Jenson- 7 months old

Jenson is a growing machine. He amazes me everyday with something new, I am so lucky to be able to stay home with him everyday!  He is taking much better naps during the day, only for and hour or two though.  He sleeps through the night, he goes to bed around 7-7:30 and wakes up around 6:30-7 :)  He can almost crawl the "right" way.  Right now he will get up and push him self forward with his legs and instead of moving his arms he will just fall to his stomach, and do it all over again.  He still gets around pretty fast though, even by doing that.  He also does some mean baby yoga, he will get up on all 4's with his bum all the way in the air then start raising one leg and will just stay like that until he gets tired, hahaha.

He sits up un supported until he wants something he sees and reaches for it.  He loves to walk/ run around (with help of course...)  he doesn't really like to be on all 4's so he always wants someones hands to walk around with.  He has to be in control,  I'll try to move my hands to his hips to hold him and he will get mad at me because he just wants to hold my fingers and walk himself (hashtag: red head).  His smile takes up his whole face, and I can't get enough of it! 

 He is such a happy boy, unless he is hungry (gets that from his mama!).  He hates being left alone and loves being held, (most of the time) but will not really "cuddle" with you and refuses to fall asleep on you.  (He has been sick lately though and only wants to be rocked to sleep-seriously melts my heart!).  

He has a half a tooth, the stupid thing wont come all the way through but you can feel it and see the very top of it!  I promise he can say "mom" and "mama"  no joke- I need to get it on tape so you can hear it.  And he knows he is saying it, I swear!  For example the other day Babe and I were both in the room with Jenson.  Babe was playing with him when I walked by him to put some clothes away he started crying and saying "mama" and scooted around and started "crawling" to me away from Babe.  Yeah- he knows who is mama is and I die every time he says it! He gives kisses too if you ask him, big slobbery wet ones!  He will also start sucking on your face, neck, shoulders and arms randomly (like no jokes attacks your shoulder like he is going to eat it off... kind of strange but so funny!)  

other likes: bath time, fans (seriously, so strange right?),  food, his jumperoo (mostly the little felt "hair" on the bird that he LOVES to suck on...), drinking water out of our cups,  stroller rides, people watching, Curious George (or maybe that's just me... love my little monkey boy!), cords (he will go all across the room for one!) phones, Infant Zoo Lite (a stupid app I have on my phone but he can watch it forever, and it always calms him down!) being wrapped up tight for sleeping. 

dislikes: when other people are eating when he's not, when his bottle is gone, long airplane rides (but who actually likes those...), being left alone,  nap time when he is having to much fun,  getting dressed,  and long car rides. 

Jenson is so full of personality I can't get enough of his long red hair (he even had his first hair cut while in Utah!) and blue eyes.  I am thankful everyday that he is ours, he fills our lives with so much joy, it's amazing we ever lived without him!  We love you Jenson Matthew! 

Photo credit: Chelsi Mae Photography- seriously Utah friends she is the best you will ever find and so worth it (totally cheap prices too!) you NEED her to take your pictures, I promise! :)

Nauvoo Trip- day 1

We finally made it to Philadelphia, 20+ hour car ride with a 6.5 month old is not my idea of a fun ride but we made it!  Dad Hunt and Karl got to our house on Wed. night (20th) we left early the morning of the 21st.  To make the trip more pleasant we stopped in Nauvoo and toured around for most of the day.  Holy Cow!  I love Nauvoo.  The spirit in that city is overwhelming, such a special place!  We were lucky enough to meet up with the Wrights (they are from Inkom and serving a mission there right now)  they even gave us our own little tour.  Thank you!  Some of my favorite things to see were the Temple, Lucy Mack Smith's home, and Cartridge Jail.  There are still plenty of pictures to come {be prepareddddd!} but for now enjoy this little video of our vacation so far!  :)  Stay Tuned! 

Dumpster finds

Our story starts like this (just one of the many reasons I love Lindsay so much!)

I woke up from my nap to find this awesome text waiting for me!  {ps thanks babe for watching Jenson so I could sleep away my headache!}

I jumped out of bed, ran down stairs and told Babe the good news.  Side note, Babe LOVES to play the piano {We would go to our church every time he wanted to play the piano}. He never took lessons or anything but he is simply amazing.  He memorized a few songs when he was younger and I'm not talking like Chop Sticks I am talking like Waterfall from John Schmidt and other amazing songs like that.  {excuse me while I go play Sweet Hour of Prayer... haha about the only song I can play} When we first moved here he wanted to get a piano but we had no room for it and honestly I didn't want to keep moving it place to place.  But since we are in our new place for quite some time thats a different story, but who has the kind of money?! Okay long side note... back to the story!

We decided to go take a look for ourselves,  when we walked over there they were still moving stuff into their UHAL and putting more stuff by the dumpster. We walked by pretending like we were doing nothing but then decided to forget it and just go look at the thing {embarrassing right?} I kept playing on my phone, pretending I was doing something very important,  {which Pet Saga is right?} and let Babe do all the work, which lets be real this piano is for him anyway.  The people kept walking past us loading of the dumpster with awesome stuff, I have no shame in dumpster diving {hello flash from the past, chip diving anyone?!} but luckily the dumpster was full so they just put stuff all around the sides, saving me from having to go diving.   As babe was checking out the piano I was eyeing all of the shelving they just put down {say hello to finally organizing our laundry room!}  I waited to long though and some old lady came out and took 2 of the shelves (which she couldn't even carry herself, she had Babe take them to her apartment) and they were small little shoe rack shelves... 1st rule in dumpster diving- if you can't carry it you can't take it.  {thats a rule right?}  I didn't waste any time and grabbed all the rest and put them in a pile by Jenson and I, just as she came back to grab more {ha sorry, finders keepers! ;)}  Okay that's harsh but seriously guys we have like no money and these were just what I needed, so I don't feel too bad... ;) okay maybe I could have given her the last shoe rack but to late now!  

I texted Lindsay to let her know we wanted to get the piano but we would need Travis to come help us lift it to our place (down the hill a ways... but down hill is better than up hill right?!)  They started to lift it and go, resting ever few seconds.  After all it is a full piano and that bugger is heavy- and there was only 2 people lifting it.  I think the people moving felt bad for us because they stopped moving and actually helped us lift it home- seriously?! Amazing people (and here I am stealing shelves from old ladies...) After using a car jack and taking the stoppers off our door it was finally in (boo for not having any pictures of the moving process... My bad!) We have a piano, even though the keys were broken we were excited, who needs the bottom keys anyway? ;) After taking it apart and opening it up Babe figured out the problem- and FIXED IT! As in the keys were not stuck anymore and the piano works perfectly fine, might need to be tuned some day down the road but not bad enough now.  And that my friends is how we got a piano out of the dumpster.  Now all we need is a piano bench and some piano books- oh and a way to hold the books since that part is missing too- any suggestions? 

One of my biggest regrets was quitting piano, you were right mom! So were starting Jenson young, no joke have you seen those you tube videos where the kids playing the piano are jaw dropping amazing and only like 5 years old?  That's going to be Jenson... he's our little money maker ;) {only in my dreams, right...} Some day he will thank me for pushing him to play the piano and if he doesn't then his wife sure will because my heart seriously melts every time Babe plays, I love the we know can have beautiful music playing in our house.  Hey I might even teach myself again in all my spare time! ;)

^^she sure is pretty, oh and did I mention free? Oh okay, just checking!^^

 

^^ He only wanted to play this song for the camera because he knew he wouldn't really mess it up.. hahah Oh and notice how he is sitting on our coffee table... yeah we really need a bench! (and yes we went back to the dumpster a few times, just in case they put one out! ;) ^^

Oh and remember those shelves I got?  They sure work perfect for our laundry room!  

^^ Before, we had a tote that had all our food storage stuff.  We almost would buy new stuff just so we didn't have to move everything to get into it.  It was seriously the most stressful thing!^^

^^ Ta DA!  I love being organized and it feel sooooo good to have the laundry room finally done!  Now I actually don't mind going in there.  Such a relief, I would of had more of those little white ones, but we all know what happened to those...^^

My sister mentioned she would drive around on garbage day getting all the awesome stuff people left out for the garbage man, well that might have to become a new weekly tradition of mine.  Because people here leave some pretty awesome stuff!  Thanks again Lindsay for telling us about it, and for Travis for helping Babe carry it, even though you didn't want to carry it in the first place! {we have awesome friends!}

Tour our new house!

We have been living in our new place since April of this year and I have been wanting to do a video like our last apartment but haven't gotten around to it till now.  There are still things we need to do, things we need to get rid of, and things that need to find a new home but for now this is it.  I want to look back some day and be able to show our kids where we used to live (and how poor we were, because lets face it my plan is to be super rich.  And all my plans work out, right?) I didn't do this with all of our other homes (we have moved so many times, no one wants to see all of that!)  We are planning on being here till Babe is done with school {4 years and counting!}  It's really strange because it will be the longest we have ever lived in a place, while married... So here it is, our humble abode!  

(song: All My Pennies by Mindy Glendhill)
I'm not sure why the sound is kind of funky so sorry... :)

Jenson's little snip snip

Remember back here when Jenson was born with a partial circumcision and hypospadia? Because of that Jenson was not circumcised when he was first born.  We had a consultation back in May with Dr. Gatti at Children's Mercy Hospital.  His partial circumcision he had at birth filled in {not sure of another way to say it...} so he didn't really have one anymore. We were also told that he did not have a hypospadia (cricked urethra) in other words he could of have a circumcision in the hospital when he was born but we rather be safe than sorry.  We were told that the night before his surgery Jenson couldn't eat anything after 6:00am and only clear liquids till 10:00 (his surgery time was at 1:00).  

Jenson LOVES to eat {like 5 oz every 3 hours or so, and then his veggies or cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner-yeah, loves to eat!} 

I knew we had to distract him the best we could until we went to the hospital around 12.  Normally Jenson sleeps through the night, or if he does wake up around 4 or so we just give him his binkie and he goes back to sleep.  Well the night before we decided that every time he woke up we would just feed him, then wake him up at 5:50 and feed him again so he is nice and full.  After waking him up at 6 I put him back to bed and he slept till around 7:45.  Babe and I decided to go for a walk to distract him, we got back around 9:30 and gave Jenson a water down bottle of apple juice and put him back to sleep.  Much to our surprise that actually worked, and he slept till 11.  When he woke up we gave him a bath, another great distraction! Afterwards Babe gave him a fathers blessing.  Can I just say what a blessing it is to have a worthy priesthood holder in our home,  I am thankful for the instant peace that came from his blessing {and it wasn't even for me!} The Church is true! 

 We got all check in and headed back to the waiting room, Jenson was so happy {he obviously had no idea what was about to happen.} 

 They called us back where we changed Jenson into the cutest baby gown, checked his blood pressure, weight {18lbs!}, oxygen levels, and heart rate.  They went over everything that was going to happen.  We met with the anesthesiologist, the nurses that would be with Jenson during and after surgery, and Dr. Gatti came and talked to us right before he went back.   

 He was doing really good until about 12:50 when he went to the point of no return {as babe likes to call it}  He was so hungry and all he wanted to do was eat, he scream for a good half hour.  We had multiple nurses trying everything they could {bubbles, push cars, lights, rocking, peek a boo etc...} but nothing worked, my poor hungry baby!  He finally calmed down, just in time to head back to surgery.  We said our good byes and went our separate ways.  I am happy to say there was minimal tears, but that was seriously not easy! 

 When we got to the waiting room it was about 1:45.  We tried to distract ourselves as best we could by watching HGTV {babe listened to his audio book}.  Dr. Gatti came and talked to us once he was done around 2:30,  everything had gone great and Jenson was now in the recovery room and we just had to wait till he woke up to see him!  

^^I can't get over how sad he looks in this picture, it breaks my heart.  I wish I could take away all his pain, but he sure is my brave little boy!  After we got home he was almost back to himself again!^^

The anesthesiologist gave Jenson a caudal block {sort of like an epidural but lower and only really numbs his special area ;)} It's supposed to keep it numb for 6 hours or more.  When he woke up he was still really hungry {du}  the nurse told us that they tried to give him some glucose water but it wasn't doing the trick {no really...}  They called us back and I could hear him crying from a few rooms away, it seriously broke my heart.  They finally gave him to us and he got to eat.  He chugged 5 oz and still acted hungry so we gave him  another 3 oz or so.  He was still so groggy and kept falling asleep, he was super cuddly though!  He still had his IV in, which had to be super painful, you could tell it was really bugging him so they finally took it out.  The nurse told us that there were like 9 nurses all fighting over who got to help him in recovery- they were dying over how cute he is and his adorable red hair {but seriously, who doesn't ;)} 

He was pretty gassy and it seemed like his stomach was bugging him a bit.  After his IV was out and he was fed he was still pretty sad so after the nurse told us everything we needed to do and what to expect we decided to head out.  We started packing up when I heard him start to burp- you know the one where you can hear something coming out besides just air.  Babe grabbed his burp rag just in case he spit up a little bit and handed him to me.  Seconds later he started to projectile vomit all over me {from my shirt to my shoes} himself {hair, shirt, pants}, and all over the floor- all 8oz we just gave him.  Luckly we were still in the recovery room and not in our car so the nurse grabbed some towels and wet rags and we cleaned up the best we could {once again the "soil" bag my mom made for me to put Jensons dirty clothes in came in super handy, your amazing mom!} and finally headed home.  

 ^^ notice the change in clothes, thankfully I have a fear about not being over prepared so I was ready!^^

We picked up something to eat while we were waiting for his prescription to be filled {we brought snacks to eat while we were waiting but little did we know we couldn't have food or drinks in the waiting room because they want to make it fair for those kids who can't eat or drink because of their surgery.  If I would have known that I would of eaten something before we left instead of at 7:00 when I woke up... so we were pretty hungry!)

When we got home I gave Jenson another bath because he threw up again as soon as we got home, not as much thankfully but enough to get a bath.  Thankfully the only thing we have to be careful of is to not scrub "down there" but everything else is the same.  He should only need pain meds for a day or two and then not really feel it at all.  It will take a few weeks to heal completely but thats only normal.  He was pretty groggy all night so we enjoyed some more HGTV {I blame my mom for my obsession with this channel!} and some cuddling.  Now to go to bed early and prepare for a long night a head of us...  wish us luck! 

Thanks Children's Mercy for watching out for my little guy we know he was in great hands, which made it really easy for us to not worry {as much!}  I sure do have a all new appreciation for parents who have to do this with their child often.  I can't even imagine to know how they can handle it.  In the grand scheme of things Jensons surgery was really nothing, but I am thankful for prayer and for the peace that I can receive.  

 (8.7.14)

Philly? NYC? HELP!

We are lucky enough to get to head out to Philly for a week or so to visit Amanda, Marshall, and Kezman while Marshall is getting treatments for his cancer.  I have always wanted to go out that way ever since I saw National Treasure, and now we really are!  I am so stoked and excited to tour around a little bit.  I am not sure exactly what we will have time for but I want to get a good idea of fun things that we could do while we are there...Thats where I need your help, we really don't have much time or money so we want to get the most out of the trip that we can.  Where are the must see places in Philadelphia? I know we can't see everything but I want to get a good feel for the city, where are your favorite places?

I am also crossing my fingers (toes, arms, legs, and hair...) that we can go to NYC, we will be so close it would be so tragic to be that close and not go.  It would only be for like a day trip (unless someone has any hook ups that might let us stay... just sayin!) ;) I feel so overwhelmed when I think of everything in NYC that there is to see, and we can't see it all {if we only had unlimited funds and time...}  So if you had to pick your top favorites what would it be?  What is the best way to see the most, in the least amount of time?  How should we work transportation (cheapest!)  

I am starting to get anxiety thinking about all the places and things we are going to see on our vacation and I really need to get organized on paper, not in my head.  So any advice or tips on what to do and see around Philly, or NYC would be GREATLY appreciated!  

Also, if you happen to have any hook ups around Navoo area or NYC let us know!  We are heading out on the 21st of his month so we really need to start planning out our days so we can see and do the most, because who knows if we will ever get to go back again!  THANKS!!

Comment below or feel free to e-mail me at hunt.brielle@ gmail.com

3 years- Happy Anniversary!

Some days I swear we are that couple that has been married for years.  You know the ones that prefer to stay home and go to bed or watch a movie rather than going out on the town.  The ones who go to bed early and wake up even earlier.  The ones with little to no social life because putting your kid to bed is better for your sanity.  But then I remember we really are those people, only we have only been married for 3 years. ;)

I can't imagine what my life would be like without my 2 boys.  I am so lucky to have these boys with me for time and all eternity! I love you so much Babe and am thankful everyday for the example you are to me and for helping me to be a better person!  I love love love you! XOXO

August 5, 2011- Bountiful Utah Temple 

 (Photo credit: Chelsi Mae Photography)

Flash Back:

1st year anniversary  (2012)

Babe surprised me by taking me on a trip to St. George to see Aladdin at Tuacahn! 

2nd year anniversary (2013)

We spent the week traveling with family to California for Sam and Vanessa's wedding (San Diego, sea world, beach, safari zoo, etc...) 

 3rd year anniversary (2014)

Babe spent the day at work and school, then brought home gorgeous yellow roses (that make our house smell sooo good!) and then we went to dinner at Red Robin as a family! After putting Jenson to bed we ate junk food and watched a movie, keeping us up way past our normal bed time. ;)

Heres to an eternity more!