We Will Miss You Grandpa!

After a long battle with Alzheimer ’s disease, my Grandpa Foster passed away on January 10th. Braxton and I spent the week in Idaho for his funeral. Unfortunately, Brian was unable to come because it was his first week in the office at his new job. The funeral was so nice and grandpa looked so good—more peaceful , happy, and more himself than I had seen in years. I will miss him so much, and I am so grateful for everything he has done for me. Although we will miss him, we are so grateful that he is no longer trapped inside his deteriorating body on this earth and he can now be himself—working harder than anybody on the other side. Love you Grandpa!

All I Want For Christmas Is . . .

MY TWO FRONT TEETH

The week before Christmas Braxton was acting very irritated and would wake up during the night crying, so we had a pretty good idea that they were coming. Sure enough, he woke up at 5 am on Christmas morning with his two bottom teeth poking through his gums. Exciting? Sure, but more exhausting for all of us then I thought teething would be. Here’s a more recent picture of the teeth, since at the time he wouldn’t let us touch his mouth for a picture.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned . . . the teeth came in while we were in MEXICO! Yes, I have such wonderful parents that took us all to Riviera Maya/Cancun for Christmas! We spent the week at a beautiful resort hanging out by the beach and pool, eating tons of food, and exploring Mayan ruins. Here is a picture overload from our trip. Enjoy!

My parents watched the babies while the adult kids spent a day touring Mayan ruins. We had the most amazing LDS tour guide ironically named Lemuel. It was really special to read the scriptures about highways that sunk into the earth during the destruction before Christ came while we were standing on a highway with a huge sinkhole. There really aren’t words to describe how testimony building this day was for me. Here’s Brian at the main temple at Chichen Itza.

Just a few months ago they started digging around the temple at Chichen Itza and found another layer of the temple under the ground that dates back to before Christ. So cool that we got to see it!

We went swimming in this gorgeous cenote

We also visited Ek Balam ruins and it was amazing. The statues in the temple are actually ‘acting’ out the symbols of the endowment. This ruin hasn’t been restored very much and has only been open to the public for a few years, but that only made it more special.

My boys at the pool

On Christmas Eve the whole family including the kids went to Tulum. It was SO hot that day. Braxton overheated and was downright miserable, but it was so good to see this amazing ruin again.

After Tulum, the boys (my dad, my brother Clint, and Brian) went snorkeling in another cenote that had crazy elaborate caves. Brian wants to go back and scuba to the ocean through the caves. Sounds scary to me.

My boys in the hammock

Braxton loved the ocean except when it splashed in his face

Even though Braxton didn’t really know what Christmas was, he still opened some presents and really liked ripping the paper. He also got some pretty special antique presents from the Lulloff side including a 50+ year old bouncing horse and a 100 year old rocking chair. He already loves them!

Where does the time go?

I can’t believe it’s already December. Geez, I really fell off the blogging world didn’t I? Here are a few of the things we’ve been up to in the last 3 months. Sorry for the long post! I will try to post more often!

We went to Idaho over Labor Day and went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Braxton loved the sheep the best. He also had his first bit of baby food—he didn’t think it was too bad.

A few weeks later we went to Idaho again for Brad’s graduation from the ISU Law Enforcement program. Congrats Brad! (He’s the 2nd one from the right in the pic)

Braxton loves Grandma Coombs house because she has all kinds of animals. His favorites are the chickens and dogs.

He also got to hang with his cousin Sienna.

In October, we graduated to the big tub. He loves taking baths! PS The washcloth is less about modesty and more about not getting peed on!

Grandpa Lulloff came to stay with us for a few days and bought Braxton the cutest rocking horse. He loves it!

Then, we went to Fielding, UT for Brian’s grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary party. I really hope Brian and I can have one of these. It was so nice to see how many people know and love his grandparents!

For Halloween, Braxton was a giraffe and a spider. His aunt Brandi got him the cutest spider costume, but for some reason he didn’t like it at all. So, we found the giraffe costume for $5 two days before—score. It was pretty much like pajamas, so he tolerated it for our branch party.

Finally, in November we had family pictures taken with my side of the family and our own family picture for a Christmas card. The pictures are forthcoming and will be posted later. Then, we hosted Thanksgiving for Brian’s family this year. It was fun to have it at our house and to actually be home for Thanksgiving instead of traveling, which we have been doing for the last 8 years.

Whew! That was a long one.

Our Break from Normal Life

Brian’s semester ended and we had 2 ½ weeks before fall semester started so we took the opportunity to have some fun. First, we took Braxton for his first trip to Cabela’s. Brian thought it would be funny to offer up our son to the polar bear.



He loved everything and was so exhausted from whipping his head back and forth to see everything that he fell asleep the moment we got to the second floor!


Then, we took Braxton to his 4 month appointment. The stats are:

Weight: 15.85 lbs (72.83%)
Height: 25.5 in (74.42%)
Head Size: 16 in (13.86%)

So, 73% for weight sounds chubby, but I still don’t think he looks that chubby. He’s just solid and has really strong and developed muscles for his age.

For the weekend, my parents came down to babysit Braxton while Bri and I went camping in Logan Canyon with Brian’s family. We were going to take Brax with us, but in the end I am glad he stayed at home because we couldn’t have done some of the things we did—like an 80+ mile four-wheeler ride that was awesome. It was my first night away from him and it was a little easier than I thought it would be. I only cried for the first five minutes of the drive and called home to check on him two or three times. We had a great time with Brian’s family eating moose burgers (my first taste of moose was surprisingly amazing—so tender, which was unexpected), riding four-wheelers, and going to the beach at Bear Lake. We definitely need to do it again.

The day after we got back from camping we headed down to St. George with my family for some golf and shopping. We also went to Aida at the Tuacahn outdoor theatre and it was fantastic!!! Last year I was surprised at how professional The Sound of Music was and again I couldn’t believe they found such talented singers for the parts. Some of the dancing and acting was less than Broadway standards, but the red rock desert was a gorgeous setting for this play. They even had horses, a camel, a pig, goats, chickens, fireworks, and a huge waterfall coming down from the hillside that flooded the stage for the ‘Dance of the Robe’ number. It was truly awesome. Also, Thayne from So You Think You Can Dance was in it. He was a backup dancer and singer, but he is the lead in Footloose which plays the other nights that Aida is not running. I would highly recommend going to see either! I am totally going back next year for Cats and Tarzan the Musical.



To end our break from normal life, we went boating with the Mann’s and Bleak’s and Brian finally got up on the wake board for a good amount of time. Braxton loves boating!

Living Life in Repeating Patterns

So, it has been a while since my last post, but really we haven’t been up to much. Basically, we get up, eat, play, sleep, play, eat . . . go to bed. Each day feels very much like the day before with few changes. I will be excited when Braxton is old enough to play on toys and maybe we would go to the park or something instead of sticking around home. I know I need to get out more, but really what should I do? Going to the mall only leads to spending money. I don’t have that many errands, so I would be just going out to go out and anyone who knows me knows that I hate doing that. I hate wandering stores just wander. I usually have a purpose and a list and am in and out as soon as I find what I need.

Anyway, here’s an update on Braxton. He is getting so much bigger—probably close to 14 lbs. He still doesn’t look like a chubby baby, but he is really solid. Every day he loves his toys a little bit more. He loves to stand on anything, smile and pull faces at me with occasional giggles, and tons of jabber. He likes to tell me what he thinks of everything—good and bad. However, every time I try to capture these moments on camera, he gets shy and just stares at this big thing in front of mommy’s face. It also doesn’t help that my camera has a 5 second delay time between the button and the picture, so I miss everything. He drools a ton and has a permanent bib on because every time we take it off, the front of his shirt gets soaked. I don’t think he is teething already, but maybe. Another new development is that he is starting to sleep 12 hours at night without waking up at all—sweet! Despite being an excellent sleeper at night, he is still struggling with naptime during the day—oh well, we can’t have everything. Here are some pictures:



As for me and Bri, Bri is getting close to finals for the summer and gets two weeks off! We are looking forward to going camping with Bri’s family and to St. George with mine to see Aida at the Tuachan Theater. Both should be HOT activities for August, especially St. George. As for my first month being officially unemployed, I am happy to say that I think I made the right decision to stay at home. I like things better every day and it is getting somewhat easier. I still miss work a lot, but it is the people I miss the most.

4th of July and Beyond

For the 4th, my cousin Amy and her fam came over for some pool time and a BBQ. It was Braxton’s first time in the pool and he loved it!

Braxton decided this week that he doesn't like his crib so naptime is a nightmare. But, I am not giving in--he will take his naps in the crib! It is just hard to hear him cry and have to go check on him and reassure him all the time. Hopefully he will catch on that he is there whether he cries or not and chooses to spend that time wisely. For now, he just cries and is really tired and grumpy for most of the afternoon. On the bright side, he is starting to smile big and he is really getting the Bumbo thing down.

We went to my last work summer party the other night at Seven Peaks Water Park and had a lot of fun. For some reason we didn’t take any pictures, but it was good to see some of my coworkers again. There are a few that are good friends that I know I’ll see and still talk to, but it is sad to think that that part of my life is over for now. Tuesday was my official last day and I am no longer employed at XanGo—yes, I actually cried. I have loved the job and I already miss the day to day and all my friends there.

The other night we went boating/wakeboarding with our neighbors and had so much fun. Brian actually got up for a few seconds (better than this picture—I put my camera away thinking he wasn’t getting up again. He actually fell because he was yelling at me to take a picture—oops). Braxton loved the boat and the rocking put him to sleep. Here are some pics: