Boys Bday Celebration

Since the boys' birthdays are so close together and Jarrod had a screening on the in between weekend and then he was going out of town for work, we decided to celebrate by taking them to the Carousel and Children's Museum the weekend after Coen turned 1. We went to Kaitlyn's band practice and then headed over to the Carousel. We wanted to do that before lunch so nobody got a tummy ache because that sucker is fast. We got there, the doors were locked and no note on the door. They thankfully had written their hours out on a sheet of letterhead with the phone number to the bldg. on it so I called and found out that they were closed for 2 weeks for renovation. All I have to say is WAY TO POST A SIGN ON THE DOOR! So, we just did the museum that day. It was fun and we promised to take them to the carousel when it opened back up again (which we finally did and I forgot the camera). So, here are some pictures of the birthday boys enjoying the museum. Coen hung out in the small kid (ages 2 and under)area and Jude was all over the place. After that, we went and had lunch at Five Guys (yummy!!!).The boys had a great time and we enjoyed celebrating their birthdays as a family.

The Little Blonde Grizzly Behr turns 1!

On January 11th our little (and last) baby Behr turned a year old. This past year has gone by soooo fast! (Too fast if you ask me). Coen has grown up quickly and I can hardly remember him being a teeny little baby. I see pictures of when he was born and he is sooo different now. All that dark hair is gone and is now replaced by blonde (sometimes) curly locks. He is a silly sweet boy. He loves to snuggle and is constantly cracking us up. He has 7 teeth (sharp little buggers) and has been walking since he was 10 months, so now he is running! He is a funny kid- he growls. He is the little bear that we thought he'd be. When he see something he wants or even sometimes when he gets mad he will grow- a serious deep throated primal growl. It is sooo funny! We were walking around a furniture store the other day and he wanted to play with some of the toys they had out and every time we walked by them he would let out this low growl. He has not started talking yet, why would he? he's got 4 big kids getting him what he wants whenever he wants it. We have been working on baby signs and it is not going as well as it did with the other kids. I will sign for something and then help him do it and he just gives me his sweet little grin and laughs. You can totally tell he is thinking "yeah right lady you're silly give me my food". Our goal is for him to be signing please, thank you, more and eat. If I can get those we may add some more. He is a smart cookie though. He listens to what we say and pretty much does what we ask unless he just doesn't want to. He has that Bernshausen/Fancher stubborn streak too. The other day he took his dirty clothes to the hamper with a little bit of help and he helped Kaitlyn clean up the living room. He is a sweet little boy and we are lucky and very thankful to have been blessed with another awesome kid.
Here are some of my favorite pics from his birthday plus one form a year ago-

Jude is 3!!!

Well, my big boy turned 3 on January 1st! I can't believe my little baby Jude is getting so big! His year from 2-3 has been busy. He got a baby brother not long after his 2nd bday and he potty trained at 2 1/2. He can be such a sweetheart. When he wakes up in the morning he comes downstairs, grabs his bowl of cereal and snuggles with me in the chair. He loves Cars (the disney ones and any other cars that are big!), dinosaurs and his sisters DSs. He got a gameboy Advance with his Bday $, but is still more interested in the DSs. DOn't get me wrong, he can be a stinker. He is going through a bit of a stubborn phase (I have no idea where he gets that from). He does NOT like it when his sisters fight and will stick up for whoever is getting picked on (trust me, he definitely holds his ground with the big kids). He is very shy around new people and other kids if the rest of the clan isn't around. He is my sweet, sweet boy and I just can't believe how big he is.
For his Bday he wanted to have a Lightening McQueen cake, so we got an ice cream one with strawberry ice cream (his favorite on the day we ordered the cake- it has since change to bubble gum) and he wanted spaghetti for his special meal. We opened presents with Poppie, the kids played in the snow with Daddy and then we had our special lunch. Later we went out to dinner with Poppie (he left for awhile to go watch TCU play in their bowl game). Here are some of my favorite pics from the day-

what kids say.....

Jarrod took Emma and Mia with him to pick up pizza tonight and on the way home asked them what they thought God looked like. Emma said handsome and this is basically Mia's response-
like you but without hands and legs. No, wait, with hands but no legs because he floats.
They are so sweet and it was so funny to hear their responses. Just had to get that typed up so I wouldn't forget.

One more-
Last night we went out to dinner and Jarrod took Jude potty (he refuses to go with me b/c I don't let him strip down in the public restroom since it's so nasty) and came back to the table grinning. He said bathroom trips with Jude are always full of questions. So, I wanted to know those questions and he basically said Jude always points stuff out and wants to know what it is or questions things and smells. Then, just as I take a big sip of coffee he says, "Like this one time he stuck his hands all in the urinal so he could get a closer look" and as he shudders I basically spew my coffee. He is so not allowed to make me laugh while drinking anymore.

Goals...

I am not big on New Year's Resolutions, so this year I decided to come up with just a few goals that I know I can achieve by the end of this year. Jarrod and I also came up with some Family Goals, goals for him and we called in each kid and wrote out goals for them and a treat for when they achieve their goals. So, here are my goals and an overview of how we picked goals for the kids. (I got these ideas from SipmleMom and Inspired to Action- both blogs are linked on the right of the page)

My goals-
1. Stick to my routines and help the kids stick to theirs
2. Save $$- get our Emergency Fund back up and running and get started on the 3-6 months savings
3. Get rid of baby weight
4. RELAX (my word for the year) take some time for me
5. Focus on relationships- keep up with date night (atleast once a month), family nights and our weekly "coffee time"
6. Work on that 101 Things list- I have made a dent, just need to keep on top of it


For the kids, we picked 4 things (this was taken from Inspired to Action)- 1 to enrich knowledge, 1 to grow in favor with God, 1 to grow in favor with man and one physical activity. We had them pick something that they wanted to work on knowledge-wise. This ranged from learning colors and numbers to completing a Math workbook correctly. Then, each kid picked a physical activity they wanted to do. Two picked learn to swim, 1 will ride her bike with no training wheels and the other wants to run with her Daddy. Jarrod and I picked a Bible verse for each of them to learn based on a quality we thought they needed to work a little bit on. The growing in favor with man will be 2 family service projects each quarter (a total of 8 this year). Coen really only has one goal for the year- to learn some Baby Signs. He is a little stubborn about the baby signs and pretty much just smiles and laughs at me. I am really looking forward to getting started on these with the kids this week.

This weekend we are going to try and work on a Family Mission Statement together. I got a great e-book of steps to making a Mission Statement for Moms from Inspired to Action and we are going to follow those steps for our Family Mission Statement. Jarrod and I also did the Morning Routine E-book and came up with a good routine for each of us. I love these 2 sites and highly recommend you check them out.

2010 Birthdays

Wow, I really fell off the bandwagon last year with Birthday posts. I did not post a single birthday update for any kid in 2010, so I will now update for 2010 since tomorrow is Coen's first Bday. I will do a separate post for that and Jude's 3rd Bday since I haven't uploaded the pics for Jude's Bday and we are going to celebrate with both boys on Saturday (carousel and museum). We did cake and presents for Jude already and will do Coen's tomorrow. I am in the process of making a cupcake banner for Coen. Who knew it would be so much work!?! Hopefully it turns out ok. Well, here's the 2010 Bdays-

Jude's 2nd Bday
We had a little party for him at home. We had a yummy ice cream cake and all the kids also got the clown cones from Baskin Robbins. I think we had pizza for dinner. Jude got a bike from us. A helmet and pads from Grandmom and Grandad. He also got a Cars seat/bed from Nat and Ryleigh. I honestly can't remember what else he got. I had pictures of eveything, but Jarrod took my memory card to Target b/c he wanted a card with more memory and he wanted to know what we already had. Well, long story short- his wallet has a magnet, magnets erase memory cards, he put the card in his pocket with his wallet, we lost all Bday and NYE pics on the card. I did take some pics later of the cars bed and his helmet. So, here they are-


I did update Coen's birth story, so we will skip to Kaitlyn's 11th Bday
We let her have a sleepover with a friend. We had pizza and Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. On her actual Bday we had Choc. Chip cookie ice cream sandwiches and I sent Choc. Chip cupcakes with vanilla buttercream to school for her class (did you figure out the theme?). She got an Old Navy GC from us. Her siblings got her a cool necklace and she got a bunch of nail polish and some twisty towels for her hair after her shower. Here are some pics-


Emma's 7th Bday
We had a family birthday. Emma's requests were lasagna for dinner and chocolate cobbler for her cake. Can I just say how much our family LOVES chocolate! This cobbler is super yummy and super easy to make. She got some clothes, a hiking pack, Bob books and sunglasses.Here are some pics from her Bday-

Mia's 5th birthday
In our family, girls get to do something special for their 5th birthday. They get to get their ears pierced! So, this year Mia's present from us was getting her ears pierced. Her siblings gave her some earrings and she also got some clothes and a hiking pack. Her theme was candy corn, so we had homemade candy corn pizza, candy corn cupcakes and tie-dye ice cream with orange and yellow colors.




Well, that gets us up to date on 2010 Bdays. I will post this weekend with Jude and Coen's Bdays.

booklist-plus new stuff I've been reading

Trust me, I have read and I am reading WAY more than what is on this list. I am averaging about 3-4 books a week (except when the library doesn't have my books and I am waiting on my holds) and loving it. So, here is my updated old list as of now. I will add the rest when I get around to it. I'm reading a lot of adult/YA fiction now. I will probably be making my way back to non-fiction soon, but it has been nice getting away from it all and living in la-la land.
OLD STUFF-

I have decided instead of making a yearly booklist, I will just have an ongoing booklist that I will add to each time I see a book I want to read. My yearly plan, as far as the list goes, will be to read 1 books off the list each month, so 12 a year. If I read more, great, but I can't read any less. I'll mark them as I read them and put the year that they were read.

1. The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer
2. Teach them Diligently by Lou Priolo
3. Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
4. Toilet Training in Less Than a Day by Nathan Azrin (2nd time-refresher for Jude)
5. The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule
6. The Overload Syndrome by Richard A Swenson, MD
7. Practical Theology for Women by Wendy Horger Alsup
8. Practicing Hospitality by Patricia Ennis and Lisa Tatlock
9. Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron (2nd time-refresher for newest addition)
10. The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies
11.Becca Fitzpatrick
-Hush, Hush
- Crescendo
-Tempest (Fall 2011)
12. Cassandra Clare
-Mortal Instruments Book 1- City of Bones
-Mortal Instruments Book 2- City of Ashes
-Mortal Instruments Book 3- City of Glass
- Mortal Instruments Book 4- City of Fallen Angels (coming March 2011)
-Mortal Instruments Book 5- City of Lost Souls (May 2012)
- Mortal Instruments Book 6- City of Heavenly Fire (Sept. 2013)
-Infernal Devices Book 1-The Clockwork Angel
- Infernal Devices book 2-The Clockwork Prince (coming 2011)
- Infernal Devices book 3-The Clockwork Princess(coming 2012)
13. Lauren Kate
- Fallen book 1
- Fallen book 2- Torment
- Passion (coming June 2011)
-Fallen Book 4 (coming soon)
14. Alyson Noel
- Immortals Book 1- Evermore
- Immortals Book 2- Blue Moon
- Immortals Book 3- Shadowland
- Immortals Book 4- Dark Flame ( June 22,2010)
- Immortals book 5- Night Star (Nov. 16,2010)
- Immortals book 6 (coming 2011)
Riley's Series
- Radiance (coming August 31,2010)
- Shimmer (2011)
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15. Charlaine Harris
Harper Connelly Series
- Grave Secret (book 4)
-An Ice Cold Grave (book 3)
-Grave Surprise (book 2)
-Grave Sight (book 1)
Lily Bard Series
-Shakespeare's Counselor (book 5)
-Shakespeare's Trollop (book 4)
-Shakespeare's Christmas (book 3)
-Shakespeare's Champion (book 2)
- Shakespeare's Landlord (book 1)
Aurora Teagarden Series
-Poppy Done to Death (book 8)
-Last Scene Alive (book 7)
-A Fool and His Honey (book 6)
-Dead Over Heels (book 5 )
-The Julius House (book 4)
-Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (book 3 )
-A Bone to Pick (book 2)
-Real Murders (book 1)
Sookie Stackhouse Series
-(book 13)
-(book 12)
-(book 11)
-Dead in the Family (book 10)
-Dead and Gone (book 9)
-From Dead To Worse (book 8)
-All Together Dead (book 7)
-Definitely Dead (book 6)
-Dead as a Doornail (book 5)
-Dead to the World (book 4)
-Club Dead (book 3)
-Living Dead in Dallas (book 2) Dead Until Dark (book 1)
-A Secret Rage
-Sweet and Deadly
16.Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh Demoss
17. P.C. and Kristin Cast
-House of night Series Book 1- Marked
- Book 2- Betrayed 2010
- Book 3- Chosen
- Book 4- Untamed
- Book 5- Hunted
- Book 6- Tempted
- Book 7- Burned
- Book 8- Awakened
- Book 9-
- Book 10-
- Book 11-
- Book 12-
18.Madeleine L'Engle
-Camilla
-A Live Coal in the Sea
-The Small Rain
-A Severed Wasp
-And Both Were Young
-Love Letters
-Certain Women
19. L. J. Smith
-Vampire Diaries Ed. 1 & 2
- V.D. The Return 1-Nightfall, 2-Shadow Souls, 3-Midnight (2011)
-Stefan's Diaries #1, #2, #3
-V.D.- The Hunters: Phantom, Moonsong, Eternity
-Dark Visions Vol. 1, 2, 3
-Night World Ed. 1, Ed. 2, Ed. 3 & Strange Fate (2011/12)
-The Forbidden Game
20. Claudia Gray
-Evernight
-Stargazer
-Hourglass
-Afterlife (march 2011)
21. Kelley Armstrong
-The Summoning
-The Awakening
-The Reckoning
22. Melissa Marr
-Wicked Lovely
-Ink Exchange
-Fragile Eternity
-Radiant Shadows
-Darkest Mercy (Feb. 2011)
23. Meg Cabot
-Insatiable
-Ins. Sequel (summer 2011)
-Ransom my Heart
-The Boy Next Door
-Boy meets girl
-every boy's got one
-size 12 is not fat
-size 14 is not fat either
-big boned
-queen of babble
-queen of babble in the big city
-queen of babble gets hitched
-she went all the way
-shadowland
-the ninth key
-reunion
-darkest hour
-haunted
-twilight
-when lightning strikes
-code name cassandra
-safehouse
-sanctuary
-missing you
24. Paolo Coehlo
-The Alchemist
-the witch of portobello
-By the River Piedra I sat down and wept
-The devil and Miss Prym : a novel of temptation
-Brida : a novel
- The valkyries : an encounter with angels

Books from 2009- (need to finish some and find others)
1. The Home Experience by Devi Titus
2. After the Boxes are Unpacked by Susan Miller (started and need to finish)
3. Twilight (book one) by Stephanie Meyer
4. Organizing the Disorganized Child by Martin Kutscher
5. Stay Home-Stay Happy by Rachel Campos-Duffy
6. Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman
7.New Moon
8. Running Scared: Fear, Worry and the God of Rest by Edward Welch
9. Eclipse
10.Breaking Dawn

NEW STUFF (read most in 2010)
1. Maria Snyder
-Poison Study
-Magic Study
-Fire Study
2. Julie Kenner
Demon Hunting Soccer Mom
-Carpe Demon
-California Demon
-Demons are forever
-Deja Demon
-Demon ex-machina
Blood Lily Chronicles
-Tainted
-Torn
-Turned
3. Sara Shepard
-Pretty Little Liars
-Flawless
-Perfect
-Unbelievable
-Wicked
-Killer
-Heartless
-Wanted
4.Stephanie Bond
-Body Movers
-2 bodies for the price of 1
-3 men and a body
-4 bodies and a funeral
-5 bodies to die for
-6 killer bodies
-7?
5. Karen Marie Moning
Highlander series
-beyond the highland mist
-to tame a highland warrior
-the highlander's touch
-kiss of the highlander
-the dark highlander
-the immortal highlander
-spell of the highlander
-into the dreaming
Fever Series
-Darkfever
-bloodfever
-faefever
-dreamfever
-shadowfever
6. Jennifer Apodaca
-Dating can be murder
-dying to meet you
-Ninja soccer mom
-batteries required
-thrilled to death
7. Jim Butcher
Dresden Files
-Storm front
-fool moon
-grave peril
-summer knight
-death masks
-blood rites
-dead beat
-proven guilty
-white night
-small favor
-turn coat
-changes
-ghost story
8. Rachel Caine
Weather Wardens-
-ill wind
-heat stroke
-chill factor
-windfall
-firestorm
-thin air
-gale force
-cape storm
-total eclipse
Outcast Season-
-undone
-unknown
-unseen (2/11)
-unbroken (2/12)
Morganville Vampires-
-glass houses
-dead girls dance
-midnight alley
-feast of fools
-lord of misrule
-carpe corpus
-fade out
-kiss of death
-ghost town
-bite club (4/11)
-book 11 (10/11)
-book 12 (4/12)
9.Kelley Armstrong
Otherworld Series
-bitten
-stolen
-dime store magic
-industrial magic
-haunted
-broken
-no humans involved
-personal demon
-living with the dead
-frostbitten
-waking the witch
-spellbound (7/11)
-Men of the otherworld
-tales of the otherworld
10. Rachel Hawkins
-Hex Hall
-Demon glass
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11. Kiersten White
-Paranormalcy
-Supernaturally (fall 2011)
-book3 (fall 2012)
12.Andrea Cremer
-nightshade
-wolfsbane (7/11)
-bloodrose (spring 2012)
-book 4 (companion novel-fall2012)
13.Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
-Beautiful Creatures
-Beautiful Darkness
- #3 (fall 11)
- #4 (fall 12)
14.Sophie Jordan
-Firelight
-2
-3
15.Yvonne Woon Dead Beautiful
16.Kelly Creagh
-Nevermore
-2
-3
17.Gena Showalter
-Intertwined
-unraveled
-twisted (9/11)
18. Ally Condie
-matched
-crossed (11/11)
-3 (2012)
19. Brenna Yovanoff - the Replacement
20. Tessa Gratton
- blood magic
-crow magic
21. Maggie Stiefvater
-Lament
-Ballad
-Shiver
-Linger
-Forever