Happy Holidays?

So, I started my New Year's Resolution three weeks early, which is basically to fit into the lower half of my "healthy" weight range, based on my gender and height. My question is, can it really be a happy holiday if you can't enjoy all the desserts? And can I cancel out calories by eating more fruits and vegetables? Probably not, but in an ideal world, the answer is yes.

Despite the self conscious thoughts, I'm still very happy for the season, and all the joys it brings aside from gourmet and glutinous meals. We've enjoyed spending lots of time with both sides of our family, and look forward to the coming year. Merry Christmas everyone! We love you!

Brooke's Lullaby

Yesterday Brandon was in a musical mood, and decided to communicate all his thoughts to the tune of "Oh My Darlin' Clementine." While I was trying to go to sleep last night, Brandon was looking at Christmas presents to order for me, and I was telling him how I don't need any Christmas presents. His response was, to the above mentioned tune: "Go to h***, go to h***, go to h***, you're such a jerk. I am buying you a present, go to sleep, or go to h***. " Bella may have Edward to play her a lullaby, but my lullaby makes me laugh. So suck it Bella Swan. :-P

Why I love being a mommy

Evie's found a new hobby, which really entertains me, so I'm ok with it :-)

And now for round two.

Evie's Kind of First Hair Cut

Well, our cute little girl has been developing a lovely mullet over the last year and some months of her life. I cut her bangs myself about six months ago, and that's not an experience I'm willing to repeat anytime soon, so last week, I had one of my friends come by and give her hair a trim, just to even everything out, and hopefully get it to grow in a little thicker :-) Here are the results:

We trimmed her bangs and cut them so they gradually merge in with the rest of her hair. This was much more successful than my attempt.

Here we took off 2.5-3". Now the nasty, matted part of her hair can catch up with the rest of it :-)

BYU vs. Utah

This is the BYU band before the start of the rivalrous(?) BYU vs. Utah football game. Think we're gonna win? Let's see....

This is my good-lookin' husband before the game. Those presents on the benches are flags that someone left for everyone to wave. Pretty sure we're supposed to distract the opposing team with these. Now how is the question. I'm thinking the best way to do this is to strip down and wear them like a towel. (I'm glad I didn't try to do that before I unwrapped the flag. They were WAY too small for that.)

This is how we felt after BYU finally got on the scoreboard, even if it's just a field goal. (3-6)

This is how we felt after the first quarter. We're happy because BYU's about to score another field goal, to tie the game. (3-6)

This is pictoral evidence of BYU's second field goal, I believe. I think the BYU fans were happy, or something. (6-6)

And this is how we felt.

These are the joyous people in front of us. BYU finally scored a touchdown! (13-9)

And this is how we felt.

This is me not happy with the way things have ended the first half. (13-9)

This is Brandon's concern showing at the end of the second half as well.

These are the happy people in front of us. We scored the first touchdown of the second half. (20-9)

And this is how we felt.

This is us (me) boo-ing at the end of the regulation game. Lame. I hate overtime. (20-20)

This is the field being stormed by BYU fans after the game winning touchdown. Awesome pass from Max Hall to Andrew George in overtime. 26-23; yay Cougars!

And this is how we felt.

The perfect end to a loverly day :-)

Lately...

Lately we've been doing holiday stuff. I've pretty much finished my Christmas shopping, and Brandon's getting there. This week we had my birthday and Thanksgiving, and spent lots of time with family. Wednesday we had family over for cake and ice cream. This is me with my cutie niece Alex.

I figured this was also a good time for a new, updated picture of Brandon and I.

Thursday morning we went over to Brandon's mom's for Thanksgiving breakfast, which was lots of fun with yummy food :-) That afternoon, we went to my uncle's house in Sandy, and had our Thanksgiving dinner with my family and his. I don't know what he does to that turkey, but it is fantastic! Friday we went to Brandon's grandma's for dinner with Brandon's extended family. This was also filled with delicious food. After a week filled with food and way too many desserts, today we have decided to lay back and enjoy the BYU/Utah game. Here we have Evie in her adorable BYU cheerleader outfit. She's all ready for the game :-) Go Cougars!

And it came to pass...

Today was a lovely Sunday with an even better sacrament meeting. We carefully chose our seats in the next to last row in the chapel, right next to the door for an easy escape, should it be necessary. Evie had just had a nap, and we were hoping she'd still be a little groggy, that way she'd stay put and behave. Alas, it was not to be.

I don't know how many of you I've complained to about a certain part of Evie's baby blessing, but Brandon blessed her, several times, that she would be social, be able to make friends and have good relationships, and everything that goes with turning strangers into the very least, acquaintances. Now, I have nothing against Evie being able to make friends, I just am not excited about having to keep an extra close eye on her, because she might be befriending the drug lord down the street, or the sex offender around the proverbial corner.

Anywho, Evie was anything but slow today at church, and within 5 minutes of the meeting's start, she was around the row and stealing the lady's behind us purse. Granted, it was the funniest thing to see a 2' 5" child dragging a purse that weighs 3-4 lbs, and is at least half her size, but still, I hope this doesn't become a habit. After searching what she could of the purse, Evie spent the remaining hour of the meeting going to each person individually along the back row, and offering her fruit snacks, or whatever else she nicked along the way, to the very nice and gracious souls who happened to be in her path. This was made quite simple by the fact that Evie is already aware of her assets (i.e. her effectively woo-ing smile).

Needless to say, Brandon and I did not learn everything we could have this afternoon, for we spent most of it making sure that Evie wasn't getting into trouble. And now, I'm sure I'm just seeing the beginning of a very long, and interesting string of friends that Evie will be making. Here we go :-)...

But, at the end of the day, she's still my baby princess.

She and Brandon bond over Halo and Mario Bros. She's quite the gamer.

Behold! The full, real ponytail.

I love that she always wants to have someone read to her. Her latest favorite is "Dora and the Lost Baby Blue Bird," or something to that effect. I think she just likes having Brandon sing her the silly songs ;-)


Sorry for the naked pictures, but she's just so stinkin' cute in the bath tub, I had to share it :-)



Evie didn't really blow out her candle. But now that she's getting better at spitting and buzzing her lips, I'm thinking we'll have to do an 18 month party in March so she can get some practice in with birthday candles.

Sorry for the famine of posts on our blog. Lots has happened since July, and Evie is now 13, almost 14, months old. We had a fun party to commemorate her birthday, and all her friend, Koree, and mine and Brandon's friends and family attended. I decided that cupcakes would be the way to go, so that I wouldn't really have to worry about cutting the cake and making it look nice. Evie enjoyed her cupcake, I think ;-)

Our next adventure, which followed soon after her birthday, was learning to walk. Evie's friend, Koree, was already walking at the party, so, Evie decided, since she's a whole two weeks older, that it was time to put away childish crawling, and that walking was in the very near future. Here we have the beginning journey; Evie standing up by herself.



Another thing that we've graduated to is baths in the big girl bath tub. Evie is LOVING this. My mom recently purchased a holiday rubber ducky to fully initiate Evie into the first stage of "big girl-ism." Here Evie is enjoying her very first rubber ducky :-)



All in all, everything is going well. Brandon and I are both working, and I'm going to school. Life is busy, and Evie is growing up so fast, it's hard to keep track of everything that's new with her. She has 6 teeth now, for anybody that's wondering, and her hair is now long enough to put in a ponytail, pictures pending.

Well, that's about it for us. Thanks for reading our blog and keeping track of us; I'm trying to keep up with everybody else as well :-)

Birthday approaching...

Today Evie is 10 months old. The year mark is fast approaching, and daily reminding me that I haven't accomplished anything close to what I wanted by this time, like getting back to pre-pregnant figure, and solving all the world's problems.

On a happier note, last night we were hanging out with some friends, and one of them, Janeene, has a little girl exactly 2 weeks younger than Evie, and it was so cute to see Evie and Koree interacting and playing together. I must say that I love this age for kids. They were talking to each other, and keeping each other out of trouble, and getting in trouble together; it was great :-) So, shout out to Janeene: we need to get the girls together more and get a video of them ;-)

Frustration!

I just found this among my stash of pictures, and I had to share it. The first 30 seconds of the movie's the fun part, but the movie runs a little long, so I don't expect you to watch the whole thing. So funny!

Weekend Capers

This last weekend was quite exciting! We went to the new Harry Potter movie Friday night, which was technically our first date in I don't care to say how long. The movie was satisfactory as far as movies go, but of course I was sad that they left out some of the things that they did. Oh well, you can't have your cake and eat it too. I think that's how the saying should be applied :-I

Saturday Brandon went in to work in the morning, which was unusual, but provided some nice padding for our finances. That afternoon he came back, and we went to celebrate the afternoon as a family, by purchasing the expansion to our new favorite game, Dominion. Highly recommended, and now we can play with 8 players. So, if anyone is interested in a game night, we have a game that accommodates a larger number of people than most games ;-)

We also heard that afternoon that my grandpa decided to get baptized into our church, after 50+ years of associating with it :-) This was very good news for our extended family, and has been a long time coming. We are very proud of him, as he was baptized on Sunday. We love you Grandpa!

Sunday we went to visit Brandon's mother and siblings, and it was fun to watch Evie learn more about her new little cousin, Alex Rose, who was born almost a month ago. It's amazing to think that Evie was ever that small, or that non-vocal. Crazy how the time flies, isn't it? Speaking of time flying, Evie will turn 10 months old this week, which also makes me feel aged. And life goes on :-)

Repelling

This was the second cliff we repelled from, and here in the middle, the side of the cliff dipped in, so you just had to lower yourself down the rope without walking down the side.

Evie wanted to play with the squirrel real bad :-)

The squirrel who was brave enough to come visit and ask for our food

Brandon's brother, John

Danyka

Brandon coming down

Carissa

She made it!

My mom did pretty good with the repelling. She and I were both done after a couple of times down, though :-)

Me coming down the cliff.

One of the few pictures of Brandon and I together lately.

Happy Evie. We take it when we can get it :-)

Brandon and Evie excited to be out and doing something new.

Swimming Pools and Finger Foods

For the summer, my parents bought my siblings and Brandon and me season passes to Seven Peaks, so we've been taking Evie, and it's been so fun to see her become acquainted with the water. It usually takes her a while to feel ok sitting in the water, but after a little bit, she's splashing like there's no tomorrow.

We have also been introducing finger foods to Evie, which she's a big fan of. It's so cute to watch her try to pick everything up. And it's not just with her forefinger and thumb, but she gets all the fingers involved. It's awesome!

So, within the last couple of days, Evie's decided to combine these two things that she now loves. She's found our dog's, Buddy's, food and water bowl and just loves to splash in the water and pick up his dog food. So, now when she's not getting into everything else, we've got to make sure that she's not headed for the dog food. This is what we get for encouraging curiosity :-)

"One more?" "No, not now. Maybe come back in a couple of years...or never."

Lately we've been dealing with the glory of teething with Evie, and last night was especially fun. My poor little girl was having such a hard time falling asleep because she's stubborn, has way too much energy, and obviously the infant Tylenol and teething tablets weren't working. Our little family didn't get to bed until 2:00 a.m. and Evie still woke up a couple times after that. I haven't been up this much with Evie since she stopped nursing 6 months ago.

So, this post is a commendation to all you parents who decided to have more than one. Props to you. Now question: how conscious were you when you and your spouse decided to have that extra one, two, three, or how ever many bundles of joy, to do everything all over again? Or did God come into the equation and say, "No, trust me. You'll thank me for this in 20 years." Just wondering.

Baby Showers

This last week has been semi-eventful. My dad has been up from AZ for the past couple of weeks, which has been nice, and a great help to my mom. We had a family reunion with my dad's family, which was a lot of fun. It's always nice to get together with family you don't get to see very often. I'm still waiting on the compilation of pictures, but I'll put them up as soon as I get them ;-)

Brandon's cousin James and his wife Stephanie are expecting an adorable little boy, Chase, come October, and Stephanie has been rolling in the baby showers before their little family treks back east to Pittsburgh for law school. I was the lucky one asked to attend both of her showers, and they were very well put together with lots of good food, not to mention bringing in a nice haul :-) But we'll miss them lots when they leave next month, as they've been our number one couple to hang out with. We'll be holding auditions for our next best friend couple soon ;-)

Last night Brandon and his cousins had a Halo Night with a bunch of other guys, ergo the wives had girls night. My cousins, for all intents and purposes, Keith and Tyson, got to participate for their first time in Halo Night, and their wives, my real cousins, Stacia and Julie, hung out with me and the other wives. I really enjoy the girls nights we have, just because I don't have them too often anymore, so it was a lot of fun to kick back and let everyone else play with Evie for a little bit ;-)

Evie has started communicating a bit more clearly recently. Her favorite words so far are "up," "what," "dada," and "bob." I'm assuming that "bob" is just easier for her to say right now than "mom" but due to some clever deducing on Brandon's part, we figured out that I am "bob." Lucky me. (So that's Evie and "Bob" in the picture.) Other than that, things have been about the same.