You probably thought I was never going to post again...

Elli being serious which is rare. I am always trying to get pictures of Elli but she is always too distracted and really would rather us not take any pictures. She normally is goofy when we try to get any pictures. She stood still for one second so I could grab this picture. Elli is almost 2 1/2! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I posted a bunch today so keep on looking. :)

Little Brinlyn

3 months old!

Happy little girl!

More pictures...

My brother, Ryan and his wife, Meghan flew out from Seattle to visit for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to spend time with them. Meghan is prego with their first and we just found out they are having a girl. Brinlyn will have 5 girl cousins within a year of her. We are so excited!

Little Brinlyn is already 3 months old. At her 2 month check up she was 25 in and 11.6 oz. She is growing like crazy! She is trying so hard to roll over. She loves playing with toys that are hanging above her head. She is a very happy baby unless she needs something. She has been such a blessing in our lives!

Elli is quite the free spirited child. She loves doing art. Her favorite lately has been painting. She paints on paper but then gets carried away and starts painting her body. She even painted "butterflies" on her face like they did for her at a recent carnival. She cracks us up every day! She still loves dressing up, which as you can see she is in one of her princess dresses while she is painting.

A bunch of LONG overdue posts

We blessed Brinlyn on November 15. It was a very special day. Thanks to our family and friends who were able to make it.

I realize it is almost Christmas but I couldn't resist posting a picture of our cute little pirate with a broken arm. She LOVED going treat or treating. I LOVED getting the chocolate, since she still has a milk allergy and so I scored. :)

Elli fell off her bed just a week before Halloween. I knew she broke her arm because she was just so sad and didn't want me touch it. We took her to the doctor so they could splint it and let the swelling go down. We got the cast on just a few days later. Elli picked a pink one...bright pink! They were so great at the office and even let her have some sparkles on it. Elli is such a good sport when it comes to medical stuff. This just about completes the list of specialists for us! We have seen them all with this child!

Huntington Beach

One of my very best friends lives in California and we were able to spend a day with her while we were over there. I am SO mad at myself because we never got any pictures together. It was so much fun to sit and catch up with her. We didn't skip a beat even though it has been almost two years since we last saw each other. Thanks Jen for hanging out with us. We had so much fun!

Nate buried Elli's feet and she thought that was pretty funny.

One more family picture

Elli taking in the beach scene

Elli checking out Minnie's nose.

More Pictures...

Brinlyn was horrible for the drive over to California because she does not like to be in her car seat. I mostly carried her in the moby sling all day long while at Disneyland so we don't have a lot of pictures of her. This is one of the rare shots we got of her in her car seat and actually happy.

The first day we were at Disneyland we took a break for nap time and walked back to the hotel. The second day we did not take a nap and it was rough for little Elli. We stopped to take a breather on a bench so she could snuggle her blanket and pacifier.

Cute daddy/daughter photo opportunity

One of the very few pictures we got of all four of us. This is taken somewhere up in the Tarzan treehouse. Elli loved being able to climb up this one, especially since there weren't any scary witches popping out at her.

Princesses

Elli LOVES all the Disney princesses and was SO excited to see some of them while we were in Disneyland. I told her we would get to meet some of the princesses and she said, "Meet Snow White and shake her hand?" She got to shake hands, hug and kiss several princesses and it just made her day. We waited over an hour to meet Mulan, Cinderella and Belle. It was definitely worth the wait to see the look on her face.

The princesses are so sweet to the little kiddos. They get down on their level to hug and talk to them.

Elli has her room decorated in princess stuff and I really want to blow this one up of her to hang on her wall. I love it!

Yeah for Vacations!

Audrey, Elli, and Layfe so happy to see each other. Our friends had planned a vacation to go to Disneyland for the week and when we heard of their plans we couldn't resist joining them for the fun. We drove up on Monday evening and came home really early Friday. It was an amazing week!

It has been over twenty years for both Nate and I going to Disneyland so we really couldn't remember much. We went on the Snow White ride first which was a huge mistake. Elli was crying and kept saying, "out, out, out". It was dark and things were popping out at you on every turn. I guess I didn't remember the Snow White ride from twenty years ago. We stuck with the merry-go-round and other easy rides to make up for the scary one.

The classic picture of the castle. I had to post this shot to prove that we were really in Disneyland! :)

Our friends found an amazing deal on a nice hotel just less than a mile down the street from Disneyland. We made that walk too many times to count but it was absolutely perfect! Elli is of course making her cheese smile.

It's about time I post some pictures!

When I had Elliana I really didn't need much help during the night. She was a great sleeper and didn't require a lot of effort at night. I would feed her when she woke up and she would go right back to sleep. Brinlyn is a different child in so many ways. I have to have Nate help me a lot in the night, or I guess in the wee hours of the morning more like it. I feed her, then wake up Nate and pass her off. This is what I woke up to one morning.

My mom got us a baby wrap called "Moby" and it is my most favorite thing right now because it is the only way I can get anything done, (I still don't get a lot done, but the very little that I do is done with Brinlyn all wrapped up tightly). Look at that face! I love that furrowed brow.

Ahhh....I love how precious sleeping babies look.

Babies sleep a lot so it is sometimes hard to catch them with their eyes open. Although as I have said, Brinlyn isn't quite as content as Elli was so she is awake a lot more.

Our little girls watching morning cartoons together. Just a side note, Elli still has her pacifier and blanket and uses it a lot. I am really okay with this because it gives me sanity. I am the mom that everyone looks at because my two year old still has a pacifier. Oh well. I'm pretty sure she won't go to kindergarden with a "padoo" and "blankie", as she calls it.

Doesn't that just break your heart? We have learned that Brinlyn likes to be on her stomach when we lay her down. This picture doesn't really show her love for that, but most times when she is having a rough time we can lay her on her tummy and she feels so much better.

Daddy with his girls. Elli is still in the phase where she has to say, "cheese" when we are trying to take her picture. It really makes it a challenge to get a good picture but oh well it's a good memory.

Keeping Busy...

Since having Brinlyn I have tried to come up with fun things for Elliana to do. Life with two is definitely much more challenging than it was with one, well duh, right?!? Anyway, last week I went with my mom to the Phoenix Zoo. They have a petting zoo with a bunch of goats. I am not much of an animal lover, but it looks like Elli might have inherited the recessive gene. :) The weather is getting so nice here so the zoo was a lot of fun.

Elli testing out the swing. I figure she weighs as much as a lot of infants who use swings so hey, if it makes her happy go for it. Brinlyn just likes to be held so she isn't getting much use out of it. If anyone has any advice on how to make a fussy baby happy, other than holding them all the time, let me know. :)

Every week I take Elli to the library storytime and she loves it. They sing songs, read books, blow bubbles and play with toys. When I tell her we are going to the library she starts singing the hokey pokey. "Put one arm in and shake it", is what she calls it. This is a picture of Elli with her friend Layfe sitting on a bench reading books together.

Elliana absolutely loves playing dress up (thanks grandma for the fun clothes). A lot of times I can't get her to take off the gear before going to the store or to bed. This day she was fully decked out for her nap time. I think the rubber glove on one hand cracks me up the most, or maybe the microphone next to her. Yes, my kid takes her naps in our messy bed a lot. You do what you have to to survive.

Here is another classic of Elli dressing up. She has the pirates eye patch on, princess shoes, a purse, the one rubber glove and a fan. She cracks me up.

Photography Contest...

My friend Janelle is an amazing photographer. She did Elliana's 1 year pictures and Brinlyn's newborn pictures. She is just plain awesome. She is doing a contest and I wanted you to all know about it so you can enter to win. Just go to her photography site and you can see what you have to do to enter. I'm telling you, you won't be dissappointed! http://janellejoy.com/blog/. Good luck!

Newborn pictures...

My friend, Janelle, did an amazing job taking Brinlyn's newborn pictures. Even though she is only 2 weeks old she has already changed so much and it makes me so sad. Why do our kids have to grow up so fast?!? Here is the link to the slideshow she put together. I pretty much want to order all the pictures...I hate having to choose. I will try to post some more pictures we have taken soon. I am pretty well sleep deprived and haven't found the time to do things for myself.
http://bigshow.bigfolio.com/?s=000014399&t=fea207fceab4fd159e6bfffa99b39907

Labor Day...

So, we officially had a day of labor. While the rest of you were having BBQ's and whatever else, we were at the hospital having our sweet little girl. We are so happy to have our newest addition, Brinlyn Anne who has been such a delight. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long. I was actually induced so we knew what we were in for and it all went wonderfully. They gave me pitocin at 11:30am and she was born just a little over 4 hours later. It was SO easy! I didn't have any pain because I got the epidural shortly after the pitocin before my contractions even started. It doesn't seem right to have a baby and not have any pain, but it was awesome. We are doing great except for the lack of sleep we are all getting. Elliana is happy to have a sister but she is a little jealous as would be expected. She doesn't really pay much attention to Brinlyn which is better the opposite problem where the older sibling wants to hurt the new baby.


The hospital wouldn't let anyone under the age of 12 into patient rooms so we were sad Elli wasn't abel to come and see her new sister at the hospital. This picture is when she came home and saw Brinlyn for the first time. She wanted to point out all her body parts...nose, lips, eyes, etc.

The hospital gave of this cute little knit hat and we just love it.

She loves pacifiers just as much as Elliana and that makes me so happy!

I always post pictures in the backwards order...So, this is right after Brinlyn was born. This hospital was awesome and we had the most amazing nurse. I loved the whole experience!

Some Random Pictures...

It has been quite the challenge to get any pictures of Elliana actually smiling because every time we pull out the camera she makes this face and says, "cheese"!

Nate was reading his scriptures one morning and fell asleep with his thumb all wedged up on his mouth. I was cracking up! I ran and grabbed the camera to catch this picture and of course the sound of the camera woke him up. What a mean wife I am!

Elli has been so lucky to get to hold so many new babies in the last couple of months. This is a picture of Elli holding Matt and Lindsay's newest, Reese Karen Johnson. She is adorable!

Our little diva!

Birthday Cake

I always post things backwards! So, here Elli has done the damage with the cupcake and has happily displayed a lot of it on her face and clothes.

The action shot of eating a sheep cupcake with Landon keeping his eye on her. You can tell he enjoyed some blue cupcake.

Blowing out the candles was a lot of fun for Elli and Landon. Kyle kept relighting them because the kids had such a blast blowing them out.

Waiting for the singing to start. Look at their hands all braced on the table just wanting so badly to jump on those cakes. They are too cute!