Pre-holidays 2011

I know it's been a long time since the last post. Oh well, December happened. Will try to do a quick update, as it's getting late and my vacation ends tonight. Ugh. So not ready to go back to work!

Before Christmas, we took the kids to the mall. We thought we'd do some shopping--but--it was someone's bright idea NOT to bring the stroller. HA! No way, Jose. Those kids were going buck wild. We stopped to see Santa but not one of them cooperated. I'm sure it was quite funny to anyone who was watching us: Becca stayed in the line, the babies actually walked up to him but wouldn't sit with him. We finally settled on a high five from Santa and went on our merry way. At least there were no tears, right?

Every time we are in the mall, Becca has to ride the little rides. So I guess now we've started it with Carley and Evan. They loved it! Note to self: always take plenty of quarters or you're screwed.

The Fayetteville Square is always so beautiful at Christmastime. I have more photos, but these came off Lee's phone and are much easier to access.  Becca rode the ponies twice. Better than last year, when she cried. See, we are making so much progress! It was pretty cold out, so we didn't stay long. Babies enjoyed looking at all the pretty lights. Evan enjoyed flirting with all the old ladies.



Sneak Peek

Last month, Kim Ginn at Sweet Portrayal, who is our favorite photographer, did a special Christmas session giveaway on her Facebook page. Guess who won?  ME! I dreaded the session for a whole week, just knowing the kids wouldn't cooperate. It was pretty crazy, but everyone did okay except Carley, who didn't want any part of it. Kim was still able to get some amazing pictures! If you live around here you should definitely try her out. She is great with the kids. I am only posting a few of the pictures because the best ones will be in a mailbox near you very soon; they are going to be our Christmas cards. Yay!

When I saw these pictures of the kids something very strange happened. All the crying, whining, fighting, hair-pulling, butt wiping, running, tantrums, back talking, bad attitudes, time-outs, climbing, and pooping in the bathtub suddenly didn't matter. I LOVE THESE KIDS. They are my heart and soul. And, boy, do we make some beautiful babies or what?

Becca is sitting at the computer with me right now. She just said, "Awww, I look so adorable!" And yes, she does. I love this picture of her on the bed.

When I saw this one of Evan, I almost lost it. What a gem! I tell him all the time that it's a good thing that he's so darn cute because there are so many days when I think I might just sit him out on the curb with the trash. Until I look at this face...

Kim took this one without us even knowing it. We were trying to calm Carley down during her fit. The kids were eating M & M cookies and getting crumbs and chocolate all over the white bedding! What a perfect picture of us (and Becca's little attitude).

New Pictures

Just a quick post to put up some new pictures today. We are  still  floating on Cloud 9 after the excitement of college football this weekend. We've got HOG FEVER around here, baby! Better than Bieber Fever, right? Hoping that next week I can post about us beating LSU and maybe (maybe?) going to the championship game!

Here's a sweet little pic of Carley waiting for her lunch one day last week. I love when Lee sends me these sweet little shots while I'm at work; it just makes my day so much better.

Evan wanted his lunch, too!

WOOOOOO PIG SOOIE! 

Guess what? We got to go to a Hog game for the first time in a couple of years.  Such a good one, too--the game vs TN, where we had a couple of amazing offensive plays.

Snacktime at the Bramell house.

More Halloween

Here are a few more pictures from our Halloween fun. Becca wore her costume to school, but the little ones just wore their holiday shirts instead. Much easier to get them around this way.

Carley and her crazy hair...I swear, the kid needs a haircut every 2 weeks!

I promised Becca that we'd make Halloween cookies. We tried last year, but they didn't turn out very good. Much better this time, and she enjoyed decorating them. What's funny is that I don't think she even ate one cookie! More for me and Lee...

Our 2 Jacks

My spooky skeleton boy--he was clearly not amused.

More Becca Cuteness

You know that Becca is always cracking us up around here. I've had many stories in my head that I've needed to blog about, but haven't had the time lately. She is so talkative now, and her imagination is going wild! She is constantly talking about Disney World, Princesses and her imaginary friends. Having a conversation with her is not easy because we never know what she's talking about!

* The other day she was watching cartoons in the living room. I left the room to start some laundry. When I came back in, she'd accidentally changed the channel to the Home Shopping Network. They were selling rugs. She was sitting in the floor, totally focused on the TV.
                 Me: "Becca, what are you doing?"
                 Her: (very excitedly) "Mom, I'm watching this show about rugs!"

* Lately, every time I take her somewhere and leave the little ones home with Lee she says the same thing to him.  "Dad, are you sure you can handle this?"

* Her imaginary friends are still hanging around. Last week, she even bought groceries for them when we were at Walmart getting our own food. We have lots of fun with Mouse, Squirrel and their mom Basagna (like lasagna). Funny girl!

Halloween Fun 2011

I am glad we made it to Halloween! Becca was so excited that I just didn't think she could stand waiting another day. After much costume debating, she decided on her favorite princess, Ariel. Just our luck, we had the dress in our dress up supply, so I only had to find the red wig. Isn't she lovely? 

The kids had their Halloween party at daycare with games, prizes, candy and a pizza party. I went for a little while then ended up bringing Carley home because she was super fussy and wouldn't let me put her down. Evan, on the other hand, didn't seem to even notice that I was there. He was too busy throwing things and climbing on tables and chairs. Becca did really well and wore her costume (wig included) for the entire party. Trick-or-treating was a different story...

The cutest mermaid under the sea.

We went to our old neighborhood so Becca could trick-or-treat with Madison. It was their 3rd Halloween  together! We sure miss living by them.

The girls were funny and not even shy about saying "trick or treat" this year.

Before I get fussed at, this is about all the pictures we got of the little ones. It is impossible to get them to stand still for even a second! Lee might have gotten a few with his phone, so I'll have to check on that. After much debating and stress (for me), we decided on Mickey and Minnie for the little ones. You may recognize the Mickey costume since Becca wore it when she was 2. I found the polka dot dress at the Goodwill store and worked a little mommy  magic on it to make it work for Carley. Add a tail and ears, and there you go!  

Becca drove us nuts for a couple of weeks about dressing up with her. I couldn't talk Lee into it, but I went ahead and threw something together. It was really fun; the first time I've dressed up in many years.

Sweet little Minnie Mouse, on the move = blurry photo.

One of our friends from the old neighborhood (Nancy) invited us over to eat dinner before trick or treating. She made a nice dinner for us and the kids. Her little boy just turned 9 and I remember when he was the twins' age! Crazy!

I just had to take a picture of the little mischievous ones in the wagon. They just rode around all evening and hit each other with their pumpkins. They screamed, giggled, fought and yelled. It was pretty funny. About halfway through the night, Evan figured out that he could drag his pumpkin on the ground and make noise. So, of course, Carley had to do the same. It's monkey-see, monkey-do for them!

Overall, it was a good Halloween. Lee and I learned that getting 3 kids dressed and herded around is not easy! They all behaved very good, until the end of the night when Becca was so exhausted that she threw a fit. She's already talking about what costume she'll wear next year!

It's Fall, Ya'll!

We woke up this morning to a brisk, sunny 35 degrees. Brrrr! I finally have some time to catch up on the blog. So much has happened, and again, I don't always take pictures. So you'll just have to read about the Bramell family adventures.

The first weekend in October, Grammy and Nanny came for a visit. The weather was perfect for an afternoon at the pumpkin patch! The kids all ran around, we took a hayride around the farm and picked our own pumpkins to bring home. We like the McGarrah's Farm in Pea Ridge; this was our second time there. We tried a different one last year but I didn't like it as well.

Here are my two littlest pumpkins checking it all out!

Becca loved riding on the mule train.


Funny pictures made us giggle.

All the kids loved playing in the hay tunnel. What a great, fun idea!

Evan & Carley weren't sure what to think about hay. They both touched it and looked confused.

What does a cow say?? MOOOO!

Two cool dudes. You can see the pumpkin patch behind them.

Carley on the hayride through the farm. We all enjoyed the ride and the stories about the haunted farm.

Big girl just wanted to climb, climb, climb. Such a warm day that her face was red like her shirt!

After wearing the kids out at the farm, we topped it off with a yummy dinner at Monte Ne Chicken. We don't go there often, but when we do, we wonder why we don't go more!