AHHHHHHHH!

MY KIDS ARE CRAZY!!!!

WHY ARE THEY SOOOO LOUD?!

SERIOUSLY!

Seriously...

Christmas list

Briggs typed this on the computer. But it should be noted that he chose Harry Potter font to write it. The blog doesn't have Harry Potter font...



Things I want for Christmas! From: Briggs
1.crayola explosions glow dome
2.transforming wall.e
3.new white board pens
4. tooth
5. New webkinz
6. New wii game
7.new ds game
8.pokemon movie
9.see new Alvin and the chipmunks squeaquel
10. Lego Christmas set
11.wooden painting eggs
12.fun stickrs
13.new white board erasers

Remembering

These pictures keep popping up on my screen saver and I can't help but share them. They are from our 2005 Lake trip. And, no, I didn't take most of these pictures.

B-R-I-G-G-S

From 2009-7

Many people ask us where we came up with the name for our second child. Sometimes I give them a more lengthy explanation, but usually I just say, "It was the name right above 'Brigham' in the name book" (As if this is any kind of explanation... They usually have a puzzled look on their faces still).

From early on, Briggs learned he often had to repeat himself when asked what his name was. When he was two, he taught himself how to spell his name. I had written his name on a jar we used for incentives during potty training. Whenever he saw the jar he would chime "B-R-I... G-G-S!" in a sing-song voice.

Now, armed with knowledge, when confronted with the ubiquitous question,"What's your name?" He would repeat by rote, "Briggs. B-R-I...G-G-S." He wouldn't even wait before he clarified. The unfortunate thing was most people didn't expect a two year old to start spelling their name, so they were often left more confused than when they started.

Apparently, the whole family has now adapted to the problem of confusing, unique names. Brian overheard this conversation the other day:

Adult: What's your name? (directed at Briggs)

Briggs: Briggs.

Ty: Yeh. It's Briggs, And his user name is "Briggyboo".





Oh, technology!

Calling all Tooth Faries!

Briggs lost his first tooth!

He taught our FHE lesson on Monday. The topic was "Cooperation". The activity was working together (mostly dad) to pull his tooth out!

Family Day at the Dunes

We had such a fun peaceful picnic at the dunes. These pictures hardly capture the beauty of the day.



Looking out to the ocean



Meet Legolas. All of us had to work really hard not to pass out while the lactic acid built up in our legs just to reach the top of the dunes. However, Briggs scampered to the top like it was nothing. He is so thin and agile he must just float on top of the sand. The rest of us would be panting on the picnic blanket at the base of the dunes and the next thing we know, Briggs is at the top. Then he'd come down for a bite of sandwich, then scurry up again.



Rolling down the hill. Notice Ty on the left and our tiny picnic blanket at the bottom of the dune. The sheer angles of the dunes were really hard for me to capture with my camera.



The little white flecks in the sand are remnants of seashells that have probably been there for ages. Ashlynn and I collected a pile of smoothed over shells that looked like butterflies. It really is amazing to find these shells so far back from the ocean.



It really made Ty mad that once he got to the bottom of the dune, he had to go back up if he wanted to get back to our picnic blanket. It was too hard to walk horizontially along the dunes - much better to go up to where it leveled out. Except where our blanket was, the base of the dunes was marshland, so it was too messy to walk back to the blanket that way.



Too tired to walk on his own. Looking out at Morro Bay.

We all went home and took naps.

Day off

Both Brian and the kids have the day off today. (Notice I didn't say I have the day off. Does that mean I never get days off or every day is a day off for me? Hmmm... Something to think about...)

I think we will go play in the sand dunes and have a picnic lunch at this beach.



(picture of the whole Rober clan, trying to get one sweet little boy to look at the camera!)

Calgon. Take me away.

A girl can only take so much.

Like:
Getting hit in the head with a hockey stick while you are getting the kids ready for church all by yourself even after saying, "Boys. Put the hockey sticks down while I'm getting you dressed. I DON'T WANT TO GET HIT IN THE FACE!"

Or

Having to stop the car on the way home from church to make sure that the 3 year old who just got a marker shoved down his throat by the six year old is okay. (I know. Sounds impossible while wearing a seatbelt.)

I don't know what it is , but my kids have been out of control lately. Maybe it's the time change. I'm even willing to believe that it has something to do with the barometric pressure change - cause there is something going on and I'll take any explanation I can get.

However, I'm pretty sure what it comes down to is my flagrant bragging about figuring my children out, as seen in this post. Have I not learned: when things are going smooth - KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT OR YOU ARE GOING TO JINX YOURSELF!!!!

Have you ever noticed that? Right when you start getting comfortable, you get thrown a "behavior" curve ball.

Well I'm done playing ball. Can someone please tell the umpire?

It's in the mail.

The other day I couldn't find Ty. This is a regular occurance. I'm pretty sure all but one of my neighbors thinks I'm totally irresponsible.

I take that back. They all do.

But he usually turns up somewhere. One time the whole neighborhood was searching for him when we finally found him in the "basement" of his bunkbed (that's under the bed in Ty speak).

The other day I found him here in the mailbox. He'd ridden his favorite pink and purple hotwheels down to the mail boxes and was hanging out, singing to himself, inside the box.

It brought a smile to my face. I wish everything he did brought a smile to my face. I'm working on that.

Cowgirls, Luigi's and Toads

Happy Halloween! (late.)

Progress

Ty continues to make progress towards becoming a little more mellow and less like Tenny the tornado.
Just this morning, he got into a fight with Briggs. He started screaming and yelling at Briggs, and just as I came upstairs to see what was going on, he had started doing his typical "destroy everything in sight cause I'm mad!" trick. I stopped him just as he was dumping out puzzle boxes. I calmly picked him up and carried him into his room where I told him he needed to calm down and then he could come out of his room and we'd talk. Before leaving the room I told him what I always do, "Don't destroy your room or I'm going to be mad." He does this routine pretty well, and after a few minutes he comes down saying, "Mom. I calmed down now."
Today when he said this I told him we needed to talk. "I know you were angry because Briggs wouldn't let you have the remote. I'm sure that made you feel mad inside. But that doesn't make it o.k. to start destroying everything around you." I was bowled over when he replied, "But how do I make Briggs listen?"
Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal to anyone else, but this is a huge breakthrough for him to communicate this. Now we have something to work on when he get's into Godzilla mode.