Watch Out World, We Gotta Cruiser!

Still playing catchup :)  I'll have to do my Idaho Christmas post later because I haven't uploaded the pics onto the computer yet.  

Sad, teething babe



Pretty much from Dec 16th to now, poor lil Brig's been sick on and off, or teething.  He got two ear infections within a month!  So our awesome sleeper has gone back to hit and miss, just depending on if he's sick or teething that week. 



Two front teethers

On a happy note, both of this two front teeth popped through at the first of January, and they've slowly been making their appearance.  They are adorable!  But man, have they been a pain in his rear, er, I mean mouth!  He's definitely been miserable this time around.  

If you look close enough, you can see a battle wound on his lip





On another happy note, Brigston's walking!  He started standing up on his own and balancing all by himself at the end of Nov, and he'd grin from ear to ear, so proud of himself.  ADORABLE!  He'd take a step here and there and was getting braver around Christmas.  Then the day he turned 11 months he just up and wobbled across the room to me.  Probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  I now know why they call them "toddlers!"  Took him about a week to get the hang of it good, and he's been cruising around ever since.  He rarely crawls anymore, and he gets going so fast now it looks like he's running.  There's been a lot more bumps, bruises, and tears from wipeouts, but he's doing great. GO BRIGSTER!!!

Yeah, he's a sad walker in this pic.  It was raining pretty good so I took him outside to run around in the rain and feel it for a minute, but it was pretty cold so I brought him back in.  Well, he wanted to go back out in it, so he was crying, walking back and forth between the door and me. But it's a "walking in action" shot, so I had to put it in.  ---->

First Haircut

Wow, I'm on a roll!  Three posts in one night?  This is insanity.  I better write about this in my journal. ;) 

So Brig had his official "FIRST HAIRCUT" right before we went to ID for Christmas.  It went great!  Nope, not really.  If you'd like to know the recipe for making your babe's first haircut miserable, I went ahead and figgered it out for you.  You can thank me later...

Ingredients for a First Haircut Disaster
One super cute baby
Time of the day should be an hour past baby's bedtime
Baby should only take a 30 min afternoon nap for supreme overtiredness
Haircutter should be someone the baby does not recognize
Decide to do it last minute while trying to pack for a 2 week vacation
Put baby in a cold bumbo seat with no pants on
Show the baby toys that he can see but can't play with because he's stuck in a bumbo
(Keep a paci on hand to prevent hair getting into baby's open, WIDE open, mouth

Make sure to use ALL the ingredients without leaving any out, and you will have definitely get this:

 

It's fail proof.  Trust me.  We tried it!

He's Mobile

Just like things evolve from one stage to the next, Brigston definitely evolved into his mobility skills.  It was hilarious.  Here's his evolution from last fall.


The grand beginning..."THE STOMACH" Stage

The "look at me, I can go from my tummy to sittin' up!" Stage

The "I can put my knees under me" Stage



The "Crawl forward with my face on the ground" Stage
(Yeah, still can't figger this one out)

The "holy cow I can lift my bum in the air" Stage

The "I get it, my head's supposed to stay up" Stage

The "I finally got the whole crawlin thing down" Stage

The "I now get into everything" Stage
(This chocolate face was too cute not to add)

Ridiculous!

Ok, so my blogging skills are horrid and atrocious. There. I admit it again. It's gross. But I like to think I've been busy doing other great things. One main thing that's chasing a 21 lb, blue eyed, and absolutely adorable lil mess maker. So that makes it ok, right?

I'm going to try to play catch up. It may take two or three posts, it may take 10. Praying it's not the latter or it might take me five years to catch up on my catch up. (Does that even make sense?) Here goes!

Sooo, way back in the day of Oct 2011, I had yet another bday come and go. I always get homesick for my familia around that time because we always used to party hardy on my bday when I lived within a stone's throw of them. Not so much a stone's throw anymore. More like, well, TOO FAR. Anyhow, they still always try to help celebrate long distance and make it a good day (as did the hubs), but I was missin them.

Fast forward a few weeks to a Sunday night that Nov. I was dead alseep and dreaming when I heard some giggling. It took me a minute to place the giggles, because it didn't make sense that I was hearin my sissy and madre, in my room, in the Lonestar state, in the middle of the night. Welp. It was them. I opened my eyes to see 4 beautiful faces giggling at me. As I recall, the only thing I could say was, "What the heck are you doing here?" (Of course it was said with much love and elation) My parents, sis, and lil bro drove down for a surprise visit. And I was most definitely surprised. It was a FABULOUS week, and I admit, I have the best family ever. Seriously. Brigston loved all the attention and we had lots of tears when they had to head back. Brig would go from room to room, trying to find them after they left. It was so sad, but so cute! Best. Family. Ever.

 

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Family Pics

Ok, I'm super embarrassed about my blogging activity or should I say lack thereof. I was never good at writing in my journal, thought I'd do better at this.  Well, I'm still crappy. Oh well. I have a lot of catching up to do for the last 3 months.  Maybe that'll happen sometime in the next year. In the meantime, I'll document our first "official" family pics we had taken in October. Here are some of our favs from the big photo shoot.  Can't believe how big our baby is.  So grateful for our happy, healthy Brig! 

 

Party's Over!

Wow, I'm a bit behind in my "journal entries" for this summer.  Oh well, such is life.  I'm sitting here, depressed, as I type this because it puts it in writing that our summer's officially over, & David's back at school again.  I'm trying to decide if it was a good thing that we got him all to ourselves this summer.  I think it makes us miss him that much more after having him around 24/7 for 3 months.  We're back to the world of Dad leaving early/getting home late, seeing him for 30 mins while he eats dinner, & then again right before he goes to bed.  We miss him terribly, but love the weekends.  Brigston and I are back to our routine where our greatest excitement comes when Dad gets home and when we get packages from our family (Mom, you're seriously THE BEST!!!). 
Our summer was awesome, & it went way too fast.  We spent 6 wks up in Idaho with our familia, & it was lots of fun.
Our 3 weeks with the Dayton's:
Played BAREFOOT outside all the time
Brig went fishing for the first time (What can I say? The kid's got Dayton in him!)
Visited Great Grandma Dayton in the hospital
Found out we had a sweet new baby niece in Germany, Olivia Susanna was born to Marnie & Kevin. She is beautiful, just like her 2 sisters & mama!
Went to Shoshone Falls & the Twin Falls temple
Played glow-in-the-dark frisbee until 1am
Had 4th of July picnic, kicked some hiney at the bean bag game, got smoked in the golf challenge
Lit off awesome fireworks
Dorsey's came to see us & met Brigsy Poo ;) Man, how us Texans miss the Dorsey's!
Brigston got loved on by everyone! Auntie Ky & Aunt Jer came down every weekend to play. Thanks ladies.  And the Dayton grandkids get spoiled by Nana & Papa :)
Went to Bear Lake & had a great time at my uncle's cabin.  We laughed, ate way too much, swam everyday [Brig's 1st time swimming=huge success. Relaxed him so much he pooped & filled his ENTIRE swim diaper], saw a Pickville Playhouse play (say that 10 times fast), played lots of mini golf, had some wicked air hockey tourneys that produced some wicked injuries, & had ice cream & fresh raspberry shakes. There's never a dull moment when the Dayton's get together.  Love it!
It's always so hard to leave them...they treat us like celebs whenever we come home. Thanks, Dayters!

Our 3 weeks with the Sterzer's:
All Brig's aunts, uncles, & cousins got to meet him for the 1st time
Went to cute cousin Bridger's baby blessing & got to meet Great Grammie & Great Papa for the 1st time :)
Got a tour from Grammy Sue of the new I Center at BYUI (pretty amazing)
Went to Body World, which we absolutely LOVED
Celebrated Dave's b-day (Dave you were such a good sport)
Went country dancing...yes ladies & gentlemen, we still got the moves, baby!! :)
Tried incessantly to get the goats to faint
Went to a cabin in Island Park for the Sterzer reunion.  We again ate way too much, played lots & lots of games, watched movies, rode (and got bucked off) 4wheelers, played pool, saw a bear, fed the big fishies, & had fun watching the Hancock kiddos love on Brig.  They were so cute with their little cousins.  I loved it!  It was a fun weekend!
David pulled off his 10yr high school reunion. Don't know what possessed him to be Sr. Class Pres. Seriously. Don't know. Glad that one's over.
Went to Bear World with Carson & Tanner.
It was great to spend time with most of the fam on the Sterzer side & made for a crazy, fun house.
We came back to TX tired & sad we had to leave family yet again, but we were so glad we got to go.  Thanks for everything, Idahoans! Oh, how we love our beautiful Idaho, & it's fabulous summer weather!

We got a month here at home with David all to ourselves, & Brig & I loved it.  We lazed around, read lots of books, went swimming, went to some dental school BBQ's, went shopping, & played our hearts out with Brigston.  Can't believe our Brig man's 6 months old.  Where does the time go?  He's still very long & lean.  He was 28 in. @ his 6 mo appt (still in the 90th percentile), so he still has his mama's long legs.  He's such a fun baby!  He's sooo happy, & loves to play, talk, & giggle.  I think he'll be sitting on his own within the week.  He's super active, but still loves to snuggle.  It seems like he learns something new everyday, & he keeps us laughing.  When we got back from ID, he started taking 30 min naps again & has been waking up every 3 hrs at night.  I guess he's making up for not doing that as a newborn. That's been an adjustment since he used to sleep all night. (Any suggestions anyone?) But he's cuter than ever, & I love how we can love something so small so stinkin' much!  People are always in love with his eyes, often comment on what a great baby he is & how happy he is.  We're so grateful we get to be his parents!  So our party's over, but here's to a great summer, & to the start of another year of D-school for Dave.  OH, and a sweet, sweet woman from our ward at church gave us her old piano FOR FREE!  We finally have our 1st piano! I'm a happy girl, and we're loving having piano music finally fill our home.  

PS--Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the creepy crawlies here in H-town?  This week I had a flying earwig divebombing me in my house.  Not even kidding. Wish I was though.  Yeah.  I was traumatized.  Had no idea ALL of those little nasties can fly.  I can see it now....they're gonna make a movie called "Earwigs" just like the freaky old movie Birds. 

So I have a million pics I want to post, so I'll collage some of our favs from the summer.  Also, for the familia, here's the video I said I'd post from July.  Please ignore everything except for that cute lil giggle box!

Oh May Goodness!

Tehehe, thought my title was pretty clever, seeing how May is now over! OH MAY GOODNESS!  Where does the time go?  I've pondered some things this past month and need to write them down for the sake of a May journal entry on our blog.

#1:  Insurance companies are a pain in the hiney.  Usually, they just annoy the poo out of us, and make us want to throw shoes.  But for now, we love them.  Did the 'ole math.  Without it, my blood thinner shots would have cost OVER $24,000 for the last 7 months.  Yeah, choke on that for a while.  That's 8,000 bags of gummy bears' worth!  So we love ours.  We could throw kisses at them instead of shoes probably.

#2:  I'm not a normal girl, I think.  I chopped my hair and before the gal cut off my hair (prob about 10 inches) she asked me if I really wanted to do this.  "Yes."  Are you going to be okay with this?  "Yes."  Ok, I just want to make sure you're not going to have a breakdown while I'm cutting.  "Nope."  I contemplated faking one after she made the first cut, but didn't.  I've never really cared enough to be upset about a drastic change in my hair.  And if it gets screwed up, hello ponytail.  I should care more.  I'll work on that.  Maybe.

#3:  I'm trying to think of a way to keep David home forever.  He finished his first year! YAY! We're getting spoiled with him having the summer off.  I'm going to have a breakdown when he has to go back in August.  AND when he doesn't get any more summers off.  We love love LOVE having him home ALL DAY LONG.  It's blissful.  Think he'd be offended if I broke both his legs or something?  Would that keep him home longer?  (that's a joke) (maybe)

#4:  Brig's growing up way too fast.  In fact, our boy is already trying to figure out what he wants to do in life.  Here he is practicing doing a snowboarding board grab, bull riding, and singing opera.   

 #5:  Can babies get permanent lip marks in their cheeks from too many kisses?  Hmmm.

#6:  There's no place like home.  Idaho you have never looked so sweet!  Here we come!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!