We've got a little WALKER!

It is so fun to watch little B learn new things...His newest trick is walking! He is still working on perfecting the skill, so he's still really wobbly, but he is getting so much more confident, even since this video was taken. He took his first real steps on Sunday, January 17 and has been getting better and better ever since. At first, he would only walk from the couch to one of us or from the table to the couch, but now he is confident enough to let go of anything he is standing against and will just start walking away. This video was taken at night right before his bedtime, so he's a little cranky, and we had to use the big video camera for incentive for him to walk to me. Usually he will just start going on his own...It really is so fun to watch little ones grow. Sorry the video is a little dark...
Enjoy...we sure do!

Brigden Update

We just went to the doctor's last week for Brigden's 9 month well check...Everything is going great! I hadn't ever gone to this doctor in the Health Center before, but I loved her. I think that I will go back to her every time now.
Here are some recent pictures of little B:




And here are some things that we love about our little man:
*Brigden is constantly on the go. I know that most kids are like this when they are learning to move around and explore their world, but seriously, this kid has some energy. I love his little adventurous side, even though it makes for a tired mommy at the end of the day :) It is so fun to see him learning new things.
*Brigden loves being outside and in the car. Whenever we get bundled up to go outside and open the front door, his arms start going up and down and his feet kick because he is so excited.
*He gives his daddy the BEST hugs. He won't give them to mommy, but that's alright because it is so fun to see their own special relationship growing.
*I love his snuggle time with mommy. We will lay on the couch together and I will tell him stories and he will just lay there and listen. I love this because he is constantly on the go so it is a good time to just relax and nurture our mommy/son relationship.
*Brigden has been making the FUNNIEST faces lately. I really need to get them on camera. It is so funny how he scrunches up his little face.
*He loves to talk and if he is awake, he is making noises. It seems like he comes up with new ones everyday.
*Brigden loves to "help" me with chores around the house. When I vacuum, he crawls up behind me and stands up against the back of my legs and then holds onto my legs and puts his little head in between my legs by my knees. He will walk around the house with me like that the whole time I am vacuuming. I love it, even though it takes about 10 times longer to vacuum.
*He is so good at entertaining himself and will play forever with all of his toys while I get some things done that I need to do. And then he lets me know that it's time for some mommy play time, and then we have lots of fun together.
*He loves to ring the doorbell every time we are coming in the house.
*He loves to play "wake-up mommy." I will lay on the couch, pretending to be asleep and snoring and he will walk along the couch and pat my arm or my face trying to wake me up. Then I pop up and tickle him. He gets such a kick out of it.
*He hates being in his high chair. I have to feed him really fast if I want him to eat all of his food...Cheese is his favorite thing to eat, probably because it is so messy!
*Brigden's smile melts my heart, over and over and over again...
*His new trick is walking! See next post...

Long Overdue...

Yes, I know, it is February and I am barely putting up pictures from Christmas break…but it is better late than never, right? I have so much more recent stuff that I want to post, but it would feel incomplete without this post about all of our Christmas break happenings…

We had a great Christmas break this year down in Arizona. We drove down late in the afternoon on the 23^rd and spent Christmas, Casey’s Birthday (the 26^th), and our anniversary (the 27^th) with my side of the family. Then we went to spend 4 more days with Casey’s side of the family and spent New Years with them. Casey came back up to Utah just in time for school to start again and Brigden and I were able to stay with my family for an extra week for my cousin’s wedding. We have decided that if the rest of our children travel as well as Brigden did, we will be world travelers. We were so impressed at how well he did.

I have decided that I am going to do the rest of this post in a “Top Ten” style, except this is a "Top 20" with no particular order, except chronological. Here are the highlights from our winter break! (WARNING: It’s a long post…enter at your own risk…)

#1 – Christmas Eve with our traditional pajamas and sibling gift exchange. Getting new pajamas for Christmas is one of my most favorite traditions and I think that the pajamas that my mom got for me this year are probably my favorite ones yet. Silky pajamas make me feel like a “grown-up” J I also love the tradition of our sibling gift exchange. It is fun to see the effort and thought that each sibling puts into choosing a gift for the brother or sister that they have that year. It was also fun to have my aunt Leslee there with her boys...

#2 – Santa’s surprise visit…Brigden got to sit on Santa’s lap for the first time and he kept looking at Santa like, “Hey…Don’t I know you? You look like my grandpa…” Classic...

#3 Casey’s big debut as the innkeeper and Brigden’s debut as a not so happy baby Jesus in the Nativity

#4 Like father, like son...I guess this even applies to sleeping positions! I love these two together...Daddy is Brigden's best friend. Thanks Kamrie for sharing your bed with us! (Her bed is seriously the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in)

#5 Christmas Morning...I am ALWAYS the first one awake on Christmas morning. My brother, Jordan, and I had a “plan” every year to be the first ones up. Those are some of my favorite memories of Christmas- our “early riser” club. This year was no different, even as a tired mommy and with Jordan gone on his mission, I was the first one up. I didn’t even try to be. I guess that it is so deep-rooted that it is a habit that's hard to break!

Brigden had so much fun with his very first Christmas! It is so fun as a parent to watch the excitement in your little one’s eyes…

#6 – Christmas Day basketball game…My dad is probably the most selfless and caring person I know. Casey got a new basketball for Christmas and was itching to shoot some hoops. Mid-morning, my dad told Casey to put his tennis shoes on and grab his ball and come with him. (I was curious, so I tagged along) We got in the car and started driving, with only my dad knowing where we were going. We ended up at the house of some family friends who have a son that LOVES basketball. My dad had called ahead to see if we could come over for a game of one-on-one basketball with the pro, Tyler. They had so much fun! Casey loved having someone to play with and I could tell that Tyler was loving it too! Thanks, Dad! That was thoughtful...

#7 – Phone call from Elder Ames!.. .I was so excited to talk to my brother, Jordan, who is serving a mission in New York that I hoarded all of the cordless phones for the hour before he was supposed to call. But I was nice, I let my mom answer it when he called J He sounded so good and is doing great! It is crazy that he comes home in August! We love you, Elder Ames!

#8 – Brigden’s new best friend, Allie the dog…Meet Allie, the dog that my family has had for as long as I can remember. She is a great dog, except for when she is mean to my dad’s chickens, then she is on the bad list for a while…I was so impressed with how well she did with little Brig. She didn’t even flinch when he would grab her feet, ears, or tail! Brigden was enamored with her and followed her around everywhere!

#9 – Brigden loved having stairs to climb…And we sure had to keep our eyes on him!

#10 – We loved helping my dad with his chicken coop additions…and Casey LOVES pictures, as you can tell! Note the sarcasm… :)

#11 – Casey turned the big 2-4!
p.s. We put all of the little parts of his present in separate bags so he had to guess what his one big present was...so it looks like a lot, but it really is one present

#12 – Happy 2-year anniversary! We celebrated by going to the Mesa Temple to do sealings (that is where we were married) and then went to dinner and a movie! It seems like we have been married for so much longer, but I'm so glad that we have many more years to come and then eternity together! Man, oh man, do I love this guy! More to come on him later…

#13 – Birthday Celebration #2…Lucky Casey got to celebrate his birthday twice! Every little kid’s dream! It was fun to celebrate it again with his parents and sisters. The nephews were so excited to help him blow out the candles!

#14 – Happy New Year! We celebrated by going with Boyd and Jen to the New Year’s dance and then came home and played games! I don’t have pictures for our late-nights with games, but that was a highlight of our trip…it was SO much fun for some of us adults to stay up ‘til the wee hours of the morning playing games, especially Ticket to Ride…We love that one!

(Notice the same outfit as the anniversary pics…that’s the joy of visiting our two families at separate times when we go to AZ…I can wear everything twice because neither family has seen the outfit before...which means less packing! YES!)

#15 – Playing with Cousins…Brigden is so lucky to have 6 little boy cousins just a little bit older than him to play with. (I can see lots of mischief in years to come) He had so much fun watching them run around and play and they were so good and nice to him! I think that he had so much fun watching them go all over the place that he was inspired to start walking himself…(more on that in the next post!)

#16 – Visits with Nana…Casey’s grandma (“Nana”) is an amazing lady and we love to visit her as much as we can when we are in St. Johns. We love to sit and talk to her…Little B loved pushing around her walker

#17 – Fun Times with “Tortillas”…or Tias (Aunts in Spanish) They are SO good with Brigden…

#18 – Visit with “Grandma Helen”…When we first moved down to AZ, I was Brigden’s age. We lived in some apartments and this lady was our neighbor upstairs. She became like a grandma-figure in my life with my grandmas so far away in Utah. She is a hoot! I love visiting with her now. She always has funny things to say. This was Brigden’s first time meeting her…

#19 – Going to visit Grandpa at work…Brigden, or should I say “Baxter,” has a fan club at my dad’s work, so we couldn’t go down to AZ without going to visit! There was even a personalized sign waiting for him just like last time we went when he was just 6 weeks old! He is definitely a loved little boy…

#20 – Sharing a special day with a beautiful bride…My cousin Michelle married our good friend, Neal, the day before I left to come back to Utah. I love Michelle. She is beautiful inside and out. We have become a lot closer as we have gotten older and I love the talks that we have. I cannot explain how happy I am for Michelle and Neal. They make a great couple and will be SO happy together. They really are perfect for each other. I wish I had a picture of them together. It was wonderful to be able to be a part of their special day! And it was so great to be able to catch up with some awesome friends from growing up. I have the greatest friends! Thanks Kyle for making sure Brig was included in the picture, that was a fun surprise :)

Well, needless to say, this was really LONG (and it feels good to be done with it), but I am so grateful for the fun times we were able to have in Arizona. We are so blessed with great family and we miss them already!
Any who, now it’s time for bed!

Silly Sleeper...

I went in the other day after Brigden had fallen asleep for his nap to check on him and this is how he fell asleep...sitting up! He must have been really tired! Oh how we love this little boy...

Attention! Attention!

Now that I have your attention, I just want to let you all know that I am officially done with school! And not even just for the semester...I am done done - like will have my bachelor's degree done! If you can't tell, this is a very exciting day. I felt like this day was taking forever to come, but now it is here and I hardly know how to contain myself...Casey and Brigden will have a wife and mommy again! And I will be a college graduate!

I know that Brigden will miss hanging out in the library every once in a while...Doesn't he look thrilled to be there?

I turned in my last paper today (which, of course, I started last night...not procrastinating and actually doing it ahead of time would be way too easy) and I took my last final today as well. I wanted to shout for joy in the testing center as I filled in the last bubble on the scantron, I'm sure all of the people hard at work on their tests are grateful that I did not :)

Anyways, here is a picture of me on my last day of school. That sounds so weird to say because I have been going to school pretty much every day of my life, except for summer break, for the last 16 or so years...

When I came home from taking my last final today, the house was so clean (much better than how I had left it) and there were signs all over the kitchen (a tradition in my family), and there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table. I love flowers. I have such a wonderful husband. He knows how important this accomplishment is to me...

The first REAL snow!

This is what Brigden and I woke up to this morning and I am surprised to say that it actually made me happy! Being from Arizona, I am not a big fan of living where it snows. I will admit that I thought last winter was miserable! When it snowed last winter for the first time, I was already dreading the coming months. But seeing the snow today was different. Brigden and I went outside and it was so peaceful. I think this winter may be different, I'm excited for the new change...Brigden sure thought it was neat, it was hard just getting him to look at the camera!

Feeling Grateful...

**This was my journal entry from last night after Brigden went to sleep...I thought I would share it because it tells a lot of how I am feeling right now...Casey comes home tonight...Yay! I am excited to hear about his experiences!**

Casey left Wednesday afternoon to go down to Mexico with a group to volunteer at an orphanage for a few days. I am so excited for the experiences that he has been able to have the last few days. I wish I could have gone with him! But I am also excited that he will be coming home tomorrow night. Brigden and I sure have missed him! As he has been gone, I have been able to reflect more on my gratitude for him and how much I love him. It has been tough not having him here for a shoulder to lean on when I am tired, a listening ear to listen to my ramblings, or helping hands to play with Brigden when I need a minute to myself. I love him more and more each day for all that he does and all that he is. He helps me to be a stronger person. He is such a great example to me of hard work and Christ-like service.

At the end of this month, we will have been married for 2 years and will have known each other for almost 3. I have learned so much about myself and life in these years with Casey that I know I would not have been able to learn any other way than with Casey at my side. He is my best friend and my confidante. I don't think a day goes by that I don't say to him, "You're the Best..." Usually he shrugs his shoulders or rolls his eyes like what he does isn't that much. But it is. He enables me to become my best self. "He gives me wings to fly." (Sister Hinckley)

This past semester has been really rough with both of us having atleast 15 credit hours, Casey working, and having the sweetest little baby boy to take care of. I would not have been able to do it on my own. But thankfully, I didn't have to - I have had Casey and my Savior to lean on. They both know how important finishing school is to me. They have worked with me to make it happen...I will be finished with my bachelor's degree in less than a week. And it has not happened based on my merits alone. This has been a family effort and accomplishment. WE have done it together - through ups and downs, tears and laughter, faith and hope.

I would feel ungrateful if I didn't also acknowledge our great family and friends who have helped us in this endeavor with watching Brigden, lending a listening ear, or simply brightening my day - I am so grateful for you - Mom & Dad, Margo, Holly, Amber B., Justina, Amber M. - you are the greatest! It is true that Heavenly Father usually meets our needs by means of another...

I love my life. We are living our fairy tale. But our fairy tale isn't made up of fancy castles, knights in shining armor, or princesses in fancy ball gowns. Our fairy tale is made up of a humble home where we learn and grow, a daddy who gets up early and stays up late working and studying to provide for a family that he loves so much, a mommy who is working hard to finish school and who sometimes doesn't get ready for the day until the day is almost over because she has been playing with and taking care of a little one all day, and a baby boy who needs so much love, care, and attention that it is sometimes overwhelming but who brings so much joy and love that his parents never knew was possible. Our fairy tale is written in the ink of selfless service, sacrifice, devotion, struggle, and love. We make it happen. It is not always easy, but that makes it all the sweeter.