THE BROWER FAMILY

Baptism Day

2012-02-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

The last time he was in all white...blessing day, March 2004

(Don't ask what's on his head, I have no idea).8 years later, Baptism Day February 12, 2012 with his cousin Brayden

A pretty good family pic
One with Aunt Lorraine. My only regret from the whole weekend was that I didn't get pictures with all the family that was there, Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles and cousins :(
Blake opening his gift from us, a set of scriptures

Bathing beauties!!

2012-02-05T16:45:00.001-08:00

all I have to say is I love them. The End.

Eight

2012-01-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

Blakers turned 8 today! Honestly, I can't believe it because wasn't it just yesterday that this happened?

Yes, I think it was. Right? It was the most painful experience of my life and very memorable considering no one believed me I was in labor and made me walk around the hospital with horrible back labor. I was throwing up and everything. When the nurse was informed that I was throwing up, she just walked in and threw a towel over it. A few moments later another nurse walked in and checked me and I was a 7 already. Spencer also caught Blake's head as it was coming because no one was in the room. So it was very memorable for us!

It's amazing how our little rolly poly baby has turned into this amazingly handsome and awesome kid!

Since it's been a month, maybe I should post something..

2011-12-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving we set up all our decorations and our tree, but we waited to decorate it until Daddy got home the following Wednesday. I only got three pictures...Good thing out kids are photogenic

well, except for JD since he won't hold still for more than one second...
Blake and I went on a date downtown while we waited between therapy appointments. It was fun for the both of us
We decorated our traditional ice cream cone trees
and we had lots of fun together doing...nothing :)

Blake had his holiday concert and he kept telling me he was going to be Santa in the last song...well apparently he had to wear the costume the whole time. I was a little bummed because I couldn't see his cute face..
After his song, he took off the costume and of course, had to fix the hair :)
and she's just beautiful so I had to take a picture of her
Blake had to say goodbye to some toys and so we had to take pics so he could remember them
JD loves to wear his brother's hat and he is adorable in it
His favorite book right now is Dora's world adventure and his favorite part is where we have to make a silly face to get pass the Grumpy Old Troll. We have read this book at nap time and bedtime every single day for the past week and a half and I LOVE doing this with him!

So that's what we've been up to the last month! Not much :)

Thanksgiving and traditions

2011-11-29T14:03:00.001-08:00

This Thanksgiving was a little different, for a couple of reasons. Spencer was out of town to be with his family, we celebrated the night before Thanksgiving at my sister's house, and my brothers and their families were not there (they were with their spouses families). But it was still good. Bill roasted the turkey and it was the best I've ever had. I normally don't like turkey, well, I normally don't like most of what is served at Thanksgiving...I don't even like pie...lol. So no, I did not gain the dreaded 5 lbs most Americans gain over the holiday (I actually lost half a pound). Actually my favorite tradition over the Thanksgiving holiday is going Black Friday shopping with my mom and sisters. (however, I did not care for the fact that stores opened at 9 and 1o on Thursday night, and then some at 12 and then some at 5...it made for an all nighter...literally. We left the house at 9:30 pm on Thursday and didn't get home until 11:30 am on Friday. Yep, that's right...14 hours and I loved almost every minute of it. Now, I don't shop for those crazy things that the store only has 2 of, so it is really easy for me to find what I want. If the store is sold out, oh well. The only place I did not like this year was Target. Their line, inside and out was beyond crazy, but since I had nowhere to be for 4 hours, we stood in line for 2. I love spending time with my mom and sisters and shopping WITHOUT children. Maybe that's why I like Black Friday so much...because I am able to shop without children whining, complaining, and fighting. whatever the reason, I love our tradition!

Thanksgiving dinner at my sister, Danielle's

Me and Katie, killing some time in the van, waiting for Target to open. We were watching Never Been Kissed on her phone
Driving home after 14 hours of shopping. I was buried in bags and as you can see that is Katie holding a TV on top of her :)
Done :) and waiting for everyone to unbury me :)

A weight loss year in review

2011-11-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Let me take you on a journey, a journey through pictures from one year ago.

This was the end of October 2010

November 2010, I don't normally do body shots and this one of my family was the best I could get, and notice I am still trying to use JD as a shield. I am infamous for cropping my photos because I have never liked what I looked like...
More November 2011
I think I hated what I looked like so much that I did not get any photos with me in them for December 2010 and January 2011. I know sad huh?

This was us in February 2011, when we visited our friends in Utah
March 6th 2011 I was watching Biggest Loser, probably eating cookies or something and decided that I needed to change my lifestyle, become healthier. I figured it 400 + lb. people can do it,I could too. Granted, I didn't have a trainer, nor 8 hours in my day to workout hardcore, but I could workout and eat less. So I started the next day. I started out slow and easy, but I was doing it and that's what mattered. I have never put myself on a diet. That doesn't work for me. I can't even say "no sugars" or anything like that. I like my treats! I just say to myself things like: Less! Smaller! Controlled portions!

March 2011
April 2011
May 2011

June 2011

July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
And me today, November 8, 2011. No cropping of pictures. Go ahead, scroll back up and see the difference. It's huge. I know.

Today I am 30.2 lbs lighter than I was 8 months ago, almost to the day. I am about 3 sizes smaller, but most importantly, I feel so much better....physically and emotionally. I did this for my family, but more importantly, I did this for myself! I am giving myself a new goal now, because I can still get even healthier. It's all about baby steps. If I would have said to myself 8 months ago that I needed to lose 50 lbs, it would have seemed so out of reach. So I didn't. I made smaller goals, reached them till I reached my ultimate goal -30, and now that I have done that, I have made a new one... -10-15 lbs more. It's doable. Thanks for all the support everyone! I appreciate it sooooooo much!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Halloween was fun for the kids, as always. It's really not my favorite holiday, but I still try to make it fun for them. JD is chasing his tail in this pic. That's all he wanted to do at the ward trunk or treat party the Saturday before.

Rylee the lion and Officer Blake

Bill was a police officer too
The only pic I got of him wearing his dinosaur hat...notice how my mom is still fastening it? Yeah, it lasted about 2 seconds...
we went trick or treating at the mall. Pretty big crowd, but you get lots of candy in a small amount of time and it's warm. This is a pic of the kids killing time before it started
On Halloween, Rylee decided to use one of her other costumes and was Kiara, Simba's daughter in Lion King II.
I always combine the kid's candy and then keep it up...this is one of theose Costco bags, about 3/4 full. It weighed 16 lbs!!! I always end up throwing Hallween candy away around Easter because we always have some till then (probably because I monitor so much, but I don't want our kids eating gobs of candy all day long)
All in all, it was pretty a good day even though it's so not my favorite holiday!!!

Pumpkins!!!

2011-10-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

We carved pumpkins the other night. Not my favorite thing to do in this world, but my kids love it, so I did it for them :) Here are some pics of their fun..

Jaxton wasn't big fan of the pumpkin carving for more than 5 minutes (the 2 previous pics) and the picture below kinda depicts how he felt the rest of the time I was helping the kids...

.

Rylee's visit to the ER

2011-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

When I was originally wrote this, I kept having computer problems and kept getting kicked off, but this happened about 3.5 weeks ago....

I'm going to blog about the morning Ry had her seizure because I want it documented. It was Monday morning and Ry had recently woken up. She came into my bathroom and she was all dressed for school. I asked her if I could do her hair and so as I was brushing it out she said to me, "mom. My head hurts." ( Over the weekend she had complained about it a couple times but would lay down for a few minutes and be back to normal self). Then a couple seconds went by and she cried out "and my chest hurts." She was grabbing her heart and she then immediately fell over to the left and hit her head hard on the wall as she was falling down. she was convulsing and her eyes were rolled back into her head. She convulsed for about 15 seconds. (I keep saying convulsing and I will explain in a bit). I, of course, was screaming Spencer's name and carried her to her bed. She laid there for a while and looked a little bluish and quite pale.

OK now fast forward to the ER visit. (Which I was not very happy with). We walked in and miraculously there was no one in the ER. I told the nurse what happen, she was concerned. We checked her in. After she got bed the doctor came in. He asked what happened. I told him exactly what I wrote before. He then asked some medical questions, "does she have any heart disease, asthma?" I said no and then tried to explain that we have been concerned with her fatigue for a few months now, but he stopped me as I was saying it and said in a very rude voice "that's not what I am talking about. I am asking if she has any diseases." I then said "Not that we are aware of." He then looked and me (Like i was an idiot) and said, "well... you are her biological parents, aren't you?" I about had a heart attack. He was so rude. What I meant was that we are not aware of anything that would cause our daughter to faint, hit her head, and have a seizure. I mean, that's not normal behavior. SOmething HAD to be up. Even if the seizure was because of the hit (which I am well aware of), fainting is not normal for a six year old, not to mention she complained of her head hurting and she complained of chest pain immediately before. So they did a CAT scan and an EKG. Both came back normal, but when he came back and explained it he was saying stuff like "I don't want to classify this as a seizure because then she would have that on her record and this may or may not have been one." He said that because it only lasted for 15 seconds (apparently the average one lasts about a minute) and she did not wet herself or bite her tongue he can't say whether or not it was. Whatever dude. I saw it. I know it was a seizure she wasn't "just convulsing." Oh and you know what? Guess what kind of discharge papers he sent home with us? There was a whole page on seizures. OK doc, you say you don't want to classify it as a seizure, yet the paperwork you gave me was on seizures? Anyways, I really could go on and on because I was so annoyed with his unprofessional words, but I will refrain. I am more worried about our little girl who always looks so sickly and I just wanna know why she fainted to begin with. So that's what happened. After talking with numerous people, they all think it was a seizure also. One friend of mine has a boy who has seizures often and he never bites his tongue, nor wets himself, and they only last about 30 seconds. Everyone else wonders the same thing as we do "why on earth did she faint to begin with?" That's the question I want answered. What do you guys think?

Joe and Sonjia's wedding/ Twin's baptism

2011-10-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

We went on a little vacation to Tacoma at the end of September to go to Spencer's brother's wedding and then down to Portland for the twins' baptism. It was fun to see the family and spend some time with cousins and Aunts and Uncles that the kids have not seen (some it has been 5 years since we've seen them last). I took a ton of pics, but I limited them on the blog for time reasons and so I don't bore you to death. I promise, I did limit them. I have a whole lot more!!!

Rylee playing at David and Ady's house! Thanks guys for the great hospitality!

Our handsome little dude, all dressed and ready to go to the wedding
Payton, Rylee, and Marren were flower girls. Rylee loved throwing the rose petals and I wish I wasn't juggling a little booger of a two year old during the whole wedding so I could have gotten some pics of her and seen the wedding, but oh well...
All 7 Brower grandkids
The Brower clan, minus Sam's beautiful wife, Andrea
The view from the deck where the wedding took place
I really wanted to get some nice pics of the kids all cute and dressed all matchy matchy, but again, JD was being a real pill and he wouldn't even hold still for a moment...boo. But I got these two cuties to cooperate

Blake and Uncle Sam (Spencer's little brother)
Grandpa with two of his handsome grandsons
Rylee, Payton, and Finley right before the baptism
Now, I wasn't able to listen to the baptismal service either due to a certain 2 year old, but I hear it was very nice
The kids enjoying their goodies afterwards
JD was so cute with this little girl...
Grandpa, Finley, and Spence
Blake and Ry saying goodbye to their cousins.. Aren't they all so beautiful
We spent a few hours in the car over those few days and here are some pics of those times

It was great seeing family and we hope to see you all sooner rather than later! Congrats to Joe and Sonjia on getting married and Bo and Payton on your baptism!

Blake's Zone meet #1

2011-09-29T21:14:00.001-07:00

Blake had his first cc meet for this year yesterday. He did awesome and got 6th place. He has qualified for All City on October 19th and is VERY VERY excited about it. In fact, kind of annoyingly excited about it. He's been talking my ear off. His time was 8.09.98 (I think that's how you put it...basically 8 minutes and 10 seconds. He was about 28 seconds behind the kid that took 1st. The pictures I got were horrible. Most were blurring or the sun made them turn out awful. Oh well....

Here he is sprinting to the finish line

We had to give back his jersey before he checked out and he had left his other shirt at school...he was so embarrassed :) It was funny

Good job buddy! We are very proud of your accomplishment!

She's SIX!

2011-09-18T21:11:00.001-07:00

September 16, 2005 our little princess was born

about age 1
about age 2 1/2
and now she is 6! I can't believe it! Look at how beautiful and grown up she is!!!

Happy Birthday Rylee Roo! We love you so much!!!

WOAH

2011-09-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

I have been organizing my "photo library" today since I was home with a sick child and I came across this from almost exactly a year ago...

Cute huh?

Not really, because there is a huge difference from that to this....

I have lost about 24 lbs since March and I guess I haven't realized what a difference it has made in the way I look until I saw this pic. I knew the difference that it has made in the way I feel, but when I look in the mirror, I still see a big lady. I am excited to start easing into running again. My leg no longer hurts, but the doc told me to take it easy, especially at first.

Side note: Rylee looks so much older and ever more beautiful than a year ago! It's crazy what a year can do!

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd go down memory lane for a moment before I get to this years pics...

Blake 2009, Kindergarten

Rylee 2010, Preschool

Blake 2010, First Grade

Blake and Rylee 2011, 2nd Grade and Kindergarten
JD wanted a picture too!

They were very excited! No tears at all this year from me or the kids! Blake was a little nervous due to the fact that he has two know bullies/kids with behavior issues in his class. But he was excited to see his old friends, meet new ones, and learn. Rylee just felt like a big girl and was like "see ya, mom!" She did give me a hug and kiss and said "I love you." I am happy she is so independent, even when it means she is so stubborn at home sometimes :) Now I need to go in the kitchen and do our tradition of making homemade cookies for when they get home! I love them and hope they have an amazing year!

A Weekend Alone...

2011-08-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

...well, without my family! Katie approached me a couple weeks ago to go fly with her to Utah because she was going to see a friend, and I jumped on that idea so I could go see one of my best friends from college (actually one of my best friends ever, in my entire life). We had so much fun! Thursday we went to my favorite restaurant- Cafe Rio for lunch after we had arrived

(best salad ever!!!!)

and then chatted for hours before we headed to a woman's health thingy down at the hospital. It was great, even though we both found out that we had moles that need to be biopsied. Friday we went and saw The Help at the theatre. I recommend this movie to anyone and everyone! One of the best movies we've ever seen and we wish we would have brought a box of Keenex! Saturday we went to the outlet mall in Park City and got some shopping and fun in. When we weren't shopping this weekend, we were chatting it up! I loved every moment I was there! I can't wait for our next visit! Here are some photos of our fun together (actually I forgot to take pics til Saturday night)

I love this girl!!!

Then we got a little silly and took many, many goofy pics (these are just a few)

On our way home from dinner, I had to get a pic of my date! Isn't she gorgeous??

We had a 2+ hour layover in Boise, so Katie and I took some fun pics in the airport to pass the time :)

I loved my long weekend getaway, but I think I loved it so much because of the company I was with! Thanks D for an amazing weekend! I am truly blessed to call you my friend! And thanks to my mama (and husband when he wasn't working or doing schoolwork) for taking care of the kiddos!

Our little Poet, and we didn't even know it!

2011-08-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

I went to tuck Blake in tonight and he told me he was writing me a story and needed to finish, so I let him, and this is what he wrote:

Me and Mom

Mom, mom, I want your hand
I could hold it til the end

Mom, mom I want your hugs
hug, hug, hug like a bug

But what I like most about you mom
is you love me and I love you.

He is such a sweetheart! And wow, writing poetry at the age of 7...pretty darn amazing to me! I did correct the spelling and added the commas where he was pausing when reading it! It was even cuter to hear him read it! He read it as a poem and it had such a nice little rhythm. When he was done reading it to almost everyone in the house, he was beaming and said "mom, I'm a true artist." Yes. Yes Blake. You are a true artist!

Too much Hair!!!

2011-08-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

I was trying to grow my hair out! It was to my shoulders, maybe even a little past them. But my hair was DRIVING ME CRAZY!!! My hair is super thick, annoyingly thick and I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was resorting to pulling it back in a pony all of the time. So I called a friend in the ward who I knew did hair and I went and got it chopped off. She spent probably an hour and a half just "thinning my hair." She too, could not believe how thick my hair is. I think she did a great job....I got a bob with a very slight A-line. Here it it....

Uh oh!

2011-08-13T21:54:00.001-07:00

Look what the little man got in to while I was working out this morning....

Yep, that's bright pink nail polish all over his toes and he even put some on his legs.
Actually, he did a pretty good job painting them for being 2! He came to me as I was running on the elliptical and said, "ooooo, look mamma. So pretty. Pretty like mamma. Pretty like Rylee."
This is his "I know I shouldn't have done this, but I am cute, so I will do my squinty smile anyways" smile.

It was very hard to remove (probably because so much was on his skin) and I had to remind Rylee to keep the nail polish put away so her brother couldn't get into it again :)

Sweet Spirits we are blessed with

2011-08-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

In our June fast and testimony meeting, Blake looked up at me and said, "mom, I wanna do that. I wanna share my testimony with other people." I told him that we would talk about testimonies in our next FHE and then if he wanted to at the next fast and testimony meeting, he could. So we had and FHE on it the next night. Last fast and testimony meeting we were at the family reunion and so Blake did not have a chance to do it, but every week he has been asking me if it was the Sunday where he could share his testimony. Today was the day. This morning I told him that today was the day, if he felt so inclined to do so, he could. I then reminded him that a testimony is to testify of the things we know to be true. As the Sacrament ended today, Blake was getting very anxious and wanted to go up, but was a little hesitant. Rylee then chimed in and said she wanted to do it too. I reminded them about what we talked about and how mom and dad would not go up there with them, that they needed to be able to do it on their own. Blake wanted Rylee to go first. So she did. I can't remember all of what she said, but it was probably the sweetest testimony I have ever heard (probably because it was out little girl doing it). The couple things I remember her saying were about how she new the gospel was true, how she knew mommy and daddy got married in the temple so we can be together forever, and that Joseph Smith restored the church to the earth. She was so poised up there, making eye contact with all those in the congregation. It was so sweet. Then it was Blake's turn. He wasn't as comfortable with being in front of everyone as Ry was, but he did it. He talked about how he knew families can be together forever. It was also very sweet, but much much shorter than Rylee's :)

We are sure blessed with 3 sweet(and ornery) little Spirits in our home. I am so grateful for them and how much they teach me. I love being a mom!!!

Date night with the Jaxtonator

2011-08-04T20:41:00.001-07:00

The older two are at an overnighter with the cousins, my hubby is trapped in the office studying. It's very quiet in the house and me and this cute little man are watching Rio together before bedtime.

If you notice in the next two pictures how he has his legs....he always does this while lounging around watching, a movie and sometimes he even puts his hands behind his head...it's adorable, but really, this kid is always adorable!

He couldn't even take his eyes off the movie one time to take a picture with me....
Oh well, it was fun having one on one time with him... and a little weird not having the older two home...

Cousins and best friends

2011-07-29T13:03:00.001-07:00

Jada visited for about 3 weeks. It was lots of fun! Rylee and Jada are about 2 1/2 years apart, but as they are getting older, the difference isn't that big of a deal and they love being together. The Sunday she left, we dressed them as twins and I took a couple photos!

It was fun to dress them alike!

Rylee and her new cast

2011-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

So remember awhile back, when I took Ry in to see the Dr for her fatigue? During that appointment I happened to mention that she complains of ankle pain occasionally, often enough to make me start to think something was up. I was just listing all the symptoms she has and things she complains of to be thorough. The Dr checked out her ankle, then sent us to get an x-ray. I just thought he was being very thorough himself. Much to my surprise, they called back saying they spotted a lesion on her ankle. They wanted to do an MRI. We got the results from that and they said she would most likely need a cast and possibly surgery. We saw the pediatric podiatrist today. From my understanding this is what he told us. She has osteochondritis dissicans in her foot ( huge divot in bone). He said most of the time things like this will heal, but for some reason, she in not. It must have been caused by some trauma- he asked if she had been in a car accident or anything. I do not recall her hurting herself...at least not enough to have been imprinted in my brain. He said that he has never seen or heard of this condition being in someone so young. So he suggested that we cast it first before we look at surgery, hoping that it will heal if it is not used. He didn't sound to confident though. He said there is still a good chance she will need surgery, but he wanted to try all the less invasive things first. He said that if we do not take care of this now, she could have major problems in the future and always have arthritis in her foot. He said he does not think that it is a tumor, so that was good news. He said he knows that it stinks, but she has to be in a cast for at least 2 months. But he did put her in a walking cast, so it comes with a little shoe to wear with it. He did it because he didn't want me to have to carry her everywhere! I really appreciate that Dr! He was great!Signing her cast and writing love notes to her

Bath time was a little tricky tonight. Actually, getting her OUT of the bath was the hard part. I almost fell in, trying to get her out :) She has already been in tears, has already felt left out (kids going through the sprinkle, pool), has already hurt her other foot, already got a big cut on her big toe on her casted foot, has already complained, and has already needed to be scratched multiple times where we can't reach. Oh, and her wardrobe is a little difficult to get on her! Dresses and skirts will be her summer attire! Poor girl. I feel bad for her! Please keep her in your prayers so she won't have to have surgery.

Funny kid

2011-07-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Soon after we got home from church this afternoon, I didn't know where JD was. I heard a faint little voice calling "mama, mommy." I found him in the bathtub, trying to turn on the water, still dressed in his church clothes, and playing nicely with his cars.

Then he realized he was still dressed and decided to take off his pants

hahahaha, he's so darn cute! I love this little guy to pieces!

Brower family reunion

2011-07-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in July every year Spencer's family has a reunion. My father-in-law has 13 siblings and so there are lots and lots of people.

Because JD is 2, I was on the beach the whole time, making sure he was safe. I didn't get to chat much, but such is life. I enjoyed watching my kids play in the sand and water and seeing them interact with their second cousins. I do look forward to next year when my immediate parents-in-law, and brothers and sister in-law will be there. We missed them this year :(

Independence Day 2011

2011-07-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

Here are a few picks of our fun evening together as a family.

Me and my baby sis

me and Skyler. He's much taller than I am now!
Me and Trina
The four of us
Now we're getting silly
This is funny to me. Trina and I are making goofy faces and Katie and Danielle are smiling all pretty.

Mom and her 4 girls
Danielle and Bill and 9 of their nieces and nephews
9 of the 12 Grandkids (missing Amanda, Luke and Liza
Tackle Skyler!!!
I love this pic of the kids!

S'mores
The kids played in the back of the truck, waving to passer-byers as they waited anxiously for the fireworks
We had such a fun 4th of July! Danielle and Bill were great hosts and we had tons of food. All 6 of us kids were there with our families. That doesn't happen much anymore. It was nice

Michael Jackson wanna-be!

2011-06-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Obsession

2011-06-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

So those of you who don't know, JD is obsessed with hair. It's his comfort thing. When he wakes up in the morning, gets hurt, or just wants to cuddle, he wants to run his fingers through my hair (or Katie's or Grandma's hair. Daddy's hair doesn't do the trick). He plays and plays with it. I donno why. It's just his comfort thing. So anyways, we got him a Dora doll (yes, he has a doll) that has long hair last year for his bday because he absolutely loves Dora. For the last few months he has been sleeping with Dora. When he wakes up in the morning or at nap time and I hear him talking and singing in his crib, he is always lying there playing with Dora's hair.

This is what Dora originally looked like:

This is what Dora looks like today. I like to call her Jamaican Dora

You like those Dreads???? Pretty funny huh?? Well, at least we know we're getting our money's worth! We've joked about needing to find a wig that feels like real hair and attach it to his crib. That would look a little creepy, but I'm sure he would be in hair heaven. LOL. I'm a dork. I know it :)

We have another bike-rider

2011-06-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

Rylee learned to ride a bike this afternoon! I thought it was time to teach her since she will be in a cast the rest of the summer...boo :( I only held on to the bike and ran with her a little for like 2 times and then she had it all by herself! She's such a big girl.

(Maybe I should take a brief moment and explain what we know about the cast and why she needs one. Ry had an MRI last Friday on her ankle. I took her in the Dr. about two months ago for other reasons...her fatigue, dark circles, and I happened to mention that she complains of ankle and back pain. The DR checked it out and had us do an xray on her ankle. After that we were told she needed an MRI because a lucency was found on the xray. So that happened last week. We were told this week that she has a condition called osteochondritis dissecans in her ankle. From my understanding, not enough blood flow to her bone and joint in her ankle and causes pain because a piece of bone is floating around in there (I haven't talked to the specialist yet, that's just my Google understanding). So she needs to wear a cast for 8 weeks to see if it will heal with no movement or pressure on it. If the cast doesn't work, then she will need surgery. Everyone keeps asking me about her fatigue and what the Dr has said to that. We still don't know anything about what may be causing her fatigue. I don't know if the the condition she has in her ankle is in any way related to it.)

Anyways, back to the reason I did this post! Here is cutie patootie Rylee getting ready to ride her bike.

Here she is in action!

Soccer

2011-06-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

So Blake has been wanting to play soccer for well over a year. I missed the cut off for the fall/spring season just because I was a bad mama and forgot to sign him up in time. He cried :( so I made sure I put the summer registration on about 20 million calendars so I wouldn't forget again! Blake's team had their first game on Monday with no practice (Spence stepped up to be coach just this weekend after the league threatened to cancel our team because no one volunteered, thus the reason we hadn't even practiced).

So anyways, Blake hadn't ever played soccer before (he's kicked around a ball of course, but has never played played before). Needless to say, they lost pretty bad on Monday. It was like 15-1. I must say though that the other team looked like they all had been playing for at least 3 years and together. The boys felt so defeated and it was the first time Blake had experienced a loss (he has been undefeated with his bball team for 2 years). It was sad and I was hoping the whole season wasn't going to be like that. Here are some pics of his Monday night game.

Yesterday, they had their second game. Spence called me about an hour before the game and said he wasn't going to be able to make the game because of YM's and they really needed him there and begged me to coach because no other parent would. Let me tell you something, I've never played soccer and I really have no clue about the rules or anything, but I can cheer and I can point and I understand defense and offense. So after about a 5 minute lesson from Coach Spencer, I was off to Coach not only my first soccer game, but my first time coaching anything, EVER!!! I must say, I had fun. (Don't tell Spence, he may make me do it again :) ). The boys did so much better this game, and they were playing a way more equal team. Because I was on the field the whole time and running back and forth on the opponents sideline, I heard what the parents were saying, and they were saying some good things, especially about our little man. Blake had a couple fast breaks (well, that's what we call it in basketball, I donno what it's called in soccer) and was super fast, way ahead of the rest. The parents kept saying, "wow, that kid is fast. he has so much potential." Even some parents from our team came up to me afterwards inquiring about him. I told them he had never played and they were shocked. They also mentioned his quickness. Once Blake gets all the rules down and concepts, I think he is gonna be a soccer stud. I loved coaching the kids, mainly cheering for them at this age. They played hard and I was very proud of them. And we won!!

I can't help it!!!

2011-06-15T14:25:00.001-07:00

My name is Heather, and I am addicted to taking pictures of this beautiful little girl! Well, pictures of my kids in general. I can't help it!!!! LOL!!!

But I bet you couldn't resist either!

2011-06-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love these two! The other day, the kids wanted to take some pics with my camera. I never turn an opportunity down to take pics of our beautiful kids! So here is some of our fun. The kids even took some....

I love how he saluted in this pic. :)

Our kids are amazing. They make me laugh every day because of their awesome personalities. They make me smile because of their good examples to those around them. They make my heart melt when I hear them talk of their love for Christ. Are the perfect? Heck no. But are they the joys of our lives? HECK YES!

I DO love my boys!

2011-06-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

I realized today when I was looking at my blog, that I post a lot about my little girl, but not a whole lot about my boys! So I want everyone to know that I love them just as much as little Rylee. I think I post a lot about Rylee for two reasons 1) because she is very photogenic (and stays still for more than 2 seconds) and ALWAYS wants me to take a picture of her and 2) because of all the health issues and questions I have regarding her.... so enough about Rylee, this blog post is all boy!!!

Blake is such a sweet, lovable, and sensitive little boy. I love him so much. He is a great big brother and LOVES sports. He starts soccer at the end of the month and he is very excited. Today at church during the sacrament, he looked up to me and said, "Mom, today I'm not going to color. ( I let them color after the sacrament is passed). I'm just going to listen and be reverent." And the amazing thing was that he was. He did not talk except to ask me questions about the testimonies being said. He also loves school and learning. He has many friends and is very likable. He sets a good example for the other kids at school and our kids at home. He got an award at school a couple months ago for being a kid of character and making good choices. He is an amazing boy and we are sooooo blessed to have him!

JD is really into trucks right now and when I say truck, I mean any vehicle. He will play with them for hours (just as Blake did at this age). We are excited for the new Cars 2 to come out! He also loves Diego and going outside. He runs everywhere (he hardly ever walks). ONe of his more recent favorite thing to do is to play catch. He'll say, "mom come. K, pass it. K, catch." and we can do this for very long periods of time. If we are by a hoop he'll also add in the phrase "k, shoot it." He's adorable. One unpleasant thing he does right now is he is impossible to shop with. He wants to walk and not be in the cart (I think because his brother and sister don't sit in the cart). If he goes in the cart he cries, sometimes screams. And he makes it really hard to do my coupon shopping which I have really gotten in to. I tried that puppy leash so he could walk and I'd still have control, but he screams "off puppy" when it is on him! Another great thing about him is that he is so polite. He says "please and thank you" to almost anything, even occasionally when I change his diaper. He loves hugs and kisses and gives them out randomly and quite frequently. He makes me smile all the time :)

Anyways, both of our boys are sweethearts and I love them so very much. They make me happy and I really don't know what life would be like without them.

Preschool Graduation

2011-06-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Rylee graduated from Preschool this morning. She goes to the High School preschool where 2 students are called her "special friends" and help her learn and do activities one on one with her. She also has an amazing teacher, Mrs. Guthrie. It's an awesome program and both Rylee and Blake have absoluteley loved it, have learned from it, and have loved their special friends. It's also super dooper cheap, so that's a plus too!

Here's a pic of our graduate waiting patiently in the car (well, not really. She was a little anxious to get to school this morning )

Here is a video of graduation in a nutshell...

Goofy glasses

She got two awards 1) Artistic Princess 2) Little Miss Einstein

Both awards describe her quite well!

Rylee with two of her most favorite people- Alyssa and Becca

Rylee (and one of my tangents....)

2011-05-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

As I was cleaning this morning, I came across Rylee quietly playing in a room. It was so cute, I had to run and get my camera. She was playing "house" with Dora and her care bear. She was the mommy and she was getting her girls ready for school.Notice how they are wearing her frilly skirts too?
It brought back memories for me. I loved playing house as a kid. I could play it all day just as she can. I LOVE that my kids have such great imaginations and can play for hours on end without getting bored or needing to watch TV or play a video game. I catch them often, playing either with one another or by themselves, and it makes me so happy. Every time there is a friend over, the friend gets 'bored' very quickly and says things like "there isn't anything to do outside." "Why can't we come in and watch TV?" It drives me crazy!!!! In fact there is a friend here now, and after two minutes of being outside he is at the door saying he wants to come in because there is nothing to do. Meanwhile, Rylee is at the door giving him various options, "we can play camping." "No." "we can play hide and seek." "No." "we can play in the dirt." ahhhhhhh! Did I mention this drives me crazy? Playing outside is fun people!!!! (I could go on and on about this subject, but I'll spare you all the rest). I am just grateful my kids don't need a dumb electronic device to keep them occupied! Anyways, back to my original reason for this post.....isn't Rylee cute? Oh and do you like her new haircut? I love it on her

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brower

2011-05-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Although the kids and I were not able to go to Texas with Spencer this past week and see the fam, the kids still felt the love from their Grandma and Grandpa. Daddy showed up with a new outfit for all 3 of the kiddos from them and JD got a brand new homemade quilt.

Blake showing off his cool new basketball outfit!
Rylee in her new clothes (although I didn't get her cute shorts in this pic. Silly me)
So this afternoon I thought "oh, I should take a pic of the kids in their new clothes...ALTOGETHER." Well this is a little photo op of how that went...

JD didn't really want to happily participate in this endeavor...and I love Ry's facial expression in this pic

But I REALLY wanted a pic of the 3 of them, so I kept trying

and trying...hoping that he would wanna say cheese....
But no, he never was happy. So these pics are as good as they get today....
Finally I had to just settle with a pic of two of them, but Rylee was no longer happy and willing to take pictures :)

and here are some pics of JD with his new quilt

He absolutely LOVES his new blankie. He has been sleeping with it since Wednesday. Grandma did an awesome job (as always) with this quilt. She has an amazing talent and we LOVE benefiting from it :)

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the outfits and the blanket. We miss you tremendously and hope and pray to see you sooner rather than later. We love you so much!!!

Still pluggin' away

2011-05-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

Good news: I am still making progress in my journey to lose weight, get healthy, and feel better! I am now starting my 10th week. I am happy to report that I have continued to exercise through sickness and through a foot injury (which the old me would have used as an excuse not to exercise until I felt better).

The day that I hurt my foot, I continued to workout, but it killed me the rest of the day. I could barely walk on it. I iced it all night and the next morning it still hurt but it was better. I debated on whether or not to workout. I did. The first 20 minutes of jogging about killed me, but I pushed through the pain and the last 10 minutes of the workout, my foot kept feeling better and better. As that day progressed, my foot continued to feel better. It's still a little sensitive, but I am so proud of myself for not using it as an excuse like I've been prone to use excuses in the past.

As of today, I have lost 12.8 lbs. But more importantly, I am down 2 sizes and have lost about 4 inches off of my waist and a couple inches off my butt! I feel so much better emotionally and physically. It's a great feeling! It's a great feeling setting a goal and working my butt off to try and reach that goal. Yay for feeling great!

Dear Daddy

2011-05-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Daddy,

The kids miss you. Here is a video of them dancing Friday night....

Cute huh???

Here are some pics of our crazy, but cute kids from today

JD is blowing you a kiss in this last one....

We miss you and love you, but hope you are having fun.

Love,

Your Family

My Mother's Day

2011-05-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful day today. I woke up to my hubby making breakfast with the kids (which I helped with so we could eat at a reasonable time because breakfast takes so long to make if it's not cereal).

While Spencer was making breakfast, Blake sang me a song.

I got a couple love notes and cards from the kids and my honey. The kids (aka Grandma) got me a huge bag of peanut butter m&ms. I also got a new camera. A fancy new camera (thanks honey. I ABSOLUTELY love it).

So here are some pics that I took with my new toy of some of the people I love the most in my life....

Blake wearing his new suite that I got for $7.50 on clearance, yep that's right, a shirt, tie, slacks, and vest for $7.50! Doesn't he look so handsome????

I love my little princess!!!

The kids kept wanting to do silly photos this afternoon...so here is one of the many! I kinda look like I'm pooing, I don't really know how to take a silly photo without looking constipated :)

I LOVE being a mom!!!

And I love my mom! I took a picture of my beautiful mama with my new camera! Happy Mother's Day mom and all you other mother's out there! I hope you felt as special as I did today!

Moms

2011-05-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

Moms are amazing. But my mom is BEYOND amazing. I have been truly blessed with the best mom anyone could ever ask for. She is there for me (and my kids) every time we need something. She is the greatest example to me of an incredible mother and woman. Everything I have ever learned about being a mom has come from watching her and learning from her. She has so much knowledge, so much faith, and so much love. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that she is my mom and a best friend. Thanks for being BEYOND amazing mom. I love you.

I am also very blessed to be a mother myself. Two of my sisters and a couple of friends wrote some things to me the other day telling me how wonderful I am as a mother. It was hard to read, only because I see that I can be SO MUCH better. There are many things I lack and many things I can improve on. I can be more patient. More understanding. More of an example to them. I should follow more of my mom's example.

My kids mean EVERYTHING to me! Everything I do every single day is for them. They are my life. I love being a mom more than I can adequately express. I love spending time with them. I love their cuddles. I love the funny things they say. I love their sweet dispositions. I love their blossoming testimonies. I love how much they love. I love that we have them for eternity. I love you Blake, Rylee, and Jaxton. Thank you for allowing me to be your mommy! I am truly blessed!

On my mind...

2011-05-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, I've had something pressing on my mind. For a few months now, I've been pretty worried about little miss Rylee. She is pale all the time and has these dark circles under her eyes. So that was concerning to me, but my concern went up a notch a couple weeks ago during Blake's after school running practice. I was at my post (as a volunteer, I stood at one corner of the school while the kids ran). Rylee wanted to run too so I let her. After I had seen Blake on his 5th lap and still hadn't seen Rylee, I started to look for her. I was worried. I finally spotted her, but she was still on the other side of the field. By the times she got to me, she was as white as a ghost and exhausted. But she hadn't even been running and this was her first lap (while Blake was on his 7th). I made her sit down and I gave her water. Everyday we continued to go to his practices, Rylee always had the desire to run too, but could never finish a lap. That's the thing, she is like this with every activity. She wants to, she tries it, but than she can't finish it.

She complains at least 5 times a week about ankle pain and back pain, especially while doing some sort of physical work/activity.

Also for the last 2 weeks, she's been different. She won't sleep in her room, she won't go downstairs and play by herself, she's been VERY moody, emotional, and irritable. But if she isn't ever feeing well, then that would make sense. If I didn't ever feel well, I am sure I'd be the same way.

A week and a half ago, I got her into the doctor. He was also concerned with what I was telling him and ordered blood tests and and ankle x-ray. We got the blood test back and he said they were all negative except for her kidney function numbers were a little high, but not high enough to be concerned. (He actually talked to my hubby, so this is what I understood from what was relayed to me). I was actually surprised because I was thinking she had anemia or something. He wanted to talk to the child foot dr to go over the results of the x-ray. When the nurse called me to tell me the Dr. wanted her to get an MRI on her foot, she told me the name of what they found, but it was like a bajillion words long so I couldn't remember. Yesterday they called to set up the appointment with the pediatric unit at Sacred Heart, I overheard her tell the hospital what it was. It was still a bajillion words long, but I caught on to a few and wrote them down. "Lucency, lateral, aspect." Well, Google is no longer my friend. I should not have looked anything up. Lucency is described as "lucency or opaqueness is the degree of "blackness" of a structure (bone or tissue) in a Radiograph. If bones becomes "darker" they loss calcium and become more poress (holes with air) and thus, look darker as air or fat looks dark in a Radiograph. If bone is "whiter" it mean more opaque thus, there is more calcium deposits, thus stronger." The more I read, the more it told me about bone cancer, tumors, etc. You add all this ankle stuff with how pale she is all the time, her fatigue, etc., well, it freaks me out.

For a couple months now I have felt something was wrong. But right now I am struggling with whether I am just a paranoid, overcautious mom (which I know I kinda am) or if it's mother's intuition/ the Spirit, that is telling me there is something wrong. I am afraid to pray about an answer of whether she is sick for a couple of reasons 1) I don't really want to know because I don't want her to be sick and if I ask, I may get an answer 2)Will the answer I get really be the Lord's answer or my fears and how would I discern between the two? 3) and heaven forbid something is wrong, there is nothing I can do about it until after the Dr.'s appointment so why find out now and worry more... right???

We have to wait until June 17th before her MRI appointment. That's a long time! And then even longer to find out the results.

What do you think? WOuld you guys be worried with all these symptoms, or am I just a crazy mom? Oh, and here are some pics of how pale she looks all the time.

This one was from last Sunday

This pic shows how pale she is and you can also see the dark circles under her eyes...

Also, what happens if everything is OK on the MRI(which I am hoping for)? I feel something is wrong, what do I do if everything is negative, but I still feel something isn't right? What would you guys do?

Blake's music concert

2011-05-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Blake had his First Grade music concert tonight. Spencer informed me earlier in the day that he would not be able to attend because of a work obligation and so I asked my mom to come and help me out, which I am so glad I did (you'll find out why below). The concert was really cute and he did an awesome job even though JD was being a HUMUNGOUS stinker. We had to get there early for Blake's line-up and to get a seat. JD wanted to "walk" which really means "run as fast as you can and try to get away." Every time the outside door opened, he'd try to escape. If I picked him up, he'd scream. I tried bringing him into the multi-purpose room to sit, he'd scream "WALK!!!." Not to mention about 100 people were looking at me like "shut that kid up. Control him. What's wrong with you?" And all of you know how much I like attention drawn to myself. Right. All of this before the concert even started. I was to the point of just leaving, however, Blake still had to perform. So anyways, mom came out to the hall about 5 minutes to 7 and tried to take him so I could watch the concert. He screamed louder. I asked her to take him home if he didn't calm down. And that's exactly what ended up happening. So Blake, Ry, and I walked home in the cold rain. Nothing really knew to me. I walk in bad weather all the time, but it just added to my bad night. Oh, I forgot to mention something important. When they came on stage and I went to take pictures, my camera wouldn't work. Yeah. And all of you also know what a huge deal that is to me. Taking photos is my hobby, my favorite thing to do. I was mad. I was able to get a couple pics, but they are bad and the zoom button won't work anymore. Bad night. Good thing the 7 year olds sang so darn cute.

Here are the two bad photos. Blake is in the center of the photo, wearing a black hat. He had the part of Jack Be Nimble. It was cute. He kept jumping over the candlestick, but of course, I couldn't capture it because of my dumb camera!

Here he is, playing the tambourine. He did great.
Yeah nice pictures huh? Grrrrrrrrrr!

JD's 2 year stats

2011-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

JD had his 2 year old check up today.

He is 26 lbs (24th percentile)

34 inches (36 percentile)

He his on track with everything physically and developmentally ( actually, he is above everything if you look at the "where he is supposed to be at developmentally" sheet.

He has a ton of energy and runs everywhere, all of the time. It's a good thing I am trying to get in shape, because I have a feeling the next year I will be running after him a lot!

We went to Walmart right before the appointment and he was saying "hello" to everyone he saw and "adios" when we would leave an aisle.

He is a joy on our lives and has the cutest, funniest, and sweetest personality! we love him!

Rylee was also seen today. I had a few concerns with her fatigue and paleness ALL the time, especially after she walks or tries to do a physical activity. The doctor was also concerned and is doing a bunch of lab work. Some of the things he mentioned he is looking at is her kidney function, liver, anemia, white blood cells, rheumatoid arthritis and some others...Just keep he in your prayers please. I am a little stressed and I just want her feeling better....

Easter

2011-04-25T11:21:00.001-07:00

I love Easter. I love it because of the real meaning we celebrate it. I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered immeasurable amounts for us all, and on the 3rd day was resurrected. I am so grateful that He did this so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father again some day. I look forward to the day when I will come face to face with Christ, look him in His eyes, and be able to thank Him for everything He did for me. I am grateful my children are gaining their own testimonies of this miraculous event. Blake had tears in his eyes during the Sacrament yesterday because he was finally comprehending everything our Savior did for us. As he asked questions, I answered. I know he felt it. He kept barring his head into my lap, so people wouldn't see him cry. I am so thankful for sweet, innocent little interactions with my children that help strengthen my own testimony. I know my Savior lives! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

I also love making and having traditions with my kids around the holidays....here are some pics of our fun yesterday

Before church I got a quick pic with two of my cuties!Almost EVERY TIME I ask him to smile or say "cheese" this is the smile I get! I think it's adorable, but he will probably hate it when he is older and looking at all the pics from the last few months and all he sees are these cheesy grins!
Easter egg hunt.....
"Uh mom, I can't reach..."

Showing off their loot
Our crazy family!!!
We had a yummy Easter dinner too, but I didn't get any pics of that!

spaghetti anyone??

2011-04-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

How could you EVER resist this adorable spaghetti-faced little boy???

Still making progress....

2011-04-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

Although the scale was not my friend for this past week, the measuring tape was! There was no difference on the scale BUT I lost two inches in my waist and 1/4 to 1/2 inches on various other places on my body this past week. When I first weighed myself, I was so disappointed (although I knew I'd plateau, I just didn't know it would be so soon), but then we measured and I was happy :) So things are still going well. I have lost 8.2 pounds and I am in my 7th week. I am up to 525 crunches every morning and 27 minutes jogging among other things that I do. I can definitely feel a huge difference in how I feel and I can do more active things without getting out of breath. I still have a long way to go to meet my final goal, but I am making baby steps and that is what really matters. JD and Rylee were doing push ups with me this morning...I didn't get any pics, but I will try the next time because they were soooo adorable. Anyways, My goal is to run in a 5 k soon but there are none anytime soon (except Bloomsday but that is on a Sunday). Unless you know of one, let me know. I Googled it and it looks like I missed the one that was last week.....

The BIG 33!!

2011-04-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

So today is Spencer's Birthday! The kids were so excited this morning that they wanted to wake up daddy at 7 am and sing and say "surprise!" But I wouldn't let them....so we waited 'til later this morning for him to open his presents the kids had picked out (white shirts and ties)

I love this picture of all of them. All of them are looking and smiling at the camera...a VERY rare occasion :)
opening presents

Time to sing and eat some yummy cake
Happy Birthday Spencer! I am so glad you were born :)

He's Two!!!

2011-04-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite yet, but he will be tomorrow! (and I leave out of town so I can't post on his bday). I can't believe my baby is 2! He has been such a joy in our lives since the moment we found out we were having a baby! I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. He is so special to us and we know we are so blessed to have him.

We thank our Father in Heaven every day for giving us one of his precious children. He is such a little character and has the cutest personality in the world! I don't know exactly how much he weighs, but a couple weeks ago he was 25 lbs. (his check up is on the 27th). He is talking a ton. He repeats everything you say. His favorite phrases right now are:

"Wywee (Rylee), Bake (Blake), where are you?"

"Wywee, come back!"

"Stop, NO!"

"mote (remote) watch Dora."

"Thank you!" ( he says this all the time, he's so polite).

"wanna fight?"

and soooo many more.

He loves fruit. He loves water. He loves Ramen noodles. He loves playing with my hair (or any woman's hair, especially as he is falling asleep or needs comforting). He loves playing "tackle" with his daddy, brother, and sister. He loves to cuddle. He loves to run and climb on top of everything. He loves to make his mommy very tired :)

Can you tell he loves to do a cheesy grin just about every time I take a pic?

What a sweet child of God we have been blessed with. Happy 2nd Birthday Little Bud! We love you very much!

Piano time

2011-04-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

This is a video of JD playing the piano tonight. I know it's hard to believe, but he was even cuter before I got the camera out. Once he saw the camera, he kept saying "cheese" and was more distracted. I think he has a lot of potential :) LOL

PEACHES!!!!

2011-04-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is a video of our dinner tonight, however, this happens EVERY night at dinner. Just thought I would document it so I can show Rylee how difficult and funny she was when she was little. Stubborn little girl, but I love her!

Mobius

2011-04-05T15:24:00.001-07:00

So this week is Spring Break. Yesterday, I made the kids wash walls for 3 hours and clean their rooms to earn some fun stuff for us to do the rest of the break. (Don't worry, they had breaks here and there and also had lunch in that amount of time). Blake was a stud. All he kept saying was, "OK mom, that's done. Now what do you want me to do?" Rylee was another story. I had to continue to help her remember why she was doing "all this hard, hard work." So today we went to the children's museum downtown. The kids love that place. Here are some pics of the fun the kids were having.JD running from me. That kid cannot be still for two seconds!

Rylee wearing her costume on stage and performing her song for us
Blake playing in the hut

JD sat down to "read" a story to a baby....he's so cute :)
Playing "house"
Blake went over to the art area towards the end and made some beautiful paintings
Our three little munchkins playing "house" inside the hut.

Mobius is a fun place to go for the kids. They have lots for them to do there especially since the kids like imaginative play so much.

Does anyone have any other fun ideas for Spring Break. I am trying to do something fun with them every day this week....you know, since they earned it :)

Progress

2011-04-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, I said I would update you all every once in a while on my progress. Also, I use this blog as my journal so I need to document it. If you don't care, well then, don't read the rest of this post :).

I have been exercising for exactly 4 weeks now and have now lost 7.8 lbs. YAY! I feel much better in every way. I have passed my first goal- get to the weight I was about 3 years ago, before I got preggo and had JD. My next goal is to hit the 10 lb mark. I'm hoping to do that in the next two weeks. My final goal is minus 30 lbs, but I I set small goals so I can eventually hit my ultimate goal while feeling successful all the way through. My mom says I look like I've lost more weight than the scale tells me (but she is my mom and probably just trying to make me feel good). Anyways, that's my update. Yay for success and feeling good and for following through with my goal to get healthier!

Wanna Fight????

2011-03-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

So JD does this cute thing when we are horsing around where he puts up his fists and says "wanna fight?" So here are some clips of us having some fun and JD doing his "wanna fight" a couple times. We love playing together. It's so much fun!

He Finally Lost It!!!!

2011-03-27T21:56:00.001-07:00

So Blake has had a fairly loose tooth for a while now. A couple weeks ago, his teacher (knowing he was the only one in the class that hadn't lost a tooth yet) came to me and said that they were planning on having the children write personal narratives that week on losing their first tooth. I told her it was fine and Blake could write about trying to lose a tooth. That night we tried really hard to lose it, but to no avail. Since then he has eaten many apples, we've wiggled and wobbled it a ton, and he even said "just throw the basketball in my face, mom." He REALLY wanted to lose it. Well, tonight, after reading with the kids and waiting for their brownies to cool off, I pulled out the floss again. Blake was so afraid. At one point, I had almost gotten it when he screamed like a girl. Then he ran away and cried (more like whimpered). Katie then came up and continued to try to get him to let her try and pull it out (I had given up by that point, thinking he just wasn't ready, although I knew his tooth was). My dad suggested putting ice on his gums and then Blake allowed Katie to try. After two attempts, it was out! He was sooooo happy!!

So tonight I got to play the Tooth Fairy for the vary first time! It was fun. This was the note the Tooth Fairy left him:

March 27, 2011

Blake,

Thank you for your tooth. I was very excited to come to your house tonight. I hope I was not too noisy. I loved your letter. Thank you very much. You look so handsome!

You were so brave today. Everybody was
so proud of you. You did wonderfully. I bet you are very
proud. I know that it was a little scary. It will be a little easier with

your next tooth.

I am leaving you a little money in exchange for your

tooth. It is a little “extra” this time because it is you first tooth.

Thank you very much for being so brave tonight. I will leave this first tooth for

you because you asked me to, but next time can I have your shiny tooth

to add to my collection?

Remember to always floss and keep brushing and to take good care of your teeth!!! They are so precious to me! I can’t wait to come back! Until next time.....

Love,

The Tooth Fairy

a tidbit about me

2011-03-21T11:35:00.001-07:00

I really never post about me...Probably because my kids are my life and I love talking about them. If I do post about myself, it usually is about being sick or something. But today I am going to change that a tad. I am going to tell you about an accomplishment I have made! I have had success in something that I have been doing for only 2 weeks now. Something I thought I couldn't do, but have done, and hope to continue! I have lost 4.6 lbs!!! Yay! 2 weeks ago I decided I was gonna do it, and do it full force this time, you know, not stop after 2 days or have excuses as to why I can't work out ( I don't have time, my kids won't leave me alone, I'm tired, etc.). So, I have had some success. I am happy and shocked that when I got on the scale again this morning, I had dropped another 2.2 lbs from last Monday. My goal is 20-30 lbs. I'm not gonna tell you my starting weight because that is just, well, embarrassing. But I will give updates occasionally and definitely post in a few months when I reach my goal. On to a healthier and therefore happier me....I am excited!

On my toes

2011-03-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

JD is a sweet little boy, but boy does he keep me on my toes. He is into EVERYTHING all of the time! Here is a little synopsis of just a TWO HOUR span from the other evening.

In the couple hours before his bedtime

*he got into the flour and yeast mixture and rubbed it in his hair,

*poured milk on his sister's head,

*played in the toilet water (changed him)

*unrolled almost a whole roll of TP from the bathroom into the living room,

*got ahold of the toothpaste and started eating it,

* got soaking wet from the dish water, (changed him)

*got into more flour (I was baking bread)

*climbed back into the bath after he was in his jammies and his sister was still in there (changed him again).

Let's see, the list could really go on and on. I just have to leave him unattended for 2 seconds and he's into something. You may ask, why does he have access to the bathroom? The answer: his brother and sister do not shut the door all the time like I tell them to!

He climbs onto and into EVERYTHING! If he can't reach it, he pushes something to it, so he can. He never walks...he just runs. I am amazed that we have not yet gone to the ER yet with him. Anyways, here are a couple pics of what I have caught him doing lately...

In the sink, right after I did dishes

in the laundry

In the yeast mixture

In the flour

Climbing on the counter

Oh, I even took him in to the Dr. yesterday (he has another ear infection). He kept getting into the gloves and using them as tissue (blowing his nose). Then when the Dr. gave him tissue, he started getting into more tissue. He also kept opening the sink cupboard and trying to get in there playing with the random things under there, and then kept lifting the lid to the yucky trash can. Needless to say, I was standing and moving through the whole appointment and that's when the Dr. was like "wow, what is he like when he's not sick?" and I told him "he's even more all over the place!"

3 Little Leprechauns

2011-03-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

I tried taking pics of all three kiddos wearing their green today. The key word here is TRIED :)

First, I didn't have the camera on the right setting....woops, my fault!
"JD, look at mommy." I said about a gazillion times....
"Say cheese." And of course JD does his most popular smile these days....
and again....
"JD, keep your eyes OPEN!"

And after about 30 seconds, it turned into this....

and then some of this....

But I did get two decent pictures out of it....

I figure, "hey the more I take, the more pics I can get of all three of them looking and smiling at the same time"....right????

I love these little leprechauns....Happy St. Patty's Day!

My little helper and laundry

2011-03-09T10:46:00.001-08:00

I have a little helper almost every time I do laundry.....well, anytime I do anything, for that matter :)

Anyways, this is Jaxton's way of "helping" me do the laundry.

1. Sort the laundry (resort and mix up the laundry mommy already sorted)

2. Put clothes in the washer ( put random things in the washer when mommy has it open to put clothes in it)

3. Put the soap and softener in (while mommy is putting in the soap and the softener, close the drawer thingy really fast so it spills everywhere).

4. Turn on the wash (after mom sets it and turns it on, keep pushing the off/pause button)

5. After they wash, put the clothes in the dryer (repeats step 2 with the random things)

6. Turn on dryer (repeats step 4 with on/off button)

7. Fold the laundry (while mommy is folding, throw all the clothes up in the air and then off the bed. Mess up the piles as much as possible).

8. Put the laundry away (take random pieces of clothing and shove them in daddy's drawer, usually socks or hand towels).

Here are some pics of the sorting stage of doing laundry.

(this pic was all black. I had to mess with the exposure to get this poor quality pic, but it was the only one where he actually looked at me when I was taking the pics)

Gotta love almost-2- year olds! ALthough he makes things more difficult at times, I guess life would be too easy if I didn't have him tagging along and "helping" me do my daily chores!

The time has FINALLY come

2011-03-05T17:09:00.001-08:00

For the past 3 years I have tried and tried and tried to get this beautiful little girl to wear jeans, or at least something other than "comfy pants." (Comfy pants is defined as: a pair of pants that are made of soft and comfortable material; they must have an elastic waist and there can not be a button or snap on it, even if it's just for decoration).

Well, last week while she was picking out something to wear, she came across the cute jeans that had been sitting in her drawer for the last year (I bought them last year HOPING she would wear them, but to no avail). But the time has come my friends. She wanted to wear them that day and has continued to want to look "cute in my jeans" every day since then. I even had to go buy a second pair of jeans this week and she is asking for more!
I really thought this day would never come! I am so happy...LOL! And look how old she looks! Yay to wearing jeans. Boo to looking like she is 15!

Funny kid

2011-03-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

So this after noon, Rylee and I were on my bed playing a game together when JD came running and crying into the room. He kept falling as he was running to the bed and I didn't know why until I saw him.

This is him very upset (and the pic caught Ry in the background sticking her tongue out because I had to stop the game to help him). I just happened to have my camera right next to me so I took some pics :)

What's inside his shirt you might ask? Why is he so upset? Why was he falling over while he was running? Any guesses?
CARS!!! He stuck ALL the cars he was playing with in the playroom into his shirt. LOL. It was hilarious to see him looking like Santa Claus with a big belly!

He was happy as soon as I told him it was OK and we could get them out.
Here are some of the cars...there were probably 2o stuffed in his shirt.
He's now happy again! Silly boy!

Green eggs and ham

2011-03-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Today is Dr. Seuss' Birthday. To celebrate the kids got to wear their jammies to school and I made them some green eggs and ham. This was our conversation this morning:

me: "Here is your surprise breakfast!"

kids: "Yeah, what's the surprise?"

me: "tadaaaaa!"

Blake: "oh, that's so awesome mom."

Rylee: "Ug, that looks disgusting! I am NOT eating THAT!"

me: "thanks bud. Ry, come on. It tastes the same, just looks different."

Rylee: "NO WAY!!!"

....But she smiled for the picture :) (Oh and you like how Blake is hoarding the TV remotes, even when he is eating breakfast? He is such a man)

New hair

2011-02-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

I went with my mom and sister the other day and we got our hair cut. I cut about 3 inches off. This is the result....

My Passion

2011-02-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

My passion. I absolutely love my kids and I love to take pictures of them. Of course they make taking pictures of them pretty easy because they are so beautiful. However, JD is not so easy. I did get a couple good ones, but there are about 30 that I either did not post or erased because he was moving or not looking. I can't wait until he can sit still like his brother and sister and I can REALLY take some good photos of the three of them, together. But for now, these will have to do :)

Weekend Getaway

2011-02-15T13:19:00.001-08:00

This past weekend Spencer and I were able to have a little time to ourselves. Back in December (when it was our anniversary) Spencer asked me where I would want to go on a mini vacation if I could go anywhere. It didn't take me long to give him my answer. I wanted to go to Utah and visit these 3.....

So we planned a weekend that worked with my mom's schedule and it just happened to fall on Valentine's Day weekend. So, we killed two birds with one stone :) Here are some pics of our fun times....

Their one year old little girl, Emma. She is such a good baby and beautiful, might I add

Fun times in the car. On the way to do some shopping in Park City. I think D was covering her nose here.....someone kept....well.....stinking up the car.....
We had a nice dinner at a place called Tucanos. We waited for two hours....but the food was GOOD!

The restaurant gave us chocolate covered strawberries and roses before we left. So we acted a little silly for the camera man.....
This is supposed to be us being a tiger....I kinda just look crippled
And Saturday, we went to an awesome and intense BYU vs. Utah game. Super fun and then we went to a place called Cafe Rio (my new favorite restaurant of all-time).

Sunday, we went to church and just chilled. Monday we went to Cafe Rio again, before we left for the airport. And we went on a long drive finding a canyon, but it just made us all sick. It was very hard for me to say good bye to by BFF. We had so much fun together. I gotta say, it was REALLY nice watching my hubby have so much fun with Christian. It made me smile just watching him laugh the way he did ALL weekend. I haven't seen him laugh and have such a good time in a very long time. We LOVE the Munoz's and had sooooo much fun. Can't wait to see you again.

A special thanks to my mama. For without her, this much needed weekend would not have been possible! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

FUN!

2011-02-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

I LOVE these guys! We are having so much fun with them! Sooooo, I will have have to write more about it later, when I have time and am back home....

"Stud Muffin"

2011-02-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

This morning Blake wanted to "do his hair." He wanted his hair to look like his friend's from school. He called it a mohawk, although it really isn't one. I've heard it referred to as a faux-hawk, but I don't even know if that is correct....Anyways, his hair is quite short, but I did my best to get gel in it and make it stick up a little. After we were done, he looked into the mirror and said, "wow, I'm a stud muffin."

Well, I sure think he is, but maybe I'm a little bias :)

Basketball Season

2011-02-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

Blake started Y ball again this week. Tonight at practice, while scrimmaging, he made 3 baskets and was very happy. He didn't score much last year and they pretty much just ran up and down the court, so I am excited to see him play this year. He is already showing improvement and I just love how happy he is playing and what a hard worker he is!

DEFENSE!!! He is a good little defender...
They had to practice at a 10 foot hoop tonight and he still was able to score (at their age it is a 8 foot hoop).

I love to cheer for him. And as we found out from Ry tonight at practice (when I had to tell her to stop yelling at her brother) she said, "but I love bossing him around." Whatever the coach said or I yelled, she thought she had to keep repeating. I had to explain the difference between cheering and yelling and being bossy. I had to remind her a couple times tonight :) Blake didn't notice, but it's probably a good thing he didn't...

Rylee says the darndest things....

2011-01-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Quoting Ry from when we were at Kmart earlier and she was looking at purses..."mom, why do they sell purses with garbage in them already? That's just silly" (All the paper stuffing inside).

And just a moment ago "mom, you know because you were born in the olden days and had to wear turtle tops" (I think she meant turtle necks). Oh that girl is funny!

These were just her funny statements from today. She usually has at least one a day!

Wanna smile????

2011-01-23T17:42:00.000-08:00

I love this goofy kid!!!

After church today. Showing off his new cheesy smile, one sock on and one off, and of course he is missing his pants! His pants kept falling off today. In fact when I went to get him in nursery today, his pants were around his ankles.

Ry's song

2011-01-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

I was in the other room the other day and heard Rylee singing while she was coloring. I secretly recorded some of it. She makes me laugh. Listen carefully to some of the words...classic!

Here it is mom...took me long enough huh??

2011-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago me and siblings put on a surprise 40th anniversary party for our parents. I told mom I would post the slideshow I made for them on my blog so she could share it with all her friends and family that were not able to attend. As yesterday was their actual 40th anniversary, I thought I better post it and stay true to my word. The slideshow turned out awesome, but the party and surprise were even better!

Happy 40 years years mom and dad! Thanks for everything!

Cheesy grin!

2011-01-18T16:56:00.001-08:00

So this is the cute, charming smile we see almost all the time.....However, when he REALLY wants something and is saying "ease" (please), this is what his smile looks like.....

And this is the newest smile, especially when he REALLY REALLY wants something. He squints his eyes and and does a very goofy smile like this....
all 3 smiles make me smile! I love this little monkey!!!!

She's so pretty....

2011-01-18T16:52:00.001-08:00

Just had to share a couple pics of Rylee that I took the other day......

What a beautiful little girl we have!

The Birthday Boy is Here!!!

2011-01-18T16:26:00.001-08:00

Blake turned 7 on the 13th. I can't believe we have a seven year old. (I'll be saying the phrase "I can't believe we have a ______year old every year, I think). It really is crazy how time flies! On his Birthday morning he opened family gifts in the morning before school. And he kept using classic phrases in the 3rd person like "the Birthday boy would like some more milk please." "The Birthday boy wants his sister to stop touching him." "mom, the Birthday boy would like to go to dinner tonight." and to top it off, when we got to his classroom, he walked in a yelled with his fists in the air, "The Birthday boy has arrived!" He sure does make us laugh!

After school and before dinner, he got to open Aunt Rogene and Uncle Joe's gift. He loved it! his exact words were "IT'S AWESOME!!!!"
His party was two days later. And because it was two days later, he continued to play the whole Birthday boy card for the entire 3 days! We just had a couple of his closest friends over. Much more low key than last year. Last year was waaaaaay overboard!
This pic below makes me laugh because as Blake was opening his presents, monkey boy JD climbed on his chair and started to open the next gift. He apparently thought Blake was taking too long or something :)
Cake time!
He LOVED this present!! I think we have a future SWAT team member, FBI agent, or police officer in our midst!
It was a great day 7 years ago and it was also a great day this year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUD!!!

7

2011-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

7 years ago I went through one of the most painful experiences in my life! It is a day I will never forget. Although the pain was extreme, that's not the reason it is so memorable for me. I will never forget that day because it brought me one of the biggest blessings in my life.

This little man....

ahhhh!!! Nice first family photo huh???

Now he is this big!!! And it makes me happy, but I am also a little sad too! He's growing up too fast!

Blake is a great kid and so much fun! We are so blessed! Happy 7th Birthday Bud!!!!!

Yum yum yum!

2011-01-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

After a couple days with the stomach flu, I finally felt well enough to bake something. The kids love helping me, but I know it's because of this...

They get to lick all the good brownie batter when I am all done! JD literally sat there for 30 minutes, making sure he got every last lick!

Here is a 30 sec video of them enjoying their licking! (don't mind Ry's crazy hair please...it's been a rough couple days!)

Thank you Aunt Rogene and Uncle Joe

2010-12-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

I put together a little video for you, Rogene, so you could see the kids opening their gifts from you guys. Thank you soooooo much! The kids love them. And I would venture to bet that the shark will be a present Blake will have for a long time and will always remember. He sleeps with it every night and watches his new movies with Mr. Shark. Thank you!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve we had a yummy dinner and of course, we read the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures. Then the kids got to open their two presents before bed. Spencer's family always opened p.j.'s on Christmas Eve as a child, so we carry on that tradition.

And I started a tradition a couple years ago giving the kids something to sleep with...one year it was blankets, one year a pillow, and this year....huge pillow pets!

Here are the kids Christmas morning with their stockings

Everyone seeing what Santa brought them in their stockings
And presents. I didn't get very many pics. Spencer was video taping, and I was handing out the gifts...so here are the couple we got

Christmas day Kelley tradition. First presents from Grandma and Grandpa Kelley

and then we played Bingo and Bunco and ate some yummy food.

Another great Christmas is now in the books!

Candy Christmas trees

2010-12-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

The kids and I decorated candy Christmas trees this evening. It was lot of fun and I think it will be a new tradition for us. Here is a picture of them just getting started. Ry looks really thrilled huh?

Gosh, we have some cute kids!

JD had fun licking all the frosting.
and so did his big sis, Rylee.
Blake concentrates very hard while working

Rylee's finished product
and Blake's...
It was lots of fun. I love doing things with the kids. It was pretty cool-- While we were sitting at the dining room table working on our trees, Santa went down our street on his sleigh. It was a magical experience for the kids and they absolutely loved it and were sooooo excited! What a great memory!

Snack Time

2010-12-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Just took some pics of our cute kids during their favorite time of the day---SNACK TIME! Today, their sweet treat snack of the day was chocolate cream Oreos! Yum Yum!

haha...this is how JD always looks because his pants never stay on---- skinny minney!

Love these kids to death!

Decorating the tree!

2010-12-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Monday evening for FHE we decorated the Christmas tree. Kinda the last Hoorah before Grandma and Grandpa left and went back to Missouri.

We still have our dinky tree that Spencer and I got 8 years ago! But is does it's job and the kids love it...

It was fun and a very nice memory for the kids! Happy Holidays everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa Brower's visit

2010-11-30T16:15:00.001-08:00

The last time we saw Grandma and Grandpa Brower our family looked like this (minus Spencer and adding our other in-laws Brian, Amy, Bo, and Payton)a year and a half later...here we are!!

We are so happy that Grandma and Grandpa took the time and sacrificed so we could see them. The kids ABSOLUTELY LOVED having them here. I captured some moments on camera.

Rylee is showing off her beautiful new tutu....
The kids LOVED story time with both Grandma and Grandpa..."Llama Llama red pajama reads a story with his mama...." (I think they will be happy not to have to read a Llama Llama book for a while )

hahaha...I caught Bob snoozing quite a few times in the chair :)
I have to say that Bob is such an awesome Grandpa and father. Seeing him interact with his grandkids brought such a big smile to my face. Spencer has such a wonderful example of a patriarch and father to look up to.
Last night we decorated the tree together
Here they are watching the grandkids have fun
Grandpa gave the kids a bath almost every night. He was such a big help!
Grandma made us a beautiful advent calendar

We truly, absolutely LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa come stay and spend some quality time with us. Thank you for coming! As soon as I got back in the car from helping them take their bags into the airport Rylee says "mommy, I already miss Grandma and Grandpa Brower." It is true...we already miss you. We love you tons and can't wait until we see you again...

a try at family photos

2010-11-29T21:42:00.001-08:00

So we tried to get some family photos again tonight, mainly because we had both sets of grandparents here and I thought it would be a great idea.

This was the best one we could get...and it was the first one....JD just went downhill from there. He definitely does not make taking a picture easy!

3 generations
I LOVE this one!
another 3 generations

a try at a family pic
it didn't go so well.....

really wish JD was looking at the camera on this one

hahahaha...well we got a couple good ones....I didn't even post the not-so-good ones!