The Brady's

We are Family!

2012-02-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

A wonderful lady from Green River, Jenni Simons, took some family pictures for us. (Kenzi's birthday pictures too!...Coming soon.)

That's the good ole Green River in the background.

She took some really fun playful ones too! Kind of captures the moment of what "really" goes on when you take pictures. :)

I swear if we get one girl smiling, the other has to be pulling a silly face.

Or not looking.

I kind of LOVE them all, because even the non-lookers and silly faces capture the curiosity and fun personalities of our little girls.

By the end getting the girls to smile was a nightmare. The bribe of ice cream worked at first, but by the end Brooklyn was convinced that the ice cream would never happen.

Jenni wanted to do some fun ones of Brandon and I.

My buddy and me! Side by side "Every step of the way"!
Thanks Jenni!

Christmas Parties!

2012-01-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

~OLSEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY~

On the 17th of December we met in Mt. Pleasant for the Olsen Party! The kids liked Santa. This was our first official Santa sighting of this year, and Brooklyn was so excited to see him.

Kenz had a mixed reaction. At first she liked him, but the longer we sat on his lap the more she didn't like him.

Brooklyn made off with her candy as soon as Santa gave it to her.

Santa gave Brandon some beautiful undergarments. :)

And since Brooklyn loves wearing big girl panties,... well she automatically assumed they were for her. :) And they definitely were some "BIG GIRL" panties. (She still asks to wear them sometimes.)

~THE NOGGER~

December 22nd was "THE" Nogger!! Good times were had by all in attendance. The "BIG GIRL" Panties made their second Christmas Party appearance...yes, sorry Jake those were re-gifted.

Ugly Sweaters and Crazy boys at their finest!

All girls team for Christmas Cranium.

All boys team.

Love these good friends!! It's always a party worth attending! (This year it was a sleepover! Yeah! Don't get many of those anymore.)

~AAGARD FAMILY PARTY~

Christmas Eve was a blast. Brooklyn was everywhere all at once, because there were so many fun cousins to play with, hence she would not sit for our family pic. (It's all right,... Kenz got more mommy & daddy time on her first Christmas.)

When it came to opening presents Brooklyn did show up. She and I did a little piano singing performance to get our gifts. Daddy and Kenz did some dancing and told highlights of 2011. I swear someone was playing a joke on Brooklyn and I because we opened 3 empty presents! It was pretty funny to see her reaction to nothing. She'd just go up and grab another one, like "huh, no big deal".

After a good meal and fabulous party we went back to my parents and opened our jammies. (What is a good age to stop doing the matching thing? :))

My Dad is doing so great. Finally finished with Chemo! You can see the personality and life coming back to him in this classy no-teeth pose with me.

Love my dad! After toasting to a successful year and the miracles we have seen. We then drove back to Castle Dale to have our first Christmas in our new home!!

~OUR HOUSE~

Christmas at our new house was a blast. Santa spoiled us all! Brooklyn loved all her princess stuff, dress up clothes, barbies, hot pink race track, and babies.

She really loved her and Kenzi's little color-me play house. We all (yes all four of us) played and ate stocking candy in there all morning! Kenz just wanted to be inside and look out the windows.

We all ate up our reindeer waffles. They were yummy!

We let Kenzington sleep in, as she is not the early riser that Brooklyn is. When Kenz got up she was so happy and excited to play with her ball popper, babies, blocks, puzzles, pop-up toys, and barbies. We were so enthralled with her excitement that we kind of spaced taking anymore pictures. But all in all we had an awesome Christmas!!

~BRADY FAMILY PARTY~

Christmas Evening was spent in Green River. Brooklyn and Kaylee playing on the IPAD. Such cute girls. We again got spoiled with Christmas presents.

We all went out to eat breakfast together. Grandpa is seriously so cute with all his little grand-daughters.

This little one loves to play with her Grandpa!

This years gingerbread creations!

We had so many fun parties and made so many great memories! We LOVE Christmas!

Shailyer! :)

2012-01-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

One of my very besties from the mission and life, Shailyn Rasmussen got married! This girl really means the world to me and has always been such a good friend. I couldn't miss her wedding for anything!! So off I went to Tennessee.

It was not exactly impeccable time with closing on the house, but hey... had to be there for my buddy. Everything worked out perfectly anyways. And I'm so glad I got to meet Tyler. He his hilarious and perfect for my girl Shai.

The Tennessee LDS Temple was beautiful. Such an amazing experience. Met a lady and her baby there. Her baby had a skin disease, but was absolutely the cutest thing. The baby loved my bracelets and so I just gave them to her, because she was such a little miracle and anything to brighten her day. (I love these time of random, heart-warming interactions with people.) It made me miss my little babies who were safe at home with dad.

For Shai's bachelorette party we went out to eat, played some games, and then went to... BREAKING DAWN!! (I'm such a tween at heart...loved it.) Shai looked like the perfect little bride-to-be princess!

The day was beautiful and the reception a blast. So Shai! My two favorite things at the reception was the food and the photo booth. The food: Waffles and Chicken Strips... served with bottle Dr. Pepper. The photo booth: Instant memories and then you signed your name in a book along with your photos.

It was a beautiful wedding. Shai and Tyler are going to be so happy. I am so glad that I could be apart of their special day!!

Memories of time spent in Green River

2012-01-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is a picture overloaded quick recap of some of our memories from short time in Green River.

Despite Kenzi's.... uh "robust" stature... she has never really cared much for baby food. Brandon devised this brilliant plan of placing spoonfuls of her food on the lemon bottle and then she would suck it off herself. It actually worked beautifully, but messily too. :) She thought she was so big doing it herself.

Brandon's mom had told me several times about how when she was little her mom use to do her hair up in rags. So we revisited those memories by trying on my hair. We literally cut up a towel and rolled my hair up in it. It was slightly a fro, but pretty fun experiment.

When we took Kenzington in for her 2 week check up after her ear surgery, Brooklyn fell trying to run into the doctors. She got her first fat lip. :( She was pretty proud of it though.

(Have I mentioned Brooklyn LOVES the doctors? That's while she was running and tripped. She can never get in to see the nurses fast enough. Reason: She associates it with the sucker that she gets after.)

Brooklyn and Kaylee are seriously the cutest little buddies. They show what I like to call "tough love" to each other. Sometimes they are so sweet, but cause they are the same size they can sometimes get into it too.

Free fish day in Green River. The whole city was out to the pond.

Dad and Brooklyn fishing unsuccessfully.

Mom and Kenz fishing successfully. (Probably the worlds smallest catch, but I was stoked! Kenz was just wanted to suck on the pole, so I'm suprised we caught anything.)

Brandon's converts from his mission to Mexico City came to visit us. Luis and Sandra Ramirez. They were so sweet and brought us and our girls all sorts of delicacies from Mexico.

Halloween was a blast in Green River. We went to a local growers patch to pick our pumpkins. So much fun trying to pick out the perfect one.

K seriously though Kaylee and Brooklyn are the bestest buddies.

Let the carving begin!

We had to find a very large pumpkin for this little tub-a-lub! :)

The grand-daughters.

Brooklyn fit in the pumpkin better than Kenzington did. :)

All lit up!

Brooklyn was so into Halloween this year. She would really run from house to house. SO FUN!! I was so into it, cause she was seriously so giddy! Our little super girl.

We couldn't get her to hold still for a picture... she was too anxious to trick-or-treat the next house.

Kenz our little Frog!

Brooklyn decided she wanted to sleep off the bed on the floor. Halloween really wiped her out.

Potty training is done! (I hated every minute of it!) Brooklyn is getting so big and is such good big sister. I can't believe all that she can do to help me out. I LOVE her so much.

In the few months that we were in Green River, Kenz learned to roll, crawl, and stand-up next to things!! It seriously amazes me just how fast those little phases of learning go by. She is such a little sweet heart! I LOVE her!!

We had a really good time in Green River! We enjoyed all the memories made there, and are so happy to be living so close to our amazing families!!

Ear Surgery

2012-01-07T14:36:00.001-08:00

Kenzington was a lot tougher baby than Brooklyn to begin with,... that is until we figured out what was causing all the problem. Kenzington kept getting ear infections. You could always tell when she had one because she'd go from perfectly content, amazingly good baby to agitated fuss pot. Happiest little surgery patient ever!

By the time she hit 6 months they said it would be best to have tubes put in her ears because she had had SEVEN separate and distinct ear infections. However, the only time they could do the surgery was during the move. Brandon was already working down in Castle Dale, so I had my wonderful neighbor Penny Jensen watch Brooklyn while I took Kenzington in for her ear surgery at 7am. The initial day after surgery was a little rough, but since then it has been a night and day difference for her.

We did do some fun things while Brandon was gone working and we were alone in Logan packing up the house. To take a break from the monotony we had a girls day with our cousins Chole, Oakley, and Taci to the Logan Zoo! We were sad we didn't get to spend more time with them. (They moved up to Logan two weeks before we moved out.) Brooklyn had some much fun with them, in the short time they got to know each other.

August Friends trip!

2012-01-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

Last years LOTOMO group tried to do it again this year!

And though a few key couples are missing from previous years we still had a blast as always! (Big props to those of us who keep up the tradition.) ;)

Some four-wheeling was done. And Brooklyn loved it! (Four-wheeling still really freaks me out since the accident... either that or just that I'm getting older and am in mommy mode. Not really sure which.)

At the mine overlook. Missing Chana and Kenzington. (Thanks to Chana for watching her while we went on the ride. Love ya!)

The food can be nothing but amazing when you have us in the kitchen.

The boys sporting their newly tie-dyed shirts. Awesome!

This is what you get when you leave the boys in-charge of dying the girls' shirts! :)

Okay.... us naive little princesses are TOTALLY responsible for those seductive tie-dyed beasts!! And they are awesome. Good times were had by everyone!

The PIANO!!

2012-01-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

I have been a major slacker when it comes to blogging lately. But with a new year and new resolutions I am going to try to do better. So for the next few posts or so I am going to be playing a little catch up.

Two years ago, my Grandmother Betty Aagard (seriously the best piano player I know!), called me up saying that her cousin Ruth had my great-grandmothers, sisters piano and wondered if I was interested in it. I don't know who in there right mind would pass up a baby grand, especially when it had that much family history too.

Well, needless to say, the exterior of the piano was in bad repair. (I don't know who would ever take this bad of care of an instrument like this.) However, the harp itself, besides being severely out of tune, was in perfect condition.

With the help of Bob Morrow (good friend and woods craft-man from Logan) we had the piano back looking sparkly new in no time!!

I seriously couldn't be happier with how it turned out. It looks AMAZING!! Brandon did such a good job fixing it up. Plus we have the perfect VT/Piano room for it in our new house!

Moving it into the house was a BUGGER though! Pretty sure everyone who helped us move it said that we can never move again. BIG THANKS to everyone who helped us with this. I LOVE it more than anything!! (Well any material gift!) :)

2 month recap!

2011-09-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

The last 2 months have probably been the craziest, fun, out-of-control, bi-polar, two months of our married lives thus far. Brandon started his job with Johansen & Tuttle Engineering in Castle Dale, Utah. He is loving it. He is currently working on a project for 90 days in Green River reconstructing the state park road. Brandon's parents were nice enough to let us move in with them for the time being, so that Brandon would be close to work and we could start the house hunt. We can't thank them enough for the kindness that they have shown us!

We took family pictures with the Aagard Family. My dad started chemo. He had a really rough go the first week and was back in the hospital 2 days after getting home because he was so weak. They did a feeding tube and a pic line, and after another week he was able to come back home. He had us all really worried for a bit. He had a fever that just wouldn't break. Can I just say it is so so hard seeing him like this. He is my hero! He is fighting and will continue to fight. He started second round on chemo this week. It will hopefully be better than the first week.

Kenzington had her 6 month birthday! :) We love our little chubba lubba!

She is off the charts weighing in at a whopping 23 lbs! She is rolling, sitting, and starting to crawl. She does an inch worm sort of movement to get things she wants and laughs so hard at anything Brooklyn does. My favorite thing is watching the two of them interact! Kenz has been such a joy to have around.

House hunting has been so much fun..... However, it is much more of a process than they make it seem on HGTV! :) We went through over 20 houses and we really didn't LOVE LOVE anything. Ugh! Then building became an option. We got pre-approved, picked plans, went to look at a house with a similar floor plans, found a lot, and were well on our way to building. Then a Castle Dale friend stopped to tell us about a foreclosure that just came on the market, so we thought why not look at it. I mean we hadn't committed 100% yet to build, so it couldn't hurt to look at one more house. We fell in LOVE with it and all of the possibilities! It felt so right for us. And even better we got it for a steal of a deal cause it was foreclosed!

Luckily our lender has been right on top of things and we were able to switch from building (construction loan, property loan, and a mortgage), to a rural loan on a foreclosure. It worked of perfectly that we were already pre-approved, because we were able to put in an offer the following day.

Talk about an emotional roller coaster!! (What if we don't get it?? What if our offer's too low and someone else bid higher?! I want that HOUSE!! I NEED that HOUSE!!) We didn't hear back for 24 hours and then finally after 48 hours we knew that they had accepted our offer!! Yay! Biggest relief.

Now we are just working on paperwork and will hopefully sign in a week or so. (Paperwork takes FOREVER! Plus it is so much more paperwork for a foreclosure!) We've completed the inspection and appraisal. Talk about problems with getting everyone organized to get the inspection done! The electricity wasn't working because Rocky Mtn. Power forgot to turn it on, same story with the water, and the gas lines needed to be bled in order for them to work properly..... ugh! A few curse words later, things got done and we passed the inspection with flying colors. :) So that's where we are at with the house.

We are just trying to enjoy this crazy journey that we are on right now. Living in the moment. We are loving the time that we get to spend here with family, parents, and cousins. Hopefully we will be in our own place soon, but for now we are just extremely grateful to have such a great family and support system!

Lamb Days 2011

2011-08-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

Lamb Days this year was a blast. We had so much fun at the good 'ole home town holiday. I got the girls matching Lamb Day outfits. . . reminds me of when Jessica and I were younger. :)

Watching the Lamb Day parade.

Brooklyn loved the parade this year, and loved the popsicles even more! Emily would help her catch them.

Kenzington enjoying her beads with Daddy.

My brother-in-law Benji, along with his band, were the hired entertainment for the day! They did such an awesome job. I have such cool brother-in-laws! (Benji is the lead singer.)

They sang one country song and you better believe it, me and my sis got everyone out there line-dancing. :) Even little Brooklyn.

My parents are so cute! I just love how in love they are and all that they have gone through together. My mom has literally dropped everything to take care of my dad. Dad is currently starting cemo treatments 5 days in ICU, 5 days home, 5 days in, 5 days home, .... for 5 weeks. It's going to be a bugger, but all you can do is fight. And I'm so proud of him for doing all he can to fight this.

On another note, Kenzington has started eating oatmeal, rice cereal, and mixed grain cereals. She seems to have mixed feelings about it. Honestly, I think "real food" is just an an annoyance to her. She's gotta learn though. :)

Alaska! ~ July 6th - 13th 2011

2011-08-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I had such a fun summer vacation this year. We went to Anchorage, Alaska.

Brandon had an Engineering Conference up there, and we talked my sweet sister Jessica, her awesome husband Coby, and their little chub-a-lub baby Kayson into coming with us. (But let's be honest, this party in Alaska didn't take much convincing, it kind of sells itself.)

My favorite little Kenzi face of all time!! Haha! The hat squishes her little eyes down on her chubby cheeks to make her look grumpy. :)

Our first activity upon arriving in Alaska was to drive to Seward, along the most beautiful highway in the Nation, and went on a Glacier Wildlife Cruise tour. Here are pictures highlighting that cruise.
Lots of Glaciers! (It was so neat to hear them calve.)

Harbor Seals.

Sea Lions.

Humpback Whales.

Sea Otters.

Puffins.

Bald Eagles.

Beautiful Islands and Scenery.

The flower blossoms were huge. Must be all those hours of daylight.

We would totally recommend the Kenai Ford Glacier Tour to anyone who goes to Alaska. Such a great way to see all the wildlife!

The boat ride put Kenz right to sleep.

I have so much fun with my little sister!

We went to Alaska's wildlife conservation center where we so many more native Alaskan animals.
Grizzly Bear

Elk.

Musk Ox.

Moose.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Healy, AK. It was the cutest little family cabin near Denali National Park.

We rode the Grizzly at the Totem Bar in Healy. So much fun!!

In much need of repentance of our previous night at the bar, :) j/k we visited the Anchorage Temple.

Brandon and Coby did a lot of waiting with the kids while Jessica and I shopped! :) After this trip they had much sympathy for us carrying the babies the 9 long months of pregnancy.

Denali National Park was so much fun. 70% percent of people who go to Denali do not see Mtn. McKinnley ... the highest mountain in the Nation... but we were some of the 30% ers! :) It did not disappoint.

We were able to watch the dog sled demo at Denali, and all of the pups were really friendly. They got super crazy when we would bring the babies close, so we kept the kids at a distance.

We ran into a baby moose, but we didn't want to get to close in case the mom came around.

We also went on some beautiful hikes while in Denali.

We saw more wildlife.
Baby Seagulls. . . . Jessica got attacked by their mother for getting to close. :)

Chipmunks.

After Denali we went back south to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

We drove to the seaside town of Whittier, through the Nations Longest Underground Tunnel. (Brandon loved this.)

Exploring Whittier. Just a really small town with amazingly good fudge! :)

As you can tell we saw a lot of wildlife, hear are the Mountain sheep that we saw on the cliffs near the road. They are such good climbers.

We stopped an hiked Byron Glacier while near Whittier.

At one of Brandon's conference meetings they had the 4 time champion of the Iditarod as a motivational speaker.

Brandon and Coby in downtown Anchorage.

View from the plane leaving Alaska. What a beautiful state and such an awesome adventure!

Life in the fast lane....

2011-07-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been going a mile a minute. We left on a week long vacation to Alaska (Alaska deserves its own post when life gets a little less hectic. Alaska was actually a Transportation Engineering Conference for Brandon, but I got to tag along with.) We spent a week in Fountain Green for Lamb Days (also deserves its own post). We have been avidly working on refinishing our baby grand piano, and it is looking so good. We took family pictures in Fairview with the Aagard family (pics to come). All in the past three weeks while Brandon finished his thesis, passed his defense committee, and has been applying and interviewing for jobs!!

~Breathe~ Thus blogging has been pushed to the back burner.

So this is just a quick post to keep you informed. Jobs are looking very promising! Now it is trying to figure out what will be the best move for Brandon's career and for our family. It seriously STRESSES me out, but it is so exciting for our family! I so afraid of accepting a job only to have our dream job be offered to us the next day. Ugh! I guess it will all work out, but our life could seriously go in so many different directions, because there are just SO many decisions! (... what job to take (anywhere from Alaska to Maine), rent vs. buy vs. build, commuting or relocating, school districts for our kids, city vs. small town, etc.) I know we will end up where we are suppose to be, but until decided I'm sure I'll continue to stress. Stay continued for the next chapter of our life!!!!!

Nail Polish!

2011-06-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

I just started playing in a 7:30 am women's tennis league. (Which is SO much fun I might add.) However, upon returning home this is how I found Brooklyn!!

That's the last time I leave Brandon in charge! UGH! ........ No, I'm sure it could have happened on my watch too, but I just don't get how she got the lid off the nail polish, I mean I am usually prying at the lids with my teeth, so how does she manage to get it off?!

I had to put myself in a time out so that I wouldn't completely snap. I kept telling myself, "this will be funny... someday." She had tried so hard to paint her toe nails that her one whole foot was covered, as well as the carpet.

After much scrubbing it did come off the carpet, .... for the most part. It seriously took all day to scrub out. Now we are back to clean carpet and happy kids.

Kenzington was being such a cheese in the bumbo that I had to snap some pics.

Brooklyn has this natural flip and curl to her hair. I just love it!

We've also been having a lot of pool parties!! Here is Brooklyn with Tyce and Jacey Walker, Brittany Palmer Walker's kids.

Kenz just enjoyed watching.

First time Zumba-ing!! Ya Chana and I are pretty much the bomb-dot-com. I think we missed our callings in life as a dancers.

And lastly two kids make for a lot more laundry. I seriously feel like I can't keep up sometimes, but they are totally worth it.

Kenzington's 4 month stats!

2011-06-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

Weight = 18 lbs. 1 oz., OFF THE CHARTS - 100th percentile!
Height = 25.75 inches, 75th percentile.

Kenz is just growing up way too fast. She is always smiling and makes this funny little giggle/gasp for air when you try to tickle or tease her. She is reaching for everything and can roll considering her arms don't get in the way. She loves attention from anyone and will chat your ear off with cooing.

Me - "Um, doctor, should I be concerned that my baby is "OFF THE CHARTS"??"
Doctor - "No breastfeed babies tend to follow their own unique curves. At least you know she's eating well and healthy. It is really hard to over feed a breastfeed baby. Just must be giving her straight cream. Nothing to worry about that."

Yeah, Kenz has grown like exponentially in the past 2 months! We love our little chubbers!

Grandpa's Surgery, cousins, trips, and family fun!

2011-05-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

We have been on the go for the past couple of weeks. It all started out with a trip down to Fountain Green to our nephew Jared Strait's Baptism. We were able to spend a lot of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa, plus all of the cousins.

The little girl cousins had a tea party with Grandma Aagard. She can't seem to get enough of her Grandkids! Grandma spent a lot of time rocking with Kayson and Kenzington.

The three youngest cousins got together for some comparison pictures. We like to call them "Ketchup, Pepper, and Salt." Kayson has reddish hair and fair skin, Kenzington has brown hair and dark skin, and Christian has blonde hair and a medium skin tone.

They may be way different in skin tone and hair color, but they are all such chubbers. (7 months, 6 months, and 3 months.)

We not only came down for Jared's Baptism, but for my dad's brain surgery as well. This is how we spent the evening before Grandpa's surgery. Brooklyn loves dancing with Grandpa.

The girls and I decide to stay for the rest of the week in Fountain Green just to be around throughout the surgery. The last surgery dad had quite the recovery, but this time he came out remarkably well.

He was racing around the halls of the hospital with in an hour after his surgery. We sure love our Grandpa! He's such a strong fighter.

And there is no place that we would rather be than with family during times like these. (Only wish we lived closer.)

All the kids zonked out at the hospital.

When we finally got back to Logan, Brandon was done with finals (Yay! His last class of forever!) and we then went to SLC for my Software and System Technology Conference. After the conference we went down to Green River and spent time with the Brady family. (No pictures because Brandon had the camera with him in Moab for a mancation.) Green River is always a blast. Late night games with the family are my favorite!

When we got back to Logan I decided to do something drastic. I've needed a little pick me up since having Kenz so ....

yep, I dyed it BLONDE!!

Brooklyn loved taking these pictures with me, so we had to take like a zillion. I'm really liking the change so far, but don't worry it won't be a forever thing.

Have I mentioned how much I love my little girls?!! I seriously couldn't ask for better girls.

We always have so much fun together as a family. Like this Memorial Weekend for example. We took off on a drive to Clarkston, Utah. (the place that we would likely move to if we stay permanently in Logan) We ended up in the cemetary because it's memorial day, and low and behold Martin Harris is buried there. That was a very neat church historical site to stumble upon.

We had so much fun with this new discovery that we decided, why not go discover some new areas of Northern Utah that we have never been to. So off we went.

We ended up at the Golden Spike National Historic Site. It was super interesting and way fun for both kids and adults. Kenz loved the stroller ride, Brooklyn loved the "chew chew tains," Brandon loved the engineering of it all, and I simply loved just being with my family.

Family time is seriously the best!

The girls!

2011-04-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to quickly jot down some of the cute little things that my little girls do to make me smile.

KENZINGTON:
She is seriously getting so big! Some of the things she is doing....
~She is smiling all the time now! All you have to do is look at her. She gets really big grins when Brooklyn talks to her.
~Kenz tries to have a conversation with anyone if you sit and talk to her. She just keeps the "coo's" going and going. It's my favorite.
~She is basically sitting up. Probably because her little belly is so big that she can't really fall over. :)
~She is sleeping through the night. Kenz sleeps from about 10:30pm to 6am. She has been doing this since 6 weeks.
~Kenz hates her belly. She gets so grumpy if left on her belly for more than 5 minutes.
~She is starting to reach up and grab things. It is still pretty uncoordinated but you can tell she is focusing so hard.
~On a not so happy note, Kenzington has had two ear infections already. The doctors don't seem too concerned, but Brooklyn never had an ear infection, so it worries me a little. Despite the ear infections Kenz is a really happy, content baby.

BROOKLYN:
Where do I start with this little spit fire...
~She is repeating EVERYTHING! There is nothing she can't say. Even when Brandon and I try to whisper and have a private conversation, she will catch something and repeat it back.
~Brooklyn loves to sing! Her favortie songs are "Amazing" by Bruno Mars and Justin Biebers "Baby". She runs to the computer every morning saying "Baby, Baby, eewwww .... pease, baby, baby eewwww." She's two and already caught the Bieber fever.
~She comes in our room every morning saying "Hi mommy! Hi mommy!"
~If you laugh at her she will keep doing the thing that you laughed at over and over again. She is so funny when she says "Pepperoni, water, or rooster." She will just keep repeating those words if you laugh at her.
~She sleeps in her big girl bed and loves it! She goes to bed at 7:30 or 8:00 without a fuss, peep, or fight. I often sit by her door as she sings herself to sleep.
~Brooklyn counts to ten and says her ABC's so well. (I'll try to get a video of it soon, but she is super camera shy.) She can't ever stop counting at like 5 or 6, it is always to 10. She recognizes numbers and letters on signs, books, letters, etc.
~If you tell Brooklyn to hurry she'll run as fast as her little legs can go, which looks like more of a march in place.
~She really recognizes emotions. She comes up to me with a frowny face an says, "Mommy sad!" She kisses me and then smiles saying, "Mommy happy!"
~I know when I am looking good, because I'll walk into the room and Brooklyn will say, "woot woot mommy" or "mommy cute". This just makes my day!
~Brooklyn says she needs to go potty like 20 times a day. Not my favorite thing, but at least she is interested. She goes in the toilet maybe like twice or three times of those 20. Ugh!
~She loves making her little sister smile. She will do anything I ask, as long as it is for Kenzington or to make Kenzington happy. She's quite the little helper.

There are times when being a mom is very trying, but when my kids make me smile or laugh it is all worth it. I just want to hold on to every memory because they grow-up and change so fast.

West Desert Camping Trip!

2011-04-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend was our annual camping trip with the Aagard family. We seriously had a blast, even though we spent most of the camping trip in the sheep camp.
It was a little too cold for Kenzington outside, so she got the spoiled treatment, and I benefited as well, by being able to sleep inside the sheep camp. Brandon and Brooklyn roughed it outside in the tent.

Brooklyn didn't seem to mind the bad weather. She was constantly finding something to entertain herself.

Whether it be trying to catch bugs and horny-toads, (She kept trying to kiss it! Gross!)

or just playing in the dirt. (Which we couldn't keep her out of!)

This girl knows how to make a good time out of any situation. (A lesson that I still need to learn sometimes.)

After getting all dirty we couldn't go to bed that way, so we had bathtime.

Kenz didn't want to miss out on any of the action either.

Seriously though, have you ever seen a baby with this many rolls at two months?!?! She is such a cute little chunk!

I was pretty sure the Easter Bunny wouldn't come because of how many rabbits Brandon and Coby had shot, but somehow he found us anyway.

Brooklyn loved all the candy and egg hunts. She would follow anyone around until they would open some more candy for her. (She's a girl after my own heart.)

The weather wasn't the only misery we encountered on this trip. Every vehicle but ours had some sort of mishap. Two flat tires and a broken truck later we finally made it home.

Despite all of the problems along the way, it is always fun spending time with family to make memories while you have the time. My dad's cancer that was removed from his brain FIVE WEEKS AGO showed up AGAIN on his most recent MRI!! They believe it is a cyst, but they will have to operate and remove it again just to be sure. He just can't seem to catch a break. So the pancreatic cancer is on hold for now until they get things with the brain in order. We love our dad and grandpa, so hopefully they can just beat this stupid cancer. Until it is beat we are trying to take that lesson from little Brooklyn and turn a bad situation around as much as we can. LOVE YOU DAD!!

Birthday Bash!

2011-04-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn's birthday started out with her usual morning routine . . . playing with her little pals!

I can't believe that my little Brooklyn is two years old! Her birthday party was a blast. We first went to the mall with all of my sister, my mom, and Brandon's brother's Shawn and Nicolas. (Where we did some shopping for my birthday! It is so weird that I am now 27...sounds so old.) I LOVE shopping with my sisters!! Brooklyn loved playing with all of her Aagard cousins on the playground in the Orem mall. She really loved the water sculpture thing and I couldn't say "no" to her playing in it and getting all wet because... well it's her birthday!

It was so much fun with all the little ones around.

We then went to Chucky Cheese where Brooklyn had the time of her life. She would barely sit still to open her presents. She just wanted to play all the games and ride all the little mechanical cars.

She loved her Minnie Mouse cake! I'm pretty proud of this cake because Brandon did most of the icing while I was feeding Kenzington!! How many dad's can do that?? :)

She really dug into her cake this year! She loves Minnie Mouse.

By the end of the day she was completely wiped out! She pulled her hood over her head and that's how she fell asleep! Our fun little two year old!! (While her and Kenzi were sleeping we took a stroll down memory lane stopping in Bountiful at the place we stayed while Brooklyn was in the NICU. Forever grateful for the miracle of her life!)

2 Months and 2 Years!

2011-04-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Kenzington and Brooklyn both had to see the doctor at the same time; Kenz for her two month appointment and Brooklyn for her 2 year appointment! Double the shots equals double the frazzled mom! (Yep, Brandon definitely came to this appointment.) However, I am happy to report that both girls are doing amazing! Kenzington has jumped from the 30th percentile to the 96th percentile in weight, weighing in at a whopping 13 lbs. 8 oz.!! (Our pediatrician made some reference to Cache Valley being known for their good Milk cows ... I thought it was pretty funny.) She's our little chub and we love her!! Brooklyn now weighs 28 lbs. and is in the 70th percentile for both weight and height. I still can't believe that our little miracle is turning two tomorrow!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little BROOKLYN PAIGE! We love you! (Pics of her birthday to come soon!)

Chaos!

2011-03-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well we are loving the new addition to our family and we think that she is just as cute as can be!! She is a super good baby!

And we are loving all the other new additions that seem to add just a little bit more chaos to our lives!

Know anyone who wants a puppy for Easter??

Newborn Pics!

2011-03-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Kenzington's newborn photo shoot!

Of course we had to get some family pictures and Brooklyn pictures too!

Kenzington's Baby Blessing!

2011-03-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

We blessed Kenzington Kay on March 6th, 2011. She was given a beautiful blessing by her father. Kenzington looked like such a little princess in her white dress.
We made it kind of a rushed decision to bless her on the 6th, because my Dad has been having major health concerns, and I really wanted him to be there for Kenzington's big day. To put it simply, his brain cancer is back and they have also found cancer in his pancreas. He had brain surgery the very next day after Kenzi's blessing. He is doing well, considering the circumstances.
We held a luncheon up at the University Inn. It was so fun to have so many friends and family come support us. Thanks!

Recent Happenings

2011-03-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a road trip to Arizona for Brandon's friend Tyson Christensen's Wedding to Valerie Hemminger. It was a super hot outdoor wedding, but very beautiful.

Brandon was one of Tyson's groomsmen. Another groomsmen passed out from heat exhaustion just before the bride and groom kissed. It was seriously that hot.

We left Brooklyn with Brandon's parents for some quality bonding time and took Kenzington with us. I really don't think Brooklyn would have liked the 13 hour road trip. It is so nice having family you can count on. Kenz was such a good little traveler.

I just have to share how in love Brooklyn is with her baby sister. Kenzington is Brooklyn's best friend, but I'm not sure how Kenzi feels about it quite yet. We sure have a good time though. (Brooklyn thinks she has to be in the bouncer with Kenzi. . . pretty sure there has to be a weight limit on the bouncer.)

Our morning routine of Brooklyn begging to "ho der, ho der!"
Any time I am trying to rock, feed, cuddle, or sing-to Kenzington, Brooklyn has to be right there in the action. She not jealous, just wants to help. And sometimes Maggie wants to help too!

2 weeks!

2011-02-24T13:35:00.000-08:00

Quick Kenzington update. Kenzington just hit her two week mark on February 22nd, and she is already growing. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 inches long. She is in the 90 percentile for length, and 35 percentile for weight. She's already changing. We love our little Kenz.

Grandparents!

2011-02-20T10:22:00.001-08:00

Brooklyn sure does love her new little sister!

We have been very lucky to have so much support and love from family and friends. My parents drove up during the middle of night to get here to watch Brooklyn while we were in the hospital. They have had quite a few new grandkids in the last year, but have a way of making each one feel so special.

We love having them come visit. Sometimes a girl just needs her mom!

Brandon's parents came over quickly after and stayed. We sure appreciated their help.

It's always fun having visitors, especially when it's the Grandparents!

Kenzington Kay Brady!!

2011-02-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Kenzington Kay Brady on February 8th, 2011 at 4:37am. She weighed in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and is 20 inches long.

Here's how it all went down. So at 5pm on Monday afternoon I started having some contractions. No big deal, because I have been having them for the last week or so. However, at the same time I had taken some Castor Oil so I thought this might be the real thing. (Castor Oil didn't make me sick, it definitely cleaned me out, but totally worth it cause I went into labor.) By 9pm I was having some pretty strong contractions. I tried taking a bath, but this time it didn't slow them down. By midnight Brandon and I decided it was time to go in. We called Kalli and Jordan to come sleepover and watch Brooklyn. We are so grateful to have such good friends.

When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced. Within and hour I was at a 6. At this point I thought . . . oh ya, I can totally go with no epidural, the contractions were painful but totally manageable. Then they came and broke my water!!

Within seconds of them breaking my water I was pleading for an epidural. The nurse told me I might not have time because I was instantly at a 10 and about ready to push. There is a huge burning sensation when the baby is crowning that I can't even explain. Contractions:manageable, burning sensation: not! They still tried to get me the epidural and it took right before I started pushing. (Note to self: I will never try that again!)

After three pushes she was here!! Brandon and I were both so emotional as they laid her on my chest. We didn't have anything close to this experience with Brooklyn and it was such a tender moment for us. In our hospital room the sign read, "Cherish the little things." And we definitely have been.

Getting ready to go home!

No one under the age of 14 could enter the hospital so Brooklyn wasn't able to meet her sister until a day later. She was pretty thrilled.

Kenzington started to cry as we took our first family photo, and notice Brooklyn's look of concern. Brooklyn instantly started to cry too and said, "Baby sad! Baby sad." It was really sweet. (I'm sure Brandon was just thinking, "Oh boy, a house full of emotional girls." :)

Brooklyn is very protective of her baby sister and is definitely . . . uh, helpful/smothering. :) She always has to know what is going on with Kenzington.

We are so happy to have Kenzington home!

39 week drama!

2011-02-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 5th 2011 Brooklyn was having the time of her life taking the pillows off of our bed and throwing them down the stairs, that is until she went down with one of the pillows! She cried for a little bit and then acted fine until we pulled her pj's on that night. She would wince every time we touched her arm but still wouldn't cry. We thought it just might be sore or possibly sprained, but the wincing continued when we put on her dress for church the next morning. So one ER visit later and the conclusion . . . Green Stick Fracture.

She was so tough that she didn't even cry when the doctors touched and pulled on her arm, so I slightly felt like an idiot when they said, "It doesn't act like it hurts her, but let's just get some x-rays anyways." She wanted to get a pink cast, but they were out so she chose purple instead. She really doesn't seem to mind it, but I just worry about her clonking the new baby with it. We will definitely have to be on the watch.

So I am now 39 weeks pregnant and desperate to be done! I have tried everything . . . walking, running, raspberry pills, on-and-off the curb, squats, stairs, aromatherapy oils, etc.

I still haven't tried castor oil, but I've heard good things. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm just getting so tired of having contractions, and then they just stop! It's so frustrating! We are getting so excited to meet this little girl!

At the request of my sisters here I am at 39 weeks. There has been a lot more going on with the Aagard side of our family, RSV, tumors, pneumonia, to mention a few. We just need this little girl to get here so that we can have a breath of fresh air.

News . . .

2011-02-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, so no baby yet, but I do have some super exciting news. Brandon has been working very hard to get his Masters Degree in Transportation Engineering and be done in less than a year. One of his papers that he has been writing just got accepted into a Conference that will be held in the BAHAMAS this spring!! It is such a huge honor for him, as he will have to present it before a National Economics Audience. (and yes, we have every intention of making a vacation out of this, because the Bahamas is one of the places we went on our Honeymoon.) With all this cold winter weather we have been having lately, I can't wait for this. (Plus it's a really good motivation to get back into shape after this baby.) I'm so proud of Brandon and all of his accomplishments as a full-time grad student, provider, father, and husband. He seriously amazes me with all that he is able to do.

As for baby news, we are still just waiting for her to make her big début. I'm getting kind of impatient and just want to meet her already, but I guess she'll come when she's ready. I've decided, based off of comments & advice to the previous post, that I will probably just let her come when she decides to rather than getting induced. And, I think I will just wait and see on the epidural. (More than likely I will get one, but I sometimes like to think that I am tough.)

Baby update!

2011-01-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

I am now almost 38 weeks pregnant. I can't believe how fast this 9 month journey has flown by, but now it's really starting to drag on. I went to the doctors today. I'm dilated to a three and 60% effaced! This makes me so happy, because I still remember that after 24 hours of hard labor with Brooklyn, I was only dilated to a one!! :( (Not one of my fondest memories!) Guess that's what happens when they start you at 35 weeks. Granted my joy of the doctor telling me that I am dilated to a three soon passed when he said, "I had a patient that was dilated to a 5 for three weeks!" Ugh!! However, I am having lots of contractions, so hopefully we will have this baby sooner rather than later.

Brandon has been gone for the past week to Washington DC to present his paper to the Transportation Research Board. We neither one realized at the time of his paper submission that the conference would happen this close to our baby's due date. Brooklyn has been an angel while he has been gone, but it is the day to day stuff that is really getting to me. Bending over in the tub to try and give her a bath, when her toys get stuck underneath the couch, loading her in and out of the car, etc. . . all of these relatively simple tasks are becoming somewhat difficult. (All manageable, but boy do I miss his help.)

Brooklyn felt the baby kick for the first time and you should have seen the look on her face. Priceless!! She was so shocked and excited. She looked up and said "BABY SIZZTER??!!" I love that she is understanding what is going on. I am sad however, that due to flu season Brooklyn is not allowed to see the baby until we bring her home. :( My doctor did say that he would induce me a week early. I just wanted to get opinions on induction, and also going natural verses an epidural. What are your thoughts??

Green River Christmas!

2011-01-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

We seriously had a month long break, so hopefully our families didn't get to sick of us hanging around. We drove to Green River Christmas Day. All the girls had fun with Brooklyn's new doll house.

Then our creativity came out when we made Gingerbread houses. Brandon obviously couldn't just build a house, his inner-engineer came out and he built a suspension bridge.

It turned into a "who has the most candy on their house" contest for the little kids. All of our houses!

We also were able to visit Green Rivers newest attraction . . . The Golden Ratio!

Apparently there are only six in the entire world, and the top is covered in solid gold leaf. Pretty impressive for such a small rural town.

Our niece Jocelyn Brady was baptized on January 8th! It was a very spiritual baptism. We are so proud of her and her decision to get baptized.

Christmas Eve and CHRISTMAS!!

2011-01-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

The Aagard Christmas party is one of my favorite traditions. Brooklyn sang "Once there was a Snowman" with Brandon to earn her present. Brooklyn is starting to sing a lot lately.

Brooklyn helping Uncle Scott read the story of Christ's birth.

Christmas was awesome! Someone got a little spoiled, and she loved it!

She was excited about the littlest things . . . SOAP!!

I was worried that Brooklyn would get bored opening clothes after opening toys, but she was just as excited about clothes as she was the toys!! My favorite reaction was her high-pitched happy voice saying "JAMMIES!!"

Brooklyn got a new baby doll, stroller, and accessories. She is so cute with her baby. She's getting some good practice in for her new baby sister!

We were able to attend Jessica and Coby's baby, Kayson's, blessing. Coby did a great job and they have such a cute little family. Here are all of the Aagard Granddaughters at the luncheon in their matching dresses that Grandma Aagard gave them. Such cute girls!

Nogger!

2011-01-12T00:24:00.000-08:00

Brandon and I had my parents watch Brooklyn on the 23rd of December and we were able to go to the Annual Christmas Nogger with a bunch of our friends!

The boys had a beard growing contest.

We seriously know some of the funniest people that you will ever meet.

The sweaters were all pretty awesome, and though Brandon and I didn't win the sweater or beard contest, I think we do win for the most redneck couple. :) (The prego belly pretty much wins it for you everytime!)

Family Christmas Party!

2011-01-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

We had our annual Olsen Family Christmas Party on the 18th of December in Mount Pleasant, Utah. We were so lucky that Santa was able to make time in his busy schedule to come and visit us.

This was the year to see whether or not Brooklyn would be scared of Santa.

Yep, she pretty much loved him!

Brooklyn is 5 million times more scared of the doctor than she is of Santa. Even when Santa was leaving she kept running up to him to jingle his belt of bells. :)

We got together with the cousins a lot over the Christmas Break! My mom and dad sure know how to throw a party... well, let's just say my mom does. :)

Brandon and Emily.

Little Cheese Ball.

Once there was a Snowman!

2011-01-11T23:58:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn has been slightly obsessed with Snowman this winter. She see's one and won't stop repeating the word "No-Man" for hours! :)

We took advantage of the huge snow storms that they had in Fountain Green while we were there.

Brooklyn LOVED playing in the snow, even with her over-sized gloves!

Pony Tail

2011-01-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

Before we left for our LONG Christmas Break/Vacation, I noticed Brooklyn's hair was rather long.

Just figured that this was a monumental day in the life of a girl . . .

Brooklyn's first full Pony Tail!!

'Tis the Season . . .

2010-12-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

for Family pictures!!

Go Aggies!

Love her little smile here!

30 Weeks!

2010-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

I just had my 30 week doctor appointment, and everything is looking good! Except my figure that is! :) No I really can't complain to much, I enjoy this phase of pregnancy much more than the first three or four months of sickness.

We are getting so excited to meet this little girl! But by no means ready yet. Thank goodness we still have 10 more weeks. We are still working on our "have to have mastered list" with Brooklyn before the baby comes.
1~Get rid of the Binki (done with that at 13 months, CHECK!)
2~Follows mom really well and stays close by in stores and things (for the most part she does really well, CHECK!)
3~Eats on her own with a fork (CHECK, though she prefers to use her hands. :)
4~Sleeping in a big girl bed (Her room is done, but we are waiting til after Christmas to move her into a real bed, kind of nervous about this.)
5~POTTY TRAINING!! (One of her Christmas gifts will be a little potty seat, we will see if she is interested and then possibly work on that before the baby gets here. If she's not interested, well than I'm not to worried about it. It would just be nice to not have two kids in diapers.)
Any advice??

Little Ones!

2010-11-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year we were with the Aagard Family!! A small and very intimate setting, in comparisons to Brandon's May Family Thanksgiving. :) We only have 4 cousins on the Aagard Family side, so we are very close. It was a lot different not having Grandma Aagard around, but we managed to have a wonderful time. We did however, have some new additions to the family.

My sisters Alyson, Jessica, and I were all pregnant at the same time. I say "were" because now I am the only one who is still in the pregnant state.
Alyson had her baby, Christian Aagard Strait, on September 21st 2010. (7 lbs. 14 oz. & 20.5 inches)

and Jessica had her baby, Kayson Coby Knudsen, on November 10th 2010. (8 lbs. 14 oz. & 21.5 inches)

Needless to say, I get a little jealous that my sisters have their baby's here. But I am happy to discover that Brooklyn is AMAZING round the little ones. She tries to help with everything and wants to constantly kiss them. I was able to go stay with Jessica for a couple of days to help her out, and Brooklyn was an angel. Hopefully, she'll be the same with our new baby.

Brandon and I were also able to get out and do some Black Friday Shopping! We found some killer deals and are so excited for Brooklyn to open her Christmas presents this year. If you didn't know, we are pretty excited for Christmas!!

Halloween 2010!!

2010-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween was seriously so much fun this year!! The best part about it was Brooklyn's sheer excitement for her costume. She would tell you that she was a "beee" and even say "buzzz." She was the cutest bumble bee that I have ever seen! She also enjoyed our annual pumpkin carving contest. She was obsessed with her little pumpkin!Brooklyn also learned how to say "tit-ew-teet." (Sounds like something a guy would say.) :) Brooklyn has also been learning how to tell us how old she is. "One!"She loved the Halloween party that we went to at the church with her friends! I love my nursery kids that I teach, they are all so cute! Brooklyn did the cake walk with daddy. Here she is also posing with her friends Reed Randle, the male bumble bee and Adam Busby, Dracula.We also had a Halloween bash with my old high school buddies. (Nick and Natalie, Adam and Kristen, Brandon and I.)Brooklyn won this award at a party the University Inn and Conference Center had. I'm pretty sure it was rightfully deserved, but then again, I'm her mom. :)
We had a very, very Happy Halloween and hope you did too!!

Wedding and Gardner Village!

2010-10-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Brandon's cousin Jenny Harris was married on October 22nd, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. She looked absolutely gorgeous!!

Big thanks to Brandon's cousins, Lizzy and Jason, who watched Brooklyn while we went to the sealing. It was beautiful!

Brooklyn can't ever seem to smile when the camera comes out. She is too focused on figuring out what the new electronic device is. (It's like she's never seen a camera before.)
It's especially hard to smile when she is eating. :) I love her little winter dress that my sister Alyson gave her!

We also planned a trip to Gardner Village to go on the witches hunt! We do this each year with Aunt Annie and Aunt Ellen! They are always so good to make things super fun for the kids!

Alyson and her kids came too! Jared and Emily can't seem to get enough of Brooklyn. They are always right up in her face, and though she is a little overwhelmed at first, she loves it after a few minutes.

Brooklyn loved the little petting zoo that they had. And of course she wanted to ride the horsey. Brandon helped her ride the little pony "Sparky." Her one hand had to constantly be petting the pony.

Little did we know that it was actually Witches Night Out at Gardner Village! They had music playing and people were dancing in the streets. Us grooving with the flash mob!

There were definitely some amazing witch costumes! Next year we will have to dress up, but we've got our work cut out for us if we are going to have costumes as good as these witches.

It was a super fun weekend!! Nothing beats spending so much quality time with family!!

October Fun!

2010-10-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

A group of my friends got together for a game night/dress up Halloween Party!! We seriously had a blast. Ladies night out! (Back row: Ashley, Jasmine, Lacey, Heidi, Kalli, Jamie, and Me. Front row: Megan, Katie, and Lisa.)

Yes, Brandon painted my belly as a giant pumpkin!! :)

It's great to have such awesome friends! Really got me in the mood for Halloween!

Brandon played in his final year of Flag Football here at Utah State. His team went undefeated until the playoffs started. They really had a great team, and it was so fun to watch them play. Brooklyn and I were the number one fans!

Go Dad! Brandon about to catch a pass.

USU Fans!

2010-10-06T12:01:00.001-07:00

We went to our first football game of the year, USU vs. BYU!

And, surprisingly enough USU actually won!! Hopefully they can start building a good program here, because for the past while they have been pretty bad. BYU looked awful, I don't know what has happened to them.

We went with our cousins Todd and Kimiko Griffith, and friends Colby, Penny, and little Calem Jensen.
We did some tailgating before the game with Brandon's engineering professors and the other doctorate/grad students.

Our family in our USU get-up! :) Good job USU!!

Making mommy laugh!

2010-10-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

A few things Brooklyn has done lately to make me smile. (Kids are seriously so cute without even trying to be.)

~Brooklyn thinks she's helping me make a fruit salad. Then the little thief makes off with the cool whip!
~Brooklyn really doesn't pay any attention to TV shows at all. Nothing, not Baby Einstein, Baby Signing Time, cartoons, etc., she really could careless about TV, with the one exception of Dancing with the Stars. Dancing with the Stars really gets her going!

It's a .....

2010-09-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Healthy Baby!!! (Really, that's all we were hoping for, but yes we did find out what we are having too.)

You don't know how different it is to come out of that ultrasound happy and just plain excited!! I got a little bit emotional when they told us that our baby looked super healthy and they couldn't see any complications so far. Yay!!We also found out that we are going to have another little girl!! We couldn't be more excited. I just wanted Brooklyn to have a little sis to pal around with, and that's exactly what we are getting. Brandon always wished to be surrounded by girls in high school and college, well careful what you wish for, cause it is definitely happening now. :)

This little girl seems to have a personality all her own already. She was sucking her whole fist in the ultrasound and then she would pull her hands up and "x block" her face so we couldn't see her. Pretty cute! We can't wait to meet our little girl!!

(I know, the 3D ultrasound pics are kind of creepy looking, but I thought I'd show you just a little of what we saw.) Baby Girl sucking on her fist! Looked like she had the entire thing in her mouth at one point. Baby Girl "x blocking" her face.Brooklyn is super excited too! I don't think she gets the fact that it is a little sister, but she is pretty obsessed with my belly and saying the the word "bebe" while patting it.She is always trying to see my belly.
Brooklyn also calls my belly a "ball". That's when you know your really starting to show. :) 20 weeks.

Boy or Girl??

2010-09-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

So I just thought that I would share some of the feelings that I have been having lately. We go in this Friday, September 24th, to have our 20 week ultrasound. Many thoughts cross my mind:

• Brooklyn is our baby!! Can we really have another one??
• Guess we can have another one, cause uuuhhh duh I’m pregnant, but will we love this baby as much??
• Okay, I’m sure we will love this baby too, but will he or she be as cute as we think Brooklyn is??
• Will our baby be a boy or a girl?
• That poses another question, what if it’s a boy!!??? I know what to do with a girl, I mean I have one already, I was raised with all sister, but what in the world would I do with a boy?? Guess I'd have to rely on Brandon for the boy stuff.
• More important than gender though, what if there is another complication??? :( It was so so HARD (hard is an understatement) when we found out that Brooklyn had gastroschisis. With Brooklyn I was just curious about the gender of the baby; the last thing that crossed my mind was that there would be complications. The doctor said that gastroschisis has never happened twice in the same family, but Brandon and I tend to be really LUCKY people and I worry a lot. Seriously I have been having nightmares about the 20 week ultrasound.

Are these normal feelings?? Or am I just a crazy pregnant lady that thinks way too much.

This pregnancy has been SO different . . . not as sick, but way more tired, pregnancy mask, showing a lot sooner, severe leg and back cramps, very low blood pressure, passing out, plus major food cravings for Taco Bell and Cheese Fries (healthy I know!). So because of the differences in the pregnancy I would normally say boy, but because I think it’s a boy my guess is that it is a girl. Does that make sense?? Brandon thinks it’s a boy. Anyways, I would like to know your guesses on the gender??

Melon Days!

2010-09-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Green River's Melon Days! All the melon you can eat for free!! It was so much fun. Brooklyn is getting old enough to actually enjoy the rides and love the candy. Daddy with Brooklyn riding the train!

We were able to see some old friends from Snow College. Here's all the the dad's taking their little girls for the train ride. Brandon and Brooklyn Brady, Cody and Payton King, and Shawn and Elli Brady. (I think the Dad's enjoyed the train more than the kids did!)

Brooklyn is actually getting pretty good at the candy gathering, though she kept bringing her candy back to different people each time.

She was quite festive in her melon day dress and bow. :)

She would even try to eat the candy with the wrapper on.

Waiting patiently for mom to open her candy.

Melon Days was a blast!!

Gee-up Horsey!

2010-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

While on one of our trips to see Grandma and Grandpa Aagard in Ftn. Green, we were able to go help Grandpa water the sheep and horses in the big water truck.

Brooklyn loved it to say the least. Brooklyn kept yelling into the water hole of the water trough.

She enjoyed playing in the water. (I'm pretty sure she would have climbed right in the trough had we let her.)

Her favorite though was riding the horse!! She kept clicking her tongue and making horse noises.

She got pretty good at saying "Gee-up" which Dad kept trying to teach her that it was actually "Giddy up!" Daddy thought she was so cute that she seriously about has him suckered into buying her a horse. :)
You can get away with anything when you've got Daddy wrapped around your little finger. :)

Canning!

2010-09-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

A while back I told my mother-in-law, next time you are canning or bottling anything let me know because I would really love to learn how.

When I said I wanted to learn how, I thought we would be doing like 12 or so jars of jam...

I didn't realize that I was headed to the "Mecca of Canning."

We bottled apricot jam, apricot raspberry jam, plum jam, and grape jam.

We also bottled beans and peaches. Yes, all over a three day span!! Still deciding whether or not it was worth it. :) It tastes delicious though, but was a ton of work.

Brooklyn's new shirt!

2010-08-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn has been dying to show you all her new shirt!

This is the smile you get when you say "Brooklyn say cheese!"

As you can tell she is pretty excited for this upcoming Valentines Day!!

Couples Retreat!

2010-08-31T12:57:00.001-07:00

August 20th-22nd was our first annual Couples Retreat. It was such a blast. We went to Arches National Park, Goblin Valley, and White Water Rafting ... well it was more of still water rafting, but fun non-the-less. :)

The group from left to right. Jake and Dana Smith, Fred and Chana Wald, Jordan and Kalli Hunger, Brandon, Amanda, and Brooklyn Brady, Bo, Lacey, and Kayda Harrison.

Dana and I are quite the rock climbing team.

At Goblin Valley we went into the "birthing cave." In order to get out the other side you have to squeeze through this tiny tiny whole. Bo was the only boy to make it out the other side.

My legs slipping through the birth canal ... more of a squeezing through.

Brooklyn is our little hiking girl. Brandon actually carried her everywhere. Now if only I had someone to pack me everywhere. :)

Such a fun trip. Looking forward to Lake Powell next year!

Olsen Wedding!

2010-08-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago Brandon and I were able to attend my cousin Trevor's wedding in Park City. Trevor and his wife Amanda seem truly happy! We didn't take too many pictures, because we were mostly just enjoying the fun and festivities! So sorry we don't really have any of the bride and groom. Brandon, Brooklyn, and I enjoying the dancing!

Uncle Coby and Aunt Jessica on baby duty while we were off dancing!

The whole wedding party, family, and friends out on the dance floor!! It was so fun to see all the Aunts and Uncles, Grandma's and Grandpa's, and relatives out there shaking it!

Brooklyn would bounce up and down to the music. Every time we put her down she would run onto the dance floor. This girl was born to dance!

Big thanks to my Uncle Russ for the wonderful accommodations! Nothing beats a 5 star resort and a hot tub on the balcony. I love Stein Erickson's Resort! Such a nice way to finish off a stressful week.

Brady Yellowstone Trip!

2010-07-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

This was our first annual Brady family trip. We got the ball rolling by telling everyone that Yellowstone is only 4 hours from where we live. (True, but when you are traveling with 7 kids under the age of 8, who are all on different schedules, the trip ends up being more like 7 hours! Ugh!)
Brooklyn and I ready for travel and taking in the scenery.

The Tetons!

Our first stop once we got into Yellowstone was at Lewis Day Waterfall. It was beautiful!

When we got to our camp spot we noticed that we were not alone!!

I know, I was more hoping for a bear, but dear are cool too!

Much to our surprise, dear were not the only thing invading our camp site! This huge buffalo was a tent away from ours. We were very careful not to get to close, because of all the buffalo attacks we have heard of lately.

Brooklyn looking like a Yellowstone native in her beaver hat!

We couldn't help but laugh when we saw her crazy camping hair in the morning!

Here are a few of the things we saw and did while in Yellowstone.

The wildlife was everywhere, except for the illusive grizzly bear.

We took a 2 mile hike to the upper and lower falls. It was mostly stairs, but well worth it in the end.

All of the Brady boys chill-ax-in on the way back from the lower falls. Joseph, Nicolas, Shawn, Brandon, and Keith, oh and little Brooklyn peaking out from the pack.

I would seriously recommend a baby hiking back pack like this if you are doing any amount of hiking. It was the best thing ever.

Mammoth Hot Springs was nothing to impressive,

but Old Faithful did not disappoint!

Old Faithful about to irrupt.

So amazing!

Playing the dirt waiting for Old Faithful to blow.

The girls all instantly paid attention when Old Faithful went off.

The Brady Grand-kids. Elli, Baylan, Kailee, Jocelyn, Elise, Brooklyn, and Ava. Brooklyn had a blast with her cousins. Someone was constantly keeping her entertained!

Us perfecting the elk horn look.

One of the many Elk horn arches in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Keith and Kristi blew out a tire on the way back, we have a broken toilet seat and broken dryer, Baylan threw up all over in Shawn and Maria's truck, seems like we would stop every time a baby finally fell asleep, and we all had to go the bathroom at different times! All worth it though, to spend quality time together as a family! I hope this is the first of many Brady family trips!

Lamb Days!!

2010-07-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

Lamb Days is seriously one of my favorite times of the year! We always go down to Grandma Aagard's to sit and watch the parade. My sisters and I.

Here are all the Brother-in-laws. This is as close as we could get them for a group shot, ... they aren't to much into posing!

Brandon and Jessica with Brooklyn and Rebekah. Notice the matching outfits!!

I made the three girls matching Lamb Day outfits! They seriously looked so cute in their leggings, dresses, and matching hair bows!

Now if only we could get them all to smile at the same time. :)

Emily and Brooklyn catching candy. The Lamb Day parade is great, because they throw so much good candy. I would help Brooklyn catch some, and then catch a few of my own! :)

Brandon doing the same.

She loved watching all the floats pass by.

Getting together with some of the old FG Buddies. Ashly and Sarah!

We entered a team in the Lamb Day Volleyball tournament. Here I am all geared up to play.

Warm-ups were a little rough,

but once we got in our groove,

we were unstoppable! Okay, there were some pretty hot, tiring, and rough games but we came out undefeated!

Our team "Bump Ewe" consisted of my brother-in-law Coby, Me, my sister Jenny, and the hubby Brandon. We played our cousins Ross and Chavonne Bailey's team for the Championship, and they definitely gave us a run for our money.

Whoever thought of having the tournament during the heat of the day was really thinking!! We were constantly taking water breaks.

Our winnings ... gatorade packs!!

Coby's arm started bleeding really bad from his elbow during one of our games. Nobody had any bandaids, so "Super Mom's" to rescue. Jenny and I had the brilliant idea of wrapping a diaper around his arm!! AWESOME ... I know. He finished off the game strong and no more dripping blood. :) We thought of maybe doing knee pads with diapers as well. (We are so creative!)

My Mom and Dad watching the Volleyball games. Always supportive.

Jessica and Coby. Jessica was a great babysitter during the games.

Brandon and I ... sweaty as can be!

Brandon's parents and brother's came over for all of the Lamb Day festivities. We loved having them participate in the hoop-la of it all! Brandon also played in the softball tournament and did very well. He hit a grand slam and made some very crucial stops and double plays.

Lamb Days was seriously such a blast! I am already looking forward to next year. Mark it on your calendars, the third weekend in July!

Miss Independent!

2010-07-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July was very sporadic. We made a last minute decision to go down to Ftn. Green. Here we are at the Moroni Parade.
Brooklyn and Grandma Aagard dressed to impress in their patriotic colors!

Brooklyn is really becoming the little Miss Independent! She would go pick up the candy by herself, plop down, and then try to open it and eat it by herself.

She'd dance when the band would come by. She was being super shy for the camera.

Yay!! More candy!! (Brooklyn's pig-tails have always reminded me of little fireworks, ... with how they stick straight up. I thought it was the perfect "hair-do" for the 4th.)

We were able to meet up with Shawn (Brandon's brother), Maria, Baylan, and little Elli.

The Aagard clan. Jessica is finally starting to show! She is due November 11th, 2010 and I can't wait for her little baby boy to get here. Yay! :)

We decided to make an afternoon trip up Mt. Nebo. It was beautiful! Here we are at one of the many overlooks.

I have yet to hike Mt. Nebo, but it is on my list of "must do's!" Anyone up for the challenge??

Then, it was back to Colorado for Brandon and I. My mom watched Brooklyn while we made the overnight trip!! It was my first time leaving Brooklyn overnight, but she did great. I think I had a harder time than she did.

We went to Colorado for another funeral. One of Brandon's best friends, Aaron Stones, unexpectedly past away at the age of 28.
"This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now. Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.” We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us. Send that note to the friend you’ve been neglecting; give your child a hug; give your parents a hug; say “I love you” more; always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -President Thomas S. Monson

Probably one of the hardest funerals that I have ever been to. Cause of death is still undetermined. Aaron will greatly be missed.

We got back Ftn. Green just in-time to attend a swimming party with the Aagard cousins. My sister Alyson has this giant water slide pool. All the kids loved it.

Yes, even Brandon loved it! (The biggest kid of them all!) :)

Daddy and Brooklyn going down the little baby slide!

The kids said that this was their hot tub!!

Chubby little cheese butt!!

She's gonna love this picture when she's older. :)

Daddy and Brooklyn going down the big slide!

My 7 months prego sister Alyson, Mom, Brooklyn, and Rebekah, just chillin' in the shade. Hopefully when Brandon graduates we will be able to move somewhat closer to our families. It is just so much fun when we all get together and I wish we could do it more often.

Past couple of weeks!

2010-07-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

During the month of June we have mostly been up to swimming and hanging out. Brooklyn loves her new little pools. She cries almost every time we take her out of the water.

As you can tell both Brooklyn and I need some sun! :)

My good friend Chana stayed with us for awhile in June. It was such a blast. She even planned a surprise birthday party for her husband Fred!! Doesn't he look thrilled!

Some of Brooklyn's new favorite things. Ramen Noodles . . . I know she makes a huge mess every time she eats them.

And she love to climb on things. Chairs, couches, dishwasher, . . . you name it, she'll try and climb it. Life is such an adventure for her and I am just trying to keep up!

Walking!

2010-06-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn has been walking for a month or so now. It is the cutest thing ever how she tries to keep her balance. Just thought that I would post some over due footage of her walking.

She is seriously growing up way too fast!

Colorado, Funeral, and Pony Express Days!

2010-06-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

On May 27th, 2010, we found out that Grandma Jean Brady had passed away. :( She was 87 years old and has left quite the legacy with all of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We made arrangements to make the trek to Longmont, Colorado.
It was probably one of the most fun road trips we've ever had. We had a big 'ole convoy with the Brandon's family. (Minus Shawn's family.) We bought walkie-talkies and were radioing back and forth with jokes, songs, and stories.

Brooklyn did so good on the road trip! Honestly didn't even cry the whole way there. I believe that her favorite part of the trip was when we stopped in Grand Junction, CO for lunch at Chick-fil-A. They had their cow mascot out. She couldn't stop starring and kept saying "moo-moo."

When we arrived in Longmont, we went to a family dinner. That is the one good thing about funerals, you get to see family that you haven't seen in awhile. Grandma Brady was hilarious. I think this picture of her with all of her kids kind of gives you a taste of her fun loving personality.

Brooklyn was asleep in the car, so I stayed back at the graveside with her. It was neat to see most of the posterity from this great woman. Grandmas legacy is truly her amazing family.

We met up with a bunch of Brandon's old friends from high school and hung out for awhile. It crazy to hear how wild these boys were in high school and see how grown up they all are now. (Thank goodness for that!) :)
Josh and Angie, Wesley, Tanner and Sarah, and us.
We stayed with Tanner and Sarah. They live on a little ranch and it was a blast. Their little boy Leyton is seriously so cute! He's 6 weeks old. Thanks so much for letting us stay.

On a side note, I think that Colorado, is absolutely beautiful!! I've been there before, but this time of year it was absolutely gorgeous.

The day after we returned from Colorado we headed down to my friend Ashly and Kimball's new house. They recently moved to Eagle Mountain. It was their "Pony Express Days."

Brandon, Brooklyn, Ashly, Krystal, Nathan, and I went to the parade.

The bag-pipe band was awesome!

The parade was good, but so HOT!! We headed back early to get back to the AC. We did get to see Lawerance Taylor and Mark Owen (country singers) in the 4-door jeep before we left. (I don't know if I was stalking the singers or the 4-door jeep, cause I love both!!)

Then after a BBQ we all went out to the outdoor concert that evening.

Brooklyn was dancing and moving until she fell asleep. She wouldn't even hold still for a photo. Just wanted to dance with her book. :)
It was a way fun concert! Mark Owen rocked.

It was a crazy week, but way fun to see so many family and friends in such a short amount of time. It is good to be home now.

Custom Nurseries

2010-05-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

With the encouragement of friends and family I have decided to make my hobby known to the world. I LOVE SEWING!! Favorite thing to sew, anything that has to do with a baby.

Upon request, this past year I have made five different sets of crib bedding for family and friends. The thing I love about making crib bedding is you can personalize and customize everything!

So I've started a blog with samples of things that have been made, decor, blankets, etc.

Custom Nurseries
http://customnurseries.blogspot.com/

Let me know if there is anything that I can tailor make for you! :)

Brandon's Birthday!

2010-05-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

The big 28! Brandon had a great birthday! We celebrated at Texas Roadhouse with his parents. It was so nice to have Mom and Dad Brady come up even if it was just for a short visit. Brandon got the saddle at Texas Roadhouse... I think he took Brooklyn on with him for moral support. :) She loved it.

We love when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit.
Daddy given Brooklyn her first taste of ribs! Yum!
On a side note, Brooklyn has recently learned how to tease Maggie with her toys. It is so funny. She will wave the dog toy around and just giggle. Brandon and I get a kick out of it.
All in all Brandon had a great birthday! Happy Birthday Brandon!

Mother's Day, Anniversary, and Brooklyn!

2010-05-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

April and May seem to be our busiest months. There are all sorts of festivities going on. Recently, we had mother's day. I was spoiled on Mother's Day. Breakfast in bed, gifts, and kisses from my baby! I love being a mom!! There is nothing more rewarding than watching your child learn, grow, and discover new things. Recently, Brooklyn has taken quite a few steps on her own. She is oh-so-close to just taking off. She has been crawling the stairs for awhile... which totally freaks me out. I am constantly behind her or I have to have the baby gate up. She is saying all sorts of new words and reminds me of a little parrot by how she tries to repeat things. Brooklyn is our tall and skinny girl. She is 30.5 inches long and weighs 20 lbs. She is just so active that she has stayed at 20 lbs since she was 9 months. (Maybe crawling could be the new weight loss fad for us adults!)
Brooklyn was doing so many of these things today that I had to bust out the camera. She has been getting into the cupboards for awhile now. "Opps, I've been caught!"Here she is holding my one hand and walking. Almost there with walking. She claps and cheers whenever she thinks something is fun or entertains her.
Brandon and I also celebrated our Anniversary on the 11th of May. 3 years and happy as can be!! I love being to married to my best friend and baby's daddy! You should just see how he interacts with Brooklyn, I love watching them play together. We really didn't do to much for our Anniversary since we were both pretty banged up from the accident. As we were lying in bed we both got a good chuckle because we could only touch each others hands with out causing the other pain. (Sucks, because I am a major snuggler! Holding hands is good too.)

Brandon has been accepted for a fellowship at Utah State for his masters. His masters will be paid for and he will receive a monthly stipen, so we will be pretty hooked up for this next year. I get anxious for him to be done with school, mostly because I want to know where we will move to and end up. For now though I guess that I must enjoy the journey. I really do like Logan and Box Elder County. I have come to find out that they don't call this Box Elder County for no reason. We have box elder bugs everywhere! (They are harmless, but because they are everywhere I hate them!) We have a new pet because of them. He comes back every spring and summer and lives under our porch. Meet "Slitherin". I don't know where he came from, but he takes care of the bugs and spiders, so he is welcome to stay.

Accident

2010-05-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day weekend Brandon, Brooklyn, and I headed down to Green River. On Friday, May 7th we decided to take Brandon's brother Keith's 4-wheeler out for a spin. (Brooklyn was not with us on the ride!) Brandon is slightly an adrenaline junky, so he wanted to go down the biggest hill. It was all fun until our last run down. Brandon's exact words, "Pop it into 5th gear! It's way more fun!" I don't remember much after that. (These pictures look much better than how I looked the day of. These were three days after the accident.)

I was knocked out and had a pretty good concussion. I was taken by ambulance to the Grand Junction, CO. Hospital. I was in an out of it. I had some swelling in the brain, but no internal bleeding. Brandon got some pretty good scrapes himself.

We are both doing fine. I am good as long as I am taking my pain pills. We are just grateful that we are both okay, it really could have been a lot worse.

SSTC, Baby Blessing, and Docking Sheep!

2010-05-04T11:39:00.001-07:00

I have been blessed to work with the Software and Systems Technology Conference for the past three years. It's normally the perfect mommy job, because I can go in for a couple of hours here and there, work some from home, set my own schedule, etc. It has seriously been so great and I love it. However, we work the whole year planning one BIG conference for the US Department of Defense, and when conference time comes it is a whole different story.
Luckily the conference this year was in Salt Lake City. (In past years it has been in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada.) Normally, I love the business life of traveling to different cities and conferences, but when you have kids it is a lot different. I had to schedule my mom to come up to SLC and watch her, Brandon took off school for two days, and then my friend watched her the last day. So while normally the perfect job with kids, the past week was slightly stressful. I'm so glad that I don't have to leave Brooklyn like this all the time. There are all sorts of "Jack Bauer" type of people that come to this conference. So it pretty much makes me like "Chloe O'Brien." :) (Just a reference for all you 24 fans.)

"Voicemale" came and performed. I didn't know that one of the singers is from Sanpete County. He asked the entire audience if anyone new where that is. Being from Sanpete, I of course raised my hand. Totally embarassed after he pointed me out in front of all the DoD Government Officials.

All in all, everything went great with the conference, but I was glad to get back home.

Brandon received a call from his brother on Friday seeing if we could come down for their baby Elli's blessing on Sunday. So after one full day back at home we were off again. We didn't get any pictures of her at the blessing, but look at all of her dark hair! So crazy how much Elli looks like her mom and Baylan looks like his dad.
While we were down for Elli's blessing my dad asked us to help dock sheep. Brandon had his first sheep docking experience. I think he is a farmer at heart, because he really liked helping with the docking. Brooklyn absolutely loves the little lambs. She says "baa" everytime she sees one. Good times!

West Desert Camping Trip

2010-04-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 15th, we left Logan for a great weekend of camping out on the West Desert of Utah. My family use to run sheep out there, so the area is well known. So many fun things to do out there.
Indian Pictograph Drawings and Symbols.
Hunt for Lizards. Brandon was a pro at this! He caught a big Horny Toad. Search for Arrow Heads. Play in the giant Sand Mountain. We seriously had such a good time. It was Brooklyn's first time sleeping in a tent. She did so good and had a blast playing with her Grandma Aagard. When I was a little girl and we would go out to the sheep camp this is how we would always get our baths. Brooklyn loved it!Out with Jenny, Josh, and Jake, on an afternoon hike for gold!! (It's actually just fool's gold but who really knows the difference.) It's always nice to have a little get-away. My two little twinner nephews had so much fun and were so tired after the two days of camping. They were instantly asleep on the car ride home.
We had a blast camping!

Brooklyn's Birthday and Princess Party!

2010-04-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn's birthday was so much fun! I still can't believe that we now have a one year old!! The morning of her birthday, April 9th, started off with the usual singing, decor, and presents.
She loved opening the presents... mostly because she loves tissue paper!
She got a bunch of new outfits. Including this tutu I made her.
She now has a big girl car seat. It is so fun to have her forward facing so that we can watch what she is doing.
She absolutely loves anything that has to do with music. She loves her new drums!
Grandma and Grandpa Aagard gave her a musical pony that you can ride. She loves it!!
Later, the afternoon of her birthday, we took a special trip down to Primary Children's Hospital where Brooklyn spent the first month of her life. It was a very sentimental moment. We talked to a few families whose babies are currently there. I think, by them seeing how healthy Brooklyn is, it gave them a little extra hope and encouragement about their little babies.
Where we spent a lot of time waiting.
I spent a lot of time in "the barn" at the NICU.
It was a very nostalgic experience.
After the NICU visit, we headed down to Fountain Green to get ready for Brooklyn's first birthday party the next day. It was so much fun!! We had a Princess Party for our little Princess!
I think Aunt Jenny wins the award for best dressed, but what do you think?!

So many of Brooklyn's cousins and family members came. Some of her boy cousins dressed up too.Brooklyn loved the many fun presents that she received.
She loves reading books!
Brooklyn's birthday cake!! I think it turned out pretty good for my first time doing my little girl's birthday/princess cake.
At first Brooklyn didn't know what to do with her cake. She was being so dainty and didn't want to get dirty.
Brandon had to teach her how to dig into it. Thanks Dad!
After her first taste...
She didn't want to stop eatting!
She did want to share with everyone, but that cake was all hers!
So good!
Yummy!
Brooklyn ended up making quite the mess, but loved every minute of it!
She had such a great First Birthday!! We love our little girl!!

A year ago today . . .

2010-04-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I had the most amazing miracle happen!! Brooklyn Paige Brady!
We cannot believe how far we have come in one year! It was probably the most stressful day in our lives when Brooklyn made her big debut. We didn't understand what a big blessing we were actually receiving with the chaos of her condition. All we could think is "why her, why us??"We will always wonder why it happened, but now we understand what a miracle we were given. Our little family grew so much through that experience. We learned to slow down and just appreciate things about life a little bit more. We've enjoyed this past year so much. All the "Challenging Moments","Tender Moments","Happy Moments","First moments", "Grumpy Moments","Gigglely Moments","Sleepy Moments","Spiritual Moments","Family Moments",plus so much more! Brooklyn has added a whole new demention of love to our family and we can't imagine life without our little one year old! Our little Cubba has taught us more fully how to love.Happy Birthday Baby Princess!

April Fools b-day

2010-04-01T19:26:00.002-07:00

During Amanda's birthday her parents and sister were up for the week and we had lots of fun. We went swimming and made sweet passionate cake together. Amanda has the best husband ever that cooked her breakfast in bed. Amanda got everything she wanted and more. I'm so happy that Amanda and I are married, she is truly the love of my life and I want to grow old with her. And she is getting old now... the big 26. I don't know if it's the baby now or what but I love her more this year than last year. Every year is an adventure when you are with Amanda and I'm just happy that I can be part of that adventure. Here's to one more year with my dear!!! (yes I meant that to rhyme)

Go 49ers!

2010-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer: Brandon loves the 49ers, boarderline obsessed!)
During my baby shower for Brooklyn, about a year ago, a present was specifically addressed to Brandon. One of my friends gave Brandon/Brooklyn a 49ers cheerleader outfit. Brandon has been dying to take pictures in it ever since.What a little daddy's girl!We can't wait for football season this fall!

Victoria's Wedding!

2010-03-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

On February 24th, Brandon, Brooklyn, and I took off for Mesa, Arizona. One of my friends that I went to school with at Southern Virginia University, Victoria Muhlenkamp, was getting married and had asked me to be her bridesmaid! We split the trip up by staying in Green River Wednesday night with Brandon's parents. The next day we drove the rest of the journey to stay with our friends Chana and Fred. We hung out with them the next day and also met up with Brandon's newly married friends Karen and John. Brandon and Fred were also able to go to watch a PGA golf tournament! Brandon got free tickets somehow. Seriously, the weekend was kind of a blur because we were running around so much. Vicky's wedding was probably the fanciest wedding that I have ever been to. It was a not your typical Mormon wedding! The getting ready began at 9:30 am. All of the bridesmaids, mother of the bride, and bride got ready together. We were honestly treated like royalty. Make-overs, hairdressers, butlers, . . . you name it, we had it! We were so pampered and I loved it!!Vicky's mom went over last minute plans with us about how the day would go, where we needed to be, and what we had to do.We were all almost an hour late to the temple and the groom was getting slightly nervous. It was worth it though, because Vicky looked absolutely stunning!The bride and groom made a grand entrance into the reception/dinner, proceeded by the bridal party. We were all clapping and dancing as we came in.I was able to meet up with some other friends from Southern Virginia University, Ian and Sabrina. Sabrina was one of my roommates there and Ian worked with us at Ruby Tuesday.A little history: So while at SVU we were part of a sorority. Actually, we made up a sorority called "CBD". (Chicks Before Dicks.) Us girls would stick together no matter what and no boys would get in our way!You can see how well our sorority worked out!! Boys have infiltrated it!! All happily married, but we always have our girls to fall back on! :)
Brooklyn enjoyed all the dancing and music that was played at the wedding. She danced the night away and took time to smell the roses!I have never seen a more elaborate wedding! It was so Vicky!! I couldn't be more happy for her and Kevin!

I think we spent every night while we were in AZ in the hot tub. Night before the wedding, I couldn't get my hair wet, so I borrowed Chana's shower cap. (One of my more flattering pictures, don't you think??)I don't know what we would have done with out Chana and Fred! They were so kind to let us stay with them, babysit while we were at the temple, indulge our hot tub needs, and just hang out with us. Wish they were still in Logan!! I'm so glad we were able to see them. (Nice chest hair Fred!)Thanks for watching Brooklyn while we went to the temple.The drive back was LOOONNNGG to say the least, but Brooklyn was a lot easier to handle than Brandon!! Brandon seemed to constantly be hungry and need breaks from the car. (Trust me, kids are a breeze compared to husbands!) jk It was such a fun trip!

Best Decision!

2010-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

3 years ago today Brandon proposed! It's not really hard to say "YES" when your hormones are raging for one another and you have all this built up passion. However, in hind sight, it was the best decision that I ever made!

Picture Tag

2010-03-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

My friend Chana tagged me to do a photo tag. So here goes.

Here are the rules:

1. Open your 1st Photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

My picture:

What feeding Brooklyn looks like today!! Actually, she sneezed right as she was going to take a bite of her oatmeal, and this is the result. She usually isn't this messy, but I couldn't help but capture this little mess pot.

I tag:
Amanda Webb
Britnie Olsen
Julia Morrow
Kristen Olsen
Sarah Christensen

Valentines Day!

2010-02-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

I have to say that I just loved Valentines Day this year! One reason is because it was on a Sunday. Brandon and I weren't really sure which day to celebrate it on with our festivities, so it ended up a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday event accidentally!!

Early on Friday morning Brandon and I were trying to decided what to get each other for Valentines Day. "Why not couches, I mean they're having great Presidents Day sales?!" So we did it! Got new couches! I've been wanting them since we first got married! (Thank you tax return and understanding husband!) To celebrate new couches and v-day, we also went to dinner at Olive Garden, my personal favorite! Brooklyn was a hit with all the waiters! I thought that was the end of our v-day celebration.
Little did I know that Brandon had already planned something! Brandon went and scheduled the babysitter all by himself, and whisked me off to Sherwood Hills Resort where he had us booked for a Couples Massage Saturday night!! AWESOME!! (Really impressed that he got a babysitter all by himself, usually mom's always have to do that!)

Sunday after church we exchanged little gifts. Brooklyn got a cute new little outfit and her dad also got her some daisies! Brooklyn was slightly destroying her flowers, so we figured we'll let her destroy one and then put the rest in a vase with mine. It was so cute, she is definitely a girl, cause she is so fascinated with flowers!!

Brandon got Mario Wii. And I got a pair of levi's and flowers, plus a poem from Brandon!!
Poem from Brandon:

Roses are red, Violet's aren't blue.
I love you so much and I glad we made a little "who".
I'll love you forever, and all eternity.
I'll love you even when you take me in a shop of maternity (clothes).
I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else.
One day I'll buy you a house with a built in shelf.
To me you will always have the very nicest butt,
and I'll always be your squirrel and you'll always be my nut.

He makes me laugh so hard!! Seriously, now you know one of the many reasons that I love this guy!!

Kindness, pass it on!

2010-02-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

At the grocery store yesterday I was rushing to do my shopping. I had to get home to do bridal shower invites, feed a baby, make dinner for the neighbors, and well, ... let's just say I was really pressed for time. I guess the old lady in the parking lot recognized this as I was frantically loading the groceries in the car, holding the keys in my mouth, and keeping the shopping cart in place with one foot. (Talented, I know!) As she noticed the empty car-seat in the back of my car she said, "Oh, it looks like you must be rushing home to a starving baby. Let me get your cart for you!" Shouldn't it be the other way around?! I mean shouldn't I be the one helping out the elderly?

I've decided that we need to do what we can, when we can, no matter what age we are. We need to constantly be looking for ways to help others. Often times we can't return the favor to the person who helped us in our time of need, but we can help somebody else. Right now, someone is in need of help, actually in need of a miracle! I don't know this family personally, but I know the power of prayer is real. Just thought that I would pass along there story so more people can unit in prayer on behalf of Baby Bronson. (For the full story start on the post: February 1st.)

Brooklyn just turned 10 months old yesterday; and often, when I look at her, I count my many blessings for the miracle we witnessed with her and the many prayers that were offered on her behalf. We will forever be grateful and humbled by that experience!

We need to never take for granted any time that we have, and make the most of everyday. Look at the blessings you have a truly be thankful!

Felt Food

2010-02-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

For our Church Relief Society Meeting, formerly known as Enrichment, I was asked to give a tutorial on felt food making. I thought that this project would be quite the undertaking, but in fact, it was really simple and easy.The making of felt foods became a hit because moms were tired of cleaning out their toy box during recalls of lead-contaminated toys. Many moms worried about plastic toys' safety and environmental impact, so they created and stirred up interest in homemade play food. People with little or no sewing experience can make felt food; there are fabric versions of carrots, peas, corn, etc. that can be sewn by hand with one or two basic stitches. A blanket stitch: A blind stitch:
Below is one of the better websites where you can get patterns or simply ideas for felt food. Once you have an idea, you can let your imagination run wild.

FELT FOOD PATTERNS

These felt foods are very inexpensive to make. I think these little play foods will be great when we start teaching Brooklyn different foods and what is healthy and good for her body. Right now she just appreciates something else to chew on. :)