Update on Life

 - We blessed Brenner on Sunday and it was such a nice day spent with family!  Steve gave a really nice blessing!  Afterwards, everyone came back to our house for a bbq filled with yummy food and fun conversation.  I love these pictures of my parents with my kids and with all of their Utah grandkids :)

 

 - All of these cute babies are going to be best friends, they are all within 9 months of each other!  They all woke up from naps at the same time and were all eating and we thought it would be fun to get this picture of all 4 of them.  Kate is certainly outnumbered by the boys :)

 - Hadley is still recovering from an extremely late night on Fourth of July and then a weekend of nonstop family stuff!  She is really into drawing and coloring recently (and still obsessed with reading books all day!).  Her newest things to sketch- family pictures!!  I love how we are all covered with hair and I (on the far right) have a rather large nose!

 

 

 

- Hadley continues to do pretty well with Brenner.  But the poor boy just has to deal with her trying to play with/on/by him all the time!

 

- I love that my kids are such great sleepers!  Brenner is on such a good sleep schedule right now... Naps from 9-11 and 1-4 and then he eats at 7:30 and goes down and has been sleeping until around 6:45 or 7 each morning!  He is also growing like a weed!  At not even 2 months, he no longer fits in about ninety percent of his 0-3 month clothes because he is sooooo tall!  He also has bad cradle cap (ugh, ugh, ugh!!) and it's hard to put the lotion on with all that hair!  So he currently always looks a bit greasy up there.  He smiles ALL the time- lots of times at nothing :)  We certainly love this little boy!

 



- I am keeping myself busy with 2 kids, scout stuff, house stuff, and everything else!  But I have to admit that I have a pretty good life- not much to complain about!  I am still tutoring just one evening a week for a first grader in Springville, but I can only see that going through the rest of the summer.  I've been spending more time reading and have found some super good series.  I also have been getting up earlier each day and I love the extra time to get stuff done (plus I love to walk when it's cooler than 90 degrees outside).

 

- Steve continues to stay busy at Doba and finishing up school (finally!! yay!!).  He loves his new calling of Stake Sunday school presidency although it keeps him away from us more on Sundays.  Hadley is connected to Steve at the hip when possible- she is definitely a daddy's girl.  I think she thinks, "Brenner has mom, so dad is MINE!!"  That makes things tough sometimes :)

 

We are off to Colorado tomorrow and are excited to have Steve's full attention and more time with family!

Hadley's "School"

 Each day we spend about 30 minutes or so doing fun educational activities and games- we practice letters and numbers, and just make things fun!  I wanted to record some of the things we've done in the last couple of weeks (Tor this is also for you!! :)).

 

Let's start with a picture of this pretty girl...

 

 

We braved the 90 degree weather (at 10 in the morning no less!) to practice recognizing our numbers playing hopscotch.  Hadley didn't really get the concept of hopping from number to number, she just ran around counting and naming them!

 

 

I took a book that I had several copies of (from teaching) and we looked through the pages and found different letters.  I would ask her to find a letter and she would circle it and she would point out a letter and then look through the whole page to find all of them.

 



 This was a favorite!  I put the alphabet up and down the stairs and then we just played lots of games with it.  Racing to different letters as fast as we could, singing the alphabet while we climbed the stairs, picking a letter and writing it to see if it looked the same, etc.  Two weeks later and the letters are still up!

 

 We do a couple pages in her preschool book each day...

We come up with fun ways to write our letters.  With the pudding (we also do jello powder) if she writes it correctly she gets to lick her finger.  Yes, not super clean or sanitary but we wash our hands before so hey, oh well!



 

Letters in salt!

 We made name caterpillars for everyone in our family.  She traced some of the letters for each one!  She loved this one too!

 

We are having so much fun doing these things, but it has made me realize one thing... I could NEVER homeschool her :)  Love her to pieces, but no!



Life With Two!

Sometimes it's still crazy to think that I have two kids :)  But life couldn't be better right now!!  I'm not saying things are perfect and that we don't have our fair share of rough days but I'm happy with how things are!  Both my babies are adorable and pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself!

 

Before Brenner was born I was really worried about Hadley would handle it.  She had almost 3 1/2 years to herself, as the queen bee of the house and life was about to be turned upside down for her.  But to my great surprise, she has done SOOOO well!!  She is very helpful, loves her little brother, and hasn't really had too many behavior problems.  I try my hardest to spend as much one on one time with her during Brenner's morning nap and the first part of his afternoon (before she naps) as I can.  I really think this helps!  One of the benefits of Brenner being around is that Hadley has really learned to play by herself really well!  Of course, we still play together a lot but this is way nice!

 

 Don't you know that all 3 year olds need to teach their 4 week old brothers the alphabet!

 

 And he must be present during any movie time :)

 And this is what it looks like when dad is in charge!!

 

Since I am such a schedule Nazi, we have been sticking around home a lot during the week.  But it is fun to get out!  Like fun visits to the park with dad or cousins!!

 Typical scene- Hadley plays, Brenner sleeps!

 The transition from one to two has been pretty smooth- so grateful for that!  These two kids couldn't be more different!  To be blunt, Hadley was a better baby (no offense to Brenner, but Hadley was a better day sleeper) and but has been a kind of hard toddler.  So maybe Brenner will be an easier toddler!

 

Hopefully things continue to be good!

Hadley at 3 and then some...

Hadley is such spunky, independent and smart little girl!!  WAY too smart for her own good in my opinion :)  But I am loving this time of her life and wanted to record some things about her!

 

Awhile back I did a little interview with her and here are her responses:

 

What is your favorite food?  pancakes

What is your favorite book?  Llama Llama Misses Mama

Who is your best friend?  Livi

What is your favorite movie?  Tangled

What is your favorite thing to do with dad?  Play Save Me (which is really just playing in the couch cushions all over the room)

What is your favorite thing to do with mom?  read books

What is your favorite game?  Hungry Hungry Hippos

What is your favorite color?  pink

What is your favorite animal?  horse

What is your favorite show?  Curious George

What is your favorite song?  the temple one

What is your favorite number?  10 (don't know where that one came from!)

 

 

She really is the best little girl and has been soooo helpful with Brenner.  We went through a rough couple months before Brenner was born but since she has been so good! 

 

She loves to do daddy/daughter and mommy/daughter dates!  She is always up for anything, is always so excited, and makes such a big deal out of it!  She really is fun to spend time with and just talk and talk with :)

During Brenner's morning nap each day we do 'school' where we practice writing and learning letters, numbers, sounds, do art projects and other educational things.  She thinks it's so cool and always asks me, "What are we going to do in school today Mom?"

 

She is still such a good little sleeper!  She doesn't nap everyday (maybe 4-5 times a week) but she would if I asked her to.  Some days she just does a quiet time in her room, where she just plays and eats snacks for 1 1/2 hours.  It is nice for her to have that alone time and it has really helped her learn to play more independently!

 



Hadley is DEFINITELY a daddy's girl and she absolutely loves her grandma and papa!

 

She also is such a water bug!  My parents recently bought a condo in downtown Salt Lake and it has a pool.  She asks daily to go swimming and when we do she will swim all over the pool by herself with her little wings- she has no fear of water!!

 

I had lots of people warn me that 3 is the hardest age.  I was also super worried about how she would be with Brenner coming when she was 3.  But aside from those couple months she has been so good and I wouldn't change a thing about her!!

 

Hadley is always saying such funny things:

 

When I asked her if she wanted me or dad to read her bedtime story she said, "Not you mom, you are not a genius!"

 

I did something she didn't like and she said, "Mom, I am not impressed by that!"

 

She always will interrupt anyone during a prayer and remind them to say, "We are thankful for President Monston."

 

She says, "Honestly Brenner, you have got to be kidding me!  You are hungry again?!"

 

One morning she woke up and said, "I had great dreams about Cindy and Kim last night."  My parents who we should call grandma and papa!

 

I love my little girl and am so glad she is all MINE!

Baby Brenner

Well, this post is a long time coming seeing as Brenner is almost 4 weeks old.  But better late than never!!

 

Brenner Steven was born on Mother's Day, May 12, at 6:14 pm.  He weighed 7 lb. 6 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.  We love him to pieces and couldn't imagine our family without him!!

 

I'll do a short version of the birth story for those of you interested... :)

 

I had been having some real contractions on and off from about 4:30 to 9:00 that morning.  Nothing too painful or regular and then they stopped.  I was scheduled to be induced the next afternoon and just figured that these contractions would help things move along for the next day.  I wasn't really up to going to church and wanted to get things ready for the next day so Steve took Hadley and I stayed home.  After they got home my contractions started again about 3:00 that afternoon.  The three of us hung out watching the Spurs-Golden State game and I started timing my contractions.  They were getting fairly (ok, for me, really painful) but were only like 6-7 minutes apart.  At about 4:30 I called the hospital and they said I need to wait until they were 3 minutes apart.  Well, I told Steve there was no way I could make it that long so we decided to take Hadley to Becca's and head up there hoping they would be closer together by the time we got there.  So after dropping Hadley off and driving up to Provo, we ended up checking in about 5:10 or so.  When they checked me at about 5:20, the nurse was like, "Umm, yea you are at nearly an 8!"  They rushed the anesthesiologist (sp?) in and I got my epidural just in time... thank goodness!!  My doctor arrived a little while after that, my water broke, I pushed and Brenner was born!!  It all was super fast and I LOVED that!!

 

 Since Brenner was born things have been going really well (surprisingly!!).  Hadley has done so well and adjusted much better than expected.  Surprise, surprise- she cannot/will not leave him alone most of the time.  I know she usually means well, but... we are working on it :)

 At his two week appointment he weighed 8 lb. 3 oz. and the doctor said he looked great!!  He is such a sweet and calm little baby- except when hungry, this kid can eat!  He's been a good sleeper from the start.  He has only ever woken up once at night and currently sleeps from about 8:30 - 3 and then I wake him up at 7:30.  He also naps from 9-11ish and 12:45-3:30 and then usually two short evening naps.

 

We definitely love this little man and can't wait to see him and grow and his personality develop!