Ring Around the Rosies

I couldn't really think of anything clever to name this post, but Olivia loves "Ring Around the Rosies" these days. She runs around the house saying "Ashee Ashee a fa dow!" Anyway, I just wanted to put some new pics up and I don't have a particular reason. Just 'cuz.


I can't really get a decent picture of Olivia anymore because they all turn out like this.

My chubby little boy! Funny thing is, as chubby as he looks in the face, you lift him up and he's just solid. No rolls or anything. Maybe he just has a lot of muschles!

Just before bed time Livi gives Ethan a hug and says, "Ohhhh...".

A little pat. She is always so soft.

We just missed her kiss and she wouldn't do it for us again.

Here's Ethan in his favorite of all favorite places to sleep (Mommy and Daddy's bed). Can you tell?

Here's Daddy with the kids. Can you tell how tired we all are at our house?

Here's Olivia wearing Mommy's glasses. She loves to wear any kind of glasses. She has her own pair of sun glasses. She likes walking around the house with her eyes closed or a blanket over her (I think she thinks she's invisible when she does it). I think she likes the sunglasses because she likes to pretend she's invisible.


That's all for now! We'll see if we can't update you some more later.

Reveal Yourself Tag

I guess I was tagged on Ashley's Blog, so here goes:

1. What is your favorite fictional character from a book or movie?

Dwight Schrute from The Office and Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond. Strike that. My absolute favorite as of now, is Barbara Jean on "Reba", she's hilarious.

2. What are your 3 best physical assets?

hmmm... oh, my feet are definately my favorite, my eyes and my skin.

3. Name 3 attributes you would be proud to pass on to your children:

Patience, empathy, and a postivie attitude.

4. Name 3 attributes that you hope not to pass on to your children:

I complain a lot about my body, I don't want them to do that.
I'm really bad at processing my thoughts into words. Sorry anyone who doesn't understand me.
Mumbling. Sorry about that, too. It makes the last thing I said even worse.

5.If you had to give up one of the following things FOREVER, which would you choose?
1. all makeup
2. flat iron/curling iron
3. razors (laser hair removal isn't an option)

Probably the irons, I can just do my hair curly.

6. What do you think is your best quality?

When I meet people I don't look for flaws, I look for something that I can admire.

7. What is your worst quality?

I'm really bad at letting people know that I'm interested in their lives. Even though I really am, I'm just bad at helping them feel important. Sorry about that, too. I really am working on it.

8. What would be a perfect day for you?

A day when I can just devote all of my time and energy into having fun and relaxing with my family. That was my favorite part of my birthday. BJ and Olivia came and brought me breakfast in bed and we just sat and talked and played for a couple of hours. It was the best.

9. Where is your favorite place you have ever visited?

Carthage Jail. There was just something about that place that made me connect so much with Joseph Smith and his calling.

10. Name something you are really good at?

I don't know... figuring things out, I guess. If I don't know how to make it, run it, or do it, I'll figure it out. Even if it's a situation. Things like that aren't a big deal to me very often.

11. What are you most shallow about?

My looks. I feel like a 13 year old sometimes when it comes to my looks. I feel like everyone notices my flaws.

12. What is something you're a little bit conceited about?

My families. My husband and children, and mine and my husband's--both of the homes we grew up in. I admire everyone immensly and think that every single individual that belongs to our families can move mountains.

13. Name 3 things you are embarrassed to admit:

I love to watch cheesy movies by myself. I can't stand it when I, my house, my husband, or my children smell weird and will try everything to get to the source of the problem. I can count how many articles of clothing I've purchased for myself (in my whole life) on 2 hands.

14. Tag 3 people that you want to reveal themselves!!

Kristol, Codee, and Rachel.

Growth Charts

Where to start? We have some noteworthy events...

Ethan (5 weeks) is getting soooo big already we just can't believe it! This is his favorite position and second favotite place to sleep. Number one, of course, is in Mommy and Daddy's bed.
He's already grown out of his first 2 sets of clothes. At this rate he will pass up Olivia in no time! She was in newborn clothes for the first few months.




He has a very strong neck and acid reflux, ingredients for early roll overs. He is still such a good baby and we have been so extremely blessed with the two most perfect children. He already sleeps through the night (mostly) and is just content to sit and look around. I can't believe how clear his eyes are. They look like they will end up being a lovely shade of blue.
With that and the cute dimples--which he got from his Grandpa Bright and, surprisingly I just noticed the other day that BJ has them as well(this is the only pic I've been able to get with the dimples!) --and dark hair, he will definately be a heartbreaker. We will be blessing him Labor Day weekend so maybe I'll actually be able to post a family pic soon.

Olivia (19 months) is hitting a few milestones as well. Mommy can actually do things with her hair now (so cute!),
she can count to 10 these days, is getting very good at communicating with her words, loves to sing the ABC's and loves to lay in her soon-to-be new bed with mommy and daddy while she mouths the words to the songs that we sing.
She blows me away, what a smart cookie. She has been extremely interested in the potty for a long time and the other night she recognized and told us that she had to go, so we started actively potty training yesterday and we had as least one successful effort.
This pic is actually from a couple of months ago... She was so excited once she figured out what the potty treats were for, so hopefully today we will have more luck. I just can't believe how fast they grow.

BJ had lasik eye surgery 2 days ago, so far he says his vision is actually worse. It was pretty bad to begin with and I honestly think his brain is trying to get used to the new eyes. The doctor says it may take a few days or even weeks because he never wore corrective lenses.
For now, he is spending time with his little boy and starting to empathize with me a little. I have such terrible vision and found out today, it's actually even worse since my pregnancy... BJ has been known to give me a hard time because I get so frustrated in the mornings when I can't see to find my glasses. It's been kind of fun taking care of him. I love being able to serve my family.

I have been given the okay to excersize so I'm off to the gym every chance I get. I'm pretty excited to get back into shape and I'm so surprised at how much more energy I have after this baby than I did with Olivia. I don't know if that's because I had a c-section last time or not, but I'll take it! All in all things are great and it's been a great 2 weeks since my last blog entry! With the blessing approaching and family coming from all corners of the U.S. I am getting things all ready, so hopefully I'll have a chance to update soon. Sorry, no pics of me, mostly because there aren't really any. I'm usually the one behind the camera.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Today is My Mom and Dad's 39th Anniversary! I just wanted to say that and put a cute pic of my parents on here, unfortunately I don't have one because they're all at my mom's, and I have no recent ones because Dad always hated having his picture taken. But, We sure miss you, Dad--more and more each day. Happy Anniversary! I hope you had a great day, Mom!

Pictures!

Okay, my brain is so incredible scattered, recovering from dead pregnancy brain cells, hormones, and fatigue I guess. Sorry, my last entry was long and boring! So, I'm gonna make this one short and sweet. Here are pics of my updated family! I've had a few tell me that my kids are cookie cutter. That is no bother to me, I mean look at how adorable they are!

Do you see the cookie cutter? Here's Ethan on the Left and Olivia on the right at the same exact age (5 days)

Here he is on the Bilibed. His Bilirubin levels hovered around 20 for a couple of days.






Olivia had a bit of a hard time even getting close to Ethan the first few days, but she loves to pet him and give him little kisses on the head. She is very good at being soft. What a good big sister!

Surprise!!!

Well, we had a little suprise the other day. I went to the doc on Tuesday and got checked. He said I was dialated to a 2 and 60% effaced and that I would probably be pregnant for another week or maybe 2. I started having some regular contractions on Thursday night and into Friday morning (36 weeks pg on Friday)--about every 10 minutes. I really couldn't even feel them, I just felt my belly get hard. I was still a little nervous about it, so I thought we should go to the hospital just to check it out and see if there was anything going on. We had a small trip up to Pineview planned with BJ's family, who all arrived Friday morning and told them we had to run to the hospital, but didn't know how long we'd be. They went ahead of us and we headed to the hospital. When we got there, after confirming I was a little more than 2 they monitored me for a couple more hours and I dialated to a 3 and was at about 70%. BJ came in fully expecting to check out, when the nursed turned around and said, "Looks like you're having a baby today." We called our families and asked my blessed mother in-law to take care of Olivia that night, while they called my doc. He came and broke my water and I had a successful VBAC resulting in my cute baby boy, Ethan Jay(6 lbs 10 oz 19 1/2 inches), 5 hours later (10:03 PM). So, I'm sooo glad that I followed that little prompting and went to the hospital. Otherwise, I may not have had a chance to get my epidural. Thank heavens for modern medicine!

So, it's been fun telling people because nobody expected this to happen so soon (He was 4 weeks early). I ran into my upstairs neighbor in the elevator and he said, "So, did you go up to Logan for the weekend? What have you been up to?" I said, "Oh, having a baby." The funny thing is. He totally didn't believe me. I had to show him my hospital bracelet for him to even consider that I wasn't pulling his leg. Anyway, we just wanted to share our fantastic news and, of course, put it up here for you all to see! We didn't have our camera with us at the hospital because we weren't expecting to stay there. We didn't actually have anything. So, Ashley, bless her heart, rushed over to my house as soon as it became accessable and brought us at least our camcorder and combed the house for things I needed in my bag. (You are a lifesaver!) Unfortunately my mom didn't fly back until Saturday night, but I'm so glad she's here now and that he came early so that she could be with me and help me. Since this weekend BJ's entire family was in the state and with us, Ethan couldn't have come at a better time! I will be posting pics soon.

water water everywhere

This is like a week or more ago, but I wanted to post some cute pics of it. We took Olivia to the Legacy Fountain the other day to let her run around and play. It was so fun!
She kept trying to catch the water and there was one point where she was standing right over a geyser and it kept shooting her right in the bum! She couldn't figure out what was happening and she was getting soaked! Then a couple of times she went over to look into the holes and got squirt right in the face. It scared her a bit at first, but then, after a quick hug, she was right back out there having a blast again! So fun!

Hello Patriots!

Well, we started our day with an outing to the Centerville 4th of July parade. Then we went home and we all had a very very long nap. I was going to take Olivia to the splash park at the rec. center, but we all took a nap instead. We also finally broke out the grill after over a year of not using it. We didn't realize how much we missed it until we sat down to eat. Actually, I remembered as soon as I stepped into my cool house with a hot meal on the table. BJ had to work so he got ready and took off while Olivia and I headed over to the store to get some sparklers. We let her stay up for a little while so that she could have some fun with sparklers. She and I had to wait for BJ so we watched the fireworks on TV and then I read her a short scripture in 2nd Nephi about America being the promised land, and we sang a song. By then, BJ was able to break away from work for a bit after briefing to come and do sparklers with us. I think this is such a cute patriotic pic. He actually had to light them in his car because it started to get a little windy. That's pretty much it for us. Not a whole lot to talk about, but we had a good day. We are so grateful to be here in this country and able to worship freely and to have a right to our own opinion and vote accordingly. We thank Heavenly Father every day for the blessings of this land and the opportunity we have to possess it. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Triathawhat?

BJ ran his first triathalon this last weekend and I'm so proud of him! He and a bunch of his buddies decided to do it awhile ago and what do you know, they did it. I watched them getting ready to start in the water and I couldn't help but feel nervous for them.

The sprint that all of the boys did consisted of 1/2 mile swim in open water, 12.5 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. He gets to do all of the fun stuff, but I loved being there. The atmosphere was really intoxicating. (Left to Right) Rich, BJ, Logan, and Michelle (she competed in a relay for the women's sprint).

Coming out of the water after finishing the swim. I've never been so relieved to see him in my life. Another swimmer died in the water before he came in and Rich's dad helped to give him CPR on the shore. All the spectators, including myself, were terrified that it might be their loved one. Thankfully, they revived the man and got his heart started, but he was still unconcious when they took him away in the ambulance. We found out that he passed away later.




Here he comes! This is one of the only pics of me on here. I was on my feet the whole time, but Livi and I had a lot of fun squirting each other with the spray bottle.
BJ only had a mountain bike that his friend had lent him, so he had to work a bit harder, but he made it to the end! He realized at the end of it all what a great achievement that was in his life and wants to do it again, or at least get into biking more. I would also like to jump on that wagon (as soon as I'm able) and whip myself back into shape. I'm definately not the girl I was in high school anymore!

There he goes, starting the last stretch of the race. He stopped for a sec to tell me about a bad cramp in his leg that started on the swim. It took us a few days afterward to get the muscle to relax.



BJ is running through the finish line in this picture. The end at last! I am so proud of him for finishing!

This is us after the race. BJ was so glad it was over!
They all look tired, but happy to have done it! It was fun for all of them to be there cheering each other on. (left to right) Rich, Jon, Logan, and BJ.

Zoo Day!

We took Livi to the zoo today and had so much fun! Her favorite part was the monkeys (not surprising considering they are her favorite animal). Anyway, here are some pics of us at the zoo!
This is us in front of the Elephants... yeah, I'm huge I know.






Here is BJ and Livi in front of a huge elephant that makes some pretty fun sounds. We didn't really get to try it out because it was comandeered by some other kids.







This is a monkey coming
to check Olivia out.
They were fascinated with eachother.


Here's Livi playing in the spider web at the playground in the zoo. She loves to climb, so this was one of our highlights.



Here she is, too playing in the turtle shell. Isn't she cute?