Happy Birthday

I had to take a minute to share how cute my hubby is. Wednesday was my birthday, and I watch my sister's baby- Garrett- well I wake up look at the clock and go into panic mode thinking she was sitting at my door knocking- trying to get in. I look where I thought I had put my cell phone the night before and it was gone. So I go running out of my room and there is Sean playing with Garrett and Gracie. After I had fallen asleep, he had come in and taken my cell phone and then slept in Gracie's room so he would hear her when she got up and take care of her and then get Garrett when he got there. By this time Brooklyn had woken up and Sean told me to go back to bed. NICE! I told him to wake me up when it was time to get Brooklyn ready for preschool and I would do her hair. So when I FINALLY woke up for the day the house was really quiet. Again I look at the clock and it past the time of preschool. Sean had done Brooklyn's hair, got Gracie down for her nap, and taken Garrett and Brooklyn to drop her off at school. Then when he got home he made me breakfast- well okay we'll say brunch. It was the best birthday present ever! Brooklyn was so thrilled she got the cooking spray out of the closet and wrapped it all up for my present. It was way cute.

Me and Brooklyn and my birthday present

This beauty is what I really got for my birthday. The Chi Dazzle Flat Iron. I have wanted one of these babies for a LONG time now. We found this really cute hot pink one and I am ANXIOUSLY awaiting its arrival.

To top the day off, we went to my favorite place to eat- Firehouse with my family for dinner. What a great day! Thanks babe for all your efforts to make the day fabulous for me! I love you tons!

Our Happenings...

I am a little late posting this, but we have a crawler. Gracie is officially all over the place and into everything. She is crawling and pulling herself up to things. I think she just wants to be running around with her sister.

My sister had decided not to go back to teaching this year, but received a call from her principal and decided to go back part time until November so I told her that I would watch Garrett for her so she wouldn't have to take him to a babysitter. Him and Gracie crack me up. Of course she wants to eat him and he takes it. They are so cute together and Brooklyn is also such a big help! It has surprisingly gone quite smoothly.

We also put Brooklyn in dance this year. So far so good and she loves it. She even went into class without pitching a major fit and needing me to hold her and stay with her (this is a major accomplishment). She has quite the moves- I have tried to get them recorded because they are hilarious, but when I get the camera out I can never catch them. So hopefully soon. She looks so cute in her dance attire.

Brett and Chelsea got home on Saturday from Alaska. We have missed them this summer and were very excited to see them. When Brooklyn saw them she went running to them- it was way cute. My whole family was there, plus Jan and then we went out to eat for Brian's Birthday! It was a great day and we are glad they are home.

My Whole Family

After dinner, Sean and I took Brooklyn and Gracie to the Gateway Discovery or Discovery Gateway. She had a BLAST! Sean and I were a little bored, but Brooklyn loved it so it was worth it. Gracie got a good nap in while we were there.

Our future news-anchor

They had this Life Flight Helicopter there- and Brooklyn loved being in it. I think it was probably her favorite. Although, when we asked her what her favorite thing was- she said EVERYTHING!

And today was Brooklyn's first day of Preschool. She went last year to Little Star Preschool in Hyrum and is going there this year to. She has the sweetest teacher that she loves. Brooklyn picked out her outfit for today and I think she looked adorable.

Getting Caught Up

What a crazy couple of weeks we have had. On the 1st I called my mom and she told me that her cousin MaryAnn (who I call my aunt) was on vacation and had a terrible pain attack and had to go to the hospital and through a cat scan something was found on her kidney. My mom felt like she should go down and so I offered to go with her. I frantically started looking for my friend Kara's phone number because she lives in St. George and me and the gals would need a place to stay. Sad to say I hadn't fully unpacked from Island Park so I started throwing more stuff into a suitcase and was ready in about a halfhour. My mom and I and my girls headed down. We decided to stay in Beaver that night because it had gotten late and the gals had had it. That night Brooklyn was playing with Gracie and rolled off the bed. I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed and my mom yelled into me that Brooklyn had fallen off the bed and was bleeding. I go running in and sure enough from her stitches was bleeding. I thought for sure that they would not take the stitches out the next day. We went by the hospital in St. George and they did take them out and butterflied it up. (we are still waiting for that to fall off so we can see what it looks like). Brooklyn did pretty well. A little bawling, but nothing like getting them in. Since she was so brave we told her she could get a treat. We went to Target and went through every toy isle. Of course EVERYTHING she saw she wanted, but finally decided on a cheerleader dressup. MaryAnn ended up having surgery and we are hoping and praying the problem has been fixed. She was in pretty bad shape for a few days. But, slowly on the mend. We were able to see our good friend Roy and go to dinner with him a few times. I was able to see and stay with my friend Kara that I hadn't seen for about 4 years. We had a blast!! Thanks Scott, Kara, and Dane for letting us invade your home and stay with you! The gals and I got home on thursday and on friday Sean and I and the girls went to Bear Lake until tuesday. We did a lot of R & R (well as much as you can do with 2 kids), got snowcones, went for drives, and rented a waverunner and had a day of fun on the lake! I am sad to think that summer is almost over- we have had a full, fun-filled summer!

After the stitches came out- the butterfly. Her cheerleader dress-up for being so brave.

We had so much fun in St. George with Kara and Dane. It was so DANG hot!

Our day of fun at Bear Lake

(We did not go out without life jackets- this is for picture only. Gracie didn't get a ride, however Brooklyn loved it. Especially when we saw some fish right at the top of the water.)

(Gracie loved the beach- especially eating the sand.)

Poor Brooklyn

We had a VERY traumatic night last night. I had tucked Brooklyn into bed and was on my way out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind me. I didn't realize she was right behind me and she walked right into the shutting door. (Yes I feel like mother of the year. Acutally I felt so AWFUL) As soon as I heard it, I thought, "Oh no." She was in a panic cry and I looked and just saw blood coming down her face. Immediately I got her into the bathroom and put a washcloth to her forehead so she wouldn't see the blood. When I looked at the cut I knew she would need stitches. I called Sean and he couldn't hear what I was saying because Brooklyn was crying so hard and heard " Brooklyn and stitches." He came home and Kami and Paula came up to sit with Gracie and we headed to the ER. When the doctor saw it he said it would need 3 or 4 stitches. (Which just about sent Brooklyn over the edge.) Sean's brother Keith lives close to the hospital and he was nice enough to come up and help Sean give Brooklyn a blessing which helped calm her (and me down). We had the sweetest nurse that was SO good with Brooklyn. She was explaining what they were going to do so nicely and Brooklyn was under control. I wish I could say the same about Sean and I. I was sitting on the bed holding Brooklyn with tears and I looked over and saw that Sean had the exact same look on his face. It was so hard because I would have done anything to trade places with her. When time came for stitches it was BRUTAL. Sean, the nurse, and I had to hold her down as the doctor stitched (she ended up getting 3 stitches). She was screaming and bawling and yelling. But after it was done she was just fine and slept good last night and had a great day today. She got to go to lunch with the gals and then go and hang out with grandma, pops, Nat, Garrett, and Gracie. Tonight I had to take the bandage off and clean the area and I think that it looks pretty good. I hope she doesn't have a nasty scar.

The bandage from the hospital (she did her own hair today and wouldn't let me touch it.)
With the bandage off
I had to clean it with baby soap

We had to make sure it was dried, put ointment on it, and bandage it again (we get to do this twice a day for 5 days and then she will get the stitches out on sunday.)

All done

Yellowstone Adventure

(I apologize in advance for the length of this post and all the pictures) We have just retured from staying in Island Park and visiting Yellowstone National Park. I have got to say that we had a blast! Growing up we went to Yellowstone every year for our family vacation. My grandparents had a trailer that we stayed in- so I have so many wonderful memories of up there and I was so excited to share it with my girls. It was sad because Sean couldn't come up with us- he had everything covered at work except for 1 hour and couldn't get anyone to cover so he had to stay home- we missed him a ton! Yellowstone was full so we decided we would try and stay in West Yellowstone. We searched the internet and found a place that we thought would work for us and accomodate all of us (my parents, me and my gals, nat and garrett and the andies). Well a week before we are to leave, I come home and there is a message on my answering machine telling me that the cabin we are supposed to stay in has been condemned. Condemned!! We could not believe it. So the next day we searched and searched trying to find somewhere to stay. We have good friends (Jim and Mary Mullen) up in Island Park that gave us a few suggestions to try. So the last call I made that night we found the place we stayed in. It was SUPER nice. We were only the second people to stay in it. It was nice that we were able to put the babies on the floor and let them play- I am sure in the other place we would have not wanted to. So it was actually a blessing in disguise. When we drove through West Yellowstone, of course we had to drive by to see where it was and we were so HAPPY that we were staying where we did. We went into Yellowstone 3 different day and had a BLAST! Nat and I are so lucky that we have such great babies- we were in the park all 3 days for at least 8 hours and the babies and Brooklyn were so good- besides a few meltdowns they were angels. We got to visit some of out favorite spots in the park; Canyon, Lake area, Bridge Bay, and Fishing Bridge. We love in between Canyon and Fishing Bridge- there is an area called Hayden Valley- it is where you see a ton of Buffalo and if you are lucky grizzly bears. We were lucky because that first day we saw 3 grizzlys. People are so nice up there and let you use their spotting scopes so you can see really good- Brooklyn was even able to see good and she loved it. Our second trip in my family went to see Old Faithful- it amazes me every time I see it. On our way out of the park we were driving through Hayden Valley and the buffalo decided to cross the road. One stopped right in front of our car and would not move. It finally did and we got past- but it came out again in front of my parents car. Brooklyn was in that car and absolutely loved it. We finally got through that and headed home. We got in a big jam and knew something had to be up and sure enough there was a grizzly bear making his way down the river. It was really cool because you could see it really good without a scope. We watched it for over an hour. I think that it is really neat to see bears in the wild like that. We finally made it home late that night. Our last day in we went to another favorite spot of mine called Mammoth. We went on this beautiful drive and at the end of it same thing we looked down on the road and saw lots of cars and Forest Rangers light flashing- when we got up close there was a black bear probably a block or 2 away. It was way cool. We had an awesome trip full of great memories and lots of sightings! We saw beautiful water falls, tons of elk, buffalo, bears, moose, coyote, wolf, and chipmunks and squirrels (which I might add out of all the big animals we saw- Brooklyn liked these the best.) I hope that I can make this a tradition with my family the way it was for me when I was little.

This is a picture of the condemned place and then the place we actually stayed!

Welcome to Yellowstone! My Family: my dad, Nat and Garrett, my mom, me, Brooklyn, Sher, Gracie, and Brian. (we really missed Sean, Brett and Chelsea, and Derk)

Me and the gals at Old Faithful

Nat and Garret and my mom and dad and my brother Brian and his wife Sher at Old Faithful.

This is how Garrett and Gracie spent most of their time. Either sleeping or needing something in their mouths.

Brooklyn was also such a trooper. We had a lovely picnic at Bridge Bay.

Picnic at Bridge Bay

Beautiful water falls

Our first up close animal sighting of the trip was this elk and this is the squirrel Brooklyn was so thrilled about.

The many many buffalo (the babies were so cute)

The buffalo that stopped in front of our car

A picture of the black bear ( i realized my sister has the good picture of the grizzly)

We also had a GREAT time in Island Park- the guys golfed, we visited some good friends, and we rented these paddle boats and had a blast! (they are a lot harder than they look I might add)


Gracie LOVES water and waded in the river I also had to post this picture because it shows how cute her legs are. Brooklyn saved some money and from donations from family was able to buy this cute grizzly bear that she LOVES!

It is always sad when vacations come to an end but also good to get home. We were so glad to see Sean. I am so lucky to have such an amazing family. They are all so good with my girls and love them so much. When I am at my witts end, someone will step up and help me out. Thank you all so much for helping me and loving my girls- we love you so much!