4th of July and other Summer fun!

Summer is going by too quickly! Our next trips this summer were home for the 4th of July and then to Cherry Hill last weekend. 4th of July was as magical as ever. There is just something about being home on that holiday that brings back so many great childhood memories. The parade is basically the same as it was growing up, but the fireworks have gotten so much better! I love watching Brighton exprience things that I experienced as a child. Don't let the sweatshirts fool you- It really was 4th of July. So typical in Idaho Falls. :)



















Valley Girls:



















Haydn doing an awesome karate kick:


















Here are some more misc. summer pics that I took with my camera. Aaron takes all the artsy, cool photos and I just document the every day. So mine aren't fancy-schmancy but it's what I have!

At Eagle Island State Park: (That's Aaron and Brighton making a sand castle in the background)




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Brighton got stung by a bee... in the eyelid! (Actually I'm starting to think it was a wasp and it bit her, because it wasn't that bad.)


















The ONE picture we got at Cherry Hill.



















Her new jeep. This is her friend Anila from across the street.


















Riding our bikes to get snow cones.

Ode to Summer!

Oh how I love thee summer? The sun, the heat, the long days, the water.... I think I am soaking up every day of summer because we had such a yucky cold wet Spring. It's already July and it feels like the first week of summer!
We recently got back from our first summer vacation- Aaron's family reunion in Southern Utah. It was the "Jones" reunion- his mom's side and it was so fun to meet all these aunts, uncles and cousins that I've heard so much about. And I love hanging out with Aaron's immediate family because it doesn't happen often enough. What I found really cool was sitting in this A frame cabin singing these songs and listening to songs that his family has grown up singing. The Jones family is SUPER musical. I thought my family was the VonTrapps but everyone in the family sings and plays piano, etc. Aaron's mom made a song book of all the songs Grandpa Jones used to sing and he actually wrote several of them that we now sing to Brighton. I just love long family traditions like that and songs and stories that get passed down generations. Hearing stories about how two siblings joined the Jones family was really touching and made me understand why Aaron's mom is the way she is- very giving and loving. I really married into a great family!
Anyway, mushy stuff aside. We went to KodaChrome, Bryce Canyon and BrianHead summit. The road was closed so the family just decided to hoof it up the mountain. I had Deacon in a sling on my chest and when it got to these huge rocks I was afraid I would eat it and land right on Deac, so I went down but Brighton was determined to get to the top! It wasn't easy either! She's a little mountain goat!

Here are some of the sights we saw. Bryce Canyon was my absolute favorite. So beautiful!

Other highlights of summer have been "The Beach" -Eagle Island State Park and the neighborhood pool...


My computer is taking forever to load pictures, so I'll have to do more later!

Deacon's blessing

Here are some pictures from Deacon's blessing. Everyone who attended from our families isn't pictured, but my whole family came except Heather's huband and kids, but Heather flew in from Vegas and Gregg and Marthea, Lynzi and Ron, Tami's family, mom and dad and Robert and Anne all came. It was awesome. :)

I love you to the moon and back

All my nieces and nephews have always played this game where they compete for how much they love their moms and vice versa. So the kid will say I love you "this much" and the mom will say I love you to the end of the street and back, to grandma's house and back, etc. So I tried playing this with Brighton and we got really far. It usually ends with "to the moon and back" but I decided to throw in "I love you to Heaven and back" and Brighton who was going along with the game just fine says "Well that would just be weird." But she was good with the moon and back. Finally to end it all she said "I love you how much daddy loves me.. and that's really far." She cracks me up.

She says at least 5 super funny things every day and I always forget by the next day! I'm so lame not to write things down so I want to try harder. Somehow she thinks our sliding glass door is the portal to Heavenly Father. She always yells prayers out the window. The other day she yelled "Heavenly Father (which sounds like Henly Fater, please, please, please make it stop raining!" And then it did stop! I told her Heavenly Father answered her prayer but she told me she didn't really believe me. Where's the faith? LOL She often leaves drinks of water and cookies for Heavenly Father by the back door.

I need to write down her funny sayings of the day more often.

Deacon Newborn and Two Months

Deacon is almost two months. Aaron snapped some great shots Sunday morning. He likes taking pictures while I'm sleeping in! Also I never posted newborn pictures, so first are the newborn and then are 2 months so you can see how much he's changed!
Newborn:
You can really see how yellow he was in this shot.

Two Months: His eyes are very brown!

I guess I had a baby... Deacon Jett

I think I'm still in denial about having a baby. I know that sounds REALLY weird but it's true. I haven't blogged about it because it's still weird to me and I'm still a little out of whack emotionally. NOT that I'm not thrilled because I couldn't love him more and I now understand what people mean when they say they were instantly in love with their babies. (With Brighton I was too traumtized and exhausted to even care for about 2 days) With Deacon, I instantly loved him.

So here's the story of the birth: (It's long)

It was April 3rd, the day before Easter. My sister Tami and her family were in town on their way back from Spring Break in Oregon and my mom was here because she "felt like she should come a few days early" (Inspiration!) So we were in the middle of re-modeling my kitchen and we went to the tile store to pick out tile and I almost had a nervous breakdown. I was having mild contractions and I just couldn't deal with picking out tile. It never would have happened without everyone's help. So then the girls all went to lunch at Smashburger and then shopping. We were walking around Target and I was having some pretty strong contractions. I was feeling pretty yucky so I told my mom and Tami I just needed to go home and lay down. (Now I have to tell this part just to tease my mom.) So after that, my mom wanted to go to one more Target to pick up something for Lynzi's wedding. So I'm driving around the Target parking lot timing the contractions and they're coming every 6 minutes and lasting a minute. So we finally go home and Aaron and my brother-in-law Jason had just started putting up the tile backsplash and I was sure I was in labor but was downplaying it just in case. But I really didn't want to wait too long to go to the hospital because I didn't want a repeat of Brighton, so we went. (I started crying before we left because I was almost in a panic.)

So we get to the hospital and the nurse checks me and tells me I'm not in labor and I almost threw a speculum at her head. This was exactly what happened with Brighton and I was freaking out. So we have to walk for an hour and I was SURE I was in labor. Either that or admit me and put me in a medically induced coma. Aaron's all "they're not very strong, so maybe she's not in labor" and at that point I REALLY almost threw a speculum at HIS head! So the nurse checks me again and I AM in labor and she admits me and I put a rush order on the epudural and all is well in labor land.

The epudiral didn't go in very smoothly and I couldn't stop shaking until I gave birth but it was so much better than last time. Right after I got the epirual I was dialated to a six and my water broke. Aaron went to get something to eat and to pick up Tami and a few minutes later I felt like I was fully dialated and ready to push but the nurse didn't check me until like an hour later and at that point I was at a 10 (plus 2- she said on the phone to my Dr. whatever that means) and ready to push. BUT neither Aaron nor the doctor was there! So they had me wait for them to get there and then I pushed through one contraction full force. Then on the next two contractions I just pushed halfway and let my body do the work and out he came! It was so easy I couldn't believe how great I felt!

We hung out in the hospital for two days and ate SO much chocolate cake and just relaxed as much as you can in a hospital. I noticed the baby didn't eat very often but just thought maybe he was getting so much during the feedings it was lasting a long time. He went six hours one day and I thought it was a good thing. (shows how dumb I am) The second day we were there he didn't pee at all but the nurse said it could have been because he was circumsised that day. He had jaundice and before we left she checked it again and it had gone up so she called my pediatrician, Dr. Ally and she said to come in the next day just to make sure it was ok. So we went in and after we weighted him and checked his bili ruben she said "I am SO glad you came in today. You need to get to the hospital right NOW." She said if we had waited until the day we were supposed to take him in he would have been needing a blood transfusion. She said she'd never seen bili ruben go that high that fast or a baby lose so much weight so fast. I was SO freaked out but just went into business mode and got him to the hospital. They had to put an IV in him to hydrate him because he STILL hadn't peed in 2 days when we took him to the hospital and was severely dehydrated. They put him in the little light box with this mask to protect his eyes and we could only take him out to feed him every 3 hours. I was so worried that he'd be in there crying and we wouldn't be able to hold him but he didn't move or make a sound for TWO DAYS. It was good that he was content and slept for 2 days straight but it really freaked me out. I even had to wake him up to eat. After the second day we took him home and treated him with a bili blanket. He's now a month old and still has jaundice but I haven't taken him in to check his levels again. He has gained a lot of weight and eats really well now though. He's actually getting a little chunky!

When he was born he was 7'15. He got down to 7'1 in the hospital and at his 2 week appointment was up to 8'8! Holy cow! He's probably almost 10 pounds now, seriously. Well that's enough for now, I'll post pictures soon!

Super Girl!!! (Or Super Grill as Bright would say)

I love these pictures Aaron took of Brighton Sunday morning. Sorry for the
partial nudity... but it was much worse before she put on her tutu. ;)
Look at how graceful her legs are with her toes all pointed perfectly! I think
she's going to be a dancer!