Monday, April 23, 2012

Easter

Since I have started using the iPhone app, Instagram, my blogging has been slacking. It is so easy to just snap a picture and photo document life on a daily basis from my phone. So, anyone who reads this blog, wants to know more about our lives, and has an iPhone start following me on Instagram!

We celebrated Easter by ourselves this year. It was quiet and relaxing, which is nice in its own way. The kids looked so cute in their Easter church clothes. The Easter bunny didn’t come until after naptime since our church was 9 am this year. Then we had a small egg hunt mostly for Braxton since he is really into it. Our Easter dinner was grilled steaks and asparagus with garlic mashed potatoes. It was delicious! Here are some of our favorite pics:






Wednesday, April 4, 2012

St. George Getaway

March went by so fast! We played out front in the yard and did everyday chores and errands, but nothing really exciting until the last week when I took the kids and headed down to St. George to spend a week with my parents. We had so much fun and were sad to come home. Here are some of the things we did:

Golfing in the yard
 Going to the Washington Rec Center
 Chilling in the swing with Grandma

Hot tubbing with Grandpa

Briella sitting? Crazy
 Grandpa & Grandma with all the grandkids
 Early Easter egg hunt with cousins

The kids were too excited to look up from their loot for a picture
 Lucky photo accident—look at that face!
General Conference weekend was amazingand it was nice to be home with Brian. On Sunday, we drove up to Lewiston, UT to Brian’s sister’s home for their ‘gender reveal’ party. It was so good to spend some time with Brian’s family.

The cake was blue!
 Braxton is excited to have a boy cousin

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sick of Being Sick

It seems like I say this every winter, but this year has been an especially yucky start to the New Year. In the last 6 weeks, I alone have had two week-long head colds and 2 cases of the flu. I can’t seem to be healthy for longer than a few days before I come down with something else. Luckily, the rest of the family has mostly been spared. So, needless to say, we have pretty much been hibernating at the house for weeks and haven’t done anything blog worthy. We didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day, but Brian surprised me with an iPhone. I was scared of it for a few days because compared with my simple call/text phone, this technology was a little intimidating. But, I am LOVING it now and feel very spoiled.

Brian has started his busy season and is rarely home except on weekends, but this has been the best busy season for me yet. The first year was really hard to adjust to him being gone so much and then last year I was newly pregnant and nauseated all the time with a crazy toddler. This year seems easy despite the fact that I’ve been sick so much. I don’t know if it is because I’m getting more used to Brian being gone, if the kids are just at really good stages right now, or if it is the client Brian is working on this year. He has been working on a company in Provo. So, when he does get to come home it is 10 minutes before he is home instead of commuting 45 minutes to an hour from Salt Lake and it seems like he is home earlier (like 10-11 pm instead of 1-2 am).

I registered Braxton for pre-school and he will start in the fall. I am really excited about him going and he tells me all the time that he wants to go to school. He is so smart and still surprises me every day with new insights and words I didn’t think he knew. His new way to ask for something is to say, “I surely want some candy mommy. I surely do.” It cracks me up. He is going through a monster phase. His favorite movies are Monsters Inc , Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs Aliens, and he wants to watch them every day. But he wakes up during the night a few times a week and wants to crawl in bed with us because there are monsters in his room. Hopefully, this phase will pass soon. The next milestone is to get him potty trained before school starts. I think he’d do it if we really went for it, but between my constant sickness and Brian working all the time, we haven’t had the energy to start.

At the end of January, Briella turned 6 months old. I can’t believe my baby is growing up so fast. She gobbles up baby food. Sweet potatoes are her favorite—I can’t get them in her mouth fast enough. She is finally starting to look like a chubby baby even though she is still only in the 40% for weight.  She just got her two bottom teeth this week—2 months before Braxton got them. None of us have been sleeping well for the last week or so because of this, but other than that she is so happy and laid back during the day you can’t really tell she’s in pain. She has really taken to her daddy this month too. Whenever he is home, she can’t take her eyes off of him.


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Ringing in the New Year

Brian’s mom was here, and we had her babysit so we could ring in the New Year with our friends.  We had good food and lots of laughs as we played the Newlywed game and got to know our neighbors a whole LOT better.  Ha ha.  Thanks for the good times Merrills!



Monday, January 9, 2012

Three Christmases: Part 3

We got home just in time for New Years Eve.  Brian’s mom came down to have a belated Christmas with us.  The kids were totally spoiled, again. Briella got this game where the balls jump out.  Braxton was helping her play with it and she was giggling.  So cute!


Three Christmases: Part 2

Later that week we drove to St. George to spend Christmas with my family. It was so fun to have all of us there at the same time. It was crazy of course, but we loved it. Braxton played so well with his cousins and followed Sienna everywhere.

On Christmas Eve, we watched Christmas shows in the theater, some spiritual, some fun. The kids entertained us with dancing to Christmas songs and we wore our Christmas pjs.


Christmas morning we went to church, had a brunch, and then opened presents before naptime.  The kids wore their fancy clothes and looked SO cute!


Briella slept through our present opening, so she opened hers later when she woke up.

After Christmas, we spent the week having fun at my parent’s new house, going for walks outside, and swimming at the Washington City rec center.



Briella also had her first solid food while we were in St. George and she LOVED it.  She gobbles it up every night since we started it.

Three Christmases: Part 1

Christmas lasted the whole month long for our family.  We had a ‘Christmas morning’ at our house a week before the actual day, Christmas Day was spent down in St. George, and then Brian’s mom came down to our house for New Year’s Eve it was Christmas for us a third time.  We were so spoiled!  Here are some pictures of our pre-Christmas:



Braxton was so good this year.  He tore into the presents and helped Briella open all of hers as well.  He was so sweet with her and tried to help teach her how to play with her toys.