Over the weekend

This weekend my cousin Morgan got married in the Draper Temple. It was so neat, we went there for the Open House but it was awesome to go in to watch an ordinance. Driving up was beautiful, there was fog all over and it was like we were in the clouds. It was a nice day. I don't get to see my Dennis side of the family as much, so it was nice to spend the whole day with them.

Here are my cute cousins first is Katie then Brooklynn and on the right Sammi. Brooklynn loves them so much and hangs all over them when she sees them.

In this picture Brooklynn and Caleb were being naughty playing in the fountain, but they got caught. Also in the back ground you see my uncle Tim and cousins Sammy and Scott.

Here is Terra and I with the two cute baby's Cameron and Zack. Wow Zack has a lot of hair. Then there's my cute little baldy.

Brooklynn and Caleb loved dancing together at the reception. It was so cute when they started slow dancing.

At one point Brooklynn flung Caleb and he fell on the floor. She is definately not the most graceful dancer. We had a great day and night with the family.

Too bad my poor little nephew Tyler (on the Oldroyd side) split his head open that night and had to get 3 staples put in. Poor Ty, we love you!

Less cookies more exercise

Well I love cookies and milk and hate to exercise. I was really good for awhile and was exercising on the Wii fit but haven't for awhile. Last night when I got home from a R.S. gathering (and ate a lot of treats) Brooklynn patted my belly and said, "Mom, Do you have another baby in your belly?" So I guess I need to get out there more. Actually yesterday I jogged/walked a mile and a half and today I have even more motivation to go out. But no, I am not pregnant.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth day! We decided to wait and have Muffin Tin lunch today. We wanted to do blue and green to represent the ocean and land for the earth. So I dyed the egg salad blue, she had green celery, green fish crackers, grapes (I didn't have green grapes so purple will have to do), blue and green fruit snacks. Also her drink was a pinkish color and I thought I would be smart and dye it blue. I thought if I put enough food coloring it would work well it went brown. It looks really nasty, but Brooklynn didn't notice. I figure that the earth (dirt) is brown so it works. For dessert Brooklynn had bugs in the ground. I love doing this pudding/oreo treat. My mom always use to do it when we were little.

After lunch we went on a walk. Brooklynn collected flowers (only weeds) and some beautiful rocks. Doesn't she look cute in her golloshes(sp)? It was such a nice day and our walk was so nice. Except Brooklynn kept screaming and running from bugs. She said "Oh, bugs are so Noying." It was kinda cute, she is such a girl. (Nothing wrong with that, I hate bugs too.)

When Cameron had his nap we did a project together. Brooklynn made a Earth Tamberine. She colored really good. She looked at a picture I had on the computer, so she colored the land and water the right colors. She is so proud of her "music thing". Unfortunately she can't play it yet, because Ryan is sleeping. But tonight I think I know what will be "Noying". We had a fun day celebrating Earth day, although I am not the best at being Green, I try to do my best.

Decades Party

My cousin's had a surprise Retirement party for my aunt. They decided it would be fun to have it be a decades party and you could either dress up from a different era or just wear Red, Black or White. Of course I had to dress up and wore my neice Katelin's Halloween costume. The other thing is there were no kids (except nursing babies of course.) So Brooklynn stayed with her uncle Jake, and cousin Caleb and went with him on a date. Sounds like they had fun.
We did a lot of fun stuff at the party. First we played the game of clue and had to figure out who done it! Very fun, I love this kind of stuff. It was awesome, so many people dressed up so cute and we had a ball. I loved Josh's floods and glasses and my aunt and uncle's 50's costumes.
We also played a game where we were a certain celebrity. The name was on our back and we had to ask Yes or No questions to figure it out. I was Shirley Temple and I guessed it pretty fast. My mom was Brad Pitt and could not guess it for the life of her. I gave her sooooooooooooooo many clues to help her out. Cameron was Beyonce Knowles but ended up eating his name tag. What a fun night, I did have to miss out on Bunco but it was nice to support my aunt and spend time with family. Thanks, Tawnya, Tina, Tracy, Sheri and Troy for planning a fun party!

Six Months Old

My little boy is a big boy now.On Wednesday Cameron turned 6 months old. Yesterday he had his well check. It went good, he sure is growing fast.

Head is in the -50%
Weight- 17 lbs. 10 oz -50%
Height- 27.6 inches -90%

I was really surprised about his length, especially since I am so short. We sure have a growing boy. So Cameron is starting to eat food twice a day now. He really likes his food, not that you couldn't tell- he's such a big boy. So one concern is Cameron's noggin. He is rarely on his back but his flat head hasn't really improved. By 6th months they say that it should be significantly better. Well it's not. Also Cameron has a HUGE soft spot that is about 1 3/4 inches long and 1 inch wide. It really hasn't started closing at all. So we have an apointment to see a plastic surgeon in a little over a week. When I heard Plastic Surgeon it sounds scary, hopefully if anything he just needs a helmet to fix those things. Other than that a healthy strong boy.

So the last 6 months have gone by so fast and I can't believe how much my little guy has changed. I am so thankful to have him. Cameron is so sweet and calm. Cameron does not like getting swaddled until you do it and then he is happy and loves to cuddle. He has two favorite toys one is this little bear that our friends the Hillmans gave him, Cameron carries it in his mouth. The other is a music player that my mom gave him for Christmas. Cameron absolutely will not sit, he has no desire to bend his legs. He prefers to stand up (with support of course) or crawl around. He loves it when Brooklynn talks to him, it just makes him giggle so much. He has the biggest, cutest smile I have ever seen and he loves to show it off. Most people say Cameron looks like his daddy, Cameron is a mix of my nephews Tyler and Connor, but I do have a couple pictures that look similar to me. He is just a good mix of both families.

Lately Cameron is trying to copy us by blowing bubbles and doing the kissy face and it just is so cute. He tries so hard. Happy 6 months little guy!

Pictures

Just a couple pics from Easter. I totally forgot to add. Brooklynn looks so beautiful with her "Shirley Temple wringlets. Cameron totally has Ryan's hairline and pokey up hair it's so cute. What a little stud.

Easter Fun

We had a very fun filled Easter this year.
DYEING EASTER EGGS Saturday night we colored Easter eggs. I got this idea from a neighbor, you get the eggs out and color on them with crayons when they are still hot. The heat melts the wax and it looks really cool. When we were younger we would color with crayons and then dye them and the crayon turns a neon looking color but never when they are hot. It was neat. Plus it eliminates the dye mess. We already had dye so we still dyed them after. I thought they turned out really cute, the two with faces are Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Brooklynn had a lot of fun.


FINDING BASKETSAfter coloring eggs Brooklynn got all our baskets and put them out so the Easter Bunny can find them. And went to bed, when she woke up we had to go and find our baskets. Cameron's was in his exersaucer, Mine and Ryan's was on our desk in the dining room, and Brooklynn's was the hardest. She found hers in the kitchen in a cupboard. Brooklynn got the movie Tale of Desperaux, 3 Fancy Nancy books, little snack tubs, Candy jewelry, some yummy candy and of course a new dress. Cameron got the movie Madagascar 2, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse books, snack container,a studly outfit and baby food. Ryan and I got Bedtime stories, Peeps and candy. We then went to church and Brooklynn was very excited to go see her teachers again. We read her the Easter story and she watched the church video about Easter. It is really fun to teach Brooklynn things now and she acctually remembers and understands it. So Brooklynn can tell you who Easter is really about and what happened. It's really cute.


THE EASTER EGG HUNT part 1After church we went to my mom's for dinner and our 29th annual Easter Egg hunt.(every year since Josh was born) If you know my mom, she celebrates every holiday and makes it so much fun. We have always loved our Easter egg hunts, when I was dating Ryan he thought it was weird until he won a bunch of stuff. So Ryan and Terra are the biggest competitors, which include but are not limited to; pushing, shoving, throwing, jumping and diving into bushes. I try to stay away from them. We had a lot of fun this year. Josh is the silent but deadly player, he doesn't run or push, he walks slowly but often he wins. Jake still is healing and can't really bend well, so he had a little helper (Brooklynn). Everyone tried to Veto, but my mom said that Brooklynn is helping Jake.

AND THE WINNER IS...... Ryan won this year. Only by like 2 eggs. It was between Ryan, Johana and Josh. Who do you think got last place??? Not injured Jake, but me, I lost by almost 10 eggs. Which was fine this year, because my mom decided that each person would get 2 gift cards each. So it was not fun for Terra and Johana who had all of them, but really nice for me cause I didn't get any. Everyone (but me) complained so I think we will go back next year to the old way. I got 2 gift cards, lots of candy and 8 dollars, Ryan got 20 dollars, 2 gift cards and lots of candy. (Johana got like 25 dollars... next year we know who to watch out for.)

KID'S EASTER EGG HUNTThe kids had their egg hunt after, first they had to wake Caleb up. They had fun too, well Brooklynn and Roger had fun. (Roger is the boy of Josh and Johana's friends from Honduras who visited.) Caleb was too tired to enjoy himself and the two babies had no clue of what was going on. They got a lot of money and some candy, and fruit snacks. Also my mom gave them each a little basket Brooklynn's and Caleb's had bubbles, outfit, pj's, some little toys, new waterbottle's with their names on it, treats and some little toys. Cameron and Zach got an outfit, pj's, a movie, a bib, and babyfood.


Peep Wars!
So this year was the first edition of Peep wars. My mom did this at work and had to do one with our family. You get a package of peeps and make a peep monster. However you want and put two in the microwave which ever one stabs the other first wins. and you keep battling until there is only one winner. It was pretty fun. But we had to leave early so even though I won Terra and then won Jake I gave Jake my winnings so he could keep playing.In this picture mine is the purple one, Terra's is yellow and Brooklynn's is pink, notice how they look the same. And guess who the winner was.....
Jacob Budd, who knows if I stayed I could have won. But I didn't care, we wanted to go to the Oldroyd's and see them too. Unfortunately we didn't get to dye eggs or have an Easter Egg hunt this year. (at least yet.) Everyone was very busy with other family and working and we just couldn't really get all together. Next year for sure we will. At least we all ate dinner and spent the day together the Sunday before. It is so nice to spend this time with family and enjoy the time of year. Although we do all the commercial Easter stuff. We do not forget the meaning of why we celebrate Easter and we are so thankful for those eternal blessings.

Our special Day!

Before I get into our wonderful celebration we took Cameron to a urologist to check his hypospadius penis (the hole is kinda in the wrong place.) The doctor took a look and it is good news. No surgery for our little guy. Wahoo!

Two years ago Tuesday on April 7, 2005 our sweet little Brooklynn was sealed to us. We were so blessed to adopt Brooklynn after we had been married for almost 5 years. Unfortunately we had some issues with the birth father and it was a long 14 month process to finally make her officially ours. Then we set our temple date. It was so amazing to be able to go in the temple again with our little girl and have her sealed to us for time and eternity. I am so thankful for temples and all the temple work that people do.

We wanted to celebrate with both our children the blessing of temples and that they are both sealed with us. We got them each a warm fuzzy blanket and some crocs. We spent the day at home and Brooklynn helped me plant some seeds, while Cameron watched.

As a tradition that we started last year for her one year anniversary we went to eat at the Lion house. Only a few minutes after sitting down to eat the fire alarm went off. I immediately stood up and we started collecting our kids and food. I looked around and everyone was just sitting. One table commented that they wanted to finish eating and said, "Watch it be a real fire while we sit and eat." I was not going to take that chance. Right when we were getting up they told us a little boy pulled the fire alarm. We sat down and finished eating. We walked around the temple and took some pictures and talked to Brooklynn about that special day we had with her.

We walked across the street and went to the Church History Museum. Brooklynn loved the I am a Child of God exhibit. It was really cute with a lot of fun activities. We didn't have a lot of time, Ryan had a doctor's apt to get to, we will definately have to go back there.

It was great to spend the two days with my hubby and two kids and celebrate our eternal family. I love them all so much and wouldn't change the way I got Brooklynn or Cameron. They are both very special and both our little miracles. Ryan and I are so thankful for them.

General Conference and our new puppy

Saturday and Sunday we got to watch General Conference. What a blessing it is to sit down and acctually hear from a living prophet and apostles. I remember when I was younger and we would watch it and I didn't completely understand the importance at a young age. We were all just excited to play Conference Bingo and hopefully win a prize. (That's how they got us to sit there quietly with out fighting or falling asleep. We had to pay attention to listen to the words so we could win.) Anyways, I remember thinking 'I am not going to be very good when I get older, it's too boring and I probably won't watch it.' But when you realize what it is that is being said and the importance there is no question in my mind that we watch it. There were so many wonderful talks it's hard to mention a favorite. I know one thing that stood out, I can't even remember who gave this talk but it was about temples and how some people live so far from temples but make an effort to go often. Then those that live only miles away and do not. It was a great reminder of what true blessings we have and I do need to make it a habit to go often. Well Brooklynn is a very spiritual smart little girl she loves learning about church and when conference came on, I told her look the prophet is talking. She looked up and said, "Oh, it's the new one, Hinkley died huh?" I was surprised that she actually remembered. She doesn't remember their first names, she just calls them Hinkley and Monson, it is so cute. I was amazed how well she did Saturday during conference she actually sat and almost the whole time and did puzzles and colored. Two days in a row was a little harder and only lasted about 2 hours. This is her coloring her church pictures and she asked me about every picture she colored and then went and told her daddy. Today my mom was here and asked her about them and she remembered almost all of them except a few. I was so happy that she was such a good girl so we could listen.
Here is a picture of our new little puppy, Cameron has this bear and it is always in his mouth. This is the best picture I could get, if he makes eye contact with us he just starts smiling and drops it. What a cute little baby he is with a sweet cute personality.

I am so thankful that we are so blessed and I am lucky to have wonderful families, both sides. I have the best, hard working, sweet and patient husband. Together we have wonderful sweet kids. Even though at times it can be hard... (Oldroyd's who saw Brooklynn's major tantrum Sunday night, it happens about once a week. Even at stores when I have Cameron in his carseat and trying to carry Brooklynn out.) But no matter what I love them and will do anything for them. I am so very blessed.

Last weekend

So I totally forgot to add this to my catch up post. On Friday we went to visit my friend Lynda and give her a birthday gift. She is so cute and we have known each other for like 10 years. Well she always offers us to come and see a movie so we decided to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. Brooklynn wanted to bring a friend and she invited her cousin Abbie. So we ended up getting 6 tickets and went with Eric, Danielle, Katie, Abbie-Tyler-Chase. (Brooklynn says their names as if they are one person.)
Well it was a cute show and Brooklynn acctually sat through the whole thing until the very end. I was surprised. Cameron on the other hand did not want to sleep. I planned it perfectly, fed him right before we left, it was his nap time. I even brought in his stroller so it was easier for him to sleep and I could just roll him around. Well he did not like my plan and woke up about 1 minute after we got there. But I can't complain, despite him waking up he is such a good baby and acctually watched the movie. He only cried at one part that the movie got really loud suddenly and it scared him and he started crying. Brooklynn liked Susan AKA Gigantor and her favorite is bob but for some odd reason she called him Goulosh. (But he looks nothing like the goulosh I make for dinner.)
Saturday Ryan had to work and I told my mom I was going to come over and help her start cleaning. There are a lot of people that live there and little space. Well anyone that knows me, knows that I am an organizational FREAK! I love to organize and make lists and all that nerdy stuff. Yep, lists like grocery lists, cleaning lists, to do lists, goal lists, things I want to buy lists and it goes on. Lately I have even gotten better at organizing and stole an awesome idea from my friend Staci. I bought 3 door hanging shoe racks. One in my kitchen and the pockets go long ways to put tin foil, seran wrap, sandwich bags etc. One in my closet for the real purpose shoes. Last one is in my living room closet and put all sorts of things like hats, gloves, diapers, crayons etc. Our first stop was the toys and movies. My mom has a lot of toys some from when we were young and some she bought for the grandkids to play with. Everything was just thrown in and mixed up. Plus there were a lot of blankets. So here is the before... Below is only some of the toys.

Here is what Cameron and Zachary did while we cleaned. Until Cameron pinched him and he started crying so we had to separate these two. They are only 3 months apart, they are so cute. Who knows where and what Brooklynn and Caleb were doing. I don't think we want to know. They like to get into trouble. Acctually they spent most of their time with Great Grandpa and Grandma Budd.
And here are the after pictures. It looks so nice and organized. I hope that it stays that way, then the kids will acctually play with the toys. I love it!
Also my mom and dad always bought movies when we were young, infact my mom still buys a lot of DVD's. The problem is that she keeps all her VHS tapes. I made her get rid of almost all of them. I wish we would have counted but there were well over 100 movies. So if you like VHS Disney movies the DI by State Street and 45th soon will have a lot. Well that was our venture last weekend. If you ever need help organizing let me know and I will get you a business card. J/K I am such a nerd!

April Fools Day Dinner

I wanted to do something fun today for April Fools Day, but I have gotten boring in my old age. Well I was watching Studio 5 today and they had this cute idea for dinner. They had Mashed Potatoes died pink in a pie, but instead I did Chicken Pot Pie. I died the slits pink to look like it was a berry pie.
For dessert we had Spagetti and meatballs??? Nope, it is a cupcake with frosting as the noodles, a Fererro Rocher Chocolate as the meatball, Strawberry jam for Sauce and some cocanut sprinkled on top as the Parmasean cheese. It was yummy!

For April fools Brooklynn thought it would be silly to drink out of a bottle. The last time she drank out of a bottle was 2 years ago and well this was the last time. She sure had fun though. Also Brooklynn kept saying "Mommy there's a monster behind you... April Fools." She even called my mom (Grandma Bean) and played the same trick on her. We all fell for it :)
Here is Ryan eating the yummy sketti, I know I take too many pictures. It's amazing Ryan puts up with it. Well we had a fun day.