The Brandt Family

Collin' the shots (Sept-Dec)

2012-01-22T22:18:00.002-07:00

I love the stage that Collin is at right now. I love having a little buddy that can carry on real conversations and ask questions. He's pretty much past the "why" stage (now he just does it to be silly/annoying), and he's starting to think for himself. We're also getting some arguing/back talk, not so fun, but with every stage there is good and then there is frustrating so I just have to deal with it. Here are some of the silly things he's said the last few months...

Collin-" We need to be careful with the animals because they can scare, because they're very very big."

Collin-" Where's Mommy?"
Daddy- "She's out running."
Collin- "Oh, she needs to get energy out."

A toy wasn't working, Collin was trying to figure out how to fix it like Daddy. Collin switched the on switch and said, "look mom, I pushed this and it works. I am a fixer."

Collin said this multiple times a week, "First it's Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas."

Collin- "I like Christmas. Santa comes and I get lots and lots of presents."

I was eating a lindt truffle. Collin caught me and said, "Can I have that."
Me- "No."
Collin- "Can I share it?"
Me- "No, it's a mommy candy, but you can have something else."
He then chose a tootsie roll and looks at me and says, "You can't have this. This is a Collin candy."
Collin and I were sitting on the porch swing. Collin pauses, looks at me very seriously and says, "So... how are you doing."

While Adam was giving the kids a bath he said, "Collin we need to wash your face. You don't want a dirty face do you?"
Collin- "Yes."
Adam- "Why do you want a dirty face?"
Collin - "Because it's part of my life."

We were playing memory and I told Collin to mix up the cards super fast. He said, "No! We don't want to freak out!"

Me- "Collin, when we have another baby would you like a brother or a sister?"
Collin- 'I want little Collins and Marissas."

Me-"Collin, I miss my Grandma."
Collin; "I have a Grandma you can go to."
Me- "You will share your Grandma with me?"
Collin- "Yep"

Me- "Collin what should we do now?"
Collin- " hmmmm. Let's do something different.
Me- "Like what?"
Collin-"Let's go to the Pizza store (Costco).
Me- "No."
Collin- "Yeah! Let's Shop."

While singing farmer and the Dell he said, "the farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife" then he stopped and very thoughtfully said, "it's not nice to take things."

We just love this silly little boy!!!

And Marissa is starting to use all kinds of words. She is constantly surprising us with a new word. Some of the words in her vocabulary include; stop it, jump, amen, cracker, bubbles, tank tu (thank you), mommy, daddy, up please, more, milk, Grandma, Grandpa, Toby (our cat), night night, teeth, eyes, book, goak (coat), yuck (sock), hi, bye bye, popcorn, ip (zip). She's such a cutie! She can also point to all her body parts and LOVES to sing "Popcorn Popping" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Although the house is rarely quiet and most of dinner times consists of screaming and fighting. We just love, love, love our little family. Hopefully we can add a few more crazies in the future :).

Callin' the shots (May-Jul Collinisms)

2011-11-14T21:18:00.003-07:00

May 2011

One of our favorites, when talking about something that happened yesterday or last week he refers to it as last year.
I asked him what he wanted for his birthday at the beginning of the month and he told me- A pink cake and blue balloons.
Mommy- "How old are you?" Collin- "2" Mommy- "And how old will you be on your birthday?" Collin- "5"
We were reading in the Scriptures about the olive trees in Jacob. He must have been listening because after talking about living fruit Collin says, "Living fruit... that sounds yummy".
"That's a great idea!"

June 2011

He often uses the words cuddly, cozy, and cute (he must spend a lot of time with me :))
Collin finally started saying I love you without any promptings and he says it often. He also asks for hugs and kisses. I just love it!

July 2011

While getting ready to go to the park he sang, "Ring around the rosies, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all go to the park". I laughed and said that was creative and he said, "It's ok to change the song." ha ha what a little grown-up
Collin was chewing on his stuffed cougars tail. When I told him to stop that it's yucky he says, "it's not yucky, I'm giving him raspberries."
While we were outside waiting for the fireworks to start Collin says, "the sun is sleeping and the moon is awake. Shhhhhh the sun is sleeping."
While we were outside waiting for the fireworks to start Collin says, "the sun is sleeping and the moon is awake. Shhhhhh the sun is sleeping."
At our 4th of July breakfast he got a small flag. On the way home he said, "I love this flag it is so flaggy." boy is he creative :)

Where does the time go

2011-09-11T22:28:00.007-06:00

We have had a fabulous summer! The little sunshine we had was thoroughly enjoyed. I can't believe it's already September so I better post the last few months, before I get too far behind. I have to first start with Collin's new favorite game. He loves hide and go seek. He would play it for hours if WE had the attention span. I have to say his hiding skills are lacking a little, but he is 3 and I can't say I really want him to be too good or else we might never find him. This is one of his oh so tricky hiding spots :)

And although it may look like Marissa is using the same hiding technique she is in fact sleeping. We went to check on her the other night and found this, it was hilarious!

Aunt Cristy came for an awesome visit. We loved having her and it was fun for me to get to know her even better, I keep thinking of her as my "little" 15 year-old sister, even though she's 19 and in college. So it was fun to get to really know my beautiful, wonderful, smart, spiritual sister. I am so proud of her. The kids loved her and Collin still mentions her and every once she makes it into his prayers.

At the end of her visit we all mushed into our little car and drove down to the Redwoods to go camping with my whole family. I guess it was our first "Valenza family" reunion. We spent a week down there and got to sleep in a tent. It was quite the adventure. We had a blast and I did fairly well with the mess. Marissa was covered in a thick layer of dirt, but she was happy. The kids did awesome and we all loved the quality time we had together. You really can't beat the peace and beauty of the outdoors. What an awesome family we have! Here is a picture of Collin, Marissa, and Cayley in their camp chairs. Collin's favorite part besides sleeping in a tent was having a fire every morning and night.

Marissa is becoming quite the little independent woman! Much to our dismay. She is a mover and much more adventurous and daring than Collin is/was. She has figured out how to climb onto the kitchen table, how to make a mess of Toby's kitty food, how to get all cute outfits dirty, etc. you get the picture. She is a ham! We love her and she keeps us on our toes. She is a doll and she is so loving and cuddly, but man is she sweet and sassy! This is what happens when we let her feed herself...

I just couldn't resist! ha ha what a girl.

Again, what a girl

And even though these two can drive each other crazy already, there is sure a lot of laughs and love.

And just to show you that it isn't all fun and games, even though sometimes it sure does feel like I just get to play all day. These little munchkins sure wear me out. I love them so so much. I really can't believe how incredibly blessed we are and I love being home with these precious children.

And don't worry, Adam is around he just somehow never makes it into pictures. I'll have to work on that. We sure love that amazing man. What a good daddy and husband :) He does so much for us and we are lucky to have him :) Sorry, I had to brag and I'm allowed, it's my blog right!!!

We have a 3 year old among us

2011-07-18T21:00:00.004-06:00

Collin is 3! He likes to remind us often. He is now a big boy, because he is 3. We don't quite understand where our baby boy went, but I guess time really doesn't wait for anyone does it. We so love this sweet, crazy, fun boy. He is just awesome! It is so fun watching him grow physically, but also mentally and emotionally. He just amazes us. He is so full of energy and life. He is very passionate about everything (a trait he gets from me of course :) and we have our share of ups and downs but he is just so special. He continues to make us laugh and smile. His new favorite thing to do is play hide and seek, oh, and go potty standing up. After about a week of work he is potty trained, not completely but he is doing so good. He really is such a big boy and we just love this crazy kid.

For his birthday we played all day. Once daddy came home from work we opened presents (it killed him to wait), then while he helped Adam put his trike together I made dinner; waffles, eggs, and sausage (his request). After dinner we played outside, then went to the park, ate cake, took a bath and read lots and lots of stories. A pretty perfect day according to Collin. It was so much fun and Collin kept telling us how much fun he was having. I am a lucky momma!

Our darling 1 year old

2011-06-08T15:19:00.004-06:00

Yes, Marissa is 1! We can't believe it. Didn't I just have her? Well apparently not, but it sure seems like it. Isn't it amazing how the second child seems to grow so much faster. She is still our little doll baby. She isn't quite walking, but she does cruise along the furniture and takes a few steps on her own. She is sweet and sassy. She sure gives Collin a run for his money. So in honor of our little sweetie, here are several pictures from her first year and to top it off with a video from her 1st birthday, eating her cupcake. Yes, she loves food just like her momma.

March and April Collinisms

2011-06-08T14:03:00.002-06:00

This silly cute boy!

Mommy- "Collin are you a big boy?" Collin- "Not yet." Mommy, "When will you be a big boy." Collin (very matter of factly)- "When I'm nine."
So we are starting seeds in the house and today some of them popped up. I called Collin over to show him the little green plants. He got down, looked at them, and said, "now we can eat them." ha ha. He didn't understand the waiting part.
"Oh, that so cuuuuuuuuute"
So today we drove by the shipyard (where Adam works). Collin saw the big boats and I told him that's where daddy works. He said, "When I big I work on big boats with Daddy and Steven (one of Adam's friends and co-workers)." He then proceeded to tell me he would work with Daddy when he is "tall tall, like a snowman". (Gotta love that creativity)
"I'm silly Collin boy the Monkey"
Singing the wheels on the bus and these are Collin's own verses... "the moose on the bus throw a muffin to the boy, etc...all through the town" "The wet wipe on the bus goes wipe, wipe, wipe... all through the town"
Singing Old McDonald he starts singing, "And on his farm he had a mommy, ee-i-ee-i-oh with a clean-up here and a clean-up there." So I guess he notices that I try to keep the house clean after all.
When we tickle him he now says, "I don't like it" while laughing of course.
One night while we were putting him in his pjs his leg got stuck and he said, "get in Collin boy leggies."
While playing with his trains, one fell apart and he said, "uh-oh sapettios" (spaghettios).

A visit from Grandpa & Grandma Valenza

2011-05-03T21:50:00.003-06:00

So my parents came a few months ago, I can't believe I haven't blogged about it sooner. They came for a quick weekend, but it was such an awesome visit. We played lots of games, showed them around Port Orchard and Seattle, and just spent some wonderful quality time! It was a blast and we were sure sad that it went by so fast. Lucky for the kids and I, we get to go to California this month to spend more time with them. Isn't family just wonderful!

February Collinisms

2011-03-18T21:57:00.001-06:00

It is so so fun to have Collin talk. We just love it. It is so nice that he can communicate with us and he says the cutest things. We just love that little voice.

A few things Collin says, that I'm realizing he got from me... "Wait a minute" when he is twisting on the lid of anything "Nice and tight" "Oh my goodness" When we put Marissa to bed he says "Sweet Dreams"

Collin got some Disney's Cars cars for Valentine's day. While he was playing with them he said, "Doc is sooooooo cool".

Oooooo pink. I liiiiiiiike pink.

While eating crackers. Collin- "I'm making a mess. I get my choo choo bib. I no get my shirt dirty."

Daddy- "Collin, can we go inside?" Collin- "No, stay outside." Daddy- "But it's cold." Collin- "I be okay."

Our Child Prodegies

2011-03-06T21:59:00.003-07:00

Collin is finally starting to put words together and sing. He loves to be sung to every night. His favorite songs are I love to See the Temple and I am a Child of God. Here are our cute little ones performing a little duet and Collin singing his own rendition/hybrid song of I love to See the Temple and I am a Child of God. Don't you just love that sweet, innocent little voice. We are so richly blessed. Oh and of course our cat had to make his grand appearance...

I just have to brag

2011-02-28T14:40:00.003-07:00

Yes I am a proud momma! Collin has done a few things lately that have just made our hard work pay off. At a friend's house he needed a band-aid. After getting it on his finger he said thank you and picked up the band-aid wrapper and threw it in the trash! Woohoo!
He is my little pacifier finder. Whenever Marissa's pacifier falls under her crib I just call Collin and he runs and finds it. Such a good brother!
He is also so good about throwing trash, diapers, and all kinds of stuff away. He is starting to put his sippy cups back in the fridge when he is finished (without us even asking :) ). He also will take his plate to the sink if it's empty and to the counter if there is food on it.
He throws his dirty clothes in the hamper and puts his clean clothes back in the drawer.
At night before stories he'll help us clean up all the toys usually without a fight.
So a month or two ago he started fighting nap time. He would get out numerous times and cry and cry when I'd put him back to bed. I knew I had to persevere because not only is he cranky without a nap, but I want to hold on to nap time as long as I possibly can. So just the last two weeks he has stopped fighting and he even willingly goes. My secret, I tell him you have 5 more minutes to play before nap time. I tell him I am going to set the timer and when it goes off, nap time. When he hears the beep he stops what he's doing says nap time and we walk into his room without a fight! Wonderful!
It is so so so rewarding when he does things all on his own. He is learning so fast and just soaking everything up! What a sweetheart! Love this little guy.

Collin the shots, our favorite Collinisms

2011-02-02T21:28:00.003-07:00

So we have a friend that does this every month and I just love it, so I can't say this is original, thanks Marcie for the idea. Collin is starting to say so many funny things. We love hearing him talk. His sweet little voice, so innocent. Here are the funny things he said this month...

Collin - "I watch cartoons?"
Mommy - "I have to see what time it is."
Collin - "Cartoon time!"

Daddy - "Collin, you can go pee in the potty."
Collin (Emphatically) - "May-be Not!"

When we tell Collin to close his eyes for the prayer he says "No, it's dark"

Yes, I do I do"

I no like time outs"

We sure love these little people. Marissa stood up for the first time 2 days ago. She was holding on to the toy box and stood right up. She's moving way too fast if you ask me. But we sure love it. We also had our first set of stitches, and I'm sure it won't be the last, unfortunately. While I was at church playing floor hockey with some women Collin somehow got his finger stuck in a door and got a deep cut. We had to take him to the urgent care where he got 4 stitches. No fun, especially with 2 crying kids. Yuck. Poor guy, he has been brave and good about it. Now the hard part is trying to get the band-aid off so we can check it. These kids keep us on our toes and we just love them. Here are some of the latest pictures.

Our kids are definitely cuter than yours, here's proof

2010-12-19T22:30:00.003-07:00

See what I mean. They are stinking cute! It really doesn't get cuter than that. So maybe I'm biased, but still they are cute. And not only are they cute they are so sweet and fun. We just love being parents. I took these today before church, their Christmas outfits from Grandma Valenza.

Yes, those are earrings. We decided to get Marissa's ears pierced a few weeks ago and we love it. Isn't she so cute. Our little doll baby. I'm still hoping those eyes turn green. Wouldn't that be fun.

And we're already creating piano prodigies. They love playing together, sweet beautiful tunes. Well not yet, but don't worry, I'll teach them.

Our little penguin.

This is our rollie pollie girl. She is a mover. She isn't crawling yet, but she rolls all over and gets wherever she wants. It's so cute and fun, but I wish she would slow down. She's going to cause trouble. But she sure is cute!

My little helper. Collin won't leave our side. He hates to be alone. It is so sweet, sometimes. A lot of the time we just wish we could do something on our own, but if we leave for 2 seconds we hear, "wait for me". We'll definitely miss it when he outgrows it and never wants us around. Anyway, what I wanted to say is how wonderful of a helper he is. Again, sometimes it can be a little frustrating, but usually I don't care, I mean my 2 year old vacuums, sweeps, mops, rakes, he practically does it all. I love having a little helper. I am a lucky mom!

Isn't this cute. Marissa sure loves her Toby kitty. Whenever he comes near she smiles and giggles. She loves to pet him, even if it becomes more of a tug.

We had a fun snow storm a few weeks ago and of course had to go play in it. Collin didn't enjoy it quite as much as I thought he would. It was pretty cold and windy. We got to sled down our hill out back and build a snowman. It was a fun week. Collin's favorite part was just getting to have "hot (warm) chocolate". He asked for it every chance he got. He was more excited about the hot chocolate than the snow.

They are so cute together! Marissa adores Collin and Collin loves to entertain her. He is starting to talk to her and show her things. Today after Marissa's nap, I brought her out and he kissed her hand and said "good morning" Rissa (that's what Collin calls her). Pretty cute! He also turned on the Christmas lights on the tree today and turned and looked at Marissa and said, "look Rissa, lights". It was so sweet. How blessed to know that Families are Forever.

Our fun/vibrant bathroom

2010-10-28T21:14:00.002-06:00

So here is our first painting project. I know the orange is a little out there, but I love it. It's the kids bathroom and I thought it should be fun, plus I love color and polka-dots, so why not. I even painted the canvases. I can't say they're amazing, but it was sure fun! Decorating and painting the house is taking so much longer than we had planned, but it is sure fun! We love our little home.

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

2010-10-07T15:21:00.000-06:00

It has been a rough few weeks lately with our wonderful, but tough two year old. I have been so frustrated and disappointed at how impatient and angry I get sometimes. I needed a little pick me up and came across this. To all you mothers out there who feel so frustrated and insufficient sometimes, this is for you. Just hang in there and remember you are raising God's children and he will send you help or strengthen you to meet your challenges, if you pray and work with him.

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

Our sweet Marissa is 4 months!

2010-10-02T23:52:00.003-06:00

Where does the time go? Well I guess things are a little crazier with 2. These two munchkins sure keep us on our toes. It's hard when they are both having a rough day, but we get through it and at night when we check on them our hearts melt. No matter how tough of a day it has been when we see those sleeping angels it is all worth it. How lucky that we all can be together forever! Well I thought I should post Marissa's 4 month stats since they are pretty awesome
Weight; 14.6 lbs (70%)
Height; 24.5 in (60%)
Personality; 100% sweet
She is as big at 4 months as Collin was at 8 months. She is so big and healthy, we just love it. We call her our little "doll baby". She is so calm and smiley. Marissa absolutely loves Collin. Even when he is in her face or climbing on her, she just smiles and loves it. We are so blessed to have our sweet little angel with us!

Good-bye Summer, hello Fall

2010-09-26T22:44:00.003-06:00

Fall is in the air. Summer was pretty wet and rainy here, so that was a little disappointing, but hopefully next summer will be better. I'm a little nervous for all the rain, but I try to keep busy so that it doesn't get to me too much, and we are making some wonderful friends and really enjoying our little piece of heaven. We're definitely in Washington. The leaves are starting to change, the rain is coming back in full force and it is just gorgeous! I sure do love it here, don't tell Adam. We are keeping busy between painting the house, church callings, Adam's schooling/work, and of course our adorable and fun kids. Life is wonderful and things are going great. Here are a few pictures of our oh so adorable little ones. Now I just have to start thinking about Halloween costumes... help. I'm no good at that.

Oh and I just had to post our crazy/fun bathroom. I know it's bright, but it makes me happy. I'm not totally finished, I'm working on a polka dot painting. It's sure fun making this house ours.

Happiness

2010-08-29T21:33:00.003-06:00

I am the luckiest momma in the world. I am so blessed and have so many good things in my life. I am so fortunate to be able to stay home with these beautiful, sweet children. Heavenly Father has so richly blessed us. How can I not be happy when I get to play, well maybe a little bit of work ;), but yes, play with these precious children all day long.

I just had to include these two pictures. Collin loves to read. We read every night and lately, if I want to shower or get ready, this is the best way to keep him out of trouble. I hope he keeps up his love for reading. I just love how intent he is.

Summertime

2010-08-22T22:10:00.004-06:00

Well we sure love the summer. This summer has been low key, well besides having a baby. We haven't had a lot of vacations or done a ton, but we have sure enjoyed spending lots of time together. Adam has been getting home around 3:30 so there is lots of family time, which is the best. Collin is quite the character and we can never get him to be quiet now. His laughter fills the house and we love it. Marissa is our sweet little angel. She is just so mellow and sweet. She's only laughed once, but she smiles all the time and to anyone. She is just such a doll. Adam starts class for his test engineering next month so we are trying to get our fill of him before he goes back to school. And I am just loving my family. I am so lucky to have these beautiful children and a wonderful husband. We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last weekend. We are so lucky and life is so good. Here are a few pictures from our summer.

Some pics of our Cute Kids

2010-07-11T22:28:00.001-06:00

I have a Two year old?!

2010-07-05T23:34:00.005-06:00

June 30th was Collin's 2nd birthday. I can't believe he is 2 already. We went to the zoo (I'll post pictures soon) with some friends and then had some friends over later for cake and ice cream. It was such a fun and special day. The highlights for him were the balloons and seeing a digger at work. He is such a sweet and wonderful little boy. He is challenging us and asserting his independence which can be extremely frustrating, but he is also so sweet, loving, and stinking cute. He brings us so much joy and happiness we just can't imagine life without him. I was so terrified to have a boy, but now I can't imagine not having him. He is my little buddy and just lights up our lives. We are so blessed to have our Collin boy. We love you Stinks

Happy Independence Day

2010-07-05T23:27:00.003-06:00

For the 4th of July we went to Adam's best friends brother's house for a party. It was fun and so nice to be around such good friends. While we were there our friend did a little photo shoot for me of the kids. I want to get professional pictures but don't want to spend the money, not to mention Collin is in a funny picture phase and will not look at the camera and smile. Well what a waste if we couldn't even get a smile so I figured maybe I could get some great pictures while we were at the party. Our friend is still working on the photos but sent me this one and I just had to post it. Here is the little lady

Isn't she beautiful. I especially love her bright blue eyes. They will probably turn brown, but it's fun to have a blue-eyed child at least for a little while.

Our Sweet Angel

2010-06-27T21:50:00.004-06:00

Well, our beautiful little girl has been with us for a month and this is my first post about her. I know pathetic, but hey it's been busy. Life is pretty crazy with a newborn and an almost 2 year old. They sure keep us on our toes. If we thought things were crazy with Collin, boy were we wrong. Anyway I'm going to post about her birth since it is long over due and so important for our family records.
Here is me at 39 weeks

So I was dilated to a 4 for a few weeks and effaced and nothing was happening. I was even playing basketball and volleyball (the week before she was born).Collin was 4 days late and I was afraid the same was going to happen. My mom was coming out to help with things and I was afraid if Marissa didn't come on time, I would miss out on my mom's help. So...since I was so "ready" as the doctor put it, she stripped my membranes on Friday the 21st to get things moving. However, since our children are just as stubborn as their parents, nothing happened. The doctor said to call the hospital on Monday to be induced if there was no progress. So I called, but for the next 2 days just had to wait since apparently it was a crazy baby time, who knew. Finally on Tuesday the 25th at 11:45pm I got a call from the hospital saying they had an opening and to come on in. I jumped out of bed (Adam was a little less enthusiastic since we had just been asleep for 30 minutes or so) and we got going pretty quick.
They started me on pitocin around 1:30am and not much was happening so they said to try and sleep...yeah right, who can sleep at a time like that, well I should rephrase that, what woman in labor can sleep, Adam slept just fine. Around 8am still nothing was really happening so Adam went and got some breakfast and of course 5 minutes after he left, and a few minutes before the doctor was coming in to break my water, I felt a huge gush of water. My water broke with Collin so I knew what it was. I called the nurses and instantly my contractions started coming full force. It was so painful. I have to give so much credit to those women who go natural, as crazy as I think you are. It was really painful. I was fully expecting an epidural so I was not prepared for the strong contractions. For whatever reason, it took the anesthesiologist an hour to come in. By that time I was really hurting and doing all I could to breath through the contractions. Finally the epidural kicked in and oh it was soooo nice.
The nurses said to let them know when I started feeling pressure. I quickly assured them that I already was. They checked me and I was already an 8. They started to get things ready for the delivery. I said I was feeling even more pressure, they checked me again and sure enough, I was fully dilated and effaced. Well I don't need to go into any more detail about the actual delivery other than it was wonderful (as crazy as that sounds). It really is an amazing experience (thanks to modern medicine). Adam is so supportive and loving. He is a great coach. My mom got to be there and even though she said it was pretty gross (I can't blame her, I don't think I ever need to be at labors besides my own), she said it was incredible at the same time. It was quite a bit harder than Collin and took much more pushing, but after some hard work, our beautiful baby girl entered the world at 10:26am, 2 hours after my water broke. The first thing I asked Adam was if it was a girl. The ultrasounds said it was a girl, but I was so sure I would never have a girl, I just had to check. It was a girl, she was beautiful and healthy and they gave her to me right away. What a beautiful miracle it truly is. I was able to bond with Marissa right away and we enjoyed those special first moments. When they took her to weigh her, I realized why it was so much harder, she was a whopping 8lbs 11oz, compared to Collin's 7lbs 1 oz, a huge difference if you ask me.
It was so fun to introduce Collin to "his baby".

He didn't really know what to think and was pretty scared to see me in a weird gown on a strange bed in a foreign place, but we got some cute pictures and he was interested for about a minute.

Marissa is such a doll. She eats and sleeps so well. She is so easy going, which is such a blessing since Collin is a typical two year old and trying our patience. Although there are definitely challenging days and moments we wouldn't change a thing. Our two children are miracles from our loving Heavenly Father and we can't imagine life without them. We feel so blessed to have these precious children. Families are such a blessing. We have so much to figure out, but we are enjoying learning with each other.

A touching video

2010-05-11T15:31:00.000-06:00

My New Life

I just watched this inspirational and moving video. What an example of faith and courage. I hope that when my trials come I will be able to see them as they truly are, opportunities to grow closer to my Heavenly Father and further learn my divine worth and potential. As I have been thinking a lot about having another baby I realize how truly blessed I am to be able to be a mother and a woman. This past mother's day was so wonderful, even though Adam was sick and things didn't work out how I had planned. I was able to go to church and to feel the spirit and be grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mother and woman. We have so much potential and divine worth if we just keep close to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The world will try to distract us and make us question who we are, but as we draw closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ we realize the truth, which is that we are children of a Heavenly Father, which makes us divine. When I look at Collin and Adam and see all the opportunities I have to try to make them see their divine potential, I realize how lucky I am. God knows us and knows what we need, if we can just have the faith and courage to press forward, steadfast and immovable.

2010-05-09T12:32:00.002-06:00

So one of Collin's favorite games is to run down the hall and around the kitchen and back down the hall and back around the kitchen and... you get the point. Most the time he want's one of us to follow him, usually Dad of course, but now Toby likes to join in the fun too and he makes an okay substitute. Here's an example, and sorry for the blurry video. It's something with reducing the video size so it's small enough to fit in the blog. I'll have to work on it.

Soon to be 4

2010-05-08T15:25:00.003-06:00

I just had to write quick and say that our little trio will soon be a foursome. I can't wait! I am getting so excited for our little one to come. I am already a 3 and 50% effaced. So we'll see what happens. I was like that with Collin and he still came 4 days late, so who knows. I just can't wait for her to come. Oh and we finally came up with a name for good, (as long as it's a girl). We're going to name our little sweetie Marissa! Isn't that so cute. We love it. It has taken months and months, hours and hours, and Adam shooting down several of my ideas to finally come up with a final name, but we are set on Marissa. Marissa Brandt, just seems to fit. Our ward threw me a baby shower last month and I received so many adorable outfits I just can't believe I'll have a little girl to put in them! Yay! Can't wait to announce her arrival, stay tuned. It could be any day now... :)

Our Little Athlete

2010-05-02T17:00:00.003-06:00

Collin has loved balls as soon as he could hold one and now he is finding taller and taller things that he can jump off of. So here is a little video of him throwing, catching, jumping, talking, and just being Collin.

Randomness

2010-04-25T22:46:00.002-06:00

I realized that I still haven't put a full picture up of my piano. We've had it for several months now and it is such a blessing from our wonderful Provo neighbors. I love bringing music into our home and it is such an escape for me. This picture is just too stinking cute to not put up. Needless to say our piano is loved by many.

My sister Cristy brought it to my attention that I have been a neglectful future mother. I documented every second of my first pregnancy, but have barely done anything with this one. I do feel bad about that, but to be honest we still haven't even decided on a name and for some reason I still am not 100% sure it's a girl, so I would hate to decorate the nursery only to be shocked and disappointed. We are still floundering on a name. I can't believe what a big decision names are and how difficult it has been for us. It looks like it's going to come down to seeing her and hoping the inspiration comes. I have also had two ultrasounds and in each one they have said it's a girl, but they don't sound 100% sure, which of course makes me nervous. I would absolutely love another boy, but I do have my heart set on this being a girl, so we'll just have to wait and see. The ward threw me a baby shower and I can't believe how wonderfully generous and sweet everyone was. We received so many darling things. Girls clothes really are so so so cute! I would be so sad if I couldn't use all the adorable things we got. So since I don't have nursery pictures I guess I can at least put up more pregnancy pictures although, I feel anything but beautiful. Oh well, luckily I have a husband that makes me feel gorgeous no matter what. Lucky me! So this first one is 30 weeks.

And this one is 35 weeks

It's funny that I am carrying her the same way as I carried Collin, high and torpedoish. It makes me look smaller but it feels like I have a basketball in my stomach. I am trying to stay active by playing volleyball and basketball as well as go on walks, oh and yoga every day. Despite my best efforts I am still gaining more weight than I would like, but I shouldn't complain, my pregnancies are pretty easy for the most part.

I can't believe we have one more month until we meet our new little miracle. As nervous as I am to have 2 children, we are so excited and anxious! I can't believe how truly blessed and lucky we are. We are so fortunate to be able to receive another precious child from our Heavenly Father.

And this last gem is of our silly and sweet little Collin boy. What a delight he is. He definitely has his moments and I fear that the terrible twos are just around the corner, but oh what a blessing. He is the best helper we could have ever hoped for. He helps us do everything, and not just helps, he has to take charge and be in the middle. He loves to help daddy with any project he is doing. He especially loves to hammer and use the screwdriver. He loves to weasel his way into the middle of things. He loves to sweep, vacuum, rake, unload the dishwasher, do yardwork, and build things. We are sure a happy family! Oh and I just have to say for my records, his favorite songs right now are itsy bitsy spider; Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam; I love to see the temple; Head, shoulders, knees and toes; and he loves the little piggy rhyme. He loves his craisins as his story time bed time snack and his favorite book from the library is Block City. How did we ever get so lucky?! Isn't he just the cutest little guy!

More visitors

2010-04-25T22:12:00.004-06:00

Last week we had some other visitors, our good friends from Provo, the Coynes. They spent the night with us and then we went to a Mariner's game, which is always fun! We took the ferry to the game, which may be one of the coolest parts of living here. We love taking the ferry, it's a pleasant alternative to traffic and sitting in a car for an hour. Some friends watched Collin so we were child free, which will be one of the last times for a while since life will sure get crazier with two. It was so fun to have the Coynes visit and meet their sweet little 4 month old daughter. We sure miss our good friends from Provo! But luckily Steph is from Washington so hopefully this will be one of many visits.

Visitors

2010-04-25T21:53:00.004-06:00

For all of you out there, I just have to say that we love having visitors. Hint, hint. At the beginning of April, my sister Michelle and her family came out to visit us for a week during her Spring Break. It was so fun to have them here. Collin and Cayley had a love/hate relationship that kept us on our toes. We did a lot of hanging out with bowling, a trip to Seattle, movies, lots of Wii, Manchester State Park, and some basketball and volleyball thrown in there. Toby loved both Michelle and Tim and slept on them about every chance he could get. They stayed in the family room in the basement and actually had their own room and bathroom. It was exciting to feel like we could more properly host guests. It was some good quality bonding time and we were so glad they were willing to make the 16 hour drive up here. Here are some fun pictures from their visit.

New addition to the family

2010-03-28T16:43:00.003-06:00

No, I didn't have the baby two months early. We went on Friday and got ourselves a little kitten. He is 7 weeks old and he's either playing or sleeping. Collin thinks he's the greatest thing ever. He chases after him and says either "ti ti" or just "ti" for kitty. He remains nameless until we come across just the right name. He is so cute, even cuter than the pictures and has black stripes as well as cheetah spots. His back legs are white and it looks like he's wearing socks. He is a sweet little thing and loves to be around us. If he can't see us he meows until he finds us. We're hoping this will slowly break Collin in for his little sister. The two of them are quite cute, but we have to keep an eye on Collin, even though he's gentle he can be a little "forceful" at times. But we love this little guy. Now I am greatly outnumbered, so I'm holding down the fort until our little girl comes.

Finally a breakthrough

2010-03-10T23:24:00.001-07:00

So tonight at dinner Collin ate, yes it's coming, wait for it... It truly is monumental and must mean he is growing up. Ok, before it kills you, he ate BROCCOLI!!! Woohoo!

Collin is growing!

2010-03-04T00:00:00.002-07:00

So our little runt boy is finally growing. He had a doctors appointment yesterday and for the first time since he was a few months old he is above 1% in weight. In fact he is up to 10%!!! That's a big deal. His height is between 50-75% which amazes us, we think he's still a shorty, but hey, we'll take it. So he is growing.
He is also saying all kinds of words like car, puppy, doggy, bye, hello, more, baby, ball, book, cheese, and a few more I can't think of right now. He can make about 12 animals sounds on command, point to several body parts, and he almost always understands what we say. Whether or not he listens and obeys is another story, but he can understand us! It is so fun watching him grow.
I was watching a video we took of him when he was just hours old and I missed that little baby. But then I see this little toddler and play with him and I think I wouldn't trade that for anything. It's so fun actually knowing what he wants and having conversations, well almost. He is our little buddy and we are so lucky to have him!

Our little piece of heaven on earth

2010-02-28T22:45:00.003-07:00

I realized that I posted pictures on facebook of our home, but none on the blog, so I better get with it. We love our first little home. Who knew you could find so much joy out of having your own home. We have worked in the yard and are constantly doing little projects inside. We're still waiting for tax returns to make any big purchases. I think I'll post the inside after it is decorated and has some furniture. It will be a process, but we love it!

As hesitant as I was about moving to Washington we are being so blessed and I know this is where we are supposed to be. This place is so beautiful and the people here are so nice. Spring is right around the corner and when the sun is shining it is hard not to be so happy. We have about 20 bulbs throughout the yard popping up and I just love it! I have also planted some seedlings inside and can't wait to have a little garden. Oh I love the spring and summer!!! Spring here we come...soon.
Well I guess I should post a pregnancy picture. This picture is about 25 weeks and I'm coming up on 28. Crazy to think I'm almost in my 3rd trimester. We can't wait to meet our little girl and our difficulty with the name continues. Now we're thinking Naomi or Alyssa. But it's still up in the air. It might just come down to seeing her. It is just hard to make this decision!
And of course, last but not least, what would a post be without our cute little stinky!!! Oh we love this little boy more than we could express. Every night when we check on him we just think we are the luckiest parents in the world. He is starting to say more words and really understand us. He is a sweetheart. Every once in a while he'll just look at me in the eyes and then rest his head on my shoulder like he really loves me. Oh the joys of parenthood!!!

It's a GIRL!!

2010-01-30T15:21:00.002-07:00

As you can tell I'm pretty excited to be having a girl! I love our little Collin boy and as nervous as I was to have a boy, I have loved every minute of it, but I have to admit, I sure did want a girl at some point. We are so excited to be bringing a new little baby into this world. I am due around May 20th, so we'll see. I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is going. Collin sure keeps me on my toes, plus having a new home, I have little time to think about her. I am starting to feel her move more and more and last night Adam got his first feel. She only moved when his hand was on my belly, like she either knew it was daddy and wanted to play or she thought he was encroaching on her space and wanted him to move. I can't wait to buy some cute little girl dresses and bows!

As you can tell from the poll at the top of our blog we are having a tough time naming her. That is always the hardest part for us, agreeing on a name. We have liked Alexandria for some time, but just don't know if it feels right for this little one. Last night we spent an hour looking through names and discovered that Adam likes N names. He liked Nadia and we both thought Naomi was a good possibility, a little different, but not weird. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions? What would sound good with the last name of Brandt?

Oh Christmas Tree

2010-01-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot to put up this post about our Christmas tree. There are so many u-cut tree farms here in Washington that we thought we had to have the Washingtonian experience. We love our fresh Christmas trees so we were really excited to go and cut our perfect tree down. Collin loved running around the maze of Christmas trees and he even helped daddy cut it down, well sort of. Too bad we can't have Christmas trees up year round. It sure was a beautiful tree and it smelled wonderful. Until next year I guess...

A home at last!!!

2009-12-22T13:08:00.001-07:00

So we have a home... we think.
After waiting for almost 3 months to hear back about the short-sale home we put a bid on shortly after moving here, our offer was finally accepted by the bank last Friday. We had the home inspection yesterday and are anxiously awaiting all the final things, including financing and closing, not to mention signing our lives away...

We are so excited!!! We had finally given up and were going to start looking at new homes when we got back from Christmas break, but then the call came and things are finally looking up.

I won't post pictures until it is all final and we know for sure we are moving in, because really it still seems surreal. But we'll find out soon ! Woo hoo!!!

These Boys are Trouble

2009-12-13T22:28:00.001-07:00

One of our favorite things about living here in Washington is being so close to friends and family. We have been able to spend a lot of time with the Dietz family which has been wonderful. Collin and Lil' Martin are about a month apart and boy are they trouble (just like their dads). It is so fun to see these two crazy and cute boys. What fun little guys.

Ravioli Magnifico!

2009-12-13T22:20:00.003-07:00

Well Adam signed me up to make raviolis for our ward Christmas party and so I figured it was about time to practice what my Grandma taught me. It was a fun little adventure and Collin loved helping. It was so fun having a little helper. We had some Christmas music going and decided it would be a new beginning of December tradition.
The raviolis turned out pretty good for my first time, but of course plenty of room for improvement. I sure wish I could have called Grandma with all my questions, but I know she would have been proud. I am so grateful that she took the time to teach me how to make some special Italian dishes. I will always cherish those memories and hopefully make some more yummy Italian cooking memories with my children.

He even helped me turn the crank on the pasta maker, with a little help of course.I love this picture. He was so interested. That sweet little boy.

YUMMY!!! Now if only I could send you all some in the mail. Wouldn't that be a pleasant surprise :)

Get 'em started early

2009-11-08T22:25:00.003-07:00

Sometimes I think we have too much fun with this little guy. Ok, maybe that's impossible.

As many of you know, I am an avid soccer player, so I figured that I better get Collin started early if he is going to be an International superstar. We've got a few fundamentals to work on, but we'll get him into league play in 6 months or so.

2009-11-01T21:37:00.005-07:00

Washingtonians

We are now in Washington. It's fun starting a new adventure. Here is a picture from the balcony of our apartment on a nice foggy morning.

So now that we are in a bigger apartment we have room for our table and all four chairs! Collin can sit at the table now and he figured out that he can get his feet up when he gets bored. The joys of growing up.

Now that we are here, we are close to my best friend growing up and his wife. This is all of us at a Mariners' game.

We bought a piano from our neighbors right when we left. Collin loves to help mommy play.

He also decided that he owns our glider chair. He loves to climb up on it and read his books.

Finally, here he is at our ward's Halloween party dressed up as an elephant. We were amazed that he kept the hood on and didn't try to yank the trunk off.

We are excited to be here and we are having fun getting to know the area. My job is good and we are working on getting a house. Jenn will have to write more later.

Walking just makes him crazier

2009-09-06T22:41:00.002-06:00

So Collin is officially walking! Woo hoo! that's what we thought at first, but man, this kid is crazy. We thought he got into everything before, but we were sure surprised. Although he makes our life more hectic, we can't imagine life without this sweet, crazy, fun little guy. He is so cute walking all over. He loves to go outside and today he walked down the sidewalk all by himself (with us close behind of course, please we aren't that careless). Our little boy is growing up. He is now a "toddler" and I finally understand why they use that term. See for yourself how adorable his toddle is...

Life continues on

2009-08-09T19:35:00.008-06:00

Hey y'all. So it must seem that we have disappeared. I have to admit I just haven't been in a blogging mood. Sometimes it really takes thinking and planning to blog and considering that while Collin's awake I have to keep an eye on him and while he's sleeping I just want to relax and recuperate, I just never find time to blog. But I know I should fill everyone in on what is going on in our lives. SO... We are doing wonderful. Adam is furiously working on his thesis and hoping to turn in a final draft next Monday the 17th. He will then defend it on the 31st and we will head up to Washington around the 5th. If however, things don't work out how we planned, which is usually the case since life is full of surprises. Our plans will be pushed back two weeks, not a biggie, I just have to keep reminding myself to be patient and know that whatever happens is for the best, since the Lord is in charge, not me. Thank goodness.

So Collin and I are enjoying the summer. We like to go to the pool and enjoy long walks to the Temple. I have picked up gardening and I love it. I am growing tomatoes, yellow squash, bell peppers, and honeydew melon. We have been able to eat tomatoes and yellow squash so far and it is such a delight. It has been so fun to watch these plants grow from seeds.

We were able to go to Arizona in May with our good friends the Dietzs. We had so much fun. We can't wait to live closer to them and watch our little guys grow up together.

Collin turned one!

2009-07-19T21:45:00.004-06:00

We can't believe that our little monkey is one year old now. He is not walking yet, but he crawls really fast now and walks a little bit while holding onto furniture. He's a lot of fun and I'm sure Jenn will write more about him later. So, here are some video clips from his birthday. I think maybe he's going to be a dancer.

Dancing Baby

2009-06-13T16:19:00.001-06:00

This little guy is so much fun!

Since Collin learned to crawl two weeks ago he is even more fun. I know you're asking yourself how is that possible, but it is. He is constantly adventuring and wondering around the house getting into trouble. He is also standing, with support, and sitting back down with ease. We didn't know if he would ever really crawl, but now he is so fast. He may even walk close to his birthday. He also loves music, especially country, ok not yet but I'm working on it, but he likes all music. Dancing is one of his new favorites, we call it dancing but it's more like bouncing. If a toy plays music he will push the button, wait for the song to end and then push it again. This continues over and over, so lets just say we have way too many little kid songs memorized. He is so entertaining and still as happy as ever.

Collin crawls!...Really this time!

2009-06-13T15:52:00.000-06:00

While we were in Arizona visiting Jenn's family Collin started to crawl for real instead of doing his army crawl/scoot sort of thing. We are excited and he is much more mobile now. People always say that's a bad thing, but I love it. We can put him down now and walk away and he doesn't freak out because he knows he can follow us. And its really stinkin cute too. Oh and he doesn't always need the plastic bowling pin in his mouth to crawl, just in this video. He's also started doing it with a stuffed soccer ball recently. I tried to get that on video, but he stopped as soon as I got the camera out.

Goodbye Provo, Hello Bremerton

2009-06-10T10:42:00.000-06:00

So some of you may be thinking Bremerton? Where is that? Well to answer that question, it is in western Washington, right across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Your next thought may be why Bremerton? Well... very exciting news for our family...Adam got a job! Woohoo! We thought there was a good chance of staying in our little basement apartment in Provo forever, hey we could probably fit 5 kids in a 500 sq ft. apartment right...WRONG. Contrary to what we thought, we will be leaving Provo.

Adam will be working for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, yup the Navy. So cool. The funniest part of the whole thing is he didn't even apply there. Lucky us. I think the Lord really wants us to go there, because it just worked out way too easy. It turns out my Uncle who works for the Navy actually passed around Adam's resume and it got picked up by the Puget Sound Naval base, they liked what they saw, called him up, and within a few weeks flew him out there to interview. The interview went so well that within a week they gave Adam a job offer. What a wonderful blessing, especially in this unstable economic time. Well we felt pretty good about going to WA, especially since nothing else was looking very promising. So we accepted the offer and will be moving out there at the beginning of September.

Bremerton is 1 1/2 hours from where Adam grew up so he is really excited. He loves WA and is looking forward to raising our family there. As for me, after getting over the initial dissapointment of not going to sunny Arizona and living near my family, I am so slowly getting stoked! When I'm especially longing for AZ, I just look at houses in the Bremerton area and I immediately get excited. I can't believe in the near future, hopefully, we'll have a house of our own! woohoo, and we won't even have to water the lawn, that is one of the first things Adam said while trying to encourage me about Washington.

The area we'll be living in is beautiful and it will be quite the adventure. We will sure miss Provo and the BYU atmosphere, but we're ready to enter the "real" world. It has been such a wonderful beginning to our life together and we have made many memories and friends. We will miss our little basement apartment that we'll have lived in for 4 years! We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in Bremerton WA. If anyone wants to come visit, we'll be there soon!

For any of you that have never been to WA this is some of the beautiful scenery of Bremerton. I mean beautiful if you like water, mountains, and green trees that is. jk...

Adam may be working on Submarines just like this one. Let's just say the little boy in Adam is coming out, thinking about working with submarines and aircraft carriers gets him pretty excited. What's up with men and big machines/vehicles? I guess I just don't get it. But I do have to admit it sounds pretty cool. Hopefully he will love his job and hopefully we will all love Bremerton.

Collin crawls! .... well, sorta

2009-04-03T22:10:00.000-06:00

So just a few days ago Collin started moving forward on his own. He's been pushing himself around in circles for a while, but he could not push himself forward. Now he twists and half army crawls with his arms, but only when he really wants to get to something. We've trained him so he know that if he can get to our hands we will pick him up. So here he is scooting his way to tummy time freedom. Notice how happy he is at the end!

How is he this cute???

2009-03-20T22:15:00.001-06:00

So we have taken random pictures of Collin here and there and it never ceases to amaze us how stinking cute he is. Just see for yourself...

Look at those eyes big bright eyes.

Collin Loves playing in the sink. He especially loves brushing his teeth with his very own brush.

Helping mommy with the laundry

I couldn't resist a good bath tub shot. He absolutely loves bath time. He would stay in it all day if he could splashing the water all over the place.

Fun at the park

2009-03-20T21:12:00.000-06:00

The weather here is just fabulous. We are loving the sun. Collin and I went to the park twice today. Once with some other moms from the ward and then with some good friends the Purcellas and Adam. Collin loves being outside no matter what we do. I think we have found a new favorite spot. Although Collin has definitely had a few rough weeks, he is still such a sweet adorable little guy and we just love him. It is so fun to be a family. Adam and I feel so blessed for all the wonderful blessings God give us everyday, especially the gospel, each other, Collin, and all of our wonderful family.

Put another song on, Collin

2009-02-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

So we made a discovery recently that Collin loves the stereo. Here is a little story in pictures that shows what I'm talking about.

Collin sits himself in front of the stereo and starts pulling out CDs. (Actually we put him there because he can't move on his own yet.)

He checks them out and picks one he wants to listen to.

Collin puts the CD in the stereo and pushes the play button.

He says, "Hey Dad, don't bug me, I'm listening to music!"

Then he goes back to enjoying his song.

I hope you enjoyed that little story. We're loving our little guy. He is so fun and has such a personality. He's a little sick right now and its sad, but other than that he's doing good. We just want him to start crawling. He's being a little booger and he doesn't even try, but he's 8 months old now and it's about time.

Sorry Everyone

2009-02-01T22:35:00.001-07:00

So Jenn started this blog and it was really her thing, but apparently she doesn't like to write in it anymore. I will have to get on her about that. But until then I will continue to do my job as the tech guy and upload pictures and videos, because thats what I'm good at. I'm a boring writer, but at least I can do media. Anyways, here is out latest video of our little munchkin. Enjoy!!!

2008-12-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we are just loving Collin so much. He is always as cute as he is in this video. Yeah right. He has his moments, or days, just like any other baby, but he is still such a joy. He is playing in an exer-saucer now which is very nice for us. He can actually amuse himself for a significant amount of time now. He is working hard to sit up on his own, but still topples over after just a second. His favorite things are to spit-up, blow raspberries, and grab our faces. We will be sure to keep you updated with pictures and videos on how our little boy is growing up.

Our Wonderful Thanksgiving

2008-12-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

For all you bakers...

2008-11-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

I found a delightful gem today. While I was blog surfing today I came across this amazing and unique blog that I absolutely love, love, love!! Check it out, you'll see what I mean, it's a baker's delight...
http://bakerella.blogspot.com

Another tribute to Collin, of course.

2008-11-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

The cutest Hobbes on the block

2008-11-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

We got an adorable tiger costume for Collin. As soon as we saw it we knew he had to be Hobbes. And of course you can't have Hobbes without Calvin so Adam was a good sport and dressed up as Calvin (it's one of his favorite comics, so he loved it). Collin made a wonderful Hobbes, but Adam on the other hand was a little tall and dark for Calvin (not to mention he had a five 0'clock shadow), but we did the best we could. And no that neon green hair was not on purpose. The color on the colored hairspray bottle looked yellow, but we didn't realize that neon yellow+dark brown=neon green, so that's what we ended up with. It was so funny, but Adam loved it anyway. Here is a picture of the inseparable and troublesome duo.

For Halloween our ward had a trunk-or-treat at a battered women's center and it was so fun to pass out candy to those sweet little kids. We felt so happy and blessed to have such a special opportunity!

These are our fabulous pumpkins, can you guess whose is whose?

When mom and dad are away

2008-11-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

Adam and I babysat our niece Cayley a few weeks ago. It was raining outside, but I really wanted to go running and Cayley needed to get out of the house. We bundled her up and put her in the stroller and off we went. She absolutely loved the rain and didn't want me to stop (I on the other hand am out of shape and pushing a stroller is hard work). Well she got soaked anyway, and Adam and I couldn't resist giving her a crazy do!

I think Tim and Michelle will think twice next time they ask us to babysit.

And she thinks I'm sleeping...

2008-11-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

So the other day I thought Collin was asleep. When I went to check on him this is what I found...

Our little boy is 3 months!!!

2008-10-02T21:40:00.000-06:00

So Collin is now 3 months, where has the time gone? Adam and I can't believe we've been parents for 3 months. Collin is growing and becoming more alert and fun everyday. He still can bust through just about every swaddle and doesn't really like to go to bed or sleep through the night, but what baby does. He has been doing a few new things lately, today and yesterday he was trying his hardest to sit up, which is quite impressive. Of course he couldn't do it without help but he kept using those little ab muscles and got like a fourth of the way there, way to go Collin. He's also making all kinds of adorable baby noises that just make us laugh. He's getting louder and louder and it's so fun. It's also really easy to make him laugh, which of course makes us do all kinds of crazy things to get a laugh out of him, it's adorable, that little toothless grin that just melts our hearts. Also today when I was holding him up so he could stand he was taking all kinds of steps, no he's not going anywhere, but it was fun to see him move his feet. We're are having so much fun playing with this little squirt, but we sure don't want him to grow up too fast, we're enjoying each phase as it comes. The first two pictures we took on his 3 month mark, the other pictures are adorable pictures we've taken the last few weeks.

We love this little bear sweater and this face is adorable

Look at those skinny little legs

This is the classic thoothless Collin smile

Collin relaxing after a long hard day of eating, sleeping, pooping, and smiling

ATTACK OF THE KILLER PLUMS!!!

I know what you're thinking, how could you make that adorable little boy cry, but really it isn't that hard and he was smiling just a few seconds before I took this shot. I am including the following lame pun only to humor Adam... Collin is crying because he is plum-tuckered out. HA HA!! You may think it's funny, but please don't laugh it only encourages further lame jokes and puns.

So really we love this picture because one, it is so sad but oh so cute and two, because we have this crazy, old, dying plum tree in the backyard that produces delicious plums and it will be fun to look back and remember this fun little apartment with all it's quirks.

My creation

2008-10-01T11:38:00.000-06:00

So during the General Relief Society Broadcast last Saturday, President Uchtdorf talked about the things we create. I got to thinking about what I create. I loved his talk especially because I think everyone creates things in their own way and our ability to create is a special gift given to us from God. So as I got to thinking I realized that the flowers I have planted this summer are definitely a creation. I took these little potted plants, put them together and they have bloomed into an absolutely beautiful masterpiece. I just love seeing my beautiful flowers every time I come in and out of the house. I have to say it is a simple joy I have found.

Puttin' out the vibe

2008-09-26T12:58:00.000-06:00

So I took this awesome picture of Collin putting out the vibe. He sometimes gives me this crooked little smile, usually when he is doing something he shouldn't like pooping in a freshly changed diaper. I can't get mad 1. because that's what babies do and 2. because he gives me that cute little mischievious smile and my heart just melts and then I laugh. Babies are smarter than we give them credit for. I mean come on with one sound (crying) they can make us do anything they want. But anyways, I took this picture and it cracked us up. I posted it on facebook and got some super funny quotes like "how you doing" from heather and "soo...you come here often" from Sami. When I read those I laughed so hard so I decided, hey keep the laughter coming. So I'm asking all of you to make me laugh, because to be honest, sometimes when Collin is crying and I just can't figure out what he wants. Or he's supposed to be sleeping but instead is sucking furiously on his hand and wiggling his way out of every swaddle I can put him in (he's a great escape artist, sign him up houdini) I need a good laugh.

So I am looking for captions from you for this picture! What is Collin saying?

Two yummy recipes

2008-09-24T21:10:00.000-06:00

So throughout the years I have collected recipes from all kinds of places. I love getting yummy recipes. Some I get off the internet, in magazines, off food boxes, the newspaper, friends, etc. I'm pretty much always on the lookout for good recipes. So I have a great collection, yet I have made very few of them. Well I decided I should start making the recipes and that way I can keep them if they're good or throw them out if they're not for us. I have recently come across two yummy recipes I wanted to share.

I found this recipe off of the Rachel Ray show. It is actually Dr. Phil's wife's recipe for granola bars. Somehow I followed the recipe exactly, not something I usually do, but it didn't look at all like the picture, instead of granola bars, it's just kind of granola. I doubted it at first, but it's so yummy and I kind of like it this way. Adam loves taking some in a baggy to school and I love snacking on it throughout the day.

Peanut Marshmallow Granola Bars

Non-stick cooking spray or melted butter, as needed for pan
3 c large marshmallows
3/4 c nut butter, such as cashew, almond, peanut or hazelnut
1 10 to 12-ounce box brown rice cereal
1/2 c dried cranberries
2/3 c chopped pecans, toasted
2/3 c chopped cashews, toasted

**Instead of pecans and cashews I used raw sunflower seeds and peanuts (chopped). I also used much less cereal than it called for. I would add a cup at a time so you don't add too much cereal.

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, zap the marshmallows and nut butter, stirring after 1 minute, until melted, about 2 minutes.

2. Add the brown rice cereal, cranberries, pecans and cashews to the melted marshmallow mixture and stir gently to combine – be careful not to crush up the bits of cereal too much.

3. Either wet your hands or spray them lightly with the nonstick cooking spray and turn the cereal marshmallow mixture out onto the greased baking sheet. Press it into the pan using your slick hands so that it's evenly distributed. Set the pan aside and let the bars set up, about 30 minutes.

4. Cut into bars.

This cookie recipe I just found on the internet. So we have so many friends that are willing to babysit Collin, since we aren't paying them monetarily I decided we could them with food. I love making desserts and giving some away. So we decided to drop off goodies with Collin when people watch him, is that extrinsic motivation or what! Does that make you all want to babysit now?ha ha just joking. So I wanted to find a new cookie recipe, we have lots of yummy ones but I wanted a new one so I found this yummy one at a random website. I love the chocolate cookie and the white chocolate chips are just perfect.

White Chip Chocolate cookies
1 c butter, softened

2 c white sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 pkg white chocolate chips * It would also be yummy to mix white chocolate and chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are set. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
** I like softer cookies so I cooked them for 7 to 8 minutes. Then let them sit for just as long as it takes to be able to get them off the cookie sheet.They would also make great ice cream sandwiches. YUM!!!!

What's so funny?

2008-09-23T16:29:00.000-06:00

So, In case you were wondering who the cutest baby in the world is, just watch this video and you'll find out. Some of you out there with babies of your own may disagree, but that's ok. We all know the truth.

Yes, I am still alive

2008-09-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

So I have been rather busy lately and haven't posted a blog for months. I feel like I have been so out of touch with the world. And although Adam has posted pictures (which I'm very grateful for) let's be honest, he is one with few words so to find out what's going on you have to go to the source, me the very very, sometimes too much, talkative one. We're a perfect match I would say!
So life has been wonderful and we're staying busy with this little rascal that we love so much. He gets cuter everyday if that's even possible. Just recently I've realized though how easy it would be to let Collin be the center of our lives and neglect our marriage as a result. You love these little babies so much and you put so much effort into taking care of them and they're so helpless and they need you for everything that you neglect everything else. I'm afraid I've been doing that lately and we have only gone on one date since Collin has been born. That is so unacceptable. We love being parents and having a family, but it's sure life changing. So we have lots of adjusting to do and we have to learn how to balance all of our priorities, our marriage being crucial. Sorry if that sounds sad, we're doing great, but I just realized that it takes a lot of work.
Anyway I have to just say how wonderful, sorry to all of you that had to start school, it is to walk by campus and feel no pressure or stress since i'm finished!!! Ha ha I love being home. I miss learning, but I don't miss the stress, pressure, and constant feeling of impending deadlines. I have to admit taking care of Collin is totally a full time job and I thought I would have plenty of free time to focus on me. That isn't the case this little guy is a handful, but I love it and I definitely choose it over school or work. But I feel like a free woman, BYU was wonderful and I am so proud of my education, but I'm taking a break! Woohoo!!
So we hit our three year anniversary August 11th, we both graduated, and we went to Arizona. August was a busy month, but super fun!! I also turned 23 last week and feel like I'm getting old.
Well I'm back and hopefully I'll stay on top of things better!

Collin Swims

2008-09-03T14:01:00.000-06:00

Here is our latest video of Collin. We took him swimming for the first time when we were in Arizona visiting Jenn's family.

Graduation, baby blessing, and more

2008-09-01T09:01:00.000-06:00

I am not much one for saying a lot. I figure Jenn can come on later and write about stuff. I just like to put pictures on.

We graduated. Yay!!! This is us right after graduation with our little guy in his BYU onesie.

Of course we have more pictures of Collin on this blog than anything. I think it should be called Collin's blog, not Adam and Jenn's.

Here are some pictures of us and Collin after his baby blessing.

Oh yeah, look how much Collin is smiling now. He is even laughing a little. It definitely makes it all worth it when your baby gives you a big grin and a giggle.

Here are some more cute pictures of Collin. Like I said, Collin's Blog. Also, below is a picture of Jenn and Collin with her proud Dad and Grandma.

We will write more later, but I hope you enjoy all the pictures.

Just a few more pictures of the cutest baby ever!!!

2008-07-26T19:33:00.000-06:00

Our new adventure!!!

2008-07-26T19:04:00.000-06:00

So life has been crazy for obvious reasons. Collin is quite the adventure, especially since Adam and I have very little baby experience so this so new for both of us. For us there is no maternal or paternal instinct. We keep hoping it will kick in but so far, we're pretty clueless and it's lots and lots of trial and error, usually just error. But we aren't giving up and we're really having so much fun. We love watching him sleep because he is just so darn cute and peaceful! What a wonderful blessing, we feel so fortunate to be blessed with Collin and to be learning and growing. Before Collin came I kept praying for patience so that I could be a better mom, and guess what, Heavenly Father is giving me ample opportunities to learn patience, unfortunately it's slow coming, but I'll get there.

So Adam wanted me to make sure and include our nickname for Collin otherwise known around our house as Prince Stinky pants. Prince because he gets what he wants when he wants it (we try to hold out sometimes, but we usually cave when we realize he's not going to stop crying until we do) and stinky pants because we have changed numerous lethal diapers and he has had several smelly smelly accidents all over me! We're learning to NOT be so frugal with diapers because it only ends in me getting nice little gifts from Collin's overly full diaper. Sorry for all the information but that's our life, feeding Collin, changing his diaper, trying to keep him awake, changing his diaper, feeding him, changing his diaper, feeding him, coming up with all kinds of creative ways to try and get him to look at us, etc. etc. There is some sleep time in there, but you never know when he's really going to sleep! Ha ha needless to say it has been such an adventure and we love our little Prince Stinky Pants. He has brought us so much joy! Yes, lots of frustration, especially me since I'm anything but patient, but we just can't stop looking at him and saying how cute he is. It is amazing how easy it is to love this little baby and how quickly and how comfortable we are with saying he is our son and we are his parents. We love this sweet little boy and are so excited to see just how much he changes our life (of course it has already changed so much and we are embracing that change! We just love being parents!)

We have the camera out and we're always snapping shots of our sweet little boy, so here are some more!!

2008-07-09T08:46:00.000-06:00

Here is another video of Collin. The lighting isn't so great, but we still think he's pretty darn cute. This is when he was still in the hospital, probably day 2.

Jenn's a Mommy!

2008-07-08T12:14:00.000-06:00

So Jenn probably doesn't want this video on here, but it's Collin's first day alive. She doesn't think that she looks good because she just had a baby, but doesn't she look great everyone. She did a great job. Collin was 7lbs 1oz and he was 20 in long. He loves to eat and sleep, and he likes to mess his diaper right after it gets changed. He really is an awesome baby!

2008-07-03T19:12:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of our new baby!!! Collin Michael Brandt was born on June 30th, 2008 at 1:58 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long. Both he and his mom are doing great, and his very proud dad! Jenn will write more later, but I just wanted to get these out so you all could take a look at him.

Nice Bicep!

The Proud Parents

Little Guy

Happy Grandma

Little Sleeper

Still waiting

2008-06-27T12:41:00.000-06:00

I know you're all waiting to see adorable pictures of a newborn baby, but no, no, Collin is still not here yet. We think he's stubborn just like his parents. For how much he squirms, jabs, and distorts my belly, you'd think he was trying to get out, but not yet. Adam and I are going quite crazy waiting and wishing him here, Collin is already being a disobedient child! But I can't blame him, life is pretty easy and cosy in there. I keep exercising and jumping, skipping, etc, to get him out, but he just won't come. We're trying to enjoy these last few days just together, but come on, the exciting stuff is the baby so we're just wanting him to come. We are doing wonderful and I'm feeling great, maybe that's the problem. However, when our little bundle of joy comes into the world, don't worry Adam will post pictures and you'll all know!! But until then I'm sure trying to get him out, I guess he'll just come when he's ready. Maybe the Lord is just trying to get in a few learning moments of patience, before we have a crash course with this baby!!

Nerd in the making

2008-06-11T11:40:00.000-06:00

So, in case anyone was wondering if I am a nerd, I have proof in the affimative... caught on video. I am a mechanical engineering major and I deal a lot with controls systems. Since no one has any idea what that means I have provided this video to kind of explain. In this video we have a metal rod that can rotate up and down placed on a base that can rotate horizontally. The base is controlled by a motor and the idea is to balace the rod by moving the base. Its basically like trying to balance a stick on your hand, except we did it with motors controlled by a computer. I thought this was pretty cool, but I guess that just confirms that I am a nerd.

Now we just sit and wait...

2008-06-06T10:59:00.000-06:00

Besides figuring out some details of health insurance, we're ready for Collin, or as ready as we'll ever be. I mean really, how can you be ready for a baby ever?! Adam and I think that we're ready and it'll be great and then we realize we really have no idea what to expect except that we'll love the little guy so much!!!

My mom was just with us for the last week and we (mainly she) made curtains. We decided that although our apartment is little, we could turn our little office area into Collin's own room. We decided to make curtains so we could make it his own, not to mention if we want to stay up past his bed time it would be nice to just close the curtains. The curtains are beautiful and my mom did a wonderful job, plus I learned some things. It is also nice a dark when we close them, and they match perfectly with our family room. Thy really make the place look cute!!!

Adam cleaned the office and set everything up! The Collin letters have been a craft project and we're going with a safari animal theme. We're so happy and proud to be able to give Collin his own little space even though he won't know the difference, it makes us feel like we're being good parents!!! Adam has been so wonderful and helpful, I am so lucky that he cares so much and is so excited and willing to help. He is wonderful and he'll be an amazing dad!

Here is our cute little stroller and car seat, Collin will be riding in style. We are so grateful for all the generous baby gifts we've been given.

Last but not least is my 35 week pictures. Adam likes to call my belly the torpedo belly, we both think it looks like I'm hiding a soccer ball! I just had to put this one up of Cristy and me! What an awesome little sister I have!!

Family is such a wonderful blessing and Adam and I are so grateful that we were born into such loving wonderful families with good parents. We hope to be as good of parents to Collin and our other children as our parents have been to us. We are so excited to have fun with our family and spend time with them! What a wonderful adventure we're about to embark in. Yay for families!

Life goes on and Mother's day was a treat!

2008-05-13T11:47:00.000-06:00

So I've been reminded several times that I haven't written for a long time and I'm really slacking. Life has been so busy and time just continues to fly by. Adam and I are both taking Spring classes which finish a week before my due date, so that'll be interesting. I am now down to six weeks!! Collin continues to wiggle and squirm all over my belly. My belly is growing and I am constantly being kicked and jabbed in my ribs. Some days it's also hard to breath because all of my internal organs are being squished by this little guy. We love watching Collin move all over the place. We are getting ready for him to arrive, just in case he comes early. I've had all my baby showers and two weeks ago we bought a crib. We're still waiting for the carseat/stroller to arrive and then we'll be ready.

Adam is convinced Collin will be a born soccer player. Last Thursday Adam had an intermural soccer game through BYU and we decided if Collin was super active during the day it was forshadowing of what was to come. Throughout the whole game (the parts I was really paying attention to) Collin was all over the place and as active as he's ever been. I told Adam and he was an overjoyed father!!! He's already planning Collin's future soccer career. I don't mind it's sure fun to watch little kids learn to play sports. I can't wait!

We also had some good ol' barbeque at a yummy restaurant in Provo on Saturday. Adam gained a special place for BBQ in his heart from serving his mission in Florida. Everyonce in a while he'll reminisce about Sunny's a barbeque restaurant chain all over Florida. We went there when we took a vacation to Florida and yeah it was AMAZING. Well Lon's Cookin' Shack is the closest we've found to Sunny's (still not as good, but it's a great alternative). So we decided if Collin was super active after dinner, then he loves barbeque. Collin was extremely mild and barely moved at all. I told Adam that this really is a good sign and means that he was content and happy with the barbeque. If he had squirmed and wiggled it would have meant that he thought the barbeque was yucky. So far Collin is proving to be a promising child!

Adam gave me a special Mother's day since he says I'm a mom even if Collin is still in my belly. He bought me an adorable bag (to be used as a diaper bag). I've had my eye on the bag for a while, but we're just too cheap. He also got me a muffin and bread recipe book that I've wanted but again was too cheap to buy. He surprised me with these gifts and let me watch the girly chick flick of my choice as well as made a beautiful card with a sweet message. Adam is so good to me and we're sure enjoying this time in our life!

Two last quick things. We were able to talk to Jill on Mother's day, which was wonderful. She's doing great and we're missing her. She informed us that she is learning how to make all kinds of authentic Mexican food, for which we are extremely happy and pleased. She's also working hard and coming home in about 6 months! woohoo!!!

Last but not least, Martin, Adam's best friend and his wife Andrea had their first child on Mother's day!!! Hi name is Martin Jorgensen Dietz III. We are so excited for them. Our little boys are going to be great friends just like Adam and Martin. Well hopefully they like eachother although their parents aren't giving them much of a choice. We can't wait till they come out and we can put those boys together! Congrats Martin and Andrea!

More pregnancy pictures!

2008-04-15T08:46:00.001-06:00

I sure am loving this whole pregnancy thing! I decided to add a few more pictures. There will be more to come.

Our missionaries

2008-04-09T08:10:00.000-06:00

I decided I would do a little tribute to our two wonderful missionaries!!! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures on the computer of the two of them in the mission field so these will have to do.

Jill is serving in the Ventura California mission, Spanish speaking and is loving it! She is doing awesome!! This picture of us is one of my favorites even if she looks cute and I look psycho. Adam and i miss our favorite Sunday evening dinner buddy. Jill makes wonderful food and is always trying new and fun things. We usually switch off having Sunday dinner at each other's houses, but since last June Adam and I have been having Sunday dinners alone. Jill returns sometime in December and we're so excited to see her!! She'll also have a little nephew waiting to meet her! We love Jill and we're so proud she is serving a mission and working hard! She is having great success and loves the people. Before the mission she hated spicy food and didn't really even like Mexican food so we're hoping she returns with a new passion for Spanish/Mexican food and will make us some!! Yum.

Our next missionary, Jeff is serving in the Belgium, Brussels mission, French speaking and is loving it also! He's been out since October and Collin will be almost a year and a half before he'll meet his wonderful uncle that I'm sure he'll love! Jeff is working so hard and is having so much success. He's so focused on the work that he struggles to find time to write, but when he does his letters are so fun and inspiring. He took several years of French in school so he jumped right in and is really doing well with the language. He has already had atleast 2 baptisms and is finding the people of Belgium and France to be much friendlier than he was warned before the mission. Everyone told him to not expect any baptisms, but he's amazing us all and continually says it's because the Lord leads him and his companion to the elect, and there are several elect just waiting for the missionaries! We miss Jeff, but we're so happy he is doing so well and loves the mission.

We love having our two missionaries out serving. We get so excited when we hear from either of them. We miss them dearly, but love them so much and are so proud of them.

Divine Instruction and yup I'm definitely pregnant

2008-04-08T07:53:00.000-06:00

We are sooooo lucky that we have General Conference twice a year where we get to hear from the Lord's chosen leaders. I just love General Conference and I'm always a little sad when it's over. Adam and I were able to attend Saturday morning session at the Conference Center. It was so crowded that it took us 45 minutes of waiting in line before we got in. Then we found out our section was totally full. Someone said we'd have to go to the Tabernacle, but we had another plan. We went straight for the balcony section and tried to get in there. We finally got into seats and we were like the third to last row to fill up. It was crazy how packed it was. We got seats, but man it was stressful. But anway, we were able to witness the solemn assembly in person and it was simply awesome. The Spirit was so strong in the Conference Center comfirming to me that President Thomas S. Monson is truely the Lord's chosen prophet to lead us right now. What a wonderful and loving man. I love his strong spirit, his quick humor and wit, and his evident love for everyone.

There were so many good good talks from conference. Since we're going to be parents in 3 MONTHS!!!! I definitely enjoyed all the talks about families, parenting, and homes. Although raising children can be scary especially in this crazy world, when I hear the church leaders speak I realize that at the same time it is so wonderful and we can do so much good if we rear our children in the Gospel, love them, and help them understand who they are, children of God. I am so excited to teach our children and learn and grow. I know that I have a lot of room for improvement especially in the area of patience. Adam is so patient and persuasive, whereas I'm a little less patient and more forceful. We are such a good match and balance each other out so well. It will be quite the adventure with children, especially a little boy first. But we are so lucky that we'll be able to have at least 2 priesthood holders in our home and I get to watch little Collin recieve the Priesthood and pass the Sacrament, how cool is that!!!

The other talk I really enjoyed, there were so many, but I loved Elder Hales' talk about Christ and God and understanding who God is. I really felt that that is something I need to work on, building a stronger relationships with God and knowing more fully who he is.

What a wonderful weekend we had!!! For the Sunday session we went to the Martin's home and had yummy potato pancakes, and for lunch delicious pita sandwiches. It was so fun being with friends and enjoying conference all together!

Collin is healthy and well and still extremely active. I can definitely tell he's growing. These are the wonderfulsigns that I am pregnant....
I can no longer see my feet
shaving is much more complicated
I've started grunting when I bend over
I can't really bend over
It's more and more difficult to tie my shoes (thank goodness for Summer and flip flops)
My belly button is getting flat
I need help getting out of bed
I spill food on my belly
I've started resting my hands on my belly (I didn't do that before, who knows where that came from)
I am constantly rubbing and feeling my large belly
and last but not least, random people want to feel my belly and friends feel my belly (kind of weird, but this big belly of mine just must be so tempting to rub!!!!)

I am finally to my third trimester and things are going good!!!! I have a little less than three months and then the madness/adventure begins. Adam and I are trying to get as much sleep as possible, because everyone keeps reminding us that we'll never sleep with the little guy. It's a good thing that babies take 9 months, there is a lot of mental and physical preparation for this little guy. We're so exciting and can't wait to start decorating his little area of our little house!!! Yay for adventures!

Into unknown territory....

2008-03-31T13:27:00.000-06:00

So Jenn really wanted me to write on our 'blog', but I don't know what to write about. I'm a guy. This blog stuff is for the girls to write cutsie stuff. I bet if she really thought about it she wouldn't want me to write here. I'll just talk about dumb stuff and not share enough of my feelings.

So yeah its fun feeling the baby and watching Jenn's belly get huge and everything. But seriously, we have a real issue here. We need to figure out what Collins middle name is going to be. Some of us at work were talking and we came up with a few prime candidates. Here are a few of our best ideas:

Collin Card Brandt
Collin Itquits Brandt
Collin Der Brandt
Collin Inforbackup Brandt
Collin Allcars Brandt
Collin Rem Brandt
Collin Theshots Brandt

Anyone is welcome to give their opinion which one they like best, or if you have any other ideas that would be great too. We need it to be good. We don't want the poor kid getting made fun of at school and stuff like that.

Some pregnancy pictures

2008-03-28T07:53:00.000-06:00

Here are two of my 25 week pregnancy pictures. They don't look fabulous but you get the idea, little Collin is sure growing.

Here is his adorable onsie that we bought him for graduation. We don't know if it'll fit so we're going to buy him a smaller size just in case. He's going to be the cutest little cougar at graduation!

Here is one last picture. I went to a garage sale and bought some awesome baby things at a great price. I bought this cute little baby carrier for $1 (normally $35+), a car mirror so we can see Collin for $1 (normally $15), and nine pairs of pants and short for Collin each for $1! I'd sayI'm a pretty good bargain hunter! There are so many garage sales around Provo in the summer so we're hoping to get lots of great priced things at garage sales. What can we say we're smart... or cheap, however you want to look at it.

Our little Collin: the acrobat

2008-03-25T07:51:00.000-06:00

So on Sunday during church Adam was able to see our little bundle of joy, trying to escape through my belly. He has grown and is so much stronger that his movements are really easy for Adam to feel and we can even see them on the outside. It is so distracting to me that I find myself constantly looking down at my belly, which is getting bigger and bigger. It's so fun to feel him and Adam just loves feeling and seeing him move. Who needs a t.v. or other forms of entertainment when you have baby that provides hours of entertainment by just moving. We just love it!

I still have three months left, it's hard to believe that he can get bigger, but I know he's going to double in size. Since I have a short torso there is very little room left. He's already started bumping my ribs and sometimes I think he's squishing my lungs because I find myself out of breath. He is such an acrobat because one minute I'll feel him right below my ribs and the next thing I know he's down by my pelvic bone and then he's side to side. He's either loving his temporary home or trying to bust free, either way he's stuck in there for three more months.

So I'm trying to stay healthy, in good shape, and only to gain a healthy amount of weight. As you can tell with my obsession with junk food I'm not proving to be quite as successful as I hoped, however I have found two new exercising loves. Yoga and water aerobics. I've been doing yoga since the beginning of January and I absolutetly love it. What a fabulous thing to do. I think everyone should try yoga. I am becoming so much more flexible and strong. Some of the moves I can't do, but for the most part it's an excellent work out. I've gone to water aerobics three times and it's very entertaining and enjoyable. I'm the youngest person there. There are several women and a man over fifty and an assortement of other ages. I was so nervous to go and thought I would feel so silly, but it's actually a great workout and no pressure on my body which I love. It's really fun to be in the water although i'm not much of a swimmer so luckily we stay in the shallow end. I'm not easy to miss, I'm the pregnant young one in the pool on Saturday mornings at Gold's.

One last thing, Spring has sprung and the sun is shining! Oh it is fabulous outside. The sun just cheers me up!! We may have some trouble deciding where to settle, hopefully Adam will get a job somewhere that will make us decide where to go, otherwise I want to go to sunny AZ and Adam wants to go to rainy WA. When it is too sunny out I think Adam dries out. He needs the rain to be refreshed and I just love the sun! I think i'm a weed! Well we still have another year to worry about all of that and until then I'm winning out and I get to enjoy beautiful sunny UT!

Ode to banana pudding and chocolate cinnamon bears

2008-03-20T07:57:00.001-06:00

So while Adam was gone last weekend I decided to make him a special treat. He has said he loves banana pudding especially the banana pudding a woman made on his mission. Well I couldn't exactly call up the woman from his mission, so I looked on-line and found numerous banana pudding recipes. I could have made it completely from scratch but that had eggs in it and that's a little risky being pregnant and all so I opted for the homemade, but less homemade one. It is quite delicious.
It has a layer of vanilla wafers, I purchased the orange and purple shrek vanilla wafers because they were on sale, then a layer of banana slices, then a layer of banana pudding (mixed with a can of sweetened condensed milk, and cool whip), then another layer of vanilla wafers, another layer of banana, the pudding mix over that and then to top it all off more cool whip. Oh it is delightful and I think Adam has found a new love in life. He loves his banana pudding and guards it with his life. It is really good and I have to admit I have a weakness for it also, not that that's a surprise I definitely got my mom's sweet tooth, darnit!! OH how I wish I was one of those people who had self-control, but no alas, I am one of those people who shamelessly eats all the sugar I want and then shamelessly regrets it!
Well now I have to write about the junk food I am in love with. During my pregnancy, unfortunately I haven't craved anything healthy, which is unfortunate because I'm gonna have to lay off the sweets soon if I don't want to gain two baby's worth of weight. Which I don't, yet my sweet tooth just controls me sometimes. I have been craving Taco Bell. I just love taco bell, just two soft tacos and I'm happy. I've been good about that and Adam has allowed me to splurge only three times in almost 7 months, which is a good thing or else we would probably go there every day. The other junk food that I just love love love is Chocolate covered Cinnamon Bears. Oh what a delight. Simply divine, food of the Gods. And the best part is, Adam doesn't like them at all. He hates what he calls, fake cinnamon flavored things. I on the other hand love them, so it's perfect I get to enjoy my chocolate covered cinnamon bears unrestrained and I don't have to share. Okay I do need to be restrained and Adam usually give me a hard time because he knows that I don't want to blow up like a balloon, but I always seem to find my way into the kitchen without him noticing me. I get extra quite and pull a handful of cinnamon bears out of the bag as silently as I can and then I stealthy leave the kitchen. Adam gets so caught up in his homework that he is clueless. I feel that I am fooling him, but he isn't the one who needs to lay off the sweets, it's me so I'm really fooling no one. Yet this passion for chocolate covered cinnamon bears continues. Luckily I ate the last few last night, so I think no more cinnamon bears for me, unfortunately, but I'm sure i'll find some other way to fill my sugar need.
Let's just say we are a family who loves our food!

That was hard!

2008-03-17T08:13:00.001-06:00

So Adam and the professor he is doing research with published a paper about research they have done. We were so excited to find out that his paper got accepted and he was invited to present his research at a mechanical engineering conference. Last year the same conference was in Italy, this year the conference was to be in..... RENO,NV! Ha ha not nearly as exciting! Which was probably a good thing because if it was in Europe I would have to go and that's just an expense we don't need right now. So anyway this past week Adam wen to the conference and presented. I was left home alone, since I didn't really need to go to Reno and BYU was paying for Adam. So I was home a lone and I hated it! Talk about being paranoid. Luckily Adam was only gone a few days, but he was sure missed! It was son wonderful when he came home and we spend all Saturday together, a very unproductive day, but super special! It is so hard to be apart, I have no idea how my parents were apart so much growing up! I sure don't want to get used to that. I love Adam and he is simply wonderful!

On Saturday we also bought a little blue onesie for Collin. It has BYU on it and a baby cougar! It is so adorable. We bought it so Collin could wear it to graduation! Yeah we're pretty excited! It's so cute I'll post it soon!

Adam felt him wiggling all over the place!

2008-03-11T08:26:00.000-06:00

So I begged Adam to add a post about feeling Collin move, but I don't think that'll happen so I figured I would. Adam felt Colling move all over the place Friday night. When Collin moves he is sooo active. It was really fun and Adam was really excited! It sure makes it feel so real!

our baby boy is sure stubborn

2008-03-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday in church the baby (Collin) was moving. I was so excited that Adam would finally be able to feel him move. He's been active in my belly for over a month, but he's been so little that you can't feel him on the outside. So I was hoping that Adam would get a chance to feel the little rascal. So when he started moving around I grabbed Adam's hand and placed it on my belly and Collin stopped moving. How convenient. We went on doing the same thing for about 15 minutes and everytime I grabbed Adam's hand to put it on my belly Collin would stop moving. If this is any forshadowing for how he will be I'm a little worried. Adam and I are pretty stubborn so I guess we've already passed it onto our son. I guess we might just have to get used to the idea that all our children may be as stubborn as us. I felt so bad that Adam couldn't feel Collin moving around. Especially because I feel him so often and it's so strong. One time Adam's hand was on my belly I totally felt Collin moving around, but Adam said it really didn't feel like anything and he couldn't tell if it was the baby moving or me breathing! So frustrating. I get to feel our little guy all the time and Adam just gets to see my belly grow.

I sure do enjoy getting a bigger belly. I'm showing now which is fun. Even strangers who don't know I'm pregnant can now tell. It's funny how people automatically reach to feel your belly when they see that you're pregnant. I wonder what the draw is. So far it's been people I know, so it's not uncomfortable, but I heard that even strangers come up to you and feel your belly. Now that's pretty weird, what about personal space?! I really enjoy walking by windowns or mirrors and seeing my little pregnant belly! It's so fun. I don't usually feel pregnant until I look in the mirror or try to bend over. That belly is starting to get in the way, but just a little. For the most part it's just fun!! It sure is going by slowly though. I feel like I've been pregnant for most of my life. I just want this little guy out.

At first I was so nervous to have a boy because they are so energetic, like to get into everything, break things, and get dirty. I still am nervous especially since I'll be home all day with him. I'm sure it'll be very exciting when daddy comes home to throw him around and chase him around the house. What a wonderful blessing to have two parents! Children sure need that tag team because they're just too much work to do it all by yourself! We're so excited to have Collin, we talk about him all the time. With in a few days of finding out that we were having a boy we received two baby boy outfits. They are just adorable. And I can't believe we're going to have something so little and cute to go in the outfits. Adam being his silly self decided to put them on hangers and hang them in our hallway. It probably looks like a little shrine and I'm sure is pretty weird, but we love having the little outfits hanging up. We look at them all the time and get so excited!! Oh it'll sure be an adventure to be parents, but what a wonderful blessing!

Life is Good

2008-02-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

So I decided that I need to write down all the good things in our life right now. It almost feels too good to be true. I hate this feeling that although I can enjoy the good times right now, because things are so good I feel that inevitably something will go wrong. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing because what is the point of life? It is to be tried and tested and to prove yourself. Well if like is just peaches and cream there isn't going to be a lot of proving. It's easy to prove that you are a good person when life is going your way. But it's how you react and your attitude when things are not going your way. Anyway I decided after talking to mom that I should write down all the wonderful things so just in case life gets hard soon I can look back and remember all the Lord has blessed us with and it sure is a lot.

The first thing is just our wonderful marriage. Adam and I are so happy and our marriage is going so well. We have so much fun just being together. We laugh all the time which always keeps things fun. We love each other so very much. It is a wonderful feeling to know that you love someone as much as they love you and that no matter what they will work just as hard as you will to make your marriage work. That is a wonderful thing!

The next thing I am so grateful for is the gospel. What a wonderful blessing in our lives, to know of our Savior, our Heavenly Father, the plan of Salvation, our purpose on earth, that we can be together forever with our loved ones and that we can be perfected through our Savior Jesus Christ. Sometimes I worry that things may fall apart in our lives. That something might happen to Adam and that I may feel alone. But then I remember the wonderful blessing of knowing that the Savior and my Heavenly Father will never leave me. They are always there for us and I"m not so scared or nervous.

I am extremely grateful for this wonderful little thing growing inside of me. Early this morning at 3:30am our delightful little boy who is about a pound now decided to play soccer inside of my uterus. It was fun and quite entertaining and only a little irksome. I can't really complain because after all we are so fortunate. But the really cool part was for the first time I could feel his movements on the outside and that made me so happy! I wanted to wake Adam up but I decided he just might not appreciate the miracle that early in the morning so I kept it to myself and fell back a sleep very happy. When we woke up in the morning I told Adam and he said maybe little Collin was just trying to get out. Of course that made me laugh and what a wonderful way to wake up in the morning. To a fabulous and cute husband! Well we just feel so blessed to be parents. It truely is a miracle and it is amazing how babies bring out the best in people. They truely are a miracle from heaven to help us be a little better. I just can't wait for him to be here and to have a little family!

The next thing I'm grateful for is the opportunity to work in the temple with Adam. This is a wonderful blessing. Last saturday was our first night working and oh the wonderful feeling it was. The spirit was so strong in the temple. Everything was just wonderful and on the way home at the end of the night Adam and I were so happy and we got to share our wonderful experiences with each other. Although Adam is not one for talking it was evident that he enjoyed the evening as well because he talked as much as I did! We are so excited to go back to the temple to work for the living and the dead!

The last thing I want to say right now is that Adam got accepted to BYU's grad program. Horray!! He wasn't worried at all and I didn't want to be except I just wanted hard evidence that he was in before we got comfortable with the idea of being here another year. But he did get in and he gets to further his education. Another year in Provo before we move out into the real world. It will be so fun! I am so proud of my wonderful husband. He is such a hard worker, dedicated, persistent, and honest. How lucky I am to have married such a wonderful man!

Well that's about all. See life is going pretty well. The important thing is to remember these good times and the happiness now so it can sustain us through the trials!

This is a little scary

2008-02-25T07:56:00.001-07:00

So I'm not completely sure how this works but I decided I'll give it a try since it's the new thing to do. I especially want to keep a blog since my husband and I are expecting a little addition in June. A bay boy that we're going to name Collin. It will be a good way for family and friends to find out whats going on with us. So here goes nothing!