Brayden's Turn

Well, our little boy came in the middle of two miscarriages, so we know he is supposed to be in our family. He is such a sweetie, most of the time. It's sad I don't have any pictures of when I was pregnant with him. Actually, I have some snapshots from a shower I was given, but not on the computer. My pregnancy with him was pretty uneventful just like his sister's. I was still working at Jacobs Wholesale Paper. I had the same sickness from week 7 to 14. By the way, I was also sick that same time frame during my pregnancies that ended in miscarriages. Four times the sickness for two babies. Oh well. Not long ago, Jonathan asked me didn't I want another baby. I knew he was kidding, but I said NO WAY. He said, "But I thought you wanted four kids." I said, "Actually, I do have four kids." Anyway, back to Brayden. I was induced with him too, but a few days before my due date instead of a week after, like Victoria. It was a lot easier this time. I knew how long I could last before the epidural. I wasn't checked many times, but I remember the last time, they were like, "Oh my gosh, the head is right there. Let me go get Leigh." I don't even think they had time to get everything ready for when he was born. When my midwife got in there, I pushed maybe 3 times and there he was. I was like, "That's what I'm talking about!" He was smaller than Victoria. He weighed 6lb10oz, I think. I know, that's bad. Anyway, I couldn't have asked for a better delivery. Actually, when he came out he DID give me a little scare. He didn't cry. I was like, "Is he ok? What's wrong with him?" They kept saying that he was fine. Eventually, he cried and I felt a little better.

Here he is just a few hours old. What a sweet sleeping boy!

He cracks us up. He always has something in his mouth. He has to free up his hands for more important things.

This is when he USED to sleep during church. All you mothers know what I'm talking about. Don't we wish our kids would sleep during church a little longer than they actually do? He wasn't like most babies and sleep ALL the way through church, but he usually slept through sacrament meeting.

Here he is when we visited my aunt and cousins in Louisiana. My mom bought that walker at Wal-Mart for him to use and then took it back when we left. :)

I just like this picture.

Anyway, that's our baby. He will be 2 on July 8th. He loves to be outside and LOVES to play with his sister, "YaYa". That's what he calls Victoria.

We're happy to have him!

Excited

Well, there won't be any pictures here, but we have a couple of exciting things coming up. Exciting for me, at least. Other than the fact that I finished my first semester of my online classes pretty early. My next semester doesn't start until June 1. So until then, we are going to be taking a couple of trips. Next weekend, for Victoria's birthday, we are going to spend a couple of days in Atlanta and probably will go to the aquarium. We went there when Brayden was 3 weeks old. At first it was fine, then he got hungry. Not to mention, ALL the people that were there! We should be more prepared this time and we will get there RIGHT when it opens!

Then a couple weeks later, we will be going to the BEACH!!! That's right, Florida. We have been to Florida once since we've been married. That was probably the second year we were married and only for about a day and a half. I'm excited to take the kids on a real vacation. We've never really been on one. I think I'm more excited than Victoria to go to the beach. When asked if she wanted to go to the beach or Gatlinburg, she said Gatlinburg! I said, "Are you crazy?" She just doesn't know how wonderful the beach is. I haven't really been since my senior year of high school. I hope I am not disappointed. Anyway, hopefully we will have pictures and lots of fun things to tell about when we get back.

Victoria - From the beginning

Well, everyone and their birth stories... I figured I would attempt it. It has been a long time, and not very eventful, but here it is none the less. My 1st pregnancy wasn't too bad. I had 24 hour sickness from week 7-14, but I could handle it because I was so excited to be pregnant. We had been married for about 6 years and I was ready for a baby. I was working at Jacobs Wholesale Paper company as the customer service representative when I got pregnant. They were like a second family to me. The owners of the company took me and Jonathan out to eat one night and I had just found out I was pregnant. We told them and they were so excited. They were the first people we told. We weren't big picture takers and still aren't, I guess. But here is one of the only pictures of me pregnant with Victoria. I was about 8 months I guess.

My mom came to visit for the birth, or when we thought the birth would be. She came about a week before my due date. Well, she was here for almost 2 weeks and she was supposed to leave in a couple of days. I went a week past my due date and my midwife said she would induce me. I didn't have one contraction before I went in to be induced, so I didn't really know what they felt like. Well, they started me on the pitocin after midnight. I couldn't sleep because I had to pee every hour. Such a pain with that I V. Anyway, the next morning around 7, I felt a contraction. I thought, "I can handle this." For some reason, I wanted to have her naturally. Not sure what I was thinking. Anyway, needless to say, the contractions got more intense real quick. At first they gave me stadol and I was able to sleep for a while. When I woke up, I got an epidural, and it wasn't bad after that. I could tell when I was ready to push. And I didn't have to do it very long. Probably about 30 minutes. And there she was. The first thing I thought when they gave her to me is that she was heavy. She was 7lb 11oz.

Here we are sitting on the floor with no furniture. We had moved into that house while I was pregnant. What a sweet sleeping baby.

She was actually a very good baby. I worked up until recently, so I feel I missed out on a lot. She had a good babysitter though that she loved. She was always happy.

As she grew, I enrolled her in dance class. She LOVED it. I did too. Seeing as how I loved to dance too. You know how sometimes you live out your dreams through your kids? I always wanted to be in a dance class too. The closest I got was in 4th grade, we were in gymnastics. That was pretty fun too.

This is her doing her yellow polka dot bikini dance. She was in it for 2 years, then our budget wouldn't allow it. Poor thing. Anyway, she turned out ok anyway. So, there she is. Our big girl.

My Dad

Tomorrow will be the 5 yr anniversary of my dad's death. It was very unexpected and made me realize how much I loved him. We had recently reunited after not speaking for many years. One day, he called me up out of the blue on a Sunday afternoon and said he was about 20 minutes away from us. He was a truck driver and was making a delivery in Ringgold, GA. We were about to lay down for a nap and Victoria was already asleep. She was a little over a year old. I recognized his voice immediately and couldn't wait to see him. He always called me his baby girl. I loved that. Well, we got up, got dressed and headed down to Ringgold. He looked exactly the same except with gray hair :). Victoria went right to him and she never did that to anyone. He also got to meet Jonathan. We had a nice little visit and exchanged e-mails and promised to keep in touch.

When we went to Louisiana for Christmas that year, we went to his house and had a crawfish boil. It was awesome! Victoria ate them about as fast as we could peel them. My dad thought it was the best thing that she liked crawfish. At the funeral, people came up to me and told me that he would brag that his 16 month old granddaughter LOVED crawfish.

We planned on coming for a visit that summer and go to a cabin they had. He died 2 months later and we didn't get to see him again. I am so grateful that he called me that day and that we were able to reconnect after all those years. I think about him all the time. At the time he died, there was a Carrie Underwood song that was always on the radio. "Don't Forget to Remember Me" Every time I would hear it, I would cry because of the part that said "and make sure you tell Daddy that I'm still his little girl" I'm sad that Brayden didn't get to meet him because I know they would have loved each other. My brother has done his temple work and I'm glad about that. He was AWESOME and I loved him!

This was in his younger days. Look how handsome.

I love this picture of him. It shows me that I have his eyes.

This is me and Michael counting all the change he always kept in one of those huge bottles. That was one of my favorite things to do when we visited him. I think the only reason he kept it was so that me and Michael could count it every time we visited :).

A Year in Review

We had great intentions of sending out a Christmas letter this year complete with pictures and all. Seeing as how we decided to do this a few days before Christmas, it didn't quite get done. Here are a few pictures from most recent to oldest because I can't see to figure out how to move them where I want them to go.

We got a little bit of snow and the kids thought it was the greatest. I just thought it was cold.

We had a couple of cute kitties for Halloween.

Brayden learned to climb the stairs.

Victoria lost 4 teeth. Here are her 1st two that she lost.

This summer my mom and one of my sisters came to visit. This is us at the zoo. Savanna got acquainted with a couple more cousins.

Savannah is telling Brayden all about her life back in Utah. As you can tell, he thinks it sounds like it's too cold there.

Me and the kids made a trip to Louisiana and had a wonderful time.

Brayden is already learning to honk at other drivers just like his Daddy.

Well, Victoria is 6 1/2 and is in 1st grade. She is the smartest kid in her class and loves to learn. She kind of reminds me of me when I was younger, not the smartest kid part, but the liking school part :). She loves her little brother and they play well together given the difference in their ages.

Brayden is 18 months old and is very happy. He jabbers constantly and can't stay still for a second. He loves playing with kids his own age, his big sister, his mommy, and even his Daddy :). He's such a sweetie.

Jonathan keeps busy working hard to provide for our family, sometimes having to go to work at 3:00am or not coming home until after midnight. He has had challenges at work, but we are glad he still has a job.

After working the first 10 years of our marriage, I was able to stay home this year. The events that led up to it weren't that pleasant, but it has been a blessing. I keep busy with the kids, dishes, laundry, errands, and whatever else comes up. Being at home has also allowed me to go back to school. I am getting my teaching degree online. I started in December and like it so far.

Well, I guess that is about it for our family this year. Hopefully, I can do better posting a little more often this year.

Mostly Pictures

Well, Dawn, here ya go. Since you are about the only person to look at this. You requested them, so here they are.

How about this face? Precious, huh?

He thinks he is such a big boy since he can climb up the stairs. When he gets to the top, he tries to turn around and come back down. That doesn't work so well.
Here is Victoria with her Daddy. I think she got his tan, what do you think?
Normally, Jonathan does the grilling, but he was going to be late one day and asked if i could start the steaks. Brayden figured that since he was the other man in the house, he could help. As long as there is a man grilling, it doesn't matter how old he is, right? I have to say, that those steaks were extremely delicious!

Gatlinburg

A couple of weeks ago, we took a little trip to Gatlinburg. We wanted to do something before Victoria went back to school. And we have lived here for 11 years and have never been, so why not? Anyway, we stayed 3 nights in a cabin. It was nice to be away from people. We did walk the main strip a couple of days, but just for a little while. There were so many people, it felt like we were in Hong Kong again. Our first night there, a mother bear and her four cubs came to our front porch looking for food. All they found was Brayden's dirty diaper that I put in the outside trash can. They poked around a bit and then when on to the next cabin.

We brought food from home to cook for dinner and just went out for lunch. One day we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp. It was really good, but expensive.

I wish i had gotten a picture of the bears because it was really cool, but oh well. i'll have to post later about Victoria's 1st lost tooth and Brayden's 1st steps!