Sleeping Update

I thought I would update you on the twins going to bed last night.  I couldn't sleep and about 2:00 a.m. I thought I heard them.  I waited a few minutes and decided I better go check on them.  As I'm walking up the stairs I can hear them and notice lots of lights on.  They were in the playroom with the door shut.  I tried to open the door but they had locked it!  I demanded they open the door and I heard someone unlock it.  I opened it and there they sat, playing with toys.  I took them back to bed and told them I didn't care what they did but they had to stay in their bed.  Then Noah starts calling me.  He said the twins were keeping him awake.  He was watching t.v.  IT WAS 2:00 AM!  Anyway, I went back downstairs and all was quiet.  I fell asleep.  Scott and I were talking about it tonight at dinner and he said "What about when Shep came downstairs?"  I said I had no idea what he was talking about.  He said about an hour after I put them to bed that Shep came downstairs and asked for some milk.  Scott got up and fixed him some and took him back to bed and said he cried and cried because he didn't want to go to sleep.  I never even knew any of that.  Another eventful night at the Brakefield house.  Did I mention that the night before our smoke alarm went off at 3:00 a.m.?

Jesus Loves Me

Shepherd has become impossible to get to sleep for the past 6 nights.  He screams!  The twins have slept through the night since they were 10 weeks old.  Bedtime has never been a problem for them. But for some reason lately, Shep refuses to get in his bed.  Once he falls asleep though, he is fine.  Anyway, I was rocking he and Wynn before bed the other night and I was singing "Jesus Loves Me'.  All of a sudden Shep says "Mommy, Jesus lives in my family."  Oh my goodness!  I kissed him and affirmed his statement.  Then I kept singing and this time Wynn said "Mommy, Jesus loves you?"  What?  They are familiar with me telling them that Jesus loves them and they have heard me sing that song a million times but all of a sudden it hit Wynn that Jesus loves his mommy and he was surprised by the fact.  I said "Yes, Jesus loves me too Wynn!"  It was funny.

No Shave November

November 30th cannot come soon enough.  No one in my family wants any kisses from this scruff.  And he constantly scratches it.  I wonder if Pastor Les' family feels the same way.  Probably not.

Daddy

Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for Daddy today.  He successfully had a pacemaker put in this morning.  Please read Marsha's blog for all the details.  I actually enjoyed the time I got to spend with him today.  He stays so busy and we never get to talk to him for an extended amount of time.  Considering the fact that he was tied to his bed, I could actually talk to him and he had no choice but to talk back.  My dad has always been such a hard worker.  I don't know anyone else on this earth who works like he does.  He lives for it.  When we were in the waiting room today there was a volunteer who told us about her grandson.  She went on and on about how he was lazy and had graduated from high school but didn't go to college and slept all day.  He has never even gotten a driver's license.  I told her how when we were growing up the idea of college was never discussed as an option.  It was just an unspoken fact that we would attend college and we could not live at home.  I am so thankful my parents did that.  My dad was the "Because I said so" kind of dad.  When we woke up every summer morning, there was a bucket of freshly picked vegetables on the porch for us to snap or shell or shuck or whatever.  We didn't question whether we were going to do it or not.  When I was a senior in high school my curfew got moved to 11:30.  I didn't ask for any later and knew that I was lucky it wasn't 8:30 because "Nothing good ever happens after that."  When he let me go out with my friends he always made sure we had a quarter in case we needed to call home (this was before cell phones).  When the Galleria opened my family went to see it.  While walking in the mall he grabbed my hand and tried to skip through the mall with me.  I could have died.  He would drop me off at school and turn his country music up loud in the truck to embarrass me.  I made sure I got to school early so no one would see us.  On my senior spring break trip he took me and my best friend to the beach.  While we laid out on the beach he told boys that walked by and looked at us that we had terrible attitudes and not to talk to us.  I have so many stories about him and am so thankful for the memories.  Today I am glad that I had the time with him to remember who daddy really is.  He still likes to embarrass me, still works very hard and thankfully may now have a stronger heart so he can keep it up.

Sweet Shepherd

This is how Shep sleeps in the car.  He puts his hands under his seat belt and clasps them together.  I love it!  He has the sweetest little face and voice.  

Party People

Scott sent me an e-mail (yes, that's how busy we are ...he notifies me through an e-mail) on Tuesday saying he wanted to have a few people over on Saturday for the Alabama/LSU game.  I think we ended up with 34 (16 adults and 18 children).  The guys in this picture have been Scott's friends since elementary school.  They may have changed over the years but when you put them all in one room you notice they really haven't changed that much.  Three of them went on to play baseball on scholarship in college and the other went to college on a football scholarship. I love that Scott still has most of his friends from high school and college.  

 Those who know me well know that I love having people over to my house.  I love having a house full of friends and family with children and chaos everywhere.  We certainly had that all on Saturday.  I had to ask Scott on Sunday what happened during the game because I think I only saw one play.  Thanks to everyone who helped with the food.  Some of the highlights for me were as follows:

1.  Kristi and I going to the store in Karen's car and not knowing how to turn off her rear windshield wipers.  So they stayed on the whole time.

2.  Playing music and watching the little kids dance.  

3.  Joey asking "Who made the meatballs?"  I told him it was Jen and he said he didn't know she could cook anything.  I told him to try one and he said "No thanks."

4.  Tre having church with Jen and I at the end of the night.  He missed his calling; he would have been a great preacher.

5.  Pretty much everything Blaine said.  He cracks me up!

6.  Scott dancing.  Did anyone else see this?

7.  Looking over at Wynn and noticing he was naked from the waist down.  He was standing right in front of Joseph and Bryan yet they never noticed until I said something.  When football is on, guys really don't pay attention to anything else.

The whole night was so much fun.  The children had a ball! I can't wait to do it again.  Please tell me some of your highlights from the night.

The Inauguration

He's official.  Scott was sworn in Monday night.  As he placed his hand on the bible and swore to uphold his duties, the boys and I stood behind him and we were very proud of him.  Well actually I was very proud.  Wynn had his finger in his nose, Shep was looking at Papa Jack and Noah was eyeing the food on the tables set up for the reception.  After everyone was sworn in they took their seats at the front of the room and began their first official meeting with the new council.  That's when it all started to go down hill.  My mother, Scott's mom and step-dad, and Scott's dad and step-mom were all seated at the back of the room.  I was at the front on one of the pews they had roped off for family members.  Shep and Noah decided to sit in the back with the grandmothers who brought them cereal and m&m's to keep them occupied.  Wynn, however, decided to run up and down the isle between me and them.  He had a nap yesterday and he had leftover Halloween candy and now he was eating again.  He was on a sugar high and wow could you tell.  Once when I tried to get him to sit with me he yelled "You're hurting me!"  I was sitting with the mayor's wife, and the fire chief and police chief were behind me.  I came very close to pinching him but was afraid of either being written up by the reporters there or being called out by some "official person".  I decided to get up and take the twins outside.  I was able to Scott make his first "Second" announcement but missed the part when they opened up the floor and let the new people speak.  I was told he thanked his family but unfortunately I was outside with his family because they couldn't behave inside.  When it was over, they had a reception.  Of course Wynn went straight for the m&m cookies.  He only ate the m&m's out of them and then would lay his cookie down wherever he saw fit.  I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up after the boys.  They jumped off the stage, sat in all the council's seats, tried to talk on the microphones, stole food off the tables and candy out of "decorative vases" and literally drove me crazy.  But you know I held it together.  I apologized to all the council and mayor and most of the people in attendance and promised not to ever bring my children back to another meeting.  But the important thing was that Scott did great.  He looked very handsome and I thought he did a great job.  I'm so happy my boys have him as a role model.  They couldn't have gotten a better father nor could I have gotten a better husband!

The Real Joey

Welcome to Joey.  Saturday, he came over to my house to watch football.  I feel pretty sure Marsha made him.  This was the look on his face the whole time.  After the Auburn game he said he wanted to go home.  Now, he didn't try and hide the fact that he wanted to leave.  He said it out loud.  "I want to go to my own house."  So funny!  Joey doesn't really like socializing.  He talks as little as possible, which is a good thing since he married Marsha (who never stops talking).  The only time he really perked up was when we talked about Celebrity Rehab and he had actually seen it and commented on the characters.  Luckily since we're family I know this about him and it didn't hurt my feelings that he wanted to go. I did send a text later that night to see if he was ok and he didn't understand why I would ask.  That's just Joey.

Has anyone seen the ad for Get Snuggie?  Why do I want one?  It advertises while I'm watching Little House on the Prairie every morning from 9:00-11:00.  Visit their site at www.GetSnuggie.com.

Mandrell Sisters

My mother dressed my sister and I alike when we were little.  Marsha likes to compare it to the Mandrell sisters.  We wore the same outfits but in different colors.  Well Saturday, she and her family and Jen came over to watch the Auburn game.  When she walked in the door we noticed we had on the same shirt.   We bought this shirt together at the Gap outlet in Foley last year. I guess we've come full circle.  We tried so hard to go our different ways from each other and here we are, looking like the Mandrell sisters yet again!

Trick- Or- Treat

It's over.  We succeeded in all our Halloween activities.  We started at 4:30.  First we went to my dad's (my old house) and let the kids run around outside and they collected some major chocolate candy.  As soon as the candy went in their bag they wanted to start eating.  Then we went to the church.  When we were driving up to the church, Noah asked if he could go on his own and not stay with us.  We said he could.  We went straight to our work station.  It was called The Toddler Zone.  It was a very cute bouncy thing for children 4 and under.  The twins stayed in it forever, which was a good thing since we couldn't take them around to the other stations.  I only saw Noah twice in an hour and a half.  Once he came by to watch his brothers jumping and then once he came by for $20.  He purchased his own dinner and I have no idea who he ate with.  Scott ended up taking the twins to some of the games and then he located Noah.  Noah did not want to leave the church but we were all freezing.  We went home and I put on more clothes and then Noah and I headed to Marsha's.  We trick-or-treated for an hour with them.  It was 9:00 by this time.  Noah said to me on the way home: "When I get home I'm taking a hot shower, putting on my p.j.'s, laying on the couch and popping in a dvd.  I'll lay there till I fall asleep."  I thought that sounded like a good idea.  We had a lot of fun and we were all exhausted.  Then this morning I woke up to Noah shutting our bedroom door.  He does that on Saturday mornings because he gets up early and doesn't want to wake anyone else up.  I fell back asleep and heard all the kids.  I opened the door and couldn't believe what I saw.  The twins had woken up and Noah had fixed their cups of milk, pop tarts and cereal.  He had them seated at the table and was feeding them breakfast.  How beautiful!  I'm so thankful for him helping me.  I'm enjoying him getting older and being more responsible.  His brothers are very lucky to have him!  I hope everyone had as much fun as we did!