One Year Older

A year has come and gone since my little guy, Brigham, was born!  This was the fastest year of my life...thus ZERO blog posts have been done!  But I did all I could this last year and so I don't have any regrets!  Three kids is just as hard as everyone says and I've had to let go of a lot of things like clean baseboards, a cleaning schedule, and a certain time for everything!  

Here is just a little bit about our CRAZY, non-stop, Briggidy-Iggidy!  We love him to pieces and I think every parent should have the chance to brag about their babies...so here is mine...and there is a lot of it!!

*He is our biggest one-year-old yet!  He is average in weight and height, which is AMAZING for our kids!

*Brigham eats more than Ava and Spencer combined! He is eating us out of house and home!

*He is our HARDEST baby.  He is so curious and into EVERYTHING.  He is the splashing-in-toilets, falling-down-stairs, unrolling-toilet-paper, breaking-electronics, kind of baby.  He gives us a run for our money.  I am not joking when I say that he WILL NOT sit still or hold still when he is being held.  He must be ruining something or hurting someone to be happy.  He is hard to say the least and it is a good thing we love him.

*He has a pucker face where he puckers his lips and scrunches his face.  He does it when he falls and pretends to cry!

*He crawled at 9 months and started climbing up and down the stairs at the same time!  

*He isn't walking yet and isn't showing much interest.  He stands up in the middle of the room but will just stay there!  Hopefully he doesn't take as long as his brother who walked at 16.5 months!

*He is a very social baby and likes everyone around him.  He doesn't get nervous with other people and has stayed away from us for a couple of nights without any trouble!

*He is amazingly smart!  He talks so well and knows so many signs.

*He says the simple things like mom, dad, bye, no, dog, ball and hi.  And then he also says these...and mostly perfectly...it's awesome how good he is at talking:

"Happa" (Happy), 

"Die Dine" (Signing Time)

"Eyes"

"On"

"Opf" (off)

"Hot" 

"Up"

"Don't"

"Ca" (Cat)

"Bur" (Bird)

"Igh" (light)

"Do" (milk...don't know why he says that?)

"eat"

"Afs" (Ava)

"Ba" (Bath)

"Car"

And I'm sure more will come to me but there's just SO many ;)  Haha!  And here is another list...these are
signs he knows and is so good at:

Eat, milk, bird (he does it so perfectly), mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, airplane, car, flag, fan, hot, baby, dog, cat, fish, sleep, play, book, signing time, sign for Ava, please, thank-you, happy, light, on/off, no, yes, and more.

Although Brigham is a hard little baby he makes up for it with his silliness and his sweet little face!  He is our blue-eyed baby boy!

Welcoming...

Brigham Christian

August 13, 2011

1:09 in the afternoon

9 pounds 1 ounce

21 inches long

We are so lucky to have this sweet little guy in our family!

Believe it or not

Believe it or not I HAVE been blogging! I've back dated my blog posts so that when I go to print my blog everything will be in ORDER!! My goal is to be completely caught up with our lives on this blog and have time to add silly posts of my kids here and there before this baby comes in August! If you are at all interested in what has been happening with my long lost family in the past 10 months visit the links below!

August 2010

Preschool Girl

September 2010 Vacation - Snow Canyon

Stay little forever please

Well Spencer turned the big ONE on August 1st...that's right he's nearly 18 months NOW. I want to blog about his birthday party because it was SO much fun for everyone...EXCEPT Spencer. Spencer was a sick boy that day and his dummy parents didn't realize it until everyone showed up for the party and he was acting up. BUT we all enjoyed ourselves anyway. I went crazy for his party and did a vintage airplane theme. His invitations turned out to be such a hit! I made them look like a boarding pass and I had a lot of fun with it.

The decorations were really fun too...I especially liked the tissue paper clouds and his vintage airplane banner! It all turned out great except for the star of the show. Spence was okay at times and miserable at others :( Oh well, not everything can be perfect. Spencer wasn't into opening presents much and when it came to eating his cake he was not interested AT ALL! We did the cake eating part again the next week so he could enjoy some yummy chocolate! I LOVE parties and I tend to over-do it most of the time but it was memorable for ME...I know, selfish right? Here are some pictures so that Spencer can look back one day and MAYBE appreciate it.

Lots of people love Spencer!!

And this is how our little guy was feeling...

Some things about Spencer, who will be 18 months on Feb 1st:

-He is OBSESSED (understatement) with Toy Story ANYTHING. He walks around saying all the characters names and he pretends to fly like Buzz with is hands above his head!

-He didn't walk until he was 16.5 months old. He drove us crazy for months, giving us little glimpses of walking, and then wussing out!

-He absolutely LOVES to play with Ava when she lets him. Her attention is his favorite thing.

-He is the pickiest eater EVER. He never just eats a food...we have to force it into his mouth first and if he likes it (rare) he won't fight us anymore. When he does like a food he will eat like a horse. This kid can down an entire banana in less than a minute.

-He is so cuddly when he wants to be and I'm so thankful for it. Yesterday I was playing with him on the floor and he walked up to me with pursed lips and gave me a kiss. I loved it!

We love you Spencer! You add so much to our lives and we are so glad Heavenly Father sent you to be a part of our family!

I'm a Big Girl now

That's right...Ava's a big girl now. We've started the "school" phase of our lives. I am actually just doing preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a couple of hours with some moms in South Jordan because I am not about to pay any amount of money for a three-year-old to socialize...and that's pretty much all preschoolers do!! There are SEVEN kids...6 girls and 1 boy (he's such a trooper)! Ava loves to socialize and make friends and I'm having fun myself getting to know the moms!

These pictures are both so silly but this is Ava in a nutshell...our posing, put her head to the side, princess Ava!

Fun Bun

I tried a new curly hair-do today. I love my hair long because I can try so many different things! A mom of one of Ava's preschool friends had her hair really cute today and I asked her how she did it. It's a beach look...kind of messy but it is hardly ANY work (10 minutes) on my part and so I am IN LOVE with it!

Step 1: With your hair just damp make 6-8 buns (more buns for curlier hair) around your head.

Step 2: Wait an hour and a half or until they are dry

Step 3: Take them out and brush through your hair with your fingers. Hairspray!

P.S. I REALLY hate taking pictures of myself!! I think self portraits are silly!!

Our Disneyland trip was MAGICAL and I'll post about it as soon as we get our 'Photopass' CD from Disneyland!!

September Vacation - Snow Canyon

We went on a 10-day family vacation on September 10-19, 2010. We had the time of our lives! We started our vacation out by spending the weekend in St. George (10th-12th).

On Saturday morning we visited Snow Canyon and explored the area. The kids (Christian included) had so much fun climbing and hiking in the perfect weather. Snow Canyon is the perfect place for a family with small kids because the hikes are so family friendly and it can be done within a couple of hours!

We would have visited for a little longer but the mosquitos came out and that was the end for Ava. If you know Ava then you know that she DOES NOT like bugs of any kind. Seeing a mosquito on her had her crying and panicking uncontrollably so we ended our morning!

We went back to our motel, ate lunch, and went for a swim in the pool. The kids seemed to enjoy our motel more than anything in St. George. It was such a treat for them to get to watch the Disney Channel since we have 'boring TV' at home! They also loved jumping on the beds and running around the room. Maybe we should move into one...

Later that night we went to Olive Garden with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. I was so excited to see my high school best friend, Erin, and her new baby! He is ADORABLE!! It was a quick dinner but nice to visit for a little bit!

On Sunday we headed to Las Vegas where we would stay until Tuesday (19th-21st). We stayed with my sister-in-law, Cydnee, and her family at their home in Henderson. While there we saw Mermaids @ Boater's Outlet, ate at Rainforest Cafe (WAY overrated!), and let Ava and Reagan (cousin) play every other second of the day! Ava and Reagan absolutely love each other and I am not exaggerating when I say that we saw them only at meals and bed time! Ava was sad to leave but knowing where we were headed helped a little...

Preschool Girl

Ava started a neighborhood preschool the beginning of September and she was OVERLY excited! The kids in her preschool are:

Maggie Bodily

Mallory Burton

Haley Colton
Ellie Edwards
Kristi Murdock
Logan Wilson

She is so excited to learn new things and most of all SOCIALIZE with her new little friends!

August 2010

Last June I said that I was going to do some "ketchup" and I've only posted 7 times since! SOOO much has happened to our little family in the past year and I am determined to catch up by August when a new member of our family will arrive!

August 2010 brought a lot of outside fun. We did lots of bike rides and spent a lot of time outside with friends!

Since Spencer was sick on the day of his party we gave him some more cake as soon as he felt better. He gave us the reaction we were looking for! He loves himself some red velvet cupcakes (ignore the leftover broccoli on his face)!

Ava had a blast in the rain this month. We had a BIG rain storm that had us soaking wet in just a few minutes! Ava was in heaven and I couldn't help but snap a few pictures before I had to run the camera inside to save it!

You've got a lot of chutzpah to compete for a cab

New York - kids = ADVENTURE!

Christian and I had the BEST time EVER in New York! I keep having dreams of us being there again or on a plane on our way there. It's bad...I REALLY want to go back! It may just be that I want another vacation with just Christian and I. I have never wanted to leave my kids for any period of time and I was actually dreading this trip BUT it was so great to explore this HUGE city without the kids!

Here's what we did...We got on and off a double-decker tour bus for three days. We toured Downtown & Uptown Manhatten, Harlem, & Brooklyn. We, of course, took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty! We went to the Empire State Building to see it but went to the 'Top of the Rock' to get a view of the city. AMAZING! We checked out Times Square which was OKAY...a good look and we are good for life! And then we went to the Majestic Theatre and saw "The Phantom of the Opera"! BUT the best part of our trip was when we rented bikes and rode around Central Park for a couple of hours. It was so neat to see that GINORMOUS park, lay down and just enjoy our time there, and then see all the famous areas there.

Okay I'm getting too wordy so I'll just post some pictures! We seriously had such a good time!

P.S. Magnolia Bakery is to DIE for! My mouth is watering thinking of their Red Velvet cupcakes with light, whipped cream cheese frosting. Oh my goodness...SOOOO GOOD!

A Moment

We went up to Copperton and found some fun places for pics. We're going up again this week for better light so hopefully I can get some better pics of Christian and I...you'll see why! I'm so glad my dad lets me use his camera because we can get some great stuff! Oh and kudos to Picnik for some fun picture editing it let me do!! What do you think?