Chalk

On Sunday after church we got out the chalk. The second Brynn saw it she got so excited. Why? Because she loves to eat it. Don't worry, we limit the amount of chalk she eats, just 2 sticks per day. Just kidding, just kidding! We stop her as soon as we see her, or right after I take a picture.
Also I got the first picture of her standing. She is starting to do it more and more.

"Baby Steps to the Door"

First off, can you name that movie quote? Second, Brynn is taking her first steps! I am so happy about this! The funny thing is that when she sees us clapping, saying "yay" and just being so excited for her, she starts laughing so hard that she will lose her balance and can't walk anymore.

Big Brother Caleb

I was cleaning up a little accident in the bathroom (Caleb does this funny thing where is in front of the potty and completely misses it--no idea why or how, I never see it). Anyways, I left Brynn in her high chair with some snacks. When I came back her snacks were all eaten up and Caleb took initiative and started feeding her. I grabbed the camera because it was so cute:

Also, Brynn is taking her first steps finally! She gets really excited when we cheer her on...I'll have to get it on video somehow.

San Diego Trip

What a fun 8 day trip to San Diego Caleb, Brynn and I had. We got there July 3rd, in time for James' commissioning. He is headed to medical school through the military and will be with the navy. That was a special event to be at, very touching. There was so much support there: family, friends, ward members and even a high school teacher (Mrs. Bagg-Rizzo). My Grandpa Jim even present James with the sword he had from 53 years back when he was in the navy.

 The next day was the 4th of July and we did the traditional Coronado parade, BBQ and fireworks.

The next day we all went out to Yogurt Mill, our favorite El Cajon frozen yogurt spot :)

We also celebrated James' 24th birthday that night!

On Friday we headed up to Huntington Beach and got a cousin picture (Andrew isn't in it because he wasn't there yet and James had to leave for the airport).

Then on Saturday was Jodie and Brent's wedding! In the morning we took the kids to the park to get out their energy before the wedding.

The reception was really fun. We ate, danced and had fun being with family. Here is Brynn getting her groove on (she's got my genes for sure!)

Me and my best cousin growing up. Fun times we had together! She was so pretty:

Sunday we went to church and the ward we went to was a family ward mixed with a single's ward. I had never seen that before. We sat in the back (a lot of singles were back there). There was a single girl who told me Brynn was so cute and she played peek-a-boo with her. I could see her yearning to have a baby of her own. I was totally that girl when I was single. It was good to see that because life with kids can be so frustrating and hard! I do terrible on little sleep, can't concentrate at church because I'm just trying to keep the kids quiet, Derrick and I cannot go on dates whenever we want to, I can't get to the gym very often and a hundred other things. It is good to open my eyes and realize I would much rather be a mom that makes sacrifices rather than not have my babies. They do make me happy and are so lovable.
After church we had our traditional bean bag tournament. Pop-pop and I were a team and we got second place! (I made the skirt I'm wearing in this picture)

Sunday night we headed back to SD. We took the kids to the beach on Monday and Caleb couldn't have had more fun. He loved making sandcastles and filling up the watering can and emptying it in a pile. He did this over and over again. It was pretty cute. Brynn loved the water, and squishing her fingers through the wet sand.

The last day there we went to Santee Lakes and played in the splash pad, fed the ducks and played at the park.

The kids had fun and Caleb asked if he could stay at Gram's house. Brynn loved the beads lying around for the kitty. You will see in many of the pictures above she is wearing them, she put them on all on her own...she is totally a girl and I love it!

Water!

We found a cool splash pad with a small river (only a few inches deep). Brynn loved walking in it and Caleb loved running around and squirting his water toy. It was so perfect, not to mention free! Grandma went with us!

Potty and Misc

First off, potty training. Caleb picked it up quickly and effortlessly. Ever since he realized he could do it, he took all the initiative. He goes to the bathroom all on his own without telling me he needs to. He goes in public bathrooms and he doesn't go when he sleeps. He will even get up at night or in the morning, use the potty, then go back in his room and close the door. Angel, I know.
In our nursery room at church they have a bathroom with a tiny toliet. When I picked up Caleb from nursery today the leaders told me he went in the bathroom 3 times on his own, they peeked to make sure he was ok, and sure enough, he was doing his business.
His one slip up was when we were watching an america's funniest home videos on youtube about cats. He was sitting on my lap and he laughed so hard he peed his pants. Haha!
Non potty related, yesterday Derrick and I were measuring the side of our yard. Derrick runs in the house to grab paper and pen to write measurements down. Caleb picked up the measuring tape, pulled it out to his arms length and said, "55. Is that good?" I told him it was good.
Yesterday we deep cleaned our kitchen while the kids napped. We were still finishing up when they woke up. They had fun with it:

The Farm

We went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point (I bought a year pass to all the venues so I'm sure we'll be going a lot. In fact since them we've gone to the dinosaur museum, gardens and farm again!).
It was a really neat place the kids both loved it. Caleb smiled the whole time he was riding the horse.

It was nice that Brynn has been practicing her animal noises because she used them a lot while we were there. The funny story is that Brynn loved all the animals except the bunnies in their cages. When Derrick tried to bring her close to them she shook, whimpered, and turned away, deathly afraid. It was the strangest thing.

Father's Day

This video is from the day after Father's Day because I forgot to record it but this is exactly what Caleb did when he woke Derrick up Sunday morning. We practiced a lot!
Caleb traced his hands all by himself and I cut it out. He loved practicing.

What Caleb Wants

I have told this Caleb story to a few people but had to get it down in writing. We got a book at the library called "All About Graders." While driving in the car we passed two tractors. Caleb: I want to see a grader next Me: I don't know if we will. You don't see those often. Caleb: I want a toy grader. Me: I don't know if they make toy graders. Caleb: Santa has one.

Kiddos

Brynn is learning new words like crazy. Derrick and I left this last week to be leaders at youth conference and I was missing hearing Brynn's voice since she was just starting to use it so much. Her favorite words are animal noises, she knows: ba, neigh, oink, moo, cheep, quack. She also says: keys, oops, bro bro (brother),yellow. And she pretty much can repeat most sounds we say. Here are a few:


 Caleb is learning to use the potty. He has accidents but he usually knows when he needs to go or he will want to go just so he can get a treat. Anyways, when we first started teaching him to go on the potty we had a Lego fire station set as a reward for when he went on the potty 10 times. One night when he was going to bed he had gone 9 times. The next morning he woke up and was yelling, "Mommy and Daddy, Mommy and Daddy." I went in and he said, "I need to go potty." I put him down and I think he went everything from the whole night. He knew he wanted that prize and held it in until he could go on the potty.
Caleb and I built a little house with the Legos, then he kept on stacking the Legos up high. When he was done he told me it was the temple. He even pointed to the fire hydrant and said that was Angel Moroni. So sweet!

A story from this week is this: On Sunday Derrick was feeding Caleb his dinner. Caleb didn't like it so he spit it out, on Derrick suit pants. We dropped it off on Monday at the dry cleaners. Today when we went to pick it up Caleb said to me, "Daddy's suit is all clean so he can wear it to church?" I told him it was. He said, "I won't spit my food on it again." That melted my heart. We never scolded him but I did tell him we had to get it cleaned because he spit his food on it. He totally understood what was going on and I think he really did feel sorry.
Another story from last week: Derrick was starting to do patch-work on our grass. Caleb saw that Derrick was pulling out dead grass and all on his own he found a bucket and started putting the dead grass in it. We think that was the first time Caleb actually helped when he tried to help us.

Kiss Predictor

Monday morning I was holding Brynn right before Derrick was heading off to work. Derrick came over to kiss me goodbye. As he was leaning in Brynn smacked her lips. It was so funny that she knew we were going to kiss! I had to write this story down because it was so cute!

St. George Trip

We did a Paul and Lynne Isaacson family reunion last week--everyone made it! We rented a house in St. George. The house included a heated pool, hot tub, 73" tv, ping pong table, a kitchen, family room upstairs and down, and 5 bedrooms.Here's the video I posted on YouTube for the family:

Here are a few pictures and videos I didn't include:

We also enjoyed playing games, walking on main street (which included a toy store that both kids loved and an antique store where Derrick bought a 1926 abridged version of Ivanhoe), Zion's National Park, eating out and hanging out.
At Zions, we got there after 6pm, hopped on the bus and did one 50 yard hike and went back. I definitely want to go back again, I had never been there before and had no idea it was so beautiful. Kind of reminded me of the grandure of Yosemite. Caleb's favorite part was the bus and he would say hi to everyone as he got on.
Brynn's new word is "ashes" (from Ring Around the Rosies) and she said that all week long.
Lynne and I went to the temple while Paul took Caleb to a place with man-made waterfalls and a few inch deep river for kids to wade in, a carousel ride and McDonalds for ice cream.
Caleb learned two funny phrases. 1. Caleb asked Scott which shoes were his. Scott pointed out, "those bad boys," Caleb repeated the phrase. 2. The family calls Kent fatty. Caleb picked up saying, "Go fatty, go" only to Kent when he was jumping off the diving board.
Caleb would also say, "On your mark, get set, go" before anyone jumped off the diving board.
Caleb really enjoyed himself, he was sad to leave and is asking to go back.

Good Week

Caleb had a few funny instances this last week.
1. Derrick took Caleb to the court of honor he was helping with. Derrick brought the ipad so Caleb could watch A Bug's Life during the slower parts of the ceremony (with headphones of course). In the middle of the ceremony Caleb yells out, "We are the grasshoppers. Where's our food!" Caleb also loves to clap when they clap in the movie, Derrick had to stop him from clapping too.
2. One morning I told Caleb we were going to the library that day. A little later Brynn was crying. Caleb goes up to her and says, "Brynn we're going to the library today. Does that make you happy?"
We ask Caleb what he is thankful for and explain we are thankful for things that make us happy. Then we have him try to list things that make him happy. I think that is partially why he asked Brynn if that makes her happy.
3. First the quote then the explanation:
Me: Caleb, what is a covenant?
Caleb: When you clean your room and eat broccoli.
Five minutes before this conversation Caleb saw a rock on the table. He asked about it, I told him it was part of my lesson for Sunday with the primary kids. He looked confused so I told him I was going to write the word "covenant" on it. I then told him a covenant is a promise, like when you promise to clean your room, you do it. Or when you promise to eat your broccoli, you eat it. Hence, his definition of covenant.
4. I heard Caleb singing and I snuck in to record it:

And what's a post without a picture of Brynn? Unfortunately, she has been a little sick. Runny nose throughout the week and a 103 fever today--nothing a little Tylenol didn't fix. We're hoping she wakes up better tomorrow because we are heading down to St. George for the whole week.

Little Miss Brynn

Brynn isn't walking yet, and I think it will still be a while but her vocab is improving daily. Here are some regular sounds:
Mama
Dada
Nigh, nigh (night, night)
Meh, meh (meow, meow)
Ne Ne Ne Ne(no--usually repeated 4 times with shaking of the head)
No ma (Norma--the next door neighbor dog)
Seh, seh (Jesus--whenever she sees a picture of him she always says this. When she says it, it actually sounds a little like the name)

Brynn loves Caleb. Last weekend Caleb went on the Boy Scout campout with Derrick. While they were gone, Brynn didn't know what to do with herself when she was on the floor because she is so used to going to where Caleb was. It was pretty cute to see that she realized something was different, though I don't think she ever figured out what it was.

Brynn also loves to take everything out of the cabinets in our bathroom. It is nice that it distracts her so I can take a shower, we just have to be sure to keep all harmful things out of her way.

Derrick is 30!

Here's the birthday cake. Hopefully you can see the candles in the shape of 30.











These pictures weren't from the birthday but I thought they went well with the theme.

Pool Time

Brynn liked the pool for about 5 minutes, then she just wanted out. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted

We dried off on the trampoline after we were done with the pool:

Bath Time

Kids

Here's one of the birthday presents we got Caleb. He didn't like it quite as much as we hoped but I think when we get some other kids to play with him, he will like it more. 

Yesterday we just pulled some cookies out of the oven. Brynn knew what they were and wanted them.

 

When we put Brynn down to sleep, she holds her blanket and sucks her thumb. When she found her sleep sack on the floor she knew exactly what to do.

Birthday Party!

 

We had a birthday gathering on Sunday for the kids. It was fun because both sides of the family were able to get together. We enjoyed banana cake:

 

The kids loved their presents too:

This was so cute to see Caleb mowing the lawn with Derrick. Caleb totally loves this and is always asking to mow the law now.

Easter Morning & Stats from Doctor

Brynn had her doctor appointment on Tuesday. Here's her 1 year updates:
Weight: 18 lbs, 24th percentile
Height: 28 inches, 12th percentile
People always tell me she looks small, but I didn't realize she was that small. She looks normal to me. So opposite of Caleb! He's always about 90%. Oh well, we love Brynn just as she is.
Caleb has his appointment on Friday:
Weight: 33 lbs, 67th percentile
Height: 39 inches, 84th percentile
Yay! Caleb has gone way up in the weight category, which is great! Still pretty tall too!