The BrehiThomas Family Blog: March 2018

Birthday Bash

Tasha and I have a longstanding tradition, going on 2 years this year, of treating ourselves to a sister's night where we pretty much do whatever we feel like and call it ou birthday present to each other. Last year was Texas Roadhouse, basketball, and cheesecake factory. This year was Beats spin class, shopping, pedicures, and Thai food. A highlight of this particular trip, stars me being an idiot per Tasha's instructions. We were unsure if we were going to have time to get pedicures, so Tasha dropped me off at the front door to ask "how long the wait was for 2 pedicures." Well, I get out, she drives away...and I walk into a completely empty shop. I turned to the front desk and said, "I am pretty sure I already know the answer to this...but is there a wait for a double pedicure." The man shook his head and said, "No, mam" to which I responded, "I told her that! Let me go get her." I casually walked out of eyesight, then jogged to the car, laughing while shouting to her "You made me look like an idiot!!"

Pre-Spring Break: Tinkle Razor Trouble

The weekend leading into spring break brought us our first real ER trip. I made a goal to deep clean one or two rooms each day of the break and got a head start on Saturday with our bathroom. While cleaning, Lincoln would pop in and out, occasionally stealing items like combs and toilet paper that I would quickly chase after him to retrieve. But I was a good mom, and had all those dangerous cleaning products well out of his reach. Nevertheless, I heard a scream from Lincoln that was more than a "Maverick took a toy" or "I bumped my head" and I ran out of my bathroom to see Lincoln running into our room, blood all over and dripping down his hand. I scooped him up and jogged to my bathroom, ran his hand under water to try to see where the blood was coming from. Sure enough, there was a super deep cut on one of his fingers that refused to stop bleeding. I called Tasha and asked her to come get the boys (cousins were playing at my house) because I needed to take Lincoln to the ER. While waiting for her to arrive, I walked around the game room trying to figure out what he had cut himself on. Sure enough, in the middle of the chaos of scattered toys, was my tinkle razor. I would have not had any idea what a tinkle razor was, but a year ago I was introduced to it at a favorite things party. It is a great tool for quickly whisking away untidy eyebrow hairs and that facial peach fuzz. It can also, apparently be used, to sever a toddler's finger. A very expensive ER bill, trying to not glance at my fashionable cleaning attire/hair in the mirror, lots of explaining exactly what a tinkle razor was, and loads of superglue later, Lincoln was just fine. Lucky for us, he pulled the superglue off within 24 hours! But it had healed sufficiently for it to stop bleeding.

Spring Break: Lick Ice Cream

We had the joy of celebrating the fantastic Stephanie's birthday the week of spring break. A group of us snuck into her house via a well remember garage code, and hid to surprise her. It was slightly uncoordinated, but it had the overall effect we wanted. With a very unhelpful April navigator, whose directions usually consisted of, "Oh yea, that was the exit we wanted to take" we made it to the Pearl to try Lick Ice Cream. They had some pretty awesome and very unique flavors like olive oil and dark chocolate, thyme and goat cheese, etc. And it was all delicious.

Spring Break: Munching at McDonald's

We joined Tasha for lunch, which main purpose was not to feed our children as it may seem, but to let them wear themselves out in the play area along with a side of food. Brooklynn is such a little momma and would push Lincoln up the play place so he could go down the side (which is one of his favorite things).

Spring Break: Zoo Impromptu

Attempting to be good moms and take our kids somewhere fun, Tasha and I decided that we would do a Zoo trip. On our way we stopped at Duck Donuts for the kids to make their own custom donut. It was a long line but it was worth it for warm donut, that we ate on a curb by the car. Let's be honest, no one wants kids eating donuts in their car.

Downtown we drove and took the exit for the Zoo. Tasha and I looked at each other, laughed, and braced the kids for the ~~reality~~ possibility that we might go somewhere other than the Zoo. Traffic was terrible. We did drive around to attempt to find parking, but ultimately decided that it was going to be a spur-of-the-moment day of fun. So, we went to Dough Pizzeria--where we heard they gave pizza dough for kids to play with. We walked in (Tasha, myself and 6 kids; 11 years and the other under 6 years), looked around at the fancy dining, and confirmed that they did give pizza dough for the kids to play with. We were the starred at table, the one people point to and whisper about. It was a bit of a juggling act (particularly with a very grumpy Lincoln) but the kids had fun, so it was a win in our book; we had to compensate for the not going to the Zoo, people.

This bruschetta appetizer I ordered does a pretty good job depicting how fancy this place is and how out of place we were

Next in the line up for team Zoo Fail was Pump it Up, essentially an area full of inflatable slides, bounce houses, and obstacle courses. Lincoln, again, was grumpy, especially upon discovery that he was unable to even walk up the stair to the side due to his short stature. Aunt Bobo saved the day towards the end when she scooped him up, climbed up the inflatable rock wall, and took him down the slide. Then we rotated between us who would talk him up. We were 99% sure adults were not allowed on the inflatables, but no one stopped us, so we kept going.

We ended the day with some Baskin Robbins ice cream. It felt like we spent the longest amount of time here, mainly because 5 of the 6 children ate slower than turtles running through molasses. But we concluded mission make-up-for-zoo-failure was a success.

Spring Break: Dad Lunch Date

Before I stated working, we would do lunch dates with Lehi fairly frequently. But it has been a little difficult to coordinate lunh between the two jobs. We took advantage of the open schedule. It just might be one of Maverick's favorite things; and a close second for Lincoln, with using food items as a spoon to eat ketchup coming in first. Today's feature was a grilled cheese spoon.

Day Date

Since I liked Lick ice cream so much, I planned an entire date around it. Just kidding, but it was among one of my destination stops along the way. I practically dragged Lehi to the farmer's market--should have fed the man before leaving the house. But after he got some breakfast, he seemed to perk up a little more. We wandered around the market like ~~two love birds~~ a married couple. Then to the ice cream shop, where my taste of heaven ice cream was demoted to "ok" via Lehi. Then to a place that I knew would trigger a smile on his face, mainly because he suggested we go there: 2M BBQ. We ended up standing in line for about 45 minutes, but man it was worth the wait. Holy cow ya'll, it was good BBQ.

This pretty much summarized Lehi's feelings that morning

The ice cream helped; I was REALLY excited

Haynie Horrah

I had to say goodbye to one of my favorite people this month. While I am super excited for the great things in store for their family, I am sue going to miss them! Since they were gone in about a 2 week window of finding out about the move and doing so, I quickly threw together a little surprise party. I told her that we were going out and I would bring a babysitter to her house, since her husband was out for the evenings. While driving to destination unnamed, I told Olivia I had forgot the coupon I was going to use and would need to drop by my house. I causally pulled into the garage, explained I might be awhile trying to find it, and invited her to come in. Boom. House FULL of lovely ladies there to surprise her. As a going away present, Olivia was gifted with an inflatable T-Rex Costume, a long coveted item of hers--and I must say, she totally rocked it. And yes, she did wear it home to show her husband when he opened the door.

Jackfruit

This crazy-looking monster of a fruit is all over the grocery stores in Texas. Lehi said he ate it on his mission and it was the stickiest thing he had ever touched. My clean-loving self naturally strayed away from the beast. I finally gave in, trying to be a good wife, and bought one. I watched a few tutorials to figure out how to harvest the fruit and minimize it acting as a cement glue. It took forever to get all the bulbs out, but the mess wasn't terrible. And I must say, it was super good! Lehi brought it into work a few days in a row (there was no way we would eat it all before it went bad) and everyone who tried it loved it.

Stealer of the Sheets

I usually wake up before Lehi in the mornings. This particular morning, I emerged from my cocoon of sheets and covers, looked over at my slumbering husband and noticed something was off. It didn't take long for me to realize that he was pathetically curled up in the fitted bed-sheet. I laughed as I patted my pile of sheets and covers, and compassionately threw some of it over him, while waking him up to tell him what he was doing.

The next night, Lehi climbed into bed super late, which means my old-woman self was already asleep. I remember waking from a dead sleep, being fully alert when he entered the room, as I said, "Hey babe, this is the sheet you sleep with" while holding up the top sheet. He smiled his Lehi smirk and told me to go back to sleep (most likely coupled with some other smart remark that I cannot remember).

A few nights later, I was dreaming that Lincoln was pulling the blanket off of me while I was sitting on the couch. I yelled aloud "Lincoln!!!" which woke me up. I laughed as I saw Lehi pitifully pulling on the sheet, attempting to cover himself. The accumulation of these events has lead me to confess, I am the stealer of the sheets.

Early Easter

We had a pretty awesome Ward Easter Egg hunt this month. Maverick was speedy fast and collected his dozen eggs quickly, while Maverick was a little more selective, wiping off his hands if there was too much grass on the egg. When we got home, Maverick, along with Lehi and myself, were shocked to see a dollar in one of them. ...and then another...and another. The little stinker managed to collect $5 from his 12 eggs! He was in heaven and would flash me his money in excitement. Lincoln was pretty darn content with some jelly beans.

I guess he was too eager to let us open it.

Jason Aldean & Imagine Dragons & Final Four

Lehi discovered there was a weekend of free concerts downtown. He told me we were going to go--knowing my homebody self would think it would be easier to just stay home. I am glad he got me out and we went. I learned Jason has a lot of new songs that I don't know, but man when he played the ones I did, it was the best. Saturday night was the final four game, along with the Imagine Dragons concert. Tasha really wanted to go to the game with me, but I didn't want to ditch Lehi. But he is awesome and encouraged me to go to the game.

Saturday night, Tasha and I headed to the game and Lehi headed to the concert. He said they were awesome live and he got pretty darn close, too. Tasha and I safely secured some nose bleed tickets. We ended up walking all the way up the wrong side of our section, so that was fun to walk down a few seconds later. On the way up the other, correct side, I almost feel up the stairs, leaving me trying to hide my smile and Tasha laughing behind me. We were in our nose bleeds for awhile, but at the end of the first game, Loyola vs Michigan, we ended up taking the seats of an older couple, which were more towards center court and closer to the front of the nose bleeds for Villanova vs Kansas. It was so much fun. We talked a lot about our high school basketball days and all the memories that came with it. McDonald girls just love basketball, something Dad taught us. We are cheering on Villanova for the Championship!