Brennan's First School Dance

Tonight was the evening of Brennan's first school dance- though it wasn't really a dance, but we'll get to that later. Our evening began with Dinner with the Hansen's at a cute little restaurant called Joe's Diner. It is a total '50's diner, where the servers "hand-jive" and they have hula hoop contest. Brennan, Gabe, and Caleb participated, though none of them could really get it going. Isn't he cute?

After dinner we were off to the dance. I was expecting a DJ and to just let the kids dance together, but that's not the kind of dance this was. This was a "High School Musical" Lip-syncing dance contest. Brennan really wanted to sing and dance, but he's never seem HSM (that's the IT thing to call it!). He settled for dancing in the back of the room while everyone sang along to the songs. Now, I've never seen High School Musical, but the music wasn't all that bad. I'm now afraid that I'm going to have to buy the movie and I'll never hear the end of it! Oh, well, at least it makes him happy.
Brennan breaking a move! He has the funniest way of dancing- a little moon walking with a lot of disco pointing!
Mommy and Brennan at the dance. His facial features are so comical!

Brennan- The Voice of Reason

This afternoon, I had to take Brennan out of school to go to the dentist. He's been complaining of a toothache for the past few days, and the dentist was finally able to squeeze us in. After we left the dentist (no cavity- his permanent teeth are starting to move and irritate his baby teeth), Brennan and I got into a discussion about school. He was telling me about lunch time- I guess his teacher has to teach/cover another class for 30 min or so, so they send in one of the school aids, Mrs. Rose. Brennan called her a substitute, although the pronunciation was more like Sum-times-toot. It was really funny to listen to him say substitute, so I started asking him questions to try and get him to say it again. Our conversation went like this:

Me: So what is the person called who comes into your class when Mrs. Carlson isn't there?
Brennan: At lunch? Mrs. Rose.
Me: What about when she's gone all day?
Brennan: That would be "student teacher" mom...
Me: What if it's not your student teacher? What if they are absent too?
Brennan: Then it would be Mrs. Rose.
Me: What do you call her?
Brennan: Mrs. Rose
Me: What if it's not Mrs. Rose? Then what do you call them?
Brennan: NOT Mrs. Rose!!

At this point, I'm laughing hysterically.

Brennan was so focused on Mrs. Rose that I couldn't get anything else out of him!


I changed the subject to the phone call I got yesterday from his teacher. It turns out that Brennan said something he thought was a bad word, but neither Mrs. Carlson or I could figure out what it was. Brennan called another little girl "tutu". He then got really upset and started to cry, saying "I shouldn't have said that. My mom is going to be really mad." Mrs. Carlson couldn't figure out what was wrong, but called me anyway to let me know. It took a discussion with Don to realize that Don calls his a "tutu" meaning "girl" and Brennan thought this was calling someone a bad word. I didn't like the phone call from his teacher, but I am glad that he is finally learning to catch what he's saying and knows when he's done right. Maybe I'm doing something right!

Just one more thing about Brennan- and you'll notice this if/when you talk to him:
He's been on this huge "Actually" kick.

"Actually, mom, that's not garbage-it's recycling"
"Actually, it's not 8:00, it's 7:56"
"Actually, my name is not goober head, it's Brennan"
"Actually, that's not a fish, it's a piranha" (he pronounces it a pee-on-a)

The list goes on and on and on!!!!

Meet Me in St. Louis

This was Heidi's idea to put the wrought iron above the sign. It looks awesome!
Spray Paint: $3.41
Ribbon: $2.55
Curtain Rod: $4.80
Picture Frame: $15.00
Heidi's Joy: Priceless




This past weekend was spent in St. Louis with my wonderful sister Heidi! Originally, I'd been trying to talk her into coming up here, but after finding out Micaela had a solo competition, I decided to visit them instead. Brennan, Nolan, and I left Poplar Grove Thursday afternoon and arrived there just after 5. Micaela and Marissa didn't know that we were coming, so when Mickey answered the door and saw us, she screamed so loud that it scared Marissa, who thought something bad was happening. I forgot how much I love surprising people! With Brennan playing with Marissa and Micaela taking Nolan, that left Heidi and I to talk. She was telling me how much she hated her living room and that she really wanted something new on the wall. (It was really, really boring- Blank White Walls!!) We decided that we would spend the weekend fixing up her living room. She didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we wanted to use what we had. Last year, Steph gave Heidi some framed scrapbook pages for her walls, but Heidi didn't like the color of the frame. She also had pictures on the mantle framed in a color she wasn't crazy about. After much thought and debating, we decided that we would paint the frames black and do a kind of "rod works" look. A few trips to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, and Target later- and a whole lot of work, this is the result. Heidi loves her new living room and I think that we did a great job in making it look great.



Also, I just wanted everyone to know that I have a very awesome niece Micaela. She played an extremely hard piece of music for her solo (something I wouldn't have been able to play at her age). Her tone was beautiful, her tonging was nearly perfect (double tonging is so hard!), and her high notes were not pinched. Even though she received a II for missing some notes, I felt that she should have deserved a I. I'm so proud of you Micaela!!!!

Nolan's 7 month pictures

While Brennan, Nolan, and I were out and about today, we were at Sears and decided to get Nolan's pictures done. I've not been as good at doing the picture thing as before (I missed his 6 month pictures- oops!) Anyway, Nolan was really happy and smiling, but totally focused on getting to the hanging curtains- He was rolling everywhere. It was really cute! Here is the link if you would like to see them:

https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S206045712lQ7NBV57RN8

Oh, and about the faux-hawk: it's the only way that you can see his hair. I just want everyone to know that he does have some hair, but it's so light that you can't see it unless it is standing up!

Happy Valentines Day!!

I know it's been a long time since I last posted- so I'll get everyone up to date.

I know that most of you know already, but for those who don't, my sister Stephanie had a baby boy on January 22. He was born with a heart problem and has been in the NICU at Primary Children's hospital in SLC. He underwent jaw surgery at four days old and they have been slowly moving his jaw forward so his tongue doesn't block his air way. They are done with the moving and are waiting for him to heal a little bit before they send him home. We were really blessed to be able to go to Utah for a week to help her out. Stephanie and Jake are doing well- Thank you for the prayers. I know they have helped. He will have to have open heart surgery at 4 months and cleft palate surgery at 10-11 months and again at about 2 yrs. Nathan is such a strong little boy (he looks just like my mom's family!) that I know he will be strong enough to overcome these obstacles he's been presented with.

Don started his job as VP of Accounting in California, so we only get to see him on weekends. It has been hard not having him here, but he is happy with his job and seems to be doing well. With all of his flying, he's gotten sick and brings it home with him. Last month, he got the flu but refused to see a doctor- it went away, but came back this past week. I made him go to the doctor and he was diagnosed with type A flu. That night I noticed that Nolan was running a fever and Brennan had a sore throat so I made them a Dr appointment for Monday. I was not supprised to find that Brennan had strept and Nolan had the flu. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were miserable!!!! I had to go to the doc too- and suprise! I had the flu and a sinus infection. This week has not been a great week for the Borcherts! But we are feeling much better today.

Which brings us to the fun part of the post: My funny stories of the day. After I got Brennan off to school, I put Nolan in bed with me and we fell back to sleep. Well, a couple of hours later, I woke up to Nolan trying to put his binkie in my mouth. He was very intent on getting it in too!! After we came down stairs to eat and play, Nolan wanted to roll around. He's been getting really good at rolling where he wants to go. He rolled right over to the patio doors, pulled aside the drapes, and peered out the window. I saw this and grabbed my camera. When he saw the camera, he tried to hide behind the drapes! He's such a character!

My awesome birthday present!

For my birthday this year, Don got me an embroidery machine. I have enjoyed playing with it so much! Here are some of the things that I've done. I hope you like them!!

Tornado!!

I can honestly say that Mondays (at least this past monday) really suck! Gina and I had spent the morning out shopping and running errands. On our way back into town, around 2:00, I noticed how dark and murky it had become and commented to Gina that it might rain. We arrived home just at the boys returned from school. Brennan wanted to play with Gabe and Gina had to run back into town, so I kept Gabe at our house. With the boys playing upstairs, I continued to clean the house and play with Nolan when suddenly there was this really loud siren going on. I had no idea what it was, so I called my next-door neighbor Ginger. She said that it was the tornado siren and we were under a tornado warning for the next few hours.

With that info, I took the boys downstairs with some blankets, flashlights, and Gateraid to camp out under the stairs. Even though our basement has windows, it was so dark outside that it looked like night. Shortly after we got into the basement, the power went out and we sat in the dark for around 20 min. During this time the boys continued to play their DS's like nothing was happening and I was listening to the rain and hail. Over the next 20-30 min the power went on and then off and on and off again. Even when the power came back on, the lights flickered. It was really eerie. Around 4, Don called and he talked me through the last part of the storm. When we came upstair, I could see the dark clouds to the north of us and see the tree branches in the lot next door that had fallen down. It reminded me of the micro-bursts that we would get in Utah.

It wasn't until the next day that I found out the extent of what had happened. The tornado did touch down about 5 miles north of us, leveling almost all of Edward's Apple Orchard (I've written about it in past blogs). It also took down a two-story house across the street. The news said that the winds reached around 165 mph when the tornado hit. The path was just north of us and went over Brennan's school. I took a drive up to view the area and it was aweful. There were siding pieces wrapped around trees and debris everywhere. Trees were uprooted and branches littered about.

We are so blessed to have been passed over.