On Santa's Lap

No crying this year! Chandra just wanted to check out Santa's beard. Then when Santa asked Bracken what he would like for Christmas, Bracken eyed the bag of treats next to Santa and said, "candy please." He got his wish! (These were taken at our ward party.)

Fun in the Snow

We went sledding on the hill by CAL Ranch one afternoon in December. Bracken's good friend Jairus came too. They're such cute kiddos.Daddy and Bracken getting ready to go down fast!
I love these boys. Chandra stayed bundled up in my arms most of the time, but she even went sledding with Daddy. She never smiled, never cried, hardly made any expression at all. I think she'll have more fun with the snow next year.
Another day Bracken took his tools outside to play with his fallen over snowman. I asked him what he was doing as he chipped away at it, and he said, "I'm making an idol." Uh....what do I say to that? We'd learned about the Israelites making a golden idol in scripture study a few days before, and I think he just thought it was a statue of a cow. Later we had a little discussion on the difference between statues and idols, and how we don't make idols...I don't know if he cares or if he got it.
Bracken playing in the snow with Sarah. She got to come hang out with us for a couple of days.

Family Pictures 2011

Our good friend John Beenfield (Jaybird Photo) took our family pictures for us. We are so happy with them! Bracken was hyper and crazy through the entire picture taking process, but it was still fun. At the end of our photoshoot Brian took him on a carousel ride for a treat. I love how they turned out.








I even made Chandra's little outfit. I've had fun making a few clothes for my little gal!







I love both of our children's big, beautiful eyes!

Too much technology

I walked into my parents living room to see Bracken and my younger brother Tyson quietly sitting next to each other in a big armchair. They were each staring at a wooden block in their hands, flicking their fingers across the surface of the block.

"What are you doing?" I asked

They didn't even look up, just paused a moment and said, "We're playing angry birds."

They don't even need an ipod to play.

On the Move

Chandra pulled herself up on our ottoman today. She face planted a few seconds later, but pretty impressive for a 6 1/2 month old.

This little girl is always on the go. She crawls from room to room in search of a toy, Bracken or me. She crawls over anything in her path. She loves to play with her brother. He is so good with her, but gets annoyed when she keeps trying to crawl over him, play with (pull) his hair, or take his toys. She's become a pretty tough little girl, trying to hold her own next to Bracken. It's so much fun to watch her grow and go!

Baby Food

Technically, I think Chandra's first food was newspaper. Maybe a scratch piece of paper or the Friend magazine. When she sees paper she crawls to it as fast as she can and starts chewing on it. When I try reading a book to her she's only interested in eating it. But here are pictures of the first time she tried real food.

Bracken was so excited to feed her. He did a pretty good job too. He even showed her how to open her mouth and told her all about how good pears are. Chandra doesn't care too much about eating solids, but she likes having something to do while we eat our food. Most of the time she'd rather be crawling around. This little gal is always on the go!

Playing in the Leaves

The leaves provided almost endless entertainment throughout October.

As soon as Bracken woke up in the morning or after his naps he would often ask, "Can we go play in the leaves now?" I thought he'd have the most fun running or jumping in the piles of leaves, but he was usually all business-- using the broom, rake, snow shovel, or dustpans to fill the garbage can up. He'd get flustered at Chandra when she messed up his leaf piles, and thought it was hilarious when we'd find her eating the leaves ("Chandra, that's yucky! Leaves are not for eating, they're for playing with."). Then, once the garbage can was packed full, he'd dump it out and start all over again...see what I mean about endless entertainment?

Our Little Ballerina

We dressed Chandra up as a little ballerina for Halloween. She looks so cute! It was a fun excuse to play dress up with her. I love having a little girl. (She turned 6 months old yesterday.)

Chandra is so interactive and mobile right now. She breaks into a huge grin whenever we smile at her and talk to her. She scoot/crawls from one end of the room to the other, following Bracken around or finding the toy she wants. She's not only tolerant of Bracken mauling her, but seems to like the attention when he wrestles with her (he hugs her tight and then rolls across the floor with her), or snuggles her. Her coos and squeals are so girly and cute. When we hold her in front of us and talk to her she gets all excited, grins, then opens her mouth as wide as it will go and dives for our face, hand, shoulder, or whatever is nearest and tries to eat us. It always cracks me up. Chandra just got over the chicken pox. She still has some little dots on her face and torso. I'm glad she's all over them, it was so sad to see her covered in chicken pox and feeling lethargic and itchy. She is also an insomniac. This little girl is the noisiest, lightest sleeper. We accidentally found that if we let her sleep with Brian's jacket she sleeps better, so his black sweater has become her sleeping companion. We love you Chandra!
Our Little Ballerina and EMT
Bracken got to go to the ambulance shed in his uniform and turn the lights on in one of the real ambulances. He loves going to the ambulance shed with Brian.

Bracken's Ambulance

One day Bracken said, “When I’m big, I’m going to take hard tests, work on an ambulance, and be a doctor like Daddy.” (That makes for a proud Daddy).

So Bracken decided to be an EMT for Halloween. Brian and I were excited to help him with his costume. Brian brought extra patches home from work that I sewed on Bracken’s shirt, and we found all sorts of medical paraphernalia like a pen light, scissors, band-aids, tape, pager(walkie-talkie), stethoscope and a name badge for Bracken to use(and Bracken’s additions of a hammer and wrench). Our big project was making him an ambulance. Brian brought a freezer box home from Sear’s, and we cut, taped, painted, and decorated it to be an ambulance—complete with a siren from our emergency radio.

The morning after we finished his ambulance, Bracken came out of his room still rubbing his eyes and saw the ambulance on our living room floor. He was immediately wide awake, “Look! We need to take puppy to the hospital. He’s hurt.” He started loading all his stuffed animals in the back of the ambulance and pretended to drive them to the hospital. We didn’t eat breakfast until an hour and a half later, we were too busy playing.

We dressed up for our ward Halloween party. Bracken and Brian were EMTs, Chandra was an injured ballerina, and I was Bracken’s patient (my costume was simple: Bracken put a band-aid on my forehead). Bracken’s ambulance was a hit, and after trunk-or-treating, he and Brian gave all the little kids rides in the back of his ambulance.

I love that Bracken loves and admires Brian so much. Bracken tries to be just like his dad, from the things he laughs at, to the way he treats Chandra and me, to what he wants to do when he grows up. Even though I’m sure he’ll change his mind about what profession he wants to have a hundred times before he’s grown, I hope he’ll never stop looking up to and wanting to be like his dad.

Happy Halloween!

Chandra and Bracken putting band-aids on his stuffed animals.



Our Little EMT

This is how Brian got the freezer box home...

Chandra and Bracken had lots of fun with the box even before we turned it into an ambulance. It was a bear cave, a house, a fort, and a mountain. We'll need to bring big boxes home to play in again sometime!

Daddy and Bracken carving our pumpkin. We had a little family party with pizza, a movie and pumpkin carving. (We couldn't invite friends over since Chandra wasn't quite over the chicken pox yet.)

The Star Spangled Banner

I took Bracken and Chandra to the Livestock Parade yesterday. It’s Bracken’s favorite parade: full of dogs, horses, mules, and sheep. Long before the beginning of the parade reached us, Bracken looked down the street and saw a girl on a horse carrying the United States Flag. Bracken jumped up, pointed, and said, “Look! It’s the Star Spangled Banner! Mom, stand up and put your hand on your heart.” We stood for several minutes until it reached us and then passed.

Shaylee joined us a few minutes later. Bracken made sure he pointed out every flag to her. “That’s the flag of the United States, Shaylee. It’s a very special flag.” He wanted us to stand and put our hand on our hearts for every single flag. Since almost every car had a flag, we stood for a lot of the parade. (Does anyone know when you should stand for a flag in the parade? Is it just the first time when they present the flag, or every time a flag goes by?)

I taught Bracken about our flag one day this summer, and ever since then he points out every American flag he sees and then either asks me to sing the National Anthem, or sings it himself. He knows the story behind Francis Scott Key writing the National Anthem and after he sings “gave proof through the night that our flag was still there” he usually pauses and says, “They were so happy because their flag was still waving!” I’m glad Bracken recognizes that our flag is special and want him to have that love and respect for our Country.

Shared Room

We put Chandra to sleep in the crib in Bracken's room a few weeks ago. She still wakes up a few times at night. Each time she started crying, I'd go in to help her fall back asleep, and Bracken would be singing to her from his little toddler bed, or saying, "It's okay Chandra, don't cry, go to sleep."

The next morning I woke up and heard talking in Bracken's room. I walked in to find Bracken in Chandra's crib reading her stories, and Chandra trying to eat the books. He didn't want me to take her out.

The next night I went to put Chandra in the crib again and Bracken said, "She doesn't want to sleep in the crib. She wants to sleep in her very own bed." I guess Bracken isn't a fan of interrupted sleep either.

P.S. Notice how Chandra has two little "wings" over each ear? Her hair does that on it's own, especially after she's been sleeping. Funny little hairdo.

Pumpkin Festival

We've been looking forward to the pumpkin festival for weeks, because we had so much fun there last year. Bracken wanted to pick out his very own pumpkin.

Bracken tried to bite the doughnut without using his hands. After trying for a minute or so, he looked at me like, "what kind of cruel joke is this?" and asked, "can I have it now?"

From the moment he picked out his pumpkin, Bracken couldn't wait to paint it. He made us laugh because he was so serious and careful about the whole thing, choosing his colors and very carefully painting all around the pumpkin. Even though there were lots of fun booths and activities, painting the pumpkin was definitely his highlight this year. He is so proud of it and if you come to visit he'll be sure to show it off to you.