alive + well

between still feeling a tad sick, a doctor's appointment, another cousin's wedding, young women's activities and everything else, this poor blog has been neglected this week. it always makes me sad when i have these weeks, but i definitely feel more motivated to post the next week. so hopefully that happens.

brooklyn got to have a sleepover at auntie googs and uncle judd's house. she was beyond thrilled to be heading out the door with auntie googs, sleeping bag and all.

she wasn't one bit sad to say goodbye to mommy and daddy. after she was buckled in her car seat and we'd given her kisses, she said, "peace out!" she was so excited! auntie googs spoiled her with an ihop breakfast date the next morning where she got to eat all the pancakes and sticky syrup she wanted. 

wednesday we got to see baby girl. having an ultrasound every time makes me more and more anxious to meet her! she's definitely looking like her big sister. what do you think? i can't wait to kiss those cheeks.

we had a great time at the wedding. mostly because we love spending time with extended family. brooklyn loves playing with my younger cousins (who take such great care of her), and my cousin's kids. it makes my heart so happy. it definitely makes me so excited for our spring haven family reunion next week!

tuesday and thursday nights, while james is at class, brooklyn and i have to get pretty creative with our time. we spend all day alone together, and then extend that into the evening two nights a week. thank goodness for warm weather. brooklyn loves to just be outside, me nearby (reading or something), and occasionally, she wants me to join in on her pretend games. she cracks me up. oh that girl. tonight, she and her cute neighbor friend pretended to be kitties curled up in a blanket. so cute.

so, know that we're alive and well. the sickness hasn't quite left our house, brooklyn seems to have caught a little cold, but other than that, we are happy and well. looking forward to some more family time celebration haley's graduation today. mind blowing i tell ya! and more time with a possible bbq on memorial day. life is good and we truly are blessed.

h a p p y  w e e k e n d i n g 

a happy weekend.

the weekend started for james and i on thursday night. brooklyn and i had been in coalville all that day working on some stuff for a production at good ol' north summit high. brooklyn lucked out and got to spend most of the day with her grandma. so when i got done doing what i was doing, she was convinced she was staying. auntie hay insisted. so i let her. she wasn't one bit sad to see me leave. in fact, as i was walking out the door, she grabbed my hand and said, "have a good day mama!" 

so, i called james on my way home and we declared it a date night.

we hit up red robin for some delicious burgers (and pounds of those dang fries) with plans to see a movie afterward, but dang, these ol' parents just couldn't do it. so we grabbed coldstone on the way home, got in our sweats, and watched the office until a whopping ten o'clock and then called it a night. but seriously, just going out to eat just the two of us and having a two hour conversation was awesome. we needed it. it was so nice. though we definitely missed that spirited little toddler of ours.

the next morning, being childless, i had big plans to get a lot of things done. i went and got my car washed and vacuumed, and then home to dust, vacuum, clear out brooklyn's clothes in the dresser in the nursery (i hate putting clothes away knowing she won't ever wear them again. hate it.), kitchen cleaned, and then i got ready for the day and relaxed people. it. was. so nice.

james arrived home around one and got right to work on changing the brakes in his car. he saves us money doing this and i'm grateful he's willing to take the time to do it. i went outside for a little bit to keep him company while we waited for brooklyn to get home.

brooklyn got to go shopping with grandma and auntie hay the night before. i kept getting pictures of her all done up so cute.

it made me so anxious to see her cute little face. haley brought her home and stayed for a sleepover. i was so glad that brooklyn was happy to see us. she kept squeezing her arms around my neck and saying, "i missed you mama. i missed you so much." and i melted right into a puddle on the driveway.

we dined on costa vida for dinner and then vegged the rest of the evening. j&c came over later to visit for a little while and it was just nice. nice and relaxing.

thank goodness for that, because saturday morning we hit the ground running. haley got brooklyn tubbed and ready for the day (and then kept her entertained) while i cut james' hair, and then while we got our bedroom switched around for spring/summer which is quite the process. thank goodness for her help! she left shortly after that and once brooklyn was down for a nap, we headed outside to do some major yard work. several hours later, we were gross and tired. but felt so good knowing we'd accomplished everything on our to do list.

to finish off the day, we met up with friends in kaysville for some awesome corn dogs. if you live in davis county (and even if you don't), you need to hit this place up. totally worth the $5 for a ginormous corn dog and soda. get the honey. you won't regret it.

we can't visit kaysville in warmer weather without a quick walk down to see and feed the llamas. we brought red peppers but the llamas weren't having it. we lucked out that a sweet little boy came by with a bag of carrots and was willing to share. brooklyn shocked us and fed a llama three carrots. like, she put them right into its' mouth. i couldn't believe it. girl is not brave with animals. she can't wait to go back and do it again.

we had a nice sunday and ended it with a walk and some pasta. the week ahead looks nice and busy and we hope to keep up and get a few more things done, pre-new baby. she seems to be growing steadily because i wake up bigger every day. i love feeling all the jabs, kicks, and rolls. i will definitely miss it. we're getting close to the 100 day countdown and can hardly believe it's getting so close. 

(post sunday nap)

h a p p y  st. patrick's  d a y !

p.s. i found out that swig is coming to bountiful at the end of this month or early april. i'm dying. swig cookies + pregnant me = lots of time together in the next few months!

A girl who didn't get shots

Friday afternoon was Brooklyn's 9 month check up. Boy I was happy that there were no shots involved. Too bad I worried sick about it all day. Totally worth it though. She was not feeling too chipper anyway. She had a slight fever and of course she did, she has that darn hand foot mouth thing and an ear infection again. Ugh. Luckily, this time, it's been WAY more mild. She already seems to be better. Thank the heavens. Literally.

 (so glad that James is able to come to appointments with us)

Remember how I wanted some delicious food this weekend? Well I got it. We went to a little burger place,B & D Burgers, and walked away super duper happy we'd gone there. I enjoyed a bleu bacon burger and a killer peanut butter oreo shake. Oh my gosh. Bacon to perfection. No joke. Why do I love food so much?

 (sunset out the window of B & D, also, construction)

We had a fun little sleepover with Jeremy and Chels that ended earlier than any of our prior sleepovers. I think we were all in bed before midnight. Am I right? Anyway, it's not because we're THAT old, our guests had to be up early to head to Utah county for the Color Me Rad run. Us, we slept in and enjoyed it thoroughly. I love waking up in our bed on a Saturday morning. Because we spend time with family so often on the weekends, we rarely get to all wake up together on a Saturday, in our KING bed. Folks, James and I will always have a king. We seriously have to.

Breakfast was from Starbucks and Carl's Jr. James couldn't get his hands on some breakfast sandwiches fast enough, and I was dying for a Vanilla Steamer. Ok, not dying. But I wanted one. The rest of the morning was very productive and then we headed to Coalville.

Saturday night ended like this.

All the ladies in one bed, including Brooklyn. We chatted away until our little hearts were content. I love having sisters and a mom that I can spend hours and hours with and never be bored. I love them so much. Thanks for lots of laughs, awesome baby name ideas, and some killer games of Nerts/Nerps.

It was a great weekend. I think it's been a long time since we've had a bad one. I'm grateful for that. We live for the weekends at our house and it's nice that we're always able to spend them with people we love or accomplishing things that need to get done that make us feel all good and productive inside. That's how weekends should be.


I'll leave you with some adorable little pictures of Brooklyn in her dress and jacket from Grandma Lisa. It's so cute on her and I think it's going to fit her through the summer. Yay for summer! Yay for dresses! And yay for pink!

p.s. I'm obsessed with this video. I'm calling it the song of the summer. I only watched it, hmm, 42 times this weekend. Seriously. I love me a good boy band.