travels

We are doing a lot of traveling lately. Monday morning, Josh and some of his football team went to Thermopolis for a football camp. I didn't particularly want to stay with Brecken by ourselves again, so he and I went to Worland to visit my Grandma. Brecken had never been to her house and she hasn't seen him since Christmas, so a visit was due. We got there Monday afternoon and had a great time. We went to water aerobics with my grandma twice while we were there and Brecken LOVED swimming in the pool. It totally wore him out! Tuesday night the three of us met Josh in Thermop at his aunt and uncle's house, then the six of us went out to Bev and David's cabin for dinner. That was fun. Wednesday morning, Brecken and I loaded up and went to Thermop to watch the end of the camp and then traveled back with the team.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Lingle. We'll spend a couple days there and then head up to my mom and dad's for the 4th of July. We haven't been there for the 4th since the summer we were married. Gillette always has a big parade and a fantastic fireworks display so it will be fun. Then it's back to Lingle for Matt's wedding, and then finally back to Saratoga. Phew! Lots of travels. Hopefully B will do well in the car.

scooting!

Brecken figured out how to scoot on the floor today! He scooted on his belly halfway across the living room to get to me this morning! And you would've thought it was the hardest thing ever, with all the grunting and sighing! :)

Baby proofing, here we come, I guess!

THE BEST NEWS OF THE DAY: Josh had his final EMT-AI test this morning and he passed! He is now an Advanced Intermediate EMT, which is one step below being a paramedic. He can do IV's, give drugs, shock heart patients, etc. And he's still not allowed to practice IV's on me. :) So not only did he pass, but he's now done with going to Rawlins twice a week for classes. Hooray!

rolling

Brecken figured out how to roll over and over, in order to get somewhere this afternoon! He rolled all across the living room and was pretty proud of himself. :)

football field

SHS is getting a new football field! They finally got the sod laid this week- Josh and Heath, the other coach, were pretty worried about it getting laid in time. They finished laying it on Tuesday night, but wouldn't you know, Saratoga is on a water restriction because a part at the water plant broke. The houses can only water certain hours, on certain days, and the school district isn't allowed to water the new sod on the field. The supertintendent was pretty worried about losing the grass, but the fire department is loaning them (read: Josh) a firetruck to go up there and water the grass. So Josh and Heath, along with Heath's daughters Macy and Lily, watered the sod all afternoon. They plan on going up again tonight after Josh gets home from his EMT class, and then early tomorrow morning, too. Heath ran the hose all day- he had a blast. So did Josh- he didn't want to leave to come home to get ready for class! Brecken and I went up for a few hours this afternoon. It was HOT, and Brecken never took a nap, but he was great the whole time we were up there! It was nice to come home to a cool house though.

new patio

We got our back patio all finished up yesterday and are now able to be outside enjoying it! We always had a cement pad out our back door, but never did anything with it. So over the weekend, we stained the concrete, we installed a sun shade above it, and yesterday put together the new patio set that we bought while in Gillette a couple weekends ago. Now it is a usable area! Brecken enjoys sitting out there with us- he can laugh at the dogs playing in the yard.

birthday party!

We went to Ryan's birthday party on Saturday. It's hard to believe that he will be 1 year old on Wednesday the 20th! I know I keep saying this, but MAN, time flies. There were lots of little kids there and everyone had a great time. Kristen and David got him the wagon that the boys are sitting in. Below is the water table that his Grandma and Grandpa Winegar got him. It was a HUGE hit at the party and everyone got plenty wet.

We got him a sandbox and my mom and dad got him a little plastic bike (like the Little Tykes brand) that first starts off as a rocking bike, then a bike with a handle on it so Mom and Dad can push it down the sidewalk, and then finally a "real" bike when he can finally reach the pedals. Ryan loves rocking on it.

His birthday theme was Elmo, complete with his own Elmo cake. David really wanted him to do a face plant in it, but instead, he was very clean and took teeny tiny little pinches of frosting, put it aside, and then took a teeny tiny pinch of cake and ate it very neatly. He finally got into the spirit a little later. :)

My aunt, uncle, and cousins from Helena, MT were on their way back home from a vacation in Alabama today and happened to be in Laramie over lunchtime. So Josh, Brecken and I got in the car and went and had lunch with them and Kris, David, and Ryan. We haven't seen my aunt and uncle since Thanksgiving, so they were surprised at how big both babies have gotten! My cousin Ian went to Space Camp in Alabama, so they made it a family vacation.

takes after his mommy

So I got out my baby book to see how much I weighed and how long I was when I was 9 months old. Sure enough, Brecken is taking after his mommy so far. I was 2 ounces heavier and 4 centimeters shorter than Brecken. I'd say that's pretty identical!

Brecken tried so hard to crawl tonight. Every time he was sitting up, he'd twist over onto his belly. He'd grunt and strain to try to move foward. He scooted an inch or so two different times, but that was about it. He's pretty determined though- he would try every time he was sitting up! It wasn't me making him try- it was all his own will. I don't think it will be too long now before he's at least scooting.

Josh had another EMT test tonight, over cardiac drugs. He passed! He was pretty nervous about it, because if he didn't pass tonight, he can't finish the class. He has two more classes, I think. After next week and one more test, he'll be an Advanced Intermediate EMT. YAY!

below the charts

Well, Brecken fell below the charts on this doctor visit. I thought for sure he gained a lot of weight because he's been eating a ton and he certainly FEELS heavier, but he hasn't even gained a pound from 2 months ago! At 7 months, he weighed 15 pounds, 2 oz. Today, he only weighed 15 pounds 13 ounces! That isn't even on the percentile chart. I'll have to go dig out my baby book and see how much I weighed at 9 months- I know I was below the charts until I started elementary school!

Brecken is around the 10th percentile for his length, at about 27 inches. He's gained about a half an inch in those two months.

The good news is, neither Dr. Jake nor the med student that was in with us could hear much out of the ordinary in his heart, so I think he may have grown out of the heart murmer! YAY!

Brecken has gained more in his "vocabulary" in the past couple days- he now says "nanananana." Still laughs when I ask him to say Mama! Yesterday, he began pointing at things. He pointed at his toys, and the tree outside, and the cat outside. And his new favorite food is Rice Krispies. Makes a mess of them on the floor, so the dogs love them now too. :)

summer!

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this! We have been very busy since school got out. In fact, Brecken and I have only been home for 2 days of summer so far! Last Monday, Brecken and I went to Denver to hang out with my sister and Ryan, who were down there while David was on a business trip. Josh had to work on Monday and had EMT class on Tuesday, so Brecken and I went down by ourselves. We had a great time. Monday, we went to the zoo! After Brecken got super hot and had to be stripped down to his onesie, he happily hung out in his stroller. And I mean "hung". He lounged back and kept his feet up on the cupholder tray and just totally relaxed!!

The zoo was fun, I hadn't been there in several years. We saw lots of beautiful animals and had fun walking around. Ryan did not have fun, he cried for most of it because he was tired and couldn't fall asleep in the sun and noise. But the other 3 of us had a blast.

Tuesday morning we loaded up and went to the Children's Museum. It was really neat, but it would've been more fun for the boys if they were a little more mobile. Since neither of them can crawl yet, the only thing they really appreciated was the infant area where they could lay on the "pond" and play with the mobiles. We will have to take them back in a couple years. We did get some good pictures on the firetruck for Josh though. :)

After the museum, we went to a great outlet mall in Castle Rock. They have a Carter's, Osh Kosh, Gymboree, Eddie Bauer, and a bunch more. We spent the afternoon there and got some great deals.

Brecken and I came back on Wednesday and met Josh in Cheyenne. He was supposed to be getting fitted for a tuxedo for Matt's wedding, but we got there and the tux place had gone out of business! They made new plans and we came home. I-80 was WINDY, so we both got off in Laramie and went over the Snowy Range. I'm not sure that was any better because we drove over it in a BLIZZARD! No joke. Snowing so hard we couldn't see the road at times.

Thursday was spent doing laundry and packing again. Friday morning we dropped the dogs off at the kennel and headed up to Gillette for the weekend. We hadn't been there since Christmas so it was good to go back. Brecken had a great time and even got to stay with Grandma one night while Josh and I went to Casper for the Shrine Bowl. Josh had 2 players from him team playing in it and Saratoga's head coach was a coach for the South team, so it was a good game to go watch. The South won, 20-17, so the trip was well worth it!! We weren't gone overnight, but 10 or so hours.

Now we are back and the house needs cleaned. We have a lot of projects lined up for the coming weeks, including finishing the outside paint, adding a fence in the back yard so the dogs can stay on half of it while we're out during the day, and we'll seed the bare spots in the other half of the yard so we have a nice back yard to play on. We also need to assemble the patio set that we bought in Gillette so we can eat outside, but before that, we need to stain the concrete so it looks nicer. We also need to figure out what we're doing with the kitchen- whether we should fork out the tons of money it will cost to replace the cabinets and countertop, or just refinish the cabinets ourselves and spend a little more on the countertop. Decisions, decisions, and it all means WORK!!

Brecken has his 9 month well baby check on Thursday, so I'll update then on how big he is now!

crawling?

Brecken crawled across the living room mostly on his own tonight! He's able to rock back and forth on his hands and knees now if we put him in that position. Tonight he really tried to get from sitting to on his knees so he could go get the cat. He couldn't quite make it so I put him in that position and then held his belly and he moved his arms and legs all the way across the living room! He was pretty proud of himself. It helped that I was taking a little weight off his middle for him, but he did most of the work!! Won't be too long and he'll be able to do it on his own!!

Sunday

We took Brecken to the park Sunday evening and he had a great time. We played on the swings and went down the slide. Then we sat in the grass and helped Josh study for his drug test that he has on Tuesday.

Saturday

We had a fun day on Saturday. Josh's football team was having a golf tournament and our friends Mark, Erin and their daugter Avey came to play in it, along with Brady, Stacey and Parker, and two of Brady's friends. The boys played golf and the girls stayed with the babies. (Avey is 2, Parker is 1 1/2.) We went downtown to see all the shops and then came back to the house to play since it started raining and we couldn't go to the park. We had a good visit with everyone. They all went home on Sunday morning.

koosh ball

Brecken got a Koosh Ball this past weekend. We were at the store and I saw one, so I handed it to him. You should've seen the look on his face when he felt it- he hated it!! He made a terrible face and pulled his hand away. I gave it to him again, and he got used to the feel and then played with it until it was time to check out. He thinks it tickles when I rub it on his feet, and he does NOT like it brushing on his head, but he'll play with it with his hands. What a great texture toy!

Brecken also started clapping this weekend. He thinks it's funny until he notices you looking, and then he will usually stop. You can hardly hear the clapping, it's very, very soft, but it's cute anyway. :)

Apparently, he has gotten to the phase where he cries when Mom and Dad leave him. Josh dropped him off at the babysitter's today and he burst into hysterical tears. Then when I picked him up, he was getting his diaper changed and cried just as hard because he couldn't get to me. As soon as he was done getting changed, I picked him up and he immediately stopped crying and grinned at his babysitter, like, "HA! I got my mom!!!" What a goof. He had a great day, he loves it at Deb's house. Luckily, if this phase is going to happen, he only has 7 more days of daycare before we get to stay home with him for the summer. Hopefully he will grow out of this phase before school starts again- although maybe after a whole summer home with Mom and Dad, it will be harder for him to go to daycare!

Deb said today that she and her husband were talking once again about how they wish their own kids were as well behaved as Brecken is. She tells me this a lot. She said Dr. Jake came home for lunch and their 2 year old was crying, their 3 year old was crying, and Brecken was happy as a clam, sitting on the floor playing with measuring cups. I'm so glad they talk about how good our baby is instead of what a holy terror he is. :)

books

We got a book exchange letter from Josh's cousin Holly the other day. It looks like fun! It is like the old fashioned chain letters that I used to hate, but this one is great- it's for kids. You mail it to 6 people and pretty soon, your child is supposed to receive 36 books in the mail. There's nothing better than books, especially for a kid in a family full of teachers! :) I am going to fill all my letters out today and then get a book for the boy on my list while I'm in Rawlins this weekend.

I realized while thinking of who I would send mine on to, however, that probably most of the kids on Josh's side of the family also received this letter from Holly. So please, please, please don't send it on to me again- I only know 6 other people with kids, so I don't want to have to break the chain because I'm not able to send it on again! Pick some other people that would NOT have gotten the letter from Holly and send it to them- every kid deserves books and being read to!!

Holly, thanks for sending it to us! How fun. And Kristen, it's coming to you, so be prepared!! :)

beautiful!

I need to start keeping my camera in my car. I saw the most beautiful sight on my drive home from my concert tonight. The mountains were dark and there was spectacular lightning going on on top of the mountains. The sun was shining in the west though, making the fields at the base of the mountains shine with a brilliant green color. There was a John Deere tractor in one of the fields, shining bright with the sun. And if that wasn't enough, in front of the awesome lightning, the dark mountains, the beautiful grass, and the tractor, a bald eagle went flying past. Talk about a beautiful sight!

screaming

We went to Lingle for Mother's Day weekend. It was HOT- in the 90's each day! Friday night,we woke up to the most eerie screaming I've ever heard, coming from outside. I thought it was in the yard. I ran outside because our dogs were outside, and I thought maybe one of them was very seriously hurt. They both came running up to the deck, so they were fine. The screaming continued. Josh and I thought they were coyotes. Craig and Lennie said the next morning that they thought they were coyotes, too. They said they howl and scream to call dogs out to where they are- I'm glad our dogs didn't go out there! I brought them in the house for the rest of the night- I was scared!! I was talking to a teacher at lunch today and she said that sounds like it might have been mountain lions- they scream like a woman, and that's what I was hearing!

Saturday afternoon, Lennie and I went to see my great aunt Dorothy while Josh and Craig golfed. Brecken cried and cried when he saw her- he's never done that before. He was tired, so I'm thinking that's why he did it. Soon he warmed up to her though and smiled and showed off. Then we went to see Josh's Great Aunt Lucile at her nursing home. She was playing bingo when we got there so lots of people got to admire Brecken. He enjoyed grinning at them all. He got to see a live fish tank, he thought that was pretty fun.

Josh and I got to go visit with Josh's best friend Matt. He just got home from a year and a half in Iraq. We are very glad he made it home safely.

Saturday night we had a BBQ here at the house. Jeff and Beth had come home, and Pee-Wee and Mae, and Joel, Annie and the kids were all there too, so the house was full and noisy! We had a good time though.

Sunday morning we went to church in Jay Em since none of them had ever met Brecken. Then had Lira's for lunch (YUM!) then came home yesterday afternoon. We are lucky- Brecken slept the whole way! He woke up about 5 miles outside of Saratoga. YAY for good naps! We only had to stop once- Josh looked in the rearview mirror while we were driving through the canyon and he saw Birdie walking around in the bed of our truck! We had put their travel kennels in the back, and she somehow got her door open and was walking around. So we had to stop and put her back in. Josh said he put her in and shut the door and she got mad and turned her back to him. Amazing what personalities dogs have. :)

We had quite the thunderstorm last night. It didn't rain but we got some good lightning and thunder. It didn't wake Brecken up, but Birdie (who is deathly afraid of thunder!) whined and tried to hide. I don't think Hogan even stopped snoring.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day! I told Brecken that I was pretty sure the law was "no whining from children" on Mother's Day, but he didn't listen. That happens, when church falls right during his morning nap!

ml's

I was looking at one of Brecken's bottles this evening and I just had to stop and go, "WOW". He is now eating about 6.5 ounces at a time sometimes. If you don't want to do the math, that means about 195-200 ml's. It honestly seems like just last week when we were struggling to get him to eat 58 ml's so that we could go home from the hospital. That 58 ml's would be eaten in one hour, if we were lucky. Now the 195 ml's can be eaten in about 15 minutes if he's hungry enough. Then I think about Brecken's first feeding, he ate 10 ml's and most of it was forced. He had tired out after 4 ml's. I am still amazed every single day at how fast he is changing. I love every minute of it but I am sad at the same time, he's not my tiny little baby anymore! He's now getting an attitude. He was mad when I picked him up from the babysitter's today because he was having a graham cracker snack and he wasn't done yet. He will also throw my hand away from him if I try to give him something he wants. However, his smiles outnumber that by far. You should've seen him this afternoon- he smiled at everyone we saw in the grocery store. He's such a wonderful little boy. And you should see him when I pick him up from the babysitter. He grins and drops what he is doing (with the exception of his snack today!) and when I pick him up, he wraps his little arms around my neck and puts his lips all over my cheeks. He'll kiss me forever and ever! I love that. I will NEVER tire of that!!

Enough of the sappy stuff.

We got to see Josh's cousin Kevin today. He was in town for a blood drive at Josh's school. He came right over and picked Brecken up from his stroller and Brecken loved every minute of it. We haven't seen Kevin since Christmas, I don't think!

Well, I better head to bed so I can get a tiny bit of sleep before Brecken decides to be hungry again. My goal tonight, while Josh was at his EMT class, was to get the laundry put away. Didn't happen. As the saying goes, "Why do today what will still be there tomorrow?" ;)

dada, mama

Brecken has started saying words we can understand! Too bad they don't have any meaning to him. :) Sunday is when he sarted babbling "Dada". Everything is Dada now. His little tiny sweet voice is the best! I especially love when he whispers. It's too cute. Even on the way to daycare, he'll sit in his car seat and whisper and babble.

This morning, he finally said Mama! I keep asking him to say it and before, he would just giggle. I don't know what is so funny about Mama! This morning, he said it so plainly and loud that you couldn't miss it. Too bad he was looking at his car seat while saying it! :) He did say it again while eating dinner tonight. He was looking straight at me when he said it, but I'm sure that in his head, it meant, "Yum, sweet potatoes and corn is so good!" :)

swinging

Here is a video of Brecken swinging on his cousin Ryan's swing outside this weekend!

on our own

Well, Brecken and I are all on our own this week. Josh left at 4:30 this morning for the Teton Science School in Jackson for the week with the 8th graders from his school. Hopefully they will have fun and hopfully Friday will get here soon!