Brady & Alexes

December Daily

2011-11-30T21:42:00.001-08:00

This year I decided to do my first December Daily album (learn more on this Ali Edwards website here) I am beyond excited and am ready for December to get here so I can finally start putting some memories down onto these pages! There is a page for each day and on that page I will write down the things that happen and attach pictures, as well as other mementos (yes, that's how you spell it. I even googled it) So to make my album I used this awesome BoBunny album I scored for 3 bucks at Roberts (my all time fav craft store... yes better than hoblob) I used the new Lost and Found Christmas papers from My Minds Eye and let me just say that I've never been more proud of a mini album. I'm head over heels in love with the entire Lost and Found Collections. As a matter of fact I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have the entire collection... in short, I'm addicted. Anyways lets get to the good stuff! Here are pictures of the final product! (warning, there are tons of pictures!)

I'm really excited because we have lots of fun things planned this December and here is my surefire way to make sure it's all documented. With my kids growing right before my eyes, I definitely want to make sure I have these precious memories forever.

Leavenworth

2011-11-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

So last week we took a day trip up north to the quaint town of Levenworth, and can I just say it probably the cutest little town I've ever been to! It's like the North Pole, everything is made to look like it's straight out of Switzerland. We had so much fun getting all bundled up and ready for the cold weather, although we didn't realize how cold it would get before we left.

apparently they like their mustard in Levenworth

This was where we ate for lunch... all of the shops had adorable little signs like this.. even the wells fargo had one!

We had some really amazingly delicious brats for lunch

My boys :)

and this is what it looked like when we started our drive home... a lot different from the first picture huh!! There were all sorts of accidents on the way home from all the snow. I'm glad we decided to leave when we did or we could have been stuck there! Now that I think about it, it wouldn't have been all that bad hah

Za Zoo

2011-11-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

We put our zoo membership to good use last Saturday, while we took advantage of the beautiful weather!

Playin with the leaves

Daddy's Helper

2011-11-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

Brady only has one class on Friday, so after he came home from school we all decided to go to the park and take some grub with us, aka KFC.... aka delicious. Let me tell you, it was fabulous except for the part where they didn't except our coupon, forgot to give us napkins (I forgot wipes too.. oops), and they didn't give us a spoon to eat our mashed potatoes....
But it was worth it
soooo worth it

Jax had an awesome time playing with the crane scooper thing

Love this pic
oh and yes those are packets of butter and honey in Jaxtons hand
he knows what the good stuff is lol

October the Thirty First

2011-11-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

So this past Halloween we had the opportunity to go trick-or-treating twice! The first time we went at our church, it was a lot of fun and my dad and his wife Sally came with. It was fun to see all the little kids dressed up and all of the cars all decorated. Jaxton dressed up as an elephant and Brooklyn was a kitten, (thanks mom!)

my cute little elephant

"Uh Oh" he says hah

For those of you who don't know... my husband usually goes all out for Halloween. Before we got married he would have the best costume at any party we went to but this is actually the first time he's done something since then.

Oh and he made this in less than a day lol

Our halloween pumpkins!!

2011-10-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we have the opportunity to go with my Dad and his wife, Sally to Remlinger Farms to pick some pumpkins! We went last year as well and we hope this will continue to be a family tradition! I had a blast taking pictures of the kids and I'm looking forward to Halloween coming up in a few weeks!

He got to ride the ponies this year!!

His new trick...

never wants to look at mom

In Seattle, rain boots are a must

Berry Picking

2011-10-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

So on our way home from Utah to Washington we decided to make a pit stop in Twin Falls Idaho to visit with Bradys sister Dawnette and her cute little family. They are the sweetest family every and we always have such an amazing time with them. So much so that we always hate leaving! Hopefully we can live nearer to them in the future because I love this family so much! We miss them already. But they always have fun things to do when we are there and this time we were all able to go to a raspberry patch and pick to our hearts content! It was such a fun time and we are thankful to have a few pounds of raspberries to last us through the winter.

The amazing Dawnette herself

So funny story, we are all picking and munching on berries (probably more munching) and all of the sudden we here our Brother-in-law Adam yell, "DAWNETTE!! I HAVE NO CLUE HOW THIS HAPPENED" we were all a little worried at first but soon it was clear that no one was hurt or in danger, but that someone had been into a little raspberry mischief.

This is what we found when we came over to the car.... a whole flat of berries riuned!! but how you ask?

This little munchkin thought it would be fun to play in a flat of raspberries...

But when life gives you squished raspberries what do you do??

Make raspberry ice cream of course!!

It's getting spooky!

2011-10-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

We are getting really excited for Halloween over here! So much so that I've already made a fun banner to help celebrate this haunting holiday!!

p.s. I have so much making up to do picturewise so I will hopefully be posting a lot more in the next couple of weeks!

time flys

2011-08-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that this little munchkin is already 6 months old? I know I can't either...

It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was a week overdue and just ready for her to get here... I swear that last week lasted eternity.... but finally she came and boom... here we are six months later...

look how much shes grown!! (and how much better my photography is! ha)

This little lady is already crawling... yes crawling... she just scoots on around to go get whatever it is that she wants. another early crawler... will I ever get a break? She is such a good sleeper too! She and Jaxton go to bed every night (in the same room) at 8 and neither of them wake up until 8 the next morning! I'm sure blessed to have such wonderful children. I love being a mom, it is the hardest thing I have ever done and I don't know how good of a job I'm doing :/ but I sure do love them a ton and I'm pretty sure that's just enough

Vacation?

2011-08-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

So for the past month our entire little family have been on a "vacation" Brady has been doing a clinical here in Idaho Falls for the last month. The first two weeks the kids and I headed over to Utah to hang out with my family down in Alpine. Let me tell ya, it was sooo nice to have a little bit of a break. Just to hang out with my family who I hadn't seen in a while was so amazing. We all really missed them. Brady would make the three hour drive on the weekends to hang out with us and then we all headed back with him to Idaho to spend the remainder of his internship. So here we are with only two more days to go! Tomorrow evening after he gets off work we will be heading back to Utah to be with my family. My mom is in the middle of moving, so the trip we had planned to Disneyland has been postponed. I was extrememly bummed about this... the only great part about not going is that I have the chance to go to a clothing exchange that same weekend that I wouldn't have been able to go to otherwise. In a year from now we are actually going to move to Utah for another clinical rotation for Brady, so I'm thinking we are going to go then and by that time the kids will be older and will appreciate it more. Another good thing about not going is that we are getting to see Brady's family as well, we are going to meet up with his parents and his sister Emmalee and her husband Burton, and we are really excited about that because we haven't seen them since Christmas and Emmalee is expecting a little baby!! We couldn't be more happy for them to start their little family! So that makes three pregnant women in the Brown family. Wahoo for little babies! Too bad we don't live anywhere close to any of them. sad day. Anyways I've been having a blast taking oodles of picture of my kiddos. Here are some of my favorites!

I just love his little toes in this picture!

2011-07-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

My Mind's Eye Challenge

2011-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

So as most of you know, I really enjoy scrapbooking, but lately I've been wanting to take it to a whole new level.... so I've decided to enter into a competition. The first picture is a layout that I had to recreate, the next couple of picture is what I came up with. Hope you all enjoy it and wish me luck!!

Meggles comes to Seattle

2011-06-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

So ma little sister Meggles, has come to visit us this week. So far it has been a blast! We've been doing some shopping, going on walks with the kids, playing at the park. We also went to the Zoo one morning and we're planning on going to the Aquarium tomorrow! It has been such a blast to have her here. I moved out so long ago that her and I haven't really gotten to spend a lot of time together so it was nice to be able to do so.

Such a happy little boy

gotta love those eyes!!

How is it that all my kids have blue eyes despite my brown eyed dominance??

I love my little family so much!

In other news...

2011-06-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

We just got a Zoo membership!

We went for the first time last week and we all really enjoyed the amazing seattle weather!

Not too sure about it

these things are HUGE! I had no idea they got so big!

love this little girl

hilarious... he put my baby sling on his head

Baby Book

2011-06-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of a baby album I made for my cousin

I'm not going to lie.. I'm in love with it

Giftables

2011-05-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I've been making lots of goodies around the house due to mothers day, fathers day and my cousins baby shower!

now this little gem is something I made for my madre, a thank you for helping out with the kids when I had my last baby

I love it! It was hard to give away, but I have such an amazing mom that she totally deserves it!!

Park N' Play

2011-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so great here lately that we have been spending a lot of time at the local park!

Having so much fun playing at the park!

Swinging for the first time

loves her some tummy time!

the trees here

swoon

umm... adorable?

yep, adorable

Long Overdue...

2011-05-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

So I just realized we never posted pictures of Brooklyns baby blessing!

It was such a wonderful day and we felt very blessed to have Brady's family up from Arizona to see her blessing

Such a cute little thing

Of course Jaxton won't sit still for more than a second these days

The best shot we could get lol

Oh how the time flys!

2011-05-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

So the other day the weather was nice enough to take a trip to the park! It was still a bit chilly but it was fun! Jaxton loved chasing the ducks around and they would stay surprisingly close to us. He had a blast! Brady and I were so excited to finally have some sunshine!

Brady also just got a new basketball hoop so we've been playing in the yard a lot lately

Jaxton was having a blast running around the backyard

loved playing bball with dad

Such a cutie!! She has been all smiles lately and just started laughing! How fun!

Just a little banner I made the other day to celebrate spring finally being here!! YAY!!

fun filled weekend

2011-05-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend we decided to "get away" and go to my dads house for the weekend we had an awesome time together and were able to do some fun things that we normally wouldn't have been able to like go to some garage sales and actually go on a date without the kiddos..
it was heavenly I tell you, pure heaven...

on sunday the weather was gorgeous so we just had to spend it outside playing on the playset my parents have in their backyard.. it was so fun to be able to finally spend some time outside playing!

he absolutely loved the slide

soo cute

my latest obsession

2011-05-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

i love scrapbooking
a lot
like really really a lot
it is so rewarding to make something so nice while also recording precious memories
plus who doesn't like playing around with all those pretties?
I know I do :)

Here are some of my most recent pages that I made for Jaxton's Baby album...

wait till you see Brooklyn's... it's the bomb.com

oh and here is a sneek peek of a special project I've been working on ;)

Lets see

2011-04-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

Not much has really been going on around here. Just loving being home with my two little ones! Jaxton has been such a good little boy lately, he has been really good with the baby. He's always wanting to give her kisses and hug her and he even tries to pick her up on occasion lol it's pretty funny. One new thing that Jaxton has learned is how to pray! Okay, so he can't say much but he knows how to fold his arms! It's the cutest thing in the world when we sit down and Jaxton automatically folds his arms and waits for us to pray. It's nice because he always remembers, unlike Brady and I. He is such a good influence on us lol He is really into making HUGE messes.... not so fun. He has these little tubs filled with all of his smaller toys and his favorite thing to do pick it up and turn it upside down... which results in a huge mess! But that's okay, little boys are supposed to be messy right? Brooklyn has been just a joy to have around. There is just something about small babies. I'm not sure if it's that sweet baby smell that I just cannot get over! I swear I could just smell her for days.. Or maybe it's her cute chubby cheeks, or her teeny tiny little fingers and toes. It's hard to believe a person can be so small. As much as I can't wait for her to grow up and do all sorts of fun girls things together, I makes me so sad that she is growing so fast. She's already grown out of her newborn clothes and diapers :( sad day...

Sooo.... I've been doing lots and lots of scrapbooking lately... I'm trying to hurry and finish Jaxtons baby book before too much time goes by. My plan is to make an album for each of my children that documents their first year of life and then anything that happens after that will just go into our family scrapbooks. I'm really close to being finished with Jaxtons, there are only 10 or so pages left. So far it's becoming one of my favorite albums ever. I'm completely in love with it! My wonderful husband got me a new stack of papers that will be perfect for Brooklyns album, whenever I get to start it lol. I still have a bunch of photos to scrapbook from before Brady and I were married to do... Not sure when I will get around to those.. they might just have to go in a regular ol' photo album...

What a cute little bum!

i'm loving on....

2011-03-29T18:26:00.001-07:00

My new nikon d5000

my new petunia pickle boxy backpack!!!

(thanks mom!!)

anything cricut

my new bareminerals makeup

one of the cutest babies ever!

my new embossing machine!

Little Miss Brooklyn

2011-03-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

yes, she has finally made her big debut! and it was only four days after she was supposed to get here!

Isn't she the cutest thing? Ah I'm totally in love! It's amazing how quickly you can fall in complete love with someone you've never met! Here's the story, I went into labor on the 22nd at 10 o'clock at night. I had been having contractions pretty consistently for the previous week but they weren't painful at all just a little uncomfortable. Every time they would start up I would get so excited thinking it was finally going into labor but alas... I didn't. Then the night of the 22nd I was feeling pretty crappy and decided to just go lay down and go to bed and that's when they started. They were every 5 min until about 2am. Then I decided to go take a shower hoping the warm water would help with the pain (which wasn't all that bad yet) but after I got out of the shower I noticed that the contractions got really close together, about a min and a half. I thought this was kinda fast so I called Labor and Delivery at the hospital to see what to do. They told me that because of my overdueness and it being my second pregnancy that I should probably come in. I'm glad we did because after that the contractions started finally getting bad. After I they monitored the baby for a little bit they did an exam and I was only 3cm! I thought noooo.... they usually don't admit until 4cm I'm going to have to go home and deal with the pain, lame! But by some miracle they decided to admit me. thank goodness! I think it might have been because of my history of all those crazy surgeries this last summer. Then they got me into an l&d room and there was this big yoga ball that I got to bounce on and who knew it would help with the pain so much?! Another thing they did that surprisingly helped with the contractions was squeezing my hips together... I swear sometimes it made the contractions go away completely! They got me my epidural right away and then I was a happy camper. Finally able to rest, even though I didn't get to sleep really but at least I wasn't in pain! Then they ended up breaking my water in the morning around 10am. Then we were just waiting for me to be fully dilated. The doctor also noticed that she was face up (Jaxton was as well and apparently those labors are measured in hours.. mine was only 50min) but the doctor was able to turn her around so she was face down like she should be. I only pushed for 20 min though it felt like forever and then the doctor let my pull my baby out kardashian style... I couldn't believe she let me do it!! After she was born there was such a feeling of peace in the room. Our precious little angel straight from heaven. The veil really is so thin it was an amazing experience. I was a so exhausted after Jaxton was born that I didn't really get to enjoy that moment. We didn't decide on a name until the next day but we finally came up with Brooklyn Marie Brown and we completely love it and it fits her perfectly!!

The 39th Week

2011-02-12T10:04:00.001-08:00

yes ladies and gentleman... it's that time... today I am officially 39 weeks pregnant. In other words, I'm miserable. okay okay maybe it's not that bad.... nope, I'm pretty sure it is. I just have to keep on thinking about the wonderful reward that I get at the end of all this torture! A beautiful, wonderful baby girl! All the nights of getting up three times to go pee, the never ceasing uncomfortableness (which isn't technically a word, but it accurately describes the feeling) and the countless kicks to the ribs and pelvis will all be totally worth it when she actually gets here! Now, I only have 7 days left of this.... hopefully less, but I'm getting really excited! As I was looking through Jaxtons baby photos the other day I started remembering how tiny and cute and adorable newborns are! You forget so easily because they just grow so darn fast. My little one is already climbing up practically anything climbable in our house. Our bed, dressers of any type, counters, you name it, he can climb up it. He is also very very smart... he has begun to test his limits with things he knows he's not supposed to do. Like touch the trash can or try and play with mommies crafting stuff, it's pretty funny actually.

So hopefully by this time next week I will be holding my sweet baby girl and finally being able to sleep on my stomach again!!

In Love

2011-02-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

with my new camera that is!!!

Yep, for my birthday last week, I was gifted with an awesome Nikon d5000 from my awesome, amazing mom!!! I've been wanting a dslr for a while now and I'm so happy that I finally have one! I also got some other cool thing for my birthday!! My wonderful dad got me photoshop, so I could edit my images taken on my new camera and the hubbs got me a set of photoshop actions that I've been wanting. They are from The Florabella Collection and the set is called Luxe II, they are awesome! I even got a $20 off coupon which made it an even better deal! Well I finally got all the software I needed downloaded to our computer and I've spent some time this morning playing around with some images. Here are some of my favorites!

original

yay for awesome birthday presents and family who love me so much!!!!

ummm yeah

2011-02-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

i. want. this...... and since it's my birthday today don't you think I should get it???? me too... that's why I entered into the giveaway over at Busy Bee Laurens blog.... check it out here

this is what happens when I try to take a picture

2011-01-21T14:08:00.001-08:00

An Awesome giveaway!!!

2011-01-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

There is this really awesome giveaway on the I heart Nap time blog!! You can win a Silhouette machine! Go here to enter!!!

Lego Man

2011-01-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

Jaxton got this really cool wagon for Christmas from my dad and his wife and he really loves to play with the blocks that came inside it, but last night dad showed him a new way to play with the toy. It was so funny to watch him try and figure out how to climb in and out of the wagon. He was a happy boy. Brady made it even more fun by pulling him around the house. It was pretty hilarious because every time he would stop, Jaxton would start crying hysterically.

Sally The Camel

2011-01-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

When we were in Idaho for the holidays, the whole Brown family went to this house that does an amazing christmas light show. There were so many lights we couldn't even believe our eyes! and to make the experience even more fun there is a camel at the end of the presentation that you can pet and feed carrots! Jaxton had a great time feeding the camel and mom and dad had fun watching him! We had a blast, the only thing that would have made it better would have been warmer weather! It's freezing in Idaho....

Noodle Face

2011-01-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

yep, that's my little noodle face... I just can't get enough of it :)

My Funny Little Man

2011-01-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

So as I have mentioned before, my little guy is obsessed with shoes... Sooo, the other day Brady and I decided to put my boots on him. He was so excited. He absolutely LOVED the fact that he could put them and and they would actually stay on. It was pretty funny!

Just soooo excited :)

One Very Long Post

2011-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

So I have a lot of catching up to do since my last post! I'm not sure where to even begin because SO much has happened over the last three weeks!

We officially started celebrating the holidays with my dad

and step-mom the day before we left for Arizona. They came over saturday morning and we celebrated both Christmas and Jaxtons birthday in the same day, since we would be out of town for both.

Jaxton had a blast opening his presents, although it did take him a while to figure out that he could rip the paper off of the presents. He got lots of fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa Real this year including a big boy of blocks, a puppy he can pull around on the ground, some stacking cups and bunches of clothes!

He was so overwhelmed! He would open one thing and try to play with it only to have another fun present be opened a second later! It got to the point where he didn't know which ones to play with first

He got lots of fun books too

Brady always knows how to have a good laugh! Jaxton was so consumed with his new toys that he didn't even notice his new pants were on his head hah!

My parents opening their present from us, a custom made photobook :)

Jaxton definitely made out like a bandit this year! He got so many new toys he doesn't even know what to do and mom and had don't know where to put them all lol. He also got a brand new wardrobe basically, which was awesome because we really needed some more winter clothes. Brady and I also got some cool presents from my dad and Sally. I got some books that I've been wanting for a while, The Hunger games series, The Lost Key (the illustrated version), and the complete series of The Worst Case Scenario book. You have to check these out, they are pretty hilarious and also useful hah Brady got a gift card for some new shoes and he didn't waste time using it lol, he was able to get three brand new pairs of shoes with it too! I know he is so excited to get them in the mail!

So after we had so much fun opening all these presents, we had to leave them all at home and go to the air port. I was so not excited to fly with this little guy. Flying alone is difficult enough but with a one year old? Not so much. It's just such a hassle to check the car seat and get through security with a stroller and we didn't check any luggage so we only had carry ons which made even more stuff to deal with. It all worked out though, like always. He wasn't even that bad on the trip there... it was the trip back that was horrible. So we finally get to AZ and mom picks us up. It was like 9 at night and the baby was so tired so as soon as we got home he went to sleep and we stayed up for a while just talking and catching up with my family. It was so nice to see them, I really missed them. Since I lived with my family for a couple of months this summer while Brady was in WA, I got to be really close with my mom and grandma. It was so nice to be able to see them again! I love them so much!

For the first few days we just lounged around and hung out as a family. Then my sister came flew into town and it was fun to see hang out with her because we don't get to spend a lot of time with her these days.

Then the day came to celebrate Jaxton's very first Birthday! In the morning he got to open his present from his Great-Grandma Welch. She was just so excited for him to open it she couldn't wait lol how cute is that?

He loved it!

Then it was time for the party! We just had a small little get together with the family. It was really fun though. I think his favorite part was the cake! Brady and I made the cake and we thought it would be fun to decorate it with fondant. Jaxton certainly liked it! He had fun squishing it in his hands like playdough hah.

Then the day after Jaxtons birthday is Christmas eve and that's when my family has always celebrated Christmas so we had a big party with lots and lots of amazing food. It was a blast, it really reminded me of the holidays when I was younger with all the family being together and my grandma's amazing food! I was in heaven!

We got some really fun gifts this year! My mom has been really busy lately so she let us pick out our own gifts this year. I got a complete set of new makeup from Bare Minerals which I am totally in love with! Brady got some new clothes and some controllers for the wii and the baby got a bunch more clothes and toys hah

Jaxton had fun opening his stocking on Christmas morning! Lots of fun toys inside of it :)

So the day after Christmas we fly back home and get to spend one little night at home before we had to make the trip to Idaho to see Brady's family. I was soooo not excited to be driving for 8 plus hours. Especially because Jaxton did not have a good time on the flight back home from AZ. It was probably the most exhausting thing I have done in the past year! He wouldn't stop moving and was so grumpy because he didn't take a nap that morning and he somehow cut his lip and was bleeding all over the place. It was not fun... it was the trip from hades.... I hope to never have to do that again, poor kid. Anyways.... so we get home and notice that there might be some weather issues on our drive for the next day. We notice on the weather website that to be able to get through some of the mountain passes you are required to have chains or special tires on your vehicle. So we had to rush out and try to get some before everything closed. We ended up just buying cables since with our denali your not allowed to use chains for some reason. So we unpack all of our clothes only to repack them 10 minutes later. It was not a fun turn around if I say so myself... So we wake up at about 7 the next morning and load up the truck, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some road trip snacks and then we are off.

This is what it looked like on our drive... not so fun

The baby wasn't so happy. It wasn't nearly as bad as the plane ride the previous day but what kid wants to sit in a carseat for 8 hours?? We finally get there around 6 in the evening, it was so nice to get out of the car and see the family!

We opened Christmas presents rightaway because everyone was just so excited hah. The baby got some fun toys, including a frisbee, some bath soaps that you can pla with like play dough, and a truck. I got some scrapbooking kits, and we got some cool church books and candy for the entire family. It was a lot of fun. Whenever we are in Twin Falls, we always go to the thrift stores, and they have the best stuff ever! We spend an entire afternoon going through the circuit of stores until we have hit them all. We got some fun stuff, like new clothes from Down East Basics with the tags still on, some books that I have been wanting for a while, and some baby clothes that were only 25 cents.

This was at one of the thrift stores and Jaxton completely fell in love with it!

I guess this is what happens when you come from a family full of girls!!

(Brady has 8 sisters hah)

Lately

2010-12-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well there hasn't been too much going on lately in the Brown household, except for Jaxton being way cuter than usual. I absolutely love watching him grow up and learn new things. He is so smart, I love being able to play games with him that he actually understands now!

We are getting pretty excited for Christmas this year! We are going to be in Arizona this holiday season because most of my family will be down there. Ironically enough, even though all Brady's family usually comes to AZ for Christmas, this year they are all going to Idaho. So after we get back from Arizona we will hopefully drive to Idaho. I say hopefully because I've heard the drive can be really bad in the winter and this year is supposed to be a really bad winter. So we will see if we can make it over there in time for new years.

Somehow we wiggled his little leg out of his seat! He was pretty excited about it though

Loved trying on daddies glasses

For some reason he really likes to play in the dogs bed. I've been trying to

sneak a picture of him actually laying in it but he moves every time I try to get the camera

Jax absolutely loves playing with daddies new Wii Fit that he got for his birthday last sunday

I just love this kid :)

He plays this new game where I say "Where is your car Jaxton?" and no matter what

room we are in he will run to his car and start playing! Such a smart baby

Another obsession of his is shoes! He just loves playing with them. Every time after Brady get home he runs into our room to start playing with them

This is what happens when mommy tries to decorate for christmas...

New New New

2010-11-30T10:25:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted so there's lots to talk about!!

About 2 weeks ago my mom decided to come into town for an impromptu visit. YAY!! I was so excited to have her come and see the new place and to just spend some time together. We did all sorts of things while she was here, went to a fun little mall right by my house and when I say little I mean huge. It's called University Village and there are so many cool shops in there that I had never noticed! There's a Juicy Couture, Williams Sonoma, this awesome scrapbooking store called Stamped, an H&M (I had never been before) and all sorts of other cool places to eat and shop. Brady and I actually were able to go on a date, our first one ever since we've moved. We don't really know anyone well enough yet to let them babysit lol. So we got all dressed up and went to the movies! I was especially excited because we went and saw the newest Harry Potter movie! Sooo good by the way, loved it! and after we came home the adults just hung out and ordered some pizza. It was quite fun! Then on one of the last days my mom was here we went downtown to a place called Pikes Place were there is this awesome fish market and they have the best flowers of all time. In the winter they mostly have bouquets of dried flowers which are still beautiful but in the summer time there are flowers everywhere you look, seriously you should google it. The best part about these huge and absolutely gorgeous bouquets are that they only cost 10 to 15 dollars! Washington has awesome flowers in general. I have been so impressed by the quality and sheer beauty of the flowers that can be found in the grocery stores here! AZ and UT have nothing on WA.

My little munchkin is obsessed with the trash if I turn around for even a second this is what I will find. The little bugger took a chicken bone out of the trash and started gnawing on it lol.

Sometimes he just hates being pushed around in his stroller and just wants to walk around. His outfit here is hilarious!

The new alpaca sweater my mom brought for Jaxton. It's going to be a while before it actually fits though!

and last but not least my sister came into town this last week for Thanksgiving and while she was here we got tickets to go to the Harry Potter Exhibition! It was awesome, we got to see so many cool props from the movies. My favorite was probably the dress Hermionie wore to the Yule Ball and getting to see everyones wands close up. They are all so different and I never really took the time to notice them as I've watched the movies. I'm not going to lie but Umbridges wand is definitely my favorite! It's so cool there is this big jewel in the middle of it, too bad she is one of my least favorite characters. It was definitly worth it though. Oh and the best part about it all was that I was able to get sorted by the sorting hat!!! So cool, I'm a gryffindor... ya I know... awesome! they only sorted 2 people so I was pretty excited that they picked me! anyways, now that I have that checked off of my bucket list, I can finally start decorating for Christmas! SO EXCITED, but then again I'm kind of worried about my little monster getting into it. He gets into everything these days that I'm just afraid it's going to be more of a hassle than an enjoyment. So maybe we will post pone our decorating.

Pacific Science Center

2010-11-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

So last week Jaxton and I got to go to the Science Center for free

yep... I said it

free

They have this thing called Freddies Mondays, where the first thousand people get in for free, so we decided to head over and check it out. There was this area made especially for little ones which is where we spent most of our time. He had a total blast being able to run around and play with whatever he wanted. There was even this little music will all sorts of instruments he could play on!

Halloween!

2010-10-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

So today is the 31st but because it is a Sunday Brady and I decided to celebrate on Saturday at our Stakes Trunk-or-Treat event. It had been raining the entire day but Brady and I figured they would take everything indoors due to the rain. Think again! These Washington people must be used to the rain or something.... lol I was like what? These people are crazy! It's wet and cold out here!! But there were a million cars handing out candy anyways. We decided to face the rain and just go for it. Luckily by the time we parked and got everything situated the rain had stopped! Thank goodness. So we did a couple of the rows and then called it good. Then the real fun began... we got home around six and had some dinner. We just kind of hang out until 7:30 which is the time we usually start to get the baby ready for bed. We do our little night time routine and get him in bed and then the crying starts. He had been cranky alllllllll day long so by this time in the day I was completely worn out and was just exhausted. Basically to make a really really long story short, he didn't go to bed until midnight. It was after the hour car ride and the second bath with the bedtime soap and some of the bedtime lotion and baby Tylenol and soothing baby music AND being swaddled... yes I said swaddled. My 10 month old baby was swaddled last night (hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, especially when it is 11:30) that he finally fell asleep. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong with him this whole time. He was drooling a little bit so I thought he might be teething but he was also tooting a lot so I thought me might have some gas and then I realized that he didn't eat too much for dinner so I thought he might have been hungry.... sheesh. it was a looooong night. Brady and I were so worn out it wasn't even funny. But thankfully it ended eventually and he woke up and was completely fine. He even napped better and went to sleep well tonight due to the lack of sleep. I'm almost positive he is teething. He is drooling everywhere, has a slight fever and has been extra fussy. Hopefully this stage will pass just as quickly as the first round of teething aka we didn't even notice it !! So that's my eventful halloween!

So Much To Say

2010-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

There has been so much going on and I haven't blogged in so long that this might take a while!

Some of you have been wondering how my health has been and the answer is great!! I had a recent hospital trip due to some horrible abdominal pains, but I got that taken care of and it hasn't come back since so yay!! Then I got a cold and lost my voice but I'm on the recovering end of it and I'm excited to finally start feeling better!!

My dear little one has started to walk. He had been tying for the last month or so but now he is on full blast and is walking everywhere! His favorite thing to do is walk over to our piano and tap on the keys. It's quite adorable. He also has gotten into the habit of putting everything into his mouth... his favorite though is the little dust bunnies that collect in the corners... and then when I try to get them out he tries running away and then bites me as I'm looking for whatever it was that he ate... He also loves trashes.. and this little boy does not discriminate, he loves the kitchen trash, the trash in my room and especially the diaper pail... I've had to move everything up onto higher ground. When can I expect him to start learning what the word no means?? Is he too young still?? Can I put him in time out? humm still trying to figure things out.

Baby number 2 is doing well. She never stops moving though. She is a very active little girl. We still haven't decided on a name, we were originally thinking Lorileigh but.... I also really like the name Cambria or Bridgette... we still aren't sure.

My dad and his wife took our little family to the pumpkin patch last weekend. It was more like a carnival though! It was a blast. Not only was it the first pumpkin patch for the baby but it was also Brady's first time! It was really fun to spend the time together as a family :)

cutest moose you've ever seen right?

feeding the goats

Jaxer with Grandpa and the pumpkins we got

Our little family

When It Rains, It pours.... times a thousand...

2010-09-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay where do I even start....

DISCLAIMER: there is some graphic-ish explanations of things that happened yesterday...

yesterday was going along normally. I would take my pain meds and feel great but when it came time to take my pills again and the previous pills had worn off I would be in sooo much pain. I could barely walk it was so painful. I honestly didn't notice this until later though. I though I was just in a normal amount of pain, but as I look back, I noticed that it had been getting worse and worse for the last few days. I had my OB appointment yesterday and my doctor took off my steri-strips (similar to butterfly stitches) because I was allergic to them. They made my belly all red and itchy and it was really annoying. She said my incision looked good and just to gently wash it. So I go home and take a nap. Helped with the groceries and other random household stuff. Then I went to the bathroom, which is not the easiest thing after you've had a bowel resection. As I was washing my hands I noticed that there was a stain on my shirt and right as I pulled it up to see what was going on it started gushing. And when I say gushing, I mean geyser-like. It was like a hose, it was horrible. It was this creamy bloody fluid that was just spraying out of my stomach. I immediately yelled for Brady and put my hand over my stomach and as my whole family eventually filtered into the bathroom my hand was holding everything in but as they asked to see what was wrong it would gush out whenever I moved my hand. oh my gosh. this was so scary. I was terrified. I called my surgeon on his cell and he just walked me through how to let it drain and told me just to go to the ER and they would be waiting for me there. By the time we left for the hospital my would had already drained most of the fluid that was in there. So then after I was admitted to the ER the doctor came in and said she would have to cut me open again and clean out the wound and make sure it wasn't leaking fluid from my stomach. This is the worst part. They had to give me some local anesthesia... that hurt.... a lot... I cried. Then... heres where it gets gross... she took a scalpel and just cut my wound open. She didn't do the best job of numbing me and I felt some of the cutting. It was NOT fun. Then she stuck these q-tips all around to see how deep it was. This all hurt really bad. I cringe just thinking about it. Then she just packed it with this special gauze stuff that has medication in it and then put some regular gauze on top and taped it up. It was intense. But I had to stay overnight so they could give me some antibiotics in order to kill off any bacteria that was in me. The doctor told me that I had a hematoma.... or in other words a blood clot. Most of the time these are absorbed into the body but sometimes the body tries to get rid of them. Because my wound was being held together with the stitches and the steri-strips it wasn't able to get rid of it. I literally had 1/3 - 1/2 of a cup of fluid in my stomach just waiting to come out. How gross is that.... seriously some of the grossest things I have ever had to witness in my life. Brady on the other hand loved every second of it. He said watching the doctor cut me made his day... weirdo. So I stayed overnight and got to go home today at 4. Now I'm just watching football with my hubby and grandpa. I will have to change my dressings twice a day until my wound is entirely healed... Good thing my mom is here with her nurse skills and can do it for me instead of having some home health nurse come and do it every day. Anyways... that's whats been going on lately... hope you didn't get too grossed out :( I know I was when I watched it all happen.

Come What May And Love It

2010-08-31T07:02:00.001-07:00

Recap....

Okay so the last week has been crazy and probably one of the hardest weeks of my life. Lets start with monday morning, we get up around 4 am so we can be at the hospital in time for my surgery at 7:30. They asked us to get there at 5 so I could register and get ready for the surgery. So I'm scared and nervous as I have ever been. I just wanted to run away. So they call me back to get ready, get the robe on, get an IV going, yadda yadda yadda. Then my family came back and waited with me for the surgeon, nurse and anesthesiologist to come talk to me. They came and answered some of my questions and as I was talking to the anesthesiologist I told him that I was really nervous and the last time I had surgery I kinda freaked out. He told me that he would take care of that by giving me a little shot of some amnesiac. It made ma a little crazy... I honestly don't remember much after he gave it to me. I remember getting it and thats it. The next thing I remember is being in the PACU after the surgery. This was the part I was most scared of by the way. But I felt great..... I was in la la land. The Anesthesia was still working big time and I was so comfy. People are usually only in the PACU for about and hour, well I was there for 5. They just couldn't find a room for me. Then when she told me that my room was almost ready I noticed that I was in a room with another person... NOT going to happen. So I asked her if I could just wait for a private room and she said she would see what she could do. Eventually after some more waiting and some negotiating I was able to have my private room. This alone made my visit a thousand times better. So then I get to my room and my family came to see me and then it started to hurt more and more. I was on so many medications. I had my own little button that I could push when I was feeling pain. It was nice at first but then I noticed that it was making me really sick to my stomach. By the end of my stay I had stopped using it completely and was just using my pill pain meds. They also had me taking some nausea medication that didn't really help at all. I had a few visitors that were awesome! My friend shannon stopped by a couple of times, my friend Ashley came and some others. It was really nice to see people. I thought I would be able to leave on sunday but they ended up making me stay until monday. I was so happy to be able to leave, I felt like I was in jail. I also had to walk... a lot. I would go on four or five walks every day. It was hard, especially when I was so nauseous. It was also really crappy to wake up in the middle of the night and take pain medication. All in all it was lame and not fun... I am so glad to be home. Last night was my first night home. It was hard. I thought about taking tylenol for the pain so I didn't have to deal with the nausea but turns out I have it either way and I'd rather be in less pain. It's been hard, I feel so helpless. I can't even hold my baby. I can't lift him or do anything basically. I hate hearing my baby cry and not be able to help him. I cannot wait until I'm feeling better. I missed my little guy so much. He spent the week with Bradys parents which I'm sure both they and the baby loved but I missed him like I've never missed anything more. I only got to see him once while I was in the hospital. It was not fun. But hes back with us now and I get to see him every minute of every day just like it should be. By the way, he took his first steps yesterday. Brady said he took like 8 steps! I didn't see it sadly but I'm happy for my little guy!! Brady is going to leave to Seattle tomorrow. He's going to find us a place to live. Hopefully everything will go well with his drive up there. The baby and I won't go up until the very beginning of october. Brady will fly back from seattle for a day and then help me bring the baby to Washington. Well thats all for now folks!! Talk to you later!!

p.s. the baby is saying mama all the time... I love it :)

On the Road to Recovery

2010-08-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

As you all know Alexes had surgery on Monday. She is doing well and our little peanut is still cooking:) This is day three for her and is feeling better as each day goes by she has struggled with pain but is dealing with it like a trooper and I am so proud of her. Yesterday we recieved news from her surgeon that all her pathology came back negative and she will never have to be worried about any further problems. I LOVE YOU my sweet girl MOM xoxoxo

somebody save me

2010-08-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

surgery on monday.....

at 5 am...............

really gross medicine to take before hand........

a lot of pain afterwards.....

I guess this is me feeling sorry for myself

If you would like to come kidnap me it would be appreciated.....

don't make me do it :(

Aquarium Adventures!

2010-08-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

Okay so I haven't really updated on anything else besides my health issues so here we go!!

When the family and I were in Utah, my mom got a little baby pool for my Jaxer! He totally loved it! He had a blast.

So after we got back to AZ and moved out of our house and everything, my mom decided to do something fun and take us all to the new Aquarium in the Arizona Mills Mall. It was really fun. Brady and I hadn't ever really been to an aquarium so it was really fun for us. It was also great to watch Jaxton enjoy the fishies.

Some really cool jelly fish

Looking at the sharks

Starfish that they actually let you touch! So cool!

just watchin the sharks and sting rays

Jax and Dad

The Plan...

2010-08-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

okay so I talked to one of my doctors yesterday to try and figure out what is going on with the scheduling and stuff. She told me that my surgeon and the radiologist went over my MRI images and decided there was nothing that they noticed. This doesn't mean there is nothing there, just that there was nothing extremely visible. Keep in mind my tumors are really small, 2 cm is considered huge so if I were to have any new ones, they would be really really small. Then the doctor also told me that they had a panel consisting of radiologists, pathologists, PPA's (high-risk OB/GYN's) and surgeons reviewed my case. She told me that my surgery would probably be a week from Monday, so like 9 days. yay.... I really just want to get this over with so I can be done with this as soon as possible and get up to washington with my hubby. Well, anyways, that is the plan as of right now. I will be sure to update if any more information comes.

I'm free.... for a while

2010-08-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

yep, it finally happened, I was released from the hospital two days ago! Yay!! The crappy part is I have to go back soon. They let me go home for a couple of reasons, one is because they are doing some testing that takes a couple of days to get the results back. The other is because my NeoNatologist (high-risk baby doctors) said that if I could possibly wait 2 weeks to be positive I will be in my second trimester. So there was really no use of me staying in the hospital doing nothing. So as of right now we are waiting for test results and for my surgeon and neonatologist to come to a decision as to when the best time to do the surgery will be. So hopefully Brady and I will be able to do some fun things while I'm out of the hospital. So I'm definitely going to have the surgery, but they just aren't positive when I will have it. ahhh! scary stuff... no no fun.

So to celebrate my new found freedom Brady and I went out on the town and when I say out on the town, I mean we ran some errands. It was actually nice. I hadn't been outside for like 5 days. After we ran our errands we went down to the mall to watch a movie but they didn't have any times to fit our schedule, so we just decided to go hang out with Bradys family and wait to go to a movie with the rest of his family later in the evening. We saw karate kid and it was good but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have a horrible migraine, and to make things even better we had to sit in the front row! Headache galore! I think it was probably the worse headache I have ever had. But two tylenols later I felt just fine.

anways... thats it for now, see ya!

update..

2010-08-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

YES, I finally got an update today!

Two days ago, I came into the ER at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. I came because I wanted to talk to some experienced doctors about what the heck is going on. So I come in expecting to see the doctors, get some info and be on my way. WRONG. I'm actually still here... I've been waiting for a specific surgeon, the Chief of Surgery to be exact. I'm not gonna lie, I think it's pretty cool that the Chief will be operating on me... I just think of the Chief on Grey's anatomy and feel more comfortable lol. Anyways, the day after I came in I was supposed to see this surgeon but somehow he was out of town... how do things like this always happen?? So Brady and I waited it out the whole day and then he was supposed to come in the next morning.. not! He didn't come till 3, but at least he came. He was really nice and I felt super comfortable with him so that was a real relief. I haven't been trusting too many doctors lately and it was nice that I could feel like I trusted him. So he proceeds to explain the type of tumor I have and where it was.. yadda yadda yadda.. all stuff I already know. Then he starts to talk about some new things, like the fact that my tumor is growing in a way that suggests that it is more aggressive than most tumors of this kind. He also explained that the reason why he was so late was because for the last couple of hours he had been trying to do some research. He told me that there was practically no research done on pregnant women with this cancer and that we are basically in no mans land. The only bit of information he could find was a little sentence that said there had only been 20 cases of pregnant women with this type of tumor. Do you know how rare that it??? Like sooooooooooooooooo soooooo soooooooo rare... like One in a trillion.... seriously. Oh and I also have a heart murmur and irritable bowl syndrome... suuhhhweet. . could it get any better?? and the answer is yes.. The doctor told me that I should probably have the surgery but I have to wait until I am in my second trimester but no one seems to know exactly how far along I am. It's either 11 or 12 weeks, but they need to be as precise as possible. He also said that he wants to get a hold of some additional information from my previous surgery. He wants the slides from the pathology report to see the structure of the cells and a copy of my MRI to see if there are any masses on my lymph nodes or my liver. If my tumor were to be spreading it would probably spread to either the liver or the surrounding lymph nodes. They also have to monitor my urine for 24 hours. They do this to see if there are any unusual levels of serotonin which would suggest a tumor on my liver which can cause this thing called Carcinoid Syndrome.. even more rare... wahooo. Maybe I will end up being one of a kind... kinda cool right? I also might have to have a... dun dun dun... colonoscopy.... and that my friends is the icing on the cake. All I have to say is this bites... big time. I'm so bored being cooped up in this hospital room with nothing but a tv and computor... those only last sooo long. I also am just down right scared... I know this surgery is going to hurt... and bad. I mean I have to be in the hospital for 5 days! My aunt had BRAIN surgery and was only in for 2... My friend Shannon had a surgery similar to this and she was telling me how bad it sucked... so I know I'm not in for anything fun. So as of right now, I'm just waiting for them to do all these tests and maybe I will get to go home before the surgery if I'm not in my second trimester yet. YAY!! Thats like the most exciting thing to look forward to.... kinda lame, I know.

anyways thats all for now!!

My Crazy Life: Part 2

2010-07-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

So... after all the pains stopped in my stomach, I felt really blessed that Heavenly Father helped me through the pain. Then life went on normally until I got a phone call from my doctor who did my surgery in Utah. He actually called my husband since I wasn't answering my phone but he left a message that he needed to talk to me about the lab work they did on my appendix. I figured they just found an infection because at the hospital my doctor told me that he didn't really notice any infection and that I didn't need to take any antibiotics. So I figured the worse it could be was that I needed to take some additional medicine. I was so wrong. So wrong in fact that I wish that had been what he needed to talk about when he called. SO I call him back, he starts of by asking me how I was doing and how my pregnancy was going. I told him about the pain I had over the weekend and he said we could talk about that late. So then he says, "Well while doing the pathology on your appendix we found a tumor." ummm... what?? like a tumor? It didn't really hit me at first when he said it, and honestly it still hasn't hit me but anyways he tells me what it is called, a Carcinoid Tumor of the Appendix, and asks me to do some research online so I can learn more about it. He then gave me a number to a doctor down here in Arizona that I could go see so she could explain things more to me. So I called and made an appointment with that doctor but they couldn't get me in until the following Tuesday. So I immediately called my mom and she totally freaked out. Granted she has been dealing with a lot lately due to the fact that she basically left her job to take care of her sister who is suffering from Brain Cancer... But after she got off the phone with me she made some phone calls to her surgeon friends to understand what was going on. Keep in mind at this point I haven't really figured out whats going on myself either, I basically think that I just had a little tumor on my appendix which has already been removed so whats the big deal right? wrong. So after my mom gets done talking with all her doctor friends she calls me back and completely freaks me out by getting really upset and breaking the news to me that I have cancer.... I just started crying.... I just didn't really know what was going on and here I have my mom freaking out on the phone just talking away and all I can here is cancer. cancer. cancer.... So then I proceed to call my dad who in currently in remission from Leukemia and he really calmed me down. He knows what this process is like and his advice really made me feel better about everything. So from then on I haven't really been too upset about this whole thing. It is completely surreal... like it really isn't happening. Here are some stats on my cancer. It's called Appendiceal Carcinoid Cancer. It usually only happens on people who are in their 40's or 50's. It is a rare form of cancer, and it's even more rare to have it on your appendix. Size is a huge issue with this form of cancer, when your tumor is under 1.9cm then they just remove your appendix. Mine was 2cm and they aren't sure if there was more to it. So they have to go back in and do what is called a hemicolectomy which is to remove up to half of my colon. I'm pretty scared for the surgery.. I really freaked out when I had my appendix out and this surgery is a much bigger deal. When I had my appendix out, I was released the next day and I feel better in a few days. With this surgery I will be in the hospital for three to four days and then in bed for two weeks after that and then in the two weeks after that I will start to feel back to normal... all I have to say is this sucks!! and to make things even more complicated we are in the middle of moving to Washington!! But thats a story for another day :)

My Crazy Life

2010-07-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

oh my.... my life has been so completely crazy lately that it doesn't even feel like my life. Lets start by going back about 3 weeks ago when Brady, Jaxton and I went up to Idaho for the Brown Family Reunion. It was a blast, we had a ton of fun and it was really nice to get the whole family together. After we had our fun in Idaho, we went on down to Utah to visit my family. Things were going great, I was getting a little bored because my parents were working every day except the weekend. I was so excited for the weekend to come so we could finally do something as a family. Then one afternoon I started having this cramping in my side. I just though it would go away eventually but after spending a night in pain that resulted in little sleep, we decided it would be best to go to the hospital just in case. The reason we really wanted to be careful was because I'm pregnant. yay! We are super excited and we are due in February. So because of the pregnancy we wanted to be extra careful just in case something were happening. So I get to the hospital, the people are really nice.. I'm getting really hungry but they won't let me eat. lame. So after they ran a bunch of tests they came in to tell me that I had appendicitis and that I would have to go into surgery immediately. I started to freak out because I've never had surgery and the thought of going under makes me nervous. Brady had been there with me the whole time but the baby was with my mom. So I called my mom and asked her to bring the baby so I could see him before I went into surgery. Let me tell you, there is nothing like surgery to help you get your life into perspective. So my mom, step-dad and baby get to my room and like 2 min later they come to take me into surgery. It was so nerve racking... I really was upset. The surgery went fine and I was in the hospital overnight. The annoying part of surgery is that you have to have a completely empty stomach but then the pain medication they put you on requires you to have eaten something... So right away I was nauseous and it basically never stopped. I couldn't eat anything! It was horrible. After they released me I was sick for the next three days until I decided that putting up with the pain was way better than dealing with being nauseous. Then we had to go home... a longggggg.. 10 hour drive back to phoenix. It wasn't too bad in the car though. So my life went on and was great... until the night of my sister-in-laws wedding. We were at the reception and right after I ate some of the amazing food, I started to feel this cramping in my stomach. I knew it wasn't my appendix because I had just gotten it removed so that option was out. It was a much different pain though, it was all throughout my stomach and it just kept on getting worse and worse. We decided to leave the wedding early because I was in so much pain. We went home and I decided that I wanted a priesthood blessing. My visiting teacher Shanda Riggs (who is my personal angel) was so great at contacting people for me and helping me find someone to help in the blessing. Mt neighbor came over and gave me a blessing. It was great. I really love blessings. We didn't really know what we should do but we decided to just see if it would go away on it's own after some time. I tried to take a nap but I just couldn't fall asleep. After the movie we were watching was over we decided to head on up to the hospital. I'm so thankful for my neighbors because not only did they give me a blessing but they offered to watch my little one while we were in the hospital. So we drop him off and head over to the Banner Gateway hospital. It's like a 30 min drive so I wasn't at all excited for the trip. So as we are driving and the pain is getting worse all of the sudden my stomach started hurting way worse then it had hurt all day. It only lasted a second but the pain was so horrible I just started screaming. Then I couldn't tell if I was starting to feel better or if they just didn't feel as bad compared to the really bad one I had. But eventually they got better and better and completely left but we were already at the hospital so I figured we might as well stay since I was pregnant.. just in case. Well to make a long story short, we got to the hospital at 12:30 am and didn't even see anyone until 4. After I saw the nurse.. not even a doctor..... who couldn't tell me a thing, we decided to go home. It was the lamest hospital visit I have ever had...

Well, this is the first part of what has been going on in my life, I will update you on the rest in a couple of days... we have been crazy busy around here so time is limited.

see ya!

My My My

2010-06-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

It has been busy around here lately! I haven't been able to post lately because first off a lot of my family has been in town lately and secondly because I'm still recuperating from having them here. It sure was nice to have them here. It is always fun to have visitors but I feel like I could sleep for the entire next week.

I'm also a little worn out because my little guy is moving around everywhere!!! He is crawling... and he has a ton of energy which leaves me with none. He is even pulling himself up to standing in his crib. We had to lower his crib so he wouldn't fall out. and how he is trying to climb up everything in my entire house. For instance right now I am watching him attempt to climb up his play mat. You know the ones with the criss-crossing arches? It is actually pretty amusing. Another thing this boy tries to do all day long is go for the cords lying around the house. He is hilarious because he will be just resting and as soon as you look away he will jet off to get to the cords and this kid can go fast.... He is a speed demon. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I love him so much and I'm so grateful for him. I can't wait till he grows up.. take that back I totally can. But it will still be a fun adventure. I love my little man and I love to see him progressing everyday!

p.s. I'm sooo excited to watch the Bachelorette tonight! drama, drama drama!

2010-06-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

So... most of you that have children know that when your baby starts to laugh, you will do practically anything to hear that little one giggle. Well this past Memorial Day Brady did a wonderful job of making Jaxton laugh.... He has the funniest laugh ever. I think it is the funniest laugh I have EVER heard... what do you think??

ladies and gentleman, we have movement!!

2010-06-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

Thats right... my baby is mobile... I'm not quite sure how to feel. I'm so excited that he is progressing but now there are so many things to babyproof in our home! Here is a video!

Love Him

2010-05-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Isn't he just so cute!

a miracle

2010-05-12T10:53:00.001-07:00

yes, it's true a miracle just happened.. a small one albeit, but a miracle none the less... about a month ago my camera was full of pictures and i needed to download them in order to take new ones but because my computer was completely broken and bradys was acting up I was hesitant to put them on either computer. but Bradys has been working okayy lately so I thought it would be fine.. So I download them and spend some time editing and then shut it down. Literally the next morning his computer stopped working. like really stopped. likr wouldn't even turn on.... so I was pretty upset that when I finally decide to download the pictures they are gone in a matter of 12 hours... it was a sad day. Anyways, I have periodically tried working on Bradys computer with no success whatsoever. So today I decided to try again... I turned it on and nothing happened... this was normal so I just walked away and decided to change the babys diaper.... and then I hear it... the start-up sound... I was like... oh my gosh.... so I run and get my zip drive in hopes to transfer all the photos.. I plug it in and... viola.. I have allll the pictures that I had taken over the past month!! I was so happy and then the computer completely shut down and made this really weird screen of death... anyways, that's my little miracle sent from my loving Heavenly Father to let me know that he loves me and cares about my happiness... I love him too :)

Here are some of the pictures that would have it been lost forever if it wasn't for him..

yes, thats right

Nursery

2010-05-12T10:11:00.001-07:00

We have finally kicked our little one out of our room and have forced him to stay in his own crib instead of his bassinet. It was hard but it was time. He was getting too big for his bassinet and he would randomly wake up in the middle of the night so we decided to make the big move. Because of this I decided I should put the finishing touches on the Nursery. It had been set up for a while but we were never really in there so we needed to set up things to be more functional. Here is the finished result!!

p.s. my mom made all of the baby bedding by hand. ins't that amazing?? I have such a wonderful and talented mother!

p.p.s we did NOT paint the walls that blue. we bought the house that way and we have yet to repaint...

my little laugher

2010-05-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

My Latest Creation

2010-05-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching in Young Womens in two weeks and my lesson is on doing your family history. So I decided to scrapbook a page consisting of my moms pedigree. It turned out really cute and I love it.

Ode To Mom

2010-05-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Since today is Mothers Day I just wanted to take a second a celebrate the fact that I have such a wonderful mother!!

Isn't she cute?

I really do have an awesome mom though! She has been there for me through everything and we are only getting closer as we grow older. I love my mom so much and I really have no clue what I would do without her! She is such an inspiration to me. She is one of the hardest working women I know and she has amazing dedication. She really is a woman to be looked up to and I am proud that I can say she is my mother. I am glad that my children have such an amazing role model to look up to as well.

Mom, I love you!

Escapades of a Garage Sale Junky

2010-05-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

OkayOkay so I have recently become obsessed with garage sales... oh how I love the great deals and the anticipation of the treasures you might find. I mean what is more fun than getting a good deal on something?? nothing. Seriously though, think about it. There can be some pretty awesome stuff out there if you know where to look.

Here are some of the recent goodies that I have found :)

There was this lady that decided to stop scrapbooking for a while and sell all of her stuff. Well lucky for me I found her post on craigslist and decided to go and see what it was like. Thank goodness I did. She had soo much amazing stuff. I didn't really know what to do at first because there was soooooo much. It was also confusing because nothing had prices on it. When I asked the lady how much things were she told me to just make a pile of the things I wanted and she would tell me how much for the pile. Well that doesn't really tell ya much does it! So I decided to start out with the three white boxes of chipboard you see below. I also had some rubons and some of the metal accents. I was expecting it to be about 20 or so bucks because some of the items still had the original prices on them and they were like 10 bucks a pop. So when she said seven dollars for the whole thing I was soo excited!! I was so excited that I decided to add more to my pile. I ended up getting 3 boxes full of chipboard, 3 Rub on Booklets, 3 sheets of never opened thickers, 2 sheets of rubons, 25 sheets of fancy patterned paper, a biggg tray of different metal embellishments and all of this was sold to me for the modest price of twelve dollars.... I know..I know... amazing right??

That was all at the first garage sale... The second one we found had some great things too!! I got

some mod podge, a sewing machine and an authentic Juicy Couture black leather handbag!! I was so excited to see this handbag. I've been wanting a black leather Juicy bag for a long time and I was so happy so be able to get this!! We got all this and a couple of movies for a low price of forty dollars.. When she said 40 bucks was all I needed to take all this stuff home I almost fell over considering the Juicy Bag was $300 originally. What a day.... It was a blast!!!

Isn't it beautiful!! I'm in love!!

Stay tuned for more of my garage sale finds!!

Long Over Due...

2010-05-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

So you know how I said my computer was broken?? Well now it's fixed!!! I'm way excited about it too. I love having my computer back, it's nice to be back in the loop. I really missed being able to blog and edit pictures, digital scrapbook, etc. So I have become obsessed. With what you say? Well, with my all time favoritest, funnest, and bestest hobby ever. scrapbooking that is!!! If you know me you might be thinking, "I thought you were already obsessed with scrapbooking?" Well that is true but it has been taken to a whole new level. It all started when I found some free Creating Keepsakes magazines on Craigslist. I was super excited about it, I was having the time of my life looking through the 50 magazines I got. I was inspired to scrapbook so many new things and to use so many new techniques. I have so been inspired to re-organize my creative space. My craftroom is awesome but it needed a little something more. Whenever I would craft, I would notice that I would forget about a lot of my stuff because they are buried away. So I decided that I need an open system or in other words I needed to have as much as my stuff within sight as possible. So that's what I've been doing lately. I have added a lot to my stash as well thanks to scrapbooking garage sales. I have always seen these advertised on Craigslist but I figured they were expensive and I live so far away that I never made it out there but now that Brady has quit his saturday job I decided to take advantage and go to one and lets just say I'm never going to step into a craft store again. There were such ridiculous prices I was in heaven.literally. okay so maybe not literally but it was pretty close. I even went back later that morning hah. it was thatttt good. I will have to post some pictures of that later though in a special post.

Oh we are moving to Washington!!! yay?? Yeah, I'm not so sure about this. I would have liked to stay in my new house buttt I guess that's not what Heavenly Father wants for me.

I have a new calling though.... Young Womens Beehive Advisor!!!

Yay!! This was actually the same calling as my last one so I was wayyy excited to be able to be in the program again. I love these girls. They are awesome! Sooo fun. Mutual is so great with them!

Heres a picture of my wonderful guy!

Choices, Choices

2010-03-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Grad School....

Yep, thats right, we are moving! We just aren't sure where yet. We are still for a second confirmation from both schools. We've sent in our letters of intent and now we just wait... I'm so sad that we are moving. I was just beginning to feel settled with the house and the ward. But I suppose this is what Heavenly Father wants for us. I know it will all work out in the end, it's just hard to know that we have to move. We are excited though, afterall this is going to be quite an adventure!!

Broken Computer...

2010-03-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Sadly, myy computer is broken and this is the reason for the lack of posting... I really feel like I've lost a limb or something. I love my computer... I miss it. Its been broken for about a month. I'm not quite sure whats wrong with it but it won't even turn on... sad day. I need to get it fixed but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it. Maybe we will just end up getting a new one.

Anyways... here is what we have been up to!

Here are some pictures of Jaxtons Baby Blessing we did last sunday! It was great! So many people showed up, it was nice to have such a great turn out! Thanks to all that came!

Jaxton is getting so good at lifting his head up!

My Little Guy

2010-01-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post some new pictures of the cutest baby ever :)

Oh how I love this little guy! He is just so fun to have. I absolutely love being able to hang out with him all day. He makes me laugh all the time. He makes the cutest little faces and I just love him to death. I can tell he's going to be a stubborn little guy though, he is already so independent. He has been doing such a good job at night too! I've already had 2 nights where I've been able to sleep through the night! awesome! It really was the best, I really needed the extra rest!

I have come to realize that I have the absolutel best husband in the world. He is soooo helpful around the house and he is so good with the baby. I really appreciate all that he has been doing like cleaning the house, helping with dinner and of course with all the baby stuff! I think having children with him makes me love him even more; something I never thought possible!

We are going to Utah this week for a graduate school interview for Brady! How exciting huh! We are so excited to have this opportunity! So wish him luck! It's also really nice that I get to go home and see my family! I miss my family and I am so excited to see them again! They were here for Christmas, which was the absolute best, but I miss them already!

So I've kinda gotten into digital scrapbooking lately and here is my latest creation. It's a baby announcement that I'm going to send to all our friends and family.

What do you think?

So it's been a while...

2010-01-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hello there everyone! My has it been a long time since I have written in this thing. I really wish I wrote more often because it's just so fun but I've been so so busy! I've been through a lot lately!

1. Graduation yes, that's right. I have finally graduated from ASU with a Bachelors of Arts in Communication with a minor in Philosophy. It only took 3 and a half years but I finally finished! I seriously can't believe I'm already done with college but time really does fly by when you are having fun. it has gone by faster than I ever imagined it would it really seems like it was just last week when I was moving into the dorms and meeting my new roommates for the first time. Oh the good time. So much has changed since then! I've been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I've been married and sealed in the Temple and I just became a mom :) Life is good

2. New House as I've talked about before we moved into our first home. We have most of the hous painted now but there is still some more to go. I've also done some decorating lately... well more like my mom came and helped me decorate. She has such an awesome sence of style and all the things she did really look wonderful.

3. Baby Brown that's right! Baby Brown is officially here! He was born on the 23rd of December at 1:23 in the afternoon weighing 7.0lbs and was 21 inches in length! I was in labor for about three days but wasn't dialating enough to be admitted until about 4 in the morning on the 23rd. I was dialated about 4-5 cm at abour 4am and wasn't fully dialted until 12 in the afternoon. After 50 min of pushing Jaxton James Brown was born. He is healthy and happy and now two weeks later is doing so well. He has gained almost a pound already! I feel like I can literally watch him grow... He is so big! He really is such a sweetie and I love him more than I ever could have imagined. Here are some pictures :)

40 weeks pregnant

Dad holding him for the first time

poor little guy all swollen from the labor experience

adorable!

soooo cute!

I love these two guys!

Mom and Jaxton!

our little gangster

makes me laugh every time

first family photos!

I know, I know

2009-10-04T20:33:00.001-07:00

So I know it has been forever since I have last posted but Brady and I have been super busy! We work and go to school all the time... literally. We barely have time to spend with each other. It's been really stressful lately because we are getting ready to close on our house but we are hoping we will be ready to move in by the end of this week! I don't think I can adequately express how happy I am to be moving into our own place. I can't wait to decorate and paint! YAY! Other than that though, we haven't been up to much. Just the occasional date or hanging out with family. The good news is that the semester is almost half-way over! That's the most exciting thing ever! Anyways, I must be off but I will leave a few pictures of what we have been up to lately!

Cleo lover her daddy!

Okay, so this wasn't really recent I just never actually posted it

This is at the Taylor Swift Concert from forever ago!

Starting the process of the buying our first home!

Whose belly is bigger?

So...

2009-09-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on since the last time I posted...

The first exciting thing that I haven't really talked about much on here is that Brady and I are buying a new house! We are really so excited and can't wait to move in. It's out in Queen Creek which is kinda far away but we only have one semester of school left so it won't be that bad. Plus Brady's sister Emmalee and husband Burton live about 3 miles away so we have family really close which is always nice.

So this is it! We totally love it. The landscaping needs to be

cleaned up but it is a foreclosure so that's normal.

We are supposed to close on the 27th of this month but I've heard lots of stories about how people haven't been able to close on time so I hope everything works out. I really can't wait to move in so I can decorate! I really and just yearning to set up all of our furniture and stuff! We have been really lucky because people have been giving us furniture left and right. I really can't wait to set up the nursery either.... ahh I'm just so excited!

The next piece of news isn't so exciting. I had to go to the hospital the other day because I've been having some cramping lately and so there were all these complications and I was really worried but everything turned out to be okay. One exciting thing that came out of this scary happening was that I got to have another ultrasound and I got some really great pictures!!

I really am astonished at technology these days...

These pictures are so amazing to me!

He totally has his dads nose...

Another exciting this is that my best friend in the entire world and the friend that helped me convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints left for a mission! She has decided to spend the next 18 months in service of the Lord. I couldn't be more happy for her. I know she is going to be an awesome missionary, heck she's already got one conversion under her belt! Anyways, I'm going to start a blog for her so those of you that know her can see what she's been up to. (Thanks Katie for the idea :)

Well that's all for now!!

Baby Update

2009-08-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

So I haven't really posted too much about the baby recently so I thought I would give you guys an update!

I am currently 23 weeks along so we passed the half way mark a couple of weeks ago. that was crazy... realizing that we are already HALF way done with this whole pregnanct thing?! woah.

very pregnant, but very happy!

23 weeks along

S0 we had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and here are some of the pictures. We were really excited because we were able to find out the gender of the baby!!!

cute little feet

ribs! this picture is amazing to me!

aww... isn't he cute??

That's right! We are having a little boy!!!! We are both SOOO excited!! We haven't really decided on a name yet, but we will be sure to let you know when we do decide!

Really???

2009-08-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Brady and I just had our one year anniversary... really??? I cannot believe it's been a year already! Time really does fly by....

We celebrated the occasion with dinner at Cheesecake factory. It was great! My dad sent us a gift-card so it was nice to be able to order whatever our little hearts desired.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband ! He is so good to me and I love him more than anything in the world. He is my best friend, the person who knows me best and I could not imagine a life without him.

I love you Brady

So it's been a while....

2009-08-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

yeah, I know I've been really bad a blogging lately but I totally have good reason! I've been busy with moving and packing and then more packing and all things related to moving. It has been really stressful but we are on vacation now so it's all gone away for the moment. We are on our little tour of grad schools for Brady and at the moment we are in Twin Falls, Idaho. We have already been to Las Vegas, Salt Lake and Pocatello. It has been a blast!

Cleo is just so darn cute!!

Brady and I have been having lots of fun lately because we got a new puppy! My mom has two breeding Chihuahua and they had their last set of puppies and I decided it was now or never. I mean when else can you get a free purebred dog? Not to mention that my mom got all her shots done for us and sent her with toys and food?? It was really sweet of her! Anyways her name is Cleo, short for Cleopatra. The hubbys idea.. hah I didn't like it at first but it has definitely grown on me. She is the cutest little dog ever though!! She can be quite and handful sometimes but most of the time she is really chill and hardly ever barks. We almost have her house trained too! It really has been so fun and I love her to death!! We even brought her on her road-trip and now she staying at my moms house while Brady and I continue our travels. I was kinda nervous to see if her parents remembered her or vice versa but they get along great! She is way more hyper than they are so I think they get annoyed with her easily but it's hilarious to watch.

We ended up going to Seattle to visit my dad and we had a really good time! We got to do some really interesting things like tour the underground, we went to Tillicum Village for some awesome Salmon and we went to look at some grad schools for Brady. It was great weather for us! We have been so used to hot weather that it was really nice to take a break from the heat.

anyways... I've gotta run for now!

My Dream Scraproom

2009-07-05T17:28:00.001-07:00

Okay so I'm always trying to make things more organized in my house and lately I've really been wanting to re-organize my scraproom and here are some pictures of what my dream scraproom would look like. I love this room because it's the exact same colors and patterns as my room!!! I'm so excited!!

I'm in love with the colors and the CREATE

LOVE the organization

My Room :)

Does anyone else think this is funny?

2009-06-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

Good Times

2009-06-27T13:53:00.001-07:00

I've been so busy with the big move that I haven't really had time for blogging... but here is what we have been up to the last couple of weeks!

Lake Trip

We went to the lake last week for one of Bradys work parties. It was such a blast and we had a lot of fun.

My crazy husband doing a flip off a cliff

They finally let the pregnant ladies have some fun... even

though it was a little slow...

yeah.... thats my husband :)

Camping

Brady and I decided to take a break from life and go camping. We weren't really sure where we were going to go so we left the house with our little car all packed and decided just to wing it. We decided to go to a spot Brady used to go to when he was little. It took forever to find but once we did I was so glad because it turned out to be a beautiful spot!

If you look close you can see Brady popping out of the tree

on a hunters lookout

There was this awesome little natural spring that someone found

and made a fountain. It took about an hour to find... even though

they clearly mark the path... hah

My crazy husband!! I swear he does things like this on purpose

just to scare me!

This is the cliff that was behind Brady in the last picture :(

Well thats all for now! Hopefully I'll have some new pictures soon!

Girls Camp

2009-06-17T10:06:00.001-07:00

So this last week I had the opportunity to go to girls camp with my little Beehives! It really was so much fun! It was a little cold but other than that everything we did really was a blast! I really enjoyed being able to spend some time and get to know my girls even better! They really are an awesome group of girls.

Jodi, Joanna and Emmarie attempting to tie knots

and apparently made Joanna into their pet

The little scripture study we had by the river. It really was amazing to be

able to sit by the river while it was sprinkling and have a scripture study

Sariah and I at scripture study

I don't really know what they do at other girls camps but we have a HUGE

water fight. It was so fun to see these girls get team up and try to

get our bishop as wet as they could. They did a really good job too because

he got soaked....srsly soaked.

But anyways on to other news. Brady and I are moving. It's been really stressful because when we found out that we had to move we only had 20 days until we needed to be moved. How stressful! So I've been packing and trying to purge of some things before we move because I know we will not have enough room for all the stuff we have. We really wanted to but a home but there is no way that will be possible with the short time limitations. We are hoping to move somewhere where we won't have to sign a hugh lease to if we do end up buying, we wont be stuck in a lease.

Anyways my life has been so stressful lately with the move and all of lifes other stressful things it really has been a difficult point in life. I'm trying not to be so stressed because I know when I'm stressed so is my baby and don't want to do that! Hopefully things start to work themselves out. : )

The Time Has Come To Announce....

2009-05-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

That Brady and I are going to have a baby!!

That's right, I'm pregnant!! I'm due December 22nd but hopefully the baby stays put till after that date because I have school. I have one teeny tiny semester left and I just hope everything goes smoothly so I can actually finish.

People keep on asking me if I want a girl or a boy and to be honest, I don't really care. It is up to the Lord, and I will be happy no matter what it is. That being said, I just have this gut feeling that it's going to be a boy. I'm only 8 weeks along so we don't actually know if it's a boy or girl just yet. I think we will be able to know in about 2 months.

That's our exciting news for now... but besides that everything is going pretty normally. I'm still working and Brady is working AND going to school this summer. He is crazy.. I don't know how he does it. He works all day long and then comes home to a bunch of homework! It is for this reason that I have decided to help out with his online classes. I'm actually excited because he is taking one of the classes I always wanted to take but didn't have the proper prerequisites. It's Abnormal Psychology and I always thought this class would be soo interesting, so I'm kind of excited about helping him out with it.

Brady and I have a couple of trips planned for this summer that I am getting really excited about. Our first trip of the year is going to be a camping trip! I'm so excited because we bought a new tent last summer but never got a chance to use it. It's an 8 person tent so we will have plenty of room hah... the tent was actually a great deal it was like 80% off or something like that. The second trip we are going on is what I like to call "The College Tour of Every School Possible...." We are taking 2 weeks to travel to all of the Graduate Schools Brady is interested in. I'm really excited because we are making pit stops in Utah to visit the U of U and of course we are staying with my parents! I love visiting my parents, and I really do miss them a lot. I'm also really excited about the fact that we are going to Seattle to visit my dad and his wife Sally! Brady has never been to the area where my dad lives so I'm really excited to show him around and just take some time to hang out with my dad. It is going to be super fun!

Oh, one more exciting thing is that I'm going to Girls Camp! I think it is going to be such a fun time! I'm a cabin mom so I will get to be with my little beehives :) It's going to be a blast and I can't wait!!

Something Old and Something New...

2009-04-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

So here is something old that I totally forgot to post....

Pictures from our Honeymoon!!

So Brady and I went to Cancun for our honeymoon! It was pretty awesome because we stayed on an Island that was off of an Island that was off of the mainland.... We had to take a ferry everytime we wanted to go into mainland cancun. It was pretty awesome!

This is Isla Mujeres, The Island we stayed on... see the little island that is closest to the bottom and is kinda on the left? Well that it our little hotel Island... it was the best!!

We went to an EcoPark called Xcaret and it was the best part of our trip kinda.... but thats a whole nother story... This was the cave diving part of the Park. It was a little scary at frist but it was really fun overall!

This little dolphine wanted me to take it home...

Brady wanted to take the shark home....no way

The complete other side of Island Mujeres

This is Chichén Itzá, it is an ancient Myan ruin and it was soooooo cool.

It was much much bigger in real life.

This is a natural fresh water swimming hole

Okay, on to something new...

A lot has been going on so this might be fairly long

First... Our trip to Utah... it was okay... there was so much going on thet Brady and I were soooo exhausted.. But we did end up going through the Timp Temple! It was AMAZING and I loved every second. The best part about it was that I got to go with one of my highschool friend Melanie Bluth and her husband. It was a blast!

We went bowling as a family and it was really fun. It has been a very long time since we have all gone and done something as a family... remember my family doesn't do family night lol

Easter!! It was great! My favorite part of it was the egg decorating... My family does this thing called Pysanky and it's basically the way people dye eggs over in the Ukraine.. It was really fun though. My good friend Jen came over and we decorated eggs all night hah

This is what pysanky eggs are supposed to look like....

Yeah, pretty cool huh... let's just say we are beginners...

Jen blowing out her egg... this was before I finally figured out that we didn't need to do this lol

Our plethera of dyes that suck becuase I forgot to order the real pysanky dyes..

Our friendship egg.. (I'm the short stick figure)

Jens Masterpiece

All the eggs when we were all done.. :)

Last but not least, the Diamondbacks game!!

Emmalee, Burton, Brady and I all got to go to the Diamondbacks game for free!! We had great seats too! We were in the 17th row.. it was so close!

I thought I liked Pink Floyed until....

2009-04-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

I went to their laser show...

Seriously??? I mean every single song of theirs sounds the EXACT same..... I thought it was going to be a really fun time, and it was for about 20 min, but then it kept on dragging and dragging on. I wanted it to be over at intermission but no, it went for a whole nother HOUR.... Not to mention the fact that it was sooooo soooo loud... lets just say I couldn't hear properly for the rest of the night. We got our tickets for free but we probably would have never went if we actually had to pay.. I don't like them that much, even before I realized I hated them.. lol But one thing I should have considered is the type of people that are actually willing to PAY for this type of concert.... not the most pleasant bunch in the world. The lowlight of the night was when the couple sitting next to us said "Where did you leave the pot?"... enough said... :(

I do have to admit though that the lasers were pretty cool, and they gave us some awesome glasses to wear during the show..

Vacation Time

2009-04-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm excited for tomorrow because I'm leaving to go see my family in Utah... I am so excited. I really miss my family and I am looking forward to spending time with them. Hopefully the trip will end up being a fun one. It should be nice to see my younger sister as well. She is graduating this May and when I heard this I was like WHAT? My little sister is already going to graduate from high school? Where did the time go? Seriously... I'm happy that I get a chance to see her becaue I'm not sure I will be able to make it up for her graduation and then she will be off to college. Not like it's going to be farther away or anything, shes going to Westminister, but still.... shes going to start her own little life just like I've started mine. Granted she probably won't go run off and get married anytime soon but its still a huge life changing thing. It's going to be great.

Another thing I am way excited about is that I'm going to go to the Timpanagos Temple for the first time!!!! For those of you who know me, you know that I love the Timpanagos Temple and have been wanting to go through it before I was even mormon!!! That my friends, is a really really long time. I tried to go through it the last time I visited my parents, but it was closed for cleaning. sad day... But it won't be this time :)

Conference is this weekend as well, thats actually the reason I'm going home for the weekend. I hope we get in, we weren't able to get tickets but I think the Lord will provide a way for us to go. I've heard that if your a new convert it's easier to get in but I'm not so sure about that, we will have to wait and see.

So I am loving my new job :) It is really a blast and I teach some really cute kids. There is this one class with two little girls in it and they are so cute when they play together! They are the two cutest little girls ever! I have this baby who is about a year and he really is the most adorable little boy ever, and hes such a good swimmer! He can go all the way under and he dosn't even cry! His mom is so cute too! She is probably the cutest pregnant woman I have ever seen :) There is this one little boy who got so excited one day, he was lik "Guess what?" so I'm like "what?" and then he procedes to yell, "I don't eat catfood!" and I'm like.... "okay?" hah it was pretty random and hillarious.

Well I've gotta go so toodles

well then

2009-03-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

As you can see I'm trying to update my background... It's been a trying experience. hah so my apologies for the weirdness....

Hello there...

2009-03-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone! Im trying to do a better job of updating this thing... my mom came into town this week, which also happened to be Spring Break so it kinda worked out well. It was nice to be able to spend time with her. Anyways... I want to scrapbook.... I think I have an obsession, it getting a little out of hand. I want to make a scrapbook of our wedding picture and I've already started an 8x8 but everyone keeps telling I should make a 12x12.... I don't know what to do. I think I just might end up making both :)

I feel like school has been pretty easy so far this semester, I haven't had too many assignments and most of them have been quick and not too much work. All of this is about to change... I have an assignment coming up that does .NOT sound fun.... It actually sounds crazy..... So here's what it is.. an annotated bibliography. I've done these before... not a big deal. But for this class our professor want's us to pick a topic within communication.... and then find every single source that has EVER been written on it.... EVER....... I really don't see how this is possible... Every single source??? How? What? and even more importantly, why? I wanted to pick a topic that has something to do with marriage... I just think that if I'm going to do that much research on something, it should be something useful. Hey something I found out while doing some research, Did you know that couples who live together before they are married are more likely to get divorced than couples who wait to life together until after they are married... interesting huh....anyways.. if any of you have any ideas about a topic I could use feel free to let me know.

A little upset...

2009-03-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

So I don't know if any of you have heard about this yet but I just found out yesterday and ever since I heard about it I can't stop thinking about it.... So there is this T.V. show, Big Love. It depicts a family that practices polygamy, as if that weren't bad enough... here is the worse part about it.. The creators of this show thought it would be okay if they hired an ex-mormon who has been through the temple to show them temple clothing and ordinances and air them ON LIVE TELEVISION. This is absolutely HORRIBLE.... I am horrified!! I really can't believe that someone would actually do this... I still don't know what to think. I think this makes me so upset because they are basically desecrating something that is so special and sacred to me. How dare they... it really makes me soooooo upset! The church actually responded to this and you can read about it here...

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

wow...

2009-03-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

So it's been a long time since I have written in here and you know what that means, a very long post :)

First of all I promised in my last post that I would put up some wedding pictures. Well here they are, keep in mind that I have over 700 pictures just from the reception so what you are about to see it only a small fraction of all the beautiful pictures I have!

Secondly there has been another exciting thing to happen in my life. I got a job!!! For those of you who don't know, I have been in the interview/training process for over a MONTH!! But finally after a lot of hard work, they told me they wanted to hire me!! I was so excited, this is going to be such an amazing experience!!!! I'm one of the newest swim instructors at Aquatots in Mesa :)

I get the privilege to work with kids on a daily basis (something I absolutely LOVE to do) and I get paid for it!!! I seriously can't express how excited I am to start working! I start tomorrow by the way :)

Thirdly, A LOT has gone on in the last couple of months with Brady, nothing too exciting but important to us. Brady and I have finally registered for our FINAL semester of school. WOAH... wait what? I'm graduating next semester... from COLLEGE?????? How in the heck did time fly by so fast? Speaking of time flying by can any of you belive that Brady and I have been married for 8 months??? weird... hah back to our final semester... I only have to say one thing about the whole registering process. ASU IS RETARTED!!!!!! I have an almost perfect schedule.... except this one tiny class that I NEED TO GRADUATE! and ASU will not by any means let me register for the course. Do you wanna know why? It is fairly rediculous.... becuase I haven't finished the pre-rec for it, not like it matters that I am currently enrolled in the class and that I have an A. I have to actually FINISH the class. lame. stupid. ihateASU! I still think there is some hope however, there is always drop/add during the summer, I just have to hope someone decided to drop the class so I can take their spot. If that option fails then there is overrides, but I don't have the best record with these and the Hugh Downs School of Communication doesn't give these away very easliy, you would think they are gold or something... So hopefully I will be able to graduate on schedule...

and that's about it for now....

Lexe B.

2009-01-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

Okay so that last post got me thinking that I am should be more grateful for the things I am blessed to have in my life. I have a wonderful loving husband who is willing to do anything for me and who is my best friend and I know he will always be there for me for the rest of eternity. I have a great family and I love them dearly. I have the best set of friends a girl could ask for. I'm talking about Jess, Ashley, Madison, Jen and lots of other great people. I love you girls so much and I love being around you and being edified through your presence. You help me to be a better person. I am thankful for my membership in the Church. It helps me in so many ways and I'm sure I'm blessed in ways that I don't even realize. It helps me to be a better person and I know without a doubt in my heart that I am better off with the Church in my life. I know this church is true and I know that it is the same church that Christ led in ancient days and that it has been restored upon the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know so strongly in my heart that Christ lives and that he loves each and every one of us unconditionally. I say all of these things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I didn't intend to write my testimony in here.... it just came out lol

school....

2009-01-21T19:59:00.001-08:00

I don't even know what to say about it other than I HATE SCHOOL! I think that about sums it up. I could go on but I don't even know if it is worth thinking about anymore seeing as how I might not even be going to school at all this semester. I hate not having complete control over my life. It is just not fair.... :(

On to happier thoughts.. oh wait there are none..

Wedding Album

2009-01-16T16:11:00.001-08:00

View Project at Shutterfly

New Year... New Life

2009-01-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

The new year has finally come and along with it is a new way of life. The break from school has brought in a new year but not much seemed to be differend until I started to think about what this year has in store...

Christmas was a BLAST! We went to Puerto Penasco for the Holiday and it was really fun to spend all this time with my new family :) It was a little crammed (22 people in 3 room condo) but I think that made it more fun! It was a little chilly but overall it was a good trip.

I also got my wedding pitcures finally so I will be posting some soon :)

Update..

2008-12-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a good December, I sure know I am :) Only one day left of school so that alone makes it pretty good. But as I mentioned before, I love the Christmas season. One of the big reasons I'm really excited is because this is one of the first years I actually get to celebrate Christmas with Christ in mind. In the years past when I wasn't a member, the only thing I ever thought about on Christmas was the gifts. There would even be times when I would spend hours making a Christmas Gift List. I'm so glad that I have the wonderful oppurtunity to actually think of it as the day my Savior was born. I've been thinking about Mary a lot lately, can you imagine being the mother of the Savior Jesus Christ? I can't even imagine what it will be like whenHello everyone! I hope you all are having a good December, I sure know I am :) Only one day left of school so that alone makes it pretty good. But as I mentioned before, I love the Christmas season. One of the big reasons I'm really excited is because this is one of the first years I actually get to celebrate Christmas with Christ in mind. In the years past when I wasn't a member, the only thing I ever thought about on Christmas was the gifts. There would even be times when I would spend hours making a Christmas Gift List. I'm so glad that I have the wonderful oppurtunity to actually think of it as the day my Savior was born. I've been thinking about Mary a lot lately, can you imagine being the mother of the Savior Jesus Christ? I can't even imagine what it will be like when I become a mother myself, but the mother of the Savior? Man that would be such a heavy load. She must have been a righteous women for Heavenly Father to pick her to be the mother of Christ..... Anyways...

Brady and I went to my parent's house in Utah for the holiday... It was quite fun, I really enjoyed the change of weather.

Me and Brady

Me and my Grandma... aka the craftiest woman alive

The new puppies my dog had... SO CUTE

Playing Zilch... the funnest game ever basically

We had lots of fun and it was sad to go, but I guess we will just have to wait until summer to see them again.

I also forgot to post about our most recent culture party... If you don't know, there is a culture party at our house on the first saturday of every month and each time we pick a different culture to celebrate and we have that cultures food, games and other fun things. This month was Asian night and the pictures are pretty hillarious and there is a video of my two youngest sister-in-laws dancing... so funny.

Chinese fireworks... aka sparklers :)

Our little Chinese dragon

Emmalee, Burton, Burtons brother and girlfriend

Emmarie our asian servant heh

Nick, me and Brady (what a dork)

Christmas!!!

2008-12-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

Sooo Christmas is coming and I'm soo sooo sooooooooooo EXCITED!! yay

school is almost over, I only have 3 more days of class! and them some finals but it will be over in about 2 weeks! I have been so busy with school that I have had hardly any time to work on my christmas gifts and I have so many to do :(

But anyways just wanted to express my happiness that school is almost over and that christmas is just around the corner.. I will update later about our thanksgiving trip to utah :)

Temple!

2008-11-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday I went through the Temple for the very first time. It was the most wonderful experience of all time. I love the Temple and it is my new favorite place to be :) I hope that Brady get to go every week. One goal in my life is to go through all the Temples in the WORLD! Ambitious, I know but I think that would be the coolest thing ever!!

Brady and I are going home for Thanksgiving and I'm hoping that we get a chance to go through both the Salt Lake Temple and the Timpanogos Temple! I've have always (even when I wasn't a member) have wanted to go through that temple. Not many people know this, but before I was a member, I told myself that someday I was going to go in that temple someday I didn't know how I was going to accomplish this goal but my thoughts sure didn't include actually becoming a member! hah how ironic right? Now I can go through it and for the right reasons :)

But that It's so close to my house (I actually live on the same street) and it's just soooooo pretty. I love it. It is beautiful

School is almost over!! Only 16 more days of class left! That makes me a very happy girl.

On Saturday, Brady and I were sealed for time and all eternity! :

Here are some pictures

umm....

2008-11-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

So I'm at school right now... and I really don't want to be here. I would much rather be at home all cozied up by the fire, driking hot chocolate. I have a cold so I'm not doing the best I could be and I really want to go take a nap but I have class until 1:15 so no nap time until then. :(

So I really scrapbooking... as my sister emmalee knows this. Emm, I think we should have another scrapbooking day. That was fun. Except this time lets just do a few pages instead of 12 hah.

I feeling a little random right now... anybody know any fun crafts involving glitter? I really want to glitter something....

anywho.... I'm glad it is getting colder... but I really wish I would have expected it. Otherwise I would have been able to wear warmer clothing!

So.... as most of you know I just recently went through the temple for the first time!!!

It was AMAZING! So cool.... probably my favorite thing in life right now! I love the temple and I am so excited to go back!

Brady and I are getting sealed on saturday!!! Yay for being married for time and all eternity :)

Hello Hello

2008-11-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow I will officially have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for an entire year... and I cannot believe it. I'm going through the temple for the first time tomorrow and I'm not going to lie... a have butterflies in my stomach. I'm nervous and anxious and maybe a little scared. I don't really know what to expect... ahhh my mind tries to make up all these hypothetical situations of what it will be like and then I think, I'm probably way off. ha! but who knows, maybe I'm dead on? hah that would be nice..... ahhhh, more butterflies!

But today I got to go to lunch with my wonderful sister-in-law Paola who is Brady's older brothers wife. It was great! She took me out in celebration of my temple sealing! yay! It was really nice to sit and visit with her. She gave me some advice about what it was like the first time she went through the temple (which happens to be the same day Brady went through for the first time too :) But I really appreciate advice like that and because I'm a convert I don't have what a lot of other members have. I don't get the advice about temples that a lot of other girls get.I don't get to go through the temple for the first time with my mom. I don't get to be sealed to my family for time and all eternity :( It makes me a little sad to think about.. I love my family so much and I really hope that one day they might take the same road I have taken. I wish they could feel the feeling I have felt, that they too could know all of the things I know.

well I must be off.... the hubby will be home soon :)

Hello there!

2008-10-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Soo.... It has been an interesting week! Lets start off with last weekend. Brady and I had the pleasure of going up to Utah for the weekend. It was so nice :) I realized how much I really do miss my family! and I know it sounds kind of weird but I really miss my house with all the cozy chairs and fireplaces. Not to mention the yummy food! I'm realizing that I took good home cooking for granted and now I find myself missing my mothers cooking more than ever! I hope that one day I can be a good of a cook as she is! I've been practicing though, in fact I'm going to be roasting a pork tenderloin.... doesn't that sound fancy? hah maybe not but I'm excited! We got a really really nice cast-iron dutch oven for our wedding so I'm really excited to use it for the first time! Gosh, shool has been really hitting us hard. Both Brady and I had finals today and I have another one tomorrow! I cannot wait until the mid-term rush is over!!

As all of you know Halloween is coming and if any of you don't already know Brady is a HUGE fan of halloween....

Here are some past pictures of his halloween costumes...

Brady as "the sweet spot"

yes, he is actually in a chair.. (I have a creative husband :)

Brady as HeMan and me as a goddess

These were taken last halloween right when we started dating! I still can't believe it has been a year since we started dating! Weird!

Oh and an update for all those who are interested, I'm going through the temple for the first time in 15 days!! who's excited??? I am!!!

Where we live :)

2008-09-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by a few people who were wondering where Brady and I are living, well we are living in Gilbert in Brady's grandparents house. His grandparents passed away a few years ago and since then the house has been completely renovated and ewe have the pleasure of living there! We are really lucky and we are so grateful for the opportunity to be staying here :) It also happens to be next-door to Bradys parents house so I has been great to get to know them better! Not to mention I love hanging out with all his sisters (he has 8!)!!!

So here are some pictures!

Our Living Room

The Kitchen

Some fun little doodad I made... that ribbon took forever!

Our Room

The Other side of our Room

More Pictures

2008-09-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

Pictures :)

2008-09-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to update you guys on pictures! I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I'm trying!