my first

Gage waking up only to have Emmett hop into his crib with him and Braxton to stand at the head and sing him songs.

Braxton and Jeff having a boys night. This entails staying up after all the "kids" went to bed and watching the 1st Harry Potter movie. Also popcorn, of course!

Braxton has been out of school a mere two days and I am so in love. This boy just makes all of our days brighter and he is such a leader to his younger sister and brother.

On day one of summer vacation I had a few errands to run. I had Braxton make the grocery list and he was thrilled with the responsibility. Then, the 5 of us went to the bank, then to Haggen where Braxton had the list in hand and crossed off items as we went.  This was super handy since I had Gage in the front pack and Emmett and Adelle driving the car/cart. So Braxton read the list to me so that I knew where to go and I was able to keep both hands on the cart.   The whole time he is doing this he is saying, "this is so fun, this is just so fun." Who knew?
After the grocery store we went to the library and got a load of books to keep us busy for the next little while. Then we stopped by my brothers and then we stopped and saw Jeff since he was working close. Then we came home and I made the kids lunch and then put Emmett down for nap while Braxton read books to Adelle.
The Elders came for dinner which is always a special treat and we made homemade pizza, per Emmett's request. The kids each got to top a pizza with condiments of their choice and then the whole night they complimented each other on how good their pizza's all were. So cute.

Emmett at the end of the day, "when am I going to be grown up like Brax?" He really loves his big brother and rightfully so.

The kids have all been pretending they are teenagers. It's pretty funny. They will say, "I'm 16," "ok well, I'm 18"...

On day two of summer everyone slept in which was merry. Braxton and Emmett went into Gage's room when he woke up and kept him company for a while so I could finish what I was working on.
It rained all day but we made the best of it by reading new books, and playing. When Braxton is home my kids do not get bored. He is so good and creative and always coming up with new ideas and new games to keep them all busy. Today they were pretending to go camping, only to have their dad come home and set up our tent in the front room of our house! Then of course Jeff made a fire to ice the cake. It was pretty funny. Then the guitar came out and Emmett got his drum to chime in on the campfire songs. It was hillarious. Adelle and Emmett basically do whatever Braxton suggests and since he's a good kid they are basically occupied for most of the day with his ideas.

Then tonight Braxton got to watch Harry Potter with his dad which made him feel super grown up and special. It was pretty cute. I was helping a friend with a scout project and when I came home they were glued to the screen, happy as can be. Of course they needed me to get them a movie snack so I made popcorn and then I had to sit on the couch for a few minutes too so I could eat some.

I am so ready for this summer. I am so happy to have this boy back during the day and so excited to designate him as my new grocery shopping/errand running/sibling entertainer/story reader/ happy helper/enthusiastic eater/creative game maker.

As Adelle would say, " I love this guy." (who can guess what movie she got that from?)