Aubrey rolled in Friday evening and of course our first stop was Costa Vida which never goes without a trip to the wishing fountain

Then there is the bookstore right nextstore and with a little time to kill, big D hit up the train set and insisted on wearing this adorable "backpack, backpack" Can't you just picture this little man walking away to kindergarten?Friday night Auntie stayed home with Dallen and Mommy and Daddy went out. {Insert mental picture} Sorry, our photographer was babysitting :)

Saturday morning we went to our church BBQ and lucky for me Aubrey was more interested in playing photographer and got these ADORABLE pictures of my little man playing his little heart out.


Without a moment of fun to be wasted, Aubrey and I spent Dallen's afternoon nap poolside with friends, it was a gorgeous day!!
Saturday night we took Dallen to the Diamondbacks baseball game and even though he couldn't sit still to watch much of the action, he had so much fun!! Even though the prices were hiked WAY up this year (isn't it a recession?) it was totally worth the smiles on the little boy's face :)Enjoying the gameDallen loves to SWING on anything these daysA family photo opThen Mark and I came home and crashed and Aubrey went out for more!! We had so much fun with you and hope you come back soon, really soon...Dallen can't stop saying "Aubrey, Aubrey" and it's totally adorable :)

Dallen's Auntie Aubrey came for a quick weekend visit and we had lots of fun in such a short amount of time and took LOTS of pictures. Here's one to hold you over until I get them all up. I just love how Dallen is lovingly looking at his Aunite, whose name he learned this weekend and couldn't say it enough :) Come back soon please, we miss you already!!

A few weeks ago Mark brought home a big hunk of his boss's birthday cake. Since Dallen frequently plays in the fridge, re-arranging the condiments, we didn't think much of the fridge door being open, then we made a little discovery...



Oh, Mr. Trouble, you are TOO cute!!

Last month I got called to be the primary pianist at church. Yikes, I know!! That's what I was thinking too :) It is such a fun calling, and luckily the kids are so forgiving. The best part about it, they gave me a keyboard to take home to practice. I love having a piano in my home again and Dallen is loving it too!! He can't get enough and I love the way he says "piano", so cute :) ADORABLE!!

I have SOOO many random pictures that need to be posted!! They are all totally unrelated and some at least a month old, but they are too cute not to make the blog. So this is my playing catch-up...

Forever ago when we went to the zoo, Dallen loved playing in the sand at the playground, it kept him thoroughly entertained:
Also at the zoo, we had to double up on stroller space at times throughout the day cause the kids outnumbered the parents by a wide margin:
Dallen reading his books in his rocking chair:

I took apart the sofa a few weeks ago to clean it and Dallen thought it was his own personal fort, and bonus, I found 75 cents:
We have been lucky enough to spend lots of time with our cousins in their backyard lately, Dallen found this Transformers mask leftover from Caden's party a few weeks ago and insisted on wearing it while in the swing and it was too funny:
Dallen recently discovered the ottoman and loves to hang out in it, he asks for "night, night" to get me to open it up to go in there:

We got to run around in the fountains with our friends conference weekend while the Daddy's were away...even though it was freezing the kiddos had a blast!!

Dallen has been busy climbing through doggy doors:
A moment from Shayla's super fun Easter party, Dallen loved hunting eggs and opening them up to find candy inside:
Enjoying his half birthday ice cream with TWO spoons!!
And finally, a family photo op from Hunter's super fun superhero party:We've been having so much fun and here is the proof!! Of course, there is always more fun being had and many more pictures to come...enjoy :)

Life with this little boy makes me feel UP!!

Dallen went to nursery at church for the full 2 hours for the first time!! His teachers said he did so good, they only had to come get me to change a poopy diaper :) Before we left for church Dallen even let me snap a couple pictures of his handsome-ness. In fact, for the first time ever he POSED!! And we took advantage...



I can't believe he is such an old man!! I'm afraid if I blink he'll be a sunbeam!!

It may have only been a half birthday but we still celebrated!! We had so much fun at the playground, the pool, riding bikes and we even went out for ice cream when Daddy came home :) Love you big boy!!

I cannot believe that today my baby is one and a half!! Where does the time go?Dallen has so much personality for an 18 month old. He is becoming so opinionated and is learning to communicate what he wants. I wanted to make a list of some of the cute things he does lately:

One of my favorite things he does is shake his head yes while asking for something he wants, its so cute and hard to resist!!

He sometimes says “excuse you” when he toots or burps BUT he also says it if you are in his way.

He says “bless you” whenever someone sneezes, even if it’s a stranger, so polite!!

He likes to have a certain sippie cup based on movie characters, they're mostly Finding Nemo but some have sharks and some have other characters and it matters!

Dallen yells “stuck” over and over again if he can’t get out of a position he got himself into, until someone helps him.

He loves to sword fight with anything that slightly resembles a sword: wrapping paper tubes, his horsey on a stick, baseball bats and lacrosse sticks, you get the idea.

He has become an extremely picky eater and instead loves to make a big mess on his high chair and announce “mess, mess”!!

Big D loves to be “outside, outside” and now wants to ride his new “bike”, always to the “pool, pool” (good thing summer is around the corner).

Dallen has this one blanket that his Grandma made that I once rolled him up in and said he was a burrito and now all the time he brings me that blanket, says "burrito" and expects to be rolled up. So cute!!

Dallen is such a big boy and I am so proud of the little man he is growing into. I am so grateful to spend ALL of my days with him, we have become the best of friends!! Happy HALF Birthday Dallen!!

Dallen Scott Bracken
25 and a half pounds
33 and a half inches

For those of you who don't know, my older sister Aubrey is super talented!! She is a great interior designer who has recently decided to try her hand at floral design. She does weddings and parties and individual arrangements and she does them well. You can look at some of her incredible work HERE on her floral blog and sometimes HERE on her personal blog. And most recently she was featured on another design blog you can read HERE. She is amazing and we wish her so much success, but not so much that it keeps her from visiting ;) We love you Aubrey!!

Our Easter morning went exactly how I hoped it would. When Dallen woke up (in our bed) we took him out to see what the Easter bunny brought and right away he spotted it, a brand new bike. He turned to us, pointing it out and said "bike" just as I'd imagined he would and I captured the moment just as I'd hoped to:He quickly spotted the eggs "hidden" around the room and this was the first one he picked upHe knew he'd find something good inside He continued hunting for eggs And discovering the goodies inside of them (who says babies can't have candy for breakfast once a year?)At last, he discovered the "football" full of stuff and just had to show Mommy and Daddy all the things the Easter bunny brought himHe really wanted Toy Story but the Easter bunny couldn't find a non-Blue Ray (inexpensive) version, but this was great (cheap) instead, "sharRRs"!!Then he remembered the best present of all and decided to give it a try!!After a yummy pancake breakfast and hearing lots of apostolic counsel about the important role of parents, we took Dallen to the park for yummy egg salad sandwiches and great family time.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday and I am so grateful to have spent it with my little family whom I love so much!! Hope you had a blessed day as well :)