New Niece

We got a new niece yesterday. Welcome little Aubrey Jane. Well, maybe I shouldn't say little, she was 9lbs, 2oz. Gotta love those giant babies and their round faces!

We're excited for you Jeff and Stephanie! And Sydney will be a great big sis!

Memorial Day 2012

We started off our Memorial Day with our traditional Scout's Pancake Breakfast. I love to go to these because we get to see the flag raised, hear the national anthem and eat breakfast! Here are my three sons getting ready to enjoy the mornings program.

 This year they kicked it up a notch and had a fly over. The boys loved this! Mason was particularly interested in the big loud plane and said, "Plane. Flying."We got a good look at it too, because he flew over us twice. 

 After the breakfast the big boys headed out with Dad and Grandpa Brudnicki to the lake to do a little fishing. Grandma Brudnicki, Mason and I joined them for a picnic lunch a little later. Mason and I also got a boat ride, and he keeps telling us the same thing when we ask him about riding in the boat. It sounds like he's saying "shadow" but none of us have been able to decipher the meaning of it, which is unusual for Mason, since he usually speaks pretty clearly.

 Carson got to stay out on the boat with Dad and Grandpa for a little longer and ended up catching his first fish- all by himself! Dustin and Grandpa were so proud of him! I love this first picture. Maybe it's the smile, maybe it's the sunglasses, but it is for sure 100% adorable!

 And it wasn't long before he caught another, even bigger, fish. This picture also cracks me up, as the excitement seem to have worn off!

 We really had such a wonderful day together with our family. I am especially thankful for those servicemen and women who have bravely fought for this country. I can't celebrate these holidays without sharing my gratitude for my own grandpa, Perry Jensen, who served in WWII and the Korean War. I enjoy hearing his stories and learning about his excellence as a pilot. I love him for a lot of reasons, but I'm also thankful that we have him as such a wonderful patriotic example in our family.

Water Day/ Field Day

Today was Jensen's last day of Mother's Day Out this year. On the last day, they always have "Water Day." He was excited to wear his new swimsuit and to play in water all day. I'm glad I took this picture with his teachers, Ms. Ruth and Ms. Penny, in the morning when I dropped him off, because when I went to pick him up he wasn't in the best mood. He had fallen and scrapped his knee on the pavement and I think the excitement of the day + no nap made him a little grumpy. But he had a great year in the Frog Class. He's very excited to be a Bear next year!

 Carson also had Field Day today. After dropping Jensen off at school (and then going home to unload groceries) Mason and I stopped by the elementary school to check out what Carson was up to. I LOVED Carson's teacher, Ms. Little. She was awesome all year. For Field Day she made headbands for all her kids and then gave them some game paint to make them look extra tough! We're sad because she won't be teaching at their school next year. 

 Carson and his good friends from school enjoying a little snack.

 And Mason was mostly content to chill in his stroller while we walked around outside. He did throw a major fit when we got home and cried in the backyard for about 5 minutes before coming in the house. After that he snuggled in my lap and played with my hair for 15 minutes until I finally convinced him to get up and eat lunch by offering him a sucker. Yeah, he hasn't been feeling very well all week. As further evidence of that, my back is suffering from all kinds of pain because I've been picking him up a lot. Here's to hoping we both get feeling better real soon!

Sunday Morning Zoo

This morning I was treated to a little trip to the Brudnicki Zoo. The boys gathered all their stuffed animals and organized them into groups. I loved that the "arctic" animals were together. And all the monkeys were cracking me up.

They also had a giraffe, dog, bear and chipmunks. :)  

 This was my very favorite, though. Can you see the animal in the "aquarium?"

There he is- a little sting ray! (How creative are my kids!)

I have fun memories of doing similar things with my toys as a kid. It's refreshing to see my children doing the same kinds of things. 

You're Never Too Young

Carson and I had fun trying out a new skill this afternoon. His Grandma Brudnicki taught him how to do this several months ago, but he had forgotten how. Like any kid, he's pretty proud of himself for doing it on his own.

And lest you be lead to thinking that I actually know what I'm doing, be rest assured, all I can do is make a chain. Which is cool with him. :)

Mother's Day Spa

So it wasn't exactly a professional experience, but it was…an…experience. On Friday I got to go to Carson's school where the kindergardener's put on a Mother's Day Spa. They painted nails, gave massages, applied makeup and whipped up some creative hairdo's all in the name of love.

Carson got to be assisted by his cute little friend Jackson. They took turns putting makeup on me (which thankfully was all very neutral. Some of the other moms were not so lucky!)

Then they each painted my fingernails on one of my hands. They thought that was fun because it was kind of like painting pictures. I was also wise here, because I brought my own nail color. Nice and light. :)

Lastly, Carson styled my hair. I had to explain how to brush my long hair (not up!) and then he put a clip in it. He also used my brush to scratch my back (which is something his Grandma Brudnicki has taught my boys to do.)

It was fun to spend a little time with Carson and his friends. As for the rest of my mother's day, it was fine. Both Mason and Jensen were feeling under the weather, so Dustin stayed home from church with them. Carson got to give the scripture in Primary, and he read it all by himself, so he was really excited about that. Once he read his scripture we came home, since he wasn't feeling his best either. But my mother-in-law and I were treated to a lovely dinner and dessert by all the guys, so that was nice (and tasty). Hope all my mom friends got to enjoy a little something special for mother's day as well!

Disney Cruise

We got back yesterday from our Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. It was seriously one of the funnest vacations we've taken. We loved having Grandma and Grandpa Jensen come along with us. The boys loved hanging out with them (especially Mason) and we certainly loved having extra eyes and hands on our kids all week! We also loved having lots of friends aboard (several families from our ward all went on this cruise). If anyone is considering taking a Disney Cruise, we'd highly recommend it!

We have lots of pictures, and I realize that the quality on a lot of them is sub-par, but lets be honest. I was more concerned with making memories than capturing them. 

Let's start off with the food. Who doesn't love cruise food? It was awesome to have a kid good friendly meal option every night. Our serving staff rotated to the different restaurants every night with us, and our kids loved Henry and Michael. Henry made us all napkin hats the first night. Mason's was by far the funniest! Here he is in his "Goofy" napkin hat devouring a chocolate covered Mickey ice cream bar.

Carson got to be Peter Pan. This kid ate a hamburger every single day. And he always ordered the Mickey Bar. It was his favorite dessert.

Jensen got a Captain Jack Sparrow hat. He was our pickiest eater of the trip, but somehow even he managed to gain a couple of pounds! I made the smart decision on the first day to tell the boys they could have whatever they wanted to drink for lunch, but at dinner they had to drink water, and at breakfast they could have juice or milk. They were so good about following the rule. It made it easy to let them have fun without overdoing it.

We had the awesome opportunity to go to the Atlantis Resort during our day in the Bahamas. We played at the water park all day. The kids loved the fun kid friendly water slides and play areas. 

 Mason loved getting snacks from Grandma!

 After a morning of playing and eating, Mason quietly napped on a bench while the rest of us experienced a little more of Atlantis.

 Dustin particularly loved the lazy river. I think this was pretty much all he did that day! 

 My dad and I took on this slide. Dad loved it. I could have done without the wedgie of a century. Dad asked the lifeguard at this slide if anyone ever lost their top. He replied "All the time."

 After Mason woke up we took a tour of the resort's aquarium. The manta rays were bigger than some of my kids!!! As was this fish!

The only real downer of the day (and of the trip) was my mom's accident. Right before we got off the boat to head to Atlantis she slipped and fell on the deck and hurt her knee. This was what it looked like on the first day. I have no idea how she walked that day we went to Atlantis, but she did (and she never complained about it!)

On Wednesday our ship docked at Castaway Cay- Disney's privately owned island. Apparently, they had 2 weeks of straight rain prior to our cruise, and we were expecting stormy weather while we were there, but to our good fortune, we enjoyed beautiful weather the whole trip.

 At Castaway Cay, Dustin and I participated in a 5K while my parents took the boys down to the beach. When we were done we went out to join them. 

 Mason enjoyed sitting at the waters edge and throwing handfuls of sand into the ocean.

 Jensen loved seeing the tiny fish swimming in the water while they played. Is that water not beautiful?

 Carson got in some swimming practice.

They also had a water slide that went straight into the ocean. Jensen was less than thrilled about this experience. It didn't help that he fell on his bottom at the top of the slide (he has the bruise to prove it) but he didn't enjoy getting spit out into the water like this either. Carson, however, thoroughly enjoyed it.

 In conclusion to our night on Castaway Cay we had a pirate night. The boys got to dress up for dinner. I love this picture. Mason's face says it all!

 We stayed up late with the big boys to watch the fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line who has permission to shoot fireworks off the ship in the ocean. They also had a huge dessert buffet that night, which we plundered like real pirates. 

We felt like there was never enough time to do everything we wanted! We got to see the new Disney movie "Chimpanzee" (which the boys LOVED) as well as 3 Broadway style Disney shows. Dustin and I got to play Bingo, Mason got to play in the nursery, and the big boys enjoyed the Oceaneer Club and Lab where they got to do fun things like make cars out of bars of soap and race them. They also did a cute little program called "FriendSHIP Rocks" where they got to go on stage with Mickey and Minnie and dance. Carson actually danced, but Jensen was a statue. But as soon as he saw us, he was all smiles! They even got to keep their t-shirts. Can we say "Free Souvenir?" :)

 Then there were all the characters to meet. The boys each had a small autograph book and we bought them a pen to use just for signing. Dustin hated standing in line with them for this, but I didn't mind so much. They loved getting the autographs and taking pictures with them. (And thank goodness we didn't have to stand in line for any of the princesses!)

 We were really sad to leave. No more cute towel animals on our bed every night. No more chocolates on our pillows. No more bunk beds (the boys loved their disappearing beds!) No more people cleaning our room and bringing us food. :( But fortunately, we got to spend our last couple of hours with Grandma and Grandpa Jensen on the plane. We were on the same flight. We got off in Austin, and they continued on to Vegas. It was a long day of waiting in the airport, but we made it through. 

 My mom's knee certainly took a beating during the trip. Her whole leg was blue and swollen by the time we left to go home. I'm sure she's mortified by these pictures, but I had to take them for documentation purposes. Besides, no one in the rest of the family would believe how truly nasty it was without these pictures! 

 All in all, a wonderful family trip. We're ready to start planning our next Disney Cruise. Anyone want to come with us?