Top 10 Gautreaux Facts of 2008

10. Jason became somewhat of the handy-man around the house. Too many times this year the kids tried out their acrobatic skills leaving Dad to repair the damages. The broken items around the house this year include the towel rack in the master bathroom, the shower curtain rod in the kids’ bathroom, a piece of tile in front of the fireplace, a strip of cabinet trim in the kitchen, and the kitchen table. This doesn’t include the many toys or play items repaired or deemed ruined in the midst of fun.

9. Brandie had two procedures done this year – she had her wisdom teeth taken out in May and an ablation procedure done in October. Both were much needed and life changing.

8. Courtnie cheered for the Falcons this year. The girls went to a local cheer competition and won 1st place for their dance and 1st place for their cheer/chant and came home the Grand Champions!

7. Cameron went to his first, and second, overnight camps this year. He went to Camp Goddard with a friend over the summer and he went to Sky Ranch Camp with his 5th grade class in September. Brandie went with him as a chaperone to the school camp. What great opportunities both of these camps were for him.

6. Brandie completed her Associates Degree this year. Jason took his first college course this year and will be taking quite a few more for work. Once he is done, Brandie has plans to go back and finish her Bachelors Degree.

5. Spelling Bee champions must run in the family. Cameron won 2nd place in his school Spelling Bee, after he purposely spelled democracy with a “k”. He didn’t want the girl he has a crush on lose or to see anymore girls crying for misspelling a word. What a guy! Next time though, let’s spell correctly and win!

4. Colton gave us quite the scare this year when Brandie went to wake him up one morning and found him barely able to breath. Trying not to panic and scare all three kids, she gave him breathing treatments while calling Daddy at work. By the time she met Jason to take him to the hospital, Colton was breathing much better. Apparently it was a small case of croup in the airway. Not sure who likes to call that small, but it was a big deal to the family.

3. Luckily Cameron did not take a baseball to the eye this year, but he did pitch a no-hit inning with a total of 10 pitches this Spring. He also made all four outs in this same inning. Trying to figure that one out? The catcher dropped the last strike and Cameron caught the bounce and threw him out at first. Later in the Fall season, he pitched a no-hitter game. Those are some great baseball skills! He still talks about going to USC or UT to play baseball when he graduates high school.

2. Courtnie won her first ever 1st place trophy in dance for her duet. She and her friend, who have both been dancing since they were two years old, are doing a duet together this year and they won 1st place at their first competition. These dances are different than her team dances.

1. Colton’s car, truck and anything-with-wheels collection has jumped up to 246. Can you believe just one child has that many transportation toys? Amazingly enough, he plays with every one of them, knows when a car is missing and exactly which car it is. A medical fund is now being set up for Colton because it seems his transportation interests are headed towards racing anything with wheels along with his desire to have his training wheels removed from his new bike that he received from Santa this year.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas night and the day is coming to an end. I absolutely love this time of year! The lights, the joy, the gift-giving, the music, the questions and conversations this season brings and even the extra family time. This time of year cannot come fast enough and flies too quickly by. My Christmas tree is up the day of (or before) Thanksgiving and is not taken down until after the New Year.

I was really thinking this season of all the traditions we have started with our kids and even those we hadn't realized we had created with our own family. As the kids would mention little things that they were looking forward to is when I realized that traditions had been formed. The kids sleep together every year on Christmas Eve. We used to have walkie-talkies and they would radio us when they woke up on Christmas morning. This year since Cameron has his own phone, we were able to just use that. We also sit at the computer on Christmas Eve and track Santa online. Even after the kids are in bed, Jason and I continue to track him, lol. Did you know that Santa takes a break and moves slower over Reindeer Lake in Canada? Donder and Blitzen have relatives there!! The kids also write Santa a note. It's not tradition to just leave milk and cookies, my kids need to write to him. Can you guess whose idea this is??? We also always make a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas morning. This is so fun and a perfect reminder of why we are celebrating the holidays. We sing Happy Birthday aloud and have the best time. We also do not leave our house on Christmas Day. I grew up constantly on the go during Christmas time and hated it. I'd open gifts and have to get ready to go somewhere else, never really getting to enjoy my gifts until later. Jason and I, as well as grandparents, have enjoyed doing this as they get to see them in their Christmas pj's (and their nice clothes) and seeing them with all of their goodies - decorating their room, playing with their toys, eating the cake they made. We also only give our kids 3 gifts under the tree because when Jesus was born he too was given 3 gifts. And if the holiday is about him, we try to mimic the day of his birth in everyway possible This has probably been the best thing we have done as parents.

A fun memory for this year..... the kids didn't wake up for Christmas! They never have really gotten up early but this year they actually slept in. It's true, Jason had to call them to get them moving. We were just laying in bed waiting for them to call us and finally Jason sent Cameron a text asking if they were awake and he was the only one up, patiently waiting for his brother and sister to wake up. Again, being the sweet guy he is, Cameron let his siblings sleep while he patiently waited for them to get up.

The kids were super excited about their gifts Santa left them and even more about finally being able to open the gifts under the tree. After this, they made their calls to grandparents to excitedly tell them of their gifts and to know when exactly they were coming over for the day.

Here are our Christmas pictures on our online photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/bran0224.

Meeting Santa

Colton absolutely does not like giant characters dressed-up and eager to greet children. He normally frets about this and hides behind our legs. Until Santa arrived st his school yesterday. He ran to see him, jumped in his lap and talked to and smiled at him. What a perfect photo-op for me! None of our kids have enjoyed this once-a-year quality time with the most generous man ever. But Colton couldnt wait. Maybe he had to sweet talk his way with Santa and plead his case. Nah, just kidding. Colt's a great kid!

Spelling Bee

I was telling my mom today that I sometimes feel like I neglect the boys on my blog. They just dont do too many things blogworthy. Their days consist of running around, being loud and getting into trouble. That is until today....

Cameron was one of the top three Spelling Bee winners in his class and today the four classes top winners had another Spelling Bee to see who would move on to the District competition. As Cameron was walking to the car this afternoon he has this smirk on his face that tells me good news. I'm already getting so excited for him and he hasnt even gotten to the car yet. He climbs in and says, "I got 2nd today in the Spelling Bee." So awesome! He continues... "I let Kristen win. I spelled democracy with a 'k'." My mouth drops.

The poor kid has had this crush on this little girl since first grade. They send eachother gram-notes at school for the holidays. And he let her win. He said he didnt want her to lose and he didnt want to stand up there anymore. I am proud of him though. He has a kind heart for a girl, which tells me he will be a great man. He said all of the girls who were knocked out were crying and he wasnt about to make another girl cry. What a guy!

Dear Santa....

Another of Courtnie's sweet, loving, and oh-so-true letters she wrote last night.

12-15-08 Courtnie

Dear Santa,

I want Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Concert for Christmas. I have been realy good. Me and my little brother play together alot. Me and my big brother fight but now we do not.

Sincerely,
Courtnie

Do you like my moms cookies? Yummy cookie!
Have a holy jolly Christmas!

Here is what I find humerous, she fails to mention that sometimes she and her younger brother do not get along, even when they play together. Her comment about her and Cameron...... true. I do find it sweet though =) I asked Cameron what he thought of that and he picked his eyebrows up and said "she's right". Colton was a bit concerned that you had to actually tell Santa how you had behaved in the last year. That was a fearful face!!

Happy Birthday Jason

Yesterday, we celebrated Jason's 31st birthday. We made his favorite meal (jumbalaya) and baked a cake for him. Happy Birthday babe!! We love you!!!

Here is a picture of him with the kids:

Ugh! My Bank is Closed

I've already figured out my New Year's Resolution for 2009 - DO NOT STRESS ABOUT MONEY. I also intend to keep my financial fears to myself. Occassionally I stress about this even though I truly, truly try not to. I have been staying at home for 10 years now and since then our bills have always been paid and we have extra to do as we please, so why do I continue to stress about this? When will I learn to let go and let God? With this said, it isn't 2009 yet so I can still complain.....

Are you kidding me? It's December. Christmas-time. And just since last Sunday (which was only been 4 days ago) here is who has asked me for money - Cameron's basketball is $185 due this Sunday, Courtnie's dance $28 plus $63, plus we will be paying $25 just to get in to watch her first competition this Saturday, and all three kids need money and/or gifts for their class Christmas parties. And what time of year is it? December! A month when gifts are what I really want to spend my money on. I haven't even finished shopping for my own kids yet!!! So if you are reading this and need money from me, try again later. This bank is closed.

Now that I have vented about this, I'm letting it go.... really.

Cheer Competition '08

Courtnie had her cheer competition this past Sunday. It was super exciting but we are sooo glad it's over! Here is a video of both their cheer/chant and their dance. It's pretty far away but we were in the stands and there are quite a few girls on the team. Here are some pics from the weekend:

Courtnie is on the front row on the far left in the cheer/chant:

Courtnie is on the back row on the far left in the dance: