March

More Zoo time....What a way to kick off spring by going to the zoo to see all the animals. We had such a great time. We met my sister-in-law and later my brother and had a great time walking around.

This little one I just can't get enough of. She was laughing at the seal swimming by and I just love her face and can hear her laugh when I look at this picture. 

Brantley and his buddy Corbin by the polar bear.

I am not sure where Brantley got this face from. He cracks me up.

Brantley's favorite animal is the giraffe. 

I have been wanting to make my kids a sand box for a long long time and I finally did it this year...and they love it. Brantley will spend hours out in it.

Brantley is talking to Braylee asking her how she is liking the sand box...I love how he talks to her. 

He is such a handsome boy!! I just love him!

Brantley funnies:
I had a brownie before I went to check on Brantley after he had gone to bed and as I was in talking to him he started sniffing the air because he is like his mommy and can smell brownies a mile away.
Brantley: "whats that smell like?"
Me: "I don't know"
Brantley: "What are you eating in there?" as he points to my mouth
Me: "Nothing is in there now" As I open it wide for him to see.
Brantley: "What was in there?"
Me: "I had some Jambalaya" Because I did...that is what we had for dinner.
Brantley: "What next? Knowing that he wasn't smelling dinner.
Me: "Some watermelon."
Brantley: "What next?"
Me: "Some milk."
Brantley: "What next? What is in there?"
Me: "Some other stuff."
Brantley: "oh, okay." Then rolled over and closed his eyes to go to sleep.

ha ha I missed that one...funny boy!

A Fun Filled February

Februray passed much faster that I expected. Going through my camera I found these pictures of Braylee and Brantley. I just can't believe how big they are getting.

Braylee turned 19 months in February. She is the funniest thing to watch.

She is sugar and a WHOLE lot of spice.

Braylee looks a lot like I did at her age. I remember my mom putting curliers in my hair so I thought I would try them in hers. They didn't last through the night! And she didn't want to have her picture taken...but she still looks so cute.

Brantley took this picture of Braylee and I LOVE how blue her eyes are!

Valentines day we celebrated by making sugar cookies and eatting a heart shaped pizza from little ceasars followed by a movie and popcorn. I can't think of a better way of spending Valentines Day than with the people I love most....eatting foods I love most!:D

 

 

I gave the kids a bath in the morning. Braylee always gets done before Brantley and so I took her out and got her all dressed for the day. The next thing I knew she was crying from the bathroom...apparently she wanted to climb back in the tub and so she did. But didn't like how it felt with the wet clothes. So we took them off and let her play in the tub a little longer.

Brantleys favorite thing to do when we go shopping is to ride the horse they have there. We give him two quarters to put in his pocket, and as we go shopping if he is acting up he has to give us his quarters. But he can earn them back by being good. And at the end if he has them we get to ride the horse. He loves putting Braylee on with him. I am always amazed at how sweet and protective he is of her.

 

This month we had a lot of fun. We went to the zoo (it was snowing) but my kids didn't care. Spent a lot of time with family and playing outside.

New Year....New Start

I love January and the new beginnings that it means to me. Last year was great and we made a lot of great memories and had some really great times but I am ready for the new adventures that await us this year. I sat down and made some new years resolutions and one of them is to be better at documenting the year, both the good and the bad.

 So here are some

  Just in January...

 

We rang in the new year....as very boring people. I almost feel ashamed. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Smedleys house and were joined by Polly (Davids Sister) her hubby Jordan and their 3 kids. As well as Aunt Varci and her little girl, and of course, Grandma and Grandpa Smedley. The kids all had a great time playing but around 10:30-11 the kids had, had enough. So we put them to bed. I laid by Brantley and fell asleep. David came to wake me up about 5 minutes to midnight but I wasn't fully awake when he asked me if I wanted to come watch the ball drop and I told him no and slept the rest of the night. I felt so bad in the morning when he reminded me that I had told him no (I only had a vague recollection of our conversation). Needless to say next year I will be awake no matter what to give my hubby a kiss to ring in the new year!

What better way to start the year off at home than with hot chocolate and toast....

Family Home Evening....together David and I have been wanting to do better at having FHE and we have had a lot of fun and Brantley LOVES when we have it. He asks almost every day if it is time for family home evening. But for one of our nights we went bowling at BYU. David gets a free game each semester and we only have to pay for shoes! This time we had both kids bowl and they loved it, Braylee especially loved the treats that we brought with us to eat while we bowled.

 

 

 I took the kids down to see David in action at work. For his job, up to now, he has been following 150 deer. Some of the deer have been moved from cedar city and the rest were just captured in Fillmore and all that were captured had collars put on them and David tracks them to watch survival rates and if the translocation deer are joining with the resident deer. This year, however, the people who are over his masters project decided that they wanted to increase the amount of deer to 300 so they captured more deer in Fillmore, and cedar city and we got to go watch the captured deer come in. Brantley and Braylee LOVED it. When David and I talked about me bring them down we thought it would be a really short trip and the kids would be miserable, but we were very wrong. We stayed outside for about FIVE HOURS. Luckily it was a "warm" day upper 30's to lower 40's, it felt so nice to be outside and I didn't hear a single complaint from either one of my kids the whole time.

We didn't get to see the capture its self because that is done with a helicopter team that flies around to find deer then shoots a net that land and captures them. They then go and wrap them up in this blanket looking thing and bring them in by helicopter to the awaiting team that rushes out to release the deer from the blanket then carry them into a scale to weigh them then takes them into a tent to take body measurements and put a collar on them. After they are done they take them out a ways roll them over untie their legs and let them go. Brantley had a great time having snowball fights in between helicopter visits and when he would hear the helicopter coming in he would stop and yell "EVERYBODY, THE HELICOPTER IS COMING!" Braylee just walked around following her big brother happy as can be.

Watching the helicopter come in with 2-4 hanging deer was fascinating! The pilot laid them down on the ground so well. The kids had such a great time and were so tired that they were both asleep before I even got the the freeway (about a 5 minute drive) and slept the whole way home from Filmore. The next day we drove to Grandma Smedleys house and Brantley would run around pretending to be the helicopter and then the captured deer. We had such a great time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and I celebrated our SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY. I cannot believe how fast time has flied. Really I still feel like a new, newlywed! I love David more than I ever have. We definitely have had our ups and downs and don't always agree on everything but we are happy and life is good. We decided that we wanted to go do something fun this year and so planned 2 days of fun! We went to Maddox Ranch house for lunch, then went to the Brigham City Temple and did a session. This was our first time to this temple and it was beautiful. After the temple session we went and checked into the Alaskan Inn. For dinner we went and got Panda Express ate it in the car on our way to the dollar theater to watch Thor. In the morning we had delicious breakfast served to our room and we got to eat in bed. We had a such a great time! I love the time that is spent with just David and me.  

 

We have been anxiously awaiting the finished 7-11 right by our apartment. I told Brantley that when it was finished we would go and get a treat and so every time we would drive by Brantley would say "its almost open and we go get a treat." So the day finally came that it opened so we went for a walk and got a treat. Braylee picked a sucker and David and Brantley got slurpees and I got a hot chocolate. We had a lot of fun and it was even a "warm" day!

 

 

Brantley has been big into building blocks lately. He builds "temples" and wants me to take a picture of him with him.

Home Happenings

Bath time....still a favorite time of day!!!

 Davids Grandma passed away and we got her couches. Brantley wanted to take one last picture with our old couch before we got rid of them!

 Brantley took this picture...I was just so impressed with how well it turned out that I just had to put it on.

 Braylee looks up to her big brother a lot. And wants to do what he wants to do. Lately she has been into putting on his boots and riding his horse.

 My baby girl is getting so big!

Brantley has lost his love for nap time so we have moved into quite time. And this is what he chooses to do. Pull out almost all of his books and line them up all over his floor! Then at the end of quite time he will put them in a pile and will help me put them away!

January has been a great kick off to a new year...can't wait to see what else is to come.