Brady's family put on a fabulous baby shower for us. I know a lot of time and money went into the shower and we are so grateful for everyone's love and support. Thank you to everyone who participated. We didn't have to buy diapers for Brooklyn until she was four months old!
On May 17th, Brady and I went to the hospital early in the morning to welcome Brooklyn into the family. In Brady's previous marriage, his wife wasn't able to have children and Brady thought he'd never have his own biological kids. On several occasions he'd be close to adopting, but it never fell through. He had the opportunity to be guardian of his nephew, Wyatt, for a couple of years. Brady speaks of him often. Brady loved him dearly and I feel like I know him even though I've never met him. Brady's mom tells me how he has always been great with kids. Brady genuinely cares about people and gives and gives all the time. Sometimes I wonder how I got to be so lucky to have him in my life and the girls lives. The day Brooklyn was to be born was precious for Brady and I. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he met his daughter. I do have to say that the umbilical cord grossed him out, but he's a big boy and survived! Brady gave Brooklyn her first bath in the hospital and wrapped her "burrito style" in the receiving blanket. He stayed with us in the hospital until we went home. We took turns holding Brooklyn through the night. Brady has the magic touch to get Brooklyn nice and snug and she loves it. Brooklyn is my first child to sleep through the night from the day she was born. I guess one out of five isn't bad! :) We love her and are so grateful to have her with us.
Alexis turned 8 on May 29th and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 4th. Her father baptized her. Alexis has always been afraid of swimming, so the thought of being dunked under water scared her. She became very nervous and it took about 5 minutes for her to be brave enough to be baptized. I am grateful for her choice to become a of the church. It was also great to be able to see Thayne's family and to celebrate together right after the baptism.
Kelsey received her learner's permit. We purchased a get around town car for her to use. It is a stick shift. I was too nervous to drive with her, so Brady took Kelsey out to practice driving. She had to get 40 hours of practice time completed, thank you Brady for being the brave one and for supporting Kelsey. Brady reported that Kelsey did very well. She should be receiving her licence at the end of this month. Watch out everyone!
Towards the end of June, we packed our bags to go to the happiest place on earth with Brady's family. On the drive, we stopped at an Alien Jerky store. They had free samples of jerky and I excitedly asked Brady to try "invisible jerky flavor". So, he opened the canister and to his dismay it was empty. I kept telling him that the jerky was invisible. Silly guy. We did enjoy sampling the other flavors of jerky though. Then, back on the road we went. We had a wonderful time going on rides and seeing all the princesses. Alexis was pretty scared to ride some new rides. Brady would ask her how she was doing and she'd tell him to not talk to her because she was praying. We are glad she at least gave the rides a chance. We had a park hopper pass and enjoyed both Disneyland and California Adventure. It was so much fun spending time with Brady's family. Grandma Laney and Uncle Bill took Alexis home with them which made our ride home much more comfortable and well, a bit more quiet too. :)
Tower of Terror ride - Alexis closing her eyes and praying - Front row from right to left (Kelsey, Kristel, Alexis, Brady)
Tower of Terror ride - Lauren is not so sure she is liking it - Back row starting from the right to left (Brady, Lauren, Kelsey, Grandma Laney)
We went to Delta for the 4th of July. We love it there at that time of the year. Brady loves cars and motors and engines, etc. He used to be in the Demolition Derby when he was in high school. He's taken me to the last two derby's. They are a lot of fun to watch. I never thought I'd get to know so much about cars! Oh, Brady bought his dream truck, a 1967 Chevy short bed. He will be restoring it with the girls and hopes to take it to drag races. I hope the girls will have fond memories of working on the truck with him.
Alexis and Sophia attended summer camp. They studied Dr. Suess and had a princess parade.
We celebrated Kelsey and Sophia's birthdays in July. Kelsey turned sweet sixteen. We took her to lunch, went bowling and she had a big dinner party that evening with her friends.
Sophia turned four. I made her a large cupcake cake. She loved opening her presents.
Grandma Laney came to visit us on two separate occasions to can salsa and grape juice. She taught me how to make and can the salsa that has been in their family for years and years. We are grateful for her kindness in taking the time to teach us new things! Brady doesn't like chunks in his salsa, so we made him his own batch that was pureed. For some reason Lauren thought that the onions wouldn't get in her eyes if she wore a face mask and a hair net! Too funny.
We visited Nana and Papa and cousins in Rexburg. The kids loved making s'mores and playing in the back yard. Brady and Brooklyn took a snooze out in the hammock. Rexburg is so beautiful in the summer!
We blessed baby Brooklyn in August. We were grateful to be surrounded by family and friends on that special day.
We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary by dining at Texas Roadehouse and treating ourselves to a three hour massage with a chocolate fountain.
And most important, we were blessed to be sealed in the temple in the latter part of August. I shall never forget that experience, it was wonderful.
We enjoyed our garden this summer. We grew tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, chard, kale, zuchinni, crookneck squash, cerano chilis and herbs. Brady built me garden boxes. Cody, his brother, helped him wheel-barrel all the soil back. We were so grateful for his help and all us girls were very entertained watching them go back and forth! There was a small hill they had to push up, so sometimes they wouldn't quite make it up the hill. I really wish I had a picture of that to share!! When my dad visited, we showed him our garden. He joked around calling our garden "dense" because it was the square foot gardening type. It was extremely dense and we decided that we will put more space next year. As a child I hated getting up early to weed the garden or pick the produce, but as an adult I love it. There is a feeling of joy and satisfaction from gardening. I loved watching Brady through this experience. Once he had his first cucumber from the garden, he was hooked and he visited the garden daily to make sure everything was growing okay. I loved watching him from the window, he'd count the produce and then come in and tell me how much bigger the produce was getting. It was fun and we are looking forward to gardening again next year. Thank you Brady for all your hard work to build us a garden. We also enjoyed peaches and I made boysenberry jam from our yard.
The kids played often in the backyard and spent lots of hours on the trampoline. Brady taught Alexis how to ride a bike.
We spent time shopping and getting the girls ready to go back to school. The Sunday before school began, I invited Thayne over to give his daughters a father's blessing before school began. Thayne invited Brady to join him in blessing them. I think it's wonderful that this type of situation could occur. Thayne's sister, Shireen, made a comment about Thayne and I when we separated. She said that Thayne and I both are both kind and have the type of character's to potentially continue to be friends. I truly strive for that and I want my daughters to know that both their mom and dad are good people and they can love us both as we love them. I believe that God is in the very details of our lives. Life is too short to live in the past. So, we pick ourselves up off the ground, dust off our knees and keep moving on. In the end, it is how we treat people that matters and everyone wants to feel important and loved.
Soon after school began, Brady and I desired some time to get a way and recharge for a bit. My parents shared with us an idea that they do annually. They go on vacation once a year to evaluate how they are doing as parents and set goals for the family. We liked that idea, so Brady booked us a small cabin and took me to Redfish Lake in Idaho. This is a place he'd often visit as a child and he wanted to share it with me. It was beautiful there, so peaceful and breath taking. While there, we set goals for where we'd like to see each of the girls progress. We set goals for ourselves and goals for the family. Brady fished early early every morning and we had the most delicious fish fry. (my mouth is watering just thinking about it) We played Canasta, rented a boat for an afternoon and took long walks along the beach of the river. It was very refreshing and we were ready to come home and jump back into life.
Great post!! You look so happy! :)
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