Catch Up

A few pics from the last couple weeks...

Best buds. One of Bri's favorite things in the world is to be chased by her daddy!

Enjoying the park

I cut bangs...obviously. Definitely not loving them, but at least now I know.

Ok, so we've been without Internet for the past week and a half and let me just say, that we are more than just a little bit addicted to the Internet. You don't realize how much you use it until you don't have it. No e-mail, blogging, news, sports updates for Don, etc. Oh, and I was asked to give a talk on Sunday and I had to prepare it without the Internet! I realize that people did this for years and years and years, but not me. I didn't even know where to start. It turned out fine and we survived the week, but I have to say that I did miss the Internet! It's such a convenient way to communicate with people and look things up. It's just part of my daily life now. How did we all function without it for so long?!

We woke up Monday with a bulging, leaking ceiling so that was super great. We now have several big holes in our kitchen ceiling. When they were tearing it up Brighton was so funny. She was like "Broken Mommy! Guys broken Mommy!" Doing a little tattling on "The Guys" as Bri kept calling them. She kept wanting to talk to them and said "Hi Guys" to them about a hundred times. Our little social butterfly. She's been really concerned about the broken ceiling all week. Even when we aren't home she talks about it.

This past week was my spring break. It rained and snowed all week. Ugh, ugh, and ugh! Seriously, I am so over cold and wet for the year. Don had to work a lot this week, so me and Bri mostly just hung out at the house and made unnecessary trips to Target. Does anyone else do that? There are only so many indoor activities that are fun for the little ones and sometimes you just need to get out of the house. Target is close and there is always something I can think of that I need there to justify a trip. It's a bad habit because I always end up buying things I don't really need. $$$. Don and I actually went on a date on Friday. Wa-hoo! We went to lunch and a movie. I realize this doesn't sound incredibly exciting to most of you, but it doesn't happen often and it was fun to be out and about with just Don. On Saturday we tried to take Bri to "Horton Hears a Who." The previews were a little scary for her and she just kept yelling "oh no!" at every explosion, etc... Next time I think we'll show up after the previews. She liked the movie for about 20 minutes and then was done and just wanted to run around and play. We should have known better. she doesn't really like TV so to think she would be into an hour and a half movie was a little unreasonable. We stuck it out for about 45 minutes and then gave up and went home. It was a super cute movie though for those of you who have kids who do like movies. I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can see the end.

Brighton has been a singing and dancing machine lately. We give her a subject and she will sing a song about it. It is seriously hilarious. Me describing it is not going to seem nearly as funny as it actually is. She changes up her tunes and likes to throw the word "salsa" into most songs. Why? We don't know, but it totally cracks us up every time. She is also into hip hop music. Every time she hears it she starts groovin. She's got some pretty sweet moves. :) She even does her best to get down when she hears hip hop tunes in the car. We are so bad at getting out our video camera to capture these great things, but we need to get this singing and dancing phase on camera!

Oh yeah, and Easter! Like I mentioned earlier, I gave a talk on Easter at church. It was great for me to really focus on the Atonement and the Savior for the week leading up to Easter. I am so, so grateful for my Savior and for His incredible sacrifice. I was really reminded of just what an all-encompassing, incredible gift The Atonement is. Such a beautiful, amazing blessing.

We had a fun Easter with Bri. Unfortunately, our camera was having issues on Easter so no pics, but we had a good time. We hid Bri's basket and a bunch of plastic eggs around the house. She was excited about her new stuffed duckie, but was especially pumped about finding all of the eggs! She loved it. They all had a jelly bean or two in them, which was definitely part of the draw for her. When she had found all of the eggs she was like "more hide!" So, we hid them again...and again...and again. ;) She had fun.

The Scariest Day of Our Lives

Friday was the scariest day of our lives. Around 11:00am Brighton felt hot so I took her temperature. She had a fever so I gave her some Tylenol and put her down for a nap. She still had a little bit of a temperature when I got her up from her nap about an hour and a half later, but it was going down. She was acting a little tired, but was playing and in a good mood. She wanted to cuddle up on the couch and watch Seseme Street. After about ten minutes she started to breathe really fast, her eyes rolled back in her head, she passed out, and turned blue. She was totally non-responsive and limp. She wasn't breathing and her jaw was locked shut. I get emotional every time I think about her little body going through that. It was more horrible than I have words to describe. I yelled for Don, who ran in and grabbed Bri while I called 911. I couldn't even remember our address when I called. I just had about a million what if's going through my mind and was praying more desperately than I have ever prayed that Brighton would be ok. Don tried to get Bri's jaw open hoping that it would open her airway and she would start breathing. We have never felt so totally helpless. The ambulance took about 3 or 4 minutes to get here and, although it seemed like an eternity at the time, I am so grateful to live so close to help. Bri started breathing before the ambulance got here and her jaw finally relaxed. She was pretty non-responsive and out of it when she woke up. I rode in the ambulance with Brighton and Don followed behind us. I was trying so hard to stay calm for Brighton's sake, but I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face and I was completely freaking out inside. She was so non-responsive to anything I said or did. It was so scary. I was wondering about brain damage, etc... They did a couple of tests in the ambulance and a bunch more once we got to the hospital. I felt so bad for little Brighton getting poked at by all of these strange people. She did so, so well though. Everyone was amazed that she remained so calm during everything. For the first couple of hours at the hospital she was just whimpering and kept getting these little tremors. So, so sad. Her fever finally went down and she was, all of the sudden, our happy little Brighton again. Waving at all of the doctors and nurses, asking for snacks, climbing all over the hospital bed, and wanting to get down so she could "pay" (play). It was such a relief to have her acting like Brighton again. We got home around 7:00 that night and Brighton was running around like nothing had happened. She hadn't eaten much that day, but made up for it by gobbling up 3 pieces of pizza. Don gave her a blessing before we put her to bed. She was running around like a little monkey, but as soon as he put his hands on her head she knelt down, folded her arms, and was still. The spirit was overwhelming and I was so grateful to have the priesthood in my home. What a gift.

Brighton had what is called a Febrile Seizure. 1 in 25 kids has at least one between the ages of 6 months and 6 years of age. They are usually caused by a rapid spike in temperature, but can be caused by other things related to fever. They are almost always harmless to the child, although I think Don and I are permantely scarred from seeing our little Brighton go through one. She now has a one in three chance of having another one. So from now on we are probably going to be in freak out mode whenever she has a fever. If she does have another one, at least we know what to do now and that she will be ok. Febrile Seizures can run in families and it turns out that Don had them when he was little. He had one episode almost identical to the one Bri had and had a few other really minor ones from 18 months to 2 1/2 years old. If anyone wants to read more about Febrile Seizures, the Mayo Clinic gives a good explanation: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/febrile-seizure/DS00346

As scary as it all was, we are so, so grateful that it wasn't anything worse. I feel so emotional about everything. Don and I are just soaking her sweet, sunshiney soul in more than we ever have. We are so, so grateful for out little Brighton angel. She is so special and brings us more joy than we can say. Love seems like too common a word to describe the way we feel about her, but for lack of a better word, we love you Brighton!

The Yellow Dress

So we were at Babies R' Us today and I decided to get Brighton a new dress. I picked out this cute blue one and put it in the cart. Bri has been on a yellow kick lately and she spotted a bright yellow dress and said, "pitty lellow Mommy, peeeease" with such conviction that I pulled it off the rack for her to see. I let her hold it thinking that she would put it down and forget about it in a minute. Oh no. The whole time we were there she was talking about her pitty lellow dess. She was so excited about it that I caved and bought it. (I also bought the blue one that I liked). As soon as we got home she was stripping off her clothes so she could put on her new dress. She was pumped for the rest of the day. She kept showing me her new dress and saying "pitty lellow Mommy." And, as it turns out the dress was pretty darn cute on her. :)

Let's see, what else... My brother Quincy coaches the Lone Peak basketball team and they won the Utah state championship this weekend. Go Knights! That's three in the last five years for Q! Not bad! We were so bummed that we couldn't be there for the games. On Friday I locked myself in my office refreshing the play by play on the internet every five seconds and texting Lex back and forth. They won in double overtime and I was seriously glued to my computer for the whole game. Very productive work day for me. :) And poor Deb didn't get to go to any of the games this week. What a trooper. Home sick, with sick kiddos and a new baby. I wish I could have been there to help!

Don is at a leadership training in Florida right now. Boo. I hate when he's gone.

Oh, and one more thing. All of you people out there who are more computer literate than myself (probably most of you), this is for you! I have been trying to change my blog background to something else, but everytime I do it totally messes up my formatting and I can't figure out how to fix it. Please help, this is driving me nuts!

This Week...

First of all, the big news in our family this week is that Quincy and Debbie had thier baby! Maeve Merrianne was born this morning and weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz. Mom and baby are doing great. We are so happy for them and can't wait to meet little Maeve! The big worry was that she was going to come this next week during state. Such a good girl to come today instead. I know her parents were appreciative. :) Congratulations guys!

What we did this week...

We actually had some sunshiney weather this week so we made a couple of trips to the park. Bri was seriously in heaven. She loved being able to just run and run and run! Also, I think she went down the slide four thousand times. When we get nice days like this, it makes me feel really, really ready for summer! I'm so done with the cold, rainy thing!

QT Pie

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This weekend we went to the Portland Children's Museum. Don and I were not totally impressed. We thought it was a bit on the dirty side and not that great for the money. If you asked Brighton though, she would have said that it was awesome! She had an absolute blast! Here are a few pics...

Doing a little grocery shopping

Bri's favorite part of the day was probably playing with the dolls (which she could have done at home). I guess it's always more fun to play with toys that aren't yours though.

Our little construction worker

Splish Splash Splish! Fun with water!

Potty Update

I realize that you non-parents out there are probably thinking, "too much info...don't really want to hear about your child's poop." Perhaps even some of you parents are thinking the same thing. I am going to write about it though because poop in the potty is big news at our house right now and I feel the need to document. :)

So after the incidents yesterday (see yesterday's blog entry), we decided to give the potty seat a whirl. This morning we asked Bri if she would like to sit on the big potty. Oh boy, this girl was excited! She stripped right down to nothing. She couldn't even have her socks on for this, I don't know why. She seriously sat on the potty for an hour. She was pumped. For awhile she wanted to sing songs and about a half hour in she asked for some books to read. I was cracking up that my 21 month old baby wanted to read on the toilet so I made Don bring the camera up. I'm sure this will be a picture she will be really thrilled that I took someday, but it was just too funny to pass up. Anyway, no luck for round one on the potty, but Bri sure did have fun. I finally talked her into getting off so we could go to the gym. The second we got back she was saying "poo poo potty Mommy" so she stripped down again and climbed back up on the potty. A couple of minutes later she pooped in the potty! She was so thrilled with herself and there was lots of cheering and clapping from Brighton and from me. So we'll see how this whole thing goes. Hopefully she stays excited about the whole potty thing and we can get her potty trained! I'm guessing it won't be as easy as I'm hoping, but so far so good. (Knock on wood).

More shoes, less diapers!

"What Mom, who doesn't have their diaper on? Not me. Just look at this face. Don't you believe me?" Oh our little stripper. Brighton has learned how to take off her pants and, more concerning, her diaper. So far today she has peed on our kitchen floor and on our living room carpet. Ugh! She strips down and takes off running. Don and I chase her around trying to get a diaper on her. When we get close she yells "hide, hide" trying desperately to find a spot to hide her bare little bottom so she doesn't have to put a diaper back on. I am seriously going to go buy her overalls or something that she can't take off tomorrow. So now we are motivated to actually get a little more serious about this potty training business. Any tips all of you experienced parents and professional potty trainers out there?

This child has such a shoe fetish. Honestly, she is a little obsessed. She loves to wear my shoes especially. It used to just be Nikes (see below) and Pumas, which wasn't too dangerous, but her new interest in my heels doesn't make for the safest walking. She is actually getting pretty good though. :)

Our happy little banana lover.

ABC's, Tights, & Huddies

Bri is so fun. She is really into singing her ABC's right now, but it's more like singing the Alphabet Soup song when she sings it. ACPTEBT and so on. She's got the tune down, just not the order of the letters. Very cute. One of these days maybe I'll acutally get the video camera out and tape her!

Don and I actually went on a real date this weekend! It doesn't happen enough. It was so fun and, as we always do whe we go out, we vowed to do it more often. We decided to go out on the 9th (the aniversary of our first date) instead of fighting the crowds on Valentines Day. We went to the Melting Pot and had the most indulgent, yummy meal. It's so nice not to have to rush through a meal at a resturant picking up thrown french fries etc... Anyway, it was a great date with my hubby. xoxo

A few pics from the week...

All dressed up and ready to go. Brighton loves getting in pretty dresses and is especially excited about putting on the tights that go with the pretty dresses right now. She always asks for tights and actually applauds when she gets to wear them. So funny. She definitely doesn't get her thing for tights from me. I hate wearing them!

Oh the baby stroller. Perhaps the best $7.99 we ever spent. She does laps with baby around our downstairs several times a day. Man she loves that thing. And more than her love for the stroller, is her love for her baby! It is an ugly baby with the weirdest patch of hair on its head so we got her a cute Cabbage Patch for Christmas. Of course, she only wants to play with ugly baby. She hugs and kisses it, plays nap with it, takes it on rides in the stroller and in the shopping cart, feeds it Cheerios, etc.. Ugly baby is very loved. :)

Brighton is very much into picking out her own clothes. As mentioned above, tights are a favorite right now. She is also into hats and huddies (known to most of us as hoodies). Most of the time I can let her pick out one thing and hurry and put a matching article of clothing on her, but there are those days where she insists on picking out the whole outfit and...surprise!...it's usually a total mismatch. :)

Looking cute and innocent as she turns around after pounding on Daddy's laptop.

Brighton saying cheese in her favorite dress. If this dress is clean, it is her number one draft pick hands down!