Jake, Michelle, Britton, and Brynlee

So I have not blogged in a while and thought my sweet little Brynlee deserved a little post of her very own. Lets rewind a little bit...I found out last July that I was having a little girl and I could hardly contain my excitement!!! I am very close with my mom and have always wanted a little girl to also share that closeness with. We got an Ultrasound right before we flew out to Utah for Jakes moms 50th birthday!! As soon as I found out I was having a girl, I suddenly became so interested in learning how to make bows and anything frilly or girly. I broke my tailbone and Britton broke his collarbone during delivery, so my OB told me he would feel more comfortable scheduling a c-section. I didn't want to go through the 18 month recovery of a broken tailbone again, so I agreed to the c-section. My pregnancy was a little different with Brynlee than Britton. I was a little nauseated in the morning if I didn't eat right away and I broke out some with her pregnancy. I felt like something was a little different, so I was not surprised to hear I was carrying a girl this time around. I felt pretty good my whole pregnancy and was just anxious to meet and hold my little lady! I was scheduled for a c-section on Dec 15th, but Brynlee decided to make her debut a few days early. As crazy as it sounds, I have always wanted my water to break, just to experience what that was all about, so I was pretty excited that the night of Dec 11th, my water broke and I got to deliver a little earlier than expected. My actual due date was Dec 25 ( Christmas Day) so she was pretty early. I woke up at 2 am and was having a sharp pain up by my rib cage and about 5 seconds later, I felt my stomach drop and then realized my water had broke. I ran to the bathroom as to not ruin my mattress :) we called my mom and she rushed over. By the time Jake and I got to the hospital I was already dilated to a 4, so they scheduled me for an emergency c-section. It all happened so fast. It made me a little uneasy when Jake couldn't be in the operating room for the spinal block. When he walked in after the initial cut, I was bawling, Jake was a little confused as to why I was already crying, I said to him " I don't like this" it was such a weird feeling knowing someone was cutting my stomach open while I was awake. Nothing hurt, but since I am a nurse, I have seen c-sections performed before and it really freaked me out knowing exactly what they were doing. Well it only took a few minutes and then they pulled out my sweet little girl. It made me laugh because when Jake held her up for me to see she looked exactly like Britton. Its amazing how quickly you can love someone. Brynlee has been such a great baby. I literally LOVE every moment I spend with her. She is a great eater ( weighs 16 pounds at 3 months old ) that girl does not miss a meal :) she recently had RSV at 10 weeks old which was really hard for me to see her so sick. She had lots of breathing treatments, suctioning, and long nights, but she made it out ok and is doing great!! Britton loves having a little sister. It was such a sweet moment seeing them meet for the first time at the hospital. It was bittersweet knowing it wasn't going to just be me and Britton hanging out the 2 of us all day together. I am so glad that Britton just loves her and is happy to share his time with me. Brynlee smiles so much and loves to talk! She is tolerant of all the bows and jewelry I put on her! I was telling my mom today that I feel like she is my reward. Britton is darling and such a fun little boy, but I am not gonna lie, he tests my patience on a daily basis!! Here are a few pictures of my little lady. My darling friend Steph took some of these and I love her for it!!! Cheers :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTON!! I cant believe our little guy has turned 2 already!! He really is soo much fun! He has become one of my best buds. He and I have a lot of fun together. I have found he does really well on a routine, lately, he wakes up at 8, comes downstairs and watches Super Why, Dinasour Train, and Sesame street and then we either go swimming, shopping, to lunch, childrens museum, play at the tree, or just have play dates with friends and then he sleeps from 2-4:30 everyday and since Jake gets home at 4:45 most days, that makes for a pretty easy day for me. Britton is really the life of the party, he loves to talk to everyone and has a pretty outstanding vocabulary. He loves to play and laugh and be silly! His FAVORITE thing to do is to play with cars or pretty much any mode of transportation with wheels. He can sit and play with cars and trucks and planes for hours and hours. he loves to say his prayers and he really likes to name EVERY person in our family and in Jakes family every night for the prayer. He wont let you forget ANYONE!!! He can sing his ABC'S and can point out about 80% of his letters in the alphabet. He can count to 10 and some sporadic numbers between 10-20. He loves to help us do things around the house like laundry, dishes, throw away trash and clean up. These are just little details I want to remember about him when he was 2!! If you are still reading, you are probably bored to tears, sorry!

Howdy Yall!!! These last few weeks have been a blast!! We were able to go out for a VERY QUICK trip to Utah to help my mother in-law celebrate turning the big FIVE ZERO!! It was fun to have Britton play with his cousin in Utah Beckham and it was great seeing as many people as we could in such a short amount of time. If we missed you on this trip, I apologize and we will see you next time when we have more time:) We had a ball going to the zoo and seeing all the animals, Britton did NOT like the dinosaurs, after he saw them he started to cry and said, " the dinosaurs are scary!!" It was kinda cute/funny! We did Jennys annual birthday BBQ at the park up provo canyon. I also was able to see my cute aunt Carol and her family while we were there. A few days after we came home one of my best friends Lindsay and her 2 darling girls came for a visit. Lindsays husband are in Austin for the summer , so it was only a 3 hour drive to get together. Britton and her daughter Gracie are only a few weeks apart and let me tell you , these two get into A LOT of mischief together. It was so much fun having them come to stay. I loved staying up past midnight with Lindsay( havent done that in what seems like years) and just talking and laughing and eating lots of yummy treats! Britton couldnt seem to decide which girl he was more interested in, Gracie 2yrs old, or Maddie almost 4 months! It was a fun couple of days! Here are some fun pictures of the last few weeks!

Last night my mom took me and all my sisters/sisters in-law out to dinner at Brio at the waterway!! It was such a great night! I love having so many fun girls in our family to share life with!! My mom took us on a girls trip about a month ago to a beautiful resort, but no one remembered their camera, so I wanted to make sure to bring mine last night to remember some of our fun little outings! I am 18 weeks pregnant in this picture if you are wondering why my stomach looks like a big marshmallow!! :)

I am feeling so grateful right now!! I wanted to blog about this so I can look back at this post one day and realize how blessed I am ! On Wednesdays my family gets together and does lunch at my parents house! We call this " family lunch" my parents and three siblings and their families all live within about 15 min driving from one another, so we get together pretty often! There is 21 of us altogether. Well today I decided that Britton and I would go early to lunch and swim at my parents pool. My mom is a genius and bought this life vest for britton that he puts his arms through these little cuffs and then there is circular life vest wrapped around his body, anyway its made so they can swim freely and they dont really realize that they are wearing anything. Britton loves it and can last pretty much all day in a pool and I just have to keep an eye on him while he swims with this vest on. Well today when people were getting there for lunch time I got really thirsty and went inside for probably 90 seconds to tell Jake to bring me a cup of water outside so that I could stay out there and keep an eye on Britton. Britton no longer had his vest on at that point, but there were plenty of people outside including adults that i felt confident to leave for just a second. Well when I was shutting the door to come back outside I just got this sick feeling, I immediately started scanning my eyes across the pool looking for Britton. Sure enough about a foot underwater I see these two little legs kicking as hard as they can and two little arms struggling to swim. I ran and pushed some kids out of the way and jumped in the pool. I felt like I couldnt get to him fast enough. I picked him up and out of the water and he spit what seemed like a fountain of water out. He cried and looked so scared, it was probably the worst feeling I have ever had in my life. I am so grateful that he is ok . On the drive home from my parents I was talking to him about what had happened and how scary that made mommy that he had gone into the pool without her or his life vest. I said, " Britton that made mommy so scared ," and Britton said, " I scared too mommy ". Then we said a prayer of gratitude together in the car while I bawled my eyes out realizing what could have happened in just a few short seconds. I am so grateful that he is ok. Britton is so important to me and I dont know what I would do without him!!! So... please be so so so so careful with your kids at the pool. some of the worst stories with the worst outcomes that I have ever heard involve young kids at a family gathering at someones pool. Be safe and enjoy every moment with your cute kiddos :)

This month is already going by pretty fast!! I have LOVED being a stay at home mom these days! Britton and I switch off doing various play dates with friends and family! We love to go to the pool, go to the play area at the mall, lunch dates, children's museum, shopping, going to the movies, go to the pet store, and just hanging out with friends at home. Its been such a fun summer for me to feel like I am bonding with my little boy that I feel like I was away from for so long while working. He has such a fun little personality. He talks in complete sentences and if he wants something he will say, " MOM!!!! I NEED IT!!!! It will be something like a raisin that fell from his high chair or something. He tells me he loves me on his own, which I really love and when I say it back he will say, " I love you more mommy " these are little things that keep me going through the day while he does other " not so cute " things sometimes. He recently jumped out of his pack n play and now sleeps in a toddler bed which he loves. This last month we welcomed 2 new members to our family. My sisters in-law Elizabeth and Elizabeth both had darling little boys! Seeing them makes me soo baby hungry! I am excited to find out on the 25th of this month if we are having a boy or a girl! Life is great! Cant wait to see what the rest of the month will bring!!