Shooting with Brady

Monday we got a babysitter since the kids didn't have school and went out for a morning date to the desert. I practiced more on my .22 for the concealed weapon class I am taking next month. My sites are off, so it's been rather difficult to get most of my shots inside the ring from 15 yards away. Thankfully the desert is free, so I can go practice as much as I need to before qualificaiton day. This video is with my 20 ga. shotgun Brady got me for my birthday. It's only the second time I've taken it out....so I'm still getting used to it. I haven't quite figured out where to put it on my shoulder where it doesn't cause soreness the next day. I really enjoy it though. We need to get a clay thrower so we can do some more fun up in the air. I love sharing a hobby with my husband!!

Helping Daddy

Gideon is our little helper. He was pretty concerned about the sawdust mess on the sidewalk.

They were testing out the can storage shelf to see if the cans rolled....goofy kids! This was mid-construction. I am thankful we have a garage to do projects in which make it easier to leave all the tools out ready to go so we don't have to put everything away at the end of the night just to get it back out again the next day. I am also VERY thankful we have enough space to put up a shelf to store things. It makes more room for other things on our big storage shelves in the garage. Organizing a small house is so essential for everyone's sanity :).

Sick toddler

Gideon was sick all day Monday. Thankfully it was during the day and Brady was off. I had to shampoo my couch and chair last night because each was puked on more than once. He only barfed once last night, so I thought we were finally in the clear. Then he puked all over me and the couch this morning right after drinking his milk. Milk vomit all over my freshly cleaned couch!!!!!!!!! And THEN he leaned on the couch a little while after that and threw up all over on the other cushion. Once again, there is only one spot to sit on in my living room. SO ANNOYING!! I am especially annoyed because it took me almost and hour and a half to clean the recliner and couch last night before the kids went to bed. I can't do it any earlier because the fabric is soaking wet and has to dry all night. I got to hang out and feed Ayla on a camp chair in the living room last night (totally uncomfortable, more so after having to bend over the furniture for an hour and a half cleaning it = major back pain for a while). Today he fell asleep next to me while I was feeding Ayla at 10am - see above crappy cell phone picture. It was so sweet, and yet I feel like all I have done since Monday morning is wipe noses, butts and clean up puke. The clean laundry piles in my house are completely overwhelming.

Silly Ayla and a Food Shelf

She loves to scoot around and check everything out within her reach. That includes things under the table, the tv cords behind our entertainment center, and the bottom shelf of the bookcase. Watching her back out of the entertainment center is pretty funny. She almost always ends up nearly doing the splits. When she starts crawling for real she's going to be a fast little bugger.

No matter what she's always cute...especially with a snotty nose.

Gideon was helping Brady build our food storage shelf. He thought Daddy's work gloves were pretty fun to try out. I loved that he put them on himself....backwards and on the wrong hands.

 

TADA!!!!! It's the most satisfying thing to look at. It was a LOT of work: two or three drafts of the design, four trips to Home Depot, some do-overs, borrowing a table saw, buying a few tools, and many splinters. We finished it this afternoon and got to load it up. I didn't realize how much creamy peanut butter we had....and look at all that room for more tuna!

Scooting, inchworming, army crawling

Ayla's scoot/inchworm maneuver to get things. She's becoming quite fast.

She loves to go check out what petrified treasures are under Gideon's chair. She also loves to swat at the blinds and eat paper.

Big smiles

 

Ayla can sit up all by herself.

 

 

Here is a big smile showing 2 of her 5 teeth. I made the bow Saturay night to go with her dress. I realize now I should have put 2 more colors in, oh well! It's still cute and she got a couple of compliments at church.

 

 

This is her 6 month picture that I took the 14th. I was waiting for her to sit alone. It's going up on our picture wall.

Videos of Gid's birthday

 

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Gideon!!!

 

A car cake. Thank you, Mom, for the true black food coloring! Thank you Alayna for telling me about it.

 

 

Enjoying the cake and homemade vanilla strawberry fudge ice cream.

 

 

He asked for seconds.

 

 

Super excited about opening a present. He shouted, "OH!!"

 

 

 

 

 

The loot: tow truck from great grandparents, Elmo noisy toy from Imes', yellow noisy toy from grammy, hotwheels block track and geotrax zoo train to add to their collection from us. He had a fun time!!! The Elmo toy is his favorite!

 

Our New Year's Eve Celebration

In the afternoon we went roller skating with some of Brady's family....I haven't been on roller blades for almost 20 years, and I've only done roller skates once when I was about 8 or 9. I gave it a try to help encourage Ammon. He was having a super difficult time, crying for the first 1.5 hours he was there. But honestly, I wasn't doing much better :). I just didn't cry about it. Zenock just wanted to watch everyone because he was too scared to go on the floor with his skates. He stayed mostly onthe carpeted area. He also flipped out when I made him come out on the floor and hug the wall. Brady was the baby wrangler. After that we ate sandwiches for dinner in the car and took the kids to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. They had free tickets from the summer reading program that expired that day. Afterward we took the typical tourist picture in front of the Vegas sign. Brady saved some fireworks from Independence day just for New Year's Eve. The boys loved shouting out the colors of the roman candles and doing sparklers. See you later 2012!

 

 

 

 

Rays and horeshoe crabs

 

 

Petting the sting rays. Both boys were really afraid at first.

 

 

Petting the sting rays. Gideon wanted to jump in the water and grab those swimming things.

 

 

In front of the huge shark tank 

 

 

Finally after three years of living here Brady gets to check this one off the bucket list. He's always wanted to get a family picture in front of this famous sign. Some people visiting from Germany took our picture. I love listening to Brady speak German.

I feel like I won the lottery!

And here's why: If you are a regular reader, you know that I have a few struggles with two of my kids eating their food - any food. A light went on in my brain when I found spaghettio's in my cupboard today. It occurred to me that the tomato sauce would mask the taste of added pureed veggies and beef. And so I added two jars of beef and one jar of carrot baby food to the can of spaghettio's. After mixing it all up really well and heating for a little bit, TADA!!!! A really healthy lunch, packed with protein and veggies for my pickier than you could ever imagine toddler. He ate EVERY SINGLE BITE. I gave him almost 1/2 a cup...a huge portion for how little he normally eats. I feel so excited!!! I have enough left over for probably 2 or 3 more toddler bowls. The final score? Mom:1 Gideon:1.

Christmas

This is a super long video. I won't be offended if you don't want to sit and watch it. I love the boys' excited tones, and Gideon's shouts of excitement.

 

These are the only two pictures I got of the present madness.

 

 

 

 

Santa came, so everyone must have been good this year :)

 

 

The only picture I took of the family Christmas party at Brady's mom's house. I feel pretty lame. Everyone had a good time though, so that's what counts.

Ayla's stats

At 7.5 months old my petite daughter is just 14 lbs 14 oz and 26 inches long. She is the cutest little shrimp!!! She mostly sits up by herself, blows raspberries, spins in circles on her belly, and does a cute inch worm type crawl to get things. She loves to scoot herself under her brother's chair where he drops food at every meal. Even when the floor is clean she still goes over there to see what she can find. She also likes to get over by the back door to play with the vertical blinds.

New schedule is rough so far

Early this morning Ammon woke me up because he had a bad dream. Then 5 minutes later Ayla woke up. Then Gideon came in a while after that. Then Zenock came in saying he was hungry. THEN Ayla woke up again. This all happened from 4-6am. I finally got to go back to sleep around 6:30, right before Brady came home. Everyone was up and rambunctious by 7:45. Since the church schedule changed to 11-2pm for this year I had ALL morning to keep them busy and quiet so Brady wouldn't wake up early from the noise. It was hard, and I was extra grumpy because of lack of sleep. It's really really hard to be a happy mom when I sleep for four hours, get up for 2.5, and then sleep again for one hour. I know you all are saying I should go to bed earlier. And I was in bed at 11pm, but unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Church was fine, but I was concerned the last two hours for Gideon because his nap time is from 12-2 most days. I've been trying the whole Christmas vacation to push his nap back a while so church wouldn't be such a shock. He did fine I guess, no bad reports from the nursery leaders....and since I took him some lunch to eat during Sacrament meeting, he was able to come right home from church and take a nap. I got a Sunday nap too, and thanks to earplugs and kids sleeping at the same time I slept for 2.5 hours. It was awesome and very needed, but now I will have a hard time going to sleep tonight....again. And so the cycle repeats.

Someday I know I will get to sleep all night without interruption. That time can't come soon enough for me. And then people say I will be up at night worrying about my teenagers, and my kids while they are away at school, and the grand kids, etc, etc, etc. Although that may or may not be true, I still wish I had a houseful of older, more independent children instead of needy kids who don't let me sleep.

Ayla is growing up

She had her first tooth come through three weeks ago. Since then a new tooth has appeared every week. She has three now, and two haven't quite broke the surface yet. I am starting to wonder how long I can keep nursing her with all those chompers. Being bitten by the baby while she is eating is no picnic for me.
Ayla has also become quite the mover. She spins in circles on her belly all the time. When she sees something she wants she does this inch worm sort of maneuver. Brady said today he saw her actually move her hands and knees at the same time to get something. She doesn't sit up by herself yet, but she is almost crawling. Isn't that a little backwards?
On another note I have a funny video I need to download so you all can see Ammon teaching Gideon how to do a sit up. It's pretty hilarious. It was even funnier before I got the camera out to record it. My kids are all goofs. I guess Brady was right in naming our youtube channel famofgoofers.

My little toddler's favorite things

I had a brilliant thought just now and need to write it down so I don't forget for later. I think Gideon would LOVE a photo book of vacuums. Right now he's looking at the Costco ad which has one on sale and he's going nuts. It's so hiliarious! He loves the vacuum isle of every store we go in and he can pick them out with his toddler eagle eyes. He has those same eagle eyes for construction equipment and big trucks. He also really likes to drive past semi trucks, utility trucks, and delivery vans. It's really entertaining riding in the van with him during the daylight.