Celine Dion

This past Monday I got a call from a friend in our ward and she asked if I wanted to go with her and a few girls to the Celine Dion concert that night because they got free tickets! I was so excited! When I originally knew she was coming to Columbus I looked online for ticket prices and they were quite expensive and then I kindof forgot about her coming, so I was just so excited to get the call on Monday. It was such a fun concert! I wish Cory could have been there with me but thank you to him for being willing to let me go on such short notice and staying home with the kids. I also discovered two songs that I didn't know of hers that I really liked (I included them in my song list at the bottom of my blog). It was a fun night!! Thanks again!

I love Fall . . .

. . . and everything that goes along with it. I love the slight chill in the air, the way the leaves change, the anticipation of the holidays! Halloween being my favorite! I don't know if it is all the creepy witches, the bright orange, green stripes, and purple colors, or if it is going to the pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkin, or hay rides, fall parties, or eating all the chocolate I can justify without the guilt, but I just love this time of year!! Last night we went with some good friends of ours, the Koenigs, to a U-Pick apple orchard. The kids loved picking apples from the trees, and eating along the way; so did the adults. Ethan kept picking up apples off the ground and hucking them, and one time I saw him under a low branch just plucking apples off the tree and dropping them onto the ground. Funny boy. We had a great time. Now to just figure out what to do with 20 lbs of apples . . . I love this time of year!

Daddy's little girl

Well, I realized the other day that I never posted that we bought a home here in Ohio. We absolutely love it. We actually closed about a month ago and we have been so busy trying to utilize our time while still living out our lease in our apartment to get a lot of the messing stuff done before we move in (I will post before and after photos when it is done.) Cory has been wonderful about letting me just "create" our space even if it makes a lot more work for him. He comes home from work, eats and then heads over to the house. He has been working so hard, already he has adding 12 three inch halogen lights in our living room with a friend of ours (no small job), he's been stripping cabinetry (a long process), painting doors, cleaning up the yard after our huge wind storm we had and the list goes on. Consequently he hasn't had a lot of time with us so we sure enjoy our quite times on Sunday and the few evenings that we have free to be together! I thought I'd post a few photos of him and Brooklyn, he loves his little girl and hasn't seen much of her lately. Thanks hun for all you do! It's coming together and it is going to look great! I Love you!

The kids

Well, Briggs started preschool last week. On the first day I got to go with him for an hour and a half and then Thursday was his first full day. He was so cute as he was getting ready to go out the door he said to Ethan, "I'm going to preschool all by myself, sorry you can't come buddy." (and he really was sorry). Ethan was upset that he couldn't go and emphatically yells out "Preschool!" to which Briggs repeated himself, again apologizing that he wasn't going to be able to go. It really was cute! Briggs is such a sweet boy. He is a friend to everyone! Just tonight we were going to get into the van to run a few errands and he saw a group of boys talking and he yells across the parking lot, "Hi!" and then he says to me, "those are my best friends!" (he's never met any of them, but he is friends to everyone) He especially likes older kids and loves to be around them. Sweet boy.


Oh, our little Ethan . . . so much fun and so much sass packed into a little package! He loves Brooklyn sooooooooooo much (and I still don't think I've emphasized it enough!) He loves to crawl into her car seat, all the while smashing her so he can kiss her. He was into squeezing her cheeks as hard as he could. I tried to put a stop the that and got persistent screaming from him. It has gotten better. Lets just say that she is definitely going to be a tuff little girl! What a fun boy though! He is so full of life!



And Brooklyn, our little sweet heart; she is coming up on 2 months now and is smiling quite a bit now; she has the cutest little dimple. She is quite content and usually okay with being malled by her brothers; she really is such a joy to our home! We love our little babe!

How long does it take you to get ready . . . .

So, yesterday I started getting ready for the day just shortly after 8 am.

I go to jump into the shower, but, just before that, Ethan wasn't feeling good so I got him in the bath. He decides he wants to play for a while and I wait. Finally, I get into the shower. I get out and wash my face, throw on my pajama's and Brooklyn is hungry. So I sit down to nurse her; hair wet, un-brushed, with no make-up. Now it is just after 9.

My hair is definitely not going to blow dry without frizz but oh, well. Briggs wants a snack, and Ethan hasn't eaten breakfast yet, so I get him some cereal and need to go back about 3 times to re-fill his little bowl. Cory calls me from work to see what I'm doing, I tell him I'm trying to get ready (ha ha) and head back to work on my hair. Ethan gets done and I am just in the middle of blow drying my hair and Briggs informs me that Ethan wants out of his chair. I go to the kitchen to get him down from his chair and wash his hands and face and the boys start to play. That play eventually (as it seems to do these days) leads to a fight, usually over a toy or Ethan is screaming because Briggs' has tackled him. After several threatenings to "stop tackling Ethan" or to "quit fighting or I'm turning the cartoons off" (which I usually use as a decoy while I'm getting ready) and I decide that I'm about done with all of that and decided to let the boys duke it out with each other; (they'll figure it out right) and I head back to my bathroom, with the fan blaring to drown out the noise, and finish the "already 30 minute process" of blow drying and doing my hair (There is a reason I don't wash it everyday!) By this time, Brooklyn, who was asleep is now awake from all of the noise and I still don't have my make-up on. It is 10 o'clock.

Ethan needs another diaper change so I kill two birds with one stone and change Brooklyn at the same time, but Brooklyn is in desperate need of a bath and so if I'm changing her diaper I better give her a bath and save myself a diaper; so that is what I do. (There is no way we are going to make it out of the house to get anything done or do something fun before we've got to turn around and come home for lunch.) I still haven't eaten breakfast, Ethan is running around with no shirt, Briggs is the only one dressed for the day and now Brooklyn. I decide I better do my make-up while I can. Briggs keeps coming in saying that he's still hungry but I tell him he's already had a snack and he'll have to wait; they clearly need some attention and I just want a few moments to my self. I finally get to the bathroom to finish my make-up and it is just about 10:30.

I get dressed, grab some breakfast--or rather brunch, and then I decide if we are going to go out and go to the park I better nurse Brooklyn before we leave. So out go my plans of going to the paint store or running some "important mommy" errands. It is 11 and I decide that it is a beautiful day and we only have about an hour before lunch and we head to the park; and I'm so glad we did! The boys loved swinging on the BIG swings and having me do under-dogs and push them higher! I'm so glad I chose the boys over running errands, it is always worth it!



So, 2 1/2 hours later, 3 diapers, 2 baths, breakfast, snacks, a phone call, nursing, breaking up several arguments, and many other interruptions, I am finally ready for the day! Now you know how long it takes me to get ready. How about you? ? ? ? ?

a little update . . .

So I took Brooklyn in for her 1 month appointment and she is sure growing. She is alread 10 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches tall. She is starting to smile and she is definitely more alert these days. She pretty much sleeps 7-8 hours during the night which is great for me. I am getting more sleep which is nice. However our little Ethan boy keeps on waking us up between 5-6 am when it is still pitch dark outside; not sure why he is doing that but thankfully he went back down today.






Just a funny story from Ethan's journal: "So I went in for my 4-week check up after having Brooklyn and for whatever reason I don’t know, I brought you kids along. I am not sure what I was thinking when the nurse told me to undress from the bottom down and the doctor would be into see me. Oh, no. I didn’t remember that this was going to be happening. So Briggs wants to sit on the table and is making so much noise with the table paper, Brooklyn is on the verge of crying and I look over and I see you with a big grin on your face looking at me and chewing on the stirrups; yes, the stirrups. Much to my dismay, it was pretty funny about 10 minutes later as I recounted my “experience” at the doctors office to daddy." Lets just hope my thinking things through is a little more clear in the future; it's a good story though.





Briggs and Ethan love brooklyn. I try not to get frustrated by Ethan constantly waking her up by trying to kiss her while she is asleep in her car seat, or he wants to see her. The other day she was sleeping in her swing and he went and got the bouncy chair, pulled it up to the swing, sat down and started pushing the swing as hard as he could with his feet; actually the whole scene was quite funny; I guess he just loves to be with her and that is a good thing. Briggs has a little bit more of a mature approach to Brooklyn and he loves to be soft with her and give her kisses and smell her hair after she's had a bath. He is constantly saying "she's so sweet." I feel so very blessed!