Grandpa Great

Grandpa Great

Saturday

November 29th, 2008

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we made a trip down to Moses Lake to go to Emma's baptism. Grandpa Jensen, now Great lives in Moses Lake so we got to see him. It's always nice to go over to his house, I have so many childhood memories of that house. Us cousins loved going over to Grandpa and Grandma's house, it was always lots of fun. Grandma always had something good to eat and Grandpa always had a pocket or his jar full of candy to give us. Grandma Jensen is no longer with us, but Grandpa Jensen was so nice and came to the hospital the day I had Brody to come and see us. I keep asking him to hold him but he said he was to afraid, he didn't know what to do with a baby that little. Which is understandable being that he hasn't had kids of his own in a long time. He also came down to be apart of Brody's baby blessing and if I remember right he didn't hold him then either, he was only a few weeks old. So when I finally got to hold him this time I was pretty excited. I wanted to make sure to get a picture of Brody and his Great Grandpa in case he isn't around when he grows up. It was so sweet to watch him holding him and just starring and him and talking to him. I was a little worried, but Grandpa Great really does love little Brody.

New Hair!

New Hair

Thursday

November 27th, 2008

I am so proud of myself, I FINALLY did something different with my hair. Its not a big drastic change, but its a change. I have been wanting to do something, anything new but I have just been to afraid that it wouldn't look good. We were planning on getting family pictures taken while Anya was home so I decided that I really needed to do something with my hair. It had been a long time since Iv even gotten it cut let alone colored, I think I was about 2 months pregnant when I last got it done. I had just been to busy to even think about my hair and too poor to pay for it getting ready for a baby and all. Kelli, being the sweetheart she is was nice enough to stay late Tuesday night and do me and two other girl's hair. I told her I wanted highlights with dark underneath. She did an awesome job! She did something different besides just the block of dark underneath, its kind of in strips. Then she highlighted the top and gave me a well needed trim and some layers. She worked miracles with my bangs. My bangs always seem to be out of control! I'm still taking my prenatal vitamins since I'm nursing so my hair grows insanely fast, which means I can never keep up on my bangs. I think I'll be taking advantage of her free bang cuts.

Baby book

Baby Book

Wednesday

November 26th, 2008

I will admit, I am one of those mothers that is obsessed with the baby book and remembering ever little special moments that happens. I want to capture every bit of his childhood that I can, yes I know I'm crazy! Shane and Melinda White gave Brody the coolest present, they were these cute little frames that you put there hand and foot prints in, it came with an ink pad. I couldn't find it for the longest time, but sure enough all I had to do was clean my mess of a room and there it was. I had already done his foot print before I lost the ink pad, so tonight we did his adorable little hand print. I decided why stop there, in one of his baby books (yes I have more then one, I told you I was crazy and obsessive) it has a place for his hand and foot print. At first he didn't really mind it that much, but towards the end he was getting quiet frustrated with us. As soon as I would take his hand off the ink pad he would ball it up into a tight fist and wouldn't let go, being stubborn already!

I love how hes looking at me like hes thinking "Mommy what are you going to do to me"

We had to lay him down because it was the only way we could get him to cooperate with us.

The Brodster getting all cleaned up, happy for Mommy's craziness to be over, at least for now!

Mommy's "little" monster

Mommy's "little" Monster

Monday

November 24th, 2008

I have kind of a new nickname for Brody and its Mommy's little monster. We had a WIC appointment today to check on how Brody's doing. I was really excited to see how much he weighs since the last time he was weighed was when he was 4 weeks, he weighed 13 pounds then. Poor Brody was a little freaked out, I had to take his diaper off and all of his clothes. He didn't cry, he just had a really freaked out look on his face, he was all bug eyed. He now weighs 14.4 pounds! Talk about little monster (not so little actually). At his appointment at 4 weeks he was 22 inches long if I remember right, and now he is 23 7/8 inches. Out of a survey of 100 boys for his height he is in the 90 percentile, so only 10 percent of boys his age are taller then him! The next thing she explained to me I didn't fuller understand but I kind of do. She said something like for his height and weighed, comparing them he is 70 percent. She said that this is excellent! This means that he isn't too tall for his weight or too fat for his height. Also I only have 6 pounds to loose until I'm back to prebaby weight! Those 6 pounds are being VERY stubborn. My iron is also excellent, I guess it can be not so great after giving birth since you can loose alot of blood. So over all everyone is doing great!

Anya is also home for Thanksgiving, she'll be here for a week! She got here last night and she leaves on Sunday. We are all very excited to have her home. She is enjoying being around my little Brody again.

I think that Brody's little bum looks soo cute in his new jeans so I had Anya hold him up to get a picture. These jeans are size 3-6 months so I didn't think that they would fit, every other time Iv tried they were a little too big. But I guess my little boy is gaining weight! I also like this picture because it shows how stinkin long he is.

Introducing the bottle

Introducing the bottle

Wednesday

November 12th, 2008

Today Brody is 6 weeks old. I have been meaning to see what he would do with a bottle for a while now, I just never really got around to doing it. Its just so much easier to nurse him. I had pumped some milk about 3 weeks ago and froze it with very good intentions of using it within the next few days, but that never happened. The nurses at the hospital told me to wait until he was at least 2 weeks old to introduce to bottle to him, so I figured that Id better do it soon or else he might not want to take one at all. And that would be very bad since I have to go back to work and my mom has to be able to feed him somehow, especially since the little milk monster thinks he needs to eat about every hour! Brody did an awesome job with the bottle! At first he didn't quiet know what to do or what to think about the bottle, he keep trying to go for my boob and he had a hard time figuring out how to use the nipple. But he figured it out within a few minutes and soon enough he was suckin the milk down like a champ. Now if mommy could just figure out how to use the pump again we could keep Brody liking the bottle and Grandma happy!

Excuse you!

Excuse you!

Thursday

November 13th, 2008

So Iv found a new way to burp Brody and it involves a little tummy time. I always seem to have a hard time burping him, its gotten better lately but it still isn't great. I usually just end up handing him off to someone else to get the job done. So as you can imagine I was very happy to finally hear him burp

*You'll have to turn off my music down at the bottom of the page and turn your volume up to hear it.

Baby friends!

Baby Friends!

Monday

November 10th, 2008

My friend Jamie just had a little boy on October 23rd, so that makes him and Brody about 3 weeks apart in age. Monday Brooke Norman and I went over to see Jamie's new house her family built, it was beautiful! Its really nice to have someone my age with a son too, someone that I can relate to. It will also be really nice for Brody and Korbyn since they are so close in age.

I know that Brody is big, but It always really hits me how big he is getting and how fast he is growing up when I see him next to other baby's. They are only 3 weeks apart and he seems so much bigger, but then again baby's do grow fast! They are both so stinkin cute. Little boys just seem to have a special place in their mommy's hearts. There is nothing like a handsome little baby boy.

Shopping

Shopping

Friday

November 7th, 2008

Tawnya keeping Brody happy while we shop

My poor little Brody....he has been on more shopping spree's than any month old baby boy should ever have to go through! Hes quiet the little trouper though, I must say. That little boy has been shopping everywhere from the Tri-cities, Yakima, North Bend, Seattle and even several places in Idaho! He is a boy though, which means that he tends to get a little impatient with me far before I plan on being done. But I'm beginning to learn that that's what having a baby is all about. I still haven't mastered the art of speed shopping though, which I think will benefit all of us! But for now we will just resort to holding him the majority of the time and say things like "look at the pretty jewelry!"

Grandma Great

Grandma Great

Tuesday and Wednesday

November 5th and 6th, 2008

Once we got back from our trip to Idaho my mom decided that it would be nice to go visit her mom so that she could have a chance to see Brody. Grandma Straley is 86 years old, so we wanted to make sure that she got to meet my little Brody, this was very important to me. My mom had sent picture of him to her and she thought that he was just the cutest thing, especially his Halloween pictures. She said that every time she looked at them his little pumpkin hat would make her laugh. The first night we were there we all went out to eat at Apple Bee's. As we were walking into the restaurant Great Grandma said "Its four generations", you could just tell in her voice that she was excited about it. So we had one of the hostess take a picture of all of us.

Great Grandma loved Brody's little outfits. She keep saying "I didn't even know they made outfits that are that cute so small." She especially loved his jeans, she was thrilled by the fact that he could already wear jeans and look so cute!

Since Grandma Straley is getting older, we weren't sure if she was going to want to hold Brody or not. She saw how wiggly he can get when he is awake, so she said she would if he was asleep. I was really actually surprised at how excited she was to hold him and see him and just be around him.

My mom and I like this picture because it looks like Brody's smiling.

Of course I had to get a picture in the all so famous rocking chair. I swear that chair has been there ever since I can remember. I remember sitting in it when I was a little girl, and here I am sitting in it with my little boy. Its funny how times can change so much, but memories will never so away. This picture was actually my Grandma's idea, you cant see it in this picture but I had all my baby stuff and his car seat around my feet, She was so amazed at how much stuff I had. she said that make when she had kids they didn't have half of the stuff that we have now.

I'm so glad that we were able to make it over so that she could meet Brody. The whole time we were there she would say things like "he doesn't even look like a baby, he looks like a doll hes so perfect" and "how can anything alive be so cute." Hopefully we will be able to make another trip down to Seattle soon to visit Great Grandma Straley.

Yummy Pizza

Yummy Pizza

Monday

November 3rd, 2008

Every year after the football season one of Evan's team mates dads makes a DVD of the season for the boys. We always enjoy watching it, especially Evan. Its so fun to watch him get all excited and worked up looking back on the plays they did and the games they won. We made some pizza for dinner and eat it downstairs while we were watching the DVD. I put Brody's boopy up on the couch next to me ( he loves that thing) and layed him down on it. I had a slice of pizza in my hand when I noticed Brody was stairing at something. He always stairs so I didn't really think much of it. Well I went to eat my pizza and I noticed that when my pizza moved so did his eyes. So I kind of moved the pizza all around and sure enough he fallowed it wherever it went. He was eyeing my pizza! I was so excited for him because this was the first time that I have seen him fallow an object and not just forget about it as soon as it leaves his eyesight. And of course it would be food, what a typical guy. Tonight was also the first time that I really noticed me recognizing me as his mommy. I'm sure that before he knew that I was his mommy, but he never really did much to show it. Well he was laying on the ground with my mom and she was kind of talking to him. I walked over to them and said something and as soon as he heard my voice he turned to look at me. It was the cutest thing, its nice to know that he actually recognizes me as his mommy!

Family in Idaho

Family in Idaho

Saturday

November 1st, 2008

Here are some more pictures of all the Family while we were in Idaho. Everyone really enjoyed spending time together, we just love spending time together! We used to all live in Moses Lake so we would spend so much time together, we were all really close. Then when we moved to Ephrata we still stayed close since its only a 30 minute drive. But since we live in Prosser and they live in Utah its just really hard to find the time to see each other.

Here's Mom and Aunt Sue bowling


My mom absolutely loves taking pictures, and I must say that shes pretty dang good at it too. She took this beautiful picture of the Rexburg Temple, the Temple is right across the street from Anya's apartment.


Here's all of us girls at Beaver Dick park, if you've read my moms blog you'll see that we all find this name quiet hilarious!

Jared, Sue, Joy and Levar. We were all sad that Katie and Brian couldn't be there. Hopefully we will get to see them sometime soon.

Our happy family!

This is our cousin Michelle holding Brody. She, like my sister fell in love with him right away. She was always wanting to hold him, she was even nice enough to hold him while I eat!

Mommy's lil pumpkin

Mommy's lil pumpkin

Friday

November 31st, 2008

Brody and I with a family friend and her daughter. They were born 3 days apart, Brody on the 1st and Brynlee on the 4th. This was before we put Brody's Halloween outfit on (mommy forgot to).

This year we got to spend Halloween in Rexburg Idaho with Anya, Aunt Sue, Uncle Levar, our cousin Jared, and Sue's mom Joy. It was one of the best Halloween's Iv had in a long time! I just love being around family. Like I said earlier, Anya totally fell in love with Brody. She couldn't keep her hands off of him! Brody liked to fall asleep on her, I guess that she is very comfortable. You cant really see it that good but this was Brody's first Halloween outfit, before he had a little accident in it.

Halloween night we all went out to eat at Apple Bee's. Two of Anya's friends from school also came with us, we had quiet the crowd. I know its hard to believe but my parents had never been to Apple Bee's before. The food was great and everyone enjoyed themselves including Mr. Bro Bro. He got a little cranky once but I just feed him and he was as happy as can be.

And there's mommy's little pumpkin in his cute little outfit! Everyone thought that he looked so adorable, he seemed to enjoy being a pumpkin too. Only the hat seemed to get on his nerves a few times.

After dinner we all went back to the hotel. Our hotel had an indoors swimming pool with a fun little area to sit and have breakfast and stuff. One of Anya's friends that came is really good at card tricks, and I mean really good. He did quiet a few for us, and no one could figure out how he was doing it! After card tricks we all got to enjoy being together and just talking. Sue and Lavar went and bought Monopoly, so we all played that.

Grandpa J's can always seem to calm Brody down no matter what. I'll have to admite that he gets him all settled down and even sometimes to sleep almost everynight. Those two boys have some kind of connection, Brody loves his Grandpa.

Our trip to Idaho

Our trip to Idaho

Thursday thru Sunday

October 30th-November 2nd 2008

I absolutely LOVE this picture. Its so cute because Anya's laughing and it looks like Brody's laughing right along with her!

Our family has been wanting to go and see Anya for quiet a while, we were going to visit her during mothers week but that didn't work out. So we decided to go up to Idaho and visit her for Halloween. This was Brodys first road trip. I was really excited because I wanted Anya to be at the hospital when I had Brody but she wasn't able to because of school, so she hadn't even seen him yet other then picture. We left early Thursday and drove all day. The first night we spend in Idaho Falls at my moms cousins house. Brody actually did really good the whole way up. He really only cried when he was hungry, I'd say he sleep 90% of the time. This picture is so cute because Evan decided to fall asleep on Brody's car seat. Well Brody didn't quiet know what to think of this, he just keep stairing at Evan, probably wondering why all of a sudden he was laying on top of his legs. It was the funniest thing, it went on for a good half an hour too until he finally gave in and fell asleep himself.

Thursday night we went out to eat with my mom's cousins family at Johny Corinos in Idaho Falls. It was fun to see them since really the only time we do is when we come to see Anya at college.

We were also very excited to go to Idaho because my dads brothers family that lives in Utah came up as well to visit us. Friday night we all stayed a hotel a few minutes from Anya's apartment. It was so much fun to see our family, its probably been at least 2 years since iv seen them. Everyone loved Brody and thought that he was so cute. Saturday we all decided to go bowling, this was lots of fun because it was Brody's first time being at a bowling Ali. We even tried Brody's bowling hand out. I know he cant really bowl yet but all his first's are still exciting for mommy!


After Bowling we went out to lunch at Crego's, Its a really good pizza place in Rexburg. Again it was just really good to be around family since we don't really live that close to any. Anya fell completely in love with Brody from the first time she saw him. She couldn't get enough of him! She always wanted to hold him, it was really cute. I'm really glad that my sister enjoys being around my son. I will admit that I did have a little mommy attitude though, sometimes I just wanted to hold him and everyone was always asking for him. So my mom and Anya had to remind me that I ALWAYS get to be with him, and she never gets to see him. So I put my feelings aside and let everyone else enjoy him. I'm still just in that new mommy stage where I never want to let him go, I'm sure it will wear off eventually.

Sadly all our family had to leave Saturday. We wish that we could have spent more time with them, but it was just great to see them. After they left we just spent all day with Anya, that night we went back to my moms cousins house for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Saturday was also Brody's one month birthday! I cant believe that hes only one month old in this picture, he looks so much older to me.

Eventually like all good vacations time ran up and we had to leave on Sunday. Everyone had such an awesome time. It was so good to be able to see Anya and spend time with her, we all talk to her on the phone quiet a bit, but its just not the same. I layed Brody down on the Bed while I was packing everything up and getting everything ready. I glanced over to see how he was doing and he was looking right at me, upside down! It was so stinkin cute I just had to take a picture of it, it even looks like he has a little smile on his face!

The ride home wasn't quiet as good as the ride there. Everyone was just plain tired of being in the car. And really who wouldn't be after 10 hours!