4 times throughout the day I think he was feeling like he didn't want it to end. I was surprised that he didnt fight at bedtime! finally after a quick webcam chat with grampa, he went straight into bed and said "I'm tired mama." Then when I tucked him in he said "thank you for my birthday, mama. it was nice"


watch how excited asher gets with the marble run. this marble run has over 200 pieces, and it took me an hour to put together what you see, apparently I am not a good engineer.

Bright bright is 4!

Today is Bright's birthday! He woke up to find a present at the foot of his bed and was super excited for his gift of calico critters. Little animals that have clothes and things. he likes miniature things lately. legos and mighty world are big as well. in honor of his birthday I just thought I would post some pics of bright through the ages. he's changed so much since he was born and watching those changes has been the greatest gift. Everyday I think of how lucky I am that I was chosen to be his mom. He makes my heart beat, this boy! Here he is on the day he arrived, May 14th 2005. Here he is around his first birthday. completely bald save a few platinum strands. with daddy shortly after moving to grand forks. his hair is getting longer here, and I remember that was the day max heard him say more than the usual words( mama, no, yep) he was saying sentances, and max was FLOORED. "watertower" was I think the biggest one he said that day here are his cute curls. I will miss those the most, even more than the wrist wrinkles. his third birthday last year. THE SHARK TENT! it's still a favorite. this was last christmas time. This was today.

eco lazy

everyone who knows me knows that I try my best to be the girl who has it all together. but everyone who knows me knows that I dont. most of the time. I am still holding on to my fantasy that I will successfully morph into Bree from desperate houswives, pearls, classical american decor and all!
ANYway, as some of you know, 3 weeks ago I decided to swich from disposable diapers to cloth. HUGE decision for me. I am so ANTI germ i should own stock in lysol. I have always been aware that our environment is worthy of being taken care of. I believe that people are in control of how much or little we effect our environment from the things we buy, who we elect and how we live our lives day to day. taking that into consideration, I just couldn't think of all the poop I would have to deal with if I was to use cloth diapers. the more I thought of it the more i could imagine how many hours I would spend washing the HECK outta those poopy "diapers". I used to think that just throwing them away was so much easier. UNTIL.....



The Bumgenius diaper. My good friend Renae told me how much she loved them and how easy they were to use and take care of. she really made me feel like I could do it. So I ordered some and began an experiment. I decided that if I didn't love them, or found that washing was becoming too much, or if I was getting really grossed out then it was over and they were going up on ebay. well 3 weeks later I LOVE Them. they are easy to wash, and even easier to put on. no folding, no weird attchments or pins or anything. very up to the minute in cloth diaper tech. the inside where they touch asher's bum is SUPER soft I almost want some undies for myself made out of them! the only challenge is that you can't put diaper ointment on their bum then put the diaper on, it will cause the fabric lining to become repellant to, um..."liquids". so, I haven't masterd that problem,but since asher rarely gets diaper rash, I am not worried. I don't think I would cloth diaper a newborn though. with all that a newborn brings to the house in terms of adjustment, laundry, and schedule there's enough to do. ubt I am thinking for our next one (or two!) I will probably start at about 4-6 months.
I also do other things at our house that are considered green or eco, and I really enjoy feeling more eco-responsible. even if I can't quit driving and ride a bike everywhere (can you imagine in my climate!?!?) i can still do things that will lessen my impact.

I recycle what I can. we don't have curb pick up so I have to drop it off at the recycle center.
I use green cleaning products made from plant oils and other things like vinegar.
I reuse anything I can. old grocery bags are repurposed into small garbage can liners.
I have plastic barrels out side our house for rain catchers. when it rains, I catch the water and use it for plants.
in every room that has a window we open the curtains and use the sunlight instead of overhead lighting. We get an amazing amount of sun, and it's starting to make an impact on our energy bill.
the only wash cycle that gets hot water is diapers, everything else is cold.
bed sheets no longer get dried in the dryer. an extra rinse and then put on the bed damp, this allows for a natural dry and de wrinkle all in one!
instead of snacks, I let the boys eat the food off the floor from previous meals, cuts costs AND saves on the vacuum energy (gross..and you thought I actually did that!)
I buy most things on ebay. REUSE! and you save tons of $$
I changed the thermostat to be a bit warmer in summer and a bit cooler in winter.
During the summer I buy local produce and eggs from the farmer's market, buying local and organic backs my comminment to organic farmers and what they are all about.
At the grocery store I try hard to buy products that are made in factories with wind energy. Lundberg farms, and Annie's Naturals. both brands have amazing products, even if you hate the eco movment their food still tastes better than the alternative.
IF I COULD- I would switch to wind energy. our power company doesn't offer it, so I can't even though I want to. someone should write their senetor....

Anyway, I hope you try some of the things that I mentioned. If a lazy Bree wannabe like me can do it, you can too!

oops

ok so I had known max's squadron commander's wife and her family(2 young daughters under 6 years old, both gorgeous one has downs) for a while when this lovely situation happened: I went out with the squadron spouses for a spouse get together, and was talking with 3 girls and the sq. com. wife was next to me but talking with a different set of gals. so my girlfriends and I are kinda in this heated discussion about adultry and what "cheating" means and all that. I won't lie, margaritas were involved. anyway, I was saying retarded a lot. for some reason it was my word of the day and in our conversation I was retarded, he was, she was, the people were acting that way, whatever, I was saying it a lot. I finally realized that we were talking quite loudly. did I mention the margaritas? of course I had forgotten that the commanders wife was sitting next to me (she was afterall talking to the other end of the table. I was mortified so much after I realized what I was saying, I know she heard, she had to. but I thought "retarded is a word that everyone says and it's not meant personally to her or her family, I'm confident in our friendship enough to not bring it up" so I didn't really think about apologizing, especially on the off chance she didn't hear me; but since margaritas have a megaphone like effect on my voice, I know she did.

Today I got an email from her. it was a group email sent to the spouses regarding
www.r-word.org

wow, now I really feel retarded!

new friends

I decided to brave the 1 degree weather (and max's rear wheel drive car) with the boys today for a trip to the indoor play area at the mall. we stopped by the pet store first and looked at the cute little boston terrier puppies, too bad I didnt wear my big coat or one of those little guys would have stowed away! Asher was squeeling with delight as the puppy licked his tasty fingers. bright loved snuggling it but DID NOT want it licking or trying to lick him! then on to the play area. I saw that the oly other family in the play area was a family that we frequently sit by in church and see at Awana during the week, but have never acually "met". needless to say we met and talked for abut an hour about our families and a mutual hatred of the current weather situation in GF. bitter cold, snow, ice terrible driving and bundling up kids just for short errand trips. She's from puerto rico and misses it, but really likes the military life though they are not currently active duty(both she and husband are former active duty air force). she invited me to lunch, and though i knew it was dangerously close ashers nap time and a meltdown was imminent, i agreed. she was so kind and giggled at all my attempts to be funny, so polite of her. her name is joyce. she has twin 3 year old girls and a 5 year old girl. the kids all got along well and her and i talked as if we'd known eachother for a long time. it really feels great when that happens, like God placed her in the mall just for me. It has been an ongoing prayer of mine, with each move, that I find fun godly women to be friends with. sometimes it takes some time but I really feel like I have a good group now.

woodland creatures

today bright and I were talking about animals. which ones were our favorites of the ocean, land, desert, river, etc. then he said "foxes are my favorite of woodland creatures. they're so orange" adoarble. something he said that was not so adoarable: last week he came to me, "mama, Asher sucks." first I was wondering where he got this word, knowing it was probably me or max I faked shock & responded with "what?!?why? and dont use that word again please!" "well he just sucks because he had a big poop, mama. can you fix it?"
why do most little boy stories revolve aroud dirt or poop??

we're still alive!

SO! we are still alive and well. Washington has thrown all it had up it's sleeve at us(feet of snow, ice, torrential rain, Floods) and we are still here and loving it. NOT looking forward to the day we say our goodbyes to our lovely northwest, but it will soon come. We love family, friends and familiarity and have been overcome with it since we arrived. There's nothing like driving down the road that you grew up on and feeling like you know every curve and dip and speed limit. being able to see everyone I want when I want to, is a luxury more people should be able to enjoy and take advantage of. I can't wait to share all my memories of my trip with my Grand Forks friends, and see my sweet husband whom I miss so much. It seems that with each deployment I get used to it more, and more independant, yet I miss him more each time. Anyway, we still have some time left here in WA, and we will max out each moment! more posts to come when I am bored back in ND! :)