End of School

Brayden ended school two weeks ago. They had an award ceremony Brayden received two different awards: Citizenship (only given to three kids from his class) and Academic Achievement. He ended the year reading at a 4.4 reading level (fourth grade, forth month). Did I mention he's only in 1st grade? We're so proud of him and all his accomplishments. Not only did he excel academically, but he also is kind to others. What more could mom ask for?

Madeline Elaine

I'm a little late in posting this, but Madeline Elaine Hebdon was born on 5/22/12 at 8:38pm. She is by far my smallest baby, weighing in at only 7lbs, 2oz and 19 inches long. It was a very quick and painless delivery (only 3 hours start to finish). I am so grateful for epidurals! 

Maddie is absolutely gorgeous and we are loving every minute of her. Brayden and Tawny love having her home. It took Ethan a little while to warm up to her, but he is coming around. When we walked in the front door from the hospital Maddie was crying pretty loudly (she was hungry). Ethan took one look at her and started saying "no mommy no" over and over as he backed up slowly. When he hit the wall, he scooted sideways until he thought he was safe, then made a run for it into the other room. He wouldn't even come in the same room as her for the first 30 minutes. I'm glad he's overcome his initial fear.

Everyone asks who she looks like, but I think all of my kids looked very similar as newborns. I'll have to dig up all my other pictures and do a comparison, but she is definitely ours! And we love her!

Happy 7th Birthday Brayden!

Brayden also turned 7 last Saturday, the 2nd day of the recital. We skipped the friend party this year because we had so many other things going on (recital, baby, etc). Greg took them swimming for a while in the morning. Then we had lunch and a little family birthday party. He loved his Magic Treehouse books from Grandma Sharlene. He had read all five of them by the next day. I think he's read each of them at least 3 times by now. He really loves to read.

 Tawny got him Jenga and he was pretty excited about it.

 He was pretty excited about his big present, which was from Greg, me Grandma Terri and Papa.

 A new bike!

 We ended with rainbow cupcakes, had a nap and went to recital. He's really loving his new bike.

Happy Birthday Bud. We love you!

Recital Time

This picture doesn't really fit with the rest but was too cute not to post. Ethan had been eating and apparently was too tired to even get down from the table.

 Last weekend was the kids' recital. Brayden did a tumbling routine to "Can't Touch This". He's all smiles in the pictures, but on stage he was more focused than anything else. I've never seen a kid so determined to nail every one of his skills. And he did! I'm so proud of him. There was only one other first grader in his class. The rest were all 2nd-4th grade and I was a little worried about him keeping up. But he had no problems at all. He is so focused and detail oriented.  A perfectionist just like him mommy. And he loves it, which is the most important of all.

Tawny loves everything about dance. She loves that her grandma is her teacher. She loves class and learning new things. She loves the stage, the performance, the lights, the costumes, everything.  She was so adorable up on stage and she knew her dance really well. And she had so so so much fun.

Park Fun

A few weeks ago we walked over to the park for a picnic. Well, Greg and the kids walked. I drove since I was about 37 weeks pregnant and not feeling up to it. Ethan even rode all the way over on Brayden's plasma car. It's just under a mile each way and he loved the entire thing.

 I need to get a video of him riding this thing. He's fast!

 Earlier in the day I had to run a bunch of errands and really needed the kids to cooperate. So I used my awesome parenting skills and bought them Frostys to keep them entertained. I think it worked because they were all awesome. It was well worth the mess Ethan made.

Canning Apricots

We made apricot jam yesterday. Brayden and Tawny both helped the entire time. They cleaned, pitted and cut the apricots for 47 quarts of jam! They didn't even mention being tired until about 5 hours in. They had fun and were willing to help out, and I really appreciated it. Ethan even "helped" (he splashed water out of the sink and through apricots everywhere)  Greg came home halfway through and took over the stove for me.  I don't think I could have done it without them. I'm pretty sure I would have quit way earlier if I hadn't had so much help. It was a tiring but very enjoyable day. 

Monday with Grandma and Papa

Right after school on Monday we went out to Grandma and Papa's for the rest of the day. We started out by picking peas (which I am still shelling and freezing. so much fun- not really.)  The kids had fun for about 10 minutes then were ready to move onto the next activity. I'm not sure how many they actually picked, but I"m pretty sure they ate every single one of them. After that they played in the water while my mom flood irrigated her yard.

 After that we had a bbq outside. Watching Ethan eat his watermelon with a fork was one of the most entertaining things I've done in quite a while.

 We rounded out the evening with Fun Dips on the hammock with Papa and Grandma. I'm so glad my kids have the opportunity to grow up around at least one set of grandparents. I wish it were possible to have both sides close by.