Some of This & That

I just love these two little cuties! What more can I say.Dal & I made a banana pretzel caterpillar type thing (and he's making a crazy face:)
So we have a kid tent that Dal was really excited to set up and he wanted to sleep in it in our back yard area. We opted to set it up in our dining room area facing the screen door so he could kind of feel like he was outside. He actually did sleep in it the whole night by himself but he did get up about 10 times needing different things....his blanket, a drink of water, once when I came down he said "Mommy I need a hug" and that was it. I gave him a hug then he went back to sleep. It was pretty cute. The annoyance I felt for having to get up that 8th time all melted away with that request :) We moved the tent up to his room the next night and he sleep like normal.
Before he went to sleep he was really excited to read his scriptures with a flashlight in his tent. (Dal is on a new kick of closing his eyes whenever he says "cheese" to pose for a picture:)

We went to First Dam for some duck feeding fun (There were some adorable little baby ducks there. I just love babies of any kind, well probably most any kind:)

Fun at the Park & Dead Animal Zoo :)

Lately we have enjoyed some good times with extended family. It started with my mother in law coming to town to visit us. It was very fun to have her here! We took her to the wonderful Willow Park. Braelyn had her first experience swinging in a big outside swing.

Braely Rae also got her first good look at a parakeet and she thought it was pretty cool

A nice guy gave Dal some duck food and this is his super cute excited face and jump after he threw the duck some food and the duck ate it

A couple days later we headed down to Provo to go to the temple with Jake's sister, and got to be with a lot of his family there too, and spend some time with them. It was wonderful. We also spent some time with my family that lives is Provo (my mom happened to be in town for Women's Conference so we got to play with her too). While there we hung out, played a lot of Wii and were planning on going to Hogle Zoo but due to inclement weather we ended up going to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point instead. It was a very cool museum. Dal had been excited to go to the zoo so I was explaining to him that we were going to a dinosaur museum instead where we would see bones of animals that lived and died a long time ago. He thought that sounded cool. On our way there he said "Mom, are we at the dead animal zoo yet?"

I thought that was a pretty funny and fitting thing to call it :)

Along with all of the cool dino bones they also had some cool interactive stuff for the kids like a sand area where they could dig for fossils. While at the museum we met up with Catherine and Christen and their kids so Dal got to play and dig with his cousins which was really fun for him.
They also had a huge sand and water table where they could search for little dinosaurs

Good times with the fam!

Sweet Moments & Sweet Siblings

I just love being a mom! Of course there are days where my patience hits its limit, days of seemingly endless cleaning up messes, and just pure craziness, but there are also many, many sweet moments and some where I pause for a minute and realize how precious this time is with my sweet children and how fast it will go. These are irreplacable years with them and I am continually reminding myself to enjoy them and cherish them as much as I can.

Dalyn is such a joy. He is so full of life and energy and is so much fun. He is also a little thinker. The things he puts together and comes up with never cease to amaze me. Lately he has really been into drawing and coloring and anything Spiderman. All the stages and phases are so fun!
Braelyn is so precious. She is just the sweetest and happiest baby. She loves to smile, laugh, squeal, socialize, etc. She is my little sunshine! (An added bonus is that she has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old. Now she's up to about 10 hours a night. All that great sleep makes for a happier baby and mommy:)

Many sweet moments come from seeing Dalyn as a big brother. From day one he has been the sweetest brother. He loves his baby sister so much and it has been so fun to see him take the opportunity to develop his nurturing and protective side:) He loves to share things with her (like his Sea World hat that he put on her). He also likes to make sure she's included in fun things we do, like the other day for FHE we played Candy Land and he picked out a gingerbread person for her and helped her take her turns. I love my little angels!

Rewind to Surprise Baby Shower

In thinking about sweet sister-in-laws and surprises I realized that I never blogged about my surprise baby shower that my sister-in-law Tiffany threw for me. That was something so fun and so special that I really want it documented here too. First of all, let me say that Tiffany is seriously one of the sweetest people I know. We are so grateful that my brother Collin was lucky enough to find her!

So, unbeknownst to be, for months Tiffany was planning and preparing for my surprise baby shower. She planned and orchestrated everything so perfectly! This is how it went down. It was in November, a couple weeks before I had Braelyn, and my cousin Amy (who lives here) called me and invited Dal and I over for a play date at her house (she's got three little kids) for that Saturday. So on Saturday we went to her house and when I walked in....at first I saw decorations but thought nothing of it. I thought maybe one of Amy's kids had a birthday or something and then I saw Tiffany, then my mom, then my cousins Aimee, Juli and Jenny and then everyone else. I remember first seeing Tiffany and thinking "Wait a minute, what in the world is she doing here? And my mom too? And so on. It was so surreal. I was so surprised! It took me a minute to realize what was going on. I had not even the slightest clue that I was going to a surprise baby shower. Everyone did such a great job at keeping it a secret from me (including my husband:) Once I realized what was happening I was so everjoyed! I felt so loved!

The Surprise Entrance


My friends Camille and June from my Relief Sociey presidency came, which was really sweet of them (they and Amber made an adorable quilt for me), and everyone else drove quite a ways to be there for me. Even my mom's cousin and her daughter who don't even really know me drove 40 mintues. Then some of my favorite people in the whole world (and cousins) Aimee, Juli and Jenny were there too! It was so fun to see everyone and it meant so much to me to have everyone there! It was so fun! Tiffany also had some great games planned.

Tiffany & IMy amazing sister-in-law and cousins

More relatives and my wonderful mom

We had some great food and Tiffany made a cute and yummy cake too!

It was so fun to get cute little girl stuff! It made me so excited!

Thanks again Tiffany for being so thoughtful and doing that for me and thanks to Jake, my mom, Amy (for providing her house) and all who came and made it happen. It was a day I will always remember.

Surprise Colorado Trip

My sister and brother-in-law Catherine and Christen were so sweet and generous to us and flew us out to Colorado (where most of Jake's family lives) last week (Jake's Spring Break) so that they could meet Braelyn and we could see everyone. They planned it as a surprise for the rest of the family. It was so much fun! They had invited everyone over to their house for "Haley's Birthday Dinner" and when they got there we were there. Everyone was so shocked and surprised! Catherine and Christen also planned out dinners and family get-togethers the whole week we were there. They were so thoughtful! It was so fun to see everyone!

Cat also taught me how to make cute little flower hair clips for Braelyn's head bands and hair (once she gets some). She is so creative and crafty and I came home with some fun flower clips! Cat is so good to us. She always have been! She is always thinking of us and has done so much for us. We appreciate her more than she could ever know!

Haley & Dalyn

(This is Dal's oldest cousin, she turned 12 while we were there, but they have always had a special relationship. She is so sweet and good to him and plays so fun with him, and he absolutely adores her. They were both so excited to see each other!) We were also there for Haley's real birthday so we got to help her celebrate turning 12
We went to the park one day and my little neices wanted me to ride the slide with them and make and train, so I did. It was way fun!
We got to meet our newest nephew Mason, who is just 2 months older than Braelyn. We couldn't resist taking thier pictures together.
He was pretty fascinated with her, or at least the fun frilly texture of her clothes.
"Thanks Mason for letting me lay my head on your shoulder. It gets heavy after a while!" :)

This is what Dal did after we got home:) Pretty tuckered out after a week of playing and then traveling. The kids were both such great travelers. Dal loved sitting on the airplane, looking out the window, waiting for them to bring him juice, etc and B slept pretty much the whole way.

Thanks again for a great trip Cat and Christen!