McGrath Moments

I am so happy with how Braeden is doing at Preschool. For those of you who don't know, he is attending Tots n' Tales Montessori School. I have to admit that I have not always been so impressed with the progress he was making, but in the last couple of months I have really been happy with their program.

He has 3 pages of homework each week that need to be completed by Thursday. He has come a long way with his letters, numbers, and writing his name. He can now recognize and say all of the sounds that each of the letters make. Not only that, but he can SIGN THE ENTIRE ALPHABET!!! He came home the week of Father's Day and signed "Happy Father's Day" to Ed. We were so proud of him!!

He can also say the months of the year, count to 100 by tens, and say his phone number and address.

I don't want this blog to seem like I am bragging, because that is not the case at all. These are probably things that most other children his age can do. But after his last parent/teacher conference, I knew he was behind other children in his class, but now he has really caught up. Not only that, but having a preemie born 10 weeks early, Ed and I did not know what we were going to have to deal with intellectually with Braeden.

At this point, we are very proud of his progress and the dedication of his teacher, "Miss Mary". I think Braeden is pretty fond of "Miss Mary" as well, because he often calls me "Miss Mary"!!

Well, after the success of painting the bathroom, I decided to take on the dining room. I chose a dark chocolate color and a goldish-brown color. I decided to do vertical stripes on one wall and paint the other walls chocolate brown w/the goldish color accenting the back of the china cabinet. This was a project I took on by myself and completed on my own. I was pretty proud to say the least. I have always felt like I needed Ed to do any of the home improvement/home repair projects, but I have realized that I am a little more capable than I thought. (I still need you Ed!!) Here are the final pictures of the room...

We have a FOTZ (Friends of the Zoo) yearly membership. Ed's sister, Katie and her husband gave it to the kids for a Christmas present and we are really enjoying it. We don't feel like we have to see everything in one day. We can go in the morning when it is cool outside, stay for a few hours, and then head home. The kids love looking at the animals. This visit we took our neighbor, Emma. Her and Braeden are great friends!





These two monkeys were "cleaning" each other and we tried to explain that to the kids:

Ed: The monkey in back is just picking dirt off of the other monkey's tail.

Braeden: It looks like they are digging in each other's BUTTS!

Well, that is exactly what they were doing. So we just laughed for a long time!





The kids loved the carousel ride and the train ride. We had a great time together!

Happy 2nd Birthday Brenna!!! Today Brenna turned 2 years old and Ed and I are celebrating our 6 year Anniversary. Brenna was born two years ago on our 4th Anniversary. It was such an exciting and wonderful day. I went to the OB for my weekly check and they told me I was dilated to 5cm and that we would be going straight to the hospital. About 5 hours later, around 3pm, Brenna Grace was born weighing 7lbs. She was such a wonderful blessing!

Today we had a small Birthday Party at lunch time, as Brenna's big party will be on the 4th of July. We had chocolate cake and opened some presents...

Brenna received lots of cute clothes from Aunt Lala and Uncle James, along with lotion and lip gloss. Anyone who is around Brenna knows that lotion and lip gloss are her favorite things. She is such a girl!!

Ed and I bought Brenna a new "Always a Princess" vanity with matching chair. She can keep all of her lotion, lip gloss, and make-up in one place now!

Brenna thinks it is hilarious to put her stinky toes on the dinner table...even when we were singing her "Happy Birthday"! She usually goes to time out for doing this, but we let it go for today. :) She was having such a good time!!

I also wanted to say "Thanks" to Ed for the beautiful roses for our Anniversay. Happy 6th Anniversary Babe!! I hope we are blessed to spend MANY more years together!! Love you.

Wow! It has been awhile since I posted anything on this blog! We have been so busy and I have a lot of posts and pictures to catch up on. I am on vacation until after the 4th of July, so I will have lots of time to catch-up...I think. Stay tuned!

BOY!! We are excited that Lindsey and James are pregnant with a Healthy Baby Boy! I was able to go to the sonogram today and hear the good news. It still amazes me, even after having two children, how much detail they can see during the sonogram. It was quite an emotional moment when the sono tech typed "It's a BOY" on the screen. Lindsey and I just started crying...James may have even gotten a little emotional too. Anyways, Congratulations Lindsey and James!! We can't wait to meet him in October!

I have to preface this story by saying that each night at dinner Braeden and Brenna talk about what they are going to eat for dessert after they eat all of their food. On Monday night, Braeden decided he wanted a cupcake after dinner. Brenna started screaming that she wanted a cupcake as well. Like we do every night, we told them they would only get a cupcake if they finish everything on their plate. As soon as we said that, Ed and I watched Brenna put everything from her plate into her napkin, fold it in half, and then say "all done"!! OMG! She really thought we had no clue what she had just done.

Ed decided that she needed to learn a lesson, so he went and got three cupcakes out of the fridge. One for me, one for Braeden, and one for himself. He sat them down on all of our plates and he and Braeden proceeded to eat them while talking about how good they were. I couldn't even look at Brenna! Her big brown eyes were huge and filled with tears. She couldn't believe her Daddy was being so mean and neither could I. It broke my heart! To be honest, I thought what she had done was kind of funny! She thinks she is so sneaky!!