Happy Birthday Ryan

I have to catch up on a few posts. I will start with Ryan's birthday. I love him so much, he is the best husband, daddy and friend. He is always there for me and helps out so much. It is amazing to me that someone can love me as much as he does. I sometimes wonder why, especially when I am grouchy:) What a wonderful guy I have. Ryan is sweet, funny, goofy and lovable. I am so proud of Ryan and all his accomplishments and dedication. He loves to bike and run and of course play his XBox. I am proud of Ryan and his career, everytime I meet someone that has or does work with him they tell me what a great nurse he is. I know he cares about his patients very much and I know he does a great job. Ryan and I have been through so much the last 8 years and through the good and bad. Ryan has a strong testimony and even though sometimes things seem impossible he never gives up. He is my rock. I know how much he loves his family and always wants to do what he can for his brothers, sister and parents. He also looks up to all of them so much. I am proud that he also is very kind and loving to my family (even though he teases Terra all the time, It's just because he loves you Ter) I love that he is so sweet to my mom and always wants what is best for her too. Brooklynn loves her daddy so much. She is so sad when he has to go to work. When he goes to go out the door she runs and says, "Kisses and hug, kisses and hugs!" Then she runs to the window and always has to wave to him. I also can't wait to see Cameron get older and watch their relationship grow. I am so lucky to have such a great guy!

For his birthday he really wanted to go on a nice bike ride and then we were going to get dinner and see lights at temple square.

I asked Brooklynn what she wanted to get her daddy for his birthday and she remembered that she got me a goofy and told me she wanted Donald Duck. So that is what she picked out. He of course loved it and gave it to her to play with.

I printed this book from Snapfish for Ryan and just had pictures from our wedding, marriage, Brooklynn and Cameron. He said he really liked it.

I thought the book turned out pretty nice.

We then went to temple square last night to see the lights. Ryan liked it AFTER we found parking. Eric and DAnielle and their family came also (with Bailey) and I think Jeff and Nanci did come but we were already gone.

We saw the nativity it was really cool looking.

Every year I love seeing the different nativities that they do around temple square.

This picture turned out ok. But every year I say "I have to bring a tripod" and every year I forget. Maybe next year.

This was very pretty on the reflecting pool. You can't see it but there was little balls floating that were lit up.

Ryan and Berkie looking at the reflecting pool.

Me and Berkie. We left Cameron with Grandma Oldroyd, so he wasn't out this long in the cold. Thanks Susan.
After wards we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. YUM! Well I really hope that Ryan had a good birthday! I love you Ryan!

Much better day

We had a much better day yesterday. We planned to go out and do stuff while Ryan was sleeping but I looked out and saw it was snowing really bad. I didn't want to take them out in that, so we stayed home. I was nervous, cause Brooklynn doesn't always take naps, so what were we going to do all day? Well to my surprise we found quiet things to do and Brooklynn even took a nap. We decided to take some pictures and had fun. I love this picture but for some reason the auto focus didn't work so it is blurry. But still pretty cute of us.

Brooklynn wanted to pretend to take some pictures too. This time the real camera was far from her.

Here's my cute little man. He was very curious of what we were doing.

I love Brooklynn's beautiful eyes. I am still so amazed that her eyes are two different colors.

Another one of Cameron. He was such a good boy yesterday too.


Then after dinner we decided to make brownies. (Well I decided to, Brooklynn's Halloween candy is gone and I was craving some chocolate.)

Brooklynn had a lot of fun helping. She is a good helper.

So when we were done I told her she could lick the bowl. I forgot that she would take it literally and she acctually licked the bowl. She got frosting in her hair. OOPS!

I showed her the right way. So the night went with out incident until.... Ryan was getting the pan out of the oven and put it on the stove. I was in the other room and this is what I heard... Ryan: "Don't touch it, it's very hot." Brooklynn: "OWEEEEEEEEEEE........" Yep she got a yucky burn. It is pretty big too but at least it doesn't hurt this morning any more.

After all that Brooklynn didn't even want a brownie she wanted Graham Crackers with frosting. (Brings back memories going to my Graham Craker's house (G-ma Budd) and she always made this for us. (hence where she got the nick name.

We had a wonderful day and night together!

John and Kate Plus 8

In regards to my last post... I watched John and Kate plus 8 last night. OH MY GOSH! And I was complaining. Wow, how do they do it. I guess it just takes a lot of patience and a little love.

Live in the Moment

So Brooklynn is getting over her cough from Thanksgiving and I have now noticed that when she is sick she misbehave's a lot more. I think it is because we try to keep her away from Cameron as much as we can. So she feels like she gets less attention and can't be our helper. Monday was a rough day. Ryan was home all day with me and we both were about ready to pull our hair out. I know that everyone has a bad day and kids go through these moments.Like the day Brooklynn kept getting the camera and taking pictures.
Or when a baby keeps crying.

I heard this quote awhile ago and really liked it, it reminds me to not stress over things and just live. Be happy with what is happening. Even if that means take time out and give Brooklynn a little more attention, playing games and singing to my baby, even though I have to clean or do other things.

Elder Ballard's last conference address. He quoted Anna Quindlen who said, "The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).


I have to remember how cute it is when my baby smiles.

And how sweet Brooklynn is when she has our attention.

I love having a clean house and being organized and having a little me time but I love my kids more and I am going to try better to live in the moment and just let things be. I know my kids will have their bad days but I just have to learn to handle it better.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. First of all I am thankful for a lot of things: my home, church/gospel, our health, cars that work, a home, each other, two perfect kids, (I have to agree with Amy) things like dishwasher, washer and dryer, makeup but especially are thankful for our family. Ryan and I are so lucky to have great family on both sides that help us out a lot. We have wonderful parents and great siblings.Care about us and we always have a lot of fun with them.

In this picture Brooklynn and Caleb wouldn't stay in the picture. We may crop them in or just take a new picture next year. Especially since Cameron joined us and soon Josh and Johana's baby Zachary will be here too.

Here is a picture of the 3 grandkids on the Dennis side.

Here is an Oldroyd family picture. This was taken last year. Lots of kids in the picture there is 12 of the 14. We are just missing Jeff's Angel Archie and Cameron.


I am also very thankful for Ryan. He is the best husband ever. He is so sweet to me and the kids and works very hard for me to be able to stay home with them. I can't believe that we have been married 7 1/2 years. That is a long time (Ryan always jokes that's all it's been? Feels like forever.) But really it has been a great 7 years and keeps getting better.

Brooklynn and I talked about things that she is thankful for and she is very thankful for her baby, mommy and daddy, her room, her toys, her friends (that includes cousins- they are also her friends), her polly's, yummy food and the temple. (Side note: Brooklynn has a very strong testimony of the temple. When she watches princess movies she always shows me the temple (castle) and talks about how Cinderella and her prince go to the temple. Also she has lego's and loves building temples. Her favorite thing when we are driving is seeing churces and temples and tells me that it is Jesus' house.)

Our thanksgiving had an interesting start but was still great. Let me explain...
So Ryan had to work the night before, usually Cameron only wakes up one time between 11pm and 6am but decided to wake up 3 times. Brooklynn started coughing the night before and came in bed with me and was up a lot of the night. So we got up around 7am and started getting ready for the day, eating, etc. I also had to make Yams for our dinner. It wasn't going too bad but Brooklynn's cough was hardly there but you know two year olds, they need a lot of attention. Not to mention feeding Cameron too. So I cooked the yams and had to hurry and finish getting myself ready. We were cutting it really close. I got out of the house around 10:30 to go see a movie with my family. We saw Madagascar 2, it was really cute. Both kids were great in the movie but about 20 minutes left of the movie Brooklynn started coughing really bad. (I know I shouldn't have taken her but she was acting better. She hardly coughed at all in the morning.) So I wasn't sitting in my seat I was walking with Cameron, all of the sudden my mom brought her down to me and she was covered with throw up. I mean totally drenched. My mom took Cameron and I went to the bathroom and realized that she couldn't wear her clothes. So she was just in her tank top and panties and we went back in the theatre and luckily I did have an extra pair of pants in the diaper bag. I felt so bad for Berkie Poor thing. So we left and I didn't know what to do about dinner. I called Ryan's mom, my mom and Ryan and we decided that my mom would take her home to try to get her to nap and see if she was feeling better. She fell asleep in my mom's car but right when they got home started coughing again and threw up in her car. But was fine, as long as she didn't cough. So she just played at my mom's while my mom washed her clothes. In the mean time; we were getting ready to leave to Ryan's mom's and I was changing Cameron's diaper and he pee'd all over his clothes. So of course I had to change his clothes. We were ready to go and got in the car. Ryan was driving and I was holding the two hot pans on my lap. I had heating pads and towels to keep the heat off me but suddenly it was REALLY hot. The yams (sauce) spilled on my pants and the seat. I was just like "Oh my gosh, what a day" Well we had a great dinner and Brooklynn joined us a little later. She was still coughing but felt fine. She did throw up again cause she gags when she can't stop coughing. I am just glad we have family that helps us and loves us even though things don't always go as planned. We had a fun night playing games and visiting. This was a good lesson for me to really know that life can be hard but there is still a lot to be thankful for.

Long blog... Well I will get to my shopping later. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Muffin Tin Monday on Tuesday

The last two weeks we were busy on Monday so we had Muffin Tin Tuesday. Today we read Arthur's Thanksgiving.
She had a turkey sandwich, corn, Wheat thins, Fruit snacks, Raisens and a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie.

YUM! She wanted me to reread her the book several times.

Last week we read Sam the Scarecrow. She ate Chicken noodle soup, carrots, cookies and crackers.

She thought this book was very silly.

Brooklynn always wants to eat out of a muffin tin. We love our Muffin Tin Mondays (or Tuesdays whenever we do it.)

Disney on Ice

My mom had 3 days to take off for after I had the baby. My mom decided that she would use a couple of those days and take Brooklynn and do something fun with her so I can get things done and spend a little time with Cameron. Last Friday my mom took Brooklynn and my sister-in-law Johana and nephew Caleb to Disney on Ice. (I got some Christmas shopping done and cleaning, it really helped. Thanks Mom.)


Brooklynn loved it and was amazed at everything she saw. They said she did get scared at one part with sharks but other than that she had a blast.

She came home and told me all about it. She told me about all the princess' she saw and Mickey and Minnie (her favorite). The funniest thing was when she was telling me about all the characters she said... "And I saw Pinochio, he's a real boy."

Brooklynn keeps asking me when she can go see Mickey's house now at Mickey Park. (She saw a commercial of Disneyland) Well we are hoping next year sometime.

Blankets for the NICU and PICU

Christmas is drawing near and it is the time of giving. Since Ryan and I got married we went 5 Christmas' without children. We did something every year to help someone else out. Some years we spent a lot and some years we didn't, but we always did something. For a few years Ryan's grandma Oldroyd was in an assisted living center and we would always get together with all his Oldroyd aunts, uncles and cousins. Before we would meet for the party we would go to Grandma's "apartment" and sing Christmas carols, the kids would draw a picture and we would usually give them a little gift. One year we got these cute statues donated and we gave them those. They loved it. It has been a few years since we have done something and this year, because of the economy we decided to have a smaller Christmas than normal and try to do something for someone else.

After talking with the Oldroyd's we decided that we are going to make fleece blankets for Intermountain Medical Center's NICU (where my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Jeff and Nanci work)for all the cute little babies. Our goal is 45 blankets for all the NICU beds. If we get enough blankets for those babies than we will make some for Ryan's work in the PICU at Primary Children's Medical center.

We are also going to check with some fabric stores to see if any of them can donate. If anyone has any extra fleece or would like to donate somehow it would be greatly appreciated. We understand if you can't, we just wanted to put it out there. (We are trying to collect all donations by Thanksgiving.) Hope everyone has great holidays.

Cameron is one month old

Cameron turned one month old on Saturday. (I didn't have a chance to write) I can't believe how fast time goes. He is already changing. My little skinny boy is out of premie clothes and wearing NB. And he is even getting little chub on his cheeks. He sure is a cutie. And I still LOVE his full lips. They are so cute and he always has them puckered.



Brooklynn is also doing better with him and not acting out as much for attention. I feel like we are now getting the groove and can get all that we need done. And also spread the love. She sure loves her baby brother and she is a great mommy to him. (She tries really hard)

Happy 63 year Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa Budd

My Grandma and Grandpa Budd just celebrated their 63rd anniversary on Friday. They are a great example of true love and I have always looked up to them.



Merle Stout met Jerry Budd when she was only 13 years old and he was 18. My grandma was best friends with his sister Radine and they would always hang out and do stuff with the family. My Grandpa proposed in 1940 but they weren't going to get married until after my grandma was either close to graduation or graduated. A year later my grandpa got a letter and was drafted in the army. The war hadn't officially started yet for the US so there was little worries.
Only a month later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and we were at war. My grandpa originally thought he would only be separated from my grandma for a few months and the longest a year (as stated in his draft letter) But the war changed things. My grandpa served in the Pacific and even fought the long battle of Iwo Jima. (It lasted over a month of fighting thousands of Japanese on only a 4.5 mile long island.)

Four years later he finally made it home on October 31st 1945. My grandma never dated one other person. (And people thought it was hard to wait for a missionary.) They were married 7 days later on November 7th. Seven has since been her lucky number. My grandparents have been a huge part of my life. I lived with them for 8 years and they are what made me believe in love lasting forever.

For the last few years I have been reading my grandpa's journal from war and also my grandma saved every one of his letters in those four years. He had some amazing, sad and spiritual experiences. Although it is one sided I still get an idea of what my grandma wrote him by his responses. It is the neatest thing, I am trying to put their experiences into a story. I feel like it is a story I would like my kids to know of their love through those hard times.

Here is a direct quote from one of my grandpa's letters. Just a few months after Pearl Harbor and he was headed somewhere, unknowing to him, in the Pacific. This was when he finally felt at peace that things would be okay.

February 06, 1942 - Some where in the middle of the Ocean

“On Monday evening Feb. 2, I sat on the upper deck and watched a beautiful full moon come over the horizon. As I saw it in the sky so full and round and glistening on the water, I forgot all about being sea sick and I thought about you. I felt as though you were right there in my arms. I stayed there for hours and hours watching the moon and dreaming about my beautiful fiancé. I imagined you were doing the same thing. It was so wonderful that I didn’t dare move for fear of breaking the spell. About midnight it began to get a little chilly, but I was so thrilled and happy, I went and got a blanket and slept all night on the deck. I felt so close to heaven and to you. It was like you were there in my arms. It was all so real I’ll never forget it. I awoke the next morning from my little sleep on the deck and felt very refreshed. All signs of seasickness had left me. This was the first day since I left that I felt like eating. When I return to you we can be married and sealed to each other for time and all eternity in the temple. Oh darling when that day comes I’ll be the happiest person on earth. Well so long for now my sweet itto wife to be and I’ll write as soon as possible.
Love Your hubby (soon to be),
Jerry”

This is a picture of them with about half of their grandkids. Taken in the beginning of 1982. I am the little baby on my grandma's lap. I am so lucky to have wonderful examples and inspirations in my life. Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa.