Laundry Room Project

On Monday I decided to build in a "thing-a-ma-bob" in our laundry room. On Tuesday I went to Lowe's and had them cut all of my wood and I had the whole space built in by the time Matt got home from work. He loves these surprises.... hahahaha (sometimes). On Wednesday I painted it all day long. And now I am so proud of myself that I can't handle it so I'm going to share a picture with you. ;)



Brynn is excited that she can hang her back pack and coat up all by herself and can put her boots in the little cubbies. I am excited to find some cute baskets to put on the top shelf to finish it off.

(patting myself on the back... pat pat pat!) :0)

scarf

This is such a fun video & I am so excited that we are in scarf season now. :) I'm going to try out a lot of these in the next few months :).

Birthday Girl turns 4!

Brynners birthday was in May and it was very exciting for her because she has literally been talking about turning 4 for the past 7 months. I wish I was exaggerating about this but I'm not. Every cashier at each store we've been to in the last 7 months has been told about this impending birthday. hahaha! (SO... we are not going to even mention the fact that she'll be turning 5 in another 12 months, k everybody? thanks for your help in this matter ;))

Brynn's birthday party wish-list:
Belle Birthday
Belle hair
Red Roses
Barbeque
COUSINS & Family
balloons
& YUMMY "Lemonade" Cupcakes

I have to be honest and say I really didn't go all out on the "Belle Theme". I did get a few princess balloons along with some red and yellow (and of course RED roses)and she was perfectly happy with that. We did wake up and do "Belle hair" which turned out perdy cute (she wore her Belle dress for a few minutes). We had everybody over for a BBQ (inside because of the rain). And the "Lemonade Cupcakes" were DELICIOUS if I do say so myself ;).

Family is the best part of the party!!! (Matt and I chose to stay and live by family after we were done with school for this very reason; so that our children could have awesome memories and feel the love and closeness our family shares.) We have such awesome FAMILY! Thank you all for coming and making it SO MUCH FUN:).




We love you Brynn! We really enjoy being your mommy and daddy. We have so much fun together. You are BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL and light up each and every day. You are really energetic, happy, have such kind words, and so willing to help out! These last few years have been the VERY BEST of our lives because of you. Tks sweetheart. Enjoy being 4 and stop growing up so fast! You are our very favorite little 4 year old in the entire world ;)!

PlayGround

We debated digging up this old swing set to make more room in our less-than-spacious back yard. We are SO glad that we didn't because Brynn plays on it every day. She yells," Goin' to the playground!" and runs out the back door. Here are some of her "tricks" she loves to show me. hahaha! She cracks us up.

This is determination.


Really? :)


I told her now that she's going to be 4 that she needs to learn how to pump herself on the swing. This is what she got out of my lovely teaching abilities. I laughed forever when I first saw this ;).

1st BIRTHDAY!

Gavin turned 1~!! Can you believe it? I still can't. We had lots of festivities to celebrate and I'm so grateful to our family who comes to share these happy times with us.





Gavin, we LOVE you! Our son has a very SPECIAL sweetness about him that melts his mommy & daddy's heart. His eyes SPARKLE. He is patient and has been an EASY baby. He has a TENDER heart and gets his feelings hurt easily. He is SMART and loves to use his hands to figure things out. He is a GREAT sleeper. He gives the BEST kisses! He has an addictive SMILE. He LOVES his mommy & daddy and likes to be held. He loves his big sister and watches her very closely & LAUGHS every time she laughs. He makes our family feel COMPLETE. And he is really HANDSOME too if I say so myself. :)

This past year with our little man has been really special. We've loved EVERY SINGLE SECOND with him and can't wait for bajillions more. ;)

Our Little Gavinater

How could I have forgotten how much fun it is to snuggle a little 4 month old? This little guy is SOOOO DARN FUN!!! He's happy and relaxed (unless he's hungry - when you better have your ear plugs or a bottle handy), he's snuggly and so loveable, he's handsome and sweet, and he smiles and kicks every time he sees me (ahhhhhhhhhh). I really can't believe we lucked out TWICE with such great babies. After Brynn I thought for sure our next would be a handful because she was just too good to be true. So, if he continues to follow in his sister's footsteps... at 18 months I will need to take a big dose of "Patient Pills" and buckle myself in for the ride! :) HAHAHA

First Camping Trip (brrrrrrrrrr!)


Sister Luvs


Chunky Monkey


Momma's boy


p.s. (off topic) a mouse died in my wall... HELP! GET ME OUT OF HERE! It's wretched!

Make - Believe

Lately I've been so excited to find Brynn playing all sorts of make-believe around the house. I'll walk into her room and she's got 2 parties going on... one for the mini princesses/animals at the castle and one for the big animals/dolls around her table. She will move her night stand and doll cradle over to the table so that there's seating for 6. Every animal is sitting at their chair and has a plate, utensil & their "favorite" food in front of them. There's always a pretend birthday cake and I can hear her singing to an animal (depending on who's birthday it is).



I love that she's taken the time to name her little friends and tries to spend equal time with each. There's Washy, Bwinky, Harry, Dolly, Sully, Pink Bear, Lamby, Tula-Rula, Belle, Cat, & Joker. The other afternoon she told me that it is time to go back to school. She lined all of her animals up on the couch and brought down her box of books and started reading to them. She explained that she is the teacher and they need to be really quiet & listen or they will go to "time-out". She then told them that it was "about time" they learned their ABC's and sang the song to them over & over again.



Watching her play like this makes my heart swell & I can't help but smile. She is SO much fun right now. I wish I could record her on video all day so that I could come back and watch it down the road. Why do children have to grow SO FAST?

Melt My Heart Moments

About a month ago Punkin and I were sitting on the front porch munching on some suger-snaps and waiting for daddy to get home. I looked down at the ground to watch a potato bug crawl by and my sweet daughter grabbed my face and put her nose right up to mine and said, "I love you mommy!". I said, "I love you too sweetheart!" and she pulled my face even closer to hers and said, "and Jesus and Daddy love you too".

One morning last week when I was blow drying my hair she wrapped her arms around my leg and looked up at me and said really loud, "Mommy! You are my very best friend! And Daddy is my best friend too!"

She is such a sweet little rascal and at these moments all of the make-up pored on our bed spread, the strawberries mashed in the carpet, the lotion and soap bottles spread from here to there, the climbing up the dressers and cupboards to make messes we couldn't fathom could happen in 3 short minutes.... all that kind of stuff is evaporated into thin air. At these times, and even during the crazy times in between, we go to bed each night knowing we have an angel sleeping in the next room. We are so incredibly blessed to be the parents of our sweet little girl and we are so excited for what the future holds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY B!

Our daughter has officially turned two and the saying could never be truer - "Time flies when you are having fun!". We have had a blast and taken special care to enjoy every single minute since our precious angel was born and yet the time has FLOWN by in a whirlwind of her girly giggles and silly wiggles (I am in a cheesy mood ;)). She has been such an incredible blessing in our lives! Not a day passes that we don't thank our Heavenly Father for her and for our amazing birth mother who had incredible strength and faith by placing her in our arms. She is truly the light of each of my days and I know I can say the same for her daddy.





We threw two parties the day before her birthday, one for friends and one for family. We had a blast and thank you to all of you who came! Then we spent her birthday doing some of her favorite things - icecream, park with BIG slides and swings, jumping on grandma and grandpa's trampoline, long walk, sidewalk chalk, chicken and fries, "moo-moo doggy" (Bolt), bubble machine on the back porch, fo-feeding her stuffed animals Flopsy and Sully, dancing to music in her bedroom, and then of course ended the day with tons of snuggles and book reading in bed. It was an awesome day! I am so grateful for the opportunity Matt and I have to be the parents of our amazing little 2-year old. Happy Birthday B! We love you forever and always!

There's Sunshine in My Soul Today

So, today I would like to introduce our first little miracle. Our daughter has filled each corner of our home with joy and laughter. She is funny, sassy, sweet, strong willed, thoughtful, and really wants a baby sister or brother to mug on. She talks about babies all day long. Right now her two favorite questions are - "Where's daddy?" and "Where's the baby?" As soon as she could walk she was walking up to little kids and trying to hug them. She is also very active and loves to climb, run, twirl, and jump! She enjoys discovering new things. Thankfully she does have her moments when she will still snuggle with us and let us love on her and read books. She is an amazing little girl and we love her unconditionally and eternally. We are so excited to be blessed with another miracle and know we will love and cherish and mug on them just as much and probably even more because there are three of us. Here's to our Sunshine! We love you sweety!

A Shout Out to our Amazing Parents

Robin - My parents both went to BYU and studied in similar buildings but didn't meet until later when they both worked at a hospital in Salt Lake. My dad has his Bachelors in Microbiology and owns a microbiology business. He has been an extremely hard worker my entire life. He enjoys his family and gets very excited about going on vacations and planning outdoor activities with us. He is tremendously loving, spiritual, and kind. He is interested in gardening, farming, fishing, hiking, camping, boating, church, scouts, and also loves learning and studying. My mom has her Bachelors in Microbiology as well and worked as a Lab Technician until they had my oldest brother Ben and has been a full-time mom since. She has a very tender heart and is a compassionate, happy, thoughtful, beautiful person. She enjoys knitting, reading, gardening, dancing, swimming and taking care of her children and grandchildren.


Matt - Our parents are awesome; we have definitely been blessed with goodly parents. My dad has his MBA, Masters in Business Administration, and has worked as a banker all of his life. My mom received her Bachelors in English where she student-taught at Murray High School. They met at BYU and got married soon thereafter. A year later my brother Mike was born and my mom stayed at home to raise her new family. I would describe my parents as incredibly loving; they are a lot of fun and are very involved with all of their children and grandchildren. My mom is the glue that keeps us together; it would be hard to find a sweeter human being in the entire world. My dad is a very dedicated father, growing up he called me champ and never missed a single game of mine. They enjoy reading, listening to music, singing, creating new recipes for family dinner, serving in their church callings, exercising, and playing with their grandchildren.