All dressed up

After church at Nanna and Pappa's house I am trying to grow some hair okay!!
Pappa is learning about girls....and likes it!
Big brother's are great

Cute Kids

Rocket Man

Daddy's new camera is pretty cool..........and pretty expensive:{

Smilin' Brilyn

My little girl smiles so much it's amazing!! Every shot is her smiling. Her brother on the other hand was a hard egg to crack when it came to baby pictures and smiling. And look at those legs. How come fat legs are cute when your a baby?:)

6/7/08 Wedding Pictures

We had a pool at our rental house. Yay!! Actually this was Brilyn's first pool experience.
The happy "new" couple..........
Being a ring bearer is very tiring..... Being a baby is very tiring...........

We went to Aaron's sisters wedding in Las Vegas in June. Cole was the ring bearer and Brilyn was just cute in her wedding dress.

Fun at the Park

Well I am way behind on blogging. No way to catch up so I will just post some recent stuff. If you think I am behind on blogging you should see how far behind I am on pictures in general. No pictures have been printed since Jan. 2007!! Yikes!! I keep thinking well the kids are little I have to get to that stuff later:)

Brilyn's Boyfriend

Look who we picked up at the mall:) Actually no this is Avi, Brilyn's little friend. He is two days younger than her so they are literally the closest thing I will ever have to twins. He is my new friend Krista's little boy. And I have finally found another stay at home mom who hates to stay at home all day:) So we have been spending lots of time together and it's so cool to see the differences and similarities in two babies so close in age. And of course, we get to compare mommy notes too. They are both very SMILY. Right now they just want to eat each other:) So who has time for blogging. I am at the mall, swimming, children's museums, and lot of fast food play areas. Hope your summer is as fun as mine.

Mother's Day Pictures

My mom, me and Brilyn had pictures done at JCPenney's on mother's day. It was fun. Needless, to say I didn't love some of the pictures of me. I am not that photogenic. My kind husband said the pictures didn't do me justice. And he said maybe you just don't take very good photos. Yes, I have known that for years now. But Brilyn seems to be very photo friendly. She smiled for EVERY picture. Very different than Cole. I can remember being so excited if he smiled for one shot at this age. He was still cute though. Enjoy the pictures.

To NOT shot for now.........

So the decision still continues on Brilyn's vaccinations. She went for her 4 month visit this week. She is doing very well. She is now 13 lb 5 oz. and 26 inches long. 50% for weight. Not sure on the length percentile as they didn't tell me. Her pediatrician said okay she needs a LOT of shots and wrote them all down for me. I told him I had decided to wait until she was at least 1 yr. old for most of them and then I was going to pick and choose. They always love to use abbreviations and go over them real fast so I asked him to tell me which ones were which and he did. I decided out of all of them I would give her the oral rotavirus vaccination. According to research nearly all children get rotavirus by the time they are five. My friends little girl had it and had to be hospitalized. Um yeah, been there done that. So I decided to do it because I know it's kinda common and prevalent. One vaccine I have decided not to do until WAY later is Hepatitus B and here's why....

Hepatitis B is spread by blood-to-blood contact or by having sex with an infected person. Oral sex may transmit hepatitis B, especially swallowing semen from an infected man.
A high risk for blood contact is the sharing of needles or equipment with injecting drug users, who may not know they are infectious.
Sharing razors or toothbrushes with an infectious person may spread the disease.
Health workers may be at risk by accidental needlestick injuries.
Women who are hepatitis B carriers may infect their babies around the time of birth. Since 2000, all babies are vaccinated soon after birth, reducing the risk of becoming carriers or contracting the infection later in life

Umm yeah, I don't think that applies to most babies and definitely not mine!

I kind of debated giving her the DPT (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus) because Pertussis or whooping cough can be kind of common but this shot is one that definitely can give them a high fever so I decided to wait until she is older.

My sister-in-law says in her research she has found that older children's bodies are more able to handle the immunizations and I tend to agree. Plus breast fed babies are receiving at least partial immunizations according to what I have read.

I asked the pediatrician if they still put formaldehyde in the shots and he said yes. Here's a list of all the ingredients in the various immunizations just in case you wanted to know http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/ingredients.html

I am more at peace with the decision now than I was before. Also, CDC says you can request an ingredient list before receiving vaccination at your local healthcare practitioner so that is good.

Green Juice

I learned this awesome new recipe at a 4 1/2 hr. hands-on learning session my mom and I went to on sunday. It was presented by a chinese missionary who does massage and tries to eat healthy. He sets up christian schools in china which is illegal. He is very inspirational and we learned lots of cool stuff including trigger point massage. I taught it to aaron tonight, he did it to my neck, and I SWEAR my headache went away. Anyway, he says Americans don't eat enough greens. Umm yeah. My mom told me about the green juice because he was staying at their house and made it for them and to be honest I thought it sounded pretty gross, but I actually liked it. Here's how to make it.

Bagged washed spinach
Fresh Pineapple-yum
Ground Flax seeds
Ground sesame seeds
Ground Pecans (optional
Honey to taste

He made it there for us. He didn't really give us specific amounts, but he used probably at least half a bag of spinach. I think a whole pineapple and maybe like 1/4 cup each of the seeds. And honey can be added little by little depending on how sweet you need it. Then he threw it all in the blender and Voila complete breakfast. Oh yeah and it wasn't very cold so I asked him if you could add ice and he said yes. Of course you can put leftovers in the fridge for the next day and it will be nice and cold but the fresh enzymes of the spinach is supposedly better for you right away. yeah whatever we are eating spinach for breakfast it's still pretty good:)

P.S. He says not to throw away the pineapple skins but to boil them and then drink the water. Hmmm wouldn't have thought of that.

Now I haven't made this yet, but I am going to as soon as I go to the store:) But I am pretty sure that Cole will drink it because he loves JUICE. Especially if he doesn't see me putting spinach in it and really it just tastes like pineapple and I know he loves that.

Size 6-9 months!!!

How did we get into size 6-9 months already! In all actually she can still wear alot of 3-6 months and even some 0-3, but still..... Brilyn is the most smily, happy baby. She loves to be held. Which is fun until you want to get some stuff done:)

Brilyn Dedication March 29, 2008

Aquarium

When my brother and his family were here we went to the aquarium. It was very fun.

Thanks Britt

My Sister-in-law took this photo. I love it! I stole it from her blog. Thanks Britt.

Kinda melts your heart ha?

Easter 2008

Easter is a lot more fun with children..................

Cole, Brilyn and Bob

Who is Bob you ask?
Bob is the build-a-bear monkey seated with cole and brilyn. He pretty much wants to sleep with Bob every night and dress Bob up and Bob likes to do play dough or eat with Cole. The play area at the mall is right next to Build-a-Bear and when Cole was pretty new to being potty training we were at the play area and he said I need to go pee. So I wanted to take him somewhere close and I figured build-a-bear would let us use the bathroom. They sure did! And do you think I got out of there without a new stuffed animal. Nope. But actually it was really fun and Cole has loved Bob ever since. Now he wants to take baby sis.

Look at the camera

I was trying so hard to get one of Brilyn's amazing smiles but she was very interested in the shiny silver object in front of her. Whose lips are those? I think Aaron
Whose nose is that? I think Karen
Whose fat cheeks? I think we all know the answer to that
Whose forehead? Aaron
Ears? Aaron

So who does she look like? Yep, you guessed it both of us and a lot like Cole

To shot or not to shot?

Being a Mom is really confusing. You try to give your kids the best possible foods, the best possible medical care, the best possible education, but then the media, family, friends, internet, and other sources give you all different ideas on what is best.

For example: I used to think that you let your kids only watch "good" tv such as PBS. (By the way, I am still doing this) I know I am a rebel. And now all the research indicates that you shouldn't let your kids watch tv until their are 8 because they will be more likely to be MURDERERS. Oh yeah, and I love the TV causes ADD one. What the crap! Caillou is going to make my kid be a murderer and Curious George will give him ADD.

Another example: I thought dairy products were bad growing up. Yes, I still drink cows milk, eat cheese, and sour cream and cream cheese. So then I thought oh well for my precious baby I will give him SILK. And I remember my pediatrician making fun of me for that. Now people swear that soy is the worst thing for you that it is actually a JUNK FOOD. Well I guess that could explain Cole being a maniac, but maybe all three year old boys are just wild.

Another example: IMMUNIZATIONS!!! Now you would think that this issue would not be confusing. After all, do you want to get diptheria, measles, mumps, rubella (I don't even know what this is) polio (my grandma had it and left her limping for the rest of her life). Of course you don't. But again some family and the media and Jenny McCarthy (love her) are saying shots could or did give their children autism. I KNOW I DON'T WANT my child to have that. Cole has a slight speech delay and it is very challenging sometimes. Imagine if your child cannot communicate with you anymore at all with language, and not only that but he has no emotions anymore. No more, "Mom, I hove you." Oh I would miss that.

So this is my thoughts for the day. My Mom says you do the best you can. And you do, but sometimes I just want to say Oh hell with it and let the kids have soy milk and Sponge Bob Squarepants. I watched tv as a kid and I did not turn out to be a murderer or have ADD. And I grew up on soy and feel like I am relatively healthy. And to be honest, soy doesn't even taste that good. I hate soy milk even Silk and some of the veggie meats are down right gross. And I had all the shots that were available and no autism. AND most of my friends DID too.

So to Shot or not to Shot that is still the question.

Feeding the Ducks

We met Nanna at the duck pond today to feed the ducks. Cole fed the ducks and Brilyn slept:)

My Pretty Girl

Sunset and Tastefully Simple

Wednesday is Aaron's day off and therefore our one day to spend as a family. We were going somewhere in town and I stopped to take pics of the sky because it was so pretty.

Then we had dinner at home. All Tastefully Simple food. Yay~

Dinner consisted of:

Beer Bread

Perfectly Potatoe Corn Chowder--new recipe

Prickly Pear Cooler to drink

Classy Chocolate Pound Cake with fresh strawberries

We had two friends over and we were all STUFFED!