Brighams Birthday

Brighams Birthday was over a week ago already and I haven't got around to posting the celebration pictures until now! I still can't believe my little baby boy is 3 and nearly 40 pounds! I love that my Brigs is such a helpful and loving big brother to Sarah Jane! He always makes sure our home is never boring and he is always doing stuff to prove that he is the silliest kid on the block. I need to strap a camera to my forehead for a day so people could just understand what I get to enjoy and what I get to be frustrated by each day! One day when I was pulling my hair out from his behavior and I asked him why he was such a boy and he answered "Boys make noise". I think he's got that completely right! What a smart little guy!

His little fire truck cake. Yes it's probably eligible as a cake wreck but I had too much fun creating this masterpiece!

This is Brigham's big smile!

Another one of those things boys do: showing off what is going on inside a full mouth. Yum!

One happy three-year old!

Brigham's Greats!

A New Beginning!

School is starting for Matt in about a week! We just found out he got hired at a new job and we are just thrilled to say goodbye to 55 hour weeks at Domino's. Though it also means saying goodbye to eating loads of pizza, and for Matt the familiarity of having the same general job since high school. I am looking forward to a change and all the new opportunities that await us.

It's exciting to begin again with fresh hope that in 2 years Matt will graduate with his teaching degree. The goal isn't new; we had attempted this before and and gave up. I think that we have learned from the last attempt and have realized that we want this too much to give up. It's intimidating to think that these next two years are going to be so incredibly tough with Matt gone a lot between work and school while I take care of our home and kids. I feel that I can do it if I believe in myself and have faith in the Lord. I think we are pretty crazy sometimes for choosing to do this, there are many other opportunities that require a lot less work and sacrifice that would give us similar or greater rewards monetarily. Matt really feels strongly about it and I agree with him that in the long run we will be a lot happier with this choice.


Oh and finally here is an updated family picture! Thanks Megan for your patience to capture Brigham looking at the camera- even though it's while blowing a bubble of spit!

Pet Peeves

I think I have found a new pet peeve: Public Easter Egg Hunts. I haven't done one of these before but I let my mom convince me that I needed to take Brigham to one of these. Why in the world would this be so important to her now when obviously it wasn't a priority for her when I was a kid!?! Grandparents... Anyway I need to thank the random dad that threw an egg our way at the Easter egg hunt at This is the Place state park. It meant a lot to not go home with an empty basket to Brigham,(okay maybe me). I have some faith restored that some "adults" can play nice and share too! I don't think I could do another public egg hunt again; I'd rather have Brigham scramble around without getting toes trampled on and having me getting grumpy at greedy kids and some parents. I know, I'm like an Easter grinch, I think Briggie had a ton of fun though I am so pessimistic.

I also have to vent about my other pet peeve: Solicitors! Uggh! They all come out once the weather warms up! So far I don't need: more telephone services from qwest, more cable tv service from comcast, more insurance, winder dairy milk, lawn service, magazines to put a poor soul through college, and I'm sure to get visits from people that want me to buy burgler alarms, new windows, and the JW's come every year as well also. Do you think a no soliciting sign would actually work? Maybe I'll give it a try, even though I think hanging up a NO SOLICITING sign next to my door is a little ugly and makes me seem like a cranky old person but oh well maybe I am.

Okay so I'm done with my ranting. Here's a couple pictures from last years easter- our camera's memory card fizzled this past week. I figured these pictures could be new to most people anyway and it's fun to see Brigham so much smaller last year! And it's mind blowing to think I was just pregnant with Sarah Jane a year ago! She probably was the size of a peanut or something like that!

Extreme Home Makeover.

Brigham's latest interest has been coloring and has decided to display his artwork- all over the house.

Unwashable crayons. A little bit of Clorox sink cleaner got most of this smiley face off (thanks mom).

I'm glad this is washable marker!

Unfortunately this is permanent marker on my wonderful dresser.

A closer look at what I'm up against.

Any ideas on how to get this off without having to refinish? Seriously- I'd like to know.

Whew! Washable marker! You can see that the smiley face didn't quite come off all the way yet.

I'm done crying over my dresser and so glad that everything else was easier to fix! I still love him. I hope he will learn to use crayons in coloring books though!

An Update!

I just have a random assortment of things to say. Matt found out that he can't make it into the police academy this summer which we had been planning on. So now we are on to Plan B or maybe it's now Plan C or D for us now as far as his future career goes. At least he still has his delicious job right now at Dominos in this interesting economic time- which is like our Plan X or Y! We don't have to worry about starving, we just have to worry about our expanding waistlines right now!

We went to a family reunion last night where we celebrated the life of Matt's late Grandpa Larsen on what would have been his 100th Birthday. It was interesting for us to learn about his life, he passed away before Matt was born, and it is amazing to see how many people we are related to! I had to do a family tree for one of my classes and I think I deserved major extra credit because I had to do the Larsen side on the family. Grandpa Larsen had a total of nine children to start with then you add wives and husbands and their children, it gets very large very fast! It's so hard getting all the names and faces straight. I also finally got to see a couple of Matt's Aunts that I haven't met yet too! I regret leaving the camera at home and not having pictures. I need to work on my New Years resolution to take more pictures at family events!

I've added some of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks:

Matt, Sarah Jane, Brigham (and me too-but not pictured) have enjoyed the few good weather days we've had. I really hope it doesn't snow again, I'm really sick of it!

I'm so glad these two get along! This is in Brigham's new room-we just did the switch a couple weeks ago- it's in the room formerly known as the junk room and toys in time out room.

I so wish I could believe in the 5-second rule this day.

Sarah Jane's reaction to her first taste of cereal.

Everyday over and over again

Time doesn't seem to go by for me at all when I'm battling the endless cycle of laundry, meals and cleaning because it is pretty monotonous. But in reality time has been flying by. I've tried to do one thing different for Brigham (and my sanity) each day whether it be pull out some playdough, make a snowman or just play a game. Brigham is attempting to say a lot more of what is on his mind which is really fun. I love seeing pictures trigger memories he has and remind him of someone or something. He love categorizing people and animals as good guys and bad guys.
He walked up to me one morning and said "mommy pretty" even though I was in my pjs and hadn't had a shower and felt far from it which made me feel like crying.
I can tell Sarah can't wait to express what she is thinking to me too. I love the expressions she makes when she's "talking". She can make the cutest pout in the world when she is sad and she has the sweetest little smile! She rolled over for the first time yesterday. Oh how I wish I could freeze time and keep these guys little and my to do list checked off!

I caught an elusive Sarah smile!

Sarah after rolling over a second time!

This captures Brigham's personality perfectly.

One of those things to I do to break up the monotony- make goodies! This is a cherry chocolate cake slathered in warm chocolate sauce with whipped cream on top. I've got to do that again!

Sarah's Blessing

Sarah Jane had her baby blessing on Sunday. It was really special to see Sarah blessed by Matt and have lots of family there to share it with us. I love hearing about all of the potential our little baby girl can live up to! Sarah looked beautiful in her dress. She was more interested in trying to eat her dress than look beautiful!