Family Update!

Chris: Chris is still working at Sam's Club, of course! He quit his second job. He had started a job over the summer for a company called marketsource. For this company he was an independent sales representative for companies like Criket, Sharp, and AT & T. Chris really liked working for them, but for as much traveling and paperwork he was doing, the money just was not compensating for it. Moving to Idaho Falls has made life so much easier on Chris. Now instead of driving 45 minutes back and forth to work everyday, he only has to drive 10 minutes. I love it too! Chris has also gone back to donating plasma. The facility for that in Idaho Falls is so much nicer than the one in Rexburg. This one lets him make online appointments, gives you a debit card, and has a daycare. Chris has been so wonderful and has been making appointments in the morning so that he is able to take Brenden, Aria and I just sleep in. It's lovely. Chris is taking a few semesters off of school, which is nice because we get to spend a lot more time together, and just having a baby, it has just been that much nicer to have him home.

Sadie: Well, my life is great! I have two of the greatest kids in the world, and I just praise them all of the time. I just can't get enough of them. I thought having Brenden and seeing him grow was wonderful, but now that I have two to watch grow, well, words just can't express what I'm feeling anymore. I watch Brenden grow more and more every day and see his personality progress. I watch him as he learns new things every day and think, Hey! I taught him that. And Aria, I just can't believe how beautiful she is! It's such a different experience with Aria than with Brenden. She eats so much better, she's so much bigger, and she's so voictrous and giggly already. I started doing Zumba again this last week and I love it. It feels so good to dedicate a few hours to myself every week. I've started cooking and baking every day again. After having Aria there was a while where I didn't have the energy to do much of anything, especially cook dinner. Chris and I started to get active in Scentsy again and had our friend, Amanda host our first party in a long time yesterday. It was hugely successful! I was worried about it going in, but it was a lot more successful than I ever imagined it would be.

Brenden: It's wintertime and guess what? That's right, Brenden has caught his first cold. Big surprise right? Not so much. Kids are just bound to get a cold in this cold weather. Brenden loves the snow! Our first snow this weekend Brenden was outside and loved it! Brenden loves to take showers and as the snow was falling down it was like a huge shower to him. The look on his face was pure awe. Lifting his hands up just waiting for the snow to fall on them. I fell in love with snow just watching the expressions in his face. He is growing so fast! I almost can't believe that he'll be 2 years old in a few months. Really, already? Brenden is just so stinking cute. He still isn't using a whole lot of words, but he signs like a champ! He sat and watched his first cartoon movie last week. I'm not a big fan of letting my kiddos sit in front of the tube and watch t.v. so I figured now would be a good time to introduce him to some educational movies along with some fun ones. Maybe once a week. Today I introduced him to some fun educational online computer games that I found on the fisher-price website. There was an ABC game and a peed-a-boo game. They were both fun. I also introduced him to paint, well, I had the most fun with that one. Brenden is just getting smarter and smarter everyday. It is so much fun to see. He understands the things that I ask and tell him and it's so great to experience these things with him. I love to ask him questions and wait to see if he's going to say yes or no. I know this may sound odd, but I love when he says no. It's in no way malicious, I'm not sure if he even knows what he's saying, but it's so cute. Every time that Brenden accidentally drops a book, he says, "oh no". I think its just so darn cute. I laugh. Brenden loves to "help" us. He'll throw things away, like diapers, he knows how to start a load of dishes, (AWESOME!) he rocks his little sister when she's upset, he'll put his finger in her mouth when she cries and she'll suck on it. He likes to help mommy with dinner and to bake. He likes to hold sister. Best of all? He loves to take his baths everyday. Brenden is afraid of balloons, yes. I let one go the other day and it squeaked a little and he let out the saddest cry. And Chris has been doing it every since, so he won't be afraid anymore. Sure, that's why. He's just mean. I love Brenden so much and he is growing up way too fast!

Aria Stats:
Weight: 10 lbs. 14 oz. (50th percentile)
Height: 23 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 39.5 cm (75th percentile)

Aria: She is just growing so fast it's ridiculous  I just can't believe it, not at all. First off Brenden took forever to grow because of well not eating. Being a first time mom I had no idea that he wasn't getting enough nourishment so he was Aria's size now when he was about 4 months old. Aria is only 2 months old and has grown so much! She's not a chubby baby in the least, but sometimes I think she is because she is so much bigger than Brenden was. This is such a different experience than it was with Brenden. I love every minute of it though. She is such my little champ. She eats super well, has excellent strength in her neck, she just started laughing this week, which I have been trying to get on video all week. She's not the little ham that Brenden was. She still won't take a bottle or a pacifier. She's a thumb sucker. She sleeps really well. We try to get her down to sleep around 10:30 and she usually sleeps until about 7:30 in the morning. I will complain in no way about 9 straight hours of sleep every night. Yeah, it would be nice if I could get her down to sleep around 7 in the evening, but that would mean me having to wake up around 5 in the morning, and I would not like that at all. Can I just say that I love having this little girl to dress up in the cutest clothes. Boys are just not as fun to shop for and to dress up. Sure, they've got some cute little suits and such now for little boys, but it's not as fun as the little dresses and all of the pink and purple and the cute bows! I wake up every morning and feed her, change her bum, and go through her clothes getting the cutest out fit and finding a bow to match it. Yes, it does make my day that much better. Now if only I could look that cute every day. We started sleep training a few weeks ago and Aria is doing so well at it! she self soothes so well and I am just one proud mama!

I love my life and I could not ask for a better family to be surrounded by. I look forward to all the adventures we will make in the next few years and all of the years to come. I am so very blessed and in love!

First Time Sleeping Through the Night

Aria slept through the night for the first time on Monday night! It was a glorious 11 hours of sleep! It was so wonderful to be able to get so much uninterrupted sleep! Brenden slept almost that whole time too! It was so wonderful. I am so grateful to have such wonderful sleeping babies. We started Aria's sleep training for her nap today and it went better than expected. Chris and Brenden were out this morning, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity. I out her down after she was done eating and she started to cry and so after a few minutes I went in to check on her. She wasn't very happy. I went in and rubbed her tummy and told her that everything was going to be alright and she was a good girl and that I loved her. She quieted down and was calm, so I told her I was going to leave and come check on her in a few minutes. I left and she started crying again, I waited a few extra minutes and went in and checked on her and followed the same routine. I only had to check on her one more time before she fell asleep. I don't remember it being that easy with Brenden and so I was so happy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 C. Flour

1 T. Sugar

2 t. Baking Powder

1/2 t. Salt

1/2 t. Cinnamon

2 Eggs

1 C. Milk

1/2 C. Pumpkin

2 T. Vegetable Oil

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Ingredient

Ingredients:

Filling

1

package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2

cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1

egg

3

tablespoons sugar

1

teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4

teaspoon ground nutmeg

Brownies

1

box Betty Crocker® Premium Brownies Ultimate Fudge

1/4

cup vegetable oil

2

tablespoons water

1

egg

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 9-inch square pan with shortening or cooking spray. In small bowl, beat all filling ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Set aside.

Make brownie batter as directed on box, using 1/4 cup oil, 2 tablespoons water and the egg. Spread 3/4 of the batter in pan. Spoon filling by tablespoonfuls evenly over batter. Spoon remaining brownie batter over filling. Cut through batter several times with knife for marbled design.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted 1 inch from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely. Cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

General Conference

General Conference was so amazing this weekend. Usually I find myself happy about General Conference when it comes, but this time I found myself preparing the whole week before and just getting so excited about listening to conference, making conference breakfast, enjoying time with friends and family, and just loving every thought of it. Earlier this week I had found some print outs to print out to take notes for Brenden and I. I was just so excited. I got them printed out the night before and Saturday morning came and I sat in front of the television just waiting for conference to start. During afternoon session on Saturday Brenden got to color the nursery packet I had printed out for him. So fun! I hope he really enjoyed conference, in fact, I'm sure he did. 

This morning we had big plans. Part of this plan did not include being up half the night with our children, but that's life and Chris and I have made it through. We have had one of the best days today. I just feel so very blessed to live in an area that broadcasts conference over the local channels so that we can enjoy the time at home together. Chris and I woke up this morning, so tired, and we got started on our delicious breakfast! We had pumpkin pancakes, bacon ends, hash browns, orange juice, and Mike and Melanie joined us and brought over some cantaloupe. It was so yummy!

I took some pictures of our fabulous morning that we so enjoyed, so I hope you can get a sense of our great morning and it'll kind of be like you were here with us!

 Melanie: "Brenden, we will snuggle, and you will like it!" I'm not sure he liked it, but he sure did snuggle.

 Melanie: "Brenden, we will snuggle, and you will fall asleep." Done!

 This is how Aria decided to enjoy conference this morning. Fine by me, I got a lot more out of it that way anyways.

 My dear, dear husband trying to hide that he's playing games during conference.

 Brenden waking up during conference being a silly little cute boy.

 Mom, I want your camera.

 And, you don't know it, but Imma get it.

 Sneak Attack!

 Here I come!

 I'm gonna act all cute now that I'm up here for the camera.

 And I got it!

 Time to snuggle with mom.

 I love this one if you couldn't tell.

 When Chris takes pictures, we get some nasty red eye.

 Chris taking some more pictures. Brenden is such a little ham.

 I say time for crazy faces!

 Chris says its time for crazy faces. Now if we could have only been thinking the same thing at the same time.

 Brenden eating another pumpkin pancake.

 And more..

 We have a cute little family. Aria was sleeping and we didn't want to wake her.

 She really likes her sleep.

 Her car seat canopy set came yesterday and Chris checked the mail today and I set it up between sessions.

Now try to ask me if it's a girl!

Pumpkin Picking

Blogger is being super duper lame and posting all of my photos sideways today, so hopefully some day I can fix it and make this message absolutely unnecessary.

Yesterday we went to "our" U-Pick Red Barn in Idaho Falls. It's only ours because this has been the third year in a row that we went here to get pumpkins. They always have the best selection and prices on pumpkins in the area. We love it here! They had a little train and hay maze that Brenden had fun with. We came home with 4 large pumpkins, 2 smaller ones for the kiddos, and a tiny white one for $25! Awesome, right. 

The best part of the escapade? We were able to go with our friends, Mike and Melanie. We always have such a great time with them and we're lucky to have them live so close. We went with them last year as well and had a blast with them then too! We also stole every single one of these pictures from them. I was silly and forgot our camera at home in all of the excitement. 

And then, after pumpkin picking, we went back to Mike and Mel's for dinner and then to our place for some video games, pictionary, and some yummy pumpkin swirl brownies, I'll post the recipe for that too!!

 Brenden in his monkey leash! I just love it. 

 Mike and their wagon of pumpkins. We must just be getting started because I see no pumpkins. 

 Brenden getting ready to fare the abuse of chickens again.

 Ready....

 These were some hungry chickens.

 Scouting out any food they could find.

 Brenden found his first pumpkin.

 So cute!

 I'm not quite sure this is even a pumpkin, but it sure looks cool.

 Aria and I looking for the "perfect" pumpkin.

 Brenden out with Chris looking for some pumpkins to take home with us. 

 Mike found one to take home. Looks pretty good.

 Still searching for that "perfect" pumpkin.

 Earlier this week, someone had set fire to the straw maze that the owners of the patch had set up. This was going to be their first year doing a straw maze. It was so sad. I hope they catch the guys. What fun suckers!

 The fire started on Tuesday night and burned a few days, and is still smoldering and smoking.

 This is their second field of pumpkins. This one usually has a better selection because you have to find them yourselves. 

 I'm not going to say it, but yes, I did marry this.

 Now that's a large pumpkin.

 And here I am....still looking for that "perfect" pumpkin. Maybe it doesn't exist. 

 Brenden before he falls out.

 Take one: Where Melanie cuts her husbands head off.

 Take two: Now that's a keeper!

 Brenden shortly after he falls out of the wagon.

 And....he's back on the wagon.

 I have such a handsome little guy.

 Heading back after finding all of our pumpkins.

 Time to head into the barn and pay for our lot.

 Mike trying to catch a turkey!

 And the only bird he could catch.

 Time for some family photos.

 Mike and Melanie.

 Chris catching the best face just at the right time. Haha.

 Brenden playing in the pumpkins.

 My little cutie.

 Our cute little family.

 And....Again.

 And...Again.

 Brenden playing patty cake on a painted pumpkin.

  The boys playing in the straw.

 Chris and Brenden! I love this one!

And a random camel...at the zoo.