Updates of Evan

I just love how peaceful this little man is when he sleeps- so perfect. China doll like. It has been awhile since I have updated the blog with pictures of Evan. I am sure that everyone is curious as to how much he has changed. This post and the next two are yesterday and today. ENJOY. He is also trying to sit up. He hates to lay down... I put him down and he raises his head and feet trying to sit upright, then gets frustrated that it doesn't work. He doesn't get that your body can be at a 90* angle and you can still be not sitting up.

Evan and the Jumperoo

I decided that Evan loved to Jump. So with a handy-dandy gift card that Kris got from work I went and purchased a Jumperoo. I really had high hopes about how excited and bouncy he would get in it. Maybe he needs to be a bit older to get really excited. He just sits and looks at things. I am sure that he will be a bouncer soon.

Evans laughes

I know it would have been great to get it on video...but I don't know how. So above are a few pics of his first unsolicited laugh. I have tickled him till he gave in and laughed but this was his own. It was great!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Parenting magazine knows my husband and wrote an article just for us! I am not finished reading it, but I think it really was written about us! Here is the link. Even down to the football facts.......and stepping over the laundry basket. I am really hoping that in the end if gives me some coping mechanisms. I think that it is just the male genes.

Now tell me is it wrong to post this?!? This is a place where I can express things, right?

*UPDATE* so I read farther into the article and so it really isn't written about us. BUT the first part sure made me think! AND it is funny. Does anyone else feel the same? On the parenting.com website it is the most talked about article. My husband is much better than the men described in this article.......I only feel like some of these women at times.

Life will be normal when?

When the baby is born.
When the baby isn't a newborn anymore.
When the Halloween costumes are done.
When Halloween is over.
When the Tree gets up it will feel like Christmas.
When Drew's Birthday is over.
When all the Christmas shopping is done.
When all the presents are wrapped.
When Christmas is over.
When the tree is down.
When Christmas with Judy & Phil has happened.
When Kris' birthday is over.
When New Years is done.
When we all get over the stomach flu.
When we get Elaine's birthday is over.
When we have her baptism.
When we get home from Aunt Mary's Funeral.
When we get over the regular flu.
When the house is cleaned up from everything, or everyday messes.

I know I have asked before but does it ever slow down??? I keep thinking that we have just had a lot of things going on and it all feels so whirlwindish. AND people tell me that NO it does slow down. AND I do realize that list above has a lot of everyday things on and that it isn't all full of big events. I just want normal life right now. Wake the kids get them ready and off to school spend some lazy time with the little ones get ready myself and do some normal house work, and then welcome them home (with cookies....I am not June Cleaver), do homework have dinner and then family and off to bed. Do I live in a dream world? Really that sound so complicated to me. Is Evan really 3 months. Is Elaine really 8! Where does time go? I am sure that I will get used to the fact that this just may be normal life here is the Brletich house. AND I shall try to smile and remember every little detail and soak up all the wonderfulness of it. Wish me luck.

Elaine's Baptism

Here are two great pics from Elaine's baptism. Everything went perfect. Thank you all who came. Sorry for the short post....recovering from Migraine, but I had to post these.

Elaine had a BIRTHDAY!!!

AND she is 8!!!! The funniest part was when she got $10 from Uncle Garry she was SO excited....he told her she could use it to take her mom to Del Taco! AND I am looking forward to that.

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YUMMY Cupcakes!!!

There is a simple trick to these YUMMY cupcakes. Get the Pillsbury brand white cake mix. Use the 4 egg white instead of the whole eggs. Then whip, whip, and whip.....much longer than suggested. Try 5-6 minutes on high. Then make homemade frosting and volia! Add some sprinkles too....but warning....they don't make 24 only about 18. Which means that you have to make a double batch....suck it up....

Diamonds in the snow

Took these pics last week....tought it looked liked Diamonds in the snow.

Ears pierced

Elaine has just been dying to get her earspierced for years. Kris wanted her to wait until she was 8. So I took her Monday and she now has holes in her ears.

Kris' about cried

This blog has been a long coming. Kris has had his TV since around the time he graduated from Collage. I don't think that he had at Purdue, but you get the picture 1998-ish. This TV was big. When we first got married I asked if we could get rid of the TV? I was laughed at. I just didn't like the way that it took up the entire focus of the room. There are so many other things that can be done in a Living Room why have the TV take up the whole room? Or at least that is how I felt, you get my point right? Kris' beloved TV has been beat so much since having kids. When we lived in MI the kids decided that it would be a good idea too spit (yes out of there mouths) chocolate milk all over it. The bottom of the TV has all of these little itty bitty holes in it....for sound or something. Yup you guessed it....I didn't realize what the kids were doing until it was too late and the milk dried in those oh-so-tiny holes. Have you ever tried to get dried chocolate milk out of holes the size of pinheads? It is not easy. One day I really did try. I sat down with a toothpick and scraped out as many I could.....about 300 of them....but there are thousands. So I left it. I think that it had paint on it too, from one of Drew's adventures. Basically the TV had been threw you know where.

It was either the 26th ot 27th of December Kris' beloved TV blew. Yup, made a load noise turned a few funny colors went black and stunk really bad. I didn't know a TV could smell like that. What do you do when your 53 inch TV blows in the same week as Christmas......you go get the other one out of the front room. Just kidding....well we really did that, but it was a hand-me-down that we used to just play the PlayStation on. Not a good picture at all. So we tried to fix the good big one. The beloved big one. No luck I guess some capacitor blew and we really looked hard and couldn't find another one. So then we started to look on Criagslist. Love Craigslist. If you are going to replace a big screen, you get another big screen and by the time you pay somewhere between $500-700 for a used TV why not just go and buy a new one so that you have a warranty. Yes I know, I really did want to get rid of it when we first got married....but I grew to love it and wanted another one. So we did some research and figured out what new TV we wanted. Then we ran into another problem. Our old TV was a standalone TV, no need for a TV stand. Now they don't make them like that anymore. So then we had to find something to put the TV in. AND of course I wanted something that matched the rest of the house. Why waste money buying something just for now. I wanted THE entertainment center. Then the trick was finding one the right size that we liked that held the TV that we wanted. BACK to Craigslist....no luck again! Everything that I liked only held small TV's. So we manged to find an entertainment center on sale. LOVE IT! Lucky it was on sale too.....So we have spent the last month researching and shopping for a TV and stand. Who knew that those two things could take up so much time! I don't think that I am going to know what to do with myself now. Well.....now I can clean the house. Here is a pic of our new find!

LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!!

Thank goodness for helpful friends and family.

Every time Kris goes away on business weird things happen. I am normally the one to end up sick, but not this time. I decided to be super mom yesterday and get everything clean. The kids even helped. We had a "Too Cold day" from school. The house looked GREAT! I even took the kids to visit and have lunch with the Great Grandmas. Today was a bunch of shopping while the kids had fun with the Evans. I was so tired I took a bit of a catnap on the couch while the kids watch some cartoons. Woke up to Evan being really REALLY fussy. (this was on Friday)



That is were I ended it last night.......(this was on Saturday---whoops still sick)

I had to stop....I ended up sick....so on with my story. (Now it's Sunday.)

About a 1/2 hour before Kris got home Elaine was sitting next to me on the love seat and said "Mom my tummy doesn't feel good". This is a common thing in our hold we have a little hypochondriac, so I tell her "Go upstairs and go potty, brush your teeth and get ready for bed." This always my solution to things. After all that is the first thing that I want to do when I get sick. So she heads up their and I notice that the dog has gotten sick on the carpet on the way into the computer/play room. Elaine starts yelling and crying for me......I go up there kind of irritated and she has thrown-up all over the bathroom floor. My first reaction was (this is bad) "Couldn't you have leaned to other side and thrown-up in the waste basket?" A tired mind makes a grouchy mom. She said no....we got it cleaned up and her straighted up and in bed....Kris gets home and she is still sick. She was in bed for part of the night while we enjoyed some TV then when I went to bed we decided that it would be a good idea for her to be downstairs with Kris so that someone would be with her (he stays up late). Then I got sick. AND once I finally got to sleep Izzy came into my room....."Mommy can I cuddle with you?" Sure come on up. So she is in bed and not sleeping yet and hear this noise coming from her, and I know that if she throws up again I will smell and do the same thing. So I start calling for Kris (the baby monitor was on). He comes up to take over...but not before she got sick too. I didn't want it allover my bed so I sat in front of her hold her blanket so that it would all land in there. All three of us were sick all night long and didn't function well at all on Saturday. I am still queasy. The girls are doing better. On Saturday I had a Baby Shower that I so wanted to attend and a surprise birthday party in the evening that I was going to bring the fruit tray too. I didn't make either of those. (Thank you cousin Meredith for pick up the fruit and taking care of that.) Kris and I are also new co-Sunbeam teachers and we are working consistency with the kids and getting them used to us. It is so hard to go from Nursery to having to sit in primary. They are doing so good, but they do keep us on our toes. AND I was supposed to talk in church. I feel horrible for missing both of those events but I just knew that if I stood up there I would get so nervous with my already sick stomach that I would mess up the clean floor up there....or run out embarrassing myself. The other traumatic (yes we have a house full of drama queens) thing of this weekend was that I go so dehydrated I wasn't able to nurse.....nothing came out. I really did try but after 5 hours of him latched on and trying we settled for the formula. Luckily I had some that the company had sent me in the mail. So know I am in the process of trying to figure out what to do. I HAD to give him formula and I HATE that. I feel like I am not doing my job. Nursing is so important to me. I felt like I was failing at my job. BUT I am grateful for the formula that I had in the kitchen. I think it is coming back....slowly I am doing the More Milk thing from Motherlove, but does anyone have other ideas?

I am also very GRATEFUL that Kris took care of the kids so I could be sick and not worry about them. Also grateful for whoever taught primary for us and the Bishopric for speaking in my place. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

AND Elaine is getting baptised next Saturday at 2pm. Just wanted you to know...I will be posting pics!

Livin' in the wrong place!

I got a letter home from the school today......
BITTER COLD
"The unfortunate fact about forecasts is that they are just that, forecasts and therefore unreliable. The "blizzard" warning on Monday evening comes to mind. Anyway, the forecast for this evening and tomorrow morning is bitter cold. How cold?? We shall see. We have already been in contact with the bus company and have made plans for a 4:30 a.m. phone conference. At that time we will make the call whether to cancel or not. A cancellation due to cold temperature is different than a snow event. The danger in bitter cold is in simply leaving the house. Big kids are tough and just handle it. Little kids are less tolerant and really suffer. Be assured, any decision will be made in the best interest of the children. The most critical factor will be getting the buses started and keeping them going. I have enclosed a short description of the process from the bus company. In any event, stay safe and think warm thoughts. ~School
From the Bus Company: Although we have faced very cold conditions each of the least two winters (old fashion Midwest winters some would say) forecast low for tonight is on the lower range of what we have seen in several years. our fuel is blended and has additive for temperatures approaching minus 30 but we are still expecting some issues tomorrow; even a small amount of water in properly prepared fuel can affect engine performance. In addition the cold affects air brake systems and can cause various electrical issues.
We will be in very early to start our fleet in preparation for tomorrow. If we are experiencing any issues or feel we cannot operate safely I will contact you bright and early (between 4:30 and 5:00 AM at latest) to let you know of our status; I will be available earlier than this if you have any questions.
WHAT??!?!?!? They are telling me that it might be too cold to go to school! Again....What!!!! Too COLD for school!! I remember it being pretty darn cold the first year that we lived out here. Walking out of Walmart I recall the drip coming from my oh-too-cold nose freezing and getting slushy. THAT WAS COLD! They didn't cancel school then, I am so not going out. No birthday shopping, no baby shower shopping, no fruit shopping for another birthday party. AND just think the fun of having a snow day is to go and play in the snow, you can't send them outside to play if it is too cold. Kris is out of town for work I really need to be a fun mom for the day and do stuff with the kids. Any suggestions.....and of course nothing that I would have to go and get?

8 days

Yup 8 entire days.....

Maybe I should be thankful that they lasted over a week before getting broken?
Now for the tough part. None of the stores around here have that frame in stock anymore. We ended up calling Madison and planned on going up on Saturday to get some new ones. Then I got a brilliant idea to have them shipped here to the Janesville store....but right after I got off the phone with them the store in Rockford called and they just opened up a box from a new shipment and it had the right pair! YEAH! If you remember from post below if anything happened to them we had to pay 50%.....yeah, not looking forward to that.