Oh What a Night

So even though my birthday was last week, Dustin threw me a big 30th Birthday Bash last night. It was awesome! We rented out a laser tag place and spent the evening with our ward friends playing games and eating food. (Oh! All. The. Food. ...But that's another story!)(This is my favorite of Jensen- I love this little guy!)

There were plenty of fun games for the kids.I think the adults had fun, too.


We also played lots of games of laser tag...which of course we have no pictures of! Thanks Josh (one of our awesome home teachers) for showing us all how it's done and winning every game!

This was Dustin and I at the end of the night.We wore ourselves out with all the fun, but thankfully we didn't have to clean up a thing! And of course the night wouldn't have been half as great as it was without my mother-in-law. She helped feed my kids, played games with them, and she even got them in their jammies, brought them home and put them to bed for us! I could not thank her enough!

I told Dustin that I didn't want any presents for my birthday, but I did want a really fun and memorable party. I got just what I ordered. Thank you, Dustin, and thanks to everyone who came to help make my night so wonderful.

The Napster

Carson started "Mother's Day Out" (a.k.a. his school) today. He was so excited to go and play and have lunch and snacks! We went to check it out last week and got to play on the playground and in his classroom for a little while, so he felt really comfortable when I dropped him off this morning.

At the end of the day (from about 1-2pm) they have a nap time until the parents arrive to pick up their kids. The parent packet suggested that you send your child with some kind of nap mat or blanket to sleep on. Carson hasn't napped regularly since this summer, but I thought a special nap mat might help him at least settle down and be quiet. So after a little online research I found a design that looked good. I also figured it would be easy enough to make (and about 1/2 the price). And that is just what we did. It was perfect because Carson got to pick out the fabric that he wanted (Cars, of course) and I got a fun project to work on. And since I discovered that Jensen was equally excited about this...and I had plenty of supplies, I ended up sewing two.They came out so cute (and were actually about 1/4 of the price I found online). And I probably would have saved myself a little time and stitch picking if I'd actually had a pattern, but I didn't make any mistakes I couldn't fix, so I can't complain.

Carson likes that he can fold it up and carry it.It's cute and apparently very comfortable, because when I went to pick him up, he was dead asleep! Maybe all I needed was a nap mat?

Oh Yeah...

You know what this means. Well, actually since 99% of you have probably never seen my garage then you probably don't know what this means. You see, the little silver Mazda 6 (a.k.a "my car") used to park on the left side, and the new Mazda CX9 (a.k.a. Dustin's car) used to be parked on the right. But now that our sagging garage door has been repaired (which means I can put groceries in the back and lift the rear gate without it getting scratched) and we both got sick of moving car seats on the weekends, the "yours" and "mine" have been officially switched. Which meant, due to the placement of some storage shelves in the garage, the vehicles needed to switch spots.

Dustin really enjoyed driving the "new," "good" car for the past several months. But don't feel too bad for him, he still gets to drive it on the weekends!

*And aren't you impressed that we can fit 2 vehicles AND our other various garage junk like Christmas, camping, lawncare, and 5 strollers INSIDE our garage? Well, you should be.*

Rainy Day Picnic

We usually tend to complain about the heat around here, but not lately. (Let's agree that it's better than having snow, ice and sub zero temps!) I guess we'll just have to put up with our "Texas Winter" for a little while longer. So what do you do when it looks like this outside?:We like to have rainy day picnics and watch movies. (Hence the reason Carson is not interested in looking at the camera.)Also on the agenda is lots of game playing and I'll probably get roped into playing hide and go seek, too. Thank goodness we have some upcoming social engagements (i.e. birthday parties!) to help break up our cabin fever!

Make Your Own

Tonight we had English Muffin Pizzas for dinner. I remember making these when I was young. They are fast, easy, and fun for kids to make. Carson likes to help put the sauce on.Once Jensen figured out that the cheese was supposed to go on the pizzas (as opposed to the pan) he was a pro.Once they're topped, they only have to bake till they're warm and the cheese is melted.And it has been our experience, that kids usually eat something that they helped make.
(But let's be honest, these are not gourmet. The adults found them to be much more palatable if we toasted the muffins in the toaster before topping and baking. But they are fun, and they are fast and easy...and the experience is sometimes more important than the rest.)

Hair

While I personally love long hair on my self, I do not like long hair on my boys. Dustin is always asking me to grow their hair out. Carson's used to be longer, but it also used to be thinner. But not anymore. Now he has hair like my little brother. It's like a bush- it's thick and grows straight out of his head- a straight fro, if you will. Which means this kid needs to be on a 2 week hair cutting schedule. But since this last month was a bust, we let a lot of things go. Hair was one of those things. Hence, Carson's wild bed head this morning.
Looks like I might be getting out the clippers today for a little shave.

New Year

In case you didn't know, we've spent the last 2 weeks under quarantine due to the flu and various infections. It was quite the way to send out 2009. But now that 75% of the Brudnicki's are finally feeling better, we're hoping in the coming 2010 we will be rid of sickness of all kinds! (Well, we can hope any way.) Thank you to all who have helped us out in the last couple weeks (especially Dustin's parents who rang in the new year by having our kids over for a sleep over last night!!!) Happy New Year.