Blessing Day...

Tessa was blessed on October 10th, 2010 in the Elwood first ward by her Great Grandpa Jimmy. She shared her special day with her cousin Elliot Nicholas who was also blessed in the Elwood first ward but by his Great Uncle Jon. It was a very special day. I didn't get very many pictures due to the high stress/anxiety with everyone there but we do appreciate all of you who were able to be there and those of you who sent your love even though you couldn't be there.

The best family picture that we got that day.

Isn't she a sweetie!

My princess in the blessing dress

Tessa and her Great Grandpa James

January Catch Up...

SO I have been one slacker of a blogger lately and decided I need to start catching up, so here is a little bit about what all happened in January.

Most of you know we announced that we are having another baby that is due in August. It was so exciting but scary to find out we were pregnant. I had a miscarriage this last year and I was so scared that it was going to happen again. The more nauseated I was the more sure I was that this baby was for real. I think after having had the miscarriage I was still really nervous until we were able to go to the doctor and find out that everything really was ok. We have decided to go down to Ogden to Dr. Housel and we will most likely be delivering at McKay Dee. I love his office but the wait times could become a problem. It was so cool to have an ultrasound done on our first visit and to be able to hear the babies heart beat (168 bpm). His office even gives you a DVD that you take each visit and they put the ultrasounds on it! Cool, huh?

I started a new shift at work this month. I'm still working 12 hour shifts but instead of being gone until midnight each night, I leave work at 9pm. It's been good to be able to get to bed a little bit earlier but Brooklyn is still having a hard time adjusting. She wants to wait up for her daddy (which has been anywhere from midnight to 3am, 7 days a week!) and then she wants to sleep in until noon. Oh well I guess, at least for now. I love watching her sleep, especially when she has crazy hair and is drooling everywhere :O)

Brooklyn has also started to love dressing up. That's the first thing she wants to do when she gets up and says, "mom can I get all dressed up?" It's so cute. She has particularly enjoyed her tutu that she got from her Aunt Jamie for her birthday, and weirdly her bike helmet! At least she is being safe?

Up until recently Brooklyn has been such a good eater. She would try anything at any time. This month it seems as if she has started to pick and choose what she thinks looks good. She will still eat any kind of pasta (sans the sauce). She loves fruit, except pears, "mommy I don't want pears, I want apple." She has also become quite fond of oreos, but mostly just the insides.

Well she has been saying this for a while but I'm just getting around to sharing it...

"TIWI is my best frend"

She loves that dog more than anyone else and lets us know on a daily basis. This partiular night she was hiding under the bed with Kiwi. It was a little scary becasue there isn't much room under our bed but she made it work. Kiwi doesn't alsways love Brooklyn but she tolerates her well these days. (you can see Kiwi in the right of the pic)


Our house is slowly coming together. This month our project has been getting the front room put together. We started painting and that's about as far as we've gotten...I'll get pictures on here when it's finished.

Over all January has been a good month...let's hope that it continues through the year!!!

Announcing....

So if you didn't get an email (or haven't checked it) or a text (because I don't know your number), here is our "official" announcement...

Can you read her shirt??

Thankful

It is Thanksgiving so here is a little list of things I am thankful for (in no specific order)...

My Family
My job that I love
My co-workers
My husbands job
Friends
Our wonderful turkey dinner, and every other meal during the year
Our home
Freedom
My health
Technology, especially for cell phones
My car
Our Community
Education

Getting Ready for the COLD...

This past weekend we had three days off together and decided to start getting the house ready for the cold weather that is coming (well it's already kinda been here). We got stuff organized, door knobs exchanged, the shed cleaned up a little, the sprinklers turned off, and the swamp cooler off and covered. While Zach was on the roof getting the cooler taken care of Brooklyn found the hammer that was sitting on the back porch steps. She walked over to this post and saw a nail sticking out and knew just what to do. Isn't it amazing how they can pick up on the littlest and strangest things? It was so cute because she knew what to do when I first pulled the camera out and even said "CHEESE." Then she went back to hammering her nail while I sat back and snapped away with the camera. I just LOVE her!

Dirty...

Remember the nice weather we had not too long ago? Where did it go? this snow stuff sucks! Brooklyn and I thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather and can't wait for it to return! We played outside almost all day on one of the warm days (March 20th). Poor Zach was stuck at work most of the time, but ended getting off early so he could play too. I was amazed at some of the stuff I let Brooklyn do like play in the sand box and jump on the trampoline by herself (mind you it is in the ground so she couldn't fall off). We had a blast. I didn't have my camera on me so these are from my phone which explains the quality..

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I think the sand was her favorite because she kept going back to it. This summer will be a blast!

Update!

Wow I haven't posted in forever so I thought I would do an update on what has happened the last few weeks.

Brooklyn has "graduated" to an upright, forward facing car seat. I have been hanging on and hanging on to her little car seat and Zach finally pushed me and gave me a reality check that she's not a baby anymore. She is a toddler. It's so hard to believe that my baby is already 15 months old. Another wonderful thing that actually just happened today was she peed on the potty chair!! Can you believe it?!? We bought it just to get her familiar with it and she loves sitting on it, whether she has a diaper on or not. Today we were running her a bath so we let her be naked and she sat on it and peed!! I was SO proud even though she has no idea what she did, it's a step in the right direction. Oh, and don't worry we aren't seriously potty training, I just heard that the more familiar they are with the potty chair the better they do when they are ready.

Zach got laid off from Autoliv, his official termination date was February 2nd. I was a little stressed about it but confident that he would get another job. Guess what? He went in for an interview on February 4th and got hired on the spot at Western Liberty Foods. It's going to be a bit of a change for him but it's a decent paying job for right now. I'd like for him to decide what he wants to be when he "grows up" so that he could go back to school, but so far he can't decide. I am happy though that he is such a good husband and father and is so eager to support us. He was officially unemployed for only two and a half days...what a man!

As many of you know Bear River Valley Hospital is going to be moving into a new building, and since it's my place of employment I am way excited!! I still have a hard time finding my way around the new building but it's SO nice and has a ton more space than what we have now. I think it will serve it's purpose well. The official move date is this Wednesday February 11th. It will be interesting to see how many people will use our new facility instead of taking their medical needs outside the valley. I have always had confidence in our doctors and nurses but this new building may be a way to open the eyes of the community and let them see how wonderful our staff really is. (If you can't tell by now I am REALLY happy about it.)

Another exciting thing that is going on is that my dad has started his own business, well sort of. He is still working for Autoliv, but at minimal hours, so he has started doing chainsaw bears. He is so talented. He only practiced like twice before he got it. If you'de like to take a look or even order/buy one here is his page: http://www.mychainsawbearnecessities.blogspot.com I think that my mom is still trying to help him get it up and running but check it out!

I can't really think of anything else exciting lately but if I do I'll be sure to post about it ;o)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks so I thought I would write a small list of things I am grateful for...

1-My husband. He has always been extremely supportive and helpful. I am thankful he is so willing to work and so eager to make me happy. He treats me like a queen :)

2-My daughter. Even though she can be a hand full I am thankful that she is a part of my life and can be so sweet to me. I am thankful that we were able to have her and she is healthy and happy and growing.

3-Family. In general I am thankful for all my family and all of Zach's family as well. They are always there when we are in a pinch. I am grateful that they are such a part in our lives and set such good examples for us to follow. They are always there when we need advice or just a shoulder to cry on.

4-My job. Even though I get frustrated sometimes I am very thankful to be able to work and to have a job. I am also grateful for the people I work with and their willingness to accept my faults and make up for what I lack in, they are the best team workers ever.

5-My home. Even though we aren't in a house yet I am thankful for the fact that we have a place to call home. It's nice at the end of the day to be able to feel relaxed and comforted just in the fact that I am 'home.'

6-Life. It has really hit me lately (maybe because I work in the ED) that not everyone has great health. I am so thankful that my body is working and that I am not chronically ill or have any significant health problems. I realize I shouldn't complain about the small things because there are so many people that have worse problems than I do.

Disney on Ice...

Yesterday we headed to Salt Lake but this time we were doing more than just visiting family, we had tickets to:

"Disney on Ice Celebrates 100 Years of Magic"

Mark and Tammy dropped us off at the Energy Solutions Arena around 1810 (which was nice because we didn't have to walk far or pay for parking) and Brooklyn was just waking up from a nap. I was really nervous that she would be a grouch through the entire thing but she did extremely well for a one year old.




When we got there we wanted to find our seats to be sure we wouldn't get lost. We were front and center and only 20 rows from the floor. They were perfect seats.
This Picture isn't the greatest but it shows the mood Brooklyn was in...
SILLY!!

While we were there she tried to kiss the lady to the left of us at least three times before she decided she wanted the lady's popcorn. (The lady was really nice about it thank goodness) The only other problem we had was when she pulled the hair of the mom that sat in front of us because she couldn't reach the little boys head!!! She also enjoyed looking at the little girls behind us twirling like princesses during the intermission.



This was the opening act and Brooklyn was enthralled. She kept clapping and clapping it was very cute.

Here are a few more pictures of Disney on Ice:

Over all we had a blast. Brooklyn sat through all of it but the last 10 minutes and those last ten minutes we spent "shopping." Zach bought her a Minnie stuffed animal, a flashing light crown, and a slushy. She had a ball and it was fun to be able to have a family outing that went so well. I would highly recommend this to all of you!!

You can also check out the scrapblog page I did: http://www.scrapblog.com/c63a46b0c3/072ECC69-1FDC

Fishin' Trip

Last week we decided one night to take Brooklyn and go fishing. It was so fun...at first. We coated ourselves in bug spray but we were still getting mosquito bites. I had dressed Brooklyn in long sleeves and pants so she didn't get any bites, thank goodness but I think she was a little warm. We started fishing and we were having fun (I caught a fish on my first cast) and then Brooklyn started fussing. Well we had spent time at my mom's that day and I didn't repack the diaper bag so we had no food just a bottle and she didn't want it. Then I noticed she needed a diaper change but when I went to change her I sat the only new diaper in our fish bait... GRRR!!! So we only ended up fishing for an hour and a half but now we know to prepare better next time!!

Happy Fourth of July, 2008

This was Brooklyn's first fourth of July. It was kind of different this year. Zach's Parent's came up the night before and stayed the night so they could go celebrate with us and watch Zach at the trap shoot. I had to work so I was only there for half of it. All the people that are my age that were there were all weird. There were so many people we didn't even know. Over all I guess it was a good day. Check my mom's blog for firework pictures, Brooklyn and Zach did a sparkler... I missed it :(

This is the outfit that Sarah bought for her... perfect for the occasion. I was going to have her wear a red shirt and some capri's but she would have been way to hot. This little outfit worked perfect. Thanks Sarah.

Mark, Tammy, Brooklyn and me. Brooklyn was trying to figure out how to get the cup holder out so she could suck on it...

Jamie, Brooklyn, adn Jade in the children's parade. We didn't dress them up because we had no idea what the theme was but they still walked.

Thanks Jamie for walking her through the parade!

Zach at the Trap shoot. This year he did very well, he won in his age division. He was super excited and I was very happy for him. He got chocolate, pop, and a little but of cash!

Zach shooting. If you look closely you can see the casing right above the barrel of the gun, pretty cool huh?

Brooklyn actually fell asleep at the trap shoot. She jumped after the first shot but slept through most of the rest. I was surprised it didn't scare her.

Chicken Heads

I don't know why I haven't posted these pictures before now but I wanted to post them. We had a great time this night. Zach was the one that showed them this little trick with the gloves. It was so funny!!

The Face

The Face. Need I say more?

Brooklyn is starting to turn into a little girl and is slowly fading away from the baby stages. Of course she still needs us for food, clean bum, and things like that but she is starting to be able to play by herself and entertain herself. She is starting to develop the cutest little personality.

This face has been the start of a lot of new things the past couple weeks. She is also making an O face and can distinguish what face you are making and will try to mimic it. If you hold her in a standing position she will slowly walk (mostly backwards). She has started to play patty cake and loves when you play peek a boo.

She no longer fits in 3-6 month clothes :( yet all the 6-9 clothes are big. She has switched to size 3 diapers this last week and is continuing to grow. She is now on 2 foods and can eat a whole thing of them in one sitting sometimes more. She hates sweet potatoes and peas. She loves green beans, pears, and carrots.

We are loving every new move and missing the little sleeping baby she started out as.

Tammy's Birthday Party

Make a Smilebox postcard

We had a great time in Salt Lake the last couple days. We got to celebrate Tammy's birthday and play tons of fun games. It was great to see the family.

A Day Outside

Brooklyn and I spent a little time outside yesterday and these were the pictures I got. Not all of them are good ones, but she sure is cute in all of them. Watch for the picture where she is squinting, it's her newest thing lately.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Playing Wii with my sisters

Yesterday Zach and I got to watch Jamie and Jade for a few hours while Rach and Mom went wedding shopping. We got out the Wii and had a blast. Jamie was really good at boxing and Jade rocked at bowling. We had a really good night.

Jamie and Jade in action

Boxing each other

Ok, I admit, this one is fake. I wanted a picture but they finished tennis right as I got the camera out so I told them to pretend. Pretty fierce face on Zach, huh?

Jade was so good with Brooklyn, she entertained her a ton.

Rachel's Bridal Shower

Thanks to all who came and supported my sister.
Special thanks to those who put it all together.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Grove Family Pictures

This past weekend we took some family photo's. Mark will be editing them and making them look a little better but I wanted to share a few... We'll get the others on when they're finished.