questions and answers!

These are question asked of Brandon about his mommy. Here are his answers!

1. What is something mom always says to you? listen!
2. What makes mom happy? when I listen to mommy
3. What makes mom sad? when I don't listen
4. How does mom make you laugh? tickle
5. What was mom like as a child? me!
6. How old is your mom? 2 (huh)
7. How tall is your mom? 3...hmmm. 3 what? 3 long (oh 3 feet)
8. What is your mom's favorite thing to do? watching the news
9. What does your mom do when your not around? (Rich answered first) Anything she wantsl
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? getting a baby
11. What is your mom really good at? working
12. What is your mom not very good at? getting a baby! lol
13. What does your mom do for a job? go to the park
14. What is your mom's favorite food? fishies (hmmmm I think he meant goldfish- but he's wrong)
15. What makes you proud of your mom? getting him a transformer and treats
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would it be? batman
17. What do you and your mom do together? everything
18. How are you and your mom alike? We both love Heavenly Father (Ohhhhh)
19. How are you and your mom different? mommy's glasses
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because I am happy.

Floaters

Okay, so Brandon is taking Floaters over again with a couple of kids from his first class. To pass all they need to do is swim 5 yards on their tummy and back. What do you think, will Brandon pass the class? These pictures are from the first class and fourth class. This first pictures is B climbing out of the pool after swimming thru the hoop.
The second is B goofing around.

Floating on his back.
Walking from one side of the pool to the other (blowing bubbles).
The last picture is B jumping into the water (12 feet deep) for safety day.

Floaters

Okay so Brandon is the first student to do this on Monday the first day of class.

This is his third time on Monday.

Tuesdays class.

Playing in the BIG pool

So on Saturday we went swimming. At this pool if you can't swim you have to have a life jacket on if you go in the big pool. Brandon wanted to play in the big pool with Daddy so he had to wear a life jacket. Daddy and AJ had fun tossing him around. Brandon climbed the rock wall (LOL) and even jumped off the diving board.

This is right next to the diving board so it's 11 feet deep.

Jumping in...sigh.

Mount Vernon

Last week Brandon and I went to Mount Vernon for a tour. Brandon in the garden
A huge tree between the house and the kitchen.
View from side of house onto the river.
A lizard who snuck into the crypt and then out again.
In the museum.
life size wax dummy of George Washington (and horse).
They have a hands on area for kids 3-6 and here is Brandon coloring a picture to hang on the wall.
Here is Brandon's picture on the wall.
Brandon pretending to be Jacky Custis.

A Modest Proposal

I just finished reading "A Modest Proposal" by Michele Ashman Bell.

A group of six girlfriends graduate from high school when tragedy strikes. One of the girls dies in a car accident. The five remaining girls decide to put together a box that holds items that are dear to them. Once a year they will get together and talk about the items in the box- a beautiful butterfly box.

This book is the first in a series and it's focuses on a young girl named Lauryn. She wants to be a designer - a designer of modest formal gowns. On top of this she will be turning 30 soon and is still single. As a joke she and a male friend (right after graduation) said that if they were both single when they turn 30 they should meet and get married. She's 30 and single but is he? Why does everyone at her new job act as if they can't stand her? What's going on with some of her friends and was Ava's accident really an accident or was it foul play? Join Lauryn in this wonderful ride with the butterfly girls.

I really loved this book! I can't wait to read the others in the series when they come out.

cake

So I was bored yesterday after church and I decided to make a cake. Now as all you with children know - you can't make any food without a helper. :) My helper licked the bowl after I was done and I had to take some pictures.




Here he got his nose twice before I took a video of it. As you can hear he wanted me to take a picture of him putting the spoon on his nose lol!

test time!

So yesterday was the test for Floaters. It took about 5 minutes and then the rest of the time they got to just play in the pool. Brandon was having so much fun in the pool I just kept taking more and more little videos :) The only thing they hadn't worked on was strokes both on front and back - the kids just can't learn that much in only 8 lessons. All the kids are beginning to float on their backs and start swimming on their tummy with the board. While playing in the pool Brandon would try to do both!!!!! I was very surprised. I have registered him for floaters again (three of the five kids are going in floaters and the other two going to camp), we hope they get the same teacher. That way they can just continue from this point instead of things they did two weeks ago. Anyway here are some pictures of him playing and a video of his little test.

This is B playing in the pool after the test.He was riding this like a horse!!!! lol

Test - He had to flip from back to front and back again (blowing bubbles too)

playing in the water - getting something of the bottom.

He's umm floating/swimming?

Playing

Lesson 5

Both classes had safety day on Monday. Here is Brandon surrounded by all the bigger kids in the other class. The first thing they do is save someone in the pool and then they jump in and are saved themselves. My pictures are first and then the video but you get the idea.
Brandon being saved.

Brandon saving someone.

Jumping in the pool to be saved.

Jumping in the pool! When we first got to the pool, I saw that the current class was jumping in from the diving board. I showed Brandon and he said "I'm not doing that"! Within 5 minutes he was telling me that he wanted to jumped in the pool NOW! He jumped in twice - three if you count the first time when he had to "save" someone.

This is Brandon's second time jumping in the pool from the diving board! He loved it!!!!

4th of July breakfast and fireworks at the Capitol.

On the 3rd of July we went on a trip to Frederick with Operation Second Chance. We met at Walter Reed and then drove to Frederick and had dinner (yummy!) at Duch's Daughter. We then spent the night at a local hotel and then had breakfast with about 700+ other people. lol We had breakfast on the 4th with it looks like the whole town of Frederick. It was sponsered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and it was yummy! They had pancakes, bacon, sasauge, eggs, muffins and tons of fruit. They had a little show with Thomas Jefferson it was all very nice.Brandon wearing his Operation Second Chance shirt.
Brandon, Kaitlyn and AJ.
Brandon blowing the little windmills.
looking so cute.
Saying goodbye to the horses.

Then we went to the Capitol for the fireworks and show. We took the Metro but we went with the Aleethia group.

Looking behind us.
We were right up by the stage (at first and then we had to move back a couple of rows).
Hewy Lewis and the News!
Taylor Hicks (shook his hand after the show).
It was hosted by Jimmy Smits. Once it got dark, it was to hard to take pictures of the people on the stage so I had to take pictures of the screen.

Scott Hamilton (we got to shake his hand after the show)
Brian Stokes Mitchell on the big screen.
Harolyn Blackwell on the big screen.
Hayley Westenra on the big screen.

Hewy Lewis and the News singing

Taylor Hicks singing

Brian Stokes Mitchell singing after Scott Hamilton introduced some men and women that are going to the summer olympics.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Thanks to both Operation Second Chance and Aleethia, we had a wonderful time.

Lazy summer days and Cardinals

Living on the East coast brings new things into our everyday lives - humidity, lightning bugs and cardinals. Coming from Utah where there is no humidity makes it even worse. It's so hot and so muggy here sometimes you don't even want to go outside. But then you have the cardinals. If they are in Utah I've never seen them so I thinks it quite fun that they like my backyard (even with one and a half trees gone). This little one came on the 1st of July. After I went to find my camera I couldn't find him in the tree until Brandon laughed and said he was by the basketball on the ground. This picture is through the sliding glass door so it's not all that great.

In fact I think I will look and see if I have another picture from a couple of months ago.....YES! I do. Here is one Cardinal from April visiting us :)Now, I don't have any pictures of lightening bugs - I do have to say that I find them.....strange. You (or I) will be standing in my backyard....it's getting dark and then suddenly zap! WHAT THE?????? Yes, that's how they get your attention. Suddenly they make a loud zapping noise and it looks like a spark of electricity in the air. Spooky!

Here is Brandon playing in the backyard (in his pool).

Video of Brandon slowly sliding down into the water.

Video of Brandon sliding on his tummy into his pool.

On his bum.

On his back. He kept saying "ok Mom, take a picture of me doing this".

Happy July 4th eveyone!

Floaters

So Brandon started his swimming class yesterday. He is in Floaters now (yeah). They are working on floating on their tummy and back. Brandon is doing really well.Lesson 1 - done floating so he is climbing back onto the wall.
lesson 1 - floating on tummy.
Lesson 2- floating on back.

Lesson 1- swimming on tummy - video.


Lesson 2 floating on back - video