Friends

As parents you try and give your kids the best. 
We have tried to teach them all the things that are important to us, and what we think they will need to be successful adults.  (We are still working on teaching these things...)

But when your kids are sent out into the world at such a young age, there is a lot of pressure on them.  I hope they will remember what we have taught them.  I hope they can make good choices that won't hurt them or others.  However, I am having a hard time with just having to 'hope' they do that.  I want to protect them from the world.  Any negative influences I hear or see them come in contact with have me stressing out. 

Our current negative influence has actually been in our life for about a year and a half now.  He is a neighbor kid.  He rode the bus with my kids last year and would show up at our house almost every day after school.  He didn't seem too bad at first, and maybe I'm too harsh on him, but I grew tired of him fast. 

On one, uninvited, visit to our house he broke our screen door.  Another time he broke our batting tee (not a HUGE deal, but annoying).  He is a big kid for an 8 year old and he pushed Brylee to the ground because he was mad at her.  A year ago he threw Tate on a bean bag and hurt him. 

He tells my kids that I am a mean mom, because I have rules and don't let my 5-8 year olds run around the neighborhood unsupervised.  He tells my kids "your momma's so fat..."  jokes.  Which they believe are really about me.  He is a bully to littler kids on the bus, including Cody. 

All this has been going on for so long, and it didn't hit all at once so I never realized how many complaints I had about him...

This week Dallin told me that this kid has a tablet that he pulls out on the bus and he and Dallin listen to music.  So Dallin wanted me to find the songs on the computer so he could listen to them here.  Of course they are all rap songs.  I don't know if he has the clean versions, or the ones with explicit lyrics.  Dallin is now convinced that he likes rap music.  Great. 

So, now I'm torn between forbidding this friendship (even though I can't really control that because he is in Dallin's class) or just 'hoping' that my kids will remember what we have taught them.  Will they follow his lead and start using crude language? 

Dallin already got a half-day-in-school-suspension for hitting other kids.  I'd like to think there was some outside influence on that behavior...  I just think kids are so fragile and impressionable.  Of course they want to be cool and do what their friends do. 

I'm considering taking my kids off of the bus.  But there would still be interaction with him at school.  I'm very frustrated.  I can't wait to move simply to get away from this kid.  I know there will be kids like him wherever we go.  Too bad I really don't want to homeschool.  If things got bad enough I would. 

Anyway, sorry for the long rant.  Being a parent isn't easy. 

Happy birthday to Me!

Brian and the kids spoiled me on my birthday this year.  They made me breakfast in bed, and then Brian did the dishes.  He also made me some AMAZING brisket for dinner.  Here are some pics of him, Dallin, and Brylee working on my cake.  It was a 3 tiered chocolate cake with fresh grated chocolate shavings on top.  I'm such a lucky girl!  :) 

 

 Here's Dallin grating (and eating) the chocolate. 

 

Also, Brian and my parents got me a food processor!!  Squee!  I am so happy.  You can see it still in its packaging there behind Dallin.   Can't wait to use it. 

 

I know Brian's mom also has something waiting for me next week when I go to her house.  Like I said, I'm spoiled. 

 

Thanks everyone!!   

 

 

Tater see, Tater pee...

On Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful 70 degree temps and played a round of frisbee golf with some friends.  While we were on the course Cody had to use a tree to releive his bladder.  Well, when Tate saw that he HAD to try it as well.  All on his own he took his diaper off and copied Cody.

 

 He didn't actually pee, but he had all the other important steps down.  Like, drop pants, remove diaper, face a tree, hold yourself, and stick your hips out. 

 Someday we'll add the wet stuff, too; then we'll being making some real progress.  ;)

Skippo Race

Lucky for me, I got to run the Skippo 10k race this weekend.  Just a couple days before the race I found out I was going to get to run it, so I hadn't been training for it, but I still had a great time. 

I was SO HAPPY that Brian and the kids could be there to cheer me on.  It really does make the race a lot more fun for me. 

There was a park at the race location, so the kids were entertained while I was running.

 Here the kids are waiting for me to come up to the finish line.  I am wearing the white shirt and black shorts in the distance here.  As I passed the kids they ran along with me the rest of the way to the finish line.  It was a lot of fun.  Cody even crossed the line before me.  Everyone was cheering for him, too.  It was cute. 

 Several friends from my ward also ran the race.  This is us before the race. 

One of these girls ran the 20k distance and she came in first place for the women!  Another of these girls got second place for the 10k!  I have some inspiring running buddies.  All these girls are amazing.  Way to go girls!

Dallin's School Performance

 

All the second grade classes did a compilation of fall and patriotic songs.  They even used kazoos for one song.  Dallin had a good time, and did a good job. 

Franken-Bushmans

Halloween picture overload! 

We had a lot of fun this year. 

We made donuts and carved pumpkins for FHE on Monday.

On Tuesday we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat.

And Wednesday, Halloween, we had a bonfire and party in our cul-de-sac. 

Tons of fun, and tons of candy were had by all.  ;)

 

 

 Thank you Dallin for flipping the glow stick right in front of the camera!!!!  Argh! 

 So, the dress is a little too big on the top...  I even put an under shirt on her, and then pinned the sleeves to the under shirt, but still we get the off the shoulder look.  Oh well. 

 Dr. Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Igor.

 Even Brian and I dressed up this year.  We were hippies/ disco/ whatever we could find that fit and wasn't our normal clothes. 

Dallin the Beat Boxer

Dallin learned this beat boxin' technique from watching the show The Electric Co. 
You may notice he learned a few different tempos.  :) 

Old MacDonald had a what?

Hmmm, Old MacDonald's farm might be kind of stinky...  Can you tell that we were working on potty training?

My little apprentice

I had an order for a smash cake today!  I love orders.  :)

I have been wanting to do this style of cake for a while, so I was glad to finally do one.

And I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

I had a left over 6" cake and frosting so I gave it to Brylee to decorate. 

She was on cloud 9! 

She loved it and was so happy to have decorated a cake all by herself. 

Not to bad, huh?! 

They are so ready to dig into it.  

There is something wrong with my waffle...

So this morning for breakfast I made Egyptian One-Eyes.  (A piece of bread with the center cut out and an egg cooked in the middle of the bread.)

Tate took one look at his plate and said, with some confusion and concern, "There's an egg on my waffle!" 

What is the world coming to!? 

Bushman Extended Family Reunioin

After our big trip to California we drove up to Idaho for the extended Bushman reunion.

It was in a beautiful little town called Albion.

I seriously fell in love with this place. 

Too bad that town couldn't support a chiropractor...

 Tate checking out the tractor.

One of the old buildings on the campus of the reunion site. It used to be an old church college, like Ricks, but it never made it big.  Too bad.

 There were so many cousins.  They had a great time doing relay races and playing games. 

 I tried to get Tate to do the sack race...

 Apparently he didn't want to do it. 

 Here is Brandon Flamm, Dallin, and Cody hopping towards victory!

 Tate and Lyndi, I'm predicting kissin' cousins in about 12 years...

 So carefree, what a life.

 He's hiding from Grandma Bushman. 

 She found him, but he doesn't know it yet.

 And he's off again! 

 The peacock that was patrolling the grounds.

 Our family with Great Grandma Bushman