Store Pictures

Okay, here are all of the pictures of the store, in the process of setting up!

The Tooth Fairy should be fired.

The Tooth Fairy really stinks at her job. At least she does at our house. Marissa lost another tooth (I have lost count as to how she has lost now) on Friday night. Marissa is aware that our Tooth Fairy doesn't work on week-ends, but here it is Wednesday on the next week, and the tooth fairy finally decided to grace us with her presence, and still managed to screw things up. Marissa finally came to me late last night and asked me for the perfume she could spray to let the Tooth Fairy know that she had lost a tooth. (You see, our Tooth Fairy also manages to get sick, and with a cold, she can not smell when there is a tooth waiting for her. So, Mom, being the genius that I am realized that we just needed to spray some perfume on Marissa's pillow and in her room right before bed, so the Tooth Fairy would know there was a tooth there. ) This was my clue that we had a problem. Marissa had been putting her tooth under her pillow every night since Friday, and still no response. Well, last night I was going to correct that. The Tooth Fairy called on her (sometimes) trusty helper Matt to put the dollar under the pillow last night. Well, he did do that. And only that. Marissa came to me this morning and asked if I put a dollar under her pillow. I said "No, it must have been the Tooth Fairy" She said, "Well that's weird, because she didn't take the tooth. It's still there!"

Thanks Tooth Fairy! Next time, get a better helper!

The Run-Down

So I told you all upfront that I am terrible about the blog thing. I am going to attempt to briefly update the last 4 months? We'll see how this goes. Christmas was in Utah this year, and I think I took 2 pictures of the whole trip, and I can't even find those! The kids did ski school, as did I, although they did much better than I did. I attempted snowboarding and quickly learned that I am an old dog, and this is a new trick. It didn't go well.



Marissa got baptized! She looked so beautiful in her dress that Aunt Rachel made! Thanks Ray!


Once again Gavin got hurt. This was actually the same day as the ice storm, and he slipped on the ice and hit the side of his eye. It puffed right up, and then the next morning it had all drained into his eye, and it turned into a nice shiner for about a week!

Iced-in and no school

So I am terrible at the whole blog thing. I knew I would be, and yet, just like me, I caved into the peer pressure, and here it is. So I have missed all of Thanksgiving, and Christmas, with pictures, although I am still hoping to get some up at some point.

Last night in Dallas we had freezing rain, so they canceled school today. What am I going to do? I am debating between making them all help me clean the house, which needs to be done, and being the nice mom, and reading books, and playing board games all day. Currently I am in bed, blogging. That doesn't bode well for the cleaning idea. We will see...

Marissa is in the GT program at school (gifted and talented) and she is currently studying Ancient Egypt. She is working on a report, and our assignment at home is to create a poster, or diorama of some sort to go along with the report. Soooo, she has chosen a cat. Heaven help me. I don't have a clue what to do with this. She said that Ancient Egyptians used to view cats as Gods, and this I understand, but what am I supposed to do other that put a picture of a cat on a poster board? She told me that they used to put earrings on their cats, so she wants to do that. Okay, and what else? Help! I asked her what the other kids in her class were doing. She said one kid is doing his on pyramids (great for a diorama), another is doing tombs, (again, easy) So I am left to wonder what to do with an Ancient Egyptian cat.

Our (Part) Evil kids for Halloween

Halloween at the cabin in OK! Gavin was Indiana Jones this year with a whip that played the Indiana Jones theme song over and over and over again... that song never gets old, duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh...

Ethan also wanted to be Indiana Jones, until Gavin saw it and wanted to be the same as Ethan, so Ethan graciously agreed to be a knight, because he got a cool sword!

Marissa, is a Medevil Princess, although when she was asked by my girlfriend what she was, she replied "I'm and Evil Princess" My girlfriend looked a little perplexed, and said, "Oh, You mean Medevil Princess" to which Marissa said "Yeah, I guess". My girfriend then asked her if she knew what Medevil meant, and Marissa said "Yeah, Kind-of good, kind-of bad." And then turned and walked away. So yes, here is my "Mid-Evil Princess" Marissa, kind-of good, kind-of bad... but all cute!

Little Boy Humor isn't funny to Mom's

At what point does the gross kid in school stop being funny? Seriously? When do we all collectively realize that what they are doing is gross, and that we should stop laughing and encouraging them? Yesterday, Marissa, Ethan and Karoline (a neighbor) came in from playing outside. They were all giggling. When I asked what was so funny, they all broke down laughing and told me Gavin had just peed and pooped outside in the yard. Well, apparently ages 4,5,7, and 10 years old still find this kind of thing quite humorous; unfortunatley, their Mother does not!

Camping with the Brann Family

Our first official "Brann Family Reunion". Hopefully not our last; although, there is one thing we could do without next time... What we are calling "Puke Fest 08" Which consisted of 5 of the 9 grandkids throwing up multiple times in a ridiculously short amount of time.






The weather was so perfect for us. Who knew Oklahoma was so great in November? The kids all enjoyed fishing, canoe rides, and even a little swimming!

Thank heavens we had a bucket in the car. Sadly this was the second time in the car for little Gavin, and the first time we didn't have the bucket!

Blaine's real "whopper"!

Full House for the Weekend

We got to "dog-sit" Uncle David and Aunt Aimee's dogs this weekend, and I have to say the highlight was when we took the dogs for a walk on Sunday afternoon. Gavin and Cooper rolled head-over-heels twice while they were running, and "Meister" got away from Marissa once. Matt and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was fun for everyone!

my boys

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Gavin Turns 4!

Gavin turned 4 on August 25. I can't believe my baby is 4! I feel so old!

Yes, we gave Gavin a Drum set. We are a bit crazy, but somebody's kid needs to play the drums, right?! He loves them, and they are great in the theater room, where we have extra sound-proofing.

We had Gavin's birthday party at ASI Gymnastics. The kids had so much fun. We had half the neighborhood with us!
At the end, they brought Gavin to the front to give him a present, and the coach in charge was playing with Gavin and asked him if he wanted a dirty diaper for his birthday. Gavin was not amused. When they brought out his gift (a free pass to come back and play for a couple of hours) he wanted nothing to do with it. He was so offended! Hee Hee. Even though he gets older, he doesn't loose his orneriness!

First Day of School

Cute Kids on their first day of school. Marissa in 2nd grade, Ethan in Kindergarten, and Gavin in Pre-school.

Matt's Olympic Triathalon in Austin, TX

We went out to dinner the night before the race so Matt could "carb-load" and then attempted to see the Bats that live under the Congress Street Bridge. We waited for over an hour to see them come out, and they never did. We could hear them, and smell them, and we did see maybe 5 of them; but from what we heard, there are supposed to be up to 1 million of them that come out at dusk to eat. They even had a bat festival going on that night, and no one got to see them! We were so disappointed.























Matt with the kids right before his 7:10am start time.







Coming out of the water and headed toward the bike portion.


























Matt just finished his second triathlon....This one was an "Olympic Distance" where he had complete a 1500 meter open water swim, bike 40 kilometers (25 miles) an run a 10k (6.2 miles).


He finished in a tad under 3 hours (2:53) and was pleased with the time for his first race...