***EIGHT MONTHS***

I can't believe this little one is eight months old. I know I say that each passing month but time just goes way to fast. This little one keeps us on our toes and we love her sweet little spirit that she brings to our family. Her is a little about her as of lately...

*Weighs 16 pounds 8 ounces (or she did when we went a few weeks ago. She has since been sick and I think she has lost some weight because she hasn't been eating well.)

*Wears size 3 diapers

* Wears mostly 3-6 month clothes but we are transitioning to 6-9. 

* Takes 2-3 naps a day. One at 9am for an hour and another at 1:30 for 2 to 3 hours. Sometimes she will take another one around 5 but not very often.

* Goes to sleep at 8:30 and will sleep until between 7 and 8 or 11-12 hours.

* Sits and gets down from sitting to roll

* Rolls everywhere

*Digs toes into the ground and is starting to push up into crawling position (crawling is NOT far away)

* Eats 5-8 oz and has baby food 3 times a day. Her favorite is still prunes but she will eat anything

* Loves finger food and is really good at pinching food with her fingers and bringing it to her mouth. She LOVES bread and eggs. 

* Laughs a lot, especially at Brantley

* Loves being held

* Doesn't like to be left alone to play by herself. She likes to be where the people are. 

* Loves to stand

*Loves being outside

*Loves everything about water....drinking it, bathing in it, swimming in it she just loves it all.

*She is so easy to make smile and smiles at everyone 

*Has sticky fingers....will grab anything that is put in front or anything she can get her hands on. 

*says ba ba and da da

*Starting to wave

*Starting to clap

and 

*LOVES to give kisses

We sure do love this little one. 

First time having a sucker. This face is actually a sour face not a crying one. She loved the sucker and just wanted more and more.

   My cute little sleeper. She sleeps just like her mama!

 Always happy when she is getting attention! 

 Always wiggly wiggly wiggly. If your not moving she wants down so she can move by herself

My baby girl is getting so big!! Love her!

Bryce Canyon

Last week we (the kids and I) had the opportunity to go with David down to Bryce Canyon  for the Wildlife Society Meeting. Last year we went to Zions, so it was fun going to a different national park. We stayed for two nights and three days. The kiddos did pretty well on the way down. Brantley struggled the last hour of the three hour drive but Braylee pretty much slept the whole way and we can thank her cold for that. Wednesday night was a little bit of a joke, sleeping wise, Brantley woke up at least 4 times crying out, probably because he was in a strange place. Braylee woke up throwing up and could hardly stop coughing. So I slept by Brantley to keep him calm and David slept by Braylee to keep her slightly elevated. It was a terrible night sleep for us with active sleeping children. But Thursday night was much better. Thursday we mostly played in the hotel room since it was a little bit to cold to play outside but we did go swimming. Braylee LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Brantley took a little coaxing to get in but once he was in he cried when it was time to get out. We also went to see the poster David made to represent his project for work. He did such a good job. The poster looked amazing and we believe he would have won the poster contest had not the judge also been a proud poster owner who won of course..

Friday we got to go to the park. We went on a little hike that allowed strollers but wasn't too long because it was a little to cold for my kiddos that we already sick. The view was beautiful and the pictures I took don't do justice. One day David and I want to go back so we can do more exploring with our strollers but for now it was a fun family experience.   

 Brantley's favorite part was throwing rocks. He didn't care about the view....just watching the rocks go down hill. It scared David and I to have him so close to the edge so he mostly go to throw them on the side that wasn't a cliff.

 On the way home we stopped and got some delicious pizza with some of the best breadsticks I have ever had.

 Brantley had a great time eating his pizza.

We had a great time. But next year if I go I will go without Brantley and Braylee. :D

No bears are out tonight....or are they?

This past week David and I had the opportunity to join some awesome people for a bear hike. The people we went with are doing a study on the bears following their reproduction and lifespan. This same group did a public bear hike where almost 200 or so people showed up. So there was little time to see the bear or the cubs that the bear had. However, this hike was a private one with only 10 people, David and myself included. We drove 3 hours to get to a house where we were meeting all the people and then drove another 20 minutes to where we unloaded our snowmobiles. This was my first time ever on a snowmobile and I wasn't disappointed. 

In this picture from left to right: Josh, Dr. Hal Black (Grandpa as he like to be called by me), Julie (a BYU grad student), and Jayneen. Josh, Hal, and Jayneen are all just helping follow this project until it is all finished.

My cute husband helping getting the snowmobiles off

We rode the snowmobiles about a mile or so to a spot where we snowshoes in to the bear den. Dr. Black invited another family with us who were unexpirenced on snowmobiles and so a lot of time was spent helping them get unstuck.

This is beautiful country.

I thought as we were driving up to the little ranch house that we wouldn't need snowmobiles or snowshoes. Oh boy was I wrong. I was up to my knees.

I didn't really drive. I enjoyed just holding onto David. He did a great job driving. But he is quite expirenced since he uses the machines a lot for work.

David in his snow shoes with some of our group.

My camera got dropped so the bottom is a little blurry from water.

The snow was deep and the guys that started off packing the trail for the rest of us got tired pretty quick. David volunteered to break trail and he was like an animal. He only stopped to let everyone else catch up. I was so proud of him.

We were getting so close to the bear but of course she couldn't make it very easy for us to find her and she didn't choose the most convient place for us either.

I took a picture of this cute girl to show how steep the mountainside was. We pretty much had to slide down on our bums the whole time and going up was on our hands and knees pulling at weeds and branches.

When we finally found the bear her cave was obscured by many branches and trees. We waited until she was sedated before we went to close. You can't see the people working on her very well but that just shows how thick it was.

Bear Scat....we were definitely in the right place!

Josh had just poked her with the medication and was waiting for her to go down.

After he poked her the first time they wait 15-20 minutes and then give her some more just to make sure she responded well to the medicine.

You have to look real close to see her but you can see an eye in this one.

I got to come up just in time to see her fall over. After she was down they went and put a mask on her so she wouldn't get freaked out by them working on her. She is still wide away but her body is numb. It is like having an epidural for the whole body.

They are taking her previous collar off and putting on a new one. She was such a fat bear that the old collar had given her a few sores that they medicated

I was shocked at how small the bear den was. I pictured a huge cave that went in 15 feet, but no it was very small and didn't go back far at all.

I was quite disappointed to find out that she didn't have any cubs. She was supposed to but hopefully in two years we will be able to go back and she will. They don't sedate the cubs so you would just get to hold them and play with them but it was still fun getting to touch her.

They even told us we could lay by her. So we did.

David was the first to crawl in and get real close to her.

I was a lot closer than I look in this picture. It was crazy laying by her and hearing her breath. A little nerve wracking but it was awesome.

I took a picture looking down on everyone as they were walking (crawling) up the hill!

Needless to say it was an awesome trip. My mother-in-law took my kids over night then my mom came and got them from her in the morning until we came and picked them up. 

We can't wait to do this again.