Happy Birthday Brandon

April 18, 1999....12 years old.

How time flies.....

Adoption Day April 12, 2002

5th Birthday Goofball

Cheese!

Brandon, Mom and Dad

At our wedding....Dave, Autumn and Brandon

And Brandon now....12 years old

Brandon flashbacks.....

9 Months old

9 months old

 1 year picture

1 yr old

2 years old

2 year picture

Baseball

Brandon...pitching for his team. His team is doing pretty good this year. They are currently tied for 1st place with 2 other teams. The tournament coming up should be interesting.

Easter Eggs

We colored Easter Eggs for the 2nd time this week.

All the eggs from the first batch got eaten up.

Here is Logan with the bowl of freshly colored eggs.

And Austin, our main egg eater.

And Brandon, getting creative with crayons.

Sharing some life in pictures

Brandon has wanted his hair dyed of some sort for a long time and I finally agreed...AFTER school pictures were taken. He wanted to do some blue spikes but decided to keep it the way it was after I bleached out some.



While I was working on his hair, his 2 brothers fed him spaghetti that we had on the table after dinner.

My first baby is 10!

I remember the day I first saw Brandon....it was December 21st, 1999. The social worker brought him to where I worked and set him on a chair in the reception area. He had a blue and grey/silver coat and had a blue blanket sorta wrapped around his little legs. I remember thinking he was such a cute little baby with round cheeks and dark round eyes. I was doing foster care and was only supposed to have him for a few weeks. I grabbed him up from that chair and talked to the Social worker for a few minutes before I had to leave to drop him off at home with my roommate so I could finish out my day at work. He would start at the daycare in my building the next day. When I got home that night he was getting attached to my roommate and I was a tiny bit jealous. I scooped him up and told him, "I am your mommy!!" Little did I know at that point that I would become his mother. It was a maddening rollar coaster of highs and lows on the way to becoming his "legal" mother, but it was all worth it and could not imagine my life without my bubba. (I rarely call him that anymore since he is getting so old and "grown-up", LOL) The adoption was final on April 12, 2002. That was the happiest day of my life when I could finally relax and not worry about him going anywhere else. We had a great ceremony (1st time in Hennepin County that an adoption was done outside of the courtroom) and feast with lots of family and friends present to witness our special day.

We really did have a rough journey and its still a journey of growth and love and I love him so much my heart aches at times. He is growing up to be a fine looking little man and has great qualities that he will share with the world. He is full of life and loves spending time being active with his brothers and sisters or his friends. He is a very social kid. He is athletic and loves baseball and his martial arts practice. He would also like to play hockey and football or basketball. He will play just about anything. He is comical and tries to crack jokes (sometimes gets himself into a bit of trouble with this) at just about anything or anyone for that matter. I sometimes wonder with amazement at the doctors and others that come in contact with him for short spurts of time and say, "Why is he so quiet?? Is he like this all the time?" That is just crazy talk, cause Brandon is very full of life (and noise!) and constantly looking for his new adventure and companion to go along.

He decided to have his birthday party at H2Oasis, an indoor water park in Anchorage. He had 3 friends come along and of course siblings and a couple cousins. Everyone had a blast! Here are a couple pictures of him and 2 of his friends - Bailey and Atillio.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON!

It's back! I'm back.

Well, it looks as if I was able to fix that annoying error. I just removed the music at the top....so no fine tunes for your enjoyment anymore. I know you will all be terribly sad at that loss, but too bad, so sad! I am back.

In other news....my littlest little boy broke his arm on Friday. He either fell or jumped (I am betting on jumped) off of Brandon's bed. Not sure how he landed, but he broke his left arm right above the elbow. I was more concerned for his mental state immediately after since he was acting a little funny. I wonder if he got knocked a little loopy to begin with. The doctor at the ER was NOT impressive. I think he would do better with dogs at this point. He didn't even want to do an x-ray, just thought he had a dislocated elbow and wanted so badly to just do this special "manuever" to fix it. He was a bit to eager for me and I instead insisted on an x-ray first. I could not believe he wouldn't want to make sure something wasn't broken first before agressively flexing his little arm. Either way, I was right. The one without the M.D. behind my name. Makes me scared for other parents who take their kids in to that ER and have to be unnecessarily tortured by that doc. I am going to file a complaint about him though, so maybe he will get a stern talking to. I sure hope he actually took something from that experience though and may be a little more cautious anyway.

So....Austin has a temporary cast/splint thing on his arm until tomorrow. We will go into the Ortho doc tomorrow for his permanent cast (well not totally permanent, lets hope!). I was so glad they have to call in the expert when something like this happens. I surely wouldn't have sat still for that dumb doctor to splint or cast it. I really liked the Ortho doc, seemed really laid-back and more importantly - knowledgable!

Austin is doing just fine with his bum arm. He has a bit of frustration here and there when he can't do what he would like as efficiently as he wants, but overall he is running and playing just like normal. Its a bit different at night. I am sure that is when the discomfort is at it's peak and its been difficult to settle down to sleep or to get long stretches of sleep without having to dose up on some motrin and/or tylenol. That seems to fix it though, which is good.

Other than that awful experience, things are going well in our house. Brandon kicked my butt in Tic today, he is very pleased with himself. He even hung up our score sheet on the door so Dad (Dave) could see it when he got home. Let's just hope he doesn't want me to send it off to Grandma Ione. Brandon also made some bomb ass (borrowed that from Anna!) peanut butter cookies. I am sure as soon as Dave gets home their life span will shorten dramatically.

Following in mama's footsteps!

Brandon is going to play the trumpet!! He started out wanting to do drums...he tried the trumpet today and says that is what he wants to do. According to his music teacher, he has the perfect lips. I recall in my first days in band, I also heard something similar about my lips. Imagine that! I am glad he didn't end up with the stinky ole trombone....people who play that instrument just don't turn out right.

Misc things...

Homeschooling is going great! Much better than I anticipated. I think Brandon is enjoying it too. He especially likes getting done with school before his sisters get home for the day. He works hard to accomplish that and brags about when he finished. He is also enjoying his Tang Soo Do (Martial Arts) and gets to do that 2 times a week. He will start beginning Band next week and wants to play the drums (yay me!). Logan and Austin enjoy having their big brother home all day with them. Brandon does his "recess" time with Logan.

Speaking of Logan, he is slowly getting better at potty training. Right away this morning I got him to sit on his potty and he went right away. He had a dry diaper so I am guessing he had a full bladder. He was excited when we clapped for him and he got his candy. Austin likes the attention he gets when he is sitting on the potty, so has started to sit on it and show more interest. He is not aware of the candy incentive though, which is a good thing.

Speaking of Austin, he doesn't much care for when people leave him to head outside or downstairs. He will yell and scream and eventually throw (actually gently set himself) on the floor and throw a mini-tantrum. He gets his little feelers hurt so easily and wants to be included in what everyone else is doing. He especially gets upset of the girls head downstairs and don't take him with. Autumn will occasionally take him with her so he at least feels included.

Speaking of Autumn, we went on a horse ride tonight with Sue. It was a lot of fun and both the horse I was riding and Sue was riding had foals with them. We had these 2 babies scampering through the woods with us and then they would slow down and eat and play and then shoot up past us again. I really like riding and wish I could do it more often. Kristen babysat the boys until Dave got home when we left.

Speaking of Kristen, she is excited about the school year and making new friends. Her guidance counselor at school says she cannot work on her other classes to graduate early until she finishes and passes her current classes. It kinda takes the pressure off so the earliest she would be done is this summer or next December. Either way she is excited to be able to finish early. So far her classes are all going good this year and she is meeting new people. I really hope and pray she meets some good quality people so her year is more enjoyable!! She got her permit a week ago and will hopefully test for her license in about 6 months, then she can drive and Dave and I won't have to transport her and Autumn to school.

Speaking of Dave, I haven't seen my husband since I have been home tonight cause he is upstairs....I suppose I should mosey on up and find him. Later dudes!

Homeschool

I am homeschooling Brandon this year. I am hoping it goes well. Yesterday was the first day and it was great. Brandon was all excited after we finished math and exclaimed, "I love homeschool!". Today is a little more....challenging. We had some leftover language arts to do because of our errands so we are doing that before we even get started with today's stuff. I am hoping we get more into a groove and get this stuff down. I have learned that it is NOT beneficial to run errands during school time. Its best to just do school and run errands later.

We shall see how it goes!

Movin' on up!

The coaches and Little League president have talked to me about moving Brandon up a level cause he is just that good! So last night they asked me about it again (just do it already, geez!) and thought it was too late but the new coach just called me and he will be joining their team tonight. He now plays for Wilder Construction. Its not all that much different - he is going from Minors 1 to Minors 2 - the only difference in how they play is the kids actually pitch for 1 inning instead of the machine pitch. I just hope the other kids on the team are better players as well and can actually get the ball to Brandon and actually catch it when he throws it to them.

Its kind of nice when you have all these people noticing how good your kid plays and talking about it. Brandon is good at baseball and I am glad he enjoys playing it.

Brandon's Baseball Game

Tonight Brandon played another minors team. He was at the top of the line up for batting and took out the other teams pitcher on his second time at bat. Then when he was on 1st he knocked the runner over when he was running for the ball. AND THEN he just about hit the other coach in the head with a ball!!! I told him that he could NOT eliminate the other team to win! He was pretty proud of himself though....he said, "Mom! Did you see I hit the pitcher?" Me: "yeah". Brandon: "YEAH, he had to go home!!" Followed by a few little chuckles. He is one of the oldest on his team and one of the best players too. He really enjoys playing, I think he would prefer to be on a team with players more in his league though. I will post some pics of him at bat a little later.

Autumn is also playing tonight and we will have an update on her game when Dave gets home.