Happy Birthday Bridger!!!

It's official. My baby is one year old. When did this happen? Has it really been a year since we had Bridger? I really am kind of sad about this- but not sad enough that I am ready for another one. Two is plenty for now.

We decided to celebrate Bridger's birthday on Saturday since Sunday isn't the best day for parties. We had the Livsey's over and the boys all played for a while. I brought the little slide in and they had fun going down (and up) it over and over again. We had dinner and then put Bridger in his high chair and got him all ready for his big moment. I was really looking forward to watching him eat cake because in October we were at a wedding reception and he got a little bite of cake and was in love. I was not disappointed last night. He was kind of cranky because the evenings are his cranky time (and everyone else's for that matter). He usually goes to be between 6 and 6:30 and by the time we gave him his cake it was like 5:30 or 5:45. I made a little cake shaped like a "1" and when we put it in front of him, he looked at it cautiously, dabbed his finger in it, tasted the icing, and dove right in. He was grabbing it by the fistful and shoveling it into his mouth, all the while making little shouts of delight. I didn't think a little person could eat as much cake as he did but I was wrong. I kept telling myself, "It's okay. He had squash for dinner. It's his birthday. It's not like we give him cake everyday (or any day besides his birthday for that matter). He's not going to become an obese teenager just because he is eating more cake than any grown man could ever eat." I think he would have just kept going if we didn't pull him away from it. Then he was just sucking on his chubby little fingers trying to get the last bit of delicious sugar. It was really cute and fun to watch.

After undressing him and practically hosing him down, we had him open his presents. Well, that was the plan at least. Brody and Hayden got to most of the gifts before Bridger had a chance, but he was okay with that. He was still sucking on the first gift's tag by the time the other boys had ripped open the other ones. Brody still thinks all the new toys are his. Whatever makes him happy. Thanks to our friends and family who spoil our kids. Between Christmas and his birthday, he's set.

We love Bridger and feel so blessed that he is in our family. He is a sweet boy and has a smile that can melt anyone (although you wouldn't know it by looking at his birthday pictures). Happy Birthday Bridger!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Another Christmas has slowly come and quickly gone. It's kind of sad, isn't it?

This week has been crazy and kind of crappy. The boys have been sick- especially Bridger. We ended up taking him to the ER on Sunday because he was really sick and we knew we wouldn't get into a doctor because of Christmas and everything. It turns out he had an ear infection so they gave us an antibiotic and some ear-numbing drops. That night Bridger went down well and when we went to go check on him at about midnight he was sleeping in a puddle of vomit with it stuck all in his hair and ears. It was really sad- so we took him into the bath and washed him down and put him back to sleep. He threw up again today after we gave him his antibiotic so we are thinking maybe he is reacting badly to the medicine. Hopefully we will be able to get in tomorrow and see what's going on. Poor little thing. He has been miserable.

Despite all of the craziness, we had a great Christmas. Last night we had the Livseys and the couple missionaries - Elder and Sister Benson- over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was yummy ham (drowned in brown sugar sauce) and rolls and potatoes and gravy and other stuff- delish! Then this morning we were up really early at 5:45 with Bridger and Brody woke up soon after that. We read the Christmas story together, had a small breakfast and then opened presents. We kept it simple this year due to budget restrictions but thanks to our families, our Christmas was a lot bigger than we had thought it would be. Brody loved opening presents and Bridger didn't so it worked out great for Brody- he opened all of them. After presents we went over to the Livseys house and had a huge breakfast. The elders in our ward came too and we ate ourselves sick.

We came home, took naps, and just kind of hung out the rest of the day. I love Christmas! I love how easy it is for our focus to be on Christ and the awesome things that He has done for us. My testimony of the Savior grows more and more each Christmas as I study and try to understand what His birth must have been like- especially for Mary. What an awful labor that must have been. No epidural, sitting in a dirty stinky stable with animals around her probably driving her crazy. That woman is a saint and I love her. Heavenly Father definitely picked the right woman.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you felt the Spirit in your lives and in your homes. I love you all!!! Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread House Contest

Last night was our third Annual Ginger bread House Contest with the Owens family. It is interesting to look back at all three and remember what each one was like. The first year, we had just moved into our house here in Georgia and we met the Owens, who live around the corner from us. She was a few months pregnant with Benjamin and we just had Brody. Their first house turned into a gingerbread jail and they were so unhappy with the way it turned out, they just left it on our car on their way home. We left it on their porch with a blue ribbon on it, not realizing that they had gone out of town and it brought a lot of ants to their front door. Oops, okay?

We got to know each other while making our first houses and then last year we decided to have a rematch. They had Benjamin who was 6 months old and I was REALLY pregnant with Bridger. After completing our houses, we emailed everyone and asked them to vote. After deciding who the winner was (it was us, but I don't like to brag!) they made us dinner.

This year we had two kids (who luckily were asleep during the construction of our houses) and they had Benjamin here. Poor little guy- he was tired and all the candy on the table was so tempting for him. This year we are going to post our pictures on our blog and we are asking for you all to comment on our blog and let us know which one you like best. Whoever wins gets dinner from the other couple!

Motherhood At Its Ugliest

This week has been pretty ugly, as the title of this blog suggests. I'll just jump into explaining why. Sunday morning Bridger woke up early and wanted to eat so I nursed him on the living room couch. About halfway through he started gagging and before my brain could register what was happening, I had projectile vomit in my MOUTH and all over me and all over the couch. And I mean ALL OVER. I have often wondered how so much stuff could come out of such a small body. Anyway, I ran into the bedroom and woke Adam up (which I kind of felt bad doing since he had gone to bed at 3 because he had worked the night before and was adjusting back to his weekend day schedule). I immediately went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth and cleaned myself up. That morning was the beginning of a very gross week with lots of dirty laundry, lots of runny diapers, and not so much sleep for any of us. Today is Thursday and I am still cleaning up puke and other not-so-pleasant bodily fluids that kids have when they are sick. Adam was really sick from Monday to Tuesday but is feeling much better. I am really grateful that I haven't gotten sick but not so grateful that I'm not going to complain about everyone else being sick. Today I about lost it. I have really been trying to be patient with the boys when they are whiny and needy and smelly but today was day #5 and I am so over it.

On Wednesday morning the boys took a break of being sick and tricked us into thinking that they were better. They woke up happy and they ate breakfast and all was fine. So we decided to take that opportunity to go to the mall and get their picture taken with Santa. I have always been against the mall Santas but the other chance we had with Santa was taken away when Santa's camera wasn't working and Brody loves talking about Santa so we just gave in and went. I can't believe how expensive it was! We got the 2nd smallest package (only because the smallest was 3x5 pictures- what do you do with a 3x5 picture???) and it was $20!!! I wanted to crawl into Santa's fake little house and cry. You better believe I am downloading that picture and using it in every way that I can think of. Brody was really shy when he first got on Santa's lap. He actually covered his face with his hands so Santa couldn't see him. Bridger just sat there and stared at him. No one was behind us in line so they just chilled with Santa for a while. Did they both smile at the same time while looking at the camera? Of course not but at least they aren't screaming, right? Also, Santa's eyes aren't really as creepy as they look- it's just the glare on his glasses.

On to other things.... as Brody said in his blog about being tagged, he likes to take his jammies off while in his crib. Then I have to go in before I go to bed and redress him so he doesn't freeze all night. Well my friend Hannah gave me a really good idea to put a t-shirt on over his jammies so he can't unzip them and take them off. So I did it and it worked...for a couple of days. Then he figured out to just put his hand under the shirt and unzip the jammies and just take his legs out and leave his arms in the sleeves. What is with that? Oh well. It is now only every once in a while that he gets out so I guess it's worth keeping the t-shirt on.

Bridger is now saying "Uh-oh", waving bye-bye, and taking up to 5 steps at a time.

Brody is now saying "Why not?" whenever I say anything (even when I say "yes"). Today I was on my way to the UPS store to mail a package that I had printed out a label for and I saw a UPS truck stopped at someone's house so I just stopped and gave it to him. Brody asked "what" that man was, meaning who he was and I told him he was the UPS man. When we got home more than an hour later, he told Adam that he saw a "U...P...S...mailman".

Also, here are some pictures of the boys playing at the park and of Bridger's cute haircut. That's about all for now. Any of you who are actually still reading this, thanks for sticking around and letting me vent!

Freak!

I was told by some birdies that I have been tagged - like everyone else and their dogs. I don't think I have any really abnormal traits so this should be pretty darn short.

1) Lets just get all the gross stuff out of the way first: I pee in the shower. I pick my nose and sometimes wipe the goobers on my pants. After I blow my nose I always have to look to see what marvels I produced and sometimes when I'm in the shower I blow right into my hands. If the mood is right when I burp or expel other unwanted gaseous odors I like to make sure some one I love knows it smelled real bad. If all those lovely quirks turn you against me, you can stop reading now, but if not I'll keep trying.

2) I like to randomly slip into various accents when I'm trying to be funny. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes I only make myself laugh. Sometimes I wish I were in that shower so no one could tell I just peed my pants.

3) I have an extra bone attached to my spine that makes me walk funny and throws off the balance of my whole body. For instance, the left side of my body grows more hair.

4) Jess claims I don't ever smell bad. I can go work in the back yard in the blazing sun, or exercise all day and come in smelling like I just walked out of the shower. BO is not my friend. We don't hang out. Sometimes we catch up on good times, but that's about the extent of our relationship.

5) Opposite of most people I know, I feel like I have to order something new at any restaurant i go to. I almost never order the same thing because i always want to try something new.

6) Jess calls me the "Good Idea Guy" because I come up with ingenious ways to do things. For instance, I make my hot chocolate hotter than normal and then add a scoop of ice cream. Try it and you'll never go back to normal.

7) I am a super efficient cleaner and can make the whole house look clean in half an hour.

Reading back through my list two words come to mind - disgusting and lame. So if you have a better idea for my list, please feel free to make suggestions. In the meantime, you can feel disgusted and lamed.

Adam's Family (do do do do snap snap)

Okay so it's been a while since I've posted but Audrey hasn't posted in like a month so I'm good (hint to Audrey). We have had a lot happen this week and I still haven't posted about Adam's family being here so here goes...

Adam's mom, dad, brother Hyrum, sister Faith, and her husband Allen came to stay with us Thanksgiving weekend. They drove through the night 12 hours to be here on Thanksgiving day. Adam prepared the meal and it was delicious. He brined the turkey overnight, made crock pot mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, etc. He even made a white chocolate mint Oreo cheesecake that was really yummy! I didn't have to worry about anything except setting the table. How great is that? The Livseys came over for dinner and they brought the yummiest rolls and stuffing, more pie, and I think some other things too but it's been a while, okay? It was a good day.

Friday morning Adam and I left the kids with the fam and went Christmas shopping for a couple of hours. We just hit Target, Michael's and Old Navy. We got some sweet deals, but I have never seen anything like that parking lot. It was before 8am when we got there and there was no where to park! It was insane. The line at Target was wrapped around the whole store, but they had a system that worked well so we were only in line for about 10 minutes.

Saturday night we went to Lights of the South. You go on a hayride pulled by a tractor through the trees and there are light displays and characters and you ride through it all. It is amazing. Then you can go to Mrs. Claus' kitchen and get hot chocolate or marshmallows to roast over the fire and you can go see Santa. We wanted to see Santa so we went and waited in line and after every person Santa had to get up and help the lady with the camera. Apparently he can make reindeer fly and deliver gifts to everyone in the world in one night but can't fix a camera. After waiting for longer than we wanted and seeing that the line wasn't progressing we left without seeing Santa. It was sad because Brody actually wanted to sit on Santa's lap. We are going to have to find a Santa to let him sit on.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much just hanging out, playing games, and putting up the Christmas decorations. Brody had so much fun with everyone. He took a particular interest in Hyrum and Allen because they would wrestle with him and throw him around like his dad does. He never was lacking attention and he was in heaven.

So other big news is that Bridger has started to walk. I say walk, but what I mean is take a few steps. Last Wednesday (the 29th) he took his first step and since then the most he has taken is 3 steps before falling. He is getting really good and standing up on his own but he is hesitant to take off. He has a lot of weight he has to balance!

We are getting excited for Christmas to come. It is such a special time of year. It is so easy to feel the Spirit during this time when our focus is on Jesus Christ and the amazing things He has done for us.