The Peterson Family

The 12 Days of Christmas

2011-12-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how to begin this post, especially since it's been months since I have posted anything. But I couldn't let this go by without writing about it and hoping that those responsible will be able to read this.

And this is the part where the hard truth comes out, that is mostly tucked away, and hidden, on many of our blogs. I apoligize in advance at how long this post is-sorry!

Most of you know that we don't have things easy. We have 3 beautiful children, who have blessed our lives more than we will ever know. And with them, we have also had some trials. Our first daughter, Briley was diagnosed with cancer (Wilms tumor) shortly after her 1st birthday. It was so long ago, but such a scary time in our lives. We were so blessed to have such an amazing group of friends and family who stood by us and helped us every step of the way. We wouldn't have been so strong without all the support and love we received. We are so grateful that Briley is a healthy, beautiful, 7 year old today.

Our 2nd daughter, Brooklyn, was diagnosed with Epilepsy and is severely developmentally delayed. She is now 4 1/2 years old, has only a few words, is no where near potty trained, and occasionally still struggles with seizures. We have searched high and low to figure out what is causing her to be delayed, and have not been able to find a diagnoses. Despite all the challenges we face with her, we are forever changed for the better to have her in our lives. We are able to relish in her small accomplishments-when she first signed "please" at 18 months, after months of practicing and working with her. When she first waved or said "mom". We can't take these little milestones for granted, especially since we all worked so hard to accomplish them. She is the most beautiful, loving, and happy girl.
I was constantly fearing the unknown for her. Will she ever walk? Will she ever talk? Will she go to a normal school? Will she ever be dependent? Will she ever get married? Will she ever have children? All of these questions have potentially scary answers. But as time has gone on, we don't worry so much about those little things, that sometimes seem so important. We are just glad that she is here, alive, and that we get to know her and raise her. I think that part of her purpose is to teach us-to be patient, loving, and forgiving.
This last April we where blessed to have a baby boy-Jack. He is such a joy and so fun to have around. We cross our fingers and pray daily that he will grow up to be a healthy boy.

In the last few years, we have had two failed restaurants and have had our share of financial and legal struggles. We realize that we are not the only ones. I don't know where Shan comes from, but he has this amazing ability to keep working hard. He does so much to support our family, and never complains. He is so skilled and knowledgeable, that he is able to maintain a construction business despite this economy.
And just like everyone else, we are not always positive or have good attitudes. We have our days where we feel so low and dumped on.
A few weeks ago we went through one of these times. We really felt like we just couldn't take anymore. I was feeling really sorry for myself after a particular rough week. We just got the Ensign in the mail, so I picked it up and read the first article. It was on Gratitude. I was reminded that we often don't realize how much we have, until it is taken away from us. This hit close to home since something very dear to me was threatened to be taken away. I realized I needed to stop complaining about the "little" things and be more grateful for what I already have.
Later that week, my mom called and told me about an acquaintance who is 5 months pregnant and just found out that her baby has a severe heart defect and may not survive after birth. I quickly became humbled and grateful again-to have my children, despite their challenges.

Then Sunday, December 11th, our door bell rings. I opened to the door to find this:

I didn't even know how to respond. I called for Shan to come to the door, he pulled the package into the house, as we saw a car drive away. (Couldn't get a close enough look at that car-dang it!) We stared at the box for a very long time, not really knowing what to do. So we opened it and found this:

4 darling boxes, each individually marked for the kids and us, filled with wrapped presents. I couldn't believe we were recipients of such a grand act of service. I felt like we don't deserve this! There seems to be so many others, who have much worse circumstances. I was quickly humbled and grateful and couldn't help but cry-good tears.
Briley was up too, and she was sooo excited. She wanted to open all the presents right way. We found some envelopes marked "1st day of Christmas" and so on, so we assumed we were to open a gift each day. Today another envelope was delivered by some boy, who I didn't know, that gave us the instructions to open one gift a day. After he left, I immediately regretted not telling him to tell our "Secret Elves" how grateful we are. I was still in shock-I think.

I really hope that whoever you are-one, or many of you, that you know that we are so, so, very grateful for your act of love and service. I sit here and type with tears in my eyes to be able to realize how blessed and loved we are-and not just because of this amazing gift of The 12 days of Christmas.
This is The Season...and someone has given us a gift that we will never forget. I am so humbled at this time-to have the family and friends that we have. We love all of you so much. We are so lucky to be able to share all our good times and all our bad times with each other.

We are excited for the rest of our 12 days of Christmas. We hope that This Season, we will all remember our blessings-even our little ones, that don't appear to be blessings, and remember Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is The Reason.
We Love You All,
Shan, Monica, Briley, Brooklyn and Jack

Brooklyn's 4th Birthday

2011-07-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn turned 4 on May 22nd. One of the favorite presents? Yup another electric toothbrush.

Brooklyn with her cake. You can tell that we are still working on taking pictures and the whole "cheese" thing. Just know that these are the best pictures of her, even though I ended up taking tons!

She really liked the cake and ice cream. However, didn't want to eat it off her plate. She just went around the all the other kids plates and finished off theirs.

One of the things Brooklyn loves to do is jump on the trampoline. She is actually quite good at it despite all her delays.

Happy Birthday Brookie!

Arizona 2011

2011-07-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Our summer has been pretty uneventful, but I knew this would be the case with having a new baby. I wanted to do "something" this summer, so the kids and I decided to take a road trip to Arizona before I went back to work. My niece-in-law, Bree and her daughter Mckinely came with us. I was super bad at taking pictures. We basically went from pj's to swimsuits for 5 straight days. I don't think I did my hair and makeup once! It was a super low key trip. What we did: SWIM.

Kendis and Briley at Grandpa's pool.

Brooklyn loved the pool.

We checked on the kids after they went to sleep and this is how we found Kendis and Briley.

I got to meet Elin for the first time. She is about 3 months older than Jack. And you can tell by the picture that she is tiny! I thought this picture was hilarious! Jack is thinking, "what stinks?"

So just to redeem Elin, here is a cute picture of her!

Jack's Blessing

2011-07-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's always an exciting and special day when you bless your baby, and today was no exception. It's also always such a relief to have it done and over with too! It was such a beautiful, hot day today, that we were a little worried it was too hot to be outside. And our house just isn't big enough for everyone inside! But as soon as we started eating, a cloud rolled in and provided us with some shade. We even had some spinkles too. We were so happy to share this occasion with our family and friends.

Shan's mom bought Jack his blessing outfit, which I think is to die for! I think he looks so handsome! She also made him a white blessing blanket.

My two favorite and handsome boys.

The family.

The spread.

Baylee and Sydnee with Jack-haven't they grown up?

Thank you to everyone who shared this special day with us!

Jack

2011-05-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

I had pictures taken of Jack when he was 2 weeks old. I had my friend Jana at Butterfly Love Photography take them, and I love them! Jack was such a good baby during the whole shoot. I went with my sister Shannon, who also had a baby 4 days before Jack was born and unfortunately, she wasn't so happy during her session!

Jack is now 4 weeks old, and we are adjusting to 3 kiddos. I don't think the number "three" kids had been difficult, it's Brooklyn that keeps us on our toes! She is in the terrible 2's stage, and of course she is always getting into trouble when it's time for Jack to eat! But that's how it always goes, right?

I didn't get much into his birth story on my last post, so I will give a summary here. Most of you know that I had Brooklyn naturally-meaning no drugs, epidural. For Jacks birth, I had absolutely no desire to do that again, and actually thought that an induction sounded quite nice. I have never been induced before. I was scheduled for Wednesday, April 27th, and on Tuesday night, the hospital called saying that all these women went into labor on Monday night (there was a huge storm that night, and I guess that can cause women to go into labor), so they bumped me onto Thursday. I really wasn't too bummed-weird, I know. But I guess I had one more day to get ready, and it was pretty much a guarantee that I would go in on Thursday. So Thursday morning we went into the hospital. It was such a different feeling going there and thinking... I am going to walk away with a baby! My other labors, it was all a blurr going into the hospital. So we settled into our laboring room and just hung out for a while until the nurses came int and started my IV and drew my blood. I made it very clear that I wanted the epidural AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. My goal was a pain free labor and delivery! Well.....

The doctor came in while later to break my water. I was nervous, because I hadn't had the epidural yet, and I knew that once my water broke, I would progress super fast. I told this to the Dr. and the nurse, and I bet they were thinking..."um uh huh. We'll see." Why do they always question? I think I know my body! So then the nurse wants to start the pitocin....which I was also nervous about. I kept saying, ok...but I really want the epidural! They were waiting for my lab results to come back to make sure that my blood was good and I could actually have the epidural. Since when was that a rule????

Anyway, she put me on a drip level of 2 for the pitocin ( The highest is 25). Not long after, I started having some pretty painful contractions, 2 minutes apart. I paged the nurse (AGAIN) and said (AGAIN) I really want the epidural NOW!

She comes in and tells me that they got my lab results back, and she was just on the phone with the anesthesiologist and he is on his way. He went home! Yup...there wasn't anyone with a current epidural in, so he didn't have to be at the hospital. Luckily he lives super close. And he arrived about 10 minutes later.

Once I got the epidural, it was great! I was just bummed because the whole point of me wanting to be induced, was to not experience any pain. So I wasn't mentally prepared to feel any contractions. Oh well...30 minutes of pain-I am not complaining (anymore).

As soon as the epidural kicked in, they put the catheter in, and then checked me. Oh my...I was at a 10 and ready to have this baby! See-I told you I go fast!

The doctor arrived in the room at 11:38 am, I started pushing at 11:39 and he was born at 11:41am. So...over all, it went very well and very fast.

And here is a picture of Jack's cousin, Hallie Grace

Jack Jayson Peterson

2011-05-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our baby boy into our family on April 28th. We are so excited that he is here!

Born at 11:41am

7 lbs 7 ounces

19.5 inches

Briley is SO excited to be a big sister again, and just loves her baby brother. She also loves to be a big helper and holds him all the time.

And here he is at 1 week old.

So far, he is such an easy going little guy-which we love!

We just got professional pictures-soon to come!

Update

2011-04-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

I guess it's time for a little update. We've been surviving winter and hoping Spring comes soon. We are ready for warmer weather! Briley has been doing great in the 1st grade this year, and will be super sad when school is over. She always falls in love with her teachers and then never wants to get a new one. She has had such a great teacher this year-its amazing how well her entire class has been doing.

Brooklyn is also going to school twice a week, and loves it. The bus will come and pick her up, and she gets so excited, that she can hardly eat lunch. She just stands by the front window, waiting for the bus to pull up. She has the nicest bus driver, who is so sweet with her. She is making good progress. She is more aware of her surroundings. At school she used to just want to play or do only one activity and wasn't interested in anything or anyone else. Now she likes and notices the other kids, and explores much more of the class room. She actually has a few words! She says "mom" a lot and uses it for "more" and "dad". We are working hard on the "dad" thing, but that hasn't come yet. She will also say Briley and bye. She is trying so hard to talk and is understanding so much more.

She continues to test our patients. This one particular night, after we had already bathed and dressed her for the night, she decided to hop back in the the tub with Briley....fully clothed. For some reason, I can't seem to download this picture right-you'll have to turn your heads.

Such a stinker! We are excited that we have finally moved her to a big bed. We have been putting this off, because she has done so well in her crib and doesn't try to get out. It's pretty much the only "safe" place for her to go and not get into so much trouble. Well, with baby #3 about here, we decided it will never get any easier and we better just do it. It's been almost 1 week, and surprisingly, she has done well! Every night gets a little easier. Our focus is to teach her that she cannot get out of bed. The first night, it took her 45 minutes to fall asleep. It was horrible, when we are used to putting her in the crib, and walking away. It was such an easy bedtime routine for us. She was so excited and hyper that first night. She is picking up really fast that she isn't suppose to get out. I think she likes sleeping with Briley and being in a big girl bed.

And finally, here is the dreaded prego picture, that I have been putting off. I can already tell how much I will hate this picture when I look back! This is the only one I have taken the whole pregnancy. I am 38 weeks here. I have an induction date set for April 27th. I really hope I make it to that date, because I would love to experience a pain free labor. I have done it every way, except this way and from what everyone tells me, it's great!

I will keep you updated, but baby boy should be here in 5 days.

Building our way to Heaven...

2011-02-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

Lately, Briley has really liked to "do" family home evening. She even asked me when can we can get one of those boards...ya know the ones that say "activity, prayer, song" and then you put your name by it???? Um soon maybe. And let's be honest, I don't complain about her being in charge. She has done some really funny things in the past, and this one I just couldn't pass up writing about.

Shan is currently out of town, so it was just Bri, Brookie, and myself. We started with an opening prayer (Briley gave it, and blessed that she would give a good lesson), then we had an opening song, which was "My life is a Gift"-her choice. Then she started with her lesson, which went a little like this:

Briley: "Ok, we are going to play a game. Is it going to be fun?"
Me: "Um...I hope so".
Briley: "Well, after the game, we are going to see what it feels like."

So she decided that we would play Connect Four, which I must say, I am pretty good at and got connect four pretty fast. She insisted that we keep playing, which we did until all the checkers were played. We only played the one game, and then she asked me to sit back on the couch and so we can finish our lesson. Brooklyn then continued to play her own game of Connect Four.

Briley: "What did that feel like?"

Of course, I am a little confused by this question, so I raise my hand-which is a MUST when Briley is teaching.
Me: "Do you mean how it felt to play the game, or how it felt to win?"

Briley: "Well... what it feels like, is we are building our way up to heaven. When we play Connect Four, we are building up and up to the top, like we are trying to go to heaven."

I, of course am holding back my smile, and start to comment, at which she waves her hand at me and gives me a look so that I will raise my hand. So I raise my hand.

Me: I comment about how much of our life is like "building our way up to heaven" and then ask her maybe what the checkers would represent-like things we can do to go up to heaven.

Briley: "Yeah, its like building our way up to heaven and that is where we want to be, so we can be with Heavenly Father and Jesus. And we will be happy there. Because Jesus loves everyone, even bad people, like people who hit or fight, he still loves them and wants them to go to heaven. And sometimes when we feel like we are bad or that no one loves us... it's like our parents-they will always love us even when we are bad. So, it is really good to play games, like checkers, so we can build our way up to heaven."

I love how she didn't even answer my question, but she seriously went on about this for a good 5 minutes. She was so serious about "teaching" this lesson. I wish I had a recorder, because she mentioned so many other things, trying to tie it all in with "building our way up to heaven".

We finished up by singing about 4 "closing" songs-all her choice. Briley loves to lead and won't let me look at the song book (lets be honest...I don't know all the words) and she tells me to just watch her lips as she sings. She does this really funny thing while she is leading-she waves her hand back and forth-as she probably should, then she also does this "flipping" thing with her wrist-it cracks me up so much, that I can't even watch her lead-in which she also gets mad because I have to "watch" her so I know when to stop singing.

She must have some good primary teachers! Funny girl...

Happy Birthday Briley!

2011-02-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

Briley turned 7 on February 9th. We decided to stick to a smaller family party this year, which made things so much easier for me!

Briley loves things decorated, so the night before her birthday, I ran to Zurchers and got balloons, and decorated the kitchen. When she woke up, she had to break through all the streamers on her door. The little stinker actually crawled under it first, then wanted to keep it up all day. I told her either she run though it now, or Brooklyn will later.

She thought it was fun!

She decided on the colors pink and green for her birthday. I made her beignets and scrambled eggs for breakfast-at her request.

Blowing out a candle in the beignets( a donut if you don't know or haven't ever seen The Princess and the Frog). She told me we HAVE to sing happy birthday and blow our a candle in the morning, or else she wouldn't turn "7" until we did. She wanted to be "7" at school.

And she insisted on wearing pink and green as well.

Then we made lasagna for dinner.

And sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out the real candles.

Since we didn't have a friend party, we took Briley to a place called Incredible Pizza that weekend. A few friends and family met us there. It was so much fun-they had bowling, bumper cars, laser tag, and all other fun games-made just for kids...and pizza!

Baylee, Briley and Alex.

Brooklyn loved riding this little car...it just went around and around.

Happy Birthday Briley!

Christmas 2010

2011-02-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas in Utah. We spent Christmas eve with Shan's family and then Christmas day at our house with Shannon and Jeff, and my dad.

These are the pajamas my mom made for the girls.

And the pajamas she got for us! And I LOVE my zebra print...so me.

This is what the girls came down to on Christmas morning. Briley loved her new scooter and Brooklyn's favorite new toy was the Dora Spin brush that Santa left in her stocking. Go figure...who knew she was so easy to please! The batteries where worn out in a few hours!

And in case you missed our Christmas card this year....

Yup...it's true. We are having a baby boy the first part of May.

Thanksgiving in AZ

2011-02-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

We spent our Thanksgiving is Arizona. It was much warmer than Utah, but colder than we expected. It was still nice to be in the sun!

The kids loved swimming in the warm hot tub, the pool was too cold. Brooklyn especially loved it. She would cry every time it was time to get out. We also had to lower the temp to around 99, or she would start acting "funny". She has a really low threshold when temperature is concerned and will seizure.

Brooklyn, Kendis, Mason, and Briley.

Trisha and I cooked the Thanksgiving dinner, and it went really well. We started setting out all the appetizers around noon and that's what we ate for lunch and dinner was around 4:30. It was perfect!

Dad, me, Shan, Mason, Briley, Kendis, and Trisha.

We had such a great visit. Our drive home was longer than expected because of the huge storm over Utah. Luckily we had AWD, and Shan was really entertained driving in the snow. This is a picture while we where driving over Jacobs Lake...should have gone through Page, but Shan loved driving in it. We even helped get a little family out of a snow bank...they totally spun out and got stuck!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

We started off the fall festivities by going to the pumpkin patch.

Brooklyn and Briley

Monica and Shan

I can never snap a good picture of both my girls at the same time! This is the best I could do. Brooklyn was a cat and Briley was a witch this year.

I also dressed up as a witch.

This is my book club, we all went to witches night out at Gardner Village-it was such a blast!

Oregon Trip

2010-11-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

We try and make a visit to Oregon every year, usually during the summer. Somehow, summer flew by without a visit, so I took the girls up over Utah's fall break.
We had such a great visit with the best weather we could have asked for.

Brooklyn loved going outside. Usually the best part about staying at Grandma Evi's is that the kids can run around the property and I never have to worry. However, Brooklyn is a special case, and I had to watch her closely. She would often wander down to the bottom of the orchard and be staring through the fence at the horses. She could have easily gone through the fence and walked up to the horses. Good thing she didn't think to do that! But with 40 acres, she defiantly could have gotten lost!

Briley's favorite thing to do is ride the horses. She is riding Daytona here, and Grandma would give her little lessons everyday. She was riding the horse all by herself on the first day! She loved it.

Brooklyn loved riding the horses too. Last year, she cried the whole time, and this time she would just giggle! She would point and scream at the horse. We tried putting her on by herself, but she wouldn't hold on, so she rode best with Briley.

We also took a day trip out to a pumpkin farm with Linae and her kids. We got to ride a little train and then ride a ferry on a man made pond-the kids thought it was great. It was packed with people, all picking out their pumpkins.

Grandma Evi with Tyson, Carson, Brooklyn, Briley and Sydney.

We were so sad to leave Grandmas-it was so fun to see everyone and have a little vacation!

First Day of School 2010

2010-08-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Briley started 1st grade this year on August 24th, at Willow Canyon Elementary.

We found this outfit at Target, and Briley begged me to buy it, so it could be her first day of school outfit. And even though it was hot outside, she insisted she wear her boots. She loved it and thought she looked pretty great. She really has her own sense of style and is very adamant what she wears and how she wears her hair-everyday.

Here she is with backpack and lunchbox-all ready to go!
Shan took Briley on the first day, since I had to work. I was sad not to drop her off, but she was such a big girl and ready to go all day, by herself!
It still hasn't sunk in yet that she is in first grade and gone to school all day. We still need to get into a groove.

Women of Steel 2010

2010-08-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was able to do one triathlon this year. It was the 1st annual 3-3-1 triathlon at Lifetime fitness in South Jordan. It was pretty small and we didn't start until 9am, which was nice.

Not the most attractive picture

The swim portion: it was the BIGGEST CLUSTER ever. People really need to learn how to self seed! I got in at the 5 minute mark-because that is what I timed myself at (it was 250 yards) and my swim was 5 minutes! But...I had to pass 4 people! Yes 4 people! At one point I came to the wall to turn and there were 3 people waiting there...I just pushed pass them and kind of felt bad, but then reminded myself that this was a freaking race! What where they waiting for? Sorry girls-no time to be polite.

Once the swim was over, it was smooth sailing. Here is the bike portion.

And the run, on the Jordon River trail, which was nice, but hot.

My sister Trisha was in town with her kids and came to support.
Briley, Kendis, and Mason cheering me on.

Maybe this next year I will sign up in time for the AF women of Steel-one of my favorites.

Sisters Trip June 2010

2010-07-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

I know I've been slacking in the blogging world, and I really don't have a good excuse. So here is my attempt to catch up.

This past June I went on our first annual sisters trip to Gilbert, Arizona. We picked this location because it's my dad's house, which equals FREE! Shannon and I flew out Thursday night, and our flight ended up being delayed, so we didn't land in AZ until midnight. When we got in, we found out that Erica missed her flight and wasn't coming until the next morning. But we all made it there and that's what counts!

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Our trip consisted of talking, swimming, laying out, napping, talking, a movie, shopping, talking, playing games, shopping, and more talking. It was SO fun and relaxing to have NO kids (with the exception of Ren-Erica's newest addition who is now 4 months old), and to just hang with the sisters!

Our attempt at an action shot...Sarah was a jump behind.

Shannon, Sarah ( Devin's wife), Trisha, me, Linae, and Erica

Sarah, Shannon, Linae, me, and Trisha.

Such a fun trip...can't wait to do it again!

Beauty and The Beast

2010-07-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Briley had her dance performance with Utah Dance in the Beauty and the Beast. It was quite the production (3 days at Kingsbury Hall). Luckily, we only had to attend 1 night.

Briley's dance class where cups and saucers. I wasn't a huge fan of her costume because you couldn't really see them dance and they seemed to have a hard time dancing in their cups. Oh well...she had a lot of fun either way.

I am trying to find the video I recorded of her dress rehearsal, but no luck. Sorry!!!! I guess pictures will have to do.

Grandpa Gordon, Aunt Trisha, and Willard.

Shan and I.

Briley just loves to perform-so dramatic as you can see. She came up with these poses all by herself. One of these days I will have to video her "made up" dances at home...they are pretty entertaining.

Happy 8th Anniversary

2010-07-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

June 21st, 2002...
Was the day I married the man of my dreams. We can't believe it's already been 8 years! So many things have happened between then and now and we've only grown stronger. I love you babe!

Dinner at the Brick Oven in Provo to celebrate.

June 21st, 2002

November 2009

June 21st, 2010
Wow...is it me or have we aged in the last 8 years? (the answer is yes)

*I had to post the other picture of us because this one was so crappy...just didn't do our aging justice!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brooklyn!

2010-05-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn turned 3 on May 22nd. We had a little party in her honor with just a few family members. I decided to go with a "farm animal" theme, since Brooklyn doesn't have a favorite theme. Plus, she does know that a cow says "Moo".

She is definitely getting bigger and into more trouble! As a matter of fact, while I was typing this, she got into Briley's Sprite and dumped the entire contents all over the couch! Not happy.

Brooklyn is still making developmental progress, even though it's only a tiny bit. We are constantly trying to look to the positive and know that she is progressing and not digressing. Which is exactly why we are so excited that she can say "moo". I would have to say that is probably her first word.

She just finished her toddler classes with Early Intervention (they get kicked out when they turn 3). She has learned how to sit in circle time, copy some hand jesters, and follow simple directions. She absolutely loved her toddler classes and was always excited to go! Now she will start preschool for kids with special needs. We are excited because Brookie gets to ride the bus to school-I must say that Briley is jealous!

We are still trying to pin point the cause of Brooklyn's epilepsy and delays. So far, we have no answers!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn! We Love you!

SPRING BOUTIQUE!!!

2010-03-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

Mark your calenders!!! This boutique is going to be a hit!

Snow Day

2010-03-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

We always get a big snow storm in March-it never fails. I can't complain though, because we've really had a mild winter this year.

This is the snowman Briley and I built. Briley thought he was too small, but then I told her I was building a snowman the same size as her and she thought it was so cool.

Both the girls.

I can never get Brooklyn to look or smile at the camera.

Brooklyn eating snow.

We can't wait for Spring and Summer!

Happy 6th Birthday Briley!

2010-03-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

It's over a month late, but I finally got around to blogging again! Briley turned 6 on February 9th. We had such a fun birthday party with her friends from school. It was a little crazy, but worth it. Briley wanted a Hello Kitty birthday party, so I copied my sisters cake and made one just like it. I'm glad I finished it the night before-it took a very long time to frost.

The girls decorated cookies while everyone was arriving for the party.

Brookie really liked this part of the party. She is signing "please", which her is way of saying she wants something-obviously more cookies!

All the party guests.

We waited until her actually birthday to give her our present. This year, she insisted that she wanted a pink guitar. This all started one day when we were in Down East, which carries some damaged Potterybarn items. And there was this pink guitar! That is all she talked about. She also kept telling us that she knew we were going to get her a pink guitar!
Good thing Walmart carries a pink guitar.

So here it is people...the future Taylor Swift!

Project Time

2010-01-31T14:16:00.001-08:00

For some unknown reason, I have been wanting to "make" something lately. And when I say "make" I mean sew. I took sewing in high school, but my sewing skills have diminished and its safe to say that I really don't sew anymore. A few years ago, my mom gave me a hand-me-down sewing machine, which I would pull out about once a year and them give up because I couldn't figure out how to thread the dang thing! I even went to the trouble of writing out detailed instructions of how to thread the machine (when my mom was here last), but when I pulled out those directions-they didn't seem very detailed!

Well, here I am again...that time of year when I want to get my craft on. But I am proud to say that I actually finished and it wasn't THAT painful. Ok... lets be honest, it was a little painful.

I found a tutorial on how to make a banner, in fact, a Birthday Banner. I have always wanted one that I could pull out every year and admire my craftiness and say with satisfaction, "I made that". As a matter of fact, when I was sewing this, Shan came home and said, "Wow...mom is sewing??" Then he wanted to give it a try, and see if he could sew, (because he thinks he would be really good at it) and I refused! I told him that this was my project and I had to do it all myself! I am such a stinker!

Anyway, the tutorial said it takes about 2-3 hours from start to finish. Ummmm...not for me!!! I had to work out all my sewing kinks: how to thread my machine (again), change the color of my bobbin thread, add thread to the bobbin (I am sure there is a term for this), learn how to use Heat N Bond-yeah-screwed that one up too! I thought my iron was toast, but I fixed it. Guess I should read the instructions more carefully next time. I did manage to finish it in ONE day-that's not too bad for a first timer!

So...here is the finished project! Just in time for Briley's birthday! But I have to admit...I have the sewing bug and I am looking forward to my next project!

PS: sorry for the lack of a better picture! Our computer is out of hard drive space, so I have a hard time downloading ANYTHING! This is the best I could get-but if you click on the picture, it should blog up really big!

I WON!!!!

2010-01-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

I was the lucky winner of this awesome book-which I am so excited to read!

And this awesome scarf:

I was sooo excited! I won these from this new amazing blog I found-A Pina Colada. She has so many great and fun ideas, so check her out!!!!

Brooklyn's new thing...

2010-01-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn loves to pull anything out or down and making the biggest mess possible! I've been wondering why it's so hard to keep my house clean...

She will go in her room and shut the door and just tear everything apart! She was pretty proud of herself.

She was sad here because she made Briley's room messy. Briley got so mad at her and made her cry! But does she learn? Nope. In fact, we'll-I mean "I" clean it all up, and she just does it all over again!

She is such a destructive stinker!

Funny Story

2009-12-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

I was getting kind of sick of that boutique invite-as I am sure all of you were too! We had great success and I want to thank everyone who participated and everyone who came to support! It was so much fun! I am still way too busy soldering special orders... that's also why I haven't posted in a while.

So I had to share a funny moment. Briley is really into writing EVERYTHING. She is also into picking out her own clothes. And she wants it to be a skirt/dress-everyday.

We try and pick out her clothes the night before, so we can save the drama and time. When it was time for bed, I went up to her room and found this note:

So silly.... so creative...so funny. I love the hands pointing to her clothes (which I didn't take a picture of). And if you can't figure out what it says... "war" = wear betr=better.

BOUTIQUE!!!!

2009-12-04T13:13:00.000-08:00

Just another reminder about my boutique! I will post pictures for all of you "out-of-towners" soon.
Hope to see all of you there!!!!

Holiday Heritage Boutique

2009-11-22T17:32:00.000-08:00

Come support! My friend Jen and I are putting on this amazing boutique! We will be having my soldered pendants, jewelry, Christmas crafts, framed paper art, children's books, bows/hair flowers, hair accessories, knitted hats, handmade bags, handmade baby clothing/blankets, wreaths, adult and children aprons and many many more!!! We are trying to find someone with designer jeans-our people keep falling through! If you know of anyone, please let me know!

It's going to be a fun filled Saturday-come hang out with all your girlfriends, have lunch and enjoy the Christmas spirit!

New Moon Madness

2009-11-22T17:16:00.000-08:00

Yes... I am one of the crazy ones. Yes...I went to the midnight showing of New Moon. And Yes... I even wore a Jacob Charm. Oh and yes... I am a JACOB FAN!!!!!

Kind of sad that I am more than 10 years older than this boy!

My sis Shannon and I. She got me tickets-just like last year. And YES June 30th is already booked with Eclipse. Ha ha ha.
This is the only movie I have ever gone to on opening night. It was crazy with tons of girls (of all ages) which is what made it fun! Tons of screaming when Jacob came on screen! We had a raffle and giveaways all night. Bummer I didn't win.

Mindy, Christine, Shannon and me.
Thanks for the hook up Shannon!

Oh... and I LOVED the movie.

Halloween

2009-11-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

We started out the festivities with a Halloween party. Shan's idea was to go as polygamists. Yup... we pretty much rocked it.

I was lucky enough to attend with "Warren" since I was wife #3.

It's pretty much impossible to take a picture of Brooklyn. She doesn't sit still for a picture... EVER. This was the best I could do!

Pocahontas

The girls

Briley as a Bride. Originally she was Jasmine-which she wore to school and to dance class, but decided that for trick and treating, she wanted to be a bride.

Jasmine.

I hope you all had a great Halloween!

Eastern Caribbean Cruise

2009-10-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

We have been wanting to go on a cruise for a really long time and we finally just decided to book it and go! Luckily Shannon and Jeff took the girls for the first part of the week and then my other sister Trisha came up from AZ and had the kids at our house for the rest of the week. We couldn't have had a better trip knowing that our kids were in good hands. Especially since Briley got a stomach bug and was throwing up for 2 days!

This is before we left for the airport...we are so excited!

We had a connecting flight in Dallas to Miami and look who Shan spotted at the airport?! We were kind of embarrassed, but ask if we could take a picture with the one and only CHIP FOOSE! If you don't know who Chip Foose is... than you are not Shan's friend. Totally kidding. He re-builds and designs cars and is the best. He had a show called Overhaulin and we have EVERY episode on the the DVR. Shan was in heaven. So then we board our flight (assigned seating) and who do we sit by??? Yup-Chip! Shan seriously could have died! He was so nice and was showing us pictures of his family and talking to Shan all about cars. I pretty much read my book the whole time... cars? what? Anyway, we started out the trip right according to Shan.

Saturday morning we boarded The Liberty of the Seas-a Royal Caribbean Ship. It is their largest ship currently, but they are about finished with their newest ship, The Oasis. Our ship had about 5000 people on board and about 1200 of those were employee's. CRAZY!

Leaving Miami Port.

We were at Sea for the first few days and the ship had a ton to offer. Our favorite place to hang out was the Flow Rider. We started out with boogie board and then tried the stand up surfing.

Shan doing a trick

Me...just trying not to get washed away.

Trying the Stand up session-super hard, but fun.

WIPE OUT!

We also climbed the rock wall. They had so much stuff to keep you occupied while at sea. They had competitions, the Love and Marriage game show, Ice skating show, comedians, singing shows, name that tune, oh and plenty of food to eat!

This was one of our formal dinner nights. This was our regular dinner table with 8 couples. We had a couple from Ireland, England, and New Hampshire. It was a great table and we all got along really well.

Our "cabin boy" made us an animal before bed every night. This one is of course a Monkey, but he made us a rabbit, elephant, and a bat. Everyone on the ship is so nice and happy to serve you. We actually met Bill Gephart's son (ya know... "Get Gephart"). His name was Phillip and he has been working for Royal Caribbean for 2 years. He works for 7 months than takes 2 months off. Crazy working schedule. And that ship doesn't take any breaks! It runs none stop!

Our First Port: Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Waiting for the ship to dock.

We toured the city-the country is split into the Dutch side and the French side.

Then we got to play on the beach and have a bbq lunch.

Second Port: San Juan, Puerto Rico

We decided to do a zip line tour and had a bus take us to the jungle. Our bus driver was CRAZY! As you can tell, he has decorated his bus with something from EVERY American Holiday. He was so hilarious! He drove crazy too-with added sound effects.

We had to hike the steepest hill I have every climbed in my life! San Juan was SO humid too!

All ready to go with our stinky helmets!

Our 'Canopy Tour' had 8 runs and it was really fun!

We didn't have much time In San Juan, so we quickly did some shopping and sight seeing in the Old City.

And ate at a local restaurant called Barrachina's-which was so delicious!

I ordered the mufungo with shrimp ( don't ask what is was-it was just good) and Shan had skirt steak with fried plantaine.

As we are leaving Puerto Rico

Third Port: Labadee, Haiti

As we are coming into Haiti, we see some homemade sails...

This is a good picture of our cruise boat. I still can't get over how big it was! We were tendered in to the island on boats. I'm not sure why this picture turned out so dark, but it was a beautiful sunny day.

There you have it! I tried not "talking" too much... but it's hard to pack an 8 day vacation into one post! If you haven't gone on a cruise... GO!

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe Halloween is here! One of our favorite traditions is going to the Pumpkin Patch. Our visit is very brief... in-pumpkins-out. Especially with Brooklyn. She didn't seem to like the pumpkin patch this year....

Briley loved getting all our pumpkins for us.

And this was the best picture of the family-Brooklyn was not having it!

Briley and Brooklyn

We also always go to Arctic Circle to get there Halloween flashlight kids meal.

Brooklyn was much happier. She loves drinking anything out of a straw-especially diet coke. Totally kidding!

Briley-always posing!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Blondies

2009-10-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

I had some left over pumpkin and found this recipe on Kara's Kitchen Creations-and it was yummy! Different from your typical pumpkin dessert!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Blondies
1 cup butter, very soft
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
dash of nutmeg
2 cups white chips, divided
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Cinnamon sugar mixture for topping
Cream butter and sugar till creamy. Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin. Mix well. Combine dry ingredients and stir in. Add 1 1/2 cups of the chips and the nuts. Spread into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake at 325° for about 35-40 minutes or till toothpick comes clean. Melt remaining 1/2 cup white chips and drizzle over the bars. (I added about 1/2 tsp oil to mine so the drizzle would set up a little softer.)
Notes:
-You could also use butterscotch chips or cinnamon chips in the bars and I think it would be yummy!

Girls Trip

2009-10-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Back in September, I got to take a quick girls trip with my friend Harmony. We went to Arizona and stayed in my dad's house. It was a kid free weekend! We basically laid out (it was still 100 degrees-but a very dry, manageable heat), read, shopped, went to a movie and ate out. It was a nice break from our busy, crazy mommy lives. We also had Trisha come up and stay with us the last night. It was fun to see her too. And a big thanks to our hubbies for taking the kids!

Camping Trip

2009-10-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

We've always liked camping, but just haven't gone since we started having kids. So this summer we decided that we are just going to go! And let me tell you-it was a camping trip from hell!

My dad has a camping trailer that he let's us use, so we packed up the trailer-which didn't go smoothly. We figured out that the trailer batteries were dead and because they were dead, they were draining all the power from the truck's alternator and making the truck die. So we replaced the batteries-and we are finally on our way! We decided to pick the hottest weekend of the summer and go to the Sand Dunes-not up to the mountains-yep... the Sand Dunes. On the drive down, we ran into another challenge...

I look out the side mirror and smoke is pouring from the back tire! We pull over and find the tire shredded! Good thing Shan knows how to change a flat-I took notes.

We finally arrive and it's dark, making it super difficult to set up camp. The kids are wasted and I'm trying to get Brooklyn to go to sleep-and it's not happening! Needless to say-she ends up falling of the couch in the dark and gets a big rug burn on her upper lip. She looked like Hitler for a week.

The next day was SO HOT! We brought a generator and a fan to help keep us cool.
Brooklyn wanted to just run... and I mean run away! And she wasn't looking back. So I had to strap her in the stroller or lock her in the trailer. So this is how I entertained her-

There was all the sand and digging toys to play with, but did she care? No interest!

Uncle Andy taking the Garret and Briley on a four wheeling ride.

Briley "riding" dad's motorcycle.

Shan all decked out in his 2002 riding gear.

The wimpy sand rail-this thing was gutless!

So... will I go camping again? Yes. But this was the worst camping trip I have EVER been on. The good thing was that Briley and Shan had fun. Maybe we will have better luck next time.

Firsts....

2009-09-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well... it's official. I have a kindergartner! Part of me can't believe I have finally reached this stage in my life and the other part of me has been waiting a very long time! There were no tears-from either one of us!

Briley started to get nervous the past few weeks for school, but today she said she was excited! She is ready for a change and most definitely ready for the social interaction!

We had to make a poster about Briley and this is what she and I made. She didn't want to hold the poster AND wear her backpack at the same time... it was too much and she could "only do one thing at a time... mom". Geez.

Here she is with her best friend Sarah. I am so glad they got into the same class. They were so cute today... all fancy with their new school stuff.

They line up outside the kindergarten doors until it's time to go in. Briley is waiting in line and then figures out that the girl in front of her is wearing the same dress! Look at them staring at each other!

And let's not forget about Brookie! She started her sensory class at the Kauri Sue Hamilton school in Riverton. It's a special class for kids with developmental delays. She is going 2x week for 1.5 hours. It's quite the drive for us, but we hope that Brooklyn makes some good improvements this year!

This was my first attempt at getting a picture of Brooklyn's "first day".

Didn't go so well.

2nd attempt... the best I could get!

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

2009-08-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

We planted a garden for the first time this year. Who knew it would be so easy and so fun?

We have so much zucchini and there is only so many zucchini bread recipes and stuffed zucchini I can make. So I started searching around for some other zucchini recipes and found a blog that contained many new recipes that looked so good! Check it out here. I love finding recipe blogs!

Lemon or Lime Zucchini Muffins

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-2 tsp lime or lemon zest

2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups shredded zucchini

Topping:

1 Tbsp sugar (I used raw sugar)1/4 cup sliced almonds, slightly crushed

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, zest, and juice. Stir in dry ingredients, then zucchini. Spoon into well greased or paper lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with sugar, then almonds. Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes.

These were SO GOOD! I used LIME and it was EXCELLENT! They were light and fluffy and felt very healthy. Yum, yum!

4-wheeling

2009-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Shan took Briley on a day 4 wheeling trip a few weeks ago with his friend Kody and his daughter Alex. They went to Joe's Valley up Fairview Canyon. Thanks to my dad for letting us borrow his 4 wheeler!

We had to convince Briley that this would be fun and not scary(pretty sad-huh)! Of course she ended up having a blast. When they got home, she was so excited to tell me that she drove the 4 wheeler all by herself-she was so proud

Kody and Alex.

Alex and Briley on the drive home-cute girls!

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-07-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Another year older and wiser too...
Happy Birthday Day Grandpa Jayson!

Father's Day

2009-07-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had a great Father's day. Briley had so much fun making Shan a tie

I didn't think Shan would really wear it to church, but he was such a good sport! Everyone thought it was so cute!

I tried adding as many "manly" touches as possible... but that is kind of hard to do!

We then had dinner at Shan's parents house. I thought it would be fun to frost these rice crispy treats like a man's shirt and tie (saw it on Good Things Utah).
Happy Father's day Shan!

We're all aware of the crazy June weather-right? After one of the many rain storms, we found this beautiful rainbow above our house!

Shan's Fishing Trip

2009-07-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

About a month ago, Shan went to Minaki, Canada, which is in Ontario. He went with his brother in law Tony and some other "old dudes" that go every year. The warmest was 52 degrees-much colder than expected!

Shan was new to sport fishing and hasn't caught a fish since he was 13. This was the first fish he caught-a Northern Pike.

A bigger Northern Pike.

The biggest Northern Pike-32 inches! All fish where released back into the lake.

Tony and Carl on one of the 3 fishing boats.

Tony unhooking his fish.

Shan had a ton of fun-which he measures by the food he consumes. Carl was an excellent cook and whipped up amazing meals and they ate until they were stuffed. Shan gained 6 lbs-no kidding! It was a good week of R and R-well needed.

Happy 2nd Birthday Brooklyn!

2009-05-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn celebrated her 2nd Birthday on May 22nd.

I couldn't get her to hold still for a cute picture!
She was also pretty busy getting into trouble all day long.

This is after I caught her with diaper rash cream.

She couldn't get enough of her cupcake!

And she loved all of her presents!
Happy Birthday Brookie!

Lucky Me

2009-04-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I was lucky enough to win this neat pendant! I won it from Give Away Today! There is also a button on the right column of my blog. They feature a "give away" every day and you just have to enter to win! And I won! I never thought I would!

If you like this pendant, you can view more of her stuff at Madison Reece Designs
I just thought I would share my luck!

Easter

2009-04-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

We started out our Easter festivities with our annual ward Easter egg hunt. Basically it's a bunch of eggs scattered across the front lawn of the church. And it lasts about 30 seconds. I forgot my camera, but snapped a few shots of the kids when we got home.

This is Brooklyn's typical reaction and "face" whenever we come home-she loves to be outside. I thought it was a cute picture-she just looks so "old" in this picture!

Briley with her eggs. Brooklyn could have cared less about the hunt and the eggs-she just wanted to run around on the side walk and go straight for the road-typical.

Easter morning

I think we got more candy for Easter than we did at Halloween!

Briley ran into our room on Easter morning (we all slept in until 8am-that NEVER happens) and tells us that the Easter bunny had come to our house. We asked her if he filled her basket and she said, "I don't know, but I know he came to our house!" She did the same thing on Christmas morning. She never peeks, just runs into our room very excited.

This is Briley in her Easter dress. I didn't even put Brooklyn in hers! I woke up with a bad sinus cold and could barely make it to church myself-let alone get both kids ready. Oh well... many years to come with cute matching Easter clothes.

Uh Oh

2009-03-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have always wondered if this day would come....

Briley came down stairs tonight, and told me she cut her hair. I was busy folding laundry, so I didn't really hear her. I really just heard something about cutting hair and I told her she could never cut her hair, or else we would have to get all of her hair cut off to fix it (Briley really wants long, long hair). Then I looked at her...

I couldn't help but laugh. Then Briley got really mad at me for laughing! When I asked her why she cut her hair, she said it was "in her face and bothering her". I'm still laughing as I write this post. I can't even look at her to have a serious talk about cutting hair without laughing. What am I going to do about her hair??? Seriously. It had to be right in front, didn't it!
I totally cut off all my hair-like all of it, when I was 3. I guess I had it coming.

Happy Birthday Shannon!

2009-02-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

My sister Shannon turned 29 today, so we went to Good Things Utah to be in the studio audience. It was so much fun! I also made Shannon her necklace that she is wearing in the picture.

Here we are with the Host's of the show. It was so exciting to see the actual set and to see how the whole show works. All the ladies were super nice. I seriously love this show and felt so cool when I was getting our picture taken with the ladies. Nicea actually put her arm around me!!! AAHH!!! Okay, kind of kidding....I promise I'm not obsessed.

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Briley Turns 5!

2009-02-11T13:21:00.001-08:00

On February 9th, Briley turned 5! She has been so excited for her birthday to come, so she can be 5 like her cousins. We had a friend birthday party for Briley the Saturday before, and it was crazy, but turned out great. Thanks for all the help from everyone!

We had a full house of kids. We decorated treat bags,

decorated crowns, and played pin the hair on Rapunzel.
The kids thought pinning the hair on Rapunzel was so funny!
We had all the girls dress up in their favorite princess dress and had a "princess" themed party.

Singing "Happy Birthday".

One of the many birthday presents Briley got. She always gets so spoiled from everyone in the family-and she loves it. Obviously she is really into barbies right now!
We ended the party with a pinata-not a very good idea in the middle of winter-inside. But we make it work.
I realized that with all the chaos-I didn't get that many great pictures of the party. But it was fun to plan and put together and a little stressful. But totally worth it.

Then on her actual birthday, we made a birthday cake for Briley and also had a family home evening center on her. We looked through baby books and pictures and talked about all her her great qualities. She really liked looking at her pictures.
I made the cake with the rainbow on it because we went to Costco earlier that day and Briley really wanted to buy a sheet cake there-the one with a rainbow and sunshine on it. I knew it would go to waste because it was just Shan and I eating it (Briley really just ate ice cream). So I tried making one myself. Pretty funny.

Happy Birthday Briley!

BUMMER

2009-01-18T13:46:00.001-08:00

Shan took a little side trip a few weekends ago down to Mesquite to ride his dirt bike. He has many crazy stories that come from his riding-even including being chased by a bull. But we'll get to those stories another time. The story that I will tell is that Shan torn his ACL on this trip. Just a stupid tight corner that didn't go right, and BAM-torn ACL-Anterior Cruiciate Ligament.

Shan was in complete denial that anything "serious" had happened. But when he told me he felt a "pop", I KNEW he did something bad... and I was thinking ACL. And that's because I've torn my ACL 3 times.

The surgery goes a little like this: They take a strip of your palletar tendon and pass it through the inside of the knee joint through tunnels drilled in both the femur and tibia and secure it with screws. And yes, it's a very painful recovery. We started physical therapy the day of surgery. Shan is happy to report that he will most likely be able to ride his mountain bike this summer and do a little down hill racing. I told him he can never have surgery again.

So Shan went in for Surgery on Thursday, February 22nd. It was a crazy day because we didn't find out until the day before that he was going to have surgery on that day (there was a cancellation so we got in earlier). So I took work off-last minute, which means we had to get a temp. Just as a side note to all those hygienists: Our office had a NIGHTMARE experience with the temp who was not professional-in her work skills or appearance and didn't even know a gingival description! Let's just say she's a new graduate from that new PROVO SCHOOL...

ANYWAY, I drove to LDS hospital 3 times and Primary Children's once, all in one day. A lot of driving. I had an appointment for Brooklyn with her Neurologist that had been scheduled for over a month out and didn't feel like I could re-schedule. Shan did great with surgery, but we didn't get home until about 8 pm that night.

Brooklyn hung out with us at the hospital for a few hours, while Pam had Briley.

The recovery is a working progress with a lot of ups and downs. Shan is being such a great sport and is being so tough, but still needs lot of help. We are all exhausted!!!!

Sorry for all who have a weak stomach!

The Bachelor

2009-01-05T15:27:00.001-08:00

I don't know about any of you... but I'm secretly obsessed with The Bachelor!!! Watch the premiere tonight! I know it's a little cheesy, but I LOVE IT!

Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

This year, we spent Christmas Eve at Shan's parents house.

Briley and Brooklyn at Willard and Grandpa Gordon's.

Cute little McKinely.

Grandpa Gordon and Briley.

All the Grandkids and Great Grandkids.

Briley got a new Princess quilt from Willard!!!! She was so excited because her old blanket got a hole in it from silly puddy.

Abbie and Briley.

Brooklyn had a seizure and ended up sleeping through the fun part-opening presents! We changed her diaper and put her into her pajama's and she still slept through it!

She slept for about an hour then woke up and was had a "little" interest in presents.

It was a great Chrismas eve party and the girls were so excited. It was great to be with family!

A little "Scrooge-ish"

2008-12-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind on blogging, but you all know how it goes with the Season. So first off, we had Briley's preschool Christmas program. Miss Valerie provided us with costumes for all the kids to wear, and this year all the 4 yr. old girls were Nutcracker dancers. Briley loved wearing the crown and tutu.

However, the program this year was sooo un-organized. Not due to the teachers, but naughty kids!!! It also didn't help that they sat the kids in such a way that all the 4 yr. old girls were stuck behind the 3 yr old boys with reindeer antlers on and we couldn't see any of their faces!!! We even got there super early so we could sit in the front row.
Then the program ran over because of all the interruptions from the kids not paying attention. Then when Santa came to visit, Briley didn't even want to wait in line to sit on his lap. She was ready to go. We've already seen Santa a few times, so I was totally on board with that idea. It didn't make it any better that Brooklyn was a nightmare too. She wouldn't sit in the stroller and just wanted to crawl around the gym and go toward the stage. We seriously can't take this kid anywhere!
On a better note, Briley got a letter from Santa in the mail. He told her that she needs to listen to her mom and dad and also let Brooklyn in her room because "Santa knows". She was pretty excited about it.

Brooklyn

Here are the girls in their Christmas dresses from Willard.

We've been pretty busy with all the hustle and bustle, and in the middle of all of it, we had an MRI on Brooklyn's brain. We were going to do a repeat to compare it to her first one about 1 yr. ago to see if there are any changes or new developments.

Brooklyn was very difficult at the hospital because she wanted to just "go". And since she isn't completely walking yet, she would crawl all over the hospital floors. You can't even imagine the looks I would get from other people and nurses.
When we were finally back in the sedation room, we had to close the door so she wouldn't go out. She threw the biggest fit, like you wouldn't believe. This girl has a temper!!! She was crying and screaming and had snot everywhere! It happens so often that I don't even get embarrassed anymore.
Then we had the IV. Brooklyn is an exceptionally hard poke (who knows why), so they missed the vein the first time (more screaming/tears/snot) and got it on the second try.
Then we finally sedated her. The nurses told me that they really want kids to sleep for at least 2 hours once they've been sedated or else they are so cranky and tired. Well, Brooklyn stayed sedated for the MRI, then when she was being transferred to the recovery room, she woke up (the little stinker). She was SO MAD!!! The poor kid wouldn't even open her eye's! Then they administered Versed to try and get her to sleep again. That didn't work either. So...
I had a really grumpy, fussy, can't even open her eyes baby!!! We finally got to go home and on the drive home Brooklyn's neurologist called to tell us her MRI is normal, but she has a little fluid in her middle ear. I know this sounds crazy to most of you, but it is so frustrating when your child is on 3 heavy medications for seizure's, but is STILL having seizures. All the tests are "normal", and NO ONE has any answers for you.

This is Brooklyn once we got home. The best part? She didn't get sick from all the medicine and kept her food down. At least something went right! Despite all this crap Brookie has to go through, she is still so happy and lovable!

Briley...4 going on 14

2008-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

I've decided to post a little bit on Briley. She is such a good girl, but also comes with lots challenges and can be such a stinker! Lately, she's been really into helping me wrap Christmas presents. This last week, she was helping me with the taping portion of wrapping and I was trying to show her how to put the tape on the package. She kept getting so mad at me, saying, "I want to do it!". For some reason, it was making me laugh. So then she gets even more mad because I'm laughing. I then stick a piece of tape on her forehead, which put her over the edge. She grabs the tape off her forehead and then tries throwing it at me-which made me laugh even harder! It took her about 3 times of trying to throw it at me before she figured out that it was stuck to her fingers. She then told me how "rude" I was for laughing and not letting her put the tape on the present, then walked into the bedroom, slamming the door. After a few minutes of sulking the the bedroom, she came out and 'scolded' me for being rude. It took a lot of effort to keep a straight face and apologize to her, then she was over it.

Briley also has a little issue with attitude. Lately, I've been experimenting with different punishments when she acts out and recently, I've reverted back to 'time-outs' and put her on the stairs for 4:30 minutes(her age). I will ignore her until the timer is up, then have a little chat and make her apologize.

It's pretty common that she'll ask for a treat right before dinner time, in which I will say 'no, maybe after dinner'. She then says, "Mom, if you don't get me a treat, I'm going to be so mad at you and be rude to you". Of course, I put her in trouble for talking to me like that.

Well, one of these 'time-out' times (there are many) happened during dinner. We put her on the stairs and continued on with our dinner. Briley was trying to talk to Shan and I, but we didn't respond. She then told us that if someone doesn't talk to her by the count of three, we would be in trouble and have to sit on the 'naughty stair'. Shan and I were busting up, trying to keep her from hearing us. Then she started counting! I was so glad the timer went off shortly after. How many times do I have to tell her that mom doesn't get in trouble or pick cards (another system)?

Despite these challenges, Briley is a great helper-especially in the kitchen. She loves helping me make pancakes and cookies. In fact she will get very upset if I do any of those things with out her! We've already made one batch of Christmas cookies and Briley was adamant that we use the spring cookie cutters and we color some of the frosting yellow. Anyone surprised?

Briley also LOVES preschool. If we miss for any reason, she is so worried and upset. I'm a little worried because Briley talks so much about the boys! Last year it was Jack and this year it's Evan. She tells me every day that she sat by Evan. She even says that she wants to marry him! Wow, we're really in for it! I guess it's pay backs for Shan because he was so girl crazy!

This is Briley's letter to Santa. If you click on the picture, you can read what she wants. Um.... not sure if she's been that good.

We Love you Briley!!! You make our family so fun and keep your mom and dad on our toes!!!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T06:13:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to head down the sunny Arizona! Only this year is wasn't so 'sunny'. It actually rained on Thanksgiving and was overcast most of the time, but was still pretty warm.

The drive down wasn't too bad. We stopped outside of Cameron, AZ and walked over this sky high bridge. Briley and I had a really fun time running around. Shan could hardly walk onto the bridge due to his fear of heights.

This is how we entertained Brooklyn in the car-Red Vines.

It was a full house for Turkey day. My brother Devin and his wife Sarah and their baby Kayla came from Palm Desert and then Shannon and I from Utah. Then my Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Fred and my cousin, Maren came from Indiana. And then my dad and other sister Trisha live there. There were lots of kids and a small house and a lot of craziness, but it was still very fun. I don't think it would have been Thanksgiving without some craziness.

Maren, Jeannie, Fred, Trisha, Kendis, and Tim.

Tim again, Shannon, Jeff, Dad, Shan, and Devin.

Trisha basically prepared all of Thanksgiving! She did such a great job with the Turkey and making sure we had all the ingredients for everything. Everything was smooth sailing until the last 30 minutes when everything had to be hot and ready. We totally ruined a whole pot of mashed potato's! We basically had too many potato's in one pot and it turned into one big pot of mush that was burned to the bottom. It's a good thing my dad had extra-so we hurried and made another batch-this time in 2 pots. It was a little stressful! I guess we learn a little every year. It's kind of weird being in charge of a big dinner like that.

We totally put the kids the garage! Don't worry, it was warm and nice. It turned into the play/craft/eating room-it was so awesome.

Briley, Kaden, Tanner, Carter, and Kendis.

Swimming in the hot tub-almost every day.

The kids also loved guitar hero. Doesn't Carter look like a pro?!

Jeannie, Fred and Maren. I haven't seem them since my Wedding, June 2002!

Trisha, Sarah, Shannon, and me.

Here is Grandpa Jayson with Briley and Brooklyn at the Swap Meet.

We left on Sunday to come back home and on Saturday night, I came down with some stomach bug and was throwing up! Luckily I made the drive home on Sunday without throwing up, but Brooklyn started throwing up! It was so gross. We were in the middle of no where with only pillow cases to catch the puke. Good times....
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Crazy Week...

2008-11-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week for us. First off, I went to see Twilight on opening night!! It was so much fun! My sister's friend had another friend, who rented a theater at Jordan Gateway (did you catch all that?). She included pizza, bottled water, candy, and a life size Edward!!! I couldn't believe how many young teenage girls were there!!! But that's what really made the experience fun. The movie started at 12:00am and I was surprised that I was able to stay awake (I'm such a wimp with bed times).

This is Shannon and I with Edward-yeow! As for the movie... I won't say much for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Bottom line.... I felt like a teenager again and had fun!

My friend Jen and I with our movie treats. Don't ask what those girls are doing in the background... I don't know them.

We also celebrated Shan's 32nd Birthday! I spoiled Shan and gave him a Wii that I found back in June at Costco. I hid the game at my sister's house for 5 months! He was really surprised.

Just so you all know, Shan still feels like a 16 year old.

Happy Birthday Shan!!!

And last, we watched the very disappointing BYU game. I can't even talk about it because the Cougs sucked SO bad! But before the game, Briley and I made cupcakes.

Then later that day, she came downstairs wearing my boots! I was laughing so hard because she was walking down the stairs so very carefully.

Then she just sat at the bar very casually to color, still wearing the boots.

Funny girl!

PRIVATE

2008-11-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

Ok... I guess it's time we go private. Too many creepy and freaky people out there. If you want to keep checkin out the Peterson Family, then leave your email address in my comments.

Tag... I'm it!

2008-11-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess I'm trying to keep this blog updated. Since I have nothing else to post, I found this tag on my friend Sarah's blog. It's one I haven't seen before and it was fun to read. So.. here ya go.

I am- 5'5
I want- A lot of things... but lately, I'm trying to just be grateful for the things I have.
I have- 2 beautiful girls.
I wish- I lived by more family.
I dislike- having to discipline my children... someone has to.
I fear- the death of a loved one
I hear- a football game of TV
I search- the web for good deals and recipes
I wonder- when Brooklyn will start walking.
I always- do laundry and watch Good Things Utah (love DVR).
I usually- go to the Gym.
I am not- a good speller
I dance- with Briley...almost daily.
I sing- in the car and at Church. I like it and wish I was good.
I never- go to bed without flossing. Gross
I rarely- get to go the the grocery store by myself.
I cry- when I'm frustrated or embarrassed. Or pregnant... which I am NOT.
I am not always- right.
I lose- my keys WAY to often.
I'm confused- when people lie. WHY???? We are all adults here and can handle the truth.
I need- a new computer.
I should- be going to bed right now.
I dream- of having an endless supply of money.
I love- my husband.

I tag whoever wants to do it.

Halloween Time

2008-11-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Briley had a little Halloween program at her preschool earlier this week.

They all dressed up and sang us a few songs, then had a party afterwards.

This is the morning and afternoon preschool class together.

They also had a surprise visit from a witch!!!

This is one of Briley's teachers, Miss Valerie. Her and her husband dressed up as Warren Jeffs and one of his many wives. We went to her house to say "trick or treat". I thought it was a pretty good idea!

I am so proud of myself! I made my very first cute thing! I made a tutu to go with Brooklyn's costume-she is a ladybug. Sorry, but the pictures just doesn't do justice!

This is about all I can get with Brooklyn.

We got together with Dan and Joy to have dinner and then go trick or treating. We tried having an early start so the kids weren't out too late. It worked out perfectly-out by 6:30pm and finished by 7:00pm! We went to Shadow Wood Drive in Holladay. It was the perfect street because it's a dead end with about 20 houses on it. Most of the houses really do themselves up and pass out great candy. Briley got 3 full sized candy bars!

This is Thomas, Gage, and Briley making silly faces. I love the boy's costumes-cute cowboys. And if you can't tell, Briley is Rapunzel.

Brooklyn and Briley. I never got a really great shot of Brooklyn's costume.

In front of Shadow Wood Drive, right before we started.

Briley and Gage holding hands.

It was a great and pretty easy night. The kids did great and we were able to get them to bed at a decent hour! Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Hunting

2008-10-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

With the last few days of October, we have been cramming in all our "fall" activites. The other night, we went to Maybey's Pumpkin patch in South Jordan.

I was so shocked that Brooklyn actually looked at the camera!

Shan pushing the girls in the wheel barrow while finding our pumpkins.

A happy Brooklyn!
Next up: Carving...

Crazy Fun

2008-10-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

This last week we went up to Shannon's house for Jeff's birthday. I got the cutest picture of Briley and Kate, that I had to post it!

Kate is getting so big!

We also had a little time to go to Corn Belly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was perfect weather-not too cold because we went early before the sun went down.

I asked a random girl to take a picture of us near this pumpkin pyramid thing, we just wanted a
pic of the whole fam. She must have thought that we wanted the whole pyramid, look how far away we are!

Me and Briley in the big rocker.

Shan and the girls riding the little cow train. Brooklyn was freaking out... as usual.

Shan and Briley racing on the go carts... Shan was going crazy, peeling out, skidding, and stirring up dust. Everything is a "race" for Shan. Will he ever grow up?

Good ol' family fun!

Oregon Trip

2008-10-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, the girls and I decided to take a quick trip to Oregon. My sister Trisha went up with her kids too, so it was fun to get together with most of the family. The weather was great-it only rained the day we left, so the kids had a lot of time playing outside.
Briley couldn't wait to ride the horses with Grandma Evi. She went out everyday with Grandma and Grandpa to help feed the horses.

This is Kendis, Briley and Nathan.

And this is what Brooklyn thought of the horses! She was mad because we picked her up off the ground. She was having fun playing in the horse-poop infested sand.

Me and the girls at the barn.

Ellie had her 7th birthday while we were there, so we had a little party for her. I couldn't believe how much she had grown and matured. I'm just so used to seeing 4 year olds!
Briley, Syndey, Kendis, Nathan, and Ellie.

I also got to get together with my friend Harmony. She is expecting her first baby (a boy) in November. We had a peaceful, uninterrupted dinner (no kids) and had a good time catching up.

It was a short trip, but so much fun. I can't believe I didn't get more pictures with my sisters and mom! Maybe next trip.

Briley Riding Daytona

2008-10-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

One of Briley's favorite things about going to Oregon is riding the horses. She kept telling me that she didn't want to go home because she wanted to stay and ride the horses. Grandma Evi and Grandpa Gary were always so nice and patient to take the kids out every morning with them so they could help feed the horses and clean the stales.

September Happenings

2008-10-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post, but.... ok, I really have no excuse. I just feel like I haven't had much to blog about lately.

Briley had her "howdy day" at preschool. Basically they all dress up like cow boys and girls and have a little party. She pretty much wore the same thing as last year, but she didn't seem to care.

A few weeks ago, my sister Shannon came down and we decided to give my kitchen table a little face lift-for the 2nd time. I painted my table black a few years ago, and it was in really bad shape.

See all those paint chips-gross!

It's a off white with distressed marks. It looks so much better than before. Now all we need are new chairs!

Changes

2008-09-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

Briley started preschool again-her last year! I can't believe that she'll go to kindergarten next year. She loves going to school-as do I love her going to school!

This is Briley-September 2008

Briley-Septemeber 2007-first year of preschool.

Wow-she really has grown! I love it though (except the attitude). Briley really is a character. She loves to wear skirts and dresses and have "long hair" so she is like a princess. Her teacher even commented on her pink toe nails and said, " she really is a girly girl, isn't she"?!
I tried so hard to convince her to wear something else on her first day-but she was very persistent about that blue dress! At least she let me put a flower in her hair. This girl knows what she wants!

Brooklyn is crazy! Or maybe it's me. She is still crawling and falling all over the place. This is what she did the other day-fell on the toilet and chipped her front tooth. Ouch.

And this is after Dr. Mansell "smoothed" it for me. It really was much worse. I know there isn't much we could do at this age, maybe some bonding when she is old enough to sit still in the chair. Such a bummer! This kid always has a bruise or something on her face. She wants to walk so bad, but she has no control. I know she will walk on her own time, but geez... it's frustrating!

Little Miss Dancer

2008-08-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Briley loves to dance-she is such a crack up!

Swiss Days

2008-08-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

This was our first time going to Swiss Days in Midway. We got up early and it was still so crowded and kept getting more and more packed with crazy people! We didn't know it was such a popular event. They had lots of booths full of cute decor, baby items, and all sorts of nic nacs.

We had to take a shuttle into the main plaza to help with parking. They had us park in a very dusty parking lot and when we got back to our car, it was covered in dust! And there was a huge line of people waiting to take the shuttle into the main area. I was so glad we went early!

Briley and Shan on the shuttle.

Me and the girls watching the parade go by. Briley LOVES parades. She was so excited anytime she saw a "swiss girl" princess. We got a few pieces of candy-nothing compared to the Cedar Hills parade. It was still really fun.

Mini Chars

2008-08-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Briley's favorite babysitter, Jordan, is on the Drill Team at JHS. They held a mini dance clinic and then the girls performed during half time of the football game. It was pretty cute and I think Briley had a lot of fun. It was kind of weird being back at a high school football game!

This was the beginning pose-I think Briley had this one down. :)

Briley's friend, Maren signed up with us for the clinic. I was so glad Maren decided to do the clinic with Briley. It was so fun talking to her mom, Margaret, while we waited.

Shan, Briley (there's that pose again), Brooklyn, and me. I guess we have a little dancer in the family. At least for now.

Trip to Arizona

2008-08-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to take a little road trip to Gilbert Arizona. I went with my "niece-in-law" (if you want to get technical) Bree and her daughter McKinely. Both of our husbands went on a big Harley trip, so we thought it would be a fun get away to visit my dad and my sister Trisha in AZ.
We decided to get up super early with the intention of the kids going back to sleep in the car. This next picture is from the drive home, but we looked back and this is what we saw.

All eyes, bright and awake. You can barley see Briley peeking up from the back.

Our trip consisted of swimming, eating, reading, eating, lounging, and swimming. It was a great lazy few days! We basically went swimming 2-3 times a day. I think I only put makeup on once! We did get a mini shopping trip in- there was this great out door mall just minutes from my dad's house. I wasn't that great in getting many pictures other than us swimming.

My sister Trisha, Briley, Kendis, and Brooklyn.

Me and Trisha with all the kids (except Mason). That is the back of McKinley's head!

Briley was really scared of swimming at first. But with the work of Trisha, she got really confident and began to swim all over the pool with just her life jacket on. It was huge progress for her!

I was so proud!

Briley and Kendis with otter pops. They couldn't get enough of these! Briley always asked for yellow, so Kendis started calling the otter pops "yellow".

Riding in the "Cinderella Horse Carriage". Trisha was always so great with entertaining the kids.

Me and my girls!
It was such a fun little trip. I'm so glad Bree decided to come. We had a great drive, got a little sun, and Bree even finished "Breaking Dawn". I have yet to start it, but it's on my list. Thanks Trish and Dad for having us! I'll have to come again very soon!

I'm Crazy!

2008-08-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is what I wait for every year. The Layer's Clothing Warehouse Sale. This is a Utah based clothing line, and I love it! Every August they have a huge sale at the warehouse with $3 and $5 dollar bins and then the rest of their clothing and swimsuits are clearanced out. I met with my sis Shannon (she got there just after 7am) and we were about 10 people back in line. Last year, we got there at about 7:30 and we were still in the front of the line. It's getting earlier every year! It was fun for us to just talk with no kids!

The sun was right in my face, so it's kind of a crappy picture, but I had to have it because this is our 2nd year doing this. It's now a tradition.

I took this picture just before 8am (when they opened). Is this crazy or what?!? I couldn't believe how many people came, but then again I could. We rushed in and grabbed our stuff and then bought it. We were out of there by 8:40am. The best time yet. We didn't get stuck in the long line to buy stuff. We got some great deals on swimsuits ($10) and cute dresses ($5). It was so fun (and crazy) but totally worth it.
http://www.layersclothing.com/

July Happenings

2008-07-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

My dad lives in Cedar Hills, and every year for the 24th of July, they do a little parade that goes right in front of his house. Since my dad's birthday is July 23rd, we decided to celebrate his birthday too.

Carter, Briley, Tanner, and Kaden waiting for the parade.

Brooklyn entertaining herself on the grass.

The reason we love the Cedar Hills parade is because it only lasts about 30 minutes and they give out a ton of candy! I took this picture of Briley just to show how much candy they tossed. I really think it compares to Halloween. The funny thing is, for some reason, we took home Kaden's bag of candy, which only consisted of taffy and peppermint candies (the lame candy). I thought it was pretty funny-poor Kaden getting the left overs that the other kid's didn't want! We would tell the kids to let Kaden get some of the pieces, and they glady hand over the taffy!

Happy Birthday Dad! We had a little fun party after the parade and probably wore my dad out with all the kids.

So... funny side note. We decided to have some friends over for Sunday dinner. I had just bought a 1/4 of a cow (yeah... I know) and had a ton of steaks. So I'm kind of excited-we're going to grill them up with some Mansmiths. If you are wondering what Mansmiths is; it's this AMAZING seasoning that goes great with anything! So first of all, I put Shan in charge of the meat. I take the steaks out of the freezer the day before and put them in the fridge. The next morning, they are still a little frozen, so I tell Shan to check the meat and to make sure they will be ready for the grill when we get home from Church. Oops, they were still a little bit frozen. No biggy-right? Right. So then Shan puts them on the grill. Everything is going great. Then I go outside to check on the kids and there are flames and black smoke pouring from the grill! Shan hurries to get the meat off (Looks like we need to clean the grill!). Anyway, the steaks were pretty charred on one side, but still edible. I felt so dumb! What a waste of great steaks-and to feed to company!! At least the rolls and dessert turned out!

The steaks-Cajun style.

Shan pre-sliced every one's steaks to remove all the charcoal!

The problem is Shan just got so carried away in conversation with our friends, that the steaks were forgotten. We had good company who really didn't seem to mind (thank goodness). Shan really can grill a good steak-promise!!! All in all, dinner was great. :)

Brooklyn's Trick

2008-07-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is Brooklyn's favorite new trick-the stink bug! Now that she is crawling, she never wants to stay still and is always in and out of the stink bug! She is also always falling over and constantly has bruises and scrapes on her face-it's so sad! But she loves to be on the go.

Cancer Check

2008-07-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

It was that time of year again! Briley had her routine check up at Primary Children's. I had both kids with me for her appointment, and I couldn't help think that Briley was Brooklyn's age when she was diagnosed with cancer!

It was February 17th 2005-one week after Briley's 1st birthday. Briley was learning how to walk and had fallen over. She wasn't acting herself and was crying more than usual. I took her into her pediatrician, thinking she may have broken something. I had also noticed her belly was slightly enlarged. He discovered a mass on her right kidney (after a series of "stat" x-rays-that will really freak a parent out!) They sent us directly to Primary Children's Hospital for an ultrasound. It was in that very ultra sound room, that we discovered Briley had Wilm's Tumor. We were absolutely devastated and couldn't believe our little girl had cancer! We were told that the tumor had completely engulfed her right kidney and she also had some area's on the left kidney-bilateral Wilms, stage 4. She was to have surgery the next day to remove the tumor and place a central line for chemotherapy.

Briley with her "Gollie". (Sad, I know)

Shan and I with Briley before she went into surgery. It was a very sad time for us. But we had such a great support from family, friends, and ward members. After sending her off into surgery, we were all in the waiting room, waiting, when the surgeon came in to tell us the tumor had ruptured in the abdominal cavity. We just burst into tears-it seemed the bad news just kept on coming! He said the tumor was about the size of a grapefruit and they removed her right kidney.

Briley right after surgery. Her belly was literally 1/2 the size it was before surgery. When Briley looks at this picture now, she always asks me why there is a tube in her nose-then she starts itching her nose.

After a week of recovery in the hospital, Briley was able to come home. We started radiation, which consisted of going to LDS hospital everyday for two weeks. Treatment made her feel really sick and we had a hard time getting her to eat, so she was on a TPN liquid, which we had to give to her through the central line. It was on a 6 hour cycle, so we would have to set our alarms to start/stop the pump.

Then we started a 6 month schedule of chemotherapy. I can't even believe that we went through all of that! Since I was in my first year of DH school, my mom was so great to come and stay with us for 2 weeks at a time. Without her help, I couldn't have finished school. Shan was also a huge support for me. He was always there to take over when I needed a break. I could always tell it broke his heart to see Briley go through everything that she did. Briley definatly has a special place in everyone's heart.

Throughout that whole time period, we had to be extra careful so Briley didn't get sick. If she ever got a fever-anything over 100 degrees, we had to take her in to the hospital and she had to be on IV antibiotics. The above picture was during one of those visits.

Despite all the yucky stuff she had to go through, Briley was always so happy!

Anyway, back to present day-

Briley had an ultrasound, chest x-ray, blood work, and a check up with the Oncologist. While she got her blood drawn, she didn't even cry! She actually watched the whole time-I was so proud of her! Her doctor couldn't believe how much she has grown! It's now been 3 years and everything looks so great. The left area on her kidney is basically gone (didn't show up on the ultrasound). We'll go in one year from now.

We are so grateful Briley fought so hard to be here! We love her so much and don't know what life would be like without her! She is so sweet and caring and always tries to help mom around the house and with Brookie (who she now calls Burke?!). She is Daddys little girl and he spoils her rotten. We love you Briley!

Echo Triathlon

2008-07-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, I completed my "first" triathlon. If you remember back to the St. George Tri, the swim was cancelled due to horrible windy conditions, so it turned into a biathlon.

This tri took place in Coalville, at Echo reservoir. My brother-in-law, Tim did the triathlon with me and we had to get up at 4am! When we got to Coalville, we had to bike into the reservoir for 2 miles and it was freezing!!!! But once the sun came out, it warmed up and was decent.

My leg of the race started at about 7:40am with the swim. The water was pretty warm, especially with the wetsuit (Thanks Jen!). At the beginning of my swim, I had a hard time finding my rhythm. I kept bumping into people from all sides, and was trying so hard to keep my eye on the buoys so I wouldn't go way off course (which I did a little bit anyway). The open water swim was much different from swimming in the pool, but I completed the 1/2 mile swim in 15:01-not bad!

This is after the swim-running into the transition area. Shan took this picture and he said I looked really mad-I really wasn't! I was just trying to catch my breath and I think my googles were pressing down on my eye brows. And yes, it was cold! (ha ha ha).

Running out of the transition to start the 12 mile bike ride. My transition time was 3:58. I'm always surprised by my transition time. It's always so much slower than I expect.

So, there I was.... riding along, finding my pace. I get to a small down hill and switch gears and my chains falls off!! I couldn't believe it! I had to stop and pull of the road and put the chain back on. My hands were black with grease, but I just had to hop back on my bike and keep going! I think it only took a few minutes to fix-I'm just glad I didn't get a flat tire! I probably would have sat on the side of the road and cried!

Biking in-finished in 44:50. My second transition time was 2:07.

The 3.1 mile run. I must say, I really need to improve my running skills! I finished the run in 29:58. So I'm still at about a 10 minute mile. This is where everyone passes me! I just can't seem to go any faster! Oh well.

This was an awesome triathlon event. Besides the dirty, gravel floor for the transition area, it was so much fun and a great course. I will definitely do this one again.

Me, Briley, and Shan. We left Brooklyn home with a sitter. We knew she would be difficult. It seems we are always leaving her behind! (We love you Brookie)!

My Bro-in-law Tim and me.

Nice porta-potty's in the background! Ha ha. Didn't really think about that when we took the picture. Well.... my overall time was 1:35:51. I met my goal and I had a ton of fun doing it!

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

This year, the 4th of July landed on a Friday, which made it perfect for a weekend get away. Unfortunately, that didn't get to happen for us! We saw many campers, boats, and four wheelers and we wished it could have been us. But I got to go to our stake girls camp and didn't get home until Friday mid-morning. I was SO TIRED from lack of sleep, that we did a small BBQ with just my dad and then our own little firework show.

Briley and Brooklyn

Playing outside after a BBQ.

Shan and Briley went and picked out some fireworks. Briley really wanted the sparklers, the kind that were wrapped in colorful paper. We were so disappointed because they seriously lasted 10 seconds! Lame.

Briley really liked the fire works.

This was our 4th of July! I kind of feel bad because Brooklyn isn't in this picture, but she went to bed! Which is another reason why we stayed home and did our own fire works. It was easy and simple-just right for this year.

Oregon Trip 2008

2008-06-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

We went to Oregon to visit my family the first week of June. It was our annual visit to the Huffman farm. As always, we love visiting Grandma Evi and Grandpa Gary and seeing all of Briley's cousins. Unfortunately, we had "Oregon" weather all but three days! It was SO COLD!!!

One of the things we did was visit the Metro Zoo. I haven't been there since I was a kid! The funny thing is, I remembered bit's and pieces of the zoo.

It rained on and off all day! Good thing we were prepared with rain coats and jackets!
Here is Grandma Evi pushing Briley and Sydney.

Briley, Brooklyn, and me. I forgot to take my hood off for the picture. Oops. I did figure out why no does there hair in Oregon-IT RAINS!

Look at the size of some of those leafs!

Tyson, Sydney, Briley, and Ellie.

Briley and Brooklyn.

Briley and Sydney in the car on the way to the zoo.

When Sydney came to Utah for a visit (a few weeks before we went to Oregon), Briley and her didn't exactly get along! It was frustrating for Linae and I both, wondering why these kids kept fighting. This trip things went a lot better!

At Sydney's house, playing dress up.

Eating Popsicles. Briley wanted everything Sydney had. If she had her hair down, Briley wanted her hair just the same. If Syndey was wearing a skirt, she wanted to wear a skirt! It was so frustrating! Geez.
We spent a week and a half with Grandma Evi-I'll post more later or this post would be a novel!

Aladdin

2008-06-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Briley had her first ballet performance. She has been taking pre-ballet and tap for 1 year at Utah Dance. The production this year was Aladdin and Briley's class danced as parrots. It was so cute! I loved watching her....watch her teacher the whole time she was performing!!! At least she didn't just stand there!

I loved her costume, especially because it had some yellow (her favorite color).

Briley's class.

Briley, Ciara, Maren, Anna, and Emma (Briley's friends). The girls are watching other dancer's during the dress rehearsal.

Her performance was at Kingsbury Hall and they had us drop our dancers off and we couldn't pick they up until the end of the show. They had a room full kids and each class had a sitter. Briley said she had fun.

Shan's parent's came and watched.

Shan, Briley, and me.

New Woman

2008-06-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the happiest day's of my life!!!

This was me in July of 2006

This is me TODAY

I finally got my braces off! I am SO excited, I actually screamed when I got in the car. I think I look so different and I can't stop smiling (weird, right?)! My orthodontist put in a permanent retainer on my upper and lower anterior's, which feels really big. I'll have to get used to talking with them in. I'll do whatever it takes to never have braces again.

These past 2 years where long and hard, but totally worth every minute!!!

New Addition

2008-06-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

My sister Shannon had her baby-3 weeks early!! I couldn't believe it, because I was in Oregon when she was born! As soon as we got to Utah, we stopped by for a quick visit to meet our newest niece.

Kate Marika Esplin
Born on June 8th, 2008.

Briley LOVES holding her new cousin.

I can't believe how TINY she is!!! Shannon and Jeff do great work-she is so beautiful!

Monica, Dad, Kate, and Shannon.
Congratulations to Shannon, Jeff, and boys!

Happy First Birthday Brooklyn!

2008-05-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

This first year has gone by so fast! We are so happy that Brooklyn is in our lives. She has blessed our home and family so much. Brooklyn is such a happy baby and Briley loves having her for a sister.

Brooklyn loves cruisin around in her walker. She also loves chasing Briley and is getting so fast, that we have to watch our toes! She really is such an easy baby-mostly because she doesn't do anything! We are still waiting for her to start crawling! We are so excited for the many year's to come. WE LOVE YOU BROOKIE!!!

Hawaiian Luau

2008-05-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Brooklyn's first birthday Hawaiian style. The only problem was it didn't feel like Hawaii! It was a little chilly, but luckily it didn't rain.
Everyone received a lai or shell necklace and Shan's mom lent us her tiki torches and other cute Hawaiian decorations. We also ate Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and had a flip flop birthday cake.
Brooklyn loved grabbing at her cake, but didn't really seem interested in eating it. The kids enjoyed hitting the pinata, except, it's head fell off in the beginning, thank's to Kaden's (3 yrs old) hit. Then Shan finished it off after all the kids had a turn.
Then we opened present's. Brooklyn really had no idea what was going on. Basically, whoever gave her a present, ended up opening it for her. She got a lot of really cute clothes and fun toys.
Everyone had a great time and it was a great way to get together with the family.
Thanks everyone for helping us celebrate Brooklyn's first year!

Spring Preschool Program

2008-05-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Briley had her second preschool program performance on May 9th. It was a little crazy because she was still recovering from being sick all week. So, she wasn't completely herself.

Miss Valerie (one of her teachers) had all the kids wear these cute sailor costumes, which we also got to keep. They had all the kids stand up and recite the Pledge of Alligence. I love it when we see our country's flag and Briley points to it, and tells me, "Look mom, it's the American Flag!" Except she doesn't say it quite right!

Isn't Briley cute?

Singing, "Yellow submarine". They also sang Puff the Magic Dragon, which Briley loves because we have this great book with a CD.

Willard and Grandpa came.

Aunt Pam, Baylee, and Sydnee. Pam's girls both went to Swenson Station (the preschool) too.

Sydnee was my best helper. She pushed Brooklyn around in the stroller until she fell asleep!

Thanks everyone for coming! We love you all.

St. George Tri

2008-05-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to St. George for my first Sprint triathlon. The sprint distance is 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. I was very nervous, but excited. There were 3 of us competing in the tri. My friend Jen, Scott (Shan's friend from Arizona) and me. We were so lucky to stay in our friends condo in Hurricane (Thanks Eichelle!!!)-right next to Sand Hollow Reservoir, where the race took place.

I had a few set backs before the race. I really needed it to be 3 weeks earlier. First, I cut the bottom of my big toe. I was going up one of our tile steps and my foot slipped off and I sliced my toe-totally gross and it hurt!

I couldn't swim or run on it for a week! Then I came down with another nasty cold. I didn't go to the gym for 1 1/2 weeks! Good thing my toe healed enough to swim and run. I was a little worried.

We had packet pickup on Friday, May 9th. We got to review the course map, pick up our t-shirts, swimming caps, and had our bodies marked.

They marked us with big fat sharpies! It was at this moment, I realized this was a another world. That is, the world of triathlons!

Jen and me-checking out our competition!

Shan was nice enough to carry my purse-doesn't he look natural?

On Saturday, May 10th, we all got up at 5am to get ready. We pulled up to the Reservoir about 6:00am. Everyone had to park outside the reservoir and get bused in. All competitors biked in. It was so COLD because the wind was blowing.

Me and Scott.

This is what we saw coming into the transition area. I about died!

I set up my transition area (we were assigned a row, but anywhere on that row).

That's my number-535. Yep, watch out!

I got into my wetsuit-so glad I had one of those, and headed down to the water. Again, this is what I saw.

I decided to get into the water and swim around. They say you need to adjust to the water and warm up a bit.

Jen, Monica, and Scott. We're nervous!

Basically, my first triathlon turned into a biathlon! The race officials called off the swim due to horrible windy conditions. They started the Olympic distance first and they kept bringing in boat loads of people who couldn't make the swim because it was so windy. I was disappointed, but what do you do? I probably would have died out there in the white caps! I was glad to have gotten into the water and swim around in the wetsuit.

They took us over to the boat ramp and started us in waves. We ran into the transition area in our wet suits and changed into bike clothes and off we went. There was a really strong head wind on the bike (45 MPH), which made it more difficult, but overall the bike was pretty good.

This is me coming into the transition area-just finishing the bike portion.

I changed out of my bike shoes and took my helmet off as fast as I could. My fingers where numb, not because of the cold, but because I have wrist problems-carpel tunnel maybe, and the position of my wrists on the bike must pinch the nerve. Not sure, but it was crazy getting that helmet off. At least I didn't take off running with the helmet on! Some did.

It took everything I had to take off running. This is the beginning of the course-nice pavement. Then I turned the corner and it was sand... yes SAND! More than 3/4 of the course! I wasn't expecting that kind of terrain and was unprepared. It was very beautiful scenery, but I had a hard time enjoying it when I just wanted to puke the whole time!

Needless to say, I FINISHED (1:24 minutes). I still don't feel like I've completed a "triathlon" yet, but I'm so glad I got to experience this! It has prepared me to know what to expect in the future. It really was so much fun.

Next race: Echo Reservoir, July 12th, 2008. Any takers?

Scott, Kiara, Jen, Kent, me, and Shan.

Sea World

2008-05-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

After Disneyland, we headed down to San Diego and went to Sea World. We met my cousin Kristen there, who braved it by herself with her 3 kids! It was good to see her and she helped us map out the park.

Kristen's little boy Grady and Briley.

Briley at the main entrance of the park.

Shan feeding the dolphins. Briley was too scared to feed the animals!

I loved the dolphins-they were really cute and so nice!

Next we saw Shamu-here is Briley and Tanner looking at him swim in his huge tank.

Waiting for the Shamu show to start.

If you look close, one of the trainers is on Shamu's nose.

The seals were hilarious! They would bark and bark when you had fish to feed them. But if you didn't throw the fish fast, the birds would come and swipe the fish out of your hand!

Briley finally decided she wanted to feed the seals! It took her forever to warm up to touching or feeding anything!

On Saturday, we went to Corona Del Mar Beach, which is near Newport beach.

It was actually cold when we first got to the beach, but warmed up really fast. The water was still really cold. Jeff's brother met us there and provided us with lunch-it was super nice.

In a few years, the beach will be more fun. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on the sand then the rest in the car, while Brooklyn took a nap. At first Briley wasn't sure about the sand between her toes and was scared to get wet. She IS such a girly girl.

California Trip Day 2

2008-04-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

We started out the second day at California Adventure Park. We actually saw more characters at this park then in Disneyland! I loved this park!

Horrible family picture!

Snow White. Briley was really good at keeping tabs on which princesses we still needed to see. We found Jasmine and Snow White in California Adventure.
We spent a lot of time in the "Bugs Life" corner of the park. There were lots of fun rides for the kids.
Shan and I were able to slip out and ride the Tower of Terror (didn't bring the camera with me). It was very scary and so much fun. We also got lucky and won dream fast passes to every ride in both parks! They just came in to our group while we were waiting for the ride and said we won them! It was so cool and it came in very handy.

This was the hottest day of our trip-probably only 78 degrees.

Shannon and the boys. Kaden was upset because he wanted a Micky Mouse ice cream bar and NOT a fruit bar!

After spending most of the day at California Adventure, we headed back into Disneyland.

We went into Toon town, but this is basically what Briley did there:

Yep-I couldn't get her to wake up!

Brooklyn, Dad, and I enjoyed Toon town.

Enjoying the Parade

Briley's favorite ride-the tea cups

Riding the Winnie the Pooh ride-another favorite of Briley's.

That does it for day two. We didn't leave the park until 10pm-we were all wasted! It was so much fun-I really could have gone back to both the parks for one more day. Up next-Sea World.

Disneyland 2008

2008-04-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 15th 2008, we got up at 4am and made our way to California. We were going to Disneyland and SeaWorld with Jeff, Shannon, and kids-and yes, we were driving. The drive really wasn't bad-compared to the Oregon drive, and for the most part the kids did great. California was so beautiful and we wished we were living there especially with Utah's long and nasty winter this year.

We arrived just after 4pm and the kids really wanted to go swimming. It was a little chilly.
Briley with her "floaty". She insists on one of these because she doesn't want her face to get wet! (We'll start swimming lessons this summer).

Swimming with Dad.

We started our Disneyland adventure with breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. It was a buffet style with pretty good food. They had Mickey shaped waffles and pancakes and they even had hot dogs and macaroni and cheese! For breakfast? Tanner started his breakfast with a cupcake! Just what every kid wants, right? Shannon and I just kept saying, "Hey, it's Disneyland!"

Tanner, Carter, Briley, and Kaden with the Mad Hatter. I'm not sure the kids knew who he was (Alice in Wonderland).

Captain Hook-not so sure about this one!

Briley with Dale. When we first got to Goofy's we saw Cinderella and Briley couldn't stop talking about her and pointing at her. I just kept waiting for her to come to our table and make her rounds. Then all of a sudden, she was gone! I asked a waiter and she had just gone for her break and wouldn't be back for 30 minutes! We were so disappointed, because our time at breakfast was up. Good thing we saw her later!

Shan's friend, Cory, hooked us up with one free day at Disneyland. It was so great (thanks Cory). We even got right in to see the princesses at the Fantasy Faire. That's the place where the princesses are. You can even have your hair done up like a princess. There is always a 45 minutes wait. We were able to get right in (from our hook up) and didn't have to wait in line. It saved so much time! We felt like very important people!

We got there just in time because Cinderella was leaving and Ariel was taking her place! That was a close call-we just about missed Cinderella-again.

I was so surprised at how much the Princesses looked like 'the princesses'! Ariel even called Briley a "guppy" because she was being shy. I asked Ariel is she could hold the baby, and she told me she wouldn't know the first thing about holding a baby! I thought it was pretty funny-they really play the part.

Briley really likes Mulan.

Belle was so sweet with Briley. I thought the princesses were so cute and Briley just loved meeting all of them.

After the princesses, we got to ride a lot of rides and then see the Star Wars show. Tanner, Carter and Kaden loved that, which means Briley liked it too. We got to ride Splash Mountain but Briley didn't like that ride because she got wet! For the most part, she was tall enough to ride most of the rides. Some of her favorite was the dumbo ride, the tea cups, and Winnie the Poo.

Me and the girls

The Group-Shan, Briley, Monica, Shannon, Jeff, Kaden, Brooklyn, Carter, and Tanner.

This is one of the many posts from Disneyland-stay tuned for the rest!

Happy Birthday Willard!

2008-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

On April 2nd, Willard (Briley's grandma) had her 50-ish birthday. (Ha ha)

This is her typical "are you kidding me look", wishing we didn't make a fuss over the cake. I can never seem to get a normal smile?!
Willard is the best grandma ever! She always cares about others and is so sweet. She even makes my sisters baby blankets (which they absolutely love)! Briley is always so excited to go over to her house (and grandpa-we didn't forget about you), especially because she gets spoiled with treats and presents! The whole week before Willard's birthday, Briley asked me, every day, when we could give Willard her present and eat her birthday cake!
Thanks for being such a great mother, mother-in-law, and grandma. We love you!!!!

Willard, Abbie, and Briley. Why can't I ever get you to smile????!!!!!

Crazy kids

2008-04-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Briley has such a great imagination. One of her 'things' lately is playing with all of my lotions. You name it- hairspray, perfume, lotions, body wash, baby lotion/wash, diaper rash cream, and the list goes on! She pulls this stuff off my dresser, out of Brooklyn's room, and out from under the bathroom sink. Then she lines them all up and plays with them. Who needs Barbies?

One morning she decided that she was going to line them all around Brooklyn. Shan and I thought it was so funny, especially because Briley was getting so mad at Brooklyn because she wouldn't lay still and kept knocking the lotions over! Poor Brooklyn is so defenseless, but one of these days she will be able to fight back!

Easter 2008

2008-04-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Finally-I get around to posting some Easter pictures. Easter Sunday was crazy for us. Brooklyn had a fever and was sick, so I ended up staying home with her. She didn't even get to wear her Easter dress! We stayed home and had a miniature ham dinner with just us.

I decided to take pictures of the kids the following Sunday, but then Brooklyn came down with another fever! Good thing it only lasted one day. I was starting to get worried because she kept getting sick! So I only have pictures of Briley and her Easter basket.

Briley with her Easter basket, wearing an Easter dress from Grandma Evi-thanks mom!

Briley kept asking me were all the candy in her basket was. She kept saying, "Where are all the treats?" She kind of got jipped in that department from the Easter bunny. She got a few starbursts, a few chocolate eggs, and a chocolate bunny( not bad-right?). She didn't even care about the pink flip flops and yellow sunglasses! Where's the sugar???? I told her she could eat Brooklyn's candy.
It wouldn't be Easter without all the fun festivities. Briley and I dyed Easter eggs together the week before Easter. She even wanted to eat the color tablets... she thought they were candy... big surprise!

As most of you know, Briley loves the color yellow. So, of course she wanted to eat the yellow hard boiled egg. She tried to take a bite out of it without peeling it! I couldn't figure out what she was thinking! So I peeled the egg, and she told me she wanted to eat the "yellow" egg!

Here's Briley with the Easter cookies we decorated.

Briley's favorite was eating the cookies, but mostly the frosting. She has the biggest sweet tooth! Not a day goes by without her asking for treats. It's not uncommon to hear, "can I have a treat", right after breakfast.

Da Jazz

2008-03-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so they really didn't live up to that after their last game against the Lakers... but they did when we went to the game against Toronto. We got free tickets-21st row (not as good as the 4th!), but still good enough to see the game. We seem to be on a roll for this date night thing. That's so rare!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Shan has always been a big Jazz fan despite the fact that he's not good himself at playing basketball (love you still). This is his old school Jazz hat that he won at a Jazz game in 1996, shooting 3-pointers. He only wears it when he attends Jazz games.
In this next picture, notice the dude in the back.

He is totally wearing the old Jersey, and what's up with the mullet? It was an obvious wig! We had a good time trying to take a picture him without getting caught!
Shan's impersonating the guy next to us... although you can't see his face. There is always an odd mix of people at these events. Where do these people come from?

A picture of Milsap...
We had a good time! We miss the good times when Jeff Esplin got us front row tickets through Nuskin...those where the good ol' days!

Princess Wishes

2008-03-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

Shan and I took Briley to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. It was so cute to see all those 'little princesses' dressed up in their fancy dresses! Briley was no exception. She went as Aurora, decked in those pink sparkle shoes, curly hair, and tiara! Shannon was so nice to tend Brooklyn for us, so we could just take Briley. Let me tell you, Briley LOVED the spoiled attention! I'm so glad we were able to go! The show was incredible and very entertaining. It never lost Briley's attention-not even once (it must be related to age-finally)!
I tried taking decent pictures-and yes, they announced that we can take pictures, but we can only use them for personal use, which is what I'm doing. Some pictures are really dark, but I had to keep them because the costumes were so cool!

Jungle Fantasy

2008-03-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Shan told me he had a special date night planned for us but he wouldn't tell me what it was. I was surprised, because first we haven't been on a date for a long time, and second, he so thoughtful to plan something out! I was so excited! So we went to Kingsbury Hall and saw this performance! It was amazing. You all know how much I love gymnastics and all that other acrobat stuff-and this was it! People were all over the stage doing crazy stunts that looked impossible. It was very impressive. Most of the performers are from different countries such as, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, and some from the US. I put a link to Utube if anyone cares to see a little tid bit of what the show entailed. And for all you Arizona folks, the show it coming to Mesa on March 18-19. Take your woman!

Thanks Shan for a fun night out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEQasOVB2o0

Spring Anyone?

2008-03-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

I don't know about anyone else, but we have Spring Fever at our house! It was so nice the other day, that we actually got to play outside.

Briley hanging from the lilac bush-she wants to climb everything!

Brooklyn is know 9 months old and barely sits up! It's frustrating, but what can I do about it? The medication she's on causes developmental delays. She is still progressing, but really slowly. Today, I actually gave her a graham cracker for the first time and she loved it! She also threw her first temper tantrum when I took the graham cracker away. It was pretty funny.

One of Briley's favorite things to do right now is watch "Barbie in the Nutcracker" and pretend that she is Clara. She fast forwards to the end, where Barbie dances with the prince and dances along with the movie. She makes me curl her hair and everything! Then she makes me be the "prince" and dance with her. It was really cute and funny the first time, but now that we've done it a million times, I'm getting really tired of it! Oh-and the sparkle shoes!!!!! Girls.

Briley loves to dance!

I guess that's all that's going on in our lives right now, Barbie this, Princess that.....
I actually got to work a few days last month. It's been a good change of pace and it's good to know I haven't lost complete touch!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY BRILEY!

2008-02-18T11:13:00.001-08:00

This last week on February 9th, Briley turned 4. I would have posted sooner, but we've been sick at our house and are now starting to feel better. We went to the Kid Barn in Draper-a bounce house, with Briley's cousins Tanner, Carter, and Kaden. Then we came back to our house for pizza. Then Willard, Grandpa Gordon, Andy, Noelle, Kayana, and Garrett came over for cake and icecream. It was a fun night to celebrate with family. Briley loved all of her presents and really got spoiled! We are so happy to be done with the "3's" and look forward to this year! We can't believe how much she has grown up in the last while-time sure does fly!
We love you Briley!

Tag

2008-02-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

I knew this would eventually catch up with me, so here I am. However, I'm not tagging others, so if you feel the need to get 'tagged', tag yourself and pretend it's from me!

10 years ago: I was a junior at Sherwood High School in Oregon (I know, huh?). I'd recently 'retired' from 9 years of competetive gymnastics due to 3 ACL knee surgeries. I was heart broken, but felt it was the right decision. I was working at Tualatin Country Golf Club as a waitress. I was into my social life and really thought my life was hard (little did I know)!

5 things on my list to do today: 1-spin class at 5:45am 2-laundry, 3-pick up the house, 4-take Briley to Preschool and wrap her birthday presents, 5- read 'Gone with the Wind' for book club.

Snacks I enjoy: I love anything with peanut butter. Lately, it's these Oats and Peanut Butter Fiber One bars-they are so yummy!!!

Did I mention Diet Coke and chocolate?

What I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire: Spend money and not feel guilty about it!!! Okay, Shan would bring me back to my senses and make us do something smart and generous.

3 of my bad habits: talking with my mouth full, talking too loud when on the phone, and drinking Diet Coke.

5 jobs I have had: Dental hygienist, dental assistant, tumbling coach, baskin robbins ice cream scooper, and last but not least, A MOTHER.

5 things people don't know about me: 1. I'm 1/4 Swedish, 2- I love to read, 3-I'm training for my first triathlon, 4-I hate being pregnant, 5-I wouldn't know what to do without my sisters. I'm so glad that we're all so close and I'm secretly wishing they would move closer-I guess that's really not a secret.

There you have it, that's me, Tagged.

Family Photo

2008-01-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

We really wanted to post a picture of the whole family, but every family pic we have includes either pumpkins or Christmas trees, and not to mention MY BRACES!!!!! So this old picture (taken in September of 2004) will have to due until we get a new family photo, which is on hold until my braces come off (hopefully in a few months). We have a great friend named Mike Lloyd who is an excellent photographer-he took these photos.

More templates

2008-01-25T13:59:00.001-08:00

I'm on my second quest in finding free templates. I found another blog that you can download them for free. So far, it seems to be much easier. If your interested, visit http://www.cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com

Snow Day

2008-01-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

The snow just keeps coming! According to the news station Sandy got 16 inches of snow! I had to take pictures. I don't think I've ever seen this much snow!

The table on our back deck

Porch swing-I'm surprised it's still standing.

Shannon braved the snow and came out to meet a friend for lunch. I'm so glad she stopped by to let the kids play. Briley was in need of some friends (there's only so much Candyland I can take)! We also exchanged baby clothes-if you didn't know, she is pregnant with her 4th, and IT'S A GIRL!!!!! We couldn't be more excited for her! It forced me to go through all the clothes Brooklyn's grown out of.

Briley, Carter and Tanner-up to their knees in the snow.

Who knew the swing set would get use in the winter?

Triathlon

2008-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

I decided that I'm crazy because I signed up for a sprint triathlon. It's in St. George on May 10th. I've been training with my friend Jen, who is also a first timer to triathlons. But we've been lucky to know 2 other girls in our book club that have done triathlons, so they are helping us.

It's a 1/2 mile swim (in Sand Hollow Reservoir), 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. I've started swimming and I'm now fearing for my life. It's so much harder than it looks. The good news is that I'm getting better with each swim. I just hope to make it through! At least it'll be a little get away to St. George with out the kids!

Brooklyn's Story

2008-01-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to wonder if I will ever have a 'normal' child. I guess we all have our trials in our lives, and this must be one of ours.

It all started on November 12th around 6:30pm, when Brooklyn had a seizure. We had just finished dinner and I was holding her when she let out this cry. She then started to shake. I thought she was shivering and took her up to the bathroom. I turned to look at her and noticed that she didn't look right. She then started to turn blue around the lips. I called Shan up to the Bathroom and we started to panic. I thought she might be having a seizure. We called 911. She also was not responding to us when we called her name and her eyes where focused up and to the right. This probably lasted about 2 minutes. Then she coughed and was responsive, although exhausted. By the time the paramedics arrived, she was completely normal, except for being lethargic-which is very normal after a seizure. The paramedics determined that she was in good shape, but said we had to go to the ER at Primary Children's and have her evaluated further.

Once in the ER, she had a CT scan of the brain, an EKG, and blood work. Everything came back normal. They instructed us to follow up with the Neurology clinic and sent us home (after 5 long hours)! It was such a long night, not to mention that we were embarrassed that we called 911 (yes we know it was the right thing to do) because they came with the lights and sirens. We had 2 neighbors knock on the door while the paramedics were there! I know everyone is curious, but stay home and peek out your blinds like everyone else!

We followed up with Neurology and they recommended further testing; an MRI, and EEG, and metabolic tests. All tests came back completely normal. What a relief, but frustrating all at the same time!

Then exactly 3 weeks later, Brooklyn had another seizure, much like the first. This time the seizure lasted 4 minutes and after, she had what is called Todd's paralysis (this is where one side of the body is paralyzed for a short time following the seizure). It was her left arm and leg. We called the on-call pediatrician and he sent us to Primary's again-he was concerned with the left side. Coincidentally, she had her MRI scheduled for that next morning at 7am, and we didn't arrive at the ER until 11pm. It took about 2 1/2 hours for her left side to start working again. We ended up staying over night due to the early MRI.
The Neurologist wanted to start her on Phenobarbital-the medication that is typically used to control and stop seizures from occurring. I was very hesitant, but went along with it anyway. After she was on the medication for 3 days, I decided to stop it and had to ween her off it for 8 days. I felt that with only 2 seizures and no known cause, wasn't enough of a reason to medicate her. The neurologist was fine with that.

In the mean time, I decided to search out other doctors to see if we can find out why she is having these seizures. I was referred to a chiropractor. I knew Brooklyn was a little 'out of wack', because one of her ears was higher than the other and one ear also stuck out more than other. She also curled herself into the craziest positions when sleeping, so this non traditional treatment made sense to me.

After seeing the chiropractor for 2 weeks, Brooklyn had her 3rd seizure (3 and 1/2 weeks after the 2nd) on December 28th at 7:30pm. Then on December 29th it went from bad to worse. At 8:30 am she had her 4th seizure. All of her seizures where typical of her first, except I noticed that she was jerking on her left side only. I called the neurologist (of course this happens on the weekend, and I have to use the on-call doctors), and he suggested that we start her on the medication. I decided to wait again, hoping the chiropractor would be able to adjust her and stop the seizure. I went to see the chiropractor and she said her altas was subluxated and adjusted her. A short while after the adjustment, she had another one and I was beginning to doubt this kind of treatment. I called the Neurologist and we started her on Phenobarbital. I knew it was the right thing to do, even though I didn't want to. But still the seizures continued all weekend, about 5-6 a day for 4 days, even after we started her on the medication.

It was so frustrating that she continued to have seizures despite the medication! We drew blood to check the level of pheno and it was at a level of 18-on a 'normal' scale of 15-40. What a broad range. So they increased her dose. After loading her the second time, she then was only having 2-3 a day! I really didn't know what to think! I was then referred to another chiropractor who specializes in the cervical spine only. He adjusted her (very differently from the first) and about 1 hour later she had one more seizure. The chiropractor expected to her to have a least one more, saying it was normal in the cases he's worked with. But since that last one on Thursday, January 3rd, she hasn't had a single seizure!

I know chiropractors and doctors don't see eye to eye. What I do know is that she hasn't had any seizures since seeing the chiropractor! It seems logical that the 2nd chiropractor had something to do with the seizures stopping, because she continued to have seizures even on the medication!

Brooklyn is still on the medication and the neurologist wants to keep her on it for 1 year! YIKES. I've decided to keep her on it for 2 months, seizure free, and then ween her off. The neurologist is okay with this, but obviously doesn't prefer it. He said there is no harm in taking her on and off the medication, so worse case scenario, if she has more seizures we'll have to put her back on.

Brooklyn has Epilepsy, which means that she has re-occurring seizures that are un-provoked. No known cause. It's such a scary term, but in reality it's just another name for 'seizures'. Some kids grow out of it, some don't. Time will tell.

Christmas Festivities

2008-01-02T17:23:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Christmas is already over! These are some of the things we did this holiday season.

Making sugar cookies is a must! It's something I did growing up and want to continue the tradition.

Briley decorating the cookie, that looks like a lot of sprinkles!

This is from Aunt Harmony-a cute purple fleece. It was an early present, which Briley loves!

For Christmas Eve, we went to Shannon's house. We had an unconventional dinner of stuffed pork roast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Christmas Berry salad, jello, and rolls. We also enjoyed pumpkin and coconut cream pie. It was a very yummy dinner.

We also decided to start a new tradition this year and make a Christmas chocolate mousse(Shannon's idea) with one having a hidden almond. Whoever got the almond, received a special gift. Luckily, Shan got the almond and we got a $50 dollar gift card to Banana Republic(complements of Ernst and Young)! It pays to live by Shannon and Jeff and reap some of his benefits. Thanks guys!

Shannon did a great job decorating the table.

Family photo, Christmas 2007

Jeff, Shannon, Kaden, Tanner, and Carter.

We also attempted to have the kids act out The Nativity. It was actually really funny and probably lasted only 3 minutes. We even put Brooklyn in as an angel.

We ended the night kind of early and headed home around 8pm. Briley fell asleep in the car. I had to take this picture because her facial expression was so funny! Nice double chin.

Christmas morning started early. Not because of Briley (we had to remind her that Santa came) but because of Brooklyn-who woke us all up! Briley was very excited and had too many presents to open. One of her favorites was the Barbie Island Princess doll.

Did I ever tell you that she found barbie under our bed? It was in early November and she dragged it downstairs and told us she found barbie! She was so excited. I had to spoil her excitement and say it was for Christmas and I put it away. I really think she forgot about it... that was a close one. Never hide your presents under you bed, even when you think they are too young to look!

This was another one of Briley's favorites. She is so into purses and lip gloss! I know... I'm really in for it when she becomes a teenager.

We had a great Christmas day and enjoyed being lazy. We made a french toast breakfast and laid around. Then we went to Shan's parents house that afternoon to enjoy a Christmas ham dinner and even more presents! It was a lot of fun!

Preschool Christmas Program 2007

2008-01-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Briley had her first Christmas Program in Preschool. They basically sang Christmas songs for all the parents. It was really funny because you see all these mom's and dad's with their cameras and video cameras-we are all such proud parents! We really want to capture each moment.

These are some of her friends, Sadie and Lydia. Some day's, Briley say's she doesn't want to sit by them... She say's the strangest things sometimes!

This is Jack (yes, he is a Boy). Not a day goes by without Briley talking about Jack. She even told me one day that she loved him! I think he is such a cute boy! Everyday Briley gets to sit by Jack. I wonder if the feeling is mutual?

All the preschool kids got a big surprise visit from Santa! Miss Valerie, one of her teachers, is in the background.

And this is a random picture of Brooklyn; Briley decided that she needed to wear Dad's beanie. We both thought it was pretty funny and cute.