Male Bonding

 While my dad was here in town the boys decided to go over to the driving range and have some Male bonding time together! This is one of the boys favorite things to do. Brock is pretty independent and just does his thing. He does get a few good shots in here and there.

 Pierce is more of a perfectionist and gets embarrassed if he makes a mistake. He is actually pretty good at it. His swing is improving every time and has knocked some balls pretty far!

Cute boys love their Daddy and constantly want to be JUST LIKE HIM!

They loved having Papa Russ around. He is always a good time.

Jaida's First Birthday!

 March 15, 2011 was our little Jaida's First Birthday. We couldn't be more thrilled to be celebrating her! She has been an absolute joy in our lives. We started the morning off with a pancake breakfast. She loves pancakes.

 After taking a bath and sprucing up in her birthday tutu and pig-tails. I couldn't help but take pictures of her. She was all smiles as long as her brother Pierce was around.

 She took a good long nap! She doesn't looked thrilled in these pictures, but really I promise she loves her daddy. There was a short period when she would only let me hold her, but she is now starting to branch out and let him hold her now. She pretty much has him wrapped around her little finger.

 Cutie Pie.

 We thought that we would take her to do something that she loves to do for her birthday. She loves to ride on the carousel at the mall.

 She had the best time and was all smiles there. She was giggling the whole ride. It was so  cute to see.

 After that we came home and Papa Russ fixed us an excellent dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beens, and of course some special jell-o!

 We are pretty lucky to have both sets of grandparents here to celebrate this cute little thing. She got spoiled with loads of the cutest new clothes--EVER-- stay tuned you will see all the pictures of her in her outfits to come! She also got her very own stroller. She actually can walk behind it too.

 One of her most favorite gifts was this singing card. She danced as soon as she heard the tune! She absolutely loves music and will dance on cue.

 My creativeness was lacking for her cake. But we did a Princess and the frog cake. We kind of nick-named her that princess because of her frog Wub-a-nub pacifier that she has had since week one of life.

Guess who LOVED eating every morsel of her cake?? You guessed right, this cute face!
Here are some things about Jaida:
*She is finally a crawling machine. We love that she reached this milestone after so much hard work!
*She loves her brothers and always wants to be a part of whatever they are doing. For the most part they let her join right in too.
*She is pretty independent, she wants to do things her way.(Might be in trouble later with that one!)
*She finally got her first tooth 2 weeks before she turned one. She still only has the 1 tooth.
* At her 1 year check up she weighed 20lbs. 3oz. (25th percentile) and was 31 inches long (95th percentile). I didn't ask about her head, but all my kids have big heads so I am sure it is right up there.
*She hates a sippy cup, how am I going to part with a bottle?
*She has REALLY STINKY feet! I am not kidding. They really stink bad, they always have. Poor girl.
* She is still on oxygen at night as well as monitors. We hope to get this resolved!
* She has not taken any steps yet!
* She loves to dance to the Scooby Doo theme song.

Jaida really has been such a blessing in my life. Even after all the trials, I wouldn't change one thing. She has taught me so much in her short life. I feel so blessed every single day to just have her alive and with us. The togetherness that she brings to our family is undescribable and unlike anything I can ever explain. I thank my Father in Heaven for giving me this sweet angel. Just about every day Brock will ask me, "Mom can we please keep her?" I feel such joy everytime I get to answer, "yes, Brock she is ours forever!" I am so lucky to be her mother. Thank you Jaida for giving us a year filled with love and happiness! I love you with all my heart.

Happy Birthday Dad/ Papa Russ

 March 14th is my Dad's Birthday! We were so happy that he was able to be here for us to celebrate with him! My dad requested French Toast for breakfast. Now, I have you know I made it for him, even though it is not one of my specialities! It turned out okay, at least he ate it. I always get intimidated to cook around my dad. He is the Master in the kitchen. I only hope that someday I can be half as good as he. Then Trent took him golfing, one of my Dad's favorite things to do that he doesn't get to do enough. They had a good time. Brock was pretty determined that we go and get him a cake. My Dad's all time favorite is German Chocolate. So when we found it Brock couldn't have been more thrilled. When they returned, it seemed like to took forever, the boys had made some decorations for him. We jumped in the car for our next adventure. We headed down to Washington, D.C.  We ate at one of our Favorite places Good Stuff Eatery. It was Later than we had anticipated so we dropped my parents and the boys off at the museum of American History for a "quick" tour.

 Brock fell asleep on the way home from Washington, D.C. and when he heard us getting the cake ready he perked right up. He was way excited! This kid LOVED having his Papa around! Both boys were EXTREMELY sad when he had to go. They missed you too Grammy, but Papa especially.

Happy Birthday Dad. I love you so much. Thanks for being such a great dad. I really couldn't ask for better. You are such a wonderful, loving, kind, and fun person. Love you.

Philly

My parents came in town March 11th for a long weekend. We were so excited to have both of them here. On Saturday March 12, 2011 we decided that we would take a little roadtrip while they were here and head up to Philadelphia for the day. My Dad is all about getting out and having adventures, so this was right up his alley.

We went to go and see the Liberty Bell. Pierce was pretty excited to go and see it. Although, I think it was kind of dissappointing when we got there and it was just a bell and we couldn't ring it.

We had to wait in a line to get in to see the bell. Jaida was watching her brothers as they ran around the grassy area by the Liberty Bell.  She adores them and is now starting to want to be more included with their activities. Anyway, she could see Pierce in particular and was yelling out to him. When he would come towards her she would get so excited and kick and wave her hands and laugh out loud! It was really cute and the people in the line with us got a kick out of it too.

Here is a picture of the Family in front of Independence Hall. Everyone else looks great, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me keep my eyes open in pictures. So I guess that I will just look silly!

My parents with me and the kiddos.

I LOVED this picture of my parents! Aren't they cute?

And of course you can't go to Philadelphia and not get a Philly Cheese Steak! So we hit up the famous Geno's! I thought it was good, but I wasn't dying over the sandwhich. would I go out of my way to go there again? Probably not. I do however, need to try out their fierce competetor that is just right across the street, Pat's! It was a fun day and one more city to check off the list of things to do/ see on the east coast!

The tooth fairy Came!

Pierce woke up this morning and found this letter under his pillow. He was pretty excited about the letter, but when he saw the money he said," Oh man, my surprise is money?! I thought she would bring me one of those singing tooth brushes!" Way to go tooth fairy~you totally blew it on that one! I thought the tooth fairy was doing pretty well, when I was a kid I was lucky to get a quarter or two! Sheesh!I guess she better get with the times, mental note: Singing tooth brush!

Big Shot!

Jaida pretty much thinks she is a big girl now. Just in the last week she seems to have life figured out! She is getting those tantrums down and is moving everywhere. I thought I had a pretty child proof house, but she is showing me all my weak spots.

She is getting really fast, can barely turn your head for a second before she is getting in trouble somewhere! I have a feeling it won't be long before she is up and running around!

First Tooth

Pierce lost his first tooth yesterday. He has been sporting a toothless grin! He is so proud. He has to show everyone and tell everyone. Trent finally took matters into his own hands and yanked the loose one! Pierce had been wiggling it for about a week now. It was pretty much hanging on by a thread.

Stay tuned for more information on whether or not the tooth fairy visited our house. Pierce is in negotiations, he said he saw it on a cartoon where the kid wrote a letter to the tooth fairy and then he got a prize and got to keep the tooth!

Stuck

Our little love is now exploring a new world! She is all over the place. It is really cute. She is naturally drawn to the stairs and anything she can pull herself upon. On this day she crawled under the table, but she couldn't figure out how to get out. Her head was touching the top of the table and she didn't know how to duck down to get out. I had to get a picture. She thinks she is so big now.

Because life would be boring with out him!

In case you have been missing my spunky little Lumpy, here are some recent things he has said:

We were at the store the other day and we turned down the next aisle. There was a large lady in the way. Brock says to the lady," Excuse me lady!" I thought how nice and polite! Before I could finish that thought he chimed in with," Wow!! You have a BIG BOOTY!" as he was pointing at her! Oh my goodness was I embarrassed. Luckily the lady laughed it off! We apologized and quickly exited that aisle!

The other night during our family scripture reading, Brock was having a really hard time listening and being quiet. Well he does every night,but this time it was worse than usual. So I told him to sit and be quiet. Trent than told him that he needed to tell me he was sorry. He fired back with," I am all out of sorrys!" Both Trent and I could hardly keep a straight face! Oh my gosh, where does this kid come up with these!

He got in trouble the other day and was throwing a fit. He was crying. I told him to stop crying. He said, " I can't mom, my brain keeps telling me to cry!"

Brock is growing up. He is always making us laugh. Life would be so boring without him! We love him so much!