Brooklyn's Blessing

I know we are a little behind in posts, however, slowly but surely we will catch up. So pretend it is the end of October when you are reading this.

Brooklyn was blessed on October 26, 2008 at my mom's home. All of her grandparents were present in addition to Aunt Tara and other good friends. We took advantage of the opportunity and hired a photographer to document the special occasion. I want to give a thank you and a shout out to Kinsey from Zinser Photography for the great pictures. If you live in Reno, I highly recommend them.

Here is Brooklyn in her beautiful dress (thanks, Grandma Johnson). She looked like an angel in it. She also wore the precious shoes that Aunt Heather made (Heather, you are amazing).

More Pictures from the big day.

We are so grateful to get this picture taken before my mom passed away. This is Aiden and Brooklyn with all of their grandparents plus Aunt Tara.

Thank you to everyone who made this day so special.

"I'm Free!" That's code for Three!

Now, pretend it is November... Happy Birthday Aiden! We celebrated Aiden's third birthday in style with a dump truck party. He was so excited for his birthday and talked for weeks about his "towing dump truck," he just knew he was going to get.




Those of you who know me, know I love to bake, and cakes are right at the top of my list. However, with so much going on in our lives at the time, I opted for easy. One chocolate cake, crushed oreos, and one dump truck. Aiden and his friends loved eating the "dirt."

We celebrated in style, complete with the pinata that would never break open. We finally had to tear it apart with our hands. At least all of the kids had ample turns whacking at it.

Aiden blowing out his candles. I hope he didn't get too much spit in the cake.



Aiden got his birthday wish...a "towing dump truck." He was so excited. I don't think it he has let it out of his sight since.

Thanks to all who sent gifts for Aiden's birthday. He would get so excited going to get the mail. Everyday, we would get to the mailbox and he would shout, "there's a present for me." Amazingly, there was often a present for him. He is one lucky boy.

We love you Mom!

After a valiant three year battle with colon cancer my mom peacefully passed away Saturday, November 29. As far as we know she did not suffer any pain and still had her zest for life right up to the very end. She will be remembered as an amazing, loving mother, grandmother, and sister as well as a remarkable and giving friend and confidant. She has touched so many lives and I know many have such fond memories of her. She will be greatly missed but we know she is in a better place and we will see her again. Below are some pictures of her. There will be much more to come.

While visiting Grandma...

We had a nice time visiting with Grandma Susi last week. I took both kids and ventured in the car by myself. I was pleasantly surprised that they both traveled really well and we only had to stop once.

Brooklyn's big accomplishment while we were visiting Grandma Susi last week. She learned to suck her thumb (see video at the end of the post). AAAHHHH!!!! Curse or blessing? All week I would grapple with the thought do I stop it now and every time I see it try to put the pacifier (which she also likes) in her mouth? Or do I let it go so that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to put the pacifier in and deal with it when she is older? What do you think?

My cousin Jenny from New York also came for a visit. It was so nice to see her and I greatly appreciated all her help with the kiddos. Thanks Jenny you are the BEST!

Jenny who is from Brooklyn was so excited to meet Brooklyn. Jenny has informed us that Brooklyn will never be short on T-shirts with her name on them.

Aiden had a blast raking leaves and jumping in them. This was a new experience for him and he was hilarious doing it. I love to watch the excitement on his face when he tries something new.

We also had the chance to go to dinner with my friend Haley and her boys. We don't get to see them often so it was nice to get the boys together again and catch up.

Aiden had a good time at the park with his friend Owen. These two know how to have a good time.

Happy Birthday Grandpa B!

Today is my dad's birthday and we wanted to send him birthday wishes. We hope you have a fabulous day Grandpa. Aiden says that he is going to bake you a chocolate cake today in his kitchen. We love you tons. You are wonderful and we can't wait to see you again.

Here are some of our favorite pictures with Grandpa B.
Here is Aiden with Grandpa at our favorite place on earth, the lake in New Hampshire.

Grandpa with Brooklyn in the hospital after she was born.

Grandpa and Brooklyn on her blessing day. (More blessing pictures to come soon.)

Arrghh...

Happy Halloween from three pirates and a parrot. We had a great Halloween this year. Can you tell we like to have a theme to our family costumes? This year we knew that we wanted to be pirates but of course it came down to the last week when it all came together. Shae and I sewed our vests as well as Aiden's. Yes, Shae did all of his own sewing, he says he will be the official costume maker next year. I'll believe it when I see it. I also made Brooklyn's parrot costume. It was so fun and everyone looked adorable.

With so much crammed into one week, we unfortunately didn't get our pumpkins carved, however Aiden and dad did make the fabulous pirate pumpkin from a Mr. Potato Head kit.
Brooklyn in all her parrot glory. That is one cute bird if you ask me!
She even knew how to ever so gracefully flap her wings.

Shae and Brooklyn at our ward party.

It is so fun to watch your kids grow and compare from year to year. Aiden loved trick or treating this year. He was quite timid last year. Here he is with his friend Ellie saying "let's go to another house." He would also announce to the people answering the door "I'M A PIRATE!" in his loudest voice. It was adorable.

We met up with our butterfly and cowgirl friends to go trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. Thanks for coming with us.

I love this picture because I think it shows Aiden's eagerness to get to the door.

Stop taking pictures mom, I want to get out there and go trick or treating.

This was as close to sitting on my shoulder Brooklyn could get.

Our little pirate in all his glory.

Girls Day Out!

While I was visiting with my mom last week, I went for a shopping trip with some friends. It was Brooklyn first official shopping trip. Boy, can that girl shop. Here she is trying on her first outfit. How adorable is that.

"Oh look mom there are pants that match too." I can totally see how things will go for us in the future. We did have a lot of fun though and there is a lot to be said for retail therapy. Not to mention we were doing our part to boost the economy.

Aiden had a long road trip with dad and pooped out right before dinner. All I can say if waking this child from a deep sleep is not a good idea.

2 Months Old and New Shoes

Remember when we were little and it seemed like an eternity until our 10th birthday, 16th birthday and so on. Well I miss those days. Time seems to be flying by at lightning speed and I can't believe Brooklyn is already two months old. I feel like if I blink she will be turning 10 without me knowing it.

Brooklyn loves it when her brother makes her smile. He is so good with her and loves to take care of her.

Here we are together. Can you see the family resemblance?

Mom, you must stop taking pictures of me. I am getting tired of it.

So I never wanted to be the kind of mom who bought her child high priced marketing scheme themed shoes (or anything for that matter). I am more of a traditionalist who likes the plain shoes that would go with everything. However, it is hard to say no when daddy has already pointed them out and your son looks at you with those adorable, blue, puppy dog eyes, and says pleeeaaassseee. So here is Aiden sporting his new kicks. Oh and yes, they even light up.

I guess the shoes match the Lightning McQueen outfit we got him for his Cars birthday party we had for him last year. AAHHH... I have definitely succumb to the Disney marketing ploys a little too much.
Well, at least those new shoes make Aiden go so fast and now we can have races to clean up all the toys in his new super fast Lightning McQueen shoes.

Fun Things Too...

The previous post was about hard things, but we have been having fun too. Here are just a couple highlights.

Aiden is holding Grandma Susi's prize cucumber. I have never seen a cucumber that big. We should enter it into a fair or something. I wish I could say she babied it and coerced it to grow this big but it was a forgotten cucumber Shae found when he was cleaning up mom's garden.

Brooklyn is getting bigger and is now showing off her beautiful smile!

Today was Brooklyn's first day and Church. We were sad that it wasn't in our home ward but grateful that we could finally go to church as a whole family again.

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

We can do hard things is my new motto in life. I actually stole it from my good friend Erica and her family (Thanks). The last couple months have been tough but knowing we can do hard things has helped get me through. I know it has been a while since our last post, so here is an update. Prepare yourself it is fairly lengthy.

As most already know my mom has been valiantly battling colon cancer for the last three years. She has been such a trooper and endured treatments I can't even imagine going through, all the while staying positive and not letting it get her down. A couple of weeks ago, she was hospitalized and had abdominal surgery to remove an obstruction in her bowel. Unfortunately the obstruction was a tumor that could not be removed. She has opted out of treatment to regain her strength and concentrate on quality of life for however long that may be. Brooklyn and I have been in Reno with her for the last two weeks minus a few days and Shae and Aiden have been able to travel to visit us on weekends. I am so grateful for such a supportive husband and son. I know it has been hard on them as well. Here we all are with my uncle Gary who was up visiting from Vegas. Thanks for all your help Uncle Gary!

While visiting Grandma Susi in the hospital we were able to see the care flight helicopter land and take off. It was a highlight for Aiden. It was loud but he loved to be so close to the helicopter.

Aiden has been a great big brother and loves his new sister so much. He has been a great helper and I love to see the joy that Brooklyn brings to him. Aiden has done some hard things his month too. They are being away from mom for days, traveled back and forth in the car for the last three weekends, and my personal favorite... Aiden went poop on the potty for the first time! It was very difficult for him but he did it! Okay so he has only done it once but it is a start.

Brooklyn has also been a trooper. Let's just say she and I have had our fair share of hospitals and we will be happy not to see the inside of one for a long time. Brooklyn has endured quite a bit of traveling over the last few weeks. Besides the numerous 5-7 hour car rides, she also took her first plane ride. It was quite eventful. Traveling with an infant has its challenges but ours was intensified with two blow outs, spit up and spilled soup all over my shirt. Oh yeah, and you should have seen me pushing a stroller with a car seat, car seat base, diaper bag, and suitcase. Plus and don't forget the baby carrier she was in most of the time. I have to say, however, we have been blessed with a very good baby. She did sleep on both flights (no direct flights between Reno and Medford), and I am very happy to report she is sleeping between 7 and 8 hours at night! Yipee!!! She has also started smiling this week. One of our biggest highlights.

So you probably thought our eventful flight was over but there is more. These next pictures depict the icing on the cake for the day. When we arrived in Reno, my dear friend Tami came to pick us up to take us to my mom's house. I was glad that our flight had come in early because I thought it would give us plenty of time to get to moms for a 4:00 appointment. However, I totally botched that one when I thought I was unlocking Tami's car to put the car seat in. What I had actually done was locked it with the keys in it. Oh, and did I mention the car was still running too (Thankfully I hadn't put Brooklyn in the car yet). I thought we might have lucked out because Tami had already opened the trunk and her car had the nice feature of unlatching the seats from inside the trunk. However, her sons car seat had been installed so well that we were unable to bypass it to unlock the doors. Fortunately her sweet husband rescued us with the spare keys. Thanks Harold, you are the best! We had to laugh at ourselves and took these pictures to remind us to find humor in all things. I am just glad Tami didn't snap the picture with my rear hanging out of the trunk.

Aunt Tara came to visit and was with us when we got the news of mom's surgery. She was so helpful and extended her stay to be with Aiden for the week. Thanks nanny Tara you are awesome.

We also had our good friends, Ron and Nancy, come visit from Rhode Island. I was able to make it back home for the few days they were here. It was great to visit with them. It has been a rough couple of months but we are so grateful for all of our family and friends love and support. I have truly gained a new respect for friendships and service. The outpouring of of this support and service has been amazing for not only Shae, Aiden, Brooklyn and I, but also for my mom. Thank you so much. We love you all!