GoOD cLeaN fUn

Cooper very proud of his motorcycle jump (the little mound of dirt on the floor)
The motorcycle getting ready to jump

Good 'clean' fun

That's my boy! He's always digging, building,and figuring out how things work. This plant is his usual building ground. I have found him here quite a bit during the day. You never know what they'll come up with!

So, this picture may not be a big deal to anyone else but to me it's huge! The other day there were a few boys around his age playing by our house (our whole block is a field aka playground) and I said, "you can go play if you want" Not thinking he really would. He's usually so shy I didn't think he'd chance it but he ran and got his shoes and put them on, ran out our door, hesitated for a few min at the bottom of the stairs, and then ran right up to them and started playing! What?! Since when is my baby boy big enough to go play outside with the boys and make friends that aren't at a playdate with their mommies? It was one of those make your heart ache because you know they're not your baby anymore kind of moments. I was glued to the window watching. I'm so excited to live in a neighborhood and watch him grow up with all the boys in our neighborhood. We have some great neighbors. Justin is still really good friends with his neighborhood friends so hopefully my kids will have some lasting relationships just like it! I love our house!

I've had many entertaining conversations with Cooper while we were driving in the car but I think this one tops them all!

Coop: Look at those horses!
Me: What horses? (We were on the freeway so it was a quick glance)
M: Oh! (Shock)
C: What was that horse doin Mom?! (Lots of laughing)
M: Maybe it's getting a piggyback (also lots of laughing)
C: Why's it so tired? (laughing) It's gettin' a ride on the other horse! (laughing)

The above repeated until we got home with lots and lots of laughing on both ends. We had to call Justin and tell him about the funny horses getting a piggy back ride. Who needs the discovery channel?

Tulip Festival

My good friend, Coralie, invited us to the Tulip Festival and I'm so glad we went! We were there for over 4hrs and the kids had a blast. I can't believe we've never done this before! This definitely won't be our last time. Someday I'm going to get a good camera. So many opportunities for good pictures

Oh my goodness I love her!

'The Boys'

Cooper~best friend Jaden~Carter

I don't know how many times they rolled down those hills but it was a ton. Cooper could barely move when we got home!

Feeding the fish

They were troublemakers the whole time. They ran around together like a mini tornado. I don't think we got one pic with all three of them looking at us. They were so cute to watch run around

My cute kiddles and I



Ava checking out Miss Bailey's bow, our little flowers (once again, another pic they're going to love when they're older!), my cute Ave, and Coop and his bff.

Thanks Coralie and Jessica! We had so much fun

ZoO

We took the monkeys to see the kids at the zoo

We've been having lots of fun nights with Cooper trying to sneak into our bed at night so we told him if he got to mark off a number every time he stayed in bed all night and for naps, when they were marked off we would go to the zoo. He marked all the numbers off about a month ago but it's been so yucky we just made it to the zoo! Sorry buddy, but good work! The train was by far his favorite thing!

2nd Generation 'Brigade'

Ava~Staeli~Oakley

Ava is the oldest of the three, can you believe it?! Look at how big Oakley is

Hopefully they won't get into any more trouble than their parents did in high school!

~9 Month Follow Up~

Length 26.5" 10th percentile

Weight 13lbs 3rd percentile

Head 42.6cm 10th percentile

She's my dainty little peanut! She's tiny but full of life. I will give everybody an update on what's going on with her. It's just everyday life for us so I forget that people wonder about what's going on with us. Ave is pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. She loves food but will now look at her spoon to see if it's from my plate or hers. And then she decides if she will eat it or not. And she loves to feed herself which is so cute! She sits up like a champ. I think she will have to learn to scoot on her bum because crawling may be a little difficult. We'll just have to see what she comes up with! Justin says (and I agree) that we will have to put food just out of reach to get her motivated to move! Seriously. She is the most laid back, easy going baby. And she's an adrenaline junky. You can try to make her laugh all day and nothin' until you throw her in the air or push her in the swing. She loves it. And she's a total Mama's girl-I'm loving every minute of that-because how long is that really going to last? We will probably be going to Shriner's in the next few months to see about possible prosthetics and ortho stuff. But she's healthy, happy, and has eyes that make you melt. We love her!

Ahh...the simple things

This is for you Andrea. (and Mom, maybe you'll believe me now that she laughs!)

So, we are alive for those of you who still check our little blog! And LOTS has changed in the last 6 months. We went on a trip to Cali for Halloween-didn't want to come back, sold our condo in a week, and MOVED! Oh yeah baby! We are currently the only people on our block. Nice change from being surrounded on 3 sides. My little boy turned 3, and my baby girl is 9 months old! Ava is now saying Mama and Dada and has one tooth with more on the way. Coop is a daredevil on his motorcycle. Coop and Ave also started swim lessons by our house. Crazy. We also took a little trip to Moab for Easter weekend. I'll post pics of the house soon but for now these will have to do!

Sand mountain in moab, Coop rolled down the whole thing and had sand in every cravace

Check out Ava's face. Not quite sure about that bit white bunny

Ava had much more fun on this trip than her first one in August. Love this girl

Ava and Brooke

He's going to be so mad about this picture when he's older but I love it!

Potty Training

Oh the joys of potty training! The only thing that has worked so far is bribery. And it works well! So far we've used mini cars, candy, and mini golfing. We told Coop if he sat on the potty 5x and peed then we could go mini golfing. So we went and had a blast. He's surprisingly good for 2 1/2. He definitely didn't get my coordination thank goodness! We also rode the bumper boats and Coop squirted everyone in line. It was pretty dang fun. So, we'll see what else we can bribe him with...

2 Mos and so cute!

These were done in August, but better late than never right?

Jackie~check out the tutu!

Cooper 2 1/2 yrs, Ava 2 mos

Ava slept for 6 1/2 hrs last night. Oh yeah baby

"Shot deer with arrow?"

For those of you who don't know, we go on a yearly campout for the opener of the bow hunt. It's pretty dang fun. There are a ton of people there and we do things like candy hunts, play cards, animal hunt for the kids, testimony meeting, ambushes on the way to Blue Lake, and pretty much just have a blast. Here are a few pics of our adventure this year!

The hippos Coop found on the annual animal hunt. He's sharing the baby hippo with Ava and you can tell she's loving it! What a good big brother

Coop and Izzy are only 2mos apart and they were pretty good buds the whole time! They just followed each other around and played. I'm not sure if the bottom right pic is a hug or a tackle by Coop but it was cute either way =)

Little Ave's first camping trip! She even had some camou for the event. She didn't love camping like Cooper does but maybe next time when it's not quite as windy. Hopefully...

Candy hunt-Justin and I like this just as much as Coop does. We always get to share a few pieces of his candy

It's hard to see but Justin's relative set up a zipline for everyone. It was awesome! This year we actually had a harness which made it much easier to jump off the rocks! Coop picked some really pretty wild flowers for me with aunt Britney and he also got to use his new fishing pole.

One of Justin's cousins got a deer this year and Cooper went to see it. He still says things like, "Tyler shot deer with the arrow?" "Me touched it!" "That deer must be scared we get him with a arrow!" For a girl not raised in a hunting family I sure have one little hunter in the making. Uh-oh

Cooper has discovered that if he doesn't wake us up when he comes in our room that he doesn't get taken immediatley back to bed. This is how we found him one morning dead asleep. I love those jamms!

2 Months!

I can't believe two months have already gone by! Here are Ava's latest stats:

Length: 22.5" 50%

Weight: 10lbs 4oz 25%

Head Circ: 38.8cm 50%

She's only 25th percentile for weight but her cheeks (on both ends) make her seem higher than that. Cooper calls her 'little chubba chubba'

Blessing Day

We blessed our little Ava on Sunday and we had tons of family and friends join us. Justin did such a good job. I'm so thankful for the priesthood and that I have a husband worthy to hold it. We are truly blessed!

Our cute fam and Coop cheesin'

All her grandparents except for two. Awesome huh?

Her little booties. My great grandma Blackburn made these for my sister who Ava is named after and my grandma Brown embroidered the little flowers. She also made the blessing blanket for her. Good thing we have talented people in the fam otherwise it would all come from the store!

Auntie Necia made her adorable dress-Thank you Necia!!

~Four generations~

Almost everybody who came


It was pretty hot at the luncheon after and this is who Coop ended up and soaking wet! Love the saggy drawers