Branson's Wisdom

So Branson's been making observations lately on the opposite sex. So far these are the things he's come up with...

After swimming lessons one day, he gets in the car and I asked him how it went and he was like, "mom, girls get really sad!" Just wait til you're a teenager, you have no idea!

We were driving in the van and totally random, Branson says, "mom, boys understand girls but girls don't understand boys". I'll remind him of this when he starts to date!

Branson was outside with my mom at my parents house and their dog's name is Jack and the neighbor dog always comes over and her name is Tika. Jack was in the trees and Branson said "Jack's in the trees because he's lost. Tika stays here because she's a girl and girls never get lost... Boys ALWAYS get lost!"

I love hearing his thoughts on girls!

Goodbye's

How did we already get to this point?? 3 years ago we were like, "we can't believe we're actually moving to Texas" and now we can't believe that it's already over! This is really hard for us to leave. We're excited to back in Canada, and to be closer to family but we really have the most amazing friends here, we're so sad to leave them! I tried to fit in as many girls nights and farewell parties as possible before we left, but it almost made it harder because it made me realize how many great friends we have and how things will never really be the same. I have my different groups of friends, yes, I clump my friends into categories... I have my Parker friends. These are the girls that our husbands all started in the same trimester and we all moved here, not knowing anyone and we became each others family. These are the friends that we've spent our Christmas's, New Years, Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, every kids birthdays and everything else in between, with. These are the girls that when our husbands were in clinic 12 hours a day we would depend on for our sanity. Or when they were studying for Board Exams and were gone every weekend, we'd meet up at Ikea and let our kids play in the playplace and eat at the restaurant there on the kids eat free days. Even if we just met up at the mall play place, these were the girls you could count on that when you were feeling so overwhelmed with being a Parker widow, they were probably in the same boat. The beauty of these girls too was that all our kids are the same age... And for the most part, all boys! It's nice to have others who are as poor as you as well. Everything about life that was hard in the past 3 years, we all went through together. I'm pretty sure I'll never have friendships quite the same as I had with these girls, because they felt like my sisters when none of us had our family close. The pictures are missing a few of the girls...

April was the first of us to leave, she left in May and it was super hard to watch her go and realize how much things were about to change as we all finish up.

 

 Nadine, Heather, Yralia, me and Shannon.

 

So I've also got my friends from my ward, my friends who used to be in my ward and moved to neighboring cities, and my Jill friends (the friends I'd made through one of my friends Jill, whose husband was a couple tri's ahead of us). These are the different groups of friends I tried to get in that one last girls night/lunch/playdate with. I'm sad I didn't get pictures at every outing!

 

 Ashlee, Stefanie, Heather

 

 Zaundra

 

 Danielle and Jodie's kids - Not sure why we didn't get a

cute picture of ourselves... But the kids will have to do!

 

 Cameron and Branson

 

 Spence and Malory - These 2 love each other! She gives a cute "Cheese"

face, while Spence is more focused on saying "cheese" than smiling!

 

 Branson and cute little Reese. Love this girl! She can run and

play like a boy but is delicate and feminine.





 

 

Branson's 4th Birthday

I can't believe Branson's 4! It makes us so sad that he's growing up so fast, it really doesn't feel like it's been 4 years already! We had Branson's gifts out on the table in the morning when he got up, he was so excited to come around the corner and see everything sitting there. He said, "did my friends come in the night while I was sleeping?" We let the kids have a fun cereal for their birthday breakfast, so far it's always been the "rainbow cereal" that's been picked. Unfortunately, they only eat the marshmallows and leave the actual cereal - which is a good reminder why we don't buy that cereal on a regular basis.

So our last birthday party with the pool... So sad! My days of not having to plan activities and games are over! We usually do our parties pretty small, because, well, let's be honest, the thought of having a million kids over makes me nervous, so this year we did 2 parties. Popular little Branson's accumulated so many friends over the years, we could have easily had 5 or 6 parties, so we had to narrow it down. It's starting to really hit me that we're moving and having to say goodbye to our friends. Although we talk about moving to Canada all the time, Branson doesn't realize that we're actually leaving everything and everyone. I feel sad for him, he really has such good friends here!

 

 Spence's girlfriend Lyla

 

 Smith

 

 Jones & Hudson

 

Cameron, Hudson, & Branson, showing off their rings

 

And party #2...

 

Chase, Grant, Dahlia, Alyssa, Alexandra, Talmage, Brener, Branson, & Dexton



Swimming Lessons

Branson did swimming lessons this year, and it definitely went better than last year! I think we needed that extra year to be fully comfortable without his lifejacket. I was amazed at how much he learned in the 2 weeks. He's a little fish now!

They pushed their faces in the water to make sure they kept them in. They had the kids lined up along the side of the pool and threw them in so they could get to the surface and swim to the side on their own. In the end Branson was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side on his own. We could only watch the lesson on the last day, so it was crazy to see the improvement! 

Summer Fun

We have to fit in as many fun summer things as we can before we leave. And it's so crazy hot outside, the pools and splash parks are pretty much our only option!

 It took Spence a bit to get used to the splash park, this is actually the first time he went in, but he loved it once he was comfortable

 There's beach volleyball courts beside the fountains, and the boys love to go over and play in the sand. It had rained a couple days before we went and the courts were just giant mud puddles... Of course the kids loved them! They just ran and slid, went face first into the mud, they were in heaven!

 Anyone who really knows me is looking at this thinking, "The Caryn we know would never let her children do this". It was hard at first, I will admit, but they had so much fun!

Branson and his friend Hudson, hanging out by the pool

Baby Shower

My amazing, talented and creative friends, Heather and Nadine threw me a baby shower this weekend. It kinda made me feel bad for anyone that I've ever thrown a shower for. They went all out and everything was super cute. I really don't think that much about all the cute little details, so it's nice when other people do! It was so good to see so many of my friends too, it just makes me sad that I'm going to have to leave them!

 We stenciled cute little pictures on onesies. So stinkin cute. I've forgotten how little newborn clothes are!

 Jamie, Jodie, and Danielle... Jamie and Jodie had to leave early, so they weren't in on the group picture

Heather, Nadine, Ashlee, Danielle, and Shannon

I love these girls, will I ever find replacements??

Teeball

We were able to get Branson in teeball this year. He was actually too young for the league, but they let him in anyway, and he had SO much fun! Teeball's a wee bit intense here, we started practice in February, which he had 2 per week, then once the games started, we had 2 or 3 games a week. He loved everything about it though, his uniform, his cleates, he couldn't wait to get dressed for the games. The best part though was that his team name was "Rangers", so he actually got to be a Texas Ranger, perfect for this kid!