at the pool

we are trying to suck as much love from the sun as we can… especially while our pool is still open. here are some photos of the past week with our friends Lora and her daughter Maya (2 years)…

abigail–a big feat

last week when we went to the thanksgiving point farm, abi had a cow about touching the animals. so I was mightily surprised that this week, she touched a SNAKE!!!

our good friend Lora had the Bean Museum from BYU come and put on a show for the kids in the ward. I so thought abi would be hanging on me every second and was astonished that she sat in the front row, held the python skin AND touched Elphaba the snake. I am so proud of Abi choosing to do a hard thing… (our family motto is “I can do hard things”).

Abi just saw this photo and told me that she petted the snake with two fingers closed… just had to put the closed part in there.

brooklyn–growing up!

guess who laughed today for the first time? twice?!?!? it is so exciting! Brooklyn is such a joy to us!

Brooklyn loves to chew on her hands and also found her toes this week! She also will grab the small rosette on her onesies and the proceeds to shove it in her mouth… so her onesies are always sopping with slobber!

I was up with her at 4am (she is NOT a good or consistent sleeper), but she was happy as a clam and just chatted it up with me. It was one of those eternal moments that I hope never to forget. She is growing up so fast, but I SO love holding my baby girl. I love watching her eyes light up when I talk to her or when Abi pays attention to her (which is often).

This is also our newest love… a baby doll from my aunt. Brooklyn spends her sweet time loving it with all her might. She loves to chew on the hat brim and the hands. I so love her eyes in these photos.

I just have to note that Dan and Abi made me dinner when he came home from work yesterday… elk, onion rings, and salad. It was so tasty! He even cleaned up the kitchen better than how it looked before they cooked. It was fun listening to them and watching them interact. (Dan is noting in the photo that he cooked for me twice this week… record).

updates

sorry, there won’t be many photos to break up all this boring stuff but here are some updates for our family as of late-

Brooklyn-

• found her hands and LOVES to suck on them
• loves to ride in the carrier facing out
• eats like a mad woman!
• has not been sleeping well (two nights with 2 hours of sleep for me… ugh!)
• loves to pay attention to abigail… already envying all she does
• has the sweetest smile
• loves to bubble out of her mouth
• LOVES to talk when she feels good
• LOVES to let you know when she doesn’t feel good- ask my neighbors
• has the sweetest sad face – just breaks my <3
• is three months tomorrow – I don’t know what I would do without her
• had a blowout today in the car seat. I normally have an extra pair of clothes, but we had left in a hurry and I forgot to grab a new set. well, I only had a pair of pants to put her in and was feeling bad until I realized that abi’s baby doll had on a nightgown… after much persuading on our end, abi FINALLY gave up the nightgown rendering her baby doll naked and cold. Brooklyn fit into it like a shirt and we went on our way… I so wish I had a photo of that.
• still favors mom over anyone else – besides abi

Abigail

• loves brooklyn! like so much! always wants to hold her and talk to her and take care of her
• the other night I noticed she had ruffles on her pink pj shorts. I just thought it was odd that I hadn’t noticed them before. the next morning when I went to do laundry Brooklyn’s NEW BORN pants were in the wash and she hadn’t worn them… ABI HAD!!! I don’t know how her circulation to the lower body wasn’t cut off all night.
• heard Jillian Michaels talking about abs on my workout video and Abi noticed they were talking about her (we call her Abs sometimes) and now wants to watch my workout vid all the time.
• told me this morning while watching the garbage truck- “man mom, dad comes home from work dirty like the garbage truck” no kidding!
• “nursed” her baby doll today and informed me that “milk comes on this side and juice comes on the other side. they mix together inside of me”
• got a whole set of new baby dolls from her babysitter Samantha (the only YW in the ward) and couldn’t stop saying “oh wow” as she played with them
• loves to say “oh crap” for anything – like the other night when she forgot to say her prayers before getting into bed. I told her that it wasn’t an “oh crap” moment… I have been more careful of when I say it, oops
• told me today (after a third attempt on the potty) that her poop just had to get all together in her tummy to come out. lovin’ that logic
• threw up last night at 4am and when she yelled for me she told me that she “spit-up” like Brooklyn – she didn’t even cry about it…
• we were great all day and then she hurled MAJOR again tonight- she handled it so well for her first time really hurling. I was quite impressed. (and may I just say that after a call to my mom on how to clean up vomit (what would I do without her?) I even cleaned it up myself… that is HUGE for me… although I couldn’t finish my dinner). from what I know it is going around our ward… we won’t be in nursery this week people… and I wouldn’t put my kids in there either.
• likes to throw fits about anything – slams doors and throws things… from what I am finding out from friends, it is all developmental
• gives the best hugs and kisses… I sure love her – I haven’t been the best mom to her for the past three months. she has been such a trooper through this crazy adjustment… I love that she takes care of me almost more than I feel I do for her- like yesterday I was crying and I said, “I just don't know what else to do” and she replied, “you need to go upstairs mom.”
• she is growing up WAY too fast!

Dan

• I actually had him home every night this week! he has been staying up at the project site during the weeks, but didn’t this week. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this because of what this week has brought for us between no sleeping brooklyn and hurling abi
• works so hard for our family
• makes me laugh – even when I don’t feel like it
• gives the best back scratches – to help calm my nerves
• gets excited with me
• tells me to snap out of it too :)
• loves all my quirks

Me

• hormonal – need I say more?
• being a mom and wife
• got in a car accident this week with the girls – thankfully, we are all okay, and our Durango was a monster to the van it encountered (abi calls the Durango the broken car now)… kind of sore in the neck, but it is better than being a pain in someone else’s neck
• teaching RS on sunday and looking forward to it
• being a mom and wife
• loosing GOBS and GOBS of hair – from stress AND hormones – I feel so bad about how much is on the bathroom floor and in the drain – I even leave the vacuum up there to get most of it when I am done primping. I got my hair thinned last month and can’t imagine how much more I would be loosing if it was still as thick as it was… I don’t know how I still have hair!!!
• cannot wait to hear conference this next month -
• being a mom and wife
• still not all the way adjusted to two kids (especially when Brooklyn has a hard time… most of the time)
• has had my faith tested in so many ways this week – and is still being tested… I would really like this year to be over
• would like to get rid of my “beer belly” soon so I can fit into jeans for the coming fall – ugh!
• being a mom and wife

 

 

Here are some photos I took of Brooklyn in her blessing dress… since I didn’t get very many the other week-

farm country at thanksgiving point

I took my girls to Thanksgiving Point on Monday to meet up with my cousin and her kids… it was pretty much my first real outing like this with the girls, without dan. Overall, we did pretty good given it was abi’s tired hours – 3-5pm.

abi weighed as much as 5 chickens… I won’t tell you how much I weighed :)

don’t you love her hand on the cow’s rump?

waiting for the pony ride… abi flipped out and wouldn’t go. neither would jean.

I just had to capture how much I love my cousin and her lax! check out how she strolls the stroller :) p.s. that stroller has been through all 5 of her kids and still rollin’

getting the chicken feed- abi got pecked and everyone in the country could hear her wailin… it just scared her, but it scared her for an hour afterwards too- poor abi kind of had a rough time.

this is how I feel in the mornings

why are male peacocks the pretty ones? oh gosh, so how life works-

if there was a photo of me today, this would be it – dirty, loungy, and fat. – just sayin’

enoch in jail-

we then went and got ice cream…

anna isn’t on the charts for weight so tiff was supplementing

proof that I was there. it was a challenge to lug this camera around with brooklyn