One down, 2 to go

So we got there just in time to take a quick trip to the portapotty, lose Grayson briefly and then find him, get all the kiddos set up, and get our bibs pinned on. Yes, it's true. Somehow Candy convinced me that there was no need to wait for the 2 5Ks that I had been planning on running in, one in June and the other in July with Naki, and that we should just run in the one for Memorial Day, which happened to be, oh, just in 2 days! Good thing I've been working out a little bit so that I could do it without completely dying. Katie was a trooper and agreed to do it with us even though, Hello!, she just had a baby 4 weeks ago. It was a great experience. I always feel such a sense of triumph knowing that I completed something that is so very hard for me to do. There were many pics taken. However, I didn't see the folly in the pant color I chose until after I saw all the pictures and realized that white pants seem to accentuate all the areas I don't want accentuated at this time! So, I'm only posting a few. Here are all of my munchkins waiting for slowpoke Mom to come around to the finish.



I can't wait for the day when I can run and not feel all the extra weight on my body in different places moving in that uncomfortable rhythm with my slow steps. I kept telling myself as I kept putting one foot in front of the other that this was a life choice, a life habit in the making. After we ran they had short races for the kids. I was so proud of every one of those kids, getting out there and having fun exercising. They did such a great job! It was hard to get good pictures of them while they were running so fast by me, but this one of Lose turned out pretty well.



Being healthy is so important to me, for me and for my family. I challenge all of you to get out there and do something healthy today. You feel so much better for it.

Wordless Wednesday

Uncle Tim's treat

We just loved getting to see Uncle Tim when he came for all the Brousseau festivities. He always brings extra energy into our house and tons of smiles and laughs. Naki and I enjoyed a great evening just chatting with Tim, no food, video games, or anything! Just sitting and talking. It was really extraordinary the things he had to say. Afterwards he introduced me to the world of Dogfights. I love it! Anyone who knows Tim knows that when he has any money it literally burns a hole in his pocket. So we quickly made some plans to make it last just a bit longer. He decided he wanted to treat the girlies with something fun, so we headed over to Macey's for our favorite treat, ice cream cones and ice cream sandwiches. According to Tim it was pretty good, but Cold Stone still rates number one for him in the world of ice cream. Thanks Uncle Tim for all the good times!

A Shout out to my Momma..

We all know how much my mom has hated Mother's Day through the years, and so I decided to take a somewhat different approach this year. Thank you for passing to me all of your characteristics that I love having so much. Here's to you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day Abby!

I am a very blessed man! I have the best wife in the world and I wanted to pay tribute to my wonderful wife on this Mother's Day! As I went back looking through old pictures to illustrate what my wife means to me and my family, I think it's no surprise that in most of the pictures all you see is a piece of Abby. I know this is because she would rather have her children be the focus NOT herself.











A true tribute to one of the REAL beauties of Motherhood...selflessness! I'm SOO GRATEFUL that my girls have someone as selfless as their mother to model for them all the wonderful attributes of motherhood. Abby give's her ALL to her girls and they know it! When they don't feel well...they would ALWAYS prefer Mom over Dad anyday!





I'm truly grateful to Abby for being the mother of my children, for giving me the most beautiful girls in the world. She goes everywhere with them and NEVER uses having so many little ones as an excuse for not attending events and (for the most part) my girls are very well behaved...ALL a tribute to their Mother...anyone who knows us knows that my girls get all their craziness from me and goodness from her.























Another thing about my wife that I love is the fact that she makes sure EVERY single one of the girlies know that they are special to her by spending special Mommy time with each of them!













Thanks Abby for all that you do as the Mother of my children. I hope you have the BEST day...because you definitely deserve it! Here's my lame attempt to pay tribute to the GREATNESS of my wife and Mother of my children through picture. Happy Mother's Day Abby!

Fancy Feet

I realized that I still have some pics from around Easter that I never blogged about. This year we did Easter toes instead of dresses! They each got a new color of toe nail polish, and we had great fun getting out the sandals to wear to church so that we could show our newly painted toenails. Can you tell who's feet are whose?

Easter fun with the Maile family

This year the Maile family decided that we would get together for our Easter festivities on Saturday. We were more than a little surprised when Kyra and Tiera walked in with two live little chicks!

Misty said that it's a good thing they're nocturnal, because those little chicks sure can chirp, or peep, or whatever it's called when they make their cute little noises. Grandma was great with keeping the girlies busy in the kitchen. Grandpa had recently returned from Florida and he'd brought back with him these gorgeous shells. Grandma was helping all the girls hot glue the shells onto brown ribbon to make their own chokers. I don't get her in many pictures, so I was thrilled to capture Grandma with some of the girls. I especially love these pictures, because of the similarities between her face compared to the girls' faces.


Grandpa cooked all of the food for us and it was so good! I don't get him in pictures very much either. Apparently these guys are camera shy. But here he is in the kitchen.

We had a lot of fun with the Easter egg hunt. It ended up being held inside the house since it was still raining that day. We split the kids up so that it was more fair for all. The big kids' eggs were hidden downstairs by all the uncles, and the big kids hid the little kids' eggs upstairs in the living room. At some point in the afternoon, someone got hold of my camera. Here is some of their work.



Thanks for a great Easter afternoon, everyone.