All dogs go to heaven

A month or so ago my Mom had to put her dog Rosie to sleep. She had some health issues that they could operate on but the Vet said she would never be 100% and have a rough life. So my Mom had to make that gut wrenching decision to put her down. Anyone that knows my Mom knows how she is about her children (animals).
Taylor loved that little dog. I had to explain to her that Rosie was sick and she went to Heaven. I have a REALLY hard time talking with her about "Death". I struggle with it. I know its a part of life but part of me feel like Im taking away a little of her innocence. Its silly I know, but its still difficult.
So we had this talk about a month ago and we havent been out to Grammies house so I figured being the busy child that she is she sort of forgot about Rosie, because Grammie has plenty of other animals to distract her. So Sunday we drove to her house to take her to breakfast for her birthday and this is how the conversation went.

T: Is Grammie Sad?
me: No, why would Grammie be sad?
T: because Rosie went to Heaven
me: oh.....yes Grammie is still a little sad about Rosie, she misses her
T: oh, so will Grammie want to stay home because shes sad about missing Rosie

So we pick Grammie up and we are leaving the driveway and Taylor wants to talk about it some more.

T: Grammie, where is Heaven?
T: SO did Rosie JUMP up there?

oh The innocence, I just want to hold on to it for as looooong as I can.

For the record.....

We do have 2 children!
I post allot about Taylor, mostly because she is with us ALLL the time for obvious reasons.

Coleton, well lets just say he is actively being a PRE teenager! Our new neighborhood is equipped with all of his friends and soooo much to do.

He is literally burning at both ends right now. He is playing football which is VERY time consuming with 3 practices a week and games every Saturday. He is also playing baseball and played in a flag football game yesterday with his school. His first priority is obviously school and then football. Everything else sort of fits in where it fits in. Its like trying to cage an animal right now. SO much to do so much going on, so many friends and so little time! I remember those days so we try to let him be a kid.
There is a creek by our house. Like across the street. He LOVES fishing, so last weekend the boys went fishing. The night before they got their poles ready and slept in their fishing clothes, and woke up extra early to go fishing. There was 4 of them. Cole our nephew Jace and his friends that live right across the street from us. Which is such a blessing let me tell you.
They caught catfish and I woke up to seeing little legs running by my sliding glass door in the backyard. Hmmmmm what are they up to? Pretty sure they thought it was a good idea to put the fish in our waterfall. Yes they did! Pretty sure a couple weeks before that when Cole put the now missing crawdad in the waterfall that it was not such a good idea. Note to self~ Pre teen boys are not very focused when it comes to their parents telling them what to do and what not to do. We never did find that crawdad......maybe it craaaawwwld back to the creek. VERY unlikely. I keep sniffing around for it, so far so good.
Time goes SO fast! This little boy has grown up before our eyes. It is really amazing to watch him grow and find himself. We are doing our best to keep him grounded and to remember whats important at the same time letting him be a boy and a kid with a very busy schedule. I will admit not everyday is easy and we often find ourselves frustrated sometimes, but quick to remember that boys will be boys and its all part of growing up. It all presents itself for good reasons, so we can learn and teach and be understood.
Like for instance when Zack goes to get on his bike and the seat is not connected because Cole took it upon himself to "fix" it. (He needed a certain piece for his own bicycle, but Dads was bent so he thought he should fix it....ya get my drift)
Or when Zack went to get his work boots to find the laces missing and the tassels taken off. Or the TON of candy wrappers I find in his pockets while doing the laundry.
Or the little love notes written by girls at school......sigh. The innocence really makes me smile. I am still able to rest about this issue.
Or him asking for more money for football for his jersey, hmmmm that we already paid for. To find out he cut the sleeves off his practice jersey and Coach made him buy a new one.
I could go on forever, everyday is an adventure, one that makes us smile and be thankful for what we have, and nervous and scared and excited about whats ahead, because time does not stand still.

Dialog

As you all know "Children say the darndest things"

There are so many times that Taylor will say things that cause so many reactions from us, laughter, smiles, tears, joy, embarrassment (did I really just say that) I will admit it, mostly I brush it off but there are some times that I am slightly embarrassed by what she says, or maybe shocked would be a better word.

So from now on Im going to try to remember to post as much dialog on here that I can, so we can reflect back in the future. This is for our own personal enjoyment :)


A couple lines from Taylor the other night.

T: I wish I was a boy!
ME: Why do you wish you were a boy Honey?
T: So I dont have to take showers and I can stay stinky!

(The night before this conversation Taylor took her FIRST shower by herself! I did make sure she washed good, but surprisingly she didnt need much help!)

T: My feet are SOOO dirty and my body is a little stinky
ME: O really, you think so
T: Yes I think I need a shower, ALLLL by myself, so I can wash away the stinky

NO!!!

Rosie broke my camera :(
Dropped it....
on the tile....
its done.....

and now she chooses to carry it carefully with both hands......now that its broken.

Good thing the Hubby bought the warranty!

A princess party

On Sunday Taylor was invited to her friends Princess party for her birthday. It turned out to be the cutest little party! She had such a good time.



The cake

Playing Limbo with Snow White and Barbie.

Greeting Snow White and Barbie.

Making a necklace

Digging for jewels in the sandbox!

My birthday BBQ!

So im pretty sure this has been the BEST birthday month thus far. The celebrations keep going and going and going.
Last Saturday we had a wonderful End of Summer/House warming/Happy Birthday BBQ! It was FANTASTIC!
Most of our Friends and Family came to celebrate and it made for a wonderful Evening.
I would like to send a SHOUT OUT to UNCLE RON for being such a fabulous Chef and making my special day perfect! Uncle Ron is the Chef at St. Supery in Napa and you can also visit him on his Blog Here. He grilled up YUMMY steaks and brats!

The kids being silly! Yes Kristian is wearing Taylors life jacket.....and yes Cole is wearing a wet suit to go swimming in the pool.

Uncle Hal Aunt B and my dear Father in law.

Our beautiful cousin Jen helping herself to some lemonade

Madisyn and Skyler greeting eachother! So precious

My sis with baby Camdyn and Madisyn

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little girl! She is the most adorable thing EVER!

She still thinks she is a baby.......

At the end of the night after everyone left a few of our good friends stayed to visit. Its hard to enjoy everyones company when you have that many people over. Our friend Dougs birthday is a couple days before mine so we had a little cake for him, and we sang him Happy Birthday. And we Sang me Happy Birthday and our Friend Daves (see below) birthday is on the 10th and Theresa's is on the 14th. So we sang and sang and sang. And acted like teenagers as you can see Dougs face in the above picture and Mo's face in the picture above that, they get REALLY into it! haha (excuse the messy table it was a long day!)

The Grahams! Dave was being silly!

The kids are crashing out one by one.

Until next year!

Taylor's FIRST soccer game

Saturday was a crazy day in the Brenner house, its started EARLY and went non stop alllll day until late. Needless to say I was exhausted. Anyway back to Taylor.

Saturday morning was her first game. I was a little nervous about this game. A couple things you should know about her. She is allot like me when it comes to large groups of people. She LOVES to be the center of attention but when its allot of people she gets really shy. I know its confusing. So we are working on this soccer thing. I didnt play sports growing up, i dabbled here and there but I missed out on ALLOT because of this. It was a total fear of mine and I really wished I was pushed a little harder to break through it. So I am giving Taylor a little extra push. Even though she is only 4 we can tell she is going to be an awesome athlete.
Her first practice she was SO excited about it but made sure Daddy or I was right there holding her hand the WHOLE time. :) They played a game called "Monkey in the middle" where a child is in the middle of the circle and everyone is kicking the ball back and forth trying to keep it away from the "Monkey in the middle" uuuuggh NO BUENO! She took one look at me and had this MOMMY save me look equipped with tears. Heart wrenching. I thought maybe she is too young, maybe we should try again next year.
Nope.
We are sticking it out.
So its getting better. We no longer have to hold her hand at practice.
The week prior to the game I kept telling her how the game was going to be and what she had to do, so she wouldnt be surprised when all the strange kids try to take the ball from her.
She was going to be the Goalie for the first half of the game.


Saturday was the day we woke up to rain and wind and slightly colder temperatures.

She is READY to go! Well there wasnt allot of action on her side of the field. Our team pretty much kept the ball near the other side.

She did so well.

Then she got really BORED!

At one point she said, "I want the Blue people off of the field" (The other team)

Then she got the look, like, I am DONE, and Im not going to stand here any longer. So I went for a little pep talk and found out she had to pee. pheww. She did tell me she didnt want to be Goalie anymore she wanted to run after the ball.

She did SOOOO good! We are SO PROUD of her!

Look no training wheels!

The grass makes for harder pedaling but a softer fall.

Yes this would be her first day with the training wheels off and Daddy has her riding down HILLS!! Nuts I tell you! She LOVED it!

Sorry about the blur, I was trying to walk/run and take pictures.

Whooops!

BBQ!

This past weekend we went to a BBQ at my Mother in laws Cousin Karens house. That was a mouth full. This is the Italian side of the family. Its crazy to see how big this family really is, it just keeps going and going!
The kids swam.
We ate yummy food.
and just enjoyed everyones company :)

The end.