He's a Big Boy Now

Braxton is such a big boy! He officially spent his first night out of the crib and in his new bedroom. It went better than we expected. He was dead silent just looking around for a bit, then slowly and calmly said ‘mama . . . daddy . . . scared’. It was so sweet and genuine, we of course went in and told him we loved him and there was nothing to be scared of. After that, he quietly rolled around and kicked his legs for 30 minutes before he gave up and fell asleep. No crying, no climbing off the bed, no fight—fabulous!

Today for naptime it took him almost an hour to fall asleep with repeated attempts to soothe and keep him lying down, but again no crying, no fighting, and no getting off the bed. I am sure once the novelty of the new bedroom has worn off, the crying and fighting will begin and then will come the hard part. So far, all is wonderful! Here are some pictures from this morning of him actually modeling for the camera on his new bed.

Our Last Snow Adventure of the Season—hopefully!

So, it has been a while since I posted. I feel like we haven’t done anything worth blogging about. It has been a cold couple of months with the occasional spring day and we’ve spent it mostly in the house. I honestly haven’t even taken a picture of my little boy since Christmas! That is how boring we are.

Brian has been working a lot with his busy season in full swing, even working on weekends as well. In his sparse spare time, he has built a shelf along one wall of our garage so we have a place to store more stuff. As happy as I am for the extra storage, I think Brian was happier to have a way to relax and use his tools.

I have felt very tired and sluggish with this pregnancy. I didn’t realize how yucky I was feeling until one day I started feeling better and then a light went on—oh yeah, I did feel sick! I am feeling better as the weather improves, but I am still extremely tired and fall asleep almost every time I sit down. I am also still pushing myself hard on our treadmill because we’ve decided to take Braxton to Disneyland in May and I need to keep my energy up.

Braxton is talking so much more now and it is so fun to have him answer questions and let us know what he wants. He has started paying attention to the TV and movies, which occasionally gives me a nice break. His favorite shows are Finding Nemo (or MO), Beauty and the Beast, Monsters Inc, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street, and Chuggington (or Choo Choo). Above all, he loves to be outside and can’t wait until the weather is nice enough to go out every day.

On Friday, Brian’s work hosted a sledding night up at Soldier Hollow in Midway. The boys had so much fun sledding and eating pizza in the lodge. Here are some pictures from what is hopefully our last snow adventure of the season!

Taking Life with the Good and the Bad

Two big things are going on in our life right now-one good, one bad. First, the good. We are announcing the arrival of BABY #2 sometime in late July or early August. We are excited for our new one to make his/her entrance into the world, but more importantly it will be good for Braxton to have a brother or sister to play with. I am feeling pretty good actually and my worst sickness is in the middle of the night—weird, I know. We are grateful for this though, since Brian has started into his busy season and works until 11 pm or later every night and I have become a virtual single-parent during the week.

On to the bad things of life. We found out last Wednesday that my mom has a tumor on her small intestine. The doctors did surgery on Wednesday evening with hopes of removing it, but were unable to do so without taking out most of her intestine. What would have been left to work with wasn’t enough for her to live very long. They also were able to tell that it was cancer and it had spread a little. We were very shocked and scared for her, but the following days have given us a lot of hope for her recovery. She has Stage 2, Grade 2 Follicular Lymphoma. It can be successfully treated with chemo; however, it is not curable and may come back at anytime for the rest of her life. The doctors wanted to start chemo immediately, so I rushed down to St. George this weekend to spend a few hours with her before that started. The hardest part for me right now is that because I’m pregnant, I can’t be near her during chemo, which will last about 18 weeks. I’m so glad I went down, even for the few hours I got to spend with her, because it just reassured me how tough my mom is and I know she will fight this with all she has. So far, she has reacted to the chemo really well, with only a bit of nausea, and is recovering from her surgery well. Hopefully, she will be able to go home from the hospital this week where she can feel more comfortable for the remainder of her recovery. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on behalf of my mom.

Holidays

Here’s a brief post on the holidays. For Thanksgiving we went down to St. George with my family. We had a wonderful time with good food and lots of family. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures except on Thanksgiving morning we went up in the red rock and took family pictures for Christmas cards. Here are a few of the best ones:


Foster Family

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids

Clint, Amber, Sienna and Savona

Jessica and her boyfriend Brian

For Christmas we went to Idaho. Since we didn’t want to haul our presents for Braxton back and forth, we talked to Santa and he let us have ‘Christmas morning’ a little early this year—about 2 ½ weeks early! Braxton knew how to open presents pretty good this year, but he got distracted so easily that we opened presents for three days progressively. Then, actual Christmas morning we spent with Grandma and Grandpa Foster and the afternoon was spent with Grandma Coombs and Brian’s family.

Seeing our tree up for the first time—priceless!

The spread

He loves his kitchen

First time on Santa’s lap at our Ward Breakfast-oh dear!

New favorite toy

New Christmas Hairdo

First remote control car—thanks Uncle Brad! Deep concentration requires the tongue sticking out!

I love Christmas

Catching Up

Finally a new post, right? Aren’t we all sick of seeing the swimsuit pics? This has been a crazy fall for our family. Here are a few updates!

Brian took his last CPA test on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. He passed the first three with scores in the 90s and is pretty sure he did the same on this last one. Hurray! Just two more small non-stressful exams and he will officially be a CPA! I am so proud of him. Since he started studying in April, it has been really hard for all of us—especially Brian. He works all day and studies all night and weekends only seeing us for an hour or two. We are so glad that it is over and we can actually spend time together again. Brian has also done some traveling this fall—two weeks in Denver and two weeks in New Orleans. He got to see some crazy things in New Orleans since he was there over Halloween, but overall he was not impressed with the city and said he wouldn’t ever care to go there for vacation.

I’ve just been doing the mom thing—housework, play dates with friends, grocery shopping, etc. Braxton and I did go to Idaho a few times for a baby blessing and for Halloween. I am now a nursery leader in our ward, so it looks like I’ll be in nursery with Braxton for a while. I have expanded my summer stroller walking to walking/jogging on our new treadmill. We’ve had it for a little over a month and I don’t think I could ever go without it again. It feels so good to get your heart working hard and get in better shape. Also, I have started attending the cooking classes at Williams Sonoma and am expanding my cooking skills and recipes.

Braxton is getting so tall and takes life at a dead run. At his 18 month appointment, the doctor said he looked like a body builder. He is pure muscle and likes to lift up his shirt and show off his belly button. He is starting to actually talk now instead of just random words. My favorite phrases are ‘I do’, ‘Right there’, and ‘What is that?’. He also has a cheesy smile that melts your heart.

Braxton is such a good eater most of the time. He lets me know when he is hungry by grabbing my hand and dragging me to the pantry or to get a plate and fork and whine to get in his high chair. His favorite foods are sweet potatoes, squash, chicken nuggets, pizza, beans & rice, pasta, PB & Js, scrambled eggs, pretzels, frosted mini-wheat cereal, and apples. He also loves fruit smoothies. Just like his dad, he doesn’t get head freezes so he chugs smoothies if I don’t watch him too carefully.

He is as curious as a little boy can get. He is into everything all day long. He empties every drawer and cupboard in the room and tries to figure out what everything does. We’ve had to put baby locks on pretty much everything in the house since we had to call poison control three times in October—twice in one day! Luckily, with the curiosity comes this beautiful desire to help. He loves to clean up his toys, take things to the garbage or the sink, help dad with his construction projects, and organize his toys. We think he may have a touch of OCD just like both his mom and dad. He knows where everything goes and all I have to say is ‘put that back’ and he knows right where it came from. Every day, I am amazed at how smart is and how fast he learns. Here are some pictures from the last few months:

Hangin’ out at Grandma’s farm


Slick is the friendliest cow you’ll ever meet. He runs to meet you and could hurt you just trying to get petted since he weighs nearly 3000 pounds! Don’t worry, Grandma’s not too far away.


He’s as tall as Grandma

Braxton was a basketball player for Halloween

Trick or Treating with his cousin Sienna. Braxton would constantly knock on the door until someone answered, then picked up one treat and run back down the stairs. He figured this process out pretty quickly.


He LOVES to help

Belly Button

Summer of the Swimsuit

So, you may be wondering if we have done anything this summer besides go back and forth from Idaho and St. George. The answer to that is yes; however, the everyday activities are not usually picture worthy.

We joined a walking group and go for a ‘stroller parade’ walk a few mornings a week. Surprisingly, Braxton actually likes going and I have started walking every morning. We also play out on the grass with neighbors a lot in the evenings.

But, the best thing we did this summer is buy a season pass to Seven Peaks Waterpark. My friends Aubrey (and her daughter Kennedy) and Geneve (and her son Brooks) also got them. Sometimes we go three times a week in the mornings before the kid’s naps. Seven Peaks and good friends have made this summer one of the most awesome summers of my life. We are incredibly brown and so sad that next week is the last week the park is open. It was amazing to spend so much fun quality one-on-one time with Braxton. He may not remember this summer in the years to come, but I definitely will. Finally, after a whole summer of swimming, Aubrey thought to bring a camera so we could document this summer with a few pictures. Here are my favorites:

Braxton LOVES the big boy slides (Don’t worry—Brian was holding him. He’s just under the water.)

He loves the little slides too

Braxton and his daddy

He loves to splash

Braxton’s favorite wheel

Riding the Gator with his beautiful friend Kennedy

Braxton and Kennedy on their favorite slide in the park. They seriously could go down this slide all day.

Family Reunion in Idaho

In July we made the trek to Idaho again for the Merkley family reunion. We had a nice little picnic at Tautphaus Park. It was so good to see my grandparents and a few cousins. We went to the little amusement park and the zoo. Here are some pictures:

Braxton’s First Merry-Go-Round

At the Zoo

Didn’t everybody play like this in a flooded yard at one time in their childhood? Well, now Braxton has too.