Briam's Family Blog

Our church collects coins from the kids and their families.  Its a program that used to be called pennies for Peru.  But since then the program has grown and helps a lot of children in a lot of different countries.  They take turns.  The church feeds hundreds of kids breakfast every Sunday.

Well today, Matthew was asked to give the prayer after the coins were collected.  He was a bit nervous, but he did great.  Actually he is a bit of a ham... and he loved the attention.

....after the prayer... he was so please that everyone liked it, that he wanted to do it again.... So, I am not sure if he realized the whole purpose of it... but at least I know it motivates the program.

Yes, there are no pictures of Matthew today.... why?  Because this was the day that the aliens abducted him for some follow up research.  That is the only reason I can think of why Matthew was not in any of these pictures.

So, Megan got an invite from her little friend, Mikaela, to go the "Little Gym"  I hear it was a lot of fun.... It's a chance for the little girls to prepare to beat their future husbands into submission.

A carefully design program aimed at teaching young girls how to quickly immobilize any male opponent.

... I did not get a chance to go... due to that pesky thing called "work" ... but when I got home I did get a chance to feel the wrath of the training from our little angel Megan.

Little Sophia is not ready to start her male bashing training, so she was happy to be at home and play with daddy.  She is crawling a lot more... and loves to stand up.  I guess its only a matter of time before she runs faster than me... (like a week or two).

....Oh these sweet kids.  They look so innocent and peaceful.... but don't let that fool you.... you turn your back on them, and its "Get Him!!" and they will pounce on you like and old squeeze toy.

...sometimes.... all you want to do ... is eat a donut.

...that being said... I am going to get something to eat...

Today, the kids had a dress up party at their school.  So very close to Halloween, how could you not?  Here is a picture before things went crazy.

In case you did not know... Megan is a princess... and Matthew is spider-man (but don't tell the bad guys... that would rune his whole gig).  Because after a long day of saving peoples lives and defeating the evil doers of Atlanta..... you would think there would be time to take a nap...

Matthew is only three ...hehehe... but this one will be great to black mail him when he turns 15!!  I just hope he saves up enough allowance to pay me off.

Ah to be young... and to have to do every little thing that your parents tell you to.  You know how in prison, if you break the rules, you are given some terrible work to do.... or when you are newest at a job.. .they give you all the bad chores.

Well, life at our house is a lot like that.  (at least for the kids) 

Here we see worker Matthew.... doing his assigned chores.  I wonder what he did?  Maybe he would not share a toy with his sister?  Maybe he robbed a bank?  It is hard to tell in these situations, and sometimes it is best not to ask (in case it is a violent crime).

But he does not seem to complain.  He is just doing his time.  Waiting for the chance to move on to something else... or maybe for a chance to escape.  This would not be the first time.  So, what do you do about the ones that try to escape the "work"?

Thats when you have to put someone in place to oversee that no one is slacking on the work.... and that no one escapes.  Here we have Megan over seeing the work and making sure that it is getting done properly.  If any attemp by a prisoner is made, it will quickly be followed by a "MOM ... MATTHEW ISNT HELPING ANY MORE!!!"

Yesterday after church we got a chance to go bowling with the kids.  We met up with some friends from the 99x forum site FT.

It was a ton of fun.  The kids all got to bowl ... except for Sophia.  She refused to play since there were no balls that matched her outfit.

I added a gallery with pictures (as if you could escape without seeing them)  So click HERE to see more.

Un dia una pequena estaba sentando mirando a su madre lavar los platos.  De pronto noto que su madre tenia varios cabllos blancos entre los otros oscuros de su cabeza.  Ella miro a su madre, y moy seriamente le pregunto: "Porque algunos de tus cabellos son blancos, mama?" 

Su madre respondio: "Bueno, cada vez que tu haces algo malo y me pones triste, uno de mis cabellos se pone blanco."

La nina penso acerca de esta revelacion un momento, y luego dijo: "Mama, Porque todos los cabellos de la abuela son blancos?"

Colab.:Don Luis

Here is princess Megan this past Sunday.  All decked out in here princess dress.   And of course what outfit would be complete without the matching bow.  That's right... the pink bow on top.

 

The Bow ..... That Bow kept falling off.... almost too many times to count.  At first its like "oh well" and you put it back on .... after six or seven times you start to wonder why you would even keep that bow around.  Maybe you could just put it away and stop using it.  But no, "The Matching Bow" has power over the Mom.  And the Mom has power over the Dad.  ....so the battle went on all day... "Where is the bow?"  oh ... it fell again.  Put it back on. 

The last thing my wife told me that night was, "Hey ... where did you leave the Bow?  You didn't loss it did you?" ....no ... we still have the Bow.. and I can't wait until we have to use it again...  :-(

I don't say it enough and I really should, but we would all be lost without the love and guidance from Paola.  I don't know how she puts up with all of us and continues to keep a great positive outlook on life. 

 

We got a chance to get away for a bit on Saturday morning from some brunch and a walk at Piedmont park.  Very beaustiful day ... with my beautiful wife.

....The kids and I were able to scrape together our allowances and buy Paola some roses.... just because she is so wonderful!

So, I get home to find that Matthew learned something new in class.  Today they showed Matthew how to make fun of people with big ears.

Well, that's the only thing I can think of for making him wear the big ear hat.  Is this some cruel way of preparing the kids for entering the harsh cruel world?

I guess it could be worse.... they could have done the nose too.  And of course, as you can tell, his sister is very heart broken with her brother being tortured in this way.

Have you noticed the inordinate amount of times I have taken pictures of my kids cooking.  Or my wife showing my kids how to make stuff...... cookies.... muffins.... bread... you name it.

.......is my wife raising some baking army?  Is she preparing them for some master cooking plan?  I could understand if they were creating some form of giant cookie house to lure children to their doom... but they are not yet, maybe they are still in training.   ...I will have to keep an eye on them.... just in case.

Yes the kids were sick today (not Sophia).  So I stuck around to help take care of them, because I also was not feeling at my best.  So what do a bunch of people do when they are stuck at home sick.... why they sleep and rest...... so that they can get better....

...yes ... as you can see, we were all barely able to lift ourselves out of bed this morning..... and the medications had us immobilized.  Don't you feel the pity for our illness?   We really were sick...... cough cough ... sniff sniff....

When Paola and Sophia got home, Paola took a long long long nap.... like a bear in hibernation..... I was starting to get worried... and had to check to make sure she was still breathing.  Sophia on the other hand was having a great time just watching us being silly..... she is also practicing her sitting up.

...soon there will be no stopping her..... which pretty much means the end of me.... I can barely keep up with two of these little rug rats let alone three.

... We did get a chance to go roller skating with the kids on Friday.  Megan liked it more than Matthew.  I will get some of those pictures up as soon as I can.  This morning Matthew and Megan still had a bad cough, so we split up the gang.  I stayed home with Matthew and Megan to get rested and give medicine... and Paola went to church with Sophia...  I also have a bit of a sour throat, but I don't sound as bad as them...  These last two weeks have been very work filled... and I hope to cut back on that in the following weeks.

I did have to do some more late night work and again some late night work tonight.  But at least I spent some time with my family.  Every day the kids seem so much bigger than before.  Megan is talking non stop, and Sophia seem more and more ready to stand.... but first I guess she should start crawling..... She still kind of just rolls around and pull/pushes herself along.

She seems very solid and can pull her self up if I hold out my hands to her.  Matthew on the other hand is becoming a handful.  He keeps getting into everything, and sometimes finds it hard to listen to us.... but it is kind of hard to reprimand him when his gives us his innocent face.  Today he helped Paola make some cookies.... they were good...

I hope I get some rest tonight ... and that the work does not last long... I am feeling very drained lately... and Matthew made me promise that I would play fight with him a little in the morning before I go to work.  The kids don't have school this week.... it is their spring break......

Take it easy....

...this was a rough weekend for me...  I worked almost 35+ hours and then ended going out with My wife... and getting little sleep before church.  So getting up was rather rough.  The kids had a better time getting ready .... in their little Sunday outfits.

The girls were all dressed and ready to go... ready for church.... ready to go.... while I on the other hand was wondering why my eye lids felt like bricks...

Sophia is becoming dangerous.  She can now say "Ma Ma" and "Pa Pa" ... and can sit up for short periods of time.

...Church was very nice today... It was our churches 21st birthday and we celebrated our 50th mission!!!  Yes, our church has been very busy. 

Sophia keeps wanting to stand more... and does with a little help.  She is also practicing taking baby steps (with helps).  After church we went to eat with My sister Astrid and her kids.  Things were going pretty good.... we were all eating ..... and talking.... and laughing.....  the kids were playing at another table... and Matthew started acting up.   The first couple of times, I talked to him.   After that he got worse, and I knew that I would have to beat him in public.... but I did not want to go jail for child abuse, so instead I opted to put him in time out.

He was not very happy .... but at least his sister wanted to make him feel better, and put herself in time out.  I think it only made him angrier...  after a great meal... we all went home to try to catch up on a bunch of stuff..... and then the unexpected happened,..... just like Bruce Banner turns into the incredible hulk..... so turneth Megan!!! ...but not to a green monster.... but instead ... "THE SOCK MONSTER!!!"

Unstoppable... and with an unquenchable desire to remove everyone's socks!!.... oh the terror.... the horror...... the cold feet!!!   The only thing that was able to calm this ferocious beast was a soothing episode of "Dora the explorer" .... and then we were able to escape.....