Hold those you love close!

It truly amazes me at the amount of faith that people have. Their faith strengthens my faith. I stumbled across this blog a few days ago. It is so hard to see the struggles this little family is facing from recently losing their little girl in a drowning accident. But then I see how strong they are in their testimonies and I am inspired and strengthened by them. I think you will be too.


http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/2010/07/blessings.html

http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/2010/10/pay-it-foward.html

http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/2010/09/answers.html




I can't help but literally sob, thinking about what this young couple is going through. It makes me realize: that no matter what our Heavenly Father loves us and is there...especially during the tough times, that this life is precious...we should not take one day for granted, and that those around us are precious. Hold to them, hug and kiss them...and tell them that you love them!!!!

The Bag Lady

I really should be posting about Thanksgiving...and Halloween...and everything else in between. However, this seemed more fun at the moment.


Well, we have a little bag lady in our house who collects everything she can find or that she likes into her miniature shopping cart and baby carriage. As you can see here it becomes quite the collection.

We do not help her arrange any of it. She squeezes it all in like a puzzle and then pushes it up and down the hallway...looking for quarters I suppose...or maybe some pigeons to feed.

Other items we have found in their...garbage, dog food, ritz crackers, baby medicine, Mom's toothbrush, a computer mouse, remote controler, keys....all treasures to little Miss Brynlee.

Wow! You should be just as amazed as I!

First of all I am impressed with Digis.

My pictures are loading so much faster.

It might just be a joy to blog more often.

Second of all I am impressed with my Mom.

She always comes up with the most creative ideas.

If you have never looked at her blog...you should here.

This is where you will see the cutest growth chart ever.

She is caring on what my Grandma Robbins always did each year.

Pencil notches is what marked the spot on her door frame.

Man, I wish I had a picture of that.

All in favor of my Mom selling her stuff...say I.

I think she would do so well!!

(Thanks Mom for letting me borrow your blog tonight for a quick post. I love you!)

A House Becomes a Home

Has it been 4 months since my last real post. Yes! I think that time just gets away from you in the summer kinda like a dream, and then reality hits and it's dreaded winter again. To say that the last 4 months have been busy would be an understatement...more like a whirlwind, but it's over now :)

I think she looks like Tyler in this one...except with asian eyes and such.

A little more about Brynlee....

She is now 16 months old. Wow! She is such a joy to be around and I love her with all my heart! She impresses us each and every day with how quick she is catching on and learning things. She immitates us like crazy, so we are making sure to watch what we are saying and doing...because we now have a little shadow. She is very good at making the sounds of each animal and pointing to her body parts. She loves to help me clean and of course loves little songs and books. She has discovered the television. This is good for when I am needing a minute to do the dishes or fix my hair, but try to turn it off and she will tell you what she thinks. I think that she could become an addict of television if we allowed it.

She is a very social baby. For example, it was just me and her in church yesterday (Ty was sick)...we sat in the gym because of a farewell and she probably sat on 5 different strangers laps, brought back licorice, and toys of all sorts and flirted with anyone who would lay eyes on her. Oh, and then at one point I had her by the skirt, ya know the stretchy part. Oh did she think that was something to giggle at...well, somehow she got away and sprung forward into the collapsible wall thing. She laughed and unfortunatley so did everyone else...I really could've used Ty's firmness this Sunday. Oh well, I guess it was entertaining for all those around us.

And I could go on and on...hopefully I will be now updating this a little more, so if you care, I will be divulging more on our sweetheart.

A little more about Tyler...

*So happy to have his hot rod down here...to just look at for now until he has the space to work on it.
*Hates school from the bottom of his heart!! Just 2 more 1/2 time semesters...You can do it!!!!
*Is oober proud of being the only one in society to not be on Facebook.

A little more about Sara...

*Is suddenly much more aware of all of the crap that is in our food (high fructcose corn syrup, preservatives...etc.)
*Loves life, but would like it to slow down.
*Makes dang good zucchini bread...mmmm!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This was taken probably 4 months ago while Brynlee was helping us work on the house... Notice the circled area on the bucket.


Does this qualify me for Mom of the year? I think not.
We did manage to make a little fun for ourselves this summer. The funnest part was watching our little baby become a toddler. She is a walking diva now!! We also of course ate ourselves silly with hamburgers and hotdogs and swam a bit, well 2 or 3 times (which is miniscual - considering there is now a pool basically in our front yard) and thanks to the Butler's made it to one out-of-town sort of trip to Bear Lake.
(Butler's, Hodson's, Allred's....Rodriguez's came too, but had to leave early)

We spent the summer months mostly finishing our home in the 105 degree heat. Yah, that was fun and all, but I am happy that we are now just sitting here on a Monday night relaxing together as a family. THANKYOU to all of our wonderful family and friends who spent a lot of tiresome hours helping. We hope to someday be able to return the favor somehow.

These are pictures before we moved in all of the furniture. I will at some point decorate...and then put up some more pictures. My favorite rooms ended up being Brynlee's striped yellow room. Notice in the picture it still needs Chair rail around it....yep, still haven't done that. It is on our checklist of about 100 different things. That is not an exaggeration either. I also love how the kitchenn turned out ...oh, and the dark brown wall. I was a little scared for that, but am now loving it. BUT I'm not so much looking forward to the day when dark brown is out of style and we have to paint over it.

And that is all for now. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth writing on a blog. I had a good friend get rid of hers and so it kinda tempted me ( I won't mention any names, but her name starts with a K and ends with an ATIE.) It does seems like a lot of work and just one more to-do, but for now here it stays.

Sara Scott, Sara Hodson, Ogden, Utah

If you like Hip-Hop...

I started writing a blog, but now I am way too tired to finish...so tomorrow...or Sunday...it will happen.

In the meantime I found this amusing. Maybe you have already seen this...and maybe not. And I hate to admit it, but I really do love hip hop music...and Justin Timberlake. So prepare yourself for the Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake--History of Rap:



xoxo Sara

...and then we ATE ELMO...

Sunday was Brynlee's birthday. Can you believe she is already a year old? I sure am having a hard time believing. I think that this past year went super fast...which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. She is our little sweetheart and we couldn't be more thankful for such a good girl!

We ended up celebrating her birthday on Monday, because of the Monsoon that we had on Sunday. We really wanted to have it outside since we were grilling kabobs. Plus, that is how I had it planned out in my head. It turned out really nice! Thanks to our family for coming and for being so nice to spoil Brynlee with gifts. She now has a different outfit to wear for each day this summer, and lots of fun toys to play with!

A nice Monday evening....very different from the night before!

These were pretty fun to make. Luckily Tyler's Mom had a bear mold that I used which made them a ton easier.

Dig in!

Want some????

Mmmmm.....Cake....



It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!....We pretty much reached her happiness limit by the end of the evening.

On Monday Brynlee also had her 1 year check up. She is 18.8 lbs, and 28.5 inches long, so we will be holding off on the front facing car seat for a little bit. Too bad for her because I'm pretty sure she would love it so much better. She also got her MMR, Hepatits, and Chicken pox shots, but no fever this time :) . I asked the doctor about her little tantrums when changing her diaper and she told me to just ignore her...and to make sure to emphasize the good things she does when she does them. You catch more bees with honey.

So, we are still not in our house like we had planned. Things are taking a little longer then we had expected. Hopefully within the next 3 or 4 weeks...hopefully.

Checklist:

_Soffit/Facia/Raingutters

_Garage floors

_Driveway (We're doing)

_Landscaping (We're doing)

_Taping on sheetrock

_Cabinets

_Painting (We're doing)

_Tile (We're doing...maybe)

_Carpet

_Finish work...moldings etc. (We're doing)

_And about 100 other little things (We're doing)

Do you think we can do this in 4 weeks??? We will see....

Here's a couple of pictures of the amazing brickwork! Tyler loved Augie Romero's work and his bid was right around everyone else's.

Take time to slow down!

Even if you are not religious I think that THIS is an article that can be appreciated.

President Hinckley recalled that his father “never ceased growing” because he made time for “thinking, meditating, and pondering.”

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin observed how easily we fill our lives with “appointments, meetings, and tasks” and then act frightened at the prospect of some quiet time. Why would that be? He feared that we might “feel that the busier we are, the more important we are—as though our busyness defines our worth.” On another occasion, he reminded us that “being busy is not necessarily being spiritual”—for in fact, noise and busyness can actually crowd out the still, small voice of the Spirit.

“When we put God first,” President Ezra Taft Benson promised, “all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.” This is one reason President Spencer W. Kimball could say that “we will move faster if we hurry less.” Undistracted by other gods, we trust the Lord to help us allocate our time and talent to their very best uses each day. As a result, we do more good and we make real progress.

Life is SO busy! Sometimes it is so busy that we forget to appreciate and enjoy life. I am a partial failure at taking time to slow down. I want to work on this more and really enjoy everything that I am blessed with.

On Studio 5 this morning...(yes I watched studio 5 this morning)...they gave a summer parenting challenge part of that challenge included letting go of rigid expectations.

"Basically I am giving parents an excuse to relax; to have fun and enjoy their kids. I am allowing parents to "play hooky" from their regular schedule for 3 months, then to assess the aura in their home. Children who come from homes like this are happy. They have fewer illnesses.They are successful in school, successful in careers, and successful in relationships."

So, here's to a fun summer of 2010...They started on the insulation and sheetrock this morning, so hopefully we will be moving in within a few weeks :). Then we can relax and enjoy some fun times as a family.

ps This is more for my own benefit...I hope I'm not sounding preachy.

really?!?!

three things:

...this is a tag stuck to my straightner

...that i just barely noticed

...but luckily i didn't try to staighten my eyelashes with my straightner

...this is a monitor

...which we wish we would have bought about 11 months ago

...because it has been so nice to go over to our house and work with ty without having to check on little miss every 10 minutes

...this is a website

...that my coworker showed me

...to make brynlee's baby book because i am just now getting around to that...check it out...it's awesome

THE END

Untitled

I really mean to update this more often, but it doesn't so much happen. Probably because when Brynlee is asleep I have a list that's pretty deep of stuff that kinda takes the cake as far as being more important. Also, I lost my camera, then I found it, then I lost it again, and then found it again..........But this is what's been going on:

* Brynlee loves her baby cousin Eliza...well all babies really, but especially Eliza.

*Ok, the Rodriguez's are awesome!!!!! They had a Cinco de Mayo party complete with mexican cuisine, a pinata, and good company. I decided to try something different...so I made faux fried ice cream. I think it turned out pretty good....here is the recipe.

* One plus about living out here is you can burn stuff. We burned some old plywood the other night and then made hobo dinners....yummy!!!! I definitley recommend these more often then just when you go camping.

* I got a little crafty for Mother's day. Here's what I came up with. My coworker actually showed me these probably about a year ago, but I didn't really get around to making them till now. Mother's day was wonderful!!!!! Ty spoiled me with flowers and breakfast (not in bed because Brynlee is usually our alarm clock on Sunday's). Then we went and ate lunch at Ty's Uncle Terry's and Dinner at my Momma's.

* The Big Bang Theory.....Get it....watch it....LOVE it!...on NETFLIX

* 6 years = the amount of time Ty have been legally and lawfully married....and eternally. I LOVE him mucho mas and it seriously just keeps getting better and better. I am loving growing old with him!!!!

* Remember this post. Well, I haven't really been more committed to my first goal, so until I have made a valiant effort toward this, then I can't move onto other goals. I have tried...but not to my liking. Here's a picture of Brynlee and cousin Eliza getting ready to go on one of the probably 2 runs that I've been on.

*She's such a joy!!!

* Hey, aren't these cute. Well, as of a couple months ago I'm the personal progress go-to person in our YW's. I had the girls decide what goal they wanted to work on this month and then make a button ring to coincide with the value color. You can find the demo here. We have personal progress once a month here, which compared to my last ward is a lot. So I want to be creative and make it exciting for the girls. Well, needless to say, that's not so easy to do. So if you all have any suggestions or ideas I am more then open :)

* Sometimes she thinks I'm a little wierd.

* My dad = the newest bishop of the South Ogden 6th ward (as of 2 weeks ago). Congratulations Dad. We love you!! See you in 5 or 6 years.

Chop-Chop

WANTED: LOST CAMERA!

So, I still can't find my camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember having it at Kari's husband's b-day dinner and then it vanished into thin air. I think that somebody is playing a mean joke on me because there are a ton of pictures on there that I am stressed/sad that I might have lost FOR-EV-ER.

Until then here are a couple from my Mom's camera that she took of me before my hair became about a foot shorter. I decided last week to chop my hair short. It hasn't been this short for a while, but my long hair was pretty nastified. I donated about a foot to locks of love, so I'm really hoping they can use it. If not that's ok too...it was time for a change.

It was so cute to watch Brynlee's reaction. She looked at me and smiled. Then she reached out for my hair and kinda pulled her tiny fingers thru it all the way to the ends for a few seconds. Then she was done with that and wanted to go and play.

ps...thanks Laura for showing me how to make cute collages for my blog :)

Oh, and how do you like that sexy LDS Family Services shirt? I'm not complaining though...it's the one day (about once every 2 weeks) that I don't have to put a skirt on :)

Just Words

I am absolutley loving motherhood!! Not that I wasn't loving it before, but it seems as though it just gets more and more rewarding!!!!!! Seriously Brynlee is the funnest thing on the planet to me! She is so entertaining to watch and to play with. She is soooo smart too. I think that she just might be going to Harvard like her Daddy thinks she will.
Right now she will:

***Give you high five when asked.
***Clap her hands together if you mention "patty-cake".
***Lean in for a kiss if you ask her for a kiss.
***Wave bye-bye all the time.....but not when you want to show her off to someone she's not familiar with.
***Growl at the dogs...especially Rambo, who happens to be her favorite...Also she enjoys feeding Rusty her puffs and crackers. He loves it too!
***Crawl in everywhich direction and especially not the direction you are expecting. Um...she even is climbing up stairs. Yikes!

Oh, she is a handfull, but I absolutley love it!!!!!!! She has been much more pleasent lately now that her top two teeth have broken through.

Brynlee is so sweet too. Lately she hasn't been taking her normal 3 hour nap and so I know that she's tired and she'll sit there and rub her eyes and cuddle her head into her blankie, but still just be the sweetest little gal.

I am at work right now so I will post some pictures when I find my camera and when I'm at home.

Christmas day!

Christmas was so fun with baby Brynlee!!

Yippee my favorite perfume!

My favorite gift = sewing machine from my Mom and Dad

Tyler ♥'s this show...don't ask me why?!
Ty's favorite gift = $$ from his Mom and Grandma and Grandpa B.

Brynlee had to taste everything to make sure they were ok to play with.

Brynlee's favortie gift = The wrapping paper and bows

Brynlee and her cousin Taitlyn (2nd cousin)

Such a great day with our princess :)

Is this wierd that I'm posting this a week before Easter?????!!!!????

Brynlee Bear Sure is Growing!

Ok, so she is 9 whole months now!! That sure did fly by. She is our little angel, and we are so grateful for her everyday! It hit me the other day when I was in the store looking for some summer clothes for her. I was in the infant section and couldn't find any of her size....that's because her size is in the toddler section now! What!!!???!!!

She is now:
...26.5 inches long and 17.85 lbs-kinda on the smaller side.

...pulling herself to a standing position, but has yet to crawl. Somehow though if we sit her in one place she ends up in another place that's about 3 feet away. I think somehow she's scooting.

...loving Cheerios :) But hating any kind of baby food that's not sweet potatoes.

...getting a little anxiety when we hand her to someone she doesn't know.

...is a little chatterbox and screecher. In church this has proven to be a problem. She will hang over the back of the bench and screech at all of the people behind us, and then protest very loudly when we try and get her off of the back of the bench. OH, and then there was the time that someone was singing a very lovely musical number and she chose to sing along in her screech owl voice. FUNNY, but maybe not so funny to the people trying to sing

Pics that Ty's Mom took:

Pics that JCPenny's took:

As you can see it takes her a little bit to warm up to people...and that is why there was not even a hint of a smile for the girl taking these.

...and what have we been up to?...

It will hopefully be done soon :) Ty has been working SOOO hard on it. He goes to work from 6 to 3:30 and then comes home and works on the house until it gets dark. Ty, his Grandpa, and his brother have been doing the electrical and plumbing and little framing jobs inside for the past couple of weeks. I think they are amaaaazzzing! This week the brickers are putting on the brick. It is beginning to look like a house, but has a ways to go until it looks like a home.