Being Brannon: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Communal Living

The commune with the Muhlenkamps started over a month ago now and its going, well...great! I know alot of people probably think we are crazy for even trying this, but really, there's a whole lot more good than I even expected that has come out of it. Here are the top 10 reasons why we love communal living:

10. Half the cooking, Half the housework
The guys do the lawn together and get it knocked out in an hour. Cleaning the house is a breeze when you do it together - I spray the counter, Jill wipes it.

9. We watch Modern Family as a "modern family" and it makes it that much funnier!

8. Increased standard of living for everyone!
We are cooking our best meals, keeping the house cleaner, using the best of all of our appliances. Not to mention, we now ALL have cable, a garden, a playground, a bounce house, and a kiddie pool.

7. The kids listen better to the "other" parents
When Nash is acting up, Brad can go get on to Nash and it stops immediately - its a miracle! And it works for me and Will, too!

6. There's always someone to share a cocktail on the patio with you!

5. The dogs get more exercise.
Tootsie teases Bernie by shaking her hiney in his face, then he chases her around the yard. Yep-That happens daily!

4. I've gotten three new pairs of pants this week b/c Jill is apparently notorious for shrinking clothes. I'll take that, thank you!

3. There are plenty of adults to get in on the Dr. Suess rotation.
We like to read books at bedtime around here. And, while Dr. Suess is great....one can only read Hop on Pop so many times before you start going cross-eyed! I think the boys know this and that is why they seem to pick at least 2 Dr. Suess books per night.

2. Carpooling - Mark and Brad both work at the same place, so they ride together - we like to live green here at the commune.

1. And TOP reason for sure - Constant playmate!!!! The boys LOVE living/playing together! Of course, there's some fighting, but mostly they keep each other pretty busy. And when they get back together after being separated (even just the 1 hr Nash is in Bible class and Will is in big church), you'd think they hadn't seen each other for days. It's pretty sweet!

"Cheese!"

Blowing bubbles

Playing under Will's bed

Their disaster of a room!

Will's shiner

(Not from Nash, by the way!)

Communal Bathing

Everyone playing outside

The 3 most precious boys ever!

Nash still LOVES his little buddy, Jack.

Riding Spiderman - I'm surprised it still has wheels. It is quite popular!

Slip-n-slide!

Daddy throwing Nash

Here he comes!

My little stud muffin!

Monday, May 16, 2011

A Lovely Easter

Despite having to move (which I despise) over Easter weekend, we really had a lovely Easter! We sold our house and moved in with our friends, the Muhlenkamps. They had asked us to house-sit for them when they move to Italy for 3-4 years - which we could not pass up! Well, we sold our house rather quickly and their departure has been delayed for a couple of months.....so, the Muhlenkamps were kind (or crazy) enough to let us go ahead and move in with them. It has been quite the adventure! More on communal living in the next post (don't you just love a good hanger?!)!
Saturday, before Easter, the Muhlenkamps took Nash with them to their family's Easter shin-dig so Mark and I could get all settled in the house. Nash had a blast hunting Easter eggs with Will and feeding an entire package of Smarties to the cows. Then, on Easter Sunday, we went to Mark's brother's house and hung out with the Brannon's for the day. We are SOOO blessed to be surrounded in every direction by people who are eager to celebrate our Jesus!