McGrath Moments

Braeden and Brenna spent yesterday afternoon playing in the snow while I shoveled the driveway and they had a BLAST!!

Enjoy some pictures!!

Brenna couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her use the sidewalk chalk!! :)

I am off work all week with the kids because their school is closed for Christmas break...just one side comment on that subject-why does this school still make us pay tuition for a week when they are closed? Really? Does that seem fair to anyone?

Anyways back to the point of this post...the kids and I are having a great time together. I was a little nervous that I would be pulling my hair out, especially with all of the snow and not really being able to get out and about, but not so. We have watched movies, played with all of their new toys, made messes with play dough, spilt fingernail polish all over the couch and carpet, taken naps (my favorite), potty trained pretty successfully, and just really spent some quality time together.





Brenna is really being such a sweetheart this week. She seems very attached to me and is always asking me to hold her or give her a kiss. I think that she is just one of those children that needs a lot of attention and affection. She loves to be praised.

Braeden has been being a great big brother. He loves to clap and cheer Brenna on when she goes potty and he has been doing the sweetest thing for her...I will ask Brenna if she has to go potty and she will tell me "no" just because she doesn't want to make the effort, so Braeden will say he has to go and start towards that bathroom. Brenna will then jump up and say she has to go too, because she wants to do EVERYTHING her brother does. Every time she does this he just looks at me like "we got her" and he will give me a high five! Such a sweetheart!

Braeden did say something last night that caught me off guard. He told me that he didn't want me to die. I asked him why he was even thinking about things like that and he just said,"he would miss me a lot and he didn't want me to die for a long time." I really hope he is not worrying about that. What a horrible thing for a child to be thinking about.

I am excited Ed will be able to join us for the remainder of the week with the New Years holiday! The kids love when he is home from work!

Dear God,
I pray that you will help me to have more patience with my children. I pray that you will help me to take a deep breath and try to calm down before I raise my voice to my children. They deserve to have a mom that can take a moment to observe the situation before jumping to conclusions or quickly handing out punishments. Help me to know when my children need to be corrected and when they are "just being children". I pray you will help me to be the best mom to Braeden and Brenna that I can. Amen.

Lately, I have noticed that my temper is getting the best of me. I don't know if it is all of the pressure of Christmas, shopping, wrapping, decorating, school programs, school parties, gift exchanges, work Christmas parties, everyday chores, and a husband that is constantly out-of-town, but I have not been as patient with my children and they deserve more.

For example, Brenna is NOT a morning person and any little thing will set her off. When I say set her off, I mean a complete tantrum of screaming at the top of her lungs and throwing herself onto the floor. One of the mornings last week when we experienced some snow/ice, she had a complete meltdown before we left for school . By the time I loaded the kids in the car, I was at the end of my rope (Ed was out of town). As we pull out of the driveway into the street Brenna starts screaming what I thought was "NO, NO, NO!" I turned around and YELLED, "If I hear the word "NO" one more time..." and then she just looked at me with sad eyes and said, "Snow, Mama." She had been saying, "SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!"

The two words sound so similar, but I was clearly wrong. That was when I realized that I needed to ask for God to help me with my patience. Brenna is only 2 years old. She needs a mom that can deal with a little tantrum, but keep calm in the midst of it. Braeden deserves the same. I think it is important to always strive to be better, especially when it comes to our children.

Braeden lost his first tooth last Friday while we were at my parent's house. Why is this so sad for me? I am sure part of it is because I deal with teeth all day long at work, but it is also one of those constant signs that he is growing up. What happened to my 4 lbs little baby boy that I brought home from the hospital? It really seems like that was yesterday. I enjoy watching my children grow up, but why does it happen so fast? Oh, and the best part of all of this...he came home from school today and showed me that a second tooth fell out!!

Let me start by saying that I know that there are a lot of you who really enjoy and take "Black Friday" very seriously...I read about it on your blogs!! Well, late Thursday night my cousin Miranda's boyfriend had to stop by Walmart to get some items for his hunting trip. We saw people sitting in the isles in lawn chairs waiting for the specials to begin and we just found it funny. So not to make fun of any of you, but Miranda and I decided to kind of spoof the whole "Black Friday" thing. I see images of people on TV acting crazy and fighting over items and I just find it so humorous.

Our shopping adventure took place at Walmart. I think it was technically Black Friday because it was after 12am, but as you can see by the parking lot, not many people were there yet. The deals were probably not offered for a few more hours, but these are some pictures from our shopping adventure!



Here I am with my shopping cart ready to take off to fight for the deals!! Where is everyone else??



I can't believe this crazy person was trying to take this baby stroller from me!! Notice how empty the store is behind us. :)




Okay, I will have to admit we had a few cocktails before our shopping adventure and before any of you start judging and ask ...where were her children?...they were at sleepover at my parent's house! We just had a fun evening!!

Last night we were riding in the car and this was part of our conversation:

Brenna: "Mama, new ring!"

Me: "What?" (I understood what she said, but was confused as to what she meant.)

Braeden: "Brenna, shhhhh...that was to be a surprise...for Christmas!!"

This same thing happened for Mother's Day. Braeden couldn't wait to run home to tell me that him and Daddy bought me a "shiny, black purse!" One of these days Ed will learn to go shopping by himself!!! Love you, Ed!

Braeden: "Is it tomorrow yet?"

Ed and I have tried to explain (sooooo many times) that it is never really "tomorrow". How do you explain this to a 4 year old? :)

I have noticed that as the kids get older, the more they enjoy holidays, which makes me more excited about them as well. The kids loved sticking their hands into the pumpkins to pull out all of the seeds and mushy insides!!







This year the kids dressed up at their school for Halloween. Braeden has been at Tots and Tales for 3 years now and they have never been allowed to dress up, but instead had "Pajama Day" for Halloween. That was what I was expecting they would do this year.
When I got a note home from Brenna's class saying they were doing a "Disney" theme for dressing up, I decided I better check with Braeden's teacher too. I found out the day before their party that his class was dressing up as The Wizard of Oz characters. I panicked. How was I going to come up with a Wizard of Oz costume in one evening?
Well, Braeden was a scarecrow for his first Halloween. He was only 9 months old. I decided to dig out the costume and see what I could do with it, if anything. Well...here it is and I must say not too shabby. I stripped out the elastic and cut slits under the arms. The hat still fit!!




Presenting my KU football player and cheerleader!!!




I LOVE, LOVE this picture!!

For my birthday we celebrated with friends and family at Tasso's Greek restaurant. SO MUCH FUN!! I really recommend this place if you haven't been there. The food and entertainment is fabulous!

This is Tiffany, my Mom, and I getting ready to break our plates...a Greek tradition.

This is what the floor looked like when we were done!!

Ed's boss knew we were going to Tasso's for my birthday, so he called and paid for a round of their house specialty Blue Ouzo shots! How nice was that? We all had such a fun time!

How did this happen? How am I 30 years old, married with two children? Life goes by soooo quickly! When you are younger you can't wait to be 16 or 18 years old. Then you turn 21 and life is great! 30 felt so far off, but now it has arrived.

I guess it is just time to accept that I am OLD! Just kidding! The first 30 years of my life have been great and I am blessed. I can only hope the next 30 will be as wonderful. Well, maybe the next 30 will be great after I get over the hangover I am predicting for tomorrow. Tonight I have to party like I'm 21 again! It's my 30th Birthday!!

We had two births in the family this week. My sister had her first child last Sunday, October 11. His name is Carson James and he weighed in at 7lbs 15oz. Wow, what a day that was!! I am not going to go into all of the details of her labor and Carson's birth, as that is her story to tell, but after everything that occurred, I realized how much Braeden's birth still affects me today.

When Carson was born he was taken straight to the NICU. As many of you remember, Braeden was in the NICU for 5 weeks after he was born. As soon as I was allowed back to see my sister after her surgery and noticed the baby was not with her or James I started freaking out INSIDE. I would never allow her to see me break down after all she had just been through. Carson is at home now and all is well with him, but all these memories came flooding back after hearing he had to be taken to the NICU.

Those first few weeks of Braeden's life were the hardest of my life. Ed and I had just moved into this brand new house. I had been on bed rest for weeks and then on maternity leave for months, which means no income. It was freezing cold outside (the winter weather just seemed to add an extra something to my stress). And then I had this premature baby boy in the hospital that I would go and spend everyday with, only to sit there and wait for the next Dr's report on his progress-always waiting for them to say something that would forever change our lives. I can cry just typing all of this because IT WAS HORRIBLE!

All of these feelings came back with Carson. I didn't want Lindsey and James to deal with any of that. And thank goodness Carson is a trooper and he recovered quickly. What a cutie he is and a blessing to our family!

Ed's sister had her third child yesterday, October 17. His name is Emerson Cooper and he weighed 8lbs, 4oz. Congratulations to the Machanda's! We are excited to meet him.

You all probably remember my struggle with Braeden on what he is going to be for Halloween. He wanted Darth Vader and I wanted KU football player...well isn't it funny how things always seem to work themselves out. Our neighbor across the street has the exact same KU football outfit that I was going to buy for Braeden. She gave it to us so he can wear it and it was FREE!! Once he put on the pads and helmet, he was excited to wear it.

Aunt Lala and Uncle James bought Braeden an Optimus Prime outfit (Transformers, for those of you who have girls) and he wears it around the house all of the time. Not one word has been spoken about Darth Vader since!

So you see, I got two costumes for FREE and things are working out just perfectly. Braeden can wear his Optimus Prime costume as much as he wants around the house and by the time Halloween arrives, he will be excited to put on his pads and helmet and be the best KU football player he can!

Mommy lesson learned...don't worry about little things. Everything will work out.

Last year Ed bought a trip to St. Croix at a silent auction. He bought it for my 30th Birthday present and it was a trip for four, so we decided to invite our best friends Tiffany and Jeremy. Tiffany's 30th Birthday is only two weeks after mine, so it was perfect.

Ed and I at dinner at Pelican Cove Resort...an outside restaurant.

Tiff and I enjoying drinks at the pool at our condo resort.

A picture of the group at the "boardwalk".

This is actually the beach behind our condo. We visited St. Croix during the off season, so it was like we had our own private beach!

I just want to tell Ed thanks for such a wonderful trip! I vote you "Best Husband Ever"!!

Wow! This has been such a busy month and it has flown by. I have had very little time to update our blog and reading the Twilight series has not helped!!
Our excitement this month has been focused around Braeden playing soccer. He participated in the YMCA program. It just lasted a month and consisted of 3 practices and 3 games. Braeden did so well! Ed and I are so proud of him! He scored 4 goals in his last game!!
Braeden's team consisted of all 3 and 4 year-olds. We were very surprised to find out that one of my best friend's sons was on our team. Braeden and Chase had soooo much fun together. When one of them fell down, even if it was during a play, they would stop and help them up and make sure everything was okay. It was absolutely precious!
We had another boy on our team who is also in Braeden's class at Tots and Tales. He is quite a bully and began picking on Braeden during the first practice. Ed even started showing Braeden how to defend himself. Well, after a month of witnessing this child bully Braeden, Thursday I had finally had enough. After tackling Braeden to the ground in the middle of the soccer field, I marched myself out onto the field and removed Braeden from underneath him and proceeded to yell at this other child in front of everyone...even his own oblivious parents. DO NOT MESS WITH MY CHILD!!! I know that I can't defend him forever (as Ed reminded me last night), but for now I am Mama Bear and I will be there for my children. I love them so much!!!

Halloween is approaching and therefore the costume magazines have started arriving in the mail. Braeden decided to look through one and found the costume he wanted...Darth Vader. Well, he was unaware that I had already decided (like 6 months ago) that Brenna would be a KU cheerleader and Braeden would be a KU football player. I have already bought Brenna's outfit and I just found a NCAA KU football uniform for Braeden. What is a Mom to do? Should I give up on my cute idea of matching, themed costumes and let him be what he wants? I think not!

It is only going to get harder as they get older to make them wear a costume they don't want, so I think this will be the year to get my way. Right? Or am I being a horrible Mom? I think that once the football uniform comes, he will love it. Braeden is starting football in October, so he should be excited to get a real helmet to wear-at least that is what I keep telling myself.

Perhaps the solution is to buy both costumes. Braeden can wear his Darth Vader costume around the house for dress up, but he can be a football player for Halloween. I guess we will all find out if Braeden or Mommy got their way when my children ring your doorbell for trick or treats!!

Brenna's crib was recently recalled, so I wanted to get some pictures of her room before we put up her new bed. Can you believe her crib was recalled over 2 years after we bought it? Kinda scary!! Anyways, Brenna-here is what your nursery looked like!

Friday evening we finally decided it was time to get Braeden new shoes. I always put off getting him new tennis shoes because the first time they are worn to school , he will come home with the shoes already muddy, stained, or just plain dirty. Well, being that his toes were hitting the end of his shoes, we knew we better get him some new ones.


We walked into the shoe store and the sales woman asked if she could measure Braeden's foot. I said, "Sure! It will be great to know what size shoe he needs." Braeden takes off his shoe and I about died of embarrassment when I saw his sock! ALL OF HIS TOES HAD RIPPED THROUGH A HOLE IN HIS SOCK!! This is what me, Ed, Braeden, the sales person, the whole store saw...










Ed dressed Braeden Friday morning, so I looked up at him and gave him the worst look and asked him why he would put him in socks that looked like this. He said he didn't and Braeden replied with, "Yes you did Daddy!!"



We felt so trashy that we bought two pairs of shoes. Why did we buy two pairs? Was it because we thought they might think we had some money? Was it so they didn't think we neglected our children? Who knows! I just know I felt better buying two new pairs until we went to pay and the sales person asked if we would be needing socks too!!!