Brennan's Advancements

Brennan has some great news this week- He's earned two advancements!!!

Monday, Brennan earned his white belt in karate. He had to pass off some basic moves (kicks, punches, blocks) that he's been practicing all week. He was so proud of himself! He also earned a red star for his uniform from getting all A's on his report card.

Last night, Brennan earned his Bobcat from Cub Scouts. The scouts had a fun ceremony where they had the parents present the patch to the scout. During this ceremony, the scout's face was painted to match the standards of the Bobcat. Doesn't Brennan look so cute with his face painted like a Bobcat? He also earned more beads toward his Tiger Cub~ He only has 5 more to earn until he gets his next advancement!

We are extremely proud of Brennan for all of the hard work he's put into his advancements- Way to Go Brennan!

My Sweet Hubby

Don, you may not want to read this entry because it is entirely about you. But for everyone else, I need to let you know what a sweet and caring husband I have. I know that it is so much easier to complain about what isn't right (and I know that I'm good at it too!), but I just wanted to let everyone know how great it is to be married to Don.

Last week, Don sent me some very beautiful fall flowers for no reason at all. I think that he knew what a crazy time I've been having with the boys and thought that they might cheer me up, which they did! Every time I look at them, I smile :)

This past week, Don has gotten up in the morning with Nolan and Brennan so that I could get a few extra minutes of sleep. I know it doesn't seem like such a big deal, but if you've ever been prego, you know that five minutes of sleep could be the difference of feeling tired all day and getting your "to do" list done. Much appreciated!

Then yesterday, Don watched the boys while I went to the spa for a package that Don had scheduled for me. It included a facial, an hour-long prenatal massage, and a pedicure. It was 3 hours of heaven! I even came home to fed children playing quietly and even was able to take a nap. Yesterday was the best day I've had in a while. Everything at home was calm and peaceful!

I know I don't say it often enough, but I really love my wonderful husband! He's definitely the best thing that has even happened to me!

Thanksgiving @ Station Camp

Daddy, Nolan, and Brennan in his Indian Vest (complete with hieroglyphics)

Brennan goes to such a great school that makes sure to involve the parents in nearly every activity. Thanksgiving was no exception. Yes, I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet, but his school celebrated it on Friday and invited the parents to come eat lunch with their student. Brennan was so excited when we said that we would go... and the only reason we went was for him. It wasn't for the overpriced cafeteria food (we spent more on lunch at his school than we would have at Chick-Fil-A). It was solely for the fact that Brennan will know that we would do anything for him, anything to make him happy and proud to have us as parents. So, the food wasn't all that great, but the company was AWESOME!

Baby Update

Time for another baby update:

Baby Borchert (still un-named) will be delivered Thursday January 22nd at 8 am.

Nolan's 1st Haircut

Yesterday morning, Don and I decided that it was finally time for Nolan to get his first haircut. Actually, all of the boys needed their hair cut, so we figured that now was better than later. That being said, there were some fatal flaws to our idea: 1st- It was Nolan's nap time. 2nd- Nolan doesn't really like new people. 3rd- Nolan hates to sit still and hates it even more when he's being held down. Not yet realizing our mistakes, we took him to get his hair cut anyway.

For the first 5 minutes, he was fussy but not too bad. The next 5 minutes were a little worse, until I found the orange tic-tacs that he loves. The 5 minutes after that, we ran out of tic-tacs and then all bets were off. Nolan screamed worse than when he had his shots! We decided to let him take a break while Brennan got his hair cut. After Nolan had calmed down a bit, we got most of his hair cut before he started crying again. It was good enough for me! Not the best hair cut, but Nolan no longer has a mullet in the back and hair sticking up on the crown of his head.

What made me the most upset about this experience wasn't Nolan's crying or him losing his baby hair, it was the rudeness of another patron. So I need to vent here: If you don't have something nice to say to someone you don't know- KEEP YOUR OPINIONS TO YOURSELF!!! This older lady (in her 70's) was just getting finished with her cut when Nolan was almost finished with his cut. She came over to me and said that I was scaring my child for life and I shouldn't be doing this to such a little kid. Then she said that I should be ashamed of myself for putting my child through such a traumatic experience. WTH?!?!?!?! What was I supposed to say to that? I just looked at her while Nolan cried and the stylist tried to finish as quickly as possible. What I wanted to say was that you don't know my child- she didn't know if he was always like this or not- and it was none of her business if I wanted his hair cut or not. Now I know it wasn't the right time to take him, we should have waited until later, but it was something that needed to get done (his hair was in his eyes!).

So now I'm a bad parent and have scared my child for life! He's not even talking (but he wasn't talking before) and he is just like his normal self. All I have to say is that Brennan's 1st haircut went much better than Nolan's. We'll have to see with the next one and then compare the battle scars!

After the haircut

Boy Scouts, Basketball, Karate and Swimming

Am I crazy?!?! I think we all know that the answer to that is "YES!" I don't know what I'm doing getting Brennan into all of these activities, but I know that he's going to enjoy them. It's been very hard on him moving here because there aren't any little boys in the neighborhood to play with, so I think that's why we are signing up for each one.

Brennan started Cub Scouts about a month ago and he just loves it! He has already done enough to earn his Bobcat Badge. He looks so grown up in his uniform that I cried the first night he went because he wasn't my little boy anymore.

Basketball came out of nowhere. First Brennan said that he wanted to do Baseball, but he changed his mind. Then he said he wanted to play football, but the season was almost over. Then at Cub Scouts, they were talking about Basketball sign-ups for Hendersonville (which we missed a month ago) and Brennan mentioned he'd like to play. Randomly enough, Goodlettsville (where Don works) lets people from out of town play in their league and they were just finishing sign-ups, so now Brennan is playing.

Karate is a funny story. On Halloween, we went to the Goodlettsville Park Trick-or-Treat where each booth was sponsored by a company. The last booth we went to was a karate booth where you could register to win a months worth of free karate lessons. Luck must be on his side...Brennan won! So he starts tonight... should be fun!

Which brings us to swimming lessons: I've got to tell a back story here. We belonged to the YMCA in Illinois where Brennan took swimming lessons and really enjoyed it. We also went to the pool as a family on the weekends, which was really good bonding time for all of us. Anyway... when I went to my Ob-gyn this week, I told her about some pains that I'd been having down the back of my legs and she suggested physical therapy and to spend some time in the pool. So this morning I went to see the physical therapist (interesting experience). She suggested working the muscle at both the office and pool, and since they didn't have a pool on site, they use the YMCA pool. My major hurdle was what to do with Nolan while I had physical therapy for an hour? Then it dawned on me... YMCA... babysitting! The only catch was that you have to be a member to have them watch your child while you are on site, so we joined the YMCA of Tennessee. As it turns out, they have a swimming class for both Brennan and Nolan on Saturday mornings that start next week. The main reason for getting him into swimming is to get him past he fear of the water. Hopefully, this will help.


Anyway, about the physical therapy: I go twice a week for stretching and water therapy for the next couple of months. After working with Miller (kind of a cool/different name for a girl) today, I can already feel some of the pain lessening.

Halloween in Nashville

Happy Halloween!!

This Halloween was so much fun!! When Brennan got home from school, the boys changed into their costumes: Brennan was a Skeleton Pirate and Nolan was a Dragon. I can't believe how stinkin' cute they both were. After taking some pictures, we loaded the boys into the car to go to the Goodlettsville Trick-or-Treat in the park. When we got there, we were amazed at the number of people!! It was only 5:15 and had just started, but the line to visit all of the booths was already 4-5 blocks long!!! Nolan was getting upset with all of the standing around, so Don took him on a walk across the open park. He was so cute walking around in his dragon costume!! He even started waving at people (which he never does). After waiting in line for 15 min. Brennan was getting anxious too, so we decided to skip the trick-or-treating part and just go to the end where there were jump houses. Jump houses are Brennan's favorite! We played for a while, cut in at the very end of the line, and got candy from the last 5 or so booths. Just enough to make the kids happy. Nolan didn't really get the concept of taking candy, but he totally got the concept of eating the candy. And Brennan was really good about making sure that Nolan got his fair share of candy too!

After the park, we came back home and went around our neighborhood (to all of 10 houses). It was fun to take Brennan around~ he was surprisingly polite and said thank you to all of our neighbors. We finally came home when it started to get too cold. The boys got enough candy and we still had plenty because we only had 5 trick-or-treaters all night. It kind of made me feel like I did when I lived with my mom and no one would come to our house because it was really scary. After sitting up for another hour without any more candy-getter's, we turned off the lights at 9 and were in bed by 9:30. We are getting so old!!!

Daddy and Nolan the Dragon

Brennan the Pirate- Rrrrrr!

Nolan the Dragon walking around the park- isn't he super cute?!?
Brennan in one of the many jump houses~ getting him out of there is like pulling teeth!