The Bleeeessssing

Holden Rudolf Brammer was blessed today. It was a lovely event. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it through without screaming the whole time, he being of the screaming variety of small people (read: king of the fussies) but he was actually very calm throughout the entire thing. That makes 5 out of 5 for us as far as the no cry blessings. Miraculous. Jeb always holds the babies through the whole pre-blessing sacrament meeting hoopla and then he can take them up without a hand off. When he gets up to take our little bundles to the front of the chapel my floodgates open. Baby blessings get me every time.

Here are a few pictures of the days events.

Matching ties for all my boys.

See? He's completely high maintenance. If he's not sleeping, he's crying.

Oh, wait. Maybe it's getting better.



I had to have the Utah socks for his blessing. Most of the boys up there in the circle are BYU fans and they had to stare at those cute little Utah piggies for the entire thing. But without those magic socks I'm not so sure the blessing would have stuck, coming from a former cougar and all.

And now he's happy.

Oh, but the vest! The vest! Curse you vest!

After things wound down, Holden curled up on his Bo and passed out. I think we were all wanting to do that.

It was another fantastic blessing day. We are so lucky and thankful for this family of ours.

It's A Good Thing We Don't Have A Cat

He Likes Me!! He Really Likes Me!!

It will be the day I never forget.

I had put Hudson in the tub with Leah one morning. Then, out of the clear blue, I hear "Ma! Ma! Ma!" It sounded as if I was in the middle of Brooklyn at some pizzeria, and could hear Johnny back in the kitchen yelling to his sweet, ever patient mother for more pepperoni. But I knew I was not in Brooklyn, and we definitely did not have any pepperoni on hand.

It was Hudson calling for me. And finally I existed in his little 2 year old world. Hallelujah. He knows who I am. Since that blessed bath I have been hearing it about 4 million times a day. He can't just say it once. It's always "Ma! Ma! Ma!". To which I reply happily "Yes, Buster?" And then he tells me something of the utmost importance in his foreign language. But the Ma part, I can understand that perfectly. And no matter how many times he yells it in a day, it always sounds like sweetness to my ears.

We Had Lemons, Pink Ones Even!

Abigail is our little entrepreneur. She is determined to work and earn enough money for a pet. Which raises the question - is there even enough money in the whole world for us to have a pet? I'm pretty sure there. is. not. But even in my skepticism, I let her try. Applause, accolades, I'll accept them all, thank you.

This brought up the idea for the make it rich scheme of the lemonade stand. A summertime kid classic. I love it. I provide the lemonade, ice, and cups, and she rakes in the coin. Totally fair.

Unfortunately, the only coin she was able to rake in was from our cute neighbors and Harrison. Oh, well. She's determined to keep trying.



Let this be a lesson to you all. If you are old enough to have a driver's license, you are legally required to stop and buy anything kids are selling on card tables. Or at least Brammerly required. The next addition to our family is counting on it - even though there really is not enough money in the world. Really.

They Have Each Other

My favorite part about having a mess of kids is that the kids have a mess of siblings. And they do love each other, despite the occasional bouts of territorial yelling, door slamming, and warnings from mom to "Keep your hands to yourselves!!". It does a mom's heart good to see them so happy when they are together.

Look at how Leah adores her big sister. She would do anything to be just like Abigail.

My next favorite thing about having a mess of kids? Why, all the free child labor of course. And it's a pretty close second at that.

How Could Max Hall Hate Him?

You can't be classless and this cute at the same time. I think Mr. Hall has some thinking to do.






Couldn't you just dump a beer all over him and then eat him up? Yeah, me too.

I Lost

For the past few weeks whenever Hudson and I went out, I kept getting a lot of "oh, look at those curls!! She is so cute!" She? "She" who is wearing the shirt with the fire trucks and transformer shoes? Is that the "she" you're referring to? People. Hmph. But then, when Hudson starting waking up from his nap looking like this...

....it could be avoided no longer. I finally broke. It was time for my "girl" to get HIS first haircut. We walked across the street to our lovely neighbor who has been entrusted with the rest of the Brammer hair. That's right. Oh, oh. We have a hair stylist in our neighborhood. In our neighborhood. In our neigh-bor-hood! Ah, Sesame Street. I use you more everyday than anything I learned in high school.

I don't know who was more nervous, me or Jeb. I was worried that after this cut Hudson would lose all his curls. So, I told Jeb that if that happened we were going to continue to have children until I got another little curly haired baby. That's when Jeb started to panic. Hudson was just fine with all of it. The scissors made him a little nervous at first, but only for a second. He sat still and watched all the happenings in the mirror.

The curls remained, and even became curlier with some of the weight off. Thank goodness. I don't know how many more kids I could have handled until those ringlets resurfaced.