Pics

I got a new camera for my birthday and it is more than a point and shoot camera.  I took the kids out to the stockyards today to play with it.  I was only able to take 2 pictures because the bigger memory card I ordered hasn't come in yet.  Here is my first shot of Bradley.  He had his eyes closed in the other one.  The camera is super nice and I really want to get into some photography classes to learn how to use the extra lens and flash.  I am hoping to be able to get a lot of good pictures of our kiddos and not pay an arm and leg.  If anyone is willing to let me practice with their kiddos or family, let me know.  There are a lot of good places out at the stockyards and I am sure there are a lot of other fun places around here too. 

Nothing really new is going on around here.  Alex is starting to try to talk more which is cute.  Bradley likes to play football with her (it's just him tackling her) so she has gotten really tough.  She has her own little personality and screams or grunts when she wants anything.  I am trying to teach her some sign language to help with the screaming, but she isn't into it and is starting to say more.

So far the baby #3 seems to be good.  I go to the Dr for the first time on Friday so we will see what she says.

A few things...

Last week Bradley decided that going to bed wasn't for him.  He will sneak around the house thinking I don't see him, but I always do.  So I have started shutting down the house at his bedtime and going in our bedroom and shutting the door, so if he comes out of his room it is completely dark.  Well I went one night around 10 to make sure the alarm was on and this is what I found, it was completely black. 

I moved him to his bed and he didn't even move.

Today I purchased a used juicer from my friend and immediately went to Central Market and bought organic carrots and apples to juice.  I grew up on carrot juice and love it and Bradley will usually pick it over chocolate milk if I give him the option.  Carrot juice is expensive so I don't have it as often as I would like but with a juicer it is much cheaper and probably better for you.  Here is my first glass.  It is so easy, I am going to try the apples tomorrow.  Bradley loved it, so we will definitely be having it more.  I am hoping to be able to let Bradley help more with the juicing.  He has never been a big fruit juice drinker and that is fine with me. 

A friend of mine from the gym recently had twin baby girls.  I found these adorable bathing suits at Macy's and made towels to match.

"Bryan wake up...

I have something to tell you."  Is how I woke Bryan up a week ago.  He rolled over and said what and I told him "I'm pregnant."  He about had a heart attack since we had decided to re visit the subject of a 3rd child next August when Alex turned 2, but apparently our decision was made for us.  We are really excited and this will be a new adventure for us.  Bradley and Alex are 3 1/2 years apart and we really enjoy that.  Alex and baby #3 will be under 21 months apart.  I have already had blood work done twice and all of my counts look really good.  They are higher than then normal so that is a positive and we will keep our fingers crossed that everything is ok with this pregnancy.  I am more nauseous than usual with my pregnancies and my sciatic nerve is already acting up, but I am thankful that my blood counts are good.  I will post more when I know more.

Bradley's First Day of Pre - K

Bradley started Pre-K on Monday and he loves it.  We weren't sure we were gonna be able to send him because of our travel plans for the holidays, but since we changed those he will hopefully get to go 3 days a week.  He loves it and is getting back into the swing of things. 

I asked him to say cheese and did this pose.

He was not wanting to be serious for a picture so this is the best I got.

A friend of mine from the gym is having twin girls any day now.  I missed her shower because we were in Idaho so I am droping her gift off today to her.  I found the bathingsuits in Cali and I made the towels to match.  I love the way everything turned out and coordinates.

Alex is 1!!

Yesterday was Alex's 1st birthday.  We had cake and ice cream with our immediate families and had a good time.  Alex has gotten a great personality lately.  She is very energetic and keeps up with her brother.  She loves to follow Bradley around and loves to wrestle.  I know that she will very tough and will be able to handle herself in any situation.  She lets her opinion be known and loves to snuggle.  She can say Mama, Dada, Papa and what we think is Grandma.  Papa Nick taught her to hold up one finger when you ask her hold she is and she also will give hugs and kisses and wave goodbye.  We also had a combined birthday party for Alex and her cousin Grant at a place called the Party Corral.  It is a little petting zoo place that has a bounce house, pony rides and train rides.   Thanks to Grandma Karen for making the Party Corral amazing for all the kids.

I got Alex a princess cake from Costco.  You can't beat Costco's cake for the taste or the price.

Alex eating her cake.  She ate the whole piece like that.

Bradley and Bryan helping Alex open her presents.

For Alex's party at the petty zoo, I made her a shirt and matching hair bows.  It looked super cute and was really festive.

While in Cali Bryan took me to San Francisco for my birthday.  We had a really good time.  We went to 2 comedy clubs and got to see Ralphie Mae perform.  We discovered Yelp and I fell in love.  People are really honest on their reviews, so we had good food the whole time.  It was really nice to have some grown up time for a couple of days.  I didn't take one picture the whole time.

Video and Pics from Idaho

Here are some more videos and pics from our time in Idaho.

Here is Rachel with her cake.

Blayne, Rachel, Mia and Darek

We went to a BBQ at Blayne's business partners house and Bradley's swim trunks would not stay up.

Here is some video of Bradley doing the slip-n-slide.

While Blayne and Rachel were gone, I made cupcakes with the kiddos and let them each frost their own.

Here is a video of the kids and their cupcakes.

After church we went and feed the ducks in the river that is in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.  It was really pretty.  The boys feed the ducks and girls ate the bread instead of feeding the ducks.

Blayne and Rachel have a huge backyard and Blayne borrowed a riding lawnmower from a neighbor.  For some reason I thought it was funny and the boys loved taking turns on it.

Idaho

The last couple weeks we spent visiting Bryan's brother Blayne and his wife Rachel and their two adorable kiddos Darek and Mia.  I had never been to Idaho before, and for whatever reason, it was nothing like I thought it would be.  The weather was AMAZING.  We were able to let the kids play outside and could sit out there and watch them and not even sweat.  This kids had a great time.  Darek is exactly 1 year younger than Bradley, so they did a whole lot of fighting and tatteling.  By the end of the two weeks I felt like the saying "we don't touch our friends" was the only thing I said.  Mia is 6 months older than Alex and she loved Alex.  Alex followed her around and just wanted to do anything she did.  Mia seemed to enjoy this and after the first couple days we were there Mia decided she was no longer a baby and she was Alex's 2nd mom.  Mia was so patient with her and would share and if she was crying she would see what was wrong.  Rachel had her birthday and Blayne had set up for them to go away for one night without kids.  The person he had set up to watch the kiddos had something come up  .We were scheduled to stay a week as a family but I decided to extend the trip for me and the kids to another week so I would be able to watch the kiddos.  Having 4 kids 4 and under was an interesting experience.  Rachel and I have very different mothering styles.  She is very loving and I am more business.  I think I traumatized her children in the bath.  I didn't know they didn't like their hair washed and I was bathing 4 kids at once, so it was very efficient assembly line.  They were very fun and I would do it again anytime.  I felt bad for staying for so long but the kids were having a good and Rachel and I were having a blast, we did all kinds of fun things.  I may or may not be a bad influence on her, but in a good way.  Since I don't sit still well, I took it upon myself to organize some of their house.  Organization is one of my strong suits.  I knew Rachel wouldn't mind and since there was two of us, she would keep an eye on the kids and I could get a lot done.  While they were gone I surprised them and organized the storage part of their basement.  I wish I had pictures.  It was probably one of the biggest jobs I have ever tackled by myself and I got everything organized, labeled, sorted and put in a specific spot.  A few things I realized about my brother n law.  He loves books especially business and sales related books and he has multiple copies of a lot of the books.  A few things I learned about my sister n law.  She is great at food storage and cooks every night.  She has more patience than anyone I know.  Since it was her birthday and I know how Bryan is about birthdays I thought I might jump in and help her husband out.  He got her the most amazing gift all on his own, but he just started his own business and I know he has a lot on his plate.  So I made her birthday lunch/dinner and dessert.  It is easy to do things when you know it is appreciated.  I was also able to organize her pantry and a couple of her cupboards.  She may never find some of her stuff!!  Their house is absolutely amazing, it has a full basement which we were able to stay in and Rachel helped me get Alex to sleep through the night.  She deserves an award for that.  I am great with bedtime, but I am sucker when they want to eat in the middle of the night.  Rachel was able to convince me that she wouldn't starve to death in the middle of the night and that she would still love me in the morning.  I wasn't totally convinced she would be ok, but we switched the rooms we were sleeping in downstairs so I couldn't even hear her.  Alex is now sleeping a solid 12 - 14 hours each night. Rachel I owe you more than I will ever be able to repair you.  I really liked Idaho and would love to move closer to Rachel, but Bryan can't work out of Idaho.  Our trip home was entertaining.  I set the metal detector off at the airport and since I had no metal on me (except my under wire) they decided to pat me down, pat Alex down and pat Bradley down.  Of course my bra set it off consistently, but she even had me unroll the waist band of pants.  I was laughing at the fact that they patted down my 11 month old.

This is a ride at a place called Bear World.  You drive through and see bears, we also took the kids on a tour where you feed the bears and Bryan told Bradley that if he had any questions he could ask the tour guide and that is exactly what Bradley did.  He asked questions the whole time.

Here are some videos we made for Elder Andersen.

When Auntie Katy gets up in the morning, you end up with pigtails.  Alex's look funny because the boys were playing in the hose and sprayed her.

Wrestling with Uncle Blayne

Mia and Alex