Busy, Crazy, and Structured

It's been awhile since I've written anything, but I've been busy! I have so much to tell you! Ok...so...since it's been so long...first off...I'm an auntie! Eek!

My brother, Keaton and Evie had a little baby girl! She is the cutest little thing ever! She looks exactly like Keaton (hopefully minus the big nose), and she has Evie's gorgeous green eyes!

Isn't she beautiful? Her name is Brandy. She's gorgeous and everyone loves her, but I heard Mom and Aunt Shea joking about what kind of gene pool they must have been dipping out of when they picked Evie's father...red hair, green eyes, dark skin with a red tint...now a pasty white blonde baby. Yeah, have you seen my mother? I think I know where the pasty white gene comes from...but anyway...

Leo aged into a toddler as well. Isn't he so cute? Being family oriented, I spend a lot of time with him.

I love Leo so much! Well, Mom and I get into arguments all the time because I want to spend as much time with Leo as I can, but she is a major perfectionist about her morning routine...I know it like the back of my hand...because if any of us interfere with it, we're stuck finishing it out. So...

My Mom's Toddler Routine

1) As soon as the toddler wakes up, get them out of the crib and put them in their high chair and feed them their breakfast.

2) When they're done eating, pick them up and change their diaper.

3) Then, change them into their everyday clothes.

4) Then give them two forms of social interaction...snuggle, chat, tickle, toss in the air, whatever.

Isn't Leo so freakin' cute? Anyway...

5) If they have to learn how to talk or walk, go ahead and teach them after the other morning stuff.

At that point, she just lets the toddlers play until lunch time. Sometimes she plays with them, but most of the time she and Aunt Shea write.

They make sure and work on something every day in order to keep up with the bills. They're not really workaholics, but they may as well be. I guess I shouldn't complain though. I have never really wanted for anything and I've never heard either Mom or Aunt Shea talking about not being able to afford something...but I have very frequently heard them lecture all of us about the importance of living within our means, making our own money, the importance of hard work ...blah, blah, yak, yak...

Like I mentioned before, once we get home from school, Mom and Aunt Shea make us work on our homework right away...

Payton and I have a hard time focusing on homework when we're both at the table, so Mom made me sit on the floor...

After we finish our homework, the next structured family event is dinner.

I use the term "structured" loosely...my mother certainly tries, but there is very rarely anything very structured with our family.

Then after dinner, we all help by cleaning up.

After dinner, we all go to our respective hobbies. Garrett and Gracie generally either watch TV or play outside...

I play on the computer or help take care of Leo...

Payton works out...

Mason plays an instrument of some sort...we just LOVE it when he plays the drums...he's a good musician, but dang!

Mom hugs EVERYBODY...she's like a drive-by hugger...

Then, Mom & Aunt Shea were aging into elders...

Mom still looks kind of young, even though she looks like she's frowning in this picture...I would say this picture is evidence that there is a little touch of red hair in the family, but the only hair color visible in this picture came out of a bottle...

Aunt Shea also looks good for her age...the only wrinkles she has are on her forehead...she says there are four of them...one for each time after the first time that mom decided to have another baby. Har, har, har. She jokes, but I know she loves us. Growing up in our family, you have to have thick skin...sarcasm is used very frequently.

Garrett & Gracie entered into their teen years...

Garrett is handsome and skinny as a rail...he's also really helpful with Leo...even though he and Mom have gotten into it because he always wants to wake Leo up and not adhere to Mom's schedule.

Mom looks like she's ready to bite his head off...she's not much of a morning person.

Gracie grew up to be a bit pudgy, but she's still gorgeous. I think she looks like that singer, Adele.

Payton talked Gracie into working out with her...

Gracie agreed, even though she struggled to keep up with Payton....

It actually paid off because Gracie lost a bunch of weight...

As for me, I just keep trying to be as much of a help as I can be...

I take care of Leo...we're really close...he loves his big sissy!

I've also taken it upon myself to start learning how to fix things around the house to make it a little easier on Mom & Aunt Shea.

Oh, and Kayla FINALLY got married...here's a picture of her husband...

He's pretty good looking, I must admit...

Also, Evie is pregnant with her and Keaton's second child! Yay! I love being an auntie!

So yeah, that's pretty much it for now...