The Bailey Clan

Brothers!

2012-01-17T23:23:00.000-06:00

December!

2012-01-17T22:55:00.000-06:00

Halloween

2012-01-17T21:50:00.000-06:00

Deer Hunt 2011

2012-01-17T21:28:00.003-06:00

It's a Pumpkin Bat!

2011-11-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe it, but we did a craft I have pinned on my Pinterest board (I know, can you believe something from Pinterest got put into action instead of just drooling over it online? I am surprised as well!) I figured it was something we could accomplish without trashing my dining room and without the kids losing interest.

The kids actually did really good painting. They covered almost all the pumpkin without help and only got paint on a chair, but it wiped up really good.

Such deep concentration for such a little man:) Isabel was walking around, making sure everyone was getting theirs painted to her standards, I guess that is the oldest child syndrome:)

I thought they turned out pretty darn cute. I will definitely do these again. Wish they would last, but I don't want to store these and have them rot in my garage!

While we were painting, we needed an activity for Hunter, so I busted out a piece of elk jerky for him to gnaw on.

He was totally diggin it and having the time of his life sucking on it and chewing it.

Yeah, he was really gettin after it here. He couldn't chew any pieces off, but loved it nonetheless. Maybe I am onto something: new baby teething toy??

Muzzleloader Elk Hunt

2011-11-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

Isabel had to miss a few days of preschool so we could go down to Ephraim for David's elk hunt. He has been putting in for this tag for around 14 years or so, so he was pretty excited to finally draw out.

David and his dad were planning to backpack into an area to hunt, so Grandpa wanted to test out the capacity for his pack. Looks like it holds quite a bit!

He was excited to go, but pretty sad he wasn't part of the hunting part. All in due time little man, your time will come!

They had great weather for the hunt, and I am so happy he made it out alive:) They had so much fun! They hunted up there for a few days, and then came back down the mountain to get more food/water/shower/wash clothes, and then headed back up to another part of the mountain with his brother and brother-in-law to do some more hunting.

There are lots of other pictures of them actually hunting, but they are on Jack's camera, and I haven't gotten them yet. I can't do the story justice, but David shot a really nice 5x5 bull elk. It was a really fun hunt and his brother Sam was able to get lots of it on video which was really nice! When we heard he got the bull, all the girls and the kids loaded up in the RAZR's and Jezebel and headed up the mountain to meet them. We had a little picnic while we waited for them to pack the elk out. He shot it in the bottom of a pretty steep range, so they had quite the adventure getting it out. Word is that Randon had the heaviest pack and still made it out first, dropped that meat, then went back for more to take some weight off of the other guys's packs. All that with his bad knees, I would wager to say that Randon rocked it!!!

Grandma is always great to have lots of yummy snacks for the kids, and they had lots of fun exploring in the beautiful Fall weather

Here are David's parents with the rack on top of the RAZR. They got good pictures before David had to skin and quarter it, but I don't have those yet either.

Here is my great hunter! I am so glad he had so much fun. I was lucky enough to have Camille help me can a bunch of pears while he was hunting. I love Fall time for all the fun things we get to do!

Good thing he doesn't know how to start this thing, or he would be miles away by now, he loves riding them so much!

Hunter had a little cold and wasn't feeling too hot, but Uncle Randon was able to get lots of giggles out of this dude.

Isabel, Brigham and their cousin buddies were exploring all over the place and took turns "rescuing" each other. It is so cute to see them play together and its even better when they get to play without killing each other, because that is something that happens rather regularly:)

The next day, we went back up the mountain to listen to General Conference at their base camp. The kids had fun dancing to music in between sessions and we got a good laugh out of people trying to catch Aspen leaves as they were falling out of the trees.

David is pretty content up in the mountains and the kids wear themselves out from playing so hard.

Still finding a way to roughhouse in the outdoors;)

It was a super fun week and a reminder to me of how lucky we are to be able to have such a beautiful mountain to play on. Thanks for the fun memories G & G Bailey!

Enjoying the last days of Summer

2011-11-01T17:37:00.001-05:00

David was down in Ephraim before his elk hunt, so the kids and I headed to Sugarhouse park to feed the ducks and geese, and barely got out of there alive. They were not afraid of people and we had to get after them a bit to keep them from attacking the kids:)

The kids had so much fun throwing bread to them and kept calling all of them ducks. The weather was so perfect, and it was a wonderful day to let the kids burn off some serious energy.

When we would start throwing bread, birds from all over the water would swarm us, I got a little claustrophobic (just a little!)

Hunter enjoyed the scenes from his little stroller. I am sure he wanted to be out of there and on the grass, but there was so much, err, bird "waste", that he had to stay securely in there.

Many popsicles were consumed by these rascals this summer. It has been so fun to live by family, I know we will be a little lost when we move next summer. These cousins (and their cute friend that lives by us) have had a ball playing around outside, I am getting a little bit of cabin fever just thinking about winter time indoors!

Maybe I should post this picture on my fridge to give me hope during those cold winter days when we are stuck inside.

Here is Hunters first love/hate experience with popsicles. Enjoy!

First Day of Preschool - September 9th

2011-11-01T17:25:00.000-05:00

I know I posted pictures of Isabel's first day of dance, but I wanted to get her preschool ones on here. She was so excited for preschool to start, I don't think she ever thought the summer would come to an end. She has done great and is still enjoying it. Her class size is pretty small, and I am kinda glad for that so she can get a little bit more one on one attention.

She wishes she could bring home the treat bucket and sharing bag everyday and has had fun getting to know the other girls in her class.

Keep learning little one! Never give up and keep your desire to do your best and you will go far!

24th of July camping trip

2011-11-01T17:14:00.000-05:00

Man, am I really this far behind in my blog posts??? I am still waiting to have a moment to breath with 3 kids and finding that it may never happen:) So I will post what I can from the past few months and hope to show you that we are in fact, alive and well!

David's family has a tradition to go camping up Ephraim canyon every summer during the 24th of July and it is soooo much fun!

We do lots of fishing, 4-wheeling and exploring. We get covered in dirt, and are reminded how everything tastes better when you are on the mountain. I didn't get any pictures of it, but Brigham fell headfirst into the lake when we went on a 4-wheeler trip down to the Beaver Dams. He spent much of the time there in a diaper while his clothes and shoes sat out to dry in the sun:)

The kids absolutely love being up there, camping. They love wandering around and exploring. They would live on the 4-wheelers if they could.

Brigham hamming it up for the camera!

Yep. They are mine. Aren't you jealous?

Yep. He's mine too. Super jealous now, huh? Something about this picture sends me into uncontrollable laughter. Such a funny little kid!

It is so beautiful up there, we enjoy being up there as much as we can.

Pure joy!

Yes, her bangs drive me crazy too! I have been trying to grow them out for months, and I swear, they have stopped growing and will forever be in her face!

As you can tell, we are in safe hands with our driver up there!

There was still so many snow banks all over the place. This doesn't look so big, but each chunk was as big as a moving truck. There were slides like this in several places. The snow was so pretty, it almost looked blue.
We love this place so much and can't wait to go camping again soon!

Fishing in Midway - July 2011

2011-11-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

We love Midway! My parents came down to Utah for a week, and we were able to go up and spend a few days in their timeshare with them, and it was so great to just relax and hang out and not really have anything to do. Having 3 kids doesn't leave any free hands to take pictures, so once again, I just have a few pics.
We walked around the Zermatt and had fun looking at the baby goats, coi fish and the carousel. They have the most amazing gelato that we tried, soooo yummy! One thing we always love to do is go fishing up there. There is a cute little lake that David likes. Our kids LOOOVE to fish with their daddy, and it is so wonderful to watch all of them in action.

David is so patient to keep them excited, keep bait on their line, and teach them about fishing. I love that my kids are growing up to love the outdoors and enjoy doing things with their daddy. They get so excited when they hook a fish, Isabel concentrates so hard, and Brigham starts laughing and causing an uproar, it is so funny!

Here is the next fisher (yes, and Hunter) of the family. We relaxed on the grass behind them and helped David keep the kids from falling in the lake or losing a pole

Love this pic, it makes my heart smile!

They really were so excited and giggling, Brigham gets crazy hyper and Isabel has a quiet excitement about her sometimes that is so fun to watch. David is so great to show them how much fun it can be. I am not a very patient person, so it is hard for me to fish when I don't catch anything very often, so I am glad he can teach them what it is all about. I am happy to enjoy their company and take lots of pics so we can all remember the fun we have together.

7.7.11 Hunter's 1st Haircut

2011-09-09T16:35:00.000-05:00

This haircut was LOOOONG overdue, but I was so scared to cut his hair and lose his cute baby looks. Since he was born with such dark hair, when it started growing in lighter, it made his hair always look greasy on the ends.

He didn't really know what was coming in a few seconds, but what an adorable face!

I was sad to see all these cute curlies go, but it was a small price to pay to have him lookin' better

"Seriously Mom, GQ is gonna be calling me soon. Now how am I gonna get any rest?"

I cut off a little over an inch, and it looked wayyy better. I wish I would have done it sooner, but I don't want the babe to grow up too fast!

Giving us "forelorn". He looked a lot more like Brigham after the haircut. About 5 weeks later, he was getting scraggly hair again, so we gave him another haircut, and this time, I took off about 2 1/2 or 3 inches, and look how much he was still left with.....

Sweet little Hunter, how you have softened my heart all over again!
He is 7 1/2 months old and such a sweetheart. He is starting to become very attached to me and whiny if someone else is holding him, but whatayagonnado? He is not crawling yet, but is starting to rock on all fours. Not such a great desire to crawl when he has 2 older siblings to bring him anything he wants. He is finally sleeping until 4am or so, and I couldn't be happier. He loves baby food and has learned to say mamamama when he wants me. We are so happy to have him in our family and grateful for the reminder that children grow too fast, so we need to take more time to enjoy them. Thank you for choosing us Hunter!

6-toothed Monster!

2011-09-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

Our Tiny Dancer!!!

2011-09-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

Sweet little Isabel has started dance, and the world better watch out:)! She was so excited and dancing all over the house in her ballet slippers all morning before her class. It is so fun to see her growing up and learning new things. She brings us so much joy! I can't wait to see how much she learns and develops this year. We love you little sweetpea!

From the mouth of my babe!

2011-07-22T12:26:00.000-05:00

So my kids are always saying such funny things, and then I forget them because I didn't write them down. Here's hoping that I can change that!

-Last Saturday, we were cleaning the house as a family (actually the kids were running around making more messes as David and I tried to clean any part of the house:)
I was in the kids' bathroom and had just started mopping the floor to finish up that room, and Isabel walks up to the doorway, stops and says "oh, it smells Beee-autiful in here Mom!" "Thanks for cleaning my bathroom".
You are welcome Little Dove! Glad to know the smell of cleaning chemicals brings a smile to your face, cause it certainly does to mine:)

-A few days, we were all at the table (I think we were eating dinner, see I can't even remember all the details from such a short time ago!). We started quizzing the kids about silly things. What sound does a cow make, what does a monkey say, what color is grass??? I think we asked them what sound a baby makes, and Brigham lets out the funniest baby cry, we just busted up laughing. David asked Isabel, "Where do babies come from?" I was totally expecting her to say "from Mommy" or something like that. Hoping for an innocent answer and no more inquiries requiring further details to a 4 year old. But instead, she smiles and get kinds of quiet, and slowly says (like we are silly for asking cause everybody knows the answer), "From Heavenly Father". You are so right sweetheart! What a blessing and reminder that they are so innocent and perfect!

On another note, Hunter just turned 6 months old on Tuesday and he has had his 2 bottom teeth for 3 weeks! Yikes, and they are sharp:) I think his upper teeth are starting to work their way down because he spends much of the day spitting (tongue between his teeth and blowing HARD!) I think it provides some relief to him, plus the other kids laugh at it, so he enjoys providing entertainment to them. Talk about killing 2 birds with 1 stone! He is starting to laugh a lot more and he is enjoying his first tastes of fruits and veggies. He has never turned away from any food I have given him, when my other two took some time to learn to like certain foods. I love to hear him go, "mmmmm" as I give him spoonfuls of food. Still waking a few times at night, but I am working on that. This summer has been crazy with us gone almost every other weekend, so we need to be home for a while so I can help him learn to sleep through the night.

Brigham is turning into such a boy! He has quite the imagination and it is so fun to eavesdrop on him when he is playing by himself and listen to where his imagination takes him. He is talking very well and he catches me off guard a lot with some of the things that come out of his mouth!

We are very busy in the initial stages of David pediatric dental clinic. We will be opening next July and this next year will be super busy and stressful with that, but we are sooooo excited to start the next chapter of our life and make our home in Sheridan, Wyoming!!!

Silly Faces

2011-05-17T23:16:00.001-05:00

These kids crack me up:) Whenever the camera comes out, they want to see the pictures of themselves I take. We had fun making silly faces and then laughing at them. The funny thing is that many of these pictures are out of the order they were taken. They had many of the same faces, but taken at different times for each kid. We had a good laugh and hope you do too! Enjoy!

Our sweet 4 year old and Mardi Gras

2011-03-17T17:08:00.000-05:00

I can't believe she is 4!!! Her birthday was the day after the wedding, so we were able to have a little party with all the Bailey cousins. She has been asking for a my little pony ever since Brigham's "CARS" cake in December. I had high hopes to make her a cute fondant cake with a rainbow and all, but as the craziness of the wedding approached, I knew I would not be able to make it happen:( But I think she was still very excited for her cake and the ponies on top of it. Even more so, I think she enjoyed her princess cupcakes and had about 4 over the weekend:) She is just such a sweet little girl and I am so glad she is ours!

We also had a Mardi Gras party for all the little kids. Camille's best friend came all the way from Louisiana for Rachel's wedding, and she brought Gumbo and etouffee for us to all enjoy, and man was it good! She had all the kids do a Mardi Gras parade for us and they had a blast!!!

No, Hunter did not have to flash anyone for his beads, he got them just for being so darn cute!!!

Rachel and Brett's Wedding

2011-03-17T16:23:00.000-05:00

Rachel and Brett got married on March 4th and it was such a perfect day! I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of just the two of them. I think it was cause I knew any that I got would not be nearly as wonderful as the professional photographer was getting, so I left it up to him:)

These all pretty much speak for themselves, so I hope you enjoyed! Heading off to Grand Junction for the weekend, so I will update with journaling later:)

2011-02-21T23:04:00.000-06:00

Little Hunter has such a strong neck, he is really good at holding himself up!

The kids had been sick all week, and we were getting cabin fever, so David took us all to the park on Sunday afternoon. The kids had so much fun running around and loved being outdoors again. Brigham wowed us all with his arm strength and held on for over 5 seconds before David went back and got him down. What a stud!

It is so fun to see him get more alert everyday and grow.

This is the cake I made for David's birthday. It was 3 layers and had the cream and strawberries in between each layer. It was really yummy and turned out better than I had expected. David doesn't usually want a birthday cake, but I think this one convinced him it was a good idea. We enjoyed a great tenderloin dinner with Sam and Nicole after our kids went to bed. It was fun to have a great meal, uninterrupted:)

Here is Brigham playing airhockey with his cousin. They played so cute together!

And here they are trying their hand at "Just Dance"

3 weeks!

2011-02-11T09:03:00.000-06:00

It has been 3 weeks since Hunter joined our family and we have been so happy. I have lots of pics to post, but they are not handy right now, and I have sick kids, so that is taking my time right now. The kids had a cold the week we brought Hunter home and decided to give him that. Then Wednesday, they got really nasty coughs and decided it would be nice if Hunter got that too! So I am going a little stir crazy and getting so anxious for Spring time! I sure hope old Puxatawny Phil was right and it is coming early! Hunter is growing like a weed and is my biggest baby so far! We took him in for his 2 week appointment and these were his stats:
9 lbs 2 oz
21 inches

I don't know what percentile those are right off the top of my head, but he has put on 1 pound 10 ounces since we left the hospital! He didn't even flinch when they poked his heel for the PKU tests. He did the same thing in the hospital and David has already nicknamed him "Tough". He is such a sweet little baby and loves to snuggle, and I am trying to take advantage of it as I am realizing how quickly they grow:(

I was actually sleeping better the first week he was home than I have the last few. I have what I call the "One Hour Curse". Most nights I never get more than one consecutive hour of sleep at a time. Between all the kids and David, I am up every hour or so, tending to one of them. David has been a HUGE help with Brigham and Isabel and takes care of them in the middle of the night, but they still manage to sneak in and wake me up for any number of reasons. Naps are harder to come by as well as Hunter has started being awake right when it is the kids' nap time:) I swear kids have a 6th sense and know when Mommy wants to relax and then they decide they need something right then. I guess I will get sleep someday, and am still trying to enjoy all of them!

Pics to come soon, when I have enough sleep to remember to upload them!

Visit from the stork!

2011-01-21T01:13:00.000-06:00

Well, the day has finally come and we are so blessed to welcome a little miracle into our family! Little Hunter Jack Bailey came into the world on January 19th, weighing in at 8 pounds 2 ounces. He has a beautiful head of dark hair and is just so perfect!!!
Labor was quite the event. I was due on the 15th, and each day that passed in the last 2 weeks have not been the funnest. I was so desperate to have this little baby and hold him in my arms. We also did not know the gender, so that was driving me crazy, wanting to know what we were having. I was pretty convinced that we were having a girl, so to find out it was a boy was so exciting. I was settling into the fact that I was going to be pregnant forever:) when I woke up yesterday morning and noticed some random contractions that were a bit stronger than my braxton hicks I had been having for months. I ignored them for a bit, then decided to time them just for the heck of it, and to torture myself cause I knew it would turn out to be nothing. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them. By lunch time, I was just waiting for them to stop, because they were not consistent at all, and I had once again lost hope! David came home early from work, and helped me feed the kids lunch and get them down for a nap. I decided to lay down and get some rest, and that's when they started coming, the real thing! I started having them every 4 minutes, and they were stronger. After 5 or 6 contractions, I felt a big kick and a pop and knew my water had broken, almost exactly the way it happened with Brigham. Right away, the contractions were coming really strong, every 3-4 minutes as we scrambled to get things in the car and call Nicole to have her watch the kids. We got to the hospital 20 minutes after my water broke, and I knew this baby was coming fast! At the hospital, I went from a 5 to fully dilated in 45 minutes. 1 contraction and 3 pushes later, our little Hunter made his grand appearance and it was quite grand:) I am still amazed that this sweet little spirit, who I was waiting so impatiently to come, decided to make things exciting, and only give us 2 1/2 hours from the time my water broke until he arrived. I guess he taught me a lesson in patience:)
We are recovering well and excited to go home in the morning for some much needed rest without all the nurses coming in:) David's residency program has been so wonderful and understanding and I am so grateful he has been able to be with me so much more than I expected.
The kids are so excited he is here. When they came to the hospital, Brigham just kept saying, "dats my baby brudder." And Isabel had so much concern that he didn't have a toy and insisted we get him one ASAP. I am confident they will show him lots of "love" and will be sure to keep an eye on them that they don't go overboard!
I am still just completely amazed at my sweet little family and how perfect they all are. I love my children so much and love this new bundle and the wonderful reminder he is of how I need to cherish my time with my children so much more. I am realizing with each child how quickly time does fly and I definitely do not want it to pass me by with regrets.

Because David works for IHC, we were able to get these pics for free! Enjoy!

Our Winter so far...

2011-01-15T19:44:00.000-06:00

As I was looking through my camera for pictures to post, I realized how horrible I have been at taking pictures these last few months. I feel like a pretty horrible mom for not documenting things better. Anywhos, we got our first nice snow storm after Thanksgiving, and David was a fun daddy and took them outside and built them a snow slide. They had so much sliding down on a plastic sack and tripping all over in the snow. Brigham kept falling face down and couldn't move without help, it was sooo funny!

Yes, those are Isabel's old princess boots that Brigham is wearing. Luckily, he got some new boots for Christmas. It was pretty sad that he was calling these boots "my boots" and got so excited to put them on. Poor 2nd child syndrome:)

Brigham turned the big 2 on December 14th. I can't believe how fast he is growing up! He was up before the crack of dawn, as usual. And we decided to open presents before David left for work at 6:30am so he could play with them.

Oh I love this kid! He has grown up so much in the past few months. He is talking like crazy, as well as doing his fair share of sassing those he loves! He just melts my heart, just like Isabel. How are we so lucky to have such amazing kids???
After we played with his toys, we got ready for the day, and headed to the mall play place to let him run around and get some energy out since we haven't done much playing outside in the cold. Then it was off to Chick Fil-a for a fun lunch and some more playing.
I got a little ambitious and wanted to try and make him a cake after reading some amazing tutorials on a blog (http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2008/11/make-cake-series.html). It was far from perfect, but it was fun to do, and made Brigham happy, so...mission accomplished in my opinion!

The little man is quite full of hot air and blew the candles out with hardly any effort! I guess he is a chip off the 'ol block!
My sweet Brigham, I hope you always know how much we love you, you are such a special part of our family and such a wonderful little boy.

For Christmas, we went down to Ephraim to spend a few days with the Bailey's. It was lots of fun and great to get away for a couple days. Amazingly enough, Santa was able to find his way to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve to check on the kids. First, I have to say, that this year, my kids+Santa= unmeasurable FEAR! They love the idea of Santa, but definitely from afar! Each time they have had the chance to talk w/Santa, they go completely awall at the last second. And I mean, screaming and clawing to get away like you have never seen! I will try and post pics from our ward Christmas party for further proof. Well, back to Grandma's house. Here is a great example.

This is the reaction we got when we told her it was her turn to sit with Santa. Up to that point, she had been so excited and intrigued, but the tables turned when she found out she actually had to go up to him. We didn't torture her and make her sit on his lap, but she had to go up and get her present from him.

Through sobs, she told him Thank You and quickly retreated back to the couch. What was even funnier was how happy she was to open her present and see what he gave her....

Now, I am kicking myself for not getting Brigham's reaction documented. It was so priceless and probably could have won me money on AFV. He was equally excited at the thought of Santa, but when he walked in the front door and caught Brigham off guard, he went completely bazerk, and started screaming hysterically. We got him calmed down enough until we tried to get him on his lap, then it all started again. He did take his present from his hand and cried another "thank you". He loved his zhu zhu pet and kept saying thank you. But then, when the time came for Santa to leave, he walked past the couch right where Brigham was sitting, and Brigham didn't realize it until he looked up and Santa was RIGHT THERE, and he freaked out again, sinking back into the couch as far as he could go and screaming NOOOOO. Part of me felt so bad that he was so scared, but I just couldn't stop laughing. Just wish I would have gotten a picture of it:)

After Santa came, we played the Jingle Bells Game, which has become a tradition for the Baileys. You take a big sheet, and put lots of little bells in it and then you all gather round it and shake the sheet to make the bells bounce all over to "Jingle Bells" playing in the background. It has also become tradition for the older guys to bounce the sheet as hard as possible during the chorus and launch the bells ALL over the living room. We usually lose at least 4 or 5 bells that have launched into the tree, or under furniture. We usually get laughing so hard that tears are shed by many. Definitely a fun tradition!
Christmas morning, we had to compromise with the kids and wake up at 5:45am. But honestly, that is a normal time for our kids, so it wasn't too terrible. Christmas was so fun for me because both of my kids had an idea of what was going on and were so excited. Although, as we waited to go upstairs and see what Santa had left us, Brigham kept telling us, "Santa not upstairs, santa not here" He was so nervous about having to see Santa again and wanted to make sure he had brought the toys and left. So cute!
The kids (and adults) were all significantly spoiled with presents and we had so much fun watching the kids enjoy their toys. Brigham got a really cute train track set that was Cars themed (he is obsessed with that movie and Lightning McQueen). Isabel got lots of Littlest Pet Shop toys and houses. It was so funny to see them both go to their toys, see what they got, then Isabel sat down in front of the train and Brigham started playing with the pets. Hey, I guess they are easy to please:)
One of my very favorite websites is www.ana-white.com. She posts free furniture building plans, and when I saw this doll bed, I knew I had to make it for Isabel. A few days later, she posted plans for the really cute tool bench that is behind Brigham, and I got so excited to make some presents for my kids that would last long enough for their kids to play with them. Isabel was giddy when she saw the new bed for her new baby and has made sure she is tucked in each night before she goes to bed. Brigham has had fun pounding away on his bench with his new tools. I am so glad David helped me build these, and glad I got them done before my carpel tunnel got really bad.

Christmas was wonderful to experience through the eyes of two sweet toddlers. David spoiled me and got me a Bosch mixer. I am really excited to get good at making our own bread, as soon as I can find the right size of bread pans! Who knew it would be so hard to find some good ones???

We are anxiously awaiting baby #3. Today is my due date and I am so desperate to have this baby. We can't wait to find out what we are having and look forward to our family growing and just getting better. Wish us luck that we don't go insane learning to cope with 3 crazy kids under 4!!!

Hunting.....and the dreaded "belly shot"

2010-11-17T11:10:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, we went down to Ephraim for the deer hunt. Needless to say, David was super excited, since we have been away for the last 3 years, so he could hardly sleep. (no seriously, he was waking up at like 3:30am for a few days before the hunt....yah....great.....which means I was up around that time to since it is so hard to go back to sleep lately). Anywho, as you can see, he was successful in his hunt, and he had so much fun with his Dad and brothers and cousins. We were able to go over and have a nice lunch with all the hunters and get some fun pictures with all the grandkids.

For some unknown reason (yah right), David just LOVES this picture of Brigham. Something about a father and son and their love of hunting, he was just going on and on about how great this picture was. Yah, he sure looks cute, but it is hard to overlook the DEAD animal he is crawling on:) I have no doubt that David will be able to pass on his love of hunting to his children (I say children, because I know Isabel loves to be in the outdoors with her daddy already)

This is Brigham's cousin who is 2 months older than him. They were both very intrigued by the deer and had fun admiring his antlers.

Yes, that is Isabel's doll stroller. And yes, that is my almost 2 year old sitting in it! I can't believe it has lasted this long without breaking or tearing to shreds. When they are actually playing nice together, it is so cute to see them interact and enjoy each other, so I will sacrifice the life of the stroller to enjoy these moments.
Here is a pic from when Brigham was 3 months old, and Isabel started pushing him around in it. Feel free to let out an "oohhh", cause he was pretty darn adorable!

And finally.......the dreaded belly shot! I am now 31 weeks....and feeling it! I haven't taken a belly shot this pregnancy until now. I kept meaning too, and everytime I thought about it, I was either too tired or looked too terrible to bust out the camera. Not that this is much better, but hey, I am showered and not falling asleep after the kids are in bed, so I will take what I can get:)

A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty good, and I thought, "oh the 3rd trimester is gonna go so fast". Now I wonder how I am gonna make it to the end:) I won't bore you with all the complaints, because they really don't matter. What matters is that I feel so blessed to be able to have children, that I should have nothing to complain about. I am healthy (even though I don't feel like it) and I have such a wonderful family, that I can't wait to see how this little one will bless our lives even more! I am glad the holidays are coming up, because that is a great distraction and will help the time pass.
We are going to be home for Thanksgiving. David is on call that weekend, so we have to stay put. I talked David into letting me cook a small thanksgiving dinner for us here at our house. He didn't want to burden me with all the cooking and prep work, and wanted to just go out to eat. But then, I had visions of him getting called into the hospital just as we started eating, and didn't want to be left with 2 toddlers in a crowded restaurant full of hungry people. So I would rather be stuck at home alone with 2 toddlers, and my favorite sweet potatoes all to myself:)

"sharing" pretzels

2010-11-11T14:29:00.000-06:00

So when we were out taking pictures with Kyle and Lisa a few weeks ago, we stopped to have a snack and these little photos followed. Brigham was trying to take the bag of pretzels away from Isabel. Then we finally talked Brigham into sharing some with Isabel, and she took all the ones out of his hands he was sharing and he got all fired up again! I love all the facial expressions he is pulling and you can almost hear what he is screaming just by looking at the pics. Hope you enjoy the craziness that is our children!

I love this picture of Brigham and think it captures his innocent mischievousness so well:)

Here is my little helper! I can't believe how fast she is growing up and how quickly she is becoming her own person. I love to look at pictures of my kids because it is a great reminder of how innocent and sweet they are. I need to take a step back more often and realize that they do not do things just to aggravate me, as much as it feels that way sometimes:) Thanks again Lisa for such cute pictures!

Nesting??? ....What is "nesting"?

2010-11-03T22:57:00.000-05:00

So I am a little frustrated with myself that I can't kick myself into nesting mode. I have so many things I want to do before the baby gets here (organize the kids room to get another bed to squeeze in there, make a car seat blanket, make a car seat wrap, dig out baby clothes to wash them and organize them, clean out messy closets that have already been created after living here for less than 6 months, etc, etc.). But I just can't do it.

Maybe it is because there are two little maniacs running around my house, taking all my time and energy to feed them, clothe them, play with them, break up fights and....ah, finally...get them to sleep. I can't find any extra time or energy to get all the things done on my "want-to-do" list and I wonder how that will change and get even crazier with adding a 3rd one to the mix??? Life just seems to get more hectic, and I feel like I get further and further behind.

With a little over 10 weeks to go, I am hoping I can find someway to prepare for the arrival of this sweet little bundle (boy or girl??? can't wait to find out!!!). I remember that every spare thought went to thinking/dreaming/wondering about little Isabel when I was pregnant with her. Now, my spare thoughts are fewer and farther between and I am scared this little child will feel less loved because we won't take as many pictures, we don't sit on the couch every evening and wonder what each day of their future will be like we did with our first. I know that being a parent is a juggling act, but I totally SUCK at juggling, never could do it. I hope I can always give my kids the love and attention and care that they need and I pray that I can dig down deep and find a way to become better and fulfill my responsibilities as a mother to these sweet children.

Okay, now that that is off my chest, I am going to bed. Sleep is harder to come by these days with heartburn, hot flashes and a belly that feels like there is a jackhammer inside whenever I try and lay down:) I am so blessed to be able to experience all these things, and I know that all the hard things I go through, I would do again in a heartbeat just for that first moment they are placed in my arms and wrap their tiny hands around my finger. Oh, I am so grateful I have something so special to look forward to in the gray that is known as January!!!

One of these days, I will try and post a belly shot. Seems to always slip my mind on the days that I actually look halfway decent and don't have food or snot smeared all over my shirt:)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T19:55:00.000-05:00

We were able to go trick-or-treating last night with Sam and Nicole's family. It started raining in the afternoon, so we waited for it to clear a little bit and then bundled the kids up and headed out. We were really surprised to find out that there were a lot of people not at home in our townhouse complex and across the street in a condo complex. We had lots of fun and the kids enjoyed screaming "trick or treat" when someone would come to the door. Isabel really wanted to be snow white again this year, which we didn't mind at all! Brigham was able to borrow a costume from some friends of ours, so it worked out really great for us this year! We went to our ward trunk or treat on Thursday night and the kids had so much fun. David decorated the trunk up really fun and spooky. Of course, he had to bring his coyote pelt and scare people when they bent down to get candy from the bowl. He says he thinks he made a mom wet her pants!!! We were reminded of our fun times out in Omaha and all the friends we would scare:)

What a beautiful little Snow White! She had so much fun putting on make up and making her hair pretty!

It was hard to pin him down long enough for a picture, he was having so much fun running around and doing his dragon "roar"

As we were heading home, it really started to rain hard, so we made a run for it. Luckily, David had brought along our ginormous beach umbrella to keep us dry.

We had a fun weekend, and the kids are sufficiently hopped up on a sugar high right now! David had fun smoking some deer jerky and can't wait to do it again! We set it up in the garage cause it was raining, but man did it make the whole house smell like the smokey flavor!

Photoshop and some catching up!

2010-10-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

So I have been playing around with photoshop lately to see if I can do any good with it. This is a before and after of a photo that I did that I kinda like, what do you think? Too much???

This is one of the few pictures I have of the kids that they are both looking at the camera, don't have food all over their face, and look like their mother actually gets them ready in the morning:) Kyle and Lisa (my brother and his wife) came down from Rexburg to hang out with us last weekend, and we went to a beautiful park to take some pictures. She got some pretty cute pictures of the kids, but I will post those later.

These are just some random pictures from the last few months. I realized I haven't gotten the camera out as much as I should, and need to do a better job of documenting our lives. This was one day after church when Daddy's leg was a temporary jungle gym for the kids.

Sunday mornings are so crazy for us. We always seem to be rushing out the door and I can't ever get a picture of the kids in their cute church outfits. Brigham was taking a nap, and we had time to curl Isabel's hair, so we had to get some photos of this pretty girl. She loves to see pictures of herself, but it is hard to get her to sit still long enough to take said pictures!

I love these kiddos so much. As naughty as they can be (which isn't that bad, I need to keep things in perspective better), it all goes away with the little hug they will give me, or the times they tell me they love me out of the blue. I am always amazed and overwhelmed at the job I have at hand, and realize I come up short so much of the time. I am grateful to have children who forgive so easily and who love to be around their family (for the time being at least).

Brigham is hilarious to watch on this bike. His legs are not long enough to reach the peddles, so he does what we call "the fred flinstone". He gets his feet going a million miles an hour and can go pretty fast. I keep waiting for a big crash, but (knock on wood) he has done really well on it. He loves that he can do something the other kids do, and will chase Isabel around the sidewalk in front of our townhouse on their tricycles.

Dumb Blogger

2010-10-07T16:34:00.000-05:00

So I finally am getting around to want to post lots of random, overdue pics on here, but this dumb thing is taking too long to load up the photos. Grrr, who knows when I will get motivation again to try this. Wish Blogger would stop making it so difficult to show my peeps some pics of our family.
On a side note, I am now almost 26 weeks pregnant. I am feeling pretty good, but still get exhausted by the end of the day. Isabel is so excited to have a new baby (hope she is still excited once we bring the kid home and she sees what its all about). She refuses to believe it is anything other than a girl and gets so frustrated when you try and talk to her about the chances of it being a boy:)

The residency is keeping David pretty busy, but he is learning so much. We hope to make a few trips this fall to possible locations we would like to settle and see what options we have there. I am staying busy with my new calling and am having fun trying to put together a little craft night for our Relief Society. I will post pics of the craft we are doing when I get the examples all finished. I will say it involves wood, mod podge and scrapbook paper, so its gotta be something cute, right?

7 years...keeps getting better!

2010-08-20T18:42:00.001-05:00

Monday, August 16th was our 7 year anniversary and we had a great time. David had to work a long day as usual, but we were still able to go out to dinner.

I am so lucky to be married to this man, he is my best friend and I love him more than I thought was possible. He is an amazing father, husband, and works so hard for our family.

Sam and Nicole offered to watch the kids for us so we could go out to eat, it was wonderful to have a meal that was uniterrupted:) After dinner, David wanted to know if I wanted to go walk around Temple Square since we were so close to Downtown. It was such a pretty night, that I was game! We started talking about the Anniversary Inn and how we couldn't wait to go back. We had never seen the one on South Temple, and we drove by it and David asked if I wanted to go tour the rooms. That sounded really fun, so we swung into the parking lot and went to go see if we could take any tours. We walk up to the front desk and the lady asked us what the last name was on the reservation. David said "Bailey" and I thought he was just teasing the lady and scolded him for tricking her. The lady just giggled and then asked for a credit card to put the room taxes on and David hands it over to her!!! I was totally caught off guard, he had arranged a room for us! I was so overwhelmed and surprised that I started crying (hey, give me a break, I am pregnant!). Sam and Nicole gave him a gift certificate for it that they got from the Easter Bunny (we were gonna get one this next year, so David said he would give them ours next year, so they did a little switcheroo). They offered to watch our kids overnight and he took care of all the details. He even packed an overnight bag for me and remembered things like makeup and facewash (what a guy, huh?)!!!
We stayed in the Mysteries of Egypt room and it was incredible!!! I didn't have my camera cause I thought we were just going out for dinner, so I didn't get any pictures of the room. But holy cow, that was a freakin awesome room! You felt like you were inside of a pyramid and it had all sorts of cool statues and carvings all over.
It was so sweet of him to work that all out. He had to work the next morning, so Sam brought the kids over to the room in the morning and they watched a movie with me while Sam and David headed up to Primary Children's.
I feel so blessed, I am so grateful to have the life and family that I do. No matter what our circumstances our, we find a way to enjoy life and each other and I am so happy I get to spend eternity with my family!!!

I love you David!

Trip to Ephraim

2010-08-20T16:26:00.000-05:00

David's sister who lives in Idaho was spending a week at Grandma Bailey's house with her kids and since David was so swamped with work, we decided to go down for a few days and play with the cousins. We live next door to David's brother and his wife, Nicole. So Nicole and I packed up our kids and made the trek down to Ephraim to play for a short weekend. It was so much fun and great to see everyone!
It rained right after we got there, and the kids had lots of fun playing in the puddles on the porch. Brigham was getting some pretty good air before he slipped and fell. Poor little guy!

One of Isabel's cousins who is a few years older than her was so cute with all the girls. They would have "girl parties" and go in the bathroom and put on the play makeup. They were so adorable and the girls were all so excited to be wearing makeup. It was hilarious, because they would come out of the bathroom looking VERY done up and they thought they were princesses. I am glad I don't have to worry about her wearing makeup full time for quite a few years, we have lots to learn about the "less is more" rule of thumb with makeup:)

We took a picnic to Palisades and went swimming for a few hours. It was so nice because it was so hot that the water felt nice. The kids could have stayed all day long they were having so much fun.

Brigham spent the whole time just playing in the sand. He would wade into the water up to his bum and throw sand and then come back out. He did try to walk out to Aunt Rachel who was a ways out and we barely got to him before he went under. It is scary how fast those kids can get away from you!

The kids had popsicles out in Grandma's back yard and they were loving life. We always sleep good at Grandmas cause we get so tuckered out. We went out for pizza one night and my little brother who just moved to Ephraim for Snow College came and met us. It was hilarious because David's mom and sister met him and then immediately started brainstorming of who of Rachel's friends they could set him up with. They called a friend right up and asked her to come down and introduced the two to each other, it was great!!! Caleb was a good sport about it and has actually become friends with the girl, so that is nice, huh?

The halo hides the horns!

2010-07-28T21:50:00.000-05:00

Oh, I just love this little man! He is so sweet, but so mischievous sometimes, but I can't get enough of his snuggles. These little kids just melt my heart!

Dental School Graduation - May 15th

2010-07-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

Well, better late then never, but I wanted to get these up here for journaling purposes. I cannot believe that our journey that is dental school has come to an end. There are so many emotions that I went through that day, it was wonderful! These last four years have been such a whirlwind, but we have grown and learned (and aged) so much with this journey. We had both of our children while David was in dental school, moved halfway across the country and made some wonderful friends and memories through it all. I am so grateful for my husband and all he sacrifices for our family, we are so lucky he is in our lives. So, I am trying to figure out this new format with blogger and can't write underneath each photo, so just enjoy the photos and make up your own captions:)

We are so proud of you David and know that you gave your heart and soul to your dental education. Now he is in a 2 year pediatric dental residency program here in Salt Lake. We are grateful to be closer to family and look forward to more fun these next two years. He is lucky enough to be in the same program with his brother Sam, so we have fabulous neighbors right now:) (literally, we live next door to each other which is so awesome!)

Maui in June = Paradise!!

2010-07-23T17:21:00.000-05:00

Since I am LOOOONNNG overdue for some new posts, I thought I would start with our trip to Maui last month. We went with David's parents, his brother and his wife, and David's little sister and her friend. It was amazing and you can see from the pics!!! We left the kids with David's sister, Liz, and they had the best time up there and we are forever grateful to her and her family!!!

Beautiful ocean front condo!

We hiked to a blowhole and this was some of the views, incredible huh? The pictures just don't do it justice.

Our room with a fabulous jacuzzi tub and gorgeous views

I want one of these showers someday:)

The wind was crazy up by the blowhole, but so much fun

Our own private lanai, I am in love with this place!

Our boys risked their lives to pick these flowers and make us leis for the luau, plumerias smell incredible!!!

The luau was so much fun and it was right on the ocean which just added to the atmosphere. We made ourselves sick on virgin pina coladas and lava flows!

Sam and Nicole looking pretty smooth at the luau

David was so deep in thought watching some of the dancing, I just love this pic. Love my man!

It is hard to see, but there are lots of people snorkeling, as well as tons of sea turtles, this is one of our favorite places to snorkel.

This is David, trying to get out of the water on the lava rocks. He would not go in the water without his shirt on because he was afraid of getting burnt:)

And again, here he is wrapped in a towel because he was so afraid of the sun! I can't blame him though, he got fried when we went a few years ago and was miserable the rest of the trip, and he got a little burned the first day on this trip, so he was through with taking any chances:) Poor little lobster.

We all took a turn cooking a dinner for everyone. David made a fabulous shrimp boil and I think we were all in heaven that night:)

This was along the beach path on ka'anapali beach. It is so beautiful, you can't even believe it! We had fun walking down to whaler's village and getting yummy samples of frozen yogurt (we probably had a few too many samples, but it was sooo good. Toasted coconut and root beer float were my favorit fro-yo flavors:)

Oh man! I am dying just thinking about this place it is so dang delicious!!! It is called the Gazebo and they make THE best food! We went there twice for breakfast cause we couldn't get enough. We had macadamia nut banana pancakes with white chocolate chips and coconut syrup, oohhhhweeee it is good! They also make this fried rice that is incredible. I know, fried rice for breakfast??? Trust me, you will be in heaven (quite literally because you may eat so much you pop!) We would come eat breakfast and then go snorkel with the turtles, what a way to spend in paradise!

This is the condo we stayed in, we had rooms on the 6th and 9th floors, and it was heaven. They have the funnest pools, you could spend your whole trip there. We liked to play bocche ball on the lawns and lay under the palm trees.

We love Bubba Gumps!

Bucket o' Boat Trash is one of our favorite things here.

We had to get our shop on in Lahaina and we had lots of fun bartering for jewelry and souvenirs

We went hiking through a bamboo forest and had to scale this scary ladder, then hike along a creek, jump in a waterfall pool and then swim 100 feet to a waterfall and climb it. Sounds crazy, but it was one of the highlights of our vacation.

We went to Warren & Annabelle's and were selected to sit up by the table where Warren did his magic. David got picked on by Warren, we got free pina coladas and we saw some amazing tricks! Just ask us and we can tell you about the $100 bill I held in my hand while it burned, then appeared later in a lemon!!!


Some of us (not me) decided to bike down the backside of the volcano. I didn't want to do it because I was 8 weeks pregnant, but David went and they had a good time. Don't worry, I went and shopped instead:)

We had so much fun in Maui and can't wait to go back with the kids. We are so grateful to David's parents for letting us come along and showing us such a great time.

Hopefully, I can get back into blogging regularly. Lots of pics to post and stories to tell, so keep your fingers crossed I can get motivated:) I am starting to feel better, so I have more energy to do things and wrangle the kids in.

Spring Break...and some birthdays!

2010-03-04T23:48:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, David's mom came out to visit us for a few days and to see him get inducted into an Honor Society at Creighton. It is a Jesuit Honor Society, and since he is going to a Jesuit University, there is the connection! We are so proud of him and all the hard work he does for our family. Love you Babe!So it has been a really rough winter, to say the least. With horribly cold temperatures, blowing wind that makes you want to cry, and so much snow, you can't even see out your front window, we are all dying for Spring to come! So, this week is David's springbreak, and we got a taste of what it feels like to be above freezing. The kids were so happy to be outside, and had fun getting in the mud and kicking ice balls around with Daddy. They got filthy, but I didn't care because I was so happy to enjoy sunshine and fresh air. We have been able to play outside every day this week, which is so amazing and I feel that I may actually survive until spring arrives:)

So, since it is David's spring break, we have been playing all week. We really wanted to go to Utah to look for a place to live and go to my little brother, Kyle's wedding. But since, funds are tight, and there are no rentals to look at that will be available in May, we had to stay home. Now don't get me wrong, we are excited to spend our last spring break in Omaha, but I was bummed we couldn't go to my brother's wedding, and couldn't find a place to live. But we are making the most of it!

Monday was my birthday. David is such a sweetheart. He woke up, cooked me breakfast, took me to try and find a swimsuit for our trip to Maui (yeah, we won't talk about swimsuit shopping, talk about depressing!), and took me to lunch at our favorite restaurant here. Then, we got our neighbors to monitor sit our kiddos and he took me to the IMAX to see Avatar. Wow, that movie was incredible. I was so pleasantly surprised, because I really wasn't that excited to be going to see it. I totally love it! I smile each time I think about watching it, and wish I could afford to go see it again. I had no interest to go see it, but thought I should see a movie David wanted to see if he was sweet enough to want to go out to a late movie with me. I am a believer now!

Tuesday we went to the Zoo, and everytime I go, I wonder why I don't go more often. We are so lucky to be so close to an amazing zoo, and I will really miss it when we move!

This was the first time we had been to the zoo since Brigham started walking, and he had a BLAST! He loved that he could go wherever he wanted to explore and he was jabbering the entire time, so funny!

We also went out to Quaker steak and Lube. It is a fun restaurant and David enjoyed his all you can eat wings! We took some friends out that David is using for one of his board patients and we had a great time with them! The kids enjoyed themselves and let us have a few conversations with adults while they played...yay!

Wednesday, I took David out to Cabelas to try and spend a giftcard he got for his birthday. Yah, it is really hard to get him to spend a giftcard. Let's just say, we are VERY different in that respect:)

He cooked me an amazing dinner of rack of lamb and asparagus. He cooks a mean rack! It was delish, but the kids didn't really know what to do, they weren't the biggest fans of the flavor, but I know it will grow on them:)

Today, Isabel went with David to the school to do some lab work while I went to the Dr. for my knee pain. Then we went to Bass Pro for David to try and find something for Another gift card there (yeah, no luck there either) What am I gonna do with this man?

David's mom helped buy Isabel a bike for her birthday (tomorrow), and I brought it upstairs to adjust the training wheels tonight. We were looking at it, and it had big problems with the gears. So back David went to the store at 10pm to exchange the bike. We just didn't want Isabel to be heartbroken when we had to take her present back to the store on her birthday. I always thought it was funny that people always seem to have problems with bikes/trikes at 11pm on Christmas eve....yah, I feel their pain now!

We are having a wonderful week and trying to enjoy every minute! Our time here is quickly coming to a close, and it is so bittersweet. So tomorrow it is the Children's Museum and the Amazing Pizza Machine for our little Isabel's birthday. Can she really be 3?!!! She is my partner in crime, by cuddle buddy, the kissing machine, one feisty mama, and my little miracle. We are so lucky she is in our family and hope she always knows what a special little sweetheart she is! Please don't grow up so fast...

Recommittment to Blogging

2010-02-22T12:43:00.000-06:00

Yes family, I am recommitting myself to this little family blog. I can come up with an array of excuses, but will just make it quick and say that I have been a lazy blogger lately. But we have been having fun and taking pictures, so I will try my best to get caught up and keep you all updated on our little family. Here is a quick rundown on life lately:

-David was gone for almost 3 weeks in October and November going to interviews for pedo residency. It was such a blessing to have interviews, but so hard for him to be gone so much. I think I "checked out" for a bit, but we are alive and well.
-spent christmas in Utah with the Baileys. We had fun scrapbooking, copying recipes, playing charades with the grandkids, eatting ourselves into comas, and enjoying our time together.
-Came back to Omaha where there was more snow than you could shake a stick at! We are still enduring the snow piles and freezing weather here. I long for the days I can go outside in a sweatshirt and let my kids run around on the grass. We have not seen any grass or been able to play in our front yard because there was a 10 foot pile of snow infront of our entire front yard. Not that is the biggest yard to begin with, but I would just love to see flat ground again:)
-In January, we found out David matched to a pediatric dental residency at PCMC in Salt Lake City!! Even better, is that his brother Sam, matched to the same program! Yay for fun neighbors:) So we will be packing up and heading there in May, right after graduation. Can't wait for that chapter to begin.
-My little brother Caleb is getting off his mission on Thursday. Unfortunately, I won't see him until May, and it has already been 3 years since I have seen him (wasn't able to come home for his farewell). It will be nice for our kids to get to know him.
-My other little brother, Kyle, is getting married in March to Lisa. Sad that can't make that either as David is in school and we can't afford the trip home:( Guess that is the price we pay for getting an education, but we hope to see them soon!
-David will be graduating soon and I couldn't be prouder. These four years have gone by so quickly but seemed to last an eternity at times. Life has changed so much, but ultimately for the better!
-The kids are growing and changing so fast! I am constantly amazed at how fast they are growing up. I need constant reminders to cherish every day and not get discouraged by the little things.
-Isabel has entered the "by mySELF!" stage, which is lovely:) she is forming adorable phrases and sentences and loves to copy what you are doing. She loves dress up, princesses, helping mommy, wrestling with Brigham and informing us that she is 2 years old and will be turning 4 really soon! Love that girl!
-Brigham is Mr. Destructo! I actually just took a book away that he managed to rip 3 pages in 1.8 seconds. He loves finding anything he can pull out of cupboards, pantries, off bookshelves and out of baskets. He is always on the go and loves to antagonize Isabel. He is learning new words and will attempt to say anything you ask him, even if it doesn't sound close to the real word. Some of his favorite words are (not saying you can understand them though), are mama, apple, more, up, get-out, NO, happy, ball, doggy, night-night and bath. He is such a sweetheart, but a spit-fire at the same time. I can get him to snuggle for about 10 seconds when I sing to him at bedtime, and then he wants to wiggle again. He loves to dance and can't help himself when he hears a tune (hmmm, sounds like another kiddo we have in the house).
I will post pics when I get a chance, I will get back on the wagon, I promise!

Happy Birthday Brigham!

2009-12-14T23:28:00.000-06:00

Has it really been a year already? Today little Brigham turned 1 and we celebrated this special little guy and all the happiness that he brings us. David is neck deep in finals and so we couldn't do much. We played with his toys today and built a fort for him to play around in. David got home in time to sing him happy birthday and watch him eat his cupcake. As I was finishing frosting some of the cupcakes, Brigham fell asleep in his high chair. Poor little guy must have been tuckered out.

As you can see, he wasn't too happy with his cupcake. He took a big handful of the frosting, and then got mad he couldn't get it off. The chocolate cupcake looks like a soul patch on his chin!

I want to remember how he is at this stage. Here are a few fun things about Brigham:

-He is walking great. It is so cute to hear those little feet pitter patter around the house. He is crawling up and down the stairs like a maniac and has free reign to destroy (er...play) with everything in the house.

-He is learning how to wave. Our home teacher was over last night, and Brigham gave him a big old wave and held his hand out to shake it.

-Brigham still loves music, just like Isabel. They hear a music beat, and they can't help themselves and start shaking their groove thing. When we turn the stereo on, he crawls over to it, and stands up and dances in front of it.

-He can say a few words: mama, dada, hi, no-no, night-night, uh-oh, and I think he tried to say ball the other day.

-He is so funny! He tries to mimick every sound he hears. From stuff Isabel says, to noises he hears around the house, or words we say, he will always give it a great effort.

-He likes the phone. Whenever I answer the phone, he starts following me around,saying "hi, hi, hi, hi". Anything that resembles a phone, he will hold up to his ear, what a character!

-Brother Brigham loves his baths! You ask him if he wants to take a bath, and he takes off up the stairs, and bolts into the bathroom and stands by the tub, trying to crawl in and drumming on it until you can get him in. He loves to splash and him and Isabel have some big giggle matches in there as the splash around.

-He is still very tender-hearted. If you chew him out, or tell him no and are too stern, he gets a big pouty lip, and he will look at you with these sad eyes. Then after about 5 seconds, he finally breaks out into a big wail and gets the saddest face. Can't stay mad at that kid for long!

-He loves to find a mess and knows how to make one. The toilet paper roll, folded laundry in basket, the movies under the tv cabinet, the shoe basket in the closet, the pantry. Anything he can get his hands on is fair game and he can make quick work of anything I just organized. You can't get mad at him because he is so proud of whatever he is doing and looks at you with these big, excited eyes and wants you to be happy like he is!

-We can't imagine how life would be without him. He is such a blessing and we look forward to watching him grow and learn. I see so much of David in him and that makes me all the happier. Brigham has the most amazing role model to look up to. Aren't families the best?

Here is the angel baby the day after we brought him home. He has always been so special and sweet. He is full of love and life.

Christmas is coming?!!

2009-12-04T11:50:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Our computer is giving us problems with the SDcard slot, so I can't get pictures easily. We haven't been up to much. David has been interviewing with Pedo programs this last month and we have been trying to stay sane with him gone. He has a few more interviews before Christmas. We are really excited and keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out. The results come out January 25, and then we will know where we will be for the next 2 years.

The kids are doing well. Isabel is finally out of the crib. She is doing well and likes her "big girl bed". She is starting to talk a lot more and says some really funny things.

Brigham is starting to walk. It is so fun to see him walk between furniture with a big grin on his face. He is still tearing everything apart and is starting to hold his own against Isabel. He jabbers like crazy and loves to talk on the phone. He found the tv remote the other day and held it up to his ear and started chattering away.

We have the Christmas tree up and are really excited for Christmas. Isabel is old enough to know what is going on and always asks for a baby doll for Christmas. Thank goodness for easy requests:) We will be in Utah for a few weeks over the break and are excited for the kids to get to play with some cousins.
I had really good intentions of doing a family photo card for christmas, but I got realistic and realized that would never happen. At least I had good intentions, right?

Carving Pumpkins with our "pumpkins"

2009-10-29T22:48:00.000-05:00

We carved our pumpkins tonight, since our ward trunk or treat is tomorrow night and we won't have time then. We had lots of fun with the kiddos tonight!

Eeewww! She was not a fan of the "guts"

Trying to get momma to do her job of cleaning it out:)

Brigham's newest teether was the lid of the pumpkin. He was getting some pieces of it and chewing them up...I guess whatever works for ya. At least it was keeping him happy!

I'm ready to clean a pumpkin!

Just a cute on of them together...not beating up on each other:)

Practicing her "spooky" laugh

Yes! Another piece of pumpkin to eat, thanks Mom!

I just love this pic because it shows all his teeth really well. What a character.

The final results.

We had the trick-or-treating at the dental school today. It is always fun to get all the kiddos together and hang out with our hubbys in their daily environment. David's sister Liz wanted to buy Isabel a costume. So we got her a Little Red Riding Hood costume weeks ago. She was always so excited about it and told everyone that came over what she was gonna be. Well today came and it was the first time we needed to put it on. She went NUTS. I have never seen her get that upset that fast over something. She was hysterical. We have lots of things this weekend that she can wear her costume to, so I had to think fast. So we ran back to the store and exchanged costumes and she picked Snow White out and then we ran to the school with minutes to spare! What drama. I did not want to give in, but I knew I did not want her freaking out in all these situations with crowds of people, so I buckled! Don't judge:)

Happy Halloween everyone, more pictures to follow this weekend. Be safe!

The sun is finally back out in Omaha

2009-10-19T20:42:00.000-05:00

After a few dreary weeks of clouds and cold, the sun has come out to give us one last blast of sunshine and warmth before it leaves us for 6 months! The kids are still getting over their sickness and took turns napping, so we couldn't be out too much, but we did go out for a nice walk after dinner. I have been having fun playing with my new camera and got some cute shots. Still so much to learn...

The leaves are already on the downhill end of the color changing. We love all the beautiful colors of Fall and have enjoyed living out here to see some good Falls

Giving sass to us! If you haven't passed out yet from this picture, than you are stronger than me! We cut his hair!!!!! David tricked me and told me the longest attachment for the hair clippers would only take off a bit of his hair, but it took off close to 3 inches of his beautiful, soft, blond luscious hair. I almost cried:( I know it will grow back, but it was so sad to see my little baby get a BOY haircut. Oh, if I could only turn back time...

Showing me the flower she picked. This girl is so sweet to always give me flowers. Now, whenever she sees a bouquet of roses at the store, she always says (while pointing) "ohhh, Mommy sooo happy!" She knows I love flowers and always wants to have me smell the ones she picks. Now I just need her to stop picking the flowers at the Botanical Gardens:)

Trying to get the camera.

Isabel saw Daddy cleaning out the flower garden on Saturday. So today after our walk, she went over to the shovel and drug it to the garden and proceeded to dig it all up. She is always so observant and has a memory like an elephant. She always wants to do what we do. Lately she won't leave the house unless she has a baby and a purse, just like mommy. She will go and bring food to Brigham when I am putting him in the highchair. I love how she watches us and still wants to be like us!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch in one word....AMAZING!!!

2009-10-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

We have lived out here in Omaha for almost 3 years and this was our first time at Vala's. We didn't think Isabel was old enough to enjoy it very much. Man we should have been coming every year, because we had as much fun, if not more than Isabel. This place is incredible! We were there for over 4 hours and we didn't even see half of it. I wish some of you could come out and visit us this month to go to Vala's, it is totally worth the trip out here:) Here are just a few pics of the fun stuff we did last night.

My two greatest blessings...

2009-10-05T09:08:00.005-05:00

We have been keeping busy, but not doing much at the same time. How does that seem to always happen?
I love my children! They are more wonderful than I could have ever hoped for. I have seen even more lately how lucky I am to be a mother and raise these sweet children. Here is some fun facts about each of them so I can remember how great life is right now!
ISABEL:
-She LOVES to help. She has always been such a wonderful help to us. She stayed after music time last week to help put the chairs away because she saw some girls stacking the chairs and she wanted to help. Isabel loves to help cook or prepare food and empty the dishwasher and wash the dishes.
-She is learning how to be soft with Brigham. Since he has started crawling, she has had her world turned upside down and is learning that it is not the end of the world if he comes over to play with some of her toys. Those sweet moments when they are sitting together and playing and giggling just melt my heart and make me forget the battles they have.
-She is talking a lot more. She has started to form small, broken sentences and it is hilarious to hear the things that come out of her mommy. I love to hear her say, "Ohh, so cute!" or "ooooh, thank you mommy." She really has pretty good manners and learns to say things even if we don't want her to (guess we better watch our words:)
-She finally loves nursery. She has always had pretty bad separation anxiety, but she is finally able to go in there and let me leave without tears. She is growing up and it is so bittersweet.
-She is still as petite as ever. I love having her little because I don't break my back picking her up.
-She is always reminding us to say our prayers before meals. She says her own prayer at night. We don't understand much of it, but starts out by thanking Heavenly Father for this day, she blesses the missionaries and brigham and daddy and mommy. She asks for help being nice and to sleep good. I love her example and the innocence that she has. Do they really have to grow up???
-She loves to snuggle. She will go grab a blanket and say "coldy mommy, coldy" and want me to wrap her up and cuddle. Oh she melts my heart!
I love Isabel so much. I have felt bad lately because I feel like I am getting after her all the time for beating up, pushing, kicking, smacking Brigham. She will always be my little princess and I get teary eyed just thinking about her sweet spirit and all the happiness that she brings into our family.

BRIGHAM:
-He is now 9 months old: 19 lbs 5oz
-Since he has been crawling he has thinned out a bit. He is up and down the stairs like crazy and starting to cruise all over the furniture.
-He loves music. Just like Isabel, they can't help themselves when they hear a beat. He headbangs, but it is back and forth like he is shaking his head. It is pretty funny to watch him.
-He is learning how to voice his feelings when Isabel takes something away from him. He has learned from her how to scream in outrage and flail limbs in panic. What a temper!
-He no longer likes baby food, he wants stuff with texture.
-He loves it when David comes home from school. He crawls towards him with the biggest grin on his face and opens his arms for David to pick him up. I always love when little kids start to recognize people.
-He gives the biggest smile when you go get him from his crib and starts jumping up and down. He is so affectionate and loves to give hugs. If he needs me and I am in the kitchen making dinner, he will crawl in and stand up underneath me and hold on to both legs. It is so cute but really hard to walk around the kitchen.
-He can say mama when he is fussy. He loves to babble and talk back to ya. Sometimes it even says like he is saying his name...too funny.
-He now has 4 teeth and is working on 2 more. He got his upper laterals before his centrals so he looks a bit like a baby vampire (ooh good halloween costume idea, too bad he already has his costume) -When I am feeding him, he closes his eyes and shakes his head when he is done, like he is trying to make the food go away. If I try and give him another bite, he just closes his eyes again and shakes his head. Kind of a mean trick, but it is good for a laugh.
-Brigham is my special little man. I didn't know I could love someone as much as Isabel, but it happened. I love those moments with the family when we are all just hanging out in the living room and we can sit and enjoy these kiddos. It really is amazing the way they make my heart so full.

Here comes trouble!!!

Better grab a chair and a snack for this one!

2009-09-20T20:12:00.001-05:00

This is gonna be long! I have been dreading this for a long time cause there are so many pictures and it takes so darn long to load them up (my camera is set up right now to take pictures as REALLY large files, and I can't figure out how to change it) Anyway, enjoy the pictures, we have been busy lately.

While David was in the Dominican Republic, we treated ourselves to homemade icecream cones. Can you tell she was loving it?

We finally decided to give Brigham a real haircut. He was 7 1/2 months and had quite the mop. I love his hair and didn't want to take much off.

Our little Kennickie! He was being so silly, wish I could dress him as Danny Zucko for Halloween, that is quite the hairdo!

After: What a cute little man, even with his crazy face he is pulling!

I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or too!

Sibling love. I love these moments when they are getting along, they are few and far between right now!

We went to Kansas City at the end of July for David to do an externship at their program there. We stayed in a nice hotel in downtown KC, and it was so fun! There was a rooftop pool that Isabel and I swam in, she was crazy, I couldn't take my eyes off her!

Isabel loved to play with the controls for the Sleep Number beds, it was like sleeping on a moving boat:)

One word: YUM! We went to this wonderful BBQ restaurant inside a gas station, it was the absolute best and it is world famous. We stood in line for 45 minutes and it was totally worth it. I could have eaten so much more of that great food. I hope we go back someday, whether for his residency, or just to get some more of those sandwiches.

Brigham started crawling right after we got back from KC. He is so crazy and it is hilarious to watch him wander around and find things to tear apart. He moves non-stop and keeps me on my toes.

We were so lucky to have David's parents and little sister, Rachel come and visit us in August. It was lots of fun and we did so much, here are some of the highlights.

Rachel babysat the kids so we could go do a temple session with his parents. Poor rachel, she is soooo wonderful, but our kids were kinda naughty for her, I don't think she will want to watch them again for a while:)

We made baby back ribs one night (okay actually two, but they were soo good) and we couldn't resist giving our little monkey some of the bones to chew on!

This little girl is starting to dress herself a lot and this is the hat she picked to wear out to dinner one night.

David's mom treated us to a girls night out while they were here and we went to the Taylor Swift concert. It was incredible!!! Thanks so much Camille. It was so fun to go out with the girls and know the kids were having fun a home! The concert was amazing and we had lots of fun singing our hearts out with her.

We took them to the Kanesville Tabernacle and Mormon Trail Center. Here is little miss sunshine playing with the wagon wheel. She sat there for like 15 minutes just spinning the thing.

can't go there without getting dressed up in pioneer clothing!

What cute little pioneer men! Brigham was having fun having all the attention. Isabel was having a blast getting dressed up and showing off to everyone.

We had so much fun with family in town. The girls got to do some shopping, the boys did some golfing, we ate like crazy and just had a good time doing nothing!

We went with a bunch of friends to this really cute spray ground. Isabel didn't know what to do at first, but then she warmed up and started running around and splashing in the water. She was really good and could run through the whole thing without ever getting wet. I put Brigham down for a second and he crawled over to one and put his face right over it when the spray went off. He was very surprised and got his breath taken away. Too funny, I wish I had a picture of his expression when that happened.

The Children's museum had a sesame street/elmo's world exhibit here for a bit. They had a chance for us to go and meet Elmo. I thought Isabel might be nervous (you know how some kids get when it is time to meet Santa), but she was so cute! She got excited when she saw him and walked up to him and gave him a hug. I asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap, and she backed up a little, but then cheesed it up for this photo. Oh, what would we do without Elmo in the world???

Brigham LOVES the dishwasher. If he crawls into the dining room and sees that it is open, he goes from 0-60 in 2 seconds flat. He is into everything, but he is so adorable about it, you can't get mad. He has learned how to stand at the toilet and spin the TP roll, he pulls all the books off the shelf, he likes to eat magazines, paper, and shoes, and he uses me like a rock climbing wall! We love our little Brig and enjoy watching him learn and grow.

I love this picture. Brigham had just woken up right before David had to go to school. He saw David, got a big grin on his face and reached out for his Daddy. I love how Brigham looks when he has just woken up, sooo adorable.

My younger brother, Kyle came through town on his way back from visiting his girlfriend's family. We took them out to Lake Manawa and had a dutch oven dinner. It was lots of fun with them and great to hang out for a bit with family.

My brother Kyle, his girlfriend Lisa and Isabel all enjoying a cookie. I told Isabel to show me what she was eating and this is what I got from her! We are working on manners:)

This is her pose she has been pulling lately when we bust the camera out. How can you not love this little lady???

We swapped nights babysitting with some friends, so we were finally able to go out on a date without the kids, I think it is the first time we have gone out to dinner alone since Brigham was born. It was very relaxing and it was nice to be able to hold hands and have an adult conversation. We went to this yummy restuarant in Old Market called M's Pub. They have really good food, but it is a little different. David decided to go with the beer brats and he said they were great.

I tried this dish called Lavosh and Iwas so pleasantly surprised with it and really enjoyed it. I have been craving it since I ate there last week. I will definitely eat that again!

One thing I love about Omaha is all the beautiful flowers and greenery that grows out here. One of my favorites are the hibiscus'. Everytime I see one, it reminds me of Hawaii, and brightens my day.

Here is David's prized turkey. He shot it last spring and decided to get it taxidermied. We just got it back from the taxidermist a few weeks ago. It is huge, and the only place it will fit is on our bedroom dresser, how lucky am I? So every night when I go to bed and each morning I wake up, I have this lovely thing staring at me:) I told him when we have a house it can't be in the front room and it can't be in our bedroom. But he is so happy with it, so I am happy for him.

Brigham bonked his head the other day and got a black eye. You can't see it very good, but it was instantly blue and looked like a blood blister, the next day it looked like he had eye shadow and now it is finally black. He is already been beat up so much more than Isabel, he is gonna get some big bruisers in his day.

Whew!! I knew I was dreading this for a reason. My hands have carpel tunnal from typing so much. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I promise to do a better job keeping the family updated on our happenings!

Vacation Part II...........Spokane!

2009-08-01T16:01:00.009-05:00

After Denver, David dropped the kids and me off at the denver airport, and we headed for Spokane, to spend the week with my family while he jetted off to the Dominican Republic. It was such a fun trip and so nice to be able to spend time with my family and some best friends from high school. My sister, Carrie, had her 5th kid the day we arrived in Spokane (talk about good timing-I guess I am her good luck charm!) These are a few of her kids, playing with Brigham. They were so good to play with Isabel and Brigham and we had lots of fun with them.

I went out to lunch with my best friends from high school. Nikki, had to run back to work, so I didn't get a picture of her :(. There are a few girls missing. I just have to take a moment to let these girls know how much I love and miss them. I was going through my old yearbooks while I was home, and I was reminded of some fun great memories we had. We had soooo much fun in high school. I have so many fun memories of sleepovers, meals at Red Robin, school dances, lunch room stories, movies, malls, and being a menace at school. Just ask me, and I will have stories for you. It was great to see them and share a few laughs. I wish I had more time to see them. Love you girls!

Aisha, Ashleigh, Me and Dianna. Dianna is pregnant with her 2nd. Kaitlynn is Isabel's age, and she is gorgeous! I think we all look pretty much the same as we did, maybe just a bit more mature and Diva-ish! (ha ha, inside joke!)

Here are Isabel and Kaitlynn. Look how shrimpy Isabel is compared to her. These girls played really well together. Isabel was invading her personal space a bit though:)

Isabel was getting tossed around on the trampoline by Isaac (her cousin who is 5 months younger than her, but bigger than her!) I kept trying to save her, but she was laughing her head off everytime she ate it and flopped around. Who knew it was so fun to get beat up!

Enjoying some yummy watermelon from Washington. We had a fun picnic one night with my sister, her hubby Brett, and their family, and my brother Rob and his wife Melanie and their three boys. The weather was so wonderful (I especially loved the DRY heat- it was a great change from our humidity!)

Playing in the backyard with Grandpa G

Playing with my brother's boys. They are so cute and ALL boy. It was great for Isabel to be around some cousins

Brigham was in heaven playing with all these balls. It was so nice to be able to spend time outside and not sweat to death. I love the weather in Spokane and miss it now that I am back in this humidity.

My niece Corissa with her newest Brother, Brogan. Carrie has a great family and we had fun playing with the kids during the week. We wished we could have seen my bro-in-law Brett more, but he was really busy with work and his church calling. Hopefully next time!

All of Carrie's kids with Isabel. She had fun playing in their little pool with them and playing with Corissa and all her toys (especially the barbies and littlest pet shop).

Kissing Cousins! She was showering Trevin with kisses and he was getting a little annoyed, but he was sooo sweet to her!

Playing with Grandpa before we left.

Jumping on the cushions. She was getting pretty brave and having a good time.

We had a great time visiting family and relaxing in Spokane. It was hard to be away from David, but he was doing good work in the Dominican Republic. When I get pictures of his trip from his mom, I will post those.

Vacation Part I...Denver!

2009-07-24T12:10:00.004-05:00

So since David only has a month off from school, we didn't plan any major vacations. He decided he wanted to go visit the pediatric dental program in Denver (He is applying to the pediatric dental residency programs for after graduation. He wants to be a pediatric dentist, which means two more years in the residency program starting next summer). So we headed to Denver so he could spend a few days there doing an externship. He has aunts, uncles and a cousin that live in denver, so we were excited to see them. We stayed with his Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob. They were so gracious to open there house to us and we are so thankful. While David spent his days at the Children's Hospital there, we played with Aunt Mary! The first day, David took the keys to my van, so I couldn't go anywhere. We stayed at the house and played with toys and had fun with Aunt Mary. The next day, I ran some errands, went and saw the beautiful temple they have and went to Park Meadows Mall (the biggest mall in Denver, it was fantastic!). I made a yummy dinner for everyone on Tuesday night. Wednesday, Aunt Mary took me to an amazing fabric shop (Omaha has terrible fabric selection, so I was in heaven. I want to move there just for that store:) and a cute little boutique store with fun house decorations and down east clothes. We had so much fun seeing everyone and getting to know them a little better. I will be totally content if we end up in Denver! Here are a few pictures from the trip:The kids did great with our 9 hour car trip. Isabel watched a few movies and Brigham just smiled and slept the whole time. We have great kids and have so much fun with them! We stopped and ate our lunch at a rest stop. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes and got the wiggles out by running around on the grass. We got together with all our family in Denver and went to this fun restaurant called "Traildust" It has this really fun slide inside the restaurant that is 2 stories high. Isabel went down with Bailey (David's cousins daughter) with a huge smile on her face. Thanks for lots of fun guys!

The posse.

This is the Denver Temple. It is gorgeous! They were doing construction on the front, so this is the best picture, but I still think it captures its beauty.

This is Aunt Mary. She was so hospitable and it was lots of fun to get to know her better. Isabel called her "Ont Murray" and enjoyed playing with the doll bed and the piggy figurines.

Here is uncle Bob. Brigham always had his hands in his beard and would give him a big smile when Uncle Bob "spoke" to him:)

We had a great time there and hope to be coming back next year!

I'm here to pump, (clap) You up!

2009-07-10T16:41:00.005-05:00

Here is our little Arnold Schwarzeneggar (Ahnuld) in the making. Rather than fuss and cry, Brigham grunts like crazy when he wants our attention or he is getting upset. I think it is so funny, what a typical boy not to cry! Enjoy this little video and look how hard he flexes his arms!

4th of July weekend

2009-07-06T08:30:00.004-05:00

We had a nice 3-day weekend over the 4th of July. It was not the greatest weather, but we made the most of it. On Thursday after school, we headed over to the zoo and had lots of fun looking at all the animals. Isabel had fun watching the giraffes, monkeys, seals and these beautiful parakeets called budgies. They are bright birds in blue, yellow and green and were so fun!

On Friday, we took turns going to a temple session while the other watched the kids. It was so great to be in the temple and feel the spirit so strong in there. I definitely need to make an effort to go more often. That night we watched the fireworks at Rosenblatt Stadium. We have a perfect view from our bedroom window, so we got to stay in the comfort of our home and watch them.
On Saturday we were signed up to clean our church building, so we did that in the morning. It was kinda muggy and misty all day long, so we skipped the parade in the afternoon and instead took Isabel to see "UP". It was so cute and she kept calling it "up and down" and jumping while we were walking to the theater. We ate tons of popcorn, m&m's and licorice and had so much fun!
Sunday afternoon, we went to this little park by our house called Mt. Vernon Gardens. It is supposed to be this little replica of George Washington's garden at his house in Vermont. It looks fun, but has gotten a little rundown. We had fun playing around with the kids.

Isabel doesn't like to pose very much for the camera, so it was a challenge to get her to hold still for a second.

What sweet little children! They love to laugh at their daddy, and seeing their smiles just melts my heart.

Brigham loves to grab onto Daddy's hair. He likes to pinch my arms too and he HURTS, as you can see from David's expression. We had such a fun weekend and it was great to spend lots of time together. I love my family. We were sad we missed out on both of our family reunions, but tried to make the most of our time here in Omaha. Can't wait to see some family in a few weeks!

More randomness

2009-07-01T13:27:00.004-05:00

Here is our B-man enjoying his first popsicle (naughty Daddy). He went nuts when he tasted it and attacked David to get some more. I am sure his tastebuds were going crazy!

The weather was soooo hot and humid last week. When it started raining in the middle of a HOT day, we couldn't resist and going out to play in the mud puddles. Isabel was a little leary at first, wondering what we were doing, but she had fun.

On another hot and terribly humid day, we played in the pool after dinner. Some of the students had a dinner for teaching a pre-clinic course, so some of us got together and had dinner as well and then let the kids play afterwards. It was so fun and nice to cool off at the end of the day. Isabel has learned to drink out of the hose and I think her and the other girls drank about a gallon of water that night. Oh well. there are worse things that could happen huh?

On Saturday we went down to the Old Market in downtown and enjoyed the Summer Arts festival. It was fun to see all the amazing things people can create. We enjoyed a snow cone and some crab wontons and had fun enjoying nice weather.

Enjoying a quick bite after grocery shopping. Isabel loves to get out and watch people. She had fun and ate almost a whole taco by herself (that is quite a feat for our little eater!). I brought some baby food to feed Brigham, but forgot a spoon. Any Taco Bell fans know that all they have are sporks (or fpoons as a commercial calls them). So I had to improvise and used a straw to feed him. It was really funny, but he did great! He loves to eat, so I think he will take it anyway he can get it.

Trying to get some of the water out of the cup. He had just gagged himself with the straw in this one.

And in no particular order...

2009-06-29T08:15:00.000-05:00

I need to journal with these pictures, but I am pretty busy (who knows with what, it seems I can never get anything done), so here are the pics now and I will write about them later.

Summer is here!

2009-05-25T16:43:00.003-05:00

The weather is warm and the humidity is getting worse, which means summer is coming! We have been able to enjoy the nice weather with bbq's, playing in the pool and just being outside. I love this time of year. The kids are doing great and still growing. Brigham is already 5 months, and I still can't believe it. He is doing great with cereal and I have tried squash with him and he LOVES it. I don't think I will have to worry about him getting enough to eat!

Isabel continues to be a great big sister. She is always asking to hold him and loves to give him hugs. He loves to laugh at her when she is being silly and it warms my heart to see how they love each other.

Here is how I think we will be spending most of our days out here. Isabel loves the pool and especially loves to eat popsicles outside. David got me a big beach umbrella to use outside because our house gets NO shade. This way I can be outside without getting heat stroke from the sun, so that should be nice:)

Brigham's first swim! He seemed to enjoy it, just like his baths. The water was really warm because I filled the pool in the morning and it had all day to warm up.

On Memorial Day we had a BBQ with some other dental friends at this cute little park. It was great to enjoy some nice weather and a great holiday with our friends. Now it is back to the grindstone for the summer. David has classes and clinic until the middle of July, so we are doing the same old thing till then.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-12T14:26:00.003-05:00

David got back from Utah on Friday night, so we still had Saturday and Sunday to spend together. We had so much fun. On Saturday we went to this lake out in West Omaha and went crappie fishing. Isabel loves fishing and David couldn't get the pole in the water fast enough for her. We stopped at Cabela's and bought live minnows and she thought that was pretty cool. David and Isabel caught 4 fish, let one go because it wasn't big enough and had 3 more that got off the hook right before we reeled them in. It was great to be out as a family enjoying nature and gets me really excited to go camping. David brought the fish home and fileted them out and we had them for dinner. i wasn't expecting them to be good, but man they were great! They were so delicate and just fell apart in your mouth. We battered them up and fried them and then made some onion rings and mozzerella sticks. David is always coming up with fun things for us to do! What a sweetheart!

Brigham and I sat in the chair and supervised the fishing.

Look at these two, I think it is so cute to watch them doing stuff together. David is so patient with her and is always teaching her things and letting her help do stuff.

On Mother's Day, David cooked us a wonderful sunday Pork Roast lunch and had strawberry cheesecake for me. He let me take a nap, which never happens because one child is always awake at any given time. So I got a little rest which felt nice. After our nap, we packed up our cute little minivan (or the spaceship as one of our friends affectionately calls it) and headed up to try mushroom hunting again. We found some this time!

The grass in the woods was so tall and Isabel had fun wading through it. I kept hearing her talking about everything (I don't know half of the stuff she was saying, but it was so cute to hear her narrating her little adventure).

David spotted the first mushroom and I was so surprised at how big it was. Supposedly they are this big delicacy out here. They look so weird and I was not at all interested in eating one, but it was like a treasure hunt to find them. We found 5 really big ones.

Yum! They are the weirdest looking things, they look like a sponge, not at all appealing to me!

Here is our wonderful chef (he would not make a normal face for me....wait a minute, this is normal!) He battered them up and fried them in butter. David says they are some of the best things he has eaten. I will take his word for it. I did try a tiny piece of it...I liked the batter, I will say that:). We had a great weekend, and I spent a wonderful Mother's Day with my 3 favorite people! We are so grateful for our mothers, they are both amazing women!

Rice, Rice, Baby!!!!

2009-05-12T14:12:00.003-05:00

While David was in Utah, I decided to start Brigham on rice cereal. He will be 5 months this week, but he was always wanting to chew and suck on things, even right after he ate, so I decided to see if he would be satisfied with some rice cereal too. Wow! He did everything but lick the bowl clean:). He did so great and he is definitely ready for it! Isabel wouldn't eat it before she was 6 months, but this guy has a much bigger appetite than she did! He was so excited to sit in the high chair and grabbed for the spoon right away. He was going nuts!

Mmmmmmmm, that is good mom! The second the spoon would touch his mouth, he would root very agressively and spill most of the cereal. I couldn't keep it coming fast enough! So I grabbed a big medicine syringe and filled it up with cereal. He was in heaven with that! He would suck it right out of there and was much happier to have it coming faster!

After he ate, he was squealing at the top of his lungs, I think he was happy to have a full tummy!

This little guy brings so much happiness to our family. We love watching him grow and love seeing how he and Isabel are starting to interact. He gives a giggle when he catches her attention. I am so grateful to be a mother and have my family for eternity!

Time keeps moving

2009-05-12T13:34:00.002-05:00

And life just seems to be going too fast! Our kids are growing so fast and we wish family could see them more often. But we are where we are supposed to be right now. Well David is officially a SENIOR. It is so crazy and I can't believe he is in his last year of dental school. Life is just flying by and I am reminded that I need to savour all of it, the good, bad and ugly! Our kids our growing, our lives our changing and we can't go back in time. I love our life right now and have a bit of anxiety about joining the "real world" of mortgages, paying back student loans, full time jobs and all the other "grown-up" stuff that we don't have to deal with while we are in school. So here is to making the most of our last year out here and making lots of fun memories!

A lot has happened these past few weeks. We found a van out in Utah and after David's finals, he had a few days off from school, so he flew out there to drive it back. It is a Sienna (like Carrie's, but not as luxurious), and we are so excited about it. I will post pics so you guys can all see it, but of course, it would be better to see it in person, so come out and visit us (we would love any of you guys to come out and visit us anytime!) Well I had the kids for a few days without David. We missed him terribly, but the kids were wonderful and we had lots of fun. Isabel helped me plant our flower bed, and she was so cute. As you can see, she enjoys wearing her sunglasses on upside down, I have no idea why, but she sure likes to make us laugh! Brigham sat in his saucer and supervised, he was great out there and talked and squealed lots. I have a feeling he is going to love being outside as much as Isabel does.

The weekend before David left to Utah, we went out to Lake Manawa and went mushroom hunting (no luck, but it was a perfect day) and played on this great playground that is at the campground.

Brigham enjoyed the swings and was all smiles and squeals while he was in there.

Here is our little mushroom hunter. She loves to walk through the woods and talks about everything she sees. It seems like she points out every stick she sees and every bird that flies by.

Flowers everywhere!

2009-05-04T21:35:00.002-05:00

Our complex had a garage sale on Saturday and it was great. The weather was perfect and we were able to get rid of some of the things we never use. I also sold some of my bows and flowers. It was a good time and got me excited to do it again. I was a little sad because some cute flowers and headbands I was supposed to get before the sale didn't arrive until that day, right after the sale was over:( Oh well, at least I have them now. Take a look at them and let me know if you think they are cute too! prettysassybows.blogspot.com

Oh yeah, we bought a van! There weren't any good ones out here, so we started looking in Utah with lots of help from David's parents and we found a great one. David has 3 days off from school this week, so he is flying out there and then driving it back here. I will admit that I am going to LOVE having a minivan! I am excited to see it. We will miss David and are sad we can't spend his break with him, but I guess this was just something we had to do!
I have some cute pics to post of our family this weekend, but it is late and I better get to bed while Brigham is sleeping.

I may be crazy!

2009-04-30T15:23:00.002-05:00

Well family, I may be crazy, but I have embarked on a new adventure. I am now making bows! Not archery bows for all you Baileys! I am making hair bows, flower clips and more. I have a friend out in Utah who inspired me to try it out. I have great ambition to do lots a lots with it, but we will see where it goes. If it works out, I want to expand to squeaky shoes (remember those cute ones Isabel had last year?), pacifier clips, and these really cute headbands. Check out my blog and give me any advice you have, I sure need it!
prettysassybows.blogspot.com

Tales of a one vehicle family

2009-04-16T13:05:00.003-05:00

We sold it. We sold the Jeep. And I almost cried, how pathetic is that! We bought the Malibu last year so David would have a car to drive to school and I could still do things and go places with the kids. Well lately David just kept telling me that he was really nervous the jeep was gonna start having big problems (it has over 120,000 miles on it). It has already given us a few problems and we didn't want more. So after some thoughts and prayers, we decided to put it up for sale. After a week on craigslist and parking it on a busy street, we only had 1 call. A very nice retired man wanted it and wrote a check to us last night when he picked it up. I sat on the front porch with Isabel and watched him drive away and I got really sad. It was our first baby! David got it right before we started dating, so it holds many memories with it. It reminds me of all the fun dates we went on, our first kiss, driving to our honeymoon, lots of road trips, camping trips, moving trips and everything in between. It brought both of our children home from the hospital. The jeep got us around in crazy weather when most other cars were stuck in their parking spots. We used to crank up the stereo and sing at the top of our lungs to puff daddy, roxette and eye of the tiger. It was such a fun car and we are sad to see it go. But I guess it is for the best.

Now we are down to just one car. We are motivated to try and find the money to buy us another vehicle, but don't really know what is going to happen. I would like to get a 7 or 8 passenger car so we don't have to do this again in a few years when we have 4 kids, but most are out of our price range, unless we want to go with higher miles (which kinda defeats the purpose of selling our high mileage vehicle). So we are trying to decide what to do.

For family night on Monday we did Isabel's egg hunt because we were so busy over the weekend and didn't get to it. It was so funny to watch her. At first she didn't know what to do, but after a while, she would get so excited when she found an egg, she would shake it to hear what was in it and then show it to us with a wide eyed smile! We put some coins in a few eggs because I have been talking to her about her piggy bank and saving our money. So as soon as she saw the coins, she said piggy bank and knew just what to do. It was lots of fun and we can't wait till next year when Brigham can give Isabel a run for her money (no pun intended!)

What an adorable little man! He is just like his daddy and loves to have the remote:) He is getting good at grabbing at things around him, especially Isabel's hair when she gives him hugs. But Isabel is great, and just says "ow" and gives him another hug once I get her hair out of his fists. These kids are so much fun, it is wonderful to see Isabel want to play with him and to see him grin and coo at her. I want so badly for my children to be friends with each other and so far, so good!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-12T21:20:00.003-05:00

David had a three day weekend (Creighton doesn't have school on Good Friday), so we were really excited to have a nice weekend. Isabel colored Easter eggs on Thursday, and she seemed to think the dye was "joose" and kept trying to drink it. For those that don't know, it has vinegar in it, but she didn't seem to mind, as you can see from her blue mustache. She kept trying to take sips when I turned away and got mad when I told her we shouldn't drink it.

On Friday we went to the zoo (it was David's first time) and we had lots of fun. We have a great zoo out here if anyone wants to come visit us:) There is an exhibit called "kingdom of the night". It is kinda freaky (all sorts of nocturnal animals, caves, bats, snakes, crocodiles, and all sorts of weird stuff. Plus it is all dark, so Isabel was pretty nervous and this is how she looked while we were down there.

Our ward had a nice dinner on friday night with a little egg hunt. Isabel didn't know quite what to do, but she was really happy to play with this egg the whole night.

We went to a nearby lake and had a hot dog roast for lunch on saturday. Isabel had fun playing with some friends and throwing rocks in the water.

Enjoying her cookie and the beautiful sunshine.

Snuggling up to her little friend. She gets a smile on her face whenever she sees him. They play really well together and he is so sweet to watch out for her!

Modeling some of the cute stuff the Easter Bunny left her. Notice how David thought it was funny to put ALL her bows in her hair. Now they are scattered all over the house and I can't find them all:) Silly daddy. Isabel walked around all morning, playing with her "bunny sippers"

Being a little sweetheart before Stake Conference.

Here is our handsome little guy with his cool bar of soap and some cute summer clothes next to him.

We had a nice easter dinner with yummy ham and good food. We wish we could be with family, but we feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends out here. Happy Easter. It is a wonderful thing to celebrate the greatest gift our Savior gave: HIS LIFE! I am so thankful that he made the ultimate sacrifice and rose again so that I can be together forever with my family.

Oh what fun!!!

2009-03-28T19:20:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday was such beautiful day: high in the mid 70's, no wind, sunshine and our family hanging out together. We headed out to Walnut Creek Reservoir and went fishing. Most of the lakes out here are man-made, but this one was so cool. There was all these trees in the lake sticking out and they gave it lots of character. It was so fun to be outside enjoying the springtime. Isabel had a total blast and was so excited to go fishing. David and her caught 4 blue gill and she would scream everytime they reeled one in. We can't wait for more nice weather to go camping and fishing this spring.

Isabel had fun running all over, looking at the ducks and helping Daddy fish.

David had his turkey hunting gear out in the living room on Friday night, and Isabel put all this stuff on and started saying "unting, unting". She loves to mimick us and cracks us up.

Here is our little Brig, looking cute as always. He doesn't quite fit in Isabel's doll stroller, but he sure gave us lots of grins when we put him in there. He is always so happy and is really starting to discover his voice and is getting pretty coordinated with his hands and holding on to rattles. He loves to suck on his hands and is starting to laugh a lot more. It is so fun to watch him grow. He likes to hold on to his left foot with his left hand. I don't want him to grow so fast, I wish I could slow time down!

He grunts and grunts when he is having tummy time and is getting better at rolling over to get out of it:)

It's Potty time!!! We spent last week potty training Isabel. It was much more work and more stressful than I thought, but it was still a great experience and I know it will be worth it when it is completely done. I did a method called "3 Day Potty Training" if anyone wants info about it, click here. It took us longer than 3 days, but I think that is because I was doing a few things wrong, and I couldn't catch her everytime she was going. It was a very long week, but David was able to come home earlier than he usually does to help with Brigham and the house. I admit I got frustrated and didn't know how it was going to work, but she has the hang of it now. Today was our first accident free day, and we were even able to go to church. She has been telling us everytime and is staying dry at night and at naptime (she has actually been dry at naps and night the whole time). She is such a big girl and it is so nice to know that we accomplished something really hard together. She got a really cute dress and shoes that she picked out as her reward for being a "big girl". I love this girl more than I can comprehend!

Way to go Isabel, we are so happy for you! (and mommy too, since she won't be changing anymore of your diapers)

In a nutshell

2009-03-22T16:29:00.005-05:00

I am finally posting some pics from spring break. we went to Utah and had a great time. We had Isabel's birthday, Brigham's blessing and just some relaxing time together. My parents were able to come for Brigham's blessing and it was great to have them there and see them for a bit. We had so much fun, it is always great to see family and have a little vacation. We ate at some of our favorite restaurants and had fun playing with our families. We were also able to be there for David's cousin's wedding, and we are really close with Kristen, so we were excited we could be there. Here are just a few pictures. Sorry they are in reverse order, but I can't get the pics rearranged.
We have started bathing the kids together, and Isabel does great with it. She helps me wash his hair and plays in the tub while I get him out and dressed.

I whacked my hair and dyed it while we were home. That is what happens when I get bored and I have David around to watch the kids. I am still trying to get used to it, but I was ready for a change.

Isabel got this cute chair from Rachel and so she likes to sit by Brigham and hang out.

We celebrated Isabel's Birthday a little early since my parents were in town for the blessing. We had a yummy chocolate cherry cake and Isabel ate a huge piece so good with her fork. She is a pretty clean eater when she enjoys the food. We had fun just relaxing and visiting with our parents.

We never told Isabel about blowing her candles out, but when we got done singing to her, she knew just what to do and it only took a couple tries to get them out. She must be full of hot air like her daddy!:)

Here are both sets of grandparents. David gave such a beautiful blessing to Brigham. Aunt Elaine knows shorthand and was nice enough to transcribe the blessing so I can get it written up for Brigham for him to have. I am so grateful to have such a sweet husband who loves our kids so much.

This is a picture that captures David perfectly. David loves the broncos, loves to hunt and loves to take naps. Brig is his father's son!!!

We love the outdoors and we have so much fun on G & G Bailey's property. The grandkids were building a fort and we had fun checking it out behind the house.

Brigham had his first 4-wheeler ride and he was so content.

Isabel giving loves to G & G at the wedding luncheon.

Here is David's little sister getting some snuggles from our little stud. We wish we could see Rachel more when we come home, but she is always so busy. Ahh the life of a high-schooler:)

I don't know why Isabel looks like she is scheming up something.Not the most friendly face, but still adorable.

In other news, I am going to start potty training Isabel tomorrow. We are using the "3-day potty training" method. I hear great things about it and I am very optimistic. But I have to devote the next 3 days to Isabel and nothing else, so I will be M.I.A. for a bit. Hopefully we will be back at the end of the week with good news.

3 months already?

2009-03-14T22:30:00.002-05:00

I can't believe my little man is already 3 months. I am still amazed that we have 2 beautiful, sweet children in our family. This little guy is so much joy and brings so much love into our family. He has such a sweet disposition and is willing to smile at anyone who gives him attention. He is rolling over really well and learning to use his voice and blow bubbles. He sleeps great and eats great and is happy all the time. He loves to watch his sister play and cuddle with his daddy in the evenings. He loves to snuggle and is the sweetest thing to watch when he drools in his sleep. He is flailing his limbs like crazy when he is lying down. We are so happy to have him in the family and can't wait to see what the future holds. We love you Brig!

In other news, we are back from spring break and I have lots of pictures to post, but we took turns this week with a 24 hour flu bug...no fun let me say! so we are better, the weather is warm and life is good. Hopefully I will post the pics this next week. No promises, because I am busy finishing up a friendship quilt for the dental club, making a video for a relief society activity, working on a song with my friend for the activity and getting Isabel ready to be potty trained. Then I am sure my house will be in desperate need of some TLC. It was so great to see some family over the break and we love you all!

Sick, sick, sick, SICK!

2009-02-25T18:03:00.002-06:00

That is one "sick" for every person in our family. Yep, we are all sick. It started last wednesday when Isabel started coughing and not sleeping good and just had a body flu. Then on Sat. David and I started feeling pretty crummy and congested. Then on Sunday, poor Brigham started coughing too. Yesterday, my ears started killing me and I was getting more sick. So I went to the Dr.'s today and apparently I have an ear infection (who knew you could get them when you are all grown up). So I got put on antibiotics. Then I thought I better take the kids in and make sure they are okay (since we are flying in 2 days). So Isabel has an ear infection, and Brigham has....yep, RSV. My worst nightmare. It is not in its worst stage, so it can get worse, which scares me. I thought david had a sinus infection so I sent him to urgent care when he got home from school so he could get on antibiotics and not give as many germs to Brigham. But, no he just has a cold, so the dr. told him to get a bunch of over the counter meds. You should see our kitchen counter, it is littered with antibiotics, creams to help with diaper rash (for Isabel, not for us), cold medicines, salines, honey and nyquil. We are a pretty sore looking bunch. David gave Brigham a beautiful blessing. I just hope it doesn't get down into his lungs. We hope we can still go to Utah for Spring Break and see both sets of parents. I guess tomorrow will tell. And then I have to take him back to the doctor on Friday so they can check up on him. Oh what a crazy week!

My wonderful Valentine!

2009-02-14T21:28:00.002-06:00

Today is a double holiday for our family. Not only is it Valentine's day, which is a great holiday, but it is also David's Birthday. An even better bonus was that it was Saturday, so we got to spend a lot more time with him. We started the day off with a yummy breakfast, and then played around with Isabel and just vegged in our jammies. Then we got up and went and got some grocery shopping done (not too exciting, but I LOVED having David's help, so that is just fine by me!). Then David headed off to the school to get some studying done (he has 4 tests this next week and 4 more the week after. They are all cramming them in before Spring break), and I headed home to get stuff done for his birthday. He came home and helped me get the rest of dinner ready. Then we opened his presents. His mom had sent some great clothes for him to use hunting and some warm base layer clothes. I got him a box turkey call (he may drive us crazy practicing with it) and a coupon for him to pick out some sunglasses that he is DESPERATELY needs.
Then we had dinner. We had an amazing prime rib, spinach salad, grape salad, and mashed potatoes. Oh I almost forgot to mention we had bubbly! (sparkling cider, or as Isabel calls it "spicy"). We ate ourselves into a coma (we didn't get the meat sweats Amy, thank goodness!). Then we topped it off with some strawberry shortcake. A day can't help but be amazing when you eat so much food. I will admit that I am a little too obsessed with food, but hey, you only live once, right?
It was so fun to spend the day as a family and show our valentine how thankful we are for him. He truly is such a special person. He is such a wonderful example to me of a selfless person. When we first started dating, he made a joke that he would swim across the ocean without arms for me. So silly, but it is true. I know he would do anything for me and our children, and I am so lucky that he found me in this crazy world. He makes me laugh every day and it does something to my heart to see him with our children. I love him more and more everyday and it only seems fitting that this sweetheart of a person was born on Valentine's Day. I love you honey, thank you for agreeing to spend forever with me!

Isabel came and put this bow on me and then put one on herself. She was so excited and started laughing hysterically. I guess she thinks we are the best presents:)

Not much to say

2009-02-02T17:15:00.006-06:00

Well, we haven't been up to much lately. In fact, my brain is total mush right now and I can't think of anything. I am excited because I just finished making a video of our pictures from 2008 and we are going to watch it for family night tonight. I went to the cannery on Saturday and got lots of food storage (which make David wince because then he has to find a place to store it all). Our children continue to make us smile and fill our hearts with love and gratitude. We feel so blessed. I will go play with my kids now and bring more news if we do anything exciting!
Here are a few scrapbook pages I have done. It is pretty addicting, but I don't have much time to work on them right now. I hope I can stay up on it somewhat to get a decent scrapbook going.

We checked out the ice fishing derby at a nearby lake. You've never seen so many ice tents! It was a really nice day too, so it wasn't too bad being outside

Here's our little guy flashing us a few smiles. He is such a happy easy going guy. It is so cute to see him smile at Isabel when she is mauling him. He is very liberal with the grins when he gets a clean diaper put on.

Hanging out

2009-01-20T07:48:00.002-06:00

Because this last week was so bitter cold, and we have a newborn, we couldn't go anywhere! I could barely stand to open the door to get the mail. So we had fun just hanging out, being silly, getting cabin fever, and decorating the house with all of Isabels toys scattered. My kids bring me so much joy, but I was a bit stir crazy. So David let me go out on Saturday for a few hours and get some fresh air! Here's some pics from this week.
Here is our little stud muffin getting some tummy time. He is growing and changing so fast, we try to just enjoy every minute with him. He is such an easy going baby and he doesn't mind all of Isabel's attention that she loves to shower on him.

Here is my little copycat. She has been mimmicking everything I do. Including trying to nurse her babies, attempting to use the breast pump, even doing the sound effects of what the machine sounds like, and putting on makeup with me. She is such a joy, but is definitely learning how to voice her opinion. She constantly teaches us new things and makes us laugh everyday with the energy and sillyness that she brings to our family. She is learning new words everyday and helps me out so much with Brigham. I am so glad she is so loving to him and doesn't get mad when I need to tend to him.

She saw me putting these glasses on Mr Potato Head and insisted I try them on her. Not quite the perfect fit, but she doesn't seem to mind.

After his bath, Daddy had fun styling his hair. Isn't he adorable. He is chunking up on us. I had him weighed at one month and he was 10 lbs, 2 oz, which puts him in the 75th percentile. Total opposite from Isabel, I think he is gonna be a big baby. He is starting to smile a little bit and is learning to coo. It is so much fun to watch as your kids learn new things and grow and develop. We are so thankful for these precios spirits.

Back to the real world

2009-01-12T08:06:00.004-06:00

Well David had to go back to school this week, and it was a sad occasion. It has been so fun having David home over the break, and he was a lifesaver to me in getting adjusted to our new family. Here's a few pictures from the last week. Here's our little sleeper. He always finds a way to wiggle his arms out of his blanket. Although he won't go to sleep unless his arms are wrapped up, he likes to get them loose.

David helped Isabel build a snowman on Saturday. Yes those are deer antlers for arms, we had to improvise. They are both wearing camo coats. I had a baby shower for Brigham with my friends here in the Village and one of my sweet friends got this adorable camo coat for Brigham to wear next winter (they all know David so well!). David wanted Isabel to wear it so they could match. Since she is so tiny, it fit her great, and she thought it was cool that she got to wear something different.

She loves to give Brigham "ugs" (hugs) and does it every chance she can, even squishing him sometimes. She is so sweet to him, we couldn't wish for anything better.

Here is our handsome little guy. He is getting more alert everyday and loves to be able to look around. David swears he likes to stare at the deer we have, because we willay him down on the couch under the deer and he fixates his eyes on it and won't budge. I guess we are training him early to be daddy's hunting partner.

Here is mommy's little helper. Isabel wants to be doing everything I am doing. If Brigham is fussy and I pick him up to bounce him and pat his back. Isabel runs and finds one of her baby dolls and does the same thing. The other day I was nursing him and she went and picked up her baby, tried to lift her shirt up, and couldn't, so she just cradled her baby like I was holding Brigham and just sat there. What a little mommy! This picture was after I had brigham in the carrier for a while. She went and picked it up and wanted Daddy to help her put it on. She wants to be so involved and is such a sweetheart. I still can't believe that she is my little baby girl, and I have another baby already. It is amazing that I can love two little kids so much, they are true joy. Being a mother is such a special blessing!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T15:22:00.005-06:00

We bid farewell to 2008 by eating a delicious king crab leg dinner, YUM!!! Of course with a 2 1/2 week old and David in the home, we didn't stay up till midnight, but we had fun just the same. We had a great chocolate cake that Isabel enjoyed as well. That is why everyone needs a daddy-they let you make messes.

On the 31st, I took Isabel out on a mommy/daughter date to the zoo. She has been adjusting well to Brigham, but has been acting out a bit, so I took her out to have some alone time with her. I think she really enjoyed it, I know I did. It was fun to see her back to her normal self. We just wandered around and let her go wherever she wanted. We had lots of fun at the aquarium and the desert dome. She was so curious and intrigued by everything and loved having my undivided attention.

playing in the car and with the horn. She loves to honk at people and lets out a big yell whenever David honks the horn.

she loves to color!

We can't wait to see what 2009 brings us. Each year just keeps getting better.

Poinsettia Show at the Gardens

2008-12-31T11:12:00.002-06:00

We decided to get all bundled up and head to our neighbor's, the Botanical Gardens, on Monday to check out the beautiful Poinsettia Show they had inside. It was so incredible. Thousands of poinsettias plants and trees of all colors (ok, not all colors, but lots of shades of red, pink, white and speckled.) There was even a giant Christmas tree built out of poinsettia plants. Isabel kept saying wow and running all over the place. They had these cute model trains that were running in and out of the plants. It was nice to get out and enjoy some beauty indoors while it is so bitter out here in Omaha.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T15:51:00.004-06:00

Even though we were missing family terribly, we had a wonderful Christmas with our little family. It was so relaxing and enjoyable, we made great memories. It literally took us all day to open presents. We started about 7am and in between naps, a nice big aebleskiever breakfast and yummy lunch and feeding Brigham and playing with the toys, Isabel opened her last present around 5pm. After each present, she would play for the longest time with the toys or books. She LOVES Elmo so she really enjoyed this elmo doll and elmo books that she got. In fact, she really loved all of her toys and continues to play with all of them, trying to do it all at once, which makes a nice mess in our living room. She loved to open presents, but we would have to talk her into opening another one because she was so involved in her current toy. It was really fun to just have no schedule or worries. We spent all day in our pjs and just enjoyed the heck out of our kids. Brigham just slept the day away.

Further proof that you can just give kids some boxes for Christmas and they are just as happy!

I think she put about 5 miles on this stroller the first day. She loves doing laps in between the kitchen and living room.

Cuddle buddies.

Enjoying his great Christmas present. Thanks Grandma! It looks so comfy that Isabel keeps trying to crawl in and try it out.

Opening a present, I don't know if she looks so tired because she just woke up from a nap or if she is exhausted from all her presents:)

Santa's little helper. He got this outfit from Grandma G and it only lasted about an hour before his diaper leaked all over it. So he has worn it a few more times cause he looks so dang cute in it.

Baby got back!

Daddy helping Isabel get her Little Einsteins piano open. She loves little Einsteins and pounds on the keyboard. "tinestines" is what she calls 'em.

Here are some pretty flowers David bought for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T14:36:00.003-06:00

On Christmas Eve Eve, we headed up to the trail center to check out the gingerbread display. It was so fun! There was hundreds of gingerbread creations from all over the area that people had submitted. Some of them were so awesome, I couldn't believe the detail and creativity that was put in to them. Here are some pictures of our favorites. our ward did one, but we couldn't find it.

We helped Isabel act out the Nativity story. (She was Mary and a wise man, I was Joseph, the innkeeper and some wise men. David was a donkey, shepard and camel carrying the wise man to see Jesus, and little Brigham was Jesus.) It was so cute, she was pretty reverent and curious about it all, I think she knew it was a special story.

Here is our cute little wise man bringing baby Jesus a gift.

On Christmas Eve, we cooked a delicious prime rib dinner (from the prime rib that we got from the 12 days of Christmas). We had so much food, we wanted to invite our neighbors over for dinner. We had a great time with them and ate till we couldn't move (we were all contemplating unbuttoning our pants to give us some more room, but didn't do it). Then we watched a beautiful video that we received from the 12 days as well. It was a picture slide show set to beautiful music that showed all sorts of paintings about Jesus' life. It was so moving and brought the tears flowing. It was a great way to feel the true spirit of Christmas.

We had so much fun receiving the 12 days of Christmas. We are pretty sure we know who it was, but since they wish to stay annonymous, we just want them to know how much we love and appreciate them. It was so overwhelming to see the time, effort and money that was put into it. We felt so loved and blessed to be the recipients. We just want to say thank you for all you have done, you'll never know how much we appreciate this and cherish the memories we have made because of it.

Happy 1 week Brigham!

2008-12-21T13:50:00.005-06:00

A week has already flown by with our little guy and I can't believe how we got along without him. Isabel has been so great with him, I can even run to the bathroom really quick without fearing for his life. He is such a content little guy, he cries even less than Isabel did, which I didn't think was possible. David says he sleeps way too much, he wants to play with him more:)

Here are the roses David brought me at the hospital. They are so beautiful and had tons of greenery that looked like they grew in the mountains. He said he was going to get me red roses, but then thought they were too girly for Brigham, so he got these instead!

Can you tell that she is smitten with him?

If it is possible, his beatiful complexion has made me look even more white!

His first bath. He was pretty mad that we woke him up and made him get in the tub. But the second we took him out he was content again.

We have gotten a few inches of snow (on top of 2 inches of solid ice) on Friday, so David took Isabel out to sled down the hill behind our building. It was pretty cold, so they only lasted about 15 minutes, but she had a blast!)

She loves to give Brigham kisses and hugs

We took a picture of Isabel like this when we brought her home from the hospital and now David says we have to get a picture with his deer when we bring all our kids home. Notice the size difference between Isabel and Brigham. He may catch up to her pretty quick!

After we bathed Brigham again last night, Isabel wanted to get in (the whole "I have to be involved in everything that Brigham is"), so David bathed her in the kitchen sink. She had so much fun.

We took Brigham in for his weight and jaundice check on Friday and he looks great. The doctor said he didn't really have any jaundice and he was already an ounce over his birth weight (7 lbs, 14 oz. now). We are so happy he is healthy and eating great. He is such a sweetheart and we feel so blessed to have these two munchkins in our family. They make it all worth it!

12 Days of Christmas

2008-12-21T12:00:00.004-06:00

Santa's little elves have been working overtime for our family this year. Someone is doing the 12 days of Christmas on us and it has been so much fun waiting to see what gets left at our house each day. We feel so blessed and a little embarrassed that someone is doing so much for us. Each day, they have wrapped something up and snuck it in between our door and screen door and knocked REALLY fast and hard and then took off running away. David has even tried to catch them a few times, but they are too fast! I wish I would have taken a picture of what we got each day, but it didn't even occur to me since it started the day before I had Brigham. There is a cute little note with a poem for each day. Someone has really put a lot of time and effort and love into this and we are just overcome with gratitude. Some of the things we have received so far are: a box of chocolates, lots of different cans of nuts cause they said we are "nutty" (I guess they must know us pretty good), some cute ornaments and mormon bubbly for Christmas. We even got a delicious prime rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner. I got a picture of a few more things.

We got these remote control helicopters a few nights ago. It has been so much fun to see David fly these things around the house and get so happy when he does a cool trick with them. They have been a great stress reliever now that finals are over and he is like a little kid flying them around. I haven't had much time to hone my skills, but when I do, we will have some great battles with them. He is flying one right now as we speak. He is too cute!

We also got this beautiful nativity set. It is carved out of this cool black wood and it is amazing the detail and skill that was used in carving it. I told David last year that I want to start collecting nativity sets, and this is definitely a great way to start that off.

Last night we got this cute velour outfit for Isabel along with really cute black sweaters for us. She saw it this morning and got a big smile on her face and wanted to wear it right away. She looks so cute in it!

We don't know who is doing this but feel so blessed and are grateful to our little "elf" friends. We love you!