Happy Halloween!

Tonight we went trick-or-treating with Brody and Bridger. Bridger mostly just stayed in the stroller, but was admired by passersby. Our friends Rachel and Jonathan with their son Benjamin met us at our house to take pictures and then we were off. We just went up and down the streets of our neighborhood. Brody was a little confused at first. He would say "gickogeet" and then just stare. He would get his candy and we would remind him to say thank you and the staring continued. After a few houses, he was a pro. "Gickogeet", candy, "Dit do", turn around and go to the next house. He even started saying "Ah ah self" meaning he wanted to go to the door alone. At one such house, I stood back a few feet and let him knock on the door. Once he knocked, a fogger turned on and started blowing fog loudly at him. He freaked out and ran towards me. The guy answered the door and saw fraidy cat Brody holding onto me and said, "The first person I turn the smoke on for turns out to be a fireman. I feel bad." After that Brody was happy to have Adam or me go to the door with him.

Our neighborhood was quite festive. A lot of houses went all out with Halloween decorations. Even more had carved pumpkins or scarecrows or other scary things. It was fun to see all the other kids dressed up.

Brody scored, which means that really Adam and I scored. We didn't even come close to getting all the houses in our neighborhood and we had to empty his firetruck candy holder a few times because it was overflowing. We were out for about 45 minutes and then came home to put the boys to bed and started giving out candy. I'm already out of candy. It was a busy night.

Bridger's First Haircut

Bridger got is first haircut yesterday. I kept putting it off because I didn't want to cut his baby hair off, but he was getting shaggy around the ears and his bangs were becoming a little out of control. These are the before and after pictures. You can't tell but I cut off almost an inch in most places. He liked it at first (he got to play with a nose hair trimmer that has the blades taken out that Brody always likes to hold during his haircuts) but then towards the end he was swatting my hand away. Doesn't he look devastated that I cut his hair? Like "What did my mom do to my beautiful hair?"

He looks so cute- it makes him look like a big boy to me. He is a stud.

An Introduction

Hi. My name is Broderick, but you can call me Brody. I feel like it's time for me to let the world know that I am not just a cute face attached to a perfectly scrumptious body (that is how my mom says it). I have a brain too. I know all my letters and read books all by myself. I brush my teeth and put my clothes on by myself too. If I wanted to I could even change my own diaper, but I choose instead to punish my parents for not feeding me ice cream for dinner every night. They're trying to get me to do my business on a potty, but to be honest I only do it for the M&Ms or when I don't want to go to bed right away. They're so easily manipulated - like giant gobs of play dough in my hands! It's much more efficient to just use a diaper anyway, plus I can be in charge of my own time management and not a slave to nature. I'm trying to persuade my Dad to use diapers, but so far I've had no luck. I'll let you know if that changes.
I have a little brother named Bridger, but I call him "Boo" - you can too. Sometimes when we're bored we'll just laugh at each other for fun. He's cute, but not as smart as me yet. I'm trying to teach him how to pray and walk and eat stuff, but, like I said - he's not so smart.
I think lions are pretty much the best animal ever. If I could be an animal, a lion is what I'd choose. Not just because they have cool hair, or eat people, but because can poop wherever they want and nobody cares. Also, they can roar really loud and so can I.

Halloween Costume Woes

Hello friends! You may notice our blog looks a little different this week. It was getting stale to us so we changed it up a bit.

I always try to write within a week of the last post but it never seems to happen. This week is no different. If you are like me, you go to all of your friend and family blogs almost everyday to see if there is a new post and when there isn't, you are disappointed. Well, get used to disappointment.

This picture is of Bridger right when he woke up from a long nap. He looks completely wasted.

These past few weeks have been so busy for me! I always thought that moms that didn't work were full of it when they said they were really busy. What do they do all day? Stay at home with their kids, half of them in school and get stuff done, right? Wrong. The only time I can get stuff done is when the kids are in bed. That happens twice a day- nap time at noon and bedtime at 7. During nap time I usually have grand plans of cleaning or making cards or making phone calls but noon comes around and I am dead. When I can I just take a nap at the same time as the boys. That means that all the stuff I have to do has to be done after they go to bed at night and the last couple of weeks I have had stuff at night. Last week was the RS Visiting Teaching Conference which I was in charge of and we have had birthdays, ward activities to get ready for and I even got a girl's night out this week! Needless to say, the house is a mess, we have had leftovers a lot and I am really looking forward to the weekend.

Thursday the boys and I went to a play group Halloween party. They had their costumes on and we got to see all the other kids in the ward and their costumes. It was really fun. We decorated cupcakes that were oh so yummy and everyone traded candy. Tonight is our ward Fall Festival and I have been trying to get all of our costumes ready. I am going to be Mary Poppins and Adam will be Bert. For weeks I have looked at thrift stores and online for things to put together my costume. I finally put it all together last night and......it looks RIDICULOUS! Adam said I looked like a mime. I guess Mary Poppins on a tight budget isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Adam's costume looks great. I guess he'll just have to go with white trash Mary Poppins. We will post pictures of it all later.

Yesterday I walked into the living room and Bridger was standing up next to the tv holding a toy in both of his hands. Yes that's right- he wasn't propped up on anything- standing all by himself. I am dumb and loudly said, "Bridger! You're standing all by yourself!" and he fell down. I have tried to get him to do it again today but no luck.

Brody is all about doing things by himself these days, or in his words, "Ah ah self". Sometimes it is annoying when I am in a hurry and he wants to put his shoes on all by himself (especially since he ALWAYS puts them on the wrong feet) but it is neat that he is learning to do things for himself. Another cool thing he did this week is spell something out by himself. We play the letter game a lot that Adam's sister Stalina got for him. It's a tin school house with magnetic letters inside with a matching card that the letter fits in. Adam works with him a lot and he now knows all of the letters. So we were at his friend Hayden's house the other day and in Hayden's room, he has letters that spell out him name on the wall. Brody pointed and said, "H" and so I pointed out the rest of the letters and as I pointed, he said "A-Y-D-E-N". It was really cool. I didn't know at that point that he knew all his letters. When we got home I pulled out the letters and quizzed him and he knew them all. Some sound the same- like G and J but he knew them all. I was really proud of him. He even says the word for some of them like D- Dog and B-Bus. I like him.










Oh- I just remembered one more thing I was going to write. The other day Brody sat on the couch by himself and read himself a book. He looked at the pictures and described them using his limited vocabulary. He is so intellectual.

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

Today is Adam's birthday. He is 27 now, which to me is really old but to many of you reading, it is probably really young. We are actually having his party on Friday because it is our good friend James' birthday this week also and we are doubling the fun and having a party with them. Today probably didn't feel like a birthday for Adam but hopefully we will have enough fun on Friday to make up for it. Today I brought him some cookies to share with his friends at work. I remember when my mom used to bring in cookies or cupcakes or whatever we wanted her to bring when it was our birthday. Then everyone liked me for the day, even the people who didn't normal like me.

So these pictures are some that I found in one of our old picture albums. I don't mean albums that are old; I mean albums that contain old pictures. I know what you're thinking and no, we don't put covers on our albums. I love pictures of Adam when he was a little boy. He was cute but not in a weird I like little boys way. His baby picture slightly reminds me of Bridger and he is also quite attractive. The one with Adam in red pajamas is with Legrand and is also one of my all time favorite pictures. You can just see how much they love each other. Sometimes when Brody and Bridger are playing, I see that between them and I love love love it. The picture with Adam lying on the ground is with Stalina. I wonder what they are laughing about.

It is now after 11pm which is way past my bedtime. Adam, Happy Birthday!! I love you and hope you like being old. And to all of you out there, I'll let you know how it feels in a few years when I am old.

Pumpkin Patch and other Not-As-Exciting Events

I know it's been a while since I posted and I wish I had a good excuse but I don't. I am a lazy procrastinator.

I haven't written since before Conference so let me just say- wasn't it great? I got to see all 4 sessions because we have DVR and could watch it after the kids went to bed. One of my favorite talks was by the new RS General President Julie Beck. Her talk was about "Mothers Who Know". She said that women have the most power and influence in the home. They plan, organize, work and teach because those are the MOST important activities of life. Maybe I loved it so much because sometimes I just feel so small in the world- like I stay in my house so much and am so busy with my kids that I don't have that great of an influence on the world, but if I teach my kids to make good choices and to recognize the Spirit and to serve others, that will do so much for the world. Then they can teach their children and so on. I just like to think that what I am doing will have some positive effect on something- anything.

Wednesday for our play group we went to the Pumpkin Patch. There was a lady there who did story time at the beginning and was really impressed that all of the kids (about 15 of them) sat still and listened to the story. I was pretty impressed, too, but by about the fourth book the kids started getting restless and so story time was cut a little short. Thank goodness. Then they all got a coloring page and crayons and their very own little pumpkin. For the next 30 minutes all the moms just chased their crazy kids around trying to prevent injury to their children and to the pumpkins. I was not successful. Brody stomped on a pumpkin and squashed it. It was pretty gross. I went to go pay for it and the man said, "Oh, it was probably rotten anyway- don't worry about it." I was pretty relieved. Who wants to spend money on a gross squashed pumpkin?

Adam started his classes this last week. He is taking three classes and they are 8 week classes. After he's done with these he will need 45 credits to graduate, which he can get done in less than 18 months. Then he will have his GI Bill money to apply to his Masters. His degree is in Religion and he is thinking about adding a minor in Middle Eastern Studies.

Bridger had his 9 month check up this week and is doing great. He is over 22 pounds and is about 28 inches long.

Today Adam came up with some really cool tactile/hearing games for Brody. He blindfolded him and handed him different objects (an apple, a yogurt cup, a remote control, some toys, etc.) and had Brody guess what they were. He did way better than we thought he would. He guess them all right except he thought a pretzel fish was a rock (until he ate it). Then Adam went and hid and called out Brody's name and Brody had to find him by listening to Adam's voice. Brody LOVED the games. He kept saying, "More game?".

I keep forgetting to write something that Brody does that is really funny. Whenever he thinks Adam or I are being silly, he says, "Oh, Mom!" or "Oh Dad!" and uses the right voice inflections to make it sound like he thinks we are being ridiculous. I wish I could describe it in words...it is really cute.

Sa-yite Poopoo!

This week has been less than ideal but today has been so nice that it almost makes up for the rest. Bridger has been cutting teeth for the last few weeks...one will just cut through and another one will begin. He has also been really stuffy and he feel the other night and gave himself a fat lip. I didn't get to go to my gym class on Thursday because that's the day I usually take the boys to the daycare there and last week they told me not to bring Bridger back because he "wasn't adjusting well" which meant they didn't want to hear him cry. He was fussy that day because he was teething and is starting his separation anxiety phase. My view is that it's good for him to be in other environments and to get used to being away from me. Plus, it's REALLY good for me to be away from them for a while. Anyway, once he is back to his happy self I will start taking them again. I really missed it. It is one of the only things I look forward to every week. It is going to be brutal to go back after not working out for a week!

Brody has been doing a lot better as far as his health is concerned. We went to a pediatric hematologist yesterday and they drew more blood (he had 4 vials drawn on Tuesday). She took a quick look and said he is not iron deficient, which is weird because he has been since he was 6 months old. They are going to do an iron study and make sure everything is okay. Then this next Tuesday he has a barium swallow test where he fasts for the morning (torture) and then drinks a nasty drink (more torture) and then they x-ray him swallowing to see what's going on with him. Then after they get those results back we might have to have a sleep study done because of his sleeping anxiety issues. Hopefully by the end of the year we will have answers to all of our questions and we will be able to help him. It is frustrating to not know what is going on.

Brody is learning more and more words and sentences everyday. He cracks me up. We are slowly potty training him. When he wants to go #2 in the potty he does and if not he doesn't. He doesn't really like getting his diaper changed and so when we ask him if he went he blames it on someone (or something else). Usually it is Bridger that gets blamed but today we went on base and I could smell something in the car. As we were passing a bunch of huge satellites I said, "Brody did you go poopoo?" and he said, "Nooooo, sa-yite poopoo!" I said, "The satellite went poopoo?" and he said, "YES! SA-YITE POOPOO!" I couldn't hold in my laughter even though it's probably not good to laugh about him lying. Where does he come up with this stuff?

Last Saturday night I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast dinner that the stake RS put together. It was soup and bread and desserts. I know am a picky eater, but I figured they would have at least one kind of soup I would like. Out of the 14 or so soups that they had, none of them appealed to me. I took a little of two kinds to try them but when I got to the table, just the sight of them made me nauseous, not to mention the smell. Putrid. So I had about 6 rolls, some cornbread and some homemade wheat bread. I'm pretty sure my stomach expanded more than is healthy that night but at least I didn't go hungry. The desserts were sick too. They had one good thing but by the time I went to get it it was gone. Dinner aside, the night was great. I loved President Monson's talk and it made me want to be a better visiting teacher. I need to do more than visit my sisters. I need to pray for them and make sure their needs are taken care of.

So last night Hannah came over (she's been in Utah for 6

weeks and is finally home- YAY!) and we made a Halloween craft together. It was fun and I really like the way they turned out. Here is a picture of it. We decided that Frankenstein's jacket looks like a grandma cardigan but we made it from a square of felt okay?

How much would you all pay for this set of blocks at a craft store if you were into that kind of thing? Be honest, okay? I want to know if I got my money's worth by making these and I want to know how much I could sell them for if I decided to do so. Plus, I just like participation in the form of comments on my blog.

For those of you who know my best friend Kendra, she had her baby on Monday night. His name is Casen Marc Cox and he is CUTE.

Zach and Jacob, I hope you had great birthdays. Before the time passes by, I want to say Happy Birthday to Royah, James, Hannah, and Mom. Also, it's Adam's birthday on the 17th so don't forget to wish him a happy birthday (you know who you are, forgetful people).