The Brammer Family

Halloween is always a whirlwind of craziness running from one place to the next.  Since Halloween was on a Sat. we had a lot of the festivities on Friday this year.  Ty had a joy school field trip to the Bentonville Fire station on Friday morning.  He LOVED it.  He and Parker couldn't stop oogling at all the huge trucks.  Then we did a quick lunch at chik fil a, mini grocery trip to pick up candy and pumpkin totes, and off to Brooke's school party.  We ended up getting the times mixed up and missed her party but picked her up early for trick or treating at daddies work.  We picked up Jace on the way too. He was super excited to get out of school early.  I had their costumes waiting.  Daddy had a meeting so we ended up waiting for an hour before he could check us in.  We took these pictures outside the Wal-mart home office.  After trick or treating Brooke needed to help at the Elementary School trunk or treat/ Fall Carnival since she's on student council. Daddy volunteered to help her.  Yay!

By Saturday this kids were already on complete sugar highs.  Jace wanted to turn all his candy in for $10.  Then he wanted us to take him to Academy to look at air guns.  I told him he had to wait to get an air gun until he could prove he was able to control his behavior.  He kept bothering Brooke all day and lost the chance to go and the rest of his day was ruined.  The only thing that helped him feel a little bit better was getting a slushy at sonic .... but then he spilled it all over his toys in his closet by accident when looking for his shoes.  Why he had a blue slushy in hand while looking for shoes?? I don't know.  He had a meltdown that this was worst halloween of his life.  Craig stayed with him while I took the others to the ward trunk or treat and then they met us when we were going around Oak Tree neighborhood.  What a day!!  The kids had fun though.  Well, everyone but Jace and even he had some fun too.  We are still trying to help him figure out how to not be such a negative nelly and to quit blaming others for his own mistakes.  Hopefully it takes sooner rather than later.  My boys enjoyed being superheros thanks to Grandma Johnson and the girls were a sweet cupcake and a butterfly.  The all looked fantastic.

This sweet angel of mine was baptized today.  We couldn't be more proud of her decision.  She got a very special white dress, a crown of flowers, and some new scriptures with her name printed on the cover.  Emily Herb, a family friend, helped take some family pictures in the morning and she took some sweet baptism pictures of Brooke.  The baptism was at 12:30pm.  Lots of families from our ward were there as well as her best friends Kate Schofield and Lucy Humphries.  Nani & Grandpa came all the way from Oklahoma for her special day too.  She shared her baptism program with Bryce Atkinson & David Saumweber, 2  boys in our ward.  For the musical number all three of them sang "When I Am Baptized".  It was beautiful.  Brooke was baptized after Bryce.  Her foot came up so she was baptized twice. :)  She looked so sweet and pure coming up out of that water and as I was helping her change out of her wet clothes and back into her baptism dress she looked up at me with her innocent big brown eyes and told me "I feel so clean".  I hugged her tight and will always remember that tender moment.  Daddy did a great job with her confirmation blessing and I'm so happy that she now has the gift of the Holy Ghost with her as her constant companion.  Tracie helped make some special baptism sugar cookies for refreshments that were 8's and CTR cookies.  They were by far the favorite treat and all the kids were practically fighting over getting one of the sugar cookies instead of the other options.  It was a beautiful day.  The next day at church both Brooke and I bore our testimonies during sacrament meeting.  She was a little nervous so she wrote hers in her journal and read it out loud.  Oh, I'm so proud of this girl or mine.  I love her so much.  Now if I could only get her to be a little less boy crazy ... 

While we were taking pictures in Compton Gardens a little boy rode by on his bike.  Brooke's eyes got big and the biggest smile crossed her face.  "Mom!", "That was Payton!!"  The Payton from last year?  "Yes! My crush from last year that moved to Rogers AND he saw me in my pretty white dress!"  She grinned and grinned and he rode by again and smiled at her.  I laughed to myself.  

    

Chandler, Claire, Ty, Parker, Jillian, & Mckinlie

Ty couldn't have been more excited for Joy School to start this year.  He had a hard time watching Brooke and Jace ride off on the school bus when he had to wait for Friday for his school to start. He didn't get to ride a bus but he loved having his friends come over to our house to play and learn about letters, colors, shapes, and numbers.  We have some exciting field trips planned this year too   Free play and snack time is their favorite.  Today we learned about the letter A and made a craft that says A ... is for apple.  These cuties couldn't be cuter.  Hopefully he does well next week too.  He has a harder time when it's not at our house.  Ty is my shy boy and sometimes if he feels anxious he will just curl up in the fetal position and hide under a chair.  He gets scared around new people and friends.  It takes him a while to warm up.  I'm excited for all the fun we are going to have this year.

We have been needing to get a picture of Craig to put on his linked in profile for awhile.  He was giving his presentation for the case competition he signed up for and had his suit on so I snagged a quick one as he was on his way out looking so handsome.  I'm so proud of this man.  I'm so thankful that I said yes when he asked me to marry him.  He is an amazing husband and father.  He's so understanding and loving.  Last night Jenni woke up so I was up trying to get her to go back to bed and didn't get much sleep so he woke the older kids up on his own and got them ready and fed and off to the bus by himself this morning and let me and littles sleep in.  He's pretty thoughtful.  He's also super ambitious and is such a hard worker.  He won his case competition which is company wide and has been giving his presentations to lots of VPs and SPVs who have been really impressed.  He takes care of himself and goes to the gym on his lunch break everyday so he can spend time with the family when he gets home from work and on the days he doesn't make it we go running together with the jogger and the older kids ride their scooters.  Lately we have been playing soccer almost every evening.  He took his time off this year to take Jace on a special one and one trip to Peru to see the Trujillo temple dedicated and then again to take Brooke on a special one on one trip to Kansas City to visit church sites before her baptism.  He has spiritual talks with the kids, leads family scripture study and prayer, and is there to give priesthood blessings whenever they are needed.  I love this man more than words can express.  He is my everything and just gets more and more handsome the older we grow together.

Here he is headed to the gym on a Saturday morning.  I had my camera out taking pics of the kids and made him pose for me before he left.  Such a handsome husband I have. :)