Merry Christmas

The month of December went  by so fast! I can not believe that it is Christmas Eve and I have not blogged any of December! Well this month Abram finished his first semester of Grad school. He says it is hard, and I say it should be!!! He studies hard and is gone a lot, but I know that is how it should be. Still I can not wait until our days of schooling are over. It has been pretty nice though this past week because Abe is on semester break and has been home everyday. The girls love it, and so do I. However I become really lazy when he is home. I can not figure out why. When he is gone I seem to get the kids to bed on time, the home is clean, dinner put away, dishes done....... but when he is home I can not seem to keep on top of it!!

We have not gotten much snow here. It snowed very little one day and the only thing Piper really wanted for Christmas was snow. She said, "I guess this will have to do." It sure did not snow here like it did in Idaho! We are all settled in here, except for the fact that we still have no furniture! We just have not had the time to go anywhere to get any. But hey it makes the apartment look huge!!

Here are some pics from last week!

Parker!!! So stinking cute!

 Paislee, with a mouth full of candy, we were making gingerbread houses

 Piper

 My sister Brittany made all my kids these really cute hats

Phoebe

I have to write a little special blurb about our Christmas Eve this year. It was a lesson for me, and it makes me look really bad. I call it who am I to judge another.... So our downstairs neighbors have some pretty heavy smokers. Everyday without fail, almost anytime we leave someone is out their smoking, or has just gotten done having a smoke. It fills the hallways, and often times finds its way into our apartment. I have often thought, how rude! can't you do that out back, do I have to smell your habit!!! They also hack all night long so on and so on. Based on this and a few other things I judged them to be very grungy, yucky kind of people. Well last week one of the downstairs neighbors knocks on my door and tells me that their is water dripping from her ceiling, and if she could come in and see if my sink was leaking, it was, it got fixed and that was that. Well tonight she knocks on our door and tells us that Santa made a special trip to see the kids this year and if we would bring ours down to see him!

I was surprised and said of course! Piper had been asking all month to go see Santa, and she never failed to let me know how put out she was that I did not take her to see him. I still struggle to get anywhere in an orderly manner with all four kids, and I was not up to standing in line with all of them. Anyways we went down stairs and there was Santa. He was good with all the kids and chatted with all of them. She also had gifts for all my kids. While the kids were opening their gifts I noticed they were getting lots of books and school activities.She even had cute little baby things for Parker. I said to her husband, we love books. He said I know, my wife said that when she went to your apartment last week to check about the water leaking she noticed you had baskets of books, and that your oldest one was working on her ABCs at the table! I sort of just stared at him, as all my judgments about them kept going through my head. The wife told me that it must be hard on the kids moving from Idaho and that in passing Piper had told her that she did not get to see santa this year! How thoughtful it was of her to invite us down to their home with their family on their Christmas Eve! And to buy my children gifts too! They may be smokers, they may swear, and be covered in tatoos, but tonight they were far more Christ like then me. I was humbled by this and by the fact that while I sit and complain about the dog barking and the loud coughing, they never have said a word about the running of feet across the floor, or screaming children. They have only ever said nice things to us and about our family! Lessen learned!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Another month gone by!?

We are all moved in to our way to expensive apartment, but hey the girls and Parker are on a great routine and are loving all of their things. We unpacked all of their toys and they kept saying "thanks for our new toys mom!" Haha whatever, I get praises from them and they do not even realize that they are their same toys! Abe is loving school, but he comes home everyday and says how hard it is. I say for what it costs for him to attend there it better be hard! But seriously he is super smart, and really dedicated to his homework so I know he will continue to do well. For me it is weird being in another college town, but not personally being in school. I see students walking everywhere with their books and backpacks and I really miss going to class! I really wish I could sit in on lectures, but not have to do any of the homework, but then again don't we all. I guess I miss learning. I feel like I have no brain anymore, and the brain that I do have is filled with strawberry shortcake and bubble guppy movie lines.

Anyways we are doing great! The girls, Parker and I pretty much hang out all day, we usually hit the coupon deals on Wednesday. With living on such a tight budget I had to do something to cut our costs a little so my sister showed my mom and I how to get the most out of our coupons. I am happy to say that I have 12 tubes of toothpaste, 16 lotions, and seven deodorant sticks that I have gotten completely free! Plus much, much more! Thanks Brit!

Piper still loves pre-school, Paislee is enduring her potty training boot camp, and Phoebe is still as funny and silly as ever. Parker is such a different baby not that he is on formula laced in gold. I say this because it costs 27 dollars a can, and the can only last three days! It was pretty much breaking the bank, so his doctor wrote a prescription for it and now we can get it through WIC. He was having major digestion issues and they say it is a cows milk allergy and will probably be on soy milk when he is older just like Piper was. He no longer cries in pain 24 seven. He sleeps really well and is soooo happy during the day. Here are some pictures from the month of October!

 We decided to cut the mess and do Mr. potato head pumkins. The girls loved it!

Piper was Pocahontas this year (the wig looked better the first time she wore it) Paislee was Mulan and Phoebe was snow white but she wanted to be Mulan for this picture.

 When the kid is too quiet or giggling by herself for to long go and see what she is doing! Mine was doing this.

 The girls with their cousins

Just Plugging Away

We haven't been up to much around here lately. Parker still cries like crazy, however last night he did lay on the couch without fussing for almost 10 minutes, it was great! Everyone keeps telling me that he will stop crying so much when he is three months old. That is in two weeks, we will see....but if he is anything like his older sister Piper then he will have this colic for another 10 months!!! He is however growing like a weed! He is soooo long. All of his pants are huge in the waist, but short in the length. I am very grateful that we got a little boy, even if he cries non stop and keeps us all awake at night! The other kids are doing great. Piper started pre school and loves it. She comes home every day chattering about all the things she learned. My favorite are all the little worksheets and crafts she brings home. I love that she still gets to do fun projects, and I love it even more that I don't have to clean the mess up! Paislee is as crazy as ever. Whatever I say she will do the opposite. She is exhausting, but for some reason she makes me laugh the most. Phoebe loves playing with dolls, and whenever she is not she is being just has exhausting as Paislee. In fact they both terrorize each other, and are the ones always getting into mischief together.

Abe is plugging away at school. He is gone from about  6am to 6pm every day. Then he helps with dinner, puts the kids to bed and then he is locked in some room some where doing homework. I know that in a few years when we have a good job that this will all be worth it. Anyways we are all finally healthy so maybe this weekend we will do something fun and I will actually have something to post about! 

Don't let that sweet face fool you!!

Piper's first day of school

 Nonna with her grandkids...(minus my sister's three...wish they would come down for a visit!) Oh and I did tell Phoebe to smile...don't know what happened there!

What! I Updated The Blog!!

So I'm not going to lie and just get straight to the point. Having a baby and moving two weeks later was not easy! It was so stressful and tiring. In fact I still feel over exhausted. We are now in KC Missouri crashing in my parents basements. Though I am very grateful that my parents live here and have offered us their home to live in I am anxiously waiting for Abe's financial aid to come in so that we can get our own place and a better routine down.

The girls seem to really like it here except for the constant complaining of the heat. The first week we were here it was a constant 112 outside and I seriously thought my kids were going to melt. They would just step of the porch and be drenched in sweat. The heat has really let up this past week, and we have enjoyed being able to play outside. I enrolled Piper in pre-school and she seems really excited to attend. She has always loved to learn and I hope this will also help her get over her shyness. Paislee and Piper are also taking a combo dance/gymnastics class. They are super excited to start that tomorrow!


Phoebe has also grown a bunch since we got here. She is finally walking all over the place, talks a ton, and now goes to nursery. She loves all of it. She still keeps us laughing with all those funny faces she makes. Parker had turned into quite the cranky baby. If he was not sleeping or eating he was crying.....non stop. It was like I had Piper all over again. (If any of you knew Piper as a baby then you know what I mean) My mom finally broke down and slipped Parker some herbal peppermint tea (non caffeinated of course) in his bottle to see if it would settle his tummy. He has been really enjoyable ever since! As you can probably tell because I am blogging! We give him an ounce or two of the tea in the morning and at night and he is a totally different baby! Now I can get a good picture of him and send out those super cute announcements! For now now this is our crazy life so enjoy all those pictures!!!!!

 Piper turned 4 on August 6th!!!

 Before we left we tried to get a all the cousins out to the park. we sure miss them!

So many blessings!!

First of all after a long wait ( I mean nearly two weeks past his due date) Parker Abram Brunson was born on June 28th!!! He weighed in at a hefty 9lbs 3 oz!!! (Yes, I gave birth to the Hulk) Not having to push that big baby out was the only good thing about having him C section. My girls were all under 7lbs, so when I held Parker for the first time I literally thought I was holding a 3 month old! Anyways he started out as such a content baby, but is actually quite fussy. We just switched him over to some new formula so we hope that works. I am still trying to get some pictures of him. He cries so much lately that I really haven't been able to snap any good shots! We are so blessed to have him be part of our family and his sisters just love him soooo much, a little to much even! (yes Paislee, and Phoebe I mean you....poking his eyeballs, and such)

 Parker Brunson

Piper holding Parker

 We were also really blessed to have my mom and little brother Will come out for nearly three weeks! Thanks mom!!!! You were such a big help, and the girls tell me they miss you every day!

 Uncle Will and Parker

 Aunt Katie and Phoebe

Aunt Katie and Parker

For the 4th of July Piper and Paislee got to hang out with their cousins at Abe's parents house. They had a blast and were soooo excited to get out of the house. Paislee was not too thrilled about the loud fireworks, but Piper loved them.

 Fireworks with the cousins!

The day after Parker was born, Abe checked his email to find an acceptance letter to KU! so we will be moving to Kansas City, fast! we move the last week of JULY! His school starts August 20th, but he has to be there the 15th! What a birthday present! I wish they would have let us know a little sooner, but we are thankful he got in and we are thankful for all the friends and family who have offered to help us with the packing and moving. Though we are very excited about moving closer to family in Missouri, we are very sad to leave our friends and family here in Idaho and Utah. 

(Sorry Paislee and Phoebe!!! There will be photos of you next time!)