Catch up

I'm a little behind and have some fun events to catch up on. I'll start with our fun trip to Utah. I flew out with the kids to see my sister and her twin babies and meet the first Waldron nephew, and I loved spending time with my family and catching up with friends. Some of the highlights were swimming/playing at Nelsons, picnic and hike to Bridal Veil falls, hike with my mom, luncheon at the country club, catching up with a couple of good friends, walks with siblings/mom, games after the kids were in bed, Thanksgiving Point, and amazing desserts. I don't have pictures to document all of this, but here are some pictures we did get (in fact, I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures. Most of these were taken and shared by my sisters- thank you!):

Next to come... Ryan and Nancy's wedding...

Uncle Benj

We loved having my brother, Benjy, with us for the summer and were sad to have him leave on Saturday. Besides his diligent dish-doing, frequent taking out the trash, and babysitting so I could exercise or run errands, we really mainly miss his smiling face and fun personality! Christopher LOVED playing with him (he mainly called him 'Uncle Benj') and misses his fun afternoons at the pool and evenings of roughhousing with him. Brooklyn also loves him and completely lit up whenever he came into the room. Chris and I had fun times with him, just hanging out, talking and goofing around, watching movies, and enjoying California. We are so glad he could live with us and we REALLY miss him! I teared up a few times on Monday realizing he was really gone. :( Here are some pictures that will help us remember our time with him.

(Too bad I didn't have the camera handy the times Benjy was up on the surfboard!)

We love you Benjy! Thanks for the fun summer!

Our Storyteller

Christopher has become quite the storyteller. Once he gets going he can talk for 30-40 minutes non-stop. Here is a little clip Chris caught the other day (the part at 1:30 cracks me up!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iu7Is7MmXs

And here is a common scene in our home- Christopher making Brooklyn laugh (and vice versa).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OefDLzIou8

Showing off his farmer's tan:

Loving new foods:

Our kids are getting too old!

Reunion/Family in UT

Earlier this month we went to Ogden for an O'Brien Family Reunion. It was so fun to see and catch up with so much family! Here is the entire group:

My family:

Here are all the family members (who were at the Reunion) who were delivered by my Uncle Lynn (in the middle). Pretty neat!

Fireworks on the 4th:

We enjoyed being back in Ogden and also were able to visit some of our friends we've really missed. We also stopped in to visit with Kirk and Alicen and Chris' grandma, then he and Benjy flew back to CA while I headed to Provo to be with the girls and kids (and Tia) :) for the rest of the week. We had tons of fun, swimming, hiking the Y, and just being together.

Cute Kyla fell asleep while hugging Brooklyn:

My mom took us all to Thanksgiving Point and the kids had tons of fun in the Gardens and in Children's Discovery Garden:

I was sad to leave after a fun vacation, but it helped that Jessie drove back with the kids and me. Even though she was here less than 24 hours, we fit in a walk along the beach, shopping, hanging out at the pool, and dinner at Ruby's on the Pier. (Sorry, I can't upload those pics for some reason).

Thanks to all who made our vacation so memorable!

7 Facts

My friend Marci tagged me and I'm supposed to share 7 Random Facts about myself that people might not know. Well I decided to switch it up and share 7 facts/updates about my family (and I'll do one about myself sometime soon):

1-We live 15-20 minutes away from Chris’ family and enjoy seeing them often. We had a fun Memorial Day with them and some friends from their ward. To see a fun video of swimming that day, click here.

2- We are fortunate to have my brother, Benjy, living with us for the summer. He’s working at Chris’ dad’s company and we are having lots of fun with him (Christopher especially!)

3- My mom came to drop Benjy off and we loved having her visit for the weekend. We enjoyed 3 trips to the beach, a dinner with cousins, a lovely drive down the coast, laying out at the pool, movies, walks, and shopping.

4- We loved our last ward and miss our friends there, but we are also enjoying our new ward. Chris was recently called to be a Deacons advisor, and I get to teach the Sunbeams. Fun stuff!

5- Chris is currently on a business trip in New Orleans. He’s enjoying the pleasures of being in the professional world as opposed to student life (tonight his dinner was “lobster, two types of crab, big shrimp, crawfish, soft shell crab…and nothing has its head removed!”)

6- This was a fun little family activity we did while my mom was here. I also had my mom bring out my roller blades and plan to frequent the boardwalk which is just over 2 miles from our apt.

7- Christopher has decided he doesn't like to go to sleep. He’s been in bed for over 2 hours, mostly staying on his bed but calling for me occasionally and just rolling around and playing quietly. Not quite sure how to handle that… but he also had me laughing nonstop this evening. Yep, he's a two-year old! And Brooklyn is just as sweet and smiley as ever. She’s starting to roll over, loves to laugh, and enjoys trying new foods. :)

What Happened?

Ok I did a new post a few days ago and now it's gone. I have no idea how or why. Any ideas on what happened or how I can get it back?

Life in CA

As promised, here is an update on the kids. Christopher is at such a fun, busy stage. He's quite a talker too. Some of his favorite phrases right now are "fire engine truck!" (in response to seeing a fire engine, police car, or anything close to it, or hearing any kind of siren), and "happened?" (whenever he wants to know what is going on. He'll say it if he hears a honk, if I laugh at something Chris says, or pretty much any time either of us has any kind of reaction to something going on.) He also likes to say "I love ('luf') my blanket" or "I love Daddy". He is still a sweet, affectionate little guy. The other day he said "kisses" and I gave him a kiss, then he said "kiss eyes" and kissed each of my eyes then "kiss brows" and kissed both of my eyebrows. I was cracking up but thought it was so cute! He now has a big boy bed and has done pretty well in it. But one naptime after he had already gotten out of bed a couple of times, I found him like this (in the crib):

He still loves being close to Brooklyn and giving her lots of kisses.

Brooklyn is still such an angelic, sweet, good baby! She is 3 months old and is starting to laugh, grab at things, and is very alert and loves interacting with others and smiling.

This is how she looked after we went for a walk. I thought it was so cute how she was holding onto the blanket.

Also, I cut my hair! I had decided a while ago I would donate it to Locks of Love (12 inches), but it ended up shorter than I expected. I was kind of dying the first day or two, and it will still take some getting used to!

Yesterday Chris got a call from a friend who offered us Angel's tickets for the game in a couple of hours. We figured we might as well take advantage of good, free tickets and had a fun time with the kids and Ryan and Nancy!