FamBEE.org

…close enough! I am helping and they are spiritually enlightening us while we are waiting for iMovie to render.

I love playing scrabble with GrAnnie, mom, Dad, Meghann and a few ladies in my neighborhood :)

Play with me!! JmeBee

Such a performance!!! Ainsley is a PERFORMER!! Before School starts I like to get one on one videos of the girls talking and answering questions.

Some of the things she said:

My name is Ainsley Ann Braithwaite. Tomorrow I am going to preschool. My teacher is Mrs. Barbara. This is bunny. My favorite color is Pink, White, Red, and Blue. My favorite animal is horses and baby giraffes and baby elephants, and big elephants too. My birthday is March ninth. I am three. My favorite part about preschool is going to be painting. My best friend is Simon my cousin and Emma my neighbor and thats all. My favorite part about Nursery at church is playing with Carson. My favorite song is “I feel connected, protected, see you all the time. you hear me you hear me. like a shining star, Im here by your side, connected,  nothing can break this nothing can break this. connected inside. (body twists and leg kicks and dramatic pause) Nothing can break this nothing can break this. oh I feel. you love me and i love you. nothing can break this time. How about the Barbie sing with me this time. (Barbie singing) I feel protected….connected. (Barbie goes back on the shelf). I am most excited to paint at preschool. and to play barbies at preschool. Big Kiss. muhwah! Good night!

At the farm I saw a lot of “families with Dads” instead of us going solo style. And all I could think about was “Garth would be so MISERABLE!” with his allergies and the heat and being on his feet instead if getting some if his projects & deadlines done at work.

We girls had a great time! It was a sacrifice to not have dad tag along. But I told stories about Montana and the Pigme goat named Jane Doe, the lawn mower.

We celebrated at the Farm! Learning all about Labor in the Farm country with animals, crops, and more.

Gracie LOVES LOVES LOVES the Farm (at thanksgiving pointe) and we visited every animal multiple times! She kept track of them all!

It makes me excited for the day when we will have land and Labor! Hard Labor and chores and lessons for my girls to grow up learning!

For now we will focus on learning our household labors :) Like laundry, dishes, sweeping, etc…

Video chats with grandparents far far away!

Came to dinner and celebrated Emi’s birthday month! They brought her a set of adorable onesies!!!!! Perfect and exactly what she needed! :)

We ate a noodle Alfredo chicken and bacon thing. Which turned into a BACON noodle chicken Alfredo thing with extra bacon on the bacon!

My new outfit.
Green shirt – $4
Necklace – $12
Black shoes – purchased in Vegas with Mom
Black skirt – Hand down from Grandma J

Love it!!

Here is the new hair cut I got Saturday. It is less “A-line” and more “Bob”ish. I like it! (Mom still gives me the best cut ever!)
The girl cut off one inch and then when she was done I made the poor girl cut off another half inch because it just wasn’t short enough and I didn’t want to go in next week and get it cut again.

My mom knows exactly what I’m talking about!!

Garth does great with consistency. Meaning if I want to get something done happily with Garth involved I allow for a minimum of 3 days advance notice. On the most part – this NEVER happens!!!!! and for the most part Garth has to just hold on tight to the whirl wind wife that changes plans every 3 minutes. Putting in ideas that will only be taken as loose suggestions if “I” have already set my mind to something.

I know. I can be a little crazy!

Like today. Saturday. Garth is working at the office. Around 3:18pm I Strongly informed him dinner is at 5 and he needed to be home. (meaning I’m done and need help!). At 4 I remind him: 59 minutes until dinner. And then at 4:45 I called, txt, emailed in a raging panic, “ARE YOU COMING!!! WHERE ARE YOU??? I haven’t heard from you!!!”

But my wonderful consistent Garth was recording a total training podcast. Finished just in time. And was home by 5 for dinner! He is wonderful!!

So wonderful that when I asked (strongly suggested) to get my hair cut at this VERY MOMENT OR I MIGHT DIE he let me leave in seconds. He put the girls to bed. And cleaned up dinner!

Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful!!!
I know he doesn’t like “change in plans” but he does great at supporting me when I do! I love you Garth.

Garth told me I could sleep in. Well I woke up early bec Emi was crying. And he said we would take care of her. ….but I couldn’t fall asleep and decided to jump up and head to the temple instead. I txted him as I was headin out the door. Surprise change of plan!! It was wonderful!!

They are having a great time!

Garth jumped my battery. I headed to autozone. They tested the battery. It read “dead as a doornail” and so I was going to head to Costco to buy the cheapest battery. I mentioned this to the guy and he said they would price match. TaDA!!! I got a $99 battery for $59!! And they installed it for “the weak helpless girl” act ;) but he had to go back to work before he finished. Soooo I finished it up like a pro.

While I was out getting the battery I stopped off at Shade to get a great deal on their going out of business sale.

Jack was the dad. Ainsley was the mom. They had twins. Gracie was the neighbor friend.

Lindsey’s anniversary was this week so we had a late over. It was a supervised chaotic party!! And we loved every minute!! Everyone played for an hour. We ate potatoes and ham for dinner at 5. The babies went to bed at 6. The big kids played until 9 and then watched Walle until Linds & Riley came back from dinner & a show after 10.

We made it alive! It was actually smooth sailing — the babies kept calling me mom — I don’t think they even noticed Linds had left.

Doing GREAT with her birthday present! (w big sisters help)

While Gracie was away the littler girls played and watched movies. Gracie brought home her classwork.

Today Gracie said her favorite part of the day was ME! Her mom!!!
I asked why?
She said she loved learning in the learning corner!!

It wasn’t left over birthday cake. It wasn’t playing at Kindergarten. It wasn’t new clothes. It wasn’t a clean kitchen. It wasn’t empty laundry baskets.

It WAS 25 minutes of one on one talking and teaching and listening and learning time together. We cut with scissors. We talked about kindergarten and preschool. We colored. We enjoyed each other!

Jamie remember to Simplify because my kids love the simple moments in the day! So sit down and listen!

My mom is famous for these forwarded emails!! They make me chuckle with the dancing .gifs and silly clip art.
Her “era” still doesn’t get the idea of blogging and so the “chain-email” will never die! She also prints her emails too!! (gasp!!) this one was funny and it works! So try it if you want :)

—– Original Message —–

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH

Don’t tell me your age; you’d probably lie anyway-but the Hershey Man will know!

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH

This is pretty neat.
It takes less than a minute .
Work this out as you read .

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 — I’ll wait while you get the calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1760 ..
If you haven’t, add 1759..

6… Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2010) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTs.
————–
(LOL gotta love a great chain letter!!)

Their favorite hiding spot is under the stairs ontop of the blankets! They played and then we read stories in the closet. And then it was quiet time and they both said they would sleep!! In the closet.

(sleeping lasted for about 12 nano seconds but they are still kind of quiet and playing!)

Daddy came home for lunch and brought Ainsley a huge Minnie Mouse balloon for her GREAT first day!!! She is Beaming!!!

We walked home together after orientation and Ainsley worked on her Homework and then she did Computer time.

Preschool is going to be great this year!!! Look at her SMILE!!!! She is so Happy!!!

Beautiful weather to walk!

Ainsley was able to play with the big K. kids before the bell rang. Gracie was happy to hold her hand and take her around! I told Gracie we would stay until the bell rang and then we were off to Preschool. She seemed a little “iffy” about us leaving. Until the Bell Rang and she RAN and picked up her backpack and stood in line! She didn’t even say Good Bye! She was off!!!! We waved and she walked in the door. Day 2 with Smiles!!

Walking to school we were able to talk about making new friends. We turned the corner and were able to see the Temple! I love being so close to the Temple and hope to continue to make it a high priority in my family life

It was only orientation today. School officially starts on Tuesday.

Ainsley is so excited!!! She has been waiting for this day for YEARS!! The first day I dropped of Gracie at preschool (Mrs. Andrea’s) Ainsley was 18 months and she cried and cried because she wanted to go! (Gracie cried because she wanted to go home!) but the day has finally come! Ainsley gets to go to her own preschool!!! She is attending preschool with Mrs. Barbara (she is wonderful! In our ward. Gracie went from March-May and loved her! She is just around the corner across the street from the church). Two of Ainsley’s best girl friends are in her class! Emma P. and Bree along with some of Gracie’s friends from last year.

Ainsley marched right in and knew exactly what to do! She went with Mrs. Teresa and the mom’s went with Mrs. Barbara. Ainsley got a tour and then played with puzzles. She is so beyond HAPPY!!! She got a treat at the end and “all about me” homework.

Ainsley wanted so badly to ride her bike today. With much persuasion we decided to walk instead because we had to drop Gracie off at K. first.

Emi got a piggy bank & 39cents from Granna Sandy. Shakey socks & a cow book from Oupa and Grannie. Gma&Gpa gave her the walking car/ riding car.
From us – Extendable shower head, baby giraffe, link-link things, sippy cup, and lots of loves and kisses!!!

And of course a Birthday Cake!

Garth Tweeted Emi’s birthday and Gracie’s first day of school! My favorite is his picture of Emi slipping into a cake coma! LOL

Bedtime. Lights out. Busy day tomorrow! The time is projected on the ceiling thanks to garth’s birthday clock.

Atleast 1 flight of stairs daily

Ainsley’s Rainbow shirt is ready for Preschool Orientation tomorrow. Gracie is ready for day 2 with her polka dot dress (from Brielle) and tinkerbell Jean jacket

Emi’s new shower head. Bath time was a blast!!!! Literally – I was blasted w water! And the shampoo was blasted out of their hair!

Playing and having fun together!!! Super Sister Style!!!

School is in session!! Everyday the girls are going to Learn from their Best Teacher – ME!

Today’s topic: Patterns

Gracie had a GREAT DAY!!

Emi is one today. She has a super fast army crawl. She is getting up on her knees more and more but she is slower. She will crawl up all the stairs (I follow her up bec she likes to push off and go down free fall). She eats everything and anything. Her favorite food is probably her birthday cake she ate today! She takes 2 naps if we are at home. She follows along great when we are out and about with no nap. She can sleep in the car great. She only has two teeth on the bottom. She loves applause and attention. She is a performer. She will hold out her arm and say “TaaaDA!”. She scrunches her nose, purses her lips, and breaths in and out and in and out and in and out. She doesn’t take orders but will do things on her own time. She is a happy girl. She is getting better at standing up and pulling herself up on the couch and toys. She sleeps with her pink lovey blanket and several giraffes. She likes you to watch her crawl away and then she turns around and waves good bye.

Gracie did GREAT! Daddy was waiting at home with “Crazy Colorful Daisies” for his big girl!! We are all so proud of her!! She loves her teacher! Sone if the things she has said about Kindergarten:
I sat at the Red table and then Mrs. E moved me to the Yellow table. Yellow does not mean whining. It means “A Table”. I sat next to two boys and they were so annoying. A girl said to me during storytime that she liked my clothes, I smiled, it made me feel happy inside. We said I pledge to America but it was a different song than Mrs. Barbara. I played with Nicole and the she played with Emma. I love playtime on the park, recess. I forgot to give Mrs. E my homework. Our class rules are keep your hands and feet to yourself, look at Mrs. E, listen, keep your lips shut. I saw a new friend, she has curls and a flower in her hair and really cute clothes. I didn’t talk to her but she is nice.

From cousin Ava & Aunt Natalie in WA and GrAnnie Annie in PA

Gracie is ready!!! (Mom is doing good)!

It is Emi’s first birthday today!!!!
Happy Happy Birthday!!

Last few days Emi is getting “up” in the morning. Yay!!

Life as we know it will be changed forever! Today is the last day of summer. Gracie got a Back to School blessing from her Daddy. We spent time getting her Backpack ready and doing her HW. Talking and making a video. She is doing great and ready to go!!