February Fun

Brennley is really enjoying Joy School this year. This was taken on our most recent field trip. It has been really fun watching Brenn interact with her friends and other teachers. She is really changing and preparing for kindergarten. 

What has been on my husband's mind for the past few months.....RECESSED LIGHTING!! I love my husband. I am the luckiest woman in the world. My husband is extremely hard working - not a lazy bone in his body, he loves our children and is such a fun, playful dad, but also knows how important it is to teach our children while they are young. He is always complimenting me too! He is so motivated. He is constantly finding and planning new projects to improve our home. So, he started researching this project a while ago and put it into action! He did our upstairs family room and now we want it everywhere!

McKay loves watching dad. He loves the new lights too. Every time we come upstairs, he points at the lights and then he says, "Dad"! He knows his daddy works hard in our home.

The beautiful finished project! Thanks Pat!! 

Valentine's Day: "The Best Day Ever!" Brennley is such a sweetie pie girly girl! She loves Valentine's Day. She woke up to chocolates that dad left out for her. She was able to take Valentines to Joy School and have a fun time exchanging treats with her friends. When I picked her up from Joy School, she told her friends, "Let's run, it's the best day ever!" 

She had found a flip-flop that goes on a necklace in my drawer, it was just missing the chain. So, on Valentine's Day, I surprised her and put a chain on it and put it around her neck. She tilted her head and gave a sweet smile and said, "I love how much you love me mom." It was a sweet moment. 

After Joy school, Dad surprised us and said we could come to his work and have picnic at the park! The two best things in the world. Dad also had surprises at his work for us - more chocolates, stuffed animal for Brenn, cozy socks for me, and white chocolate dipped strawberries Mmmmmm! Thanks Pat!

Our sweet son McKay.......Oh boy! We went to the park and there was some construction going on. McKay was sitting on one side of me, watching the big construction machines on the other side of me. I thought, oh he is such a boy and I moved him to the other side of me to get a better look. He freaked out! Later on, he started to walk to the playground and the machine started making a high-pitched beeping noise, so he started crying again and walked back to momma. I love this boy so much! I need to help him  not cry so much, but it is so hard when he comes to me saying, "mama mama" and he gives the best hugs and kisses. I have a hard job to do. :(

Daddy was so sweet to try and explain what was going on to McKay. Pat always has a different perspective than I do. I am so focused on the moment, he does much better looking at other solutions. 

Planning on more recessed lights.....

Our friends invited us to go to a snow festival in their city. Brenn was so excited to play in the snow. It was really fun and reminded Brenn on Utah and the real snow. 

McKay and Dad.

Going down the tube slide! We all loved this! Brenn didn't want to go at first, which I kind of expected. Then, we watched her friends go down and she got all excited and went down with her friend. McKay enjoyed it too!

Oh yeah, more trouble!!! This little climber has found everything to get into. If he can't reach it, he finds something to climb on. We have now learned why there is a lock button on our water and ice dispenser. 

After dinner one night, Brenn had some yogurt and wanted to share with McKay. He was trying to grab the spoon, so she let him feed himself. They had a blast together!

Another fun place to climb! Brenn being the momma.

Driving in my car, driving far, I'm a movie star!

I know this isn't a great picture because of the sun, but I love McKay's mouth wide open in joy! And my hubby looks cute in his hoody! 

Here is the video of the yogurt sharing. My daughter loves the camera, what can I say?!?!

BooBoos, Pat's Birthday, Doggy

Oh boy, look at these kiddos. Brenn woke up with a swollen eye. It went away pretty quickly, but it looked bad in the morning. McKay had busted his lip from flying off of the slide in our backyard. Also, in this picture you can see his eyebrows. He found out how to use his brows recently and it is so funny. He will use his eyebrows when strangers talk to him or when Pat and I hug, or if I get on to him.

We have had a lot of rainy days recently, so one day we blew up the air mattress, popped some popcorn, and watched a movie all snuggled up. Ahhhh....it was soooo nice. The joys of being a momma. I am trying to relax more and make the moments count. Brenn remembers all of these little moments. She now tells me whenever it rains that we need to blow up the mattress and bring all the blankets down for a movie.

Thanks Aunt Ya-Ya for the fun Christmas!!!! Brenn got to go on a date with Dad, which is something that means SO MUCH to her. She will talk about it for months. These little things are so special. They went to Costco and then got some ice cream at McDonalds. She just loves getting attention, especially one on one with dad.

McKay has learned how to take off certain shirts (if they are stretchy enough). So, he loves taking his shirt off and running around the house, patting his cute tummy. It is hard explaining to Brenn that she cannot take her shirt off like McKay. But, it is still cold here, so he needs his shirt on too. I just thought it was cute. 

Pat's birthday dinner. Happy 29th Birthday Pat!! Pat really wanted lobster for his birthday, but he ended up changing his mind a day or two before his birthday because of the cost. So, I searched most of the day for lobster for this hard workin' fella. It was so difficult to find lobster for under $25! I knew he wouldn't be happy if I spent that much, so I didn't. Aunt Shauna paid for a fish dinner from Cheddars and he loved it. We also had our own little dinner with some fettuccine alfredo and shrimp. 

The birthday boy!

Cake and ice cream with the party!

Pin the tail on the donkey. Brenn and her friends enjoyed the birthday festivities. 

Pat enjoying his "special birthday game". This is a fun game from a previous birthday of Pat. Pat's mom suggested we play this at his birthday and we loved it. We made all of the adults play and we were all crackin up afterwards. It was so much fun! Thanks Grandma!

The party crew. The missionaries even stopped by because they love Pat. He is so kind to the elders. He always gives them rides and feeds them every chance he gets. Pat is so kind! Thank you everyone for the gifts, calls, cards, and love. We are so blessed to have such kind family and friends. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Stephens, Grandma & Grandpa Lifferth, Ward Family, Gage Family, Zurawski Family, and everyone else for the love!

We had the chance to dog sit recently. The kids were in heaven! Oh yeah, and you might be wondering about McKay's nose.....He had a nice crash with the brick courtyard at the library. I felt so bad for him. His nose has healed up great! McKay loved the dog. Whenever he woke up in the morning or after naps, the first thing he said was "dahh" for dog. He would follow the dog around trying to pet softly and then he would get so excited he would move both of his hands up and down really fast on the dog's back. He would also walk slowly toward the dog and bump her with his belly sneakily. 

Brenn is a great dog trainer. She did almost everything to take care of the dog. She fed her, walked her, made her do her tricks, and even wanted to pick up her poop with a plastic baggy. She loved having a dog in the house and it was real cute watching her be so responsible. 

Brenn and McKay have had some really sweet moments recently. Brenn had a few really bad days with McKay, where she was having a hard time sharing and being nice. We started talking about how to be nice to our family and we discussed the story of Nephi and his brothers. We also talk a lot about how choices make us feel. Anyways, since then, Brenn has tried much harder to be nice to McKay. It is the cutest thing. Like this, she decided on her own to share her special cookie with McKay. While I am talking about the cookie, here is that story. So, Brenn got a little nervous on her bike after she fell a few times. She was too scared to go down the slant from the driveway to the road and Pat challenged her to set a goal to do this. She didn't ride her bike for almost 2weeks. She finally worked up the courage to try and then she backed down. So, one day Pat called from work and said he would like us to decorate sugar cookies for our family night and have that has a motivator. We went out three or four times and I helped her down, but she wouldn't do it by herself. During the day and during dinner, both Pat and I talked to Brenn about being brave and how sometimes we have to do hard things. So, after dinner, she did it! It was the greatest thing seeing her overcome her fear and look so strong and brave! Sorry for the long story! Anyways, this cookie was a big deal and she shared with McKay. I love my family. I feel so blessed everyday! My husband is amazing, he works so hard during the day and plays hard with the kids! 

January 2012

McKay started backing up into things, like the wall, or me. It is cute. So, sometimes he backs up into the wall to have a snack or just to giggle. Silly McKay.

Dad and Brenn enjoying one of our fun Christmas presents - a popcorn popper. It is so fun and very inexpensive to pop popcorn. 

I have taken McKay into Nursery a few times, so he is getting some practice sitting at the table and eating snacks. So, now he likes to take his snacks to our little table and eat like a big boy. 

Brenn and McKay eating lunch together. I love when these two play and giggle together - that is one of the best things about being a mom. I love hearing them having fun together, it is so sweet. 

Another project at the Stephens home. My husband is so motivated and extremely talented. We have been wanting to paint the kitchen for a long time. So, we started with bead board - which we love. We decided to break this project down into a few weeks. So, we just did the bead board on the first Saturday. 

McKay of course loves being beside dad, especially when he is doing manly things. Whenever he hears the saw in the garage, McKay will giggle. If he hears the garage door open, he runs to it. 

So, McKay wanted to be right in the middle of the action. He was thrilled to be beside Dad, working hard. This little boy is full of energy, testing his limits, and has lots of tears. Yesterday, he was getting into everything all at once. I felt like I was just following him around getting him out of trouble. He laid down for his nap and I finally took a good breathe. I was stressed thinking about how I can keep McKay from getting hurt. After his nap, he woke up happy (which is not extremely common for him) and when I picked him up he wrapped both of his arms around my neck and gave me a huge hug! Life as a mom, up and down. Oh, I love this sweet boy.

We let McKay try out the booster seat for a little while. He loved being at the table like a big boy - but he is not quite ready. He still wants to throw everything off the table on to the floor. 

McKay watched some of Willy Wonka with Pat and ever since then, he has been singing the Oompa Loompa song. Pretty cute!

Oompa, Loompa....

Christmas Round 3

Santa left a note in Tennessee explaining that he would make another stop at our home in Texas with some big presents that could not fit on his sleigh on the first trip. So, on our third round of opening presents, Brennley got a Barbie Jeep! She asked for this last year and this year and reminded me that she did not get it last year. So, she thought she would never get it because it was too big for Santa's sleigh. (Santa was soooo lucky this year with generous friends and yard sales!) Brennley was thrilled!! She loves driving her jeep and McKay enjoys being the passenger most of the time. The first time Brenn drove it, she kept pushing the pedal and letting off really fast. So, McKay was getting some nice whiplash!

One of McKay's presents was a BIG teddy bear, which he now sleeps with and LOVES! He snuggles with it, hugs it and plays with it. He is so sweet and snuggly.

McKay also got a train table! Both McKay and Brennley love the train table. Mom and dad have enjoyed setting up tracks too. The only problem we have now is McKay wants to climb on everything, including the train table. Tonight, he learned how to climb onto the kitchen table! Great..... He is definitely exploring  his limits.

Part of our Christmas was getting to go to Les Miserables. Our friends got us discounted tickets and we couldn't pass up our chance to go. It was such a fun night. The theatre was amazing and it was our first time seeing the show - WOW! 

This lil punkin head! He has learned how to "cheese" for the camera. My kids are great at cheesin'! He is so sweet. He has also learned how to fold his arms for prayers. He won't keep them folded, but he always checks to see if I am watching. And sometimes, he will fold them back at the end of prayers so that I will give him a big smile and a pat on the back. He has been doing a little better at trying to communicate. He is trying to make different sounds, he says "ba" for Brenn. He can say dog, dad, mamamamamama, teeth, treat, juice (hoose), and other fun jabberings. He loves hearing himself make noises.

This was a fun experience in Tennessee. Brenn got to shoot guns for the first time with dad. Pat loved shooting with the brothers and Brenn was watching out of the window, so he brought her over to start learning. She loves doing everything like dad!

We were so lucky to see Elder Dye while we were in Tennessee. He grew up in Pat's ward in California. So, we were thrilled to see him, eat with him, and hear a spiritual message from him. He is an amazing missionary. We were amazed at the strong testimony he bore of our Savior, Jesus Christ. My parents have loved all of his hard work in the area. He is a great missionary and I have gotten many phone calls from my mom praising Elder Dye. We are so proud of him for serving a full-time mission and sharing the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ! Way to go Elder Dye!

Oh, I love my momma! What a sweet, kind, generous, wonderful, child loving, service-full, silly lady! I had so much fun just chatting with my mom. She would stay up late and start to get silly and just chat and chat. I just soaked it up. I wish I could be around her more. I know I can learn so much from her amazing example. I love you MOM!

These videos are of the kids enjoying the jeep! What a fun gift! Thanks Santa Claus!