Brinley Turned 2!!!

It is crazy to think that Shad and I are parents of a 2 year old. It just seemed like yesterday she was born. It is weird to think that this time last year I had a one year old! I decided to throw her a pool party since her b-day was on a Thursday and because it has been hot...perfect for swimming! I made her a butterfly cake and butterfly, ladybug and bee cupcakes. I am so sad that I didn't get pictures of the good bees or the butterflys. Her party turned out great. We had 25 kids and 10 adults. It was quite the party!! Shad's grandparents came down to get grandpa's teeth worked on so they were here for the event. Grandma and Grandpa were amazing at helping me get all the food ready and the yard ready to go for the party. Shad had to work most of the day so it worked out great to have his grandparents help!!! Thanks again! Brinley LOVED having grandma around. She played for hours with her. Here are some fun things I would like to remember about her at this age:

-She can say more words than I can count and use them in sentences to say what she wants. She usually will say a full sentence and not just one or two words.
-She loves puzzles. She got a new shapes puzzle from Shad and I for her birthday and she already knows where the shapes go and can correctly identify each one except for rectangle.
-She loves ABC's she can sing most of the song with help and she knows over half of her letters.
-Her temper is very short. She gets mad if things don't go her way in about .2 seconds.
-I have been letting her pick out her outfit each day. She prefers to wear a dress over pants or shorts. She loves dresses!
-We could call her a fish because she loves water so much. I have to be careful to not let her know that we will be going swimming on any particular day otherwise she will not stop asking to go and she won't take a nap.
-She has a very caring personality. She becomes upset if someone gets hurt or cries. She has a couple baby dolls that she loves to rock, kiss and take for walks.
-When ever she sees a picture of a temple she says. temple. temple . She also thinks that churches are temples. I have been teaching her the song, " I love to see the temple" and she will sing some of the words.
-Her prayers go like this, "Heavenly Father, nice day, amen"!
-Not all of her teeth are in. She still is teething and I hope they will all be in soon poor thing!
-She gives great big hugs which I LOVE!!! We love you Brin and are so glad you are our sweet, beautiful and precious daughter!!!

Shad's Birthday

Yesterday was Shad's birthday. I felt bad for him because he had to work most of the day and he didn't really feel like doing much when he got home. I got our favorite Thai food to go and made him a cake. I actually made him two cakes. The first one I made the frosting wrong. I made him a different cake to redeem myself. After we ate and had cake we lounged around and watch tv. It was nice just to relax and spend time together. We were going to go to Midway this weekend, but it didn't work out. Our landscaping for our house needs to be in before the cold weather hits so we decided to stay here and get it done tomorrow. I love you babe thanks for all you are and all you do! ( I will post pics as soon as I get them developed. I had to use my film camera while our digital is getting fixed).

Brinley's 1st Birthday

Where to begin? This last year almost seems like 10 years in one. I can't believe a year ago I had Brinley. She is such a blessing in our lives. With all of the sadness, turmoil and stress of this past year she has lifted much of that weight with her smiley bubbly personality. A few of the many things we love about Brinley and that she does:

-She always smiles when she wakes up and is sooo happy!
-She has the cutest girly laugh and is ticklish under her arms, above her knee, on her back and under her chin
-Her humor is different than mine or Shad's she thinks growling is soo funny
-I will tell her "you better run" and she crawls as fast as she can to get away from me. Once I catch her and tickle her she laughs pretty hard
-She is very animated. She has this open mouth chin thing she does (not sure how to describe it). If you aren't paying attention to her she will tilt her head as far as she can to stare at you until you pay attention to her. She has many tongue tricks and she is a tease (thank uncle Lafe)!!!
-I can give her food and she will feed herself
-She hates food (sticky or gooey) on her hands or face. For her first birthday cake she became quickly annoyed having frosting on her hands and not being able to get it off.
-She is a daddy's girl....all she has wanted today is dadda
-There are about six words in her vocabulary: dadda, momma, bobba, happy, baby and hi
-She has never been a good sleeper at night. She wakes up at least twice a night...yeah for us!

All in all she is the perfect fit for our family and we thank God everyday for her!!! On her birthday Shad's mom was down helping us with the house since she is an expert in a lot of areas with cleaning and painting. So, we took Brinley to the Zoo. Angie, Kourtnie and their kids all came and we had a lot of fun. Brinley loved the carousel, the baby giraffe and the elephant. I can't wait to take her back again! We love you Brinley!!!!

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1 year old!!!!

Happy Birthday to..ME!

It is rare that Shad will post anything so I will have to do the post on my birthday. It was yesterday. I have never caught a fish anytime I have gone fishing so Shad had the brilliant idea to take me fishing. Last year he gave me all the fishing supplies I could need or want so we were set to go. Shad talked to some "fishermen" and they told him where to go. We went up by Midway/Deer Creek area. There is a really popular spot right off the road. When we showed up there were quite a few people and they had all caught trout! We thought sweet this will be easy.....It actually took us almost two hours to catch one!! It was soo frustrating at first to say the least. I am not good at casting and you have to be to fish where we were at. Finally, Shad was able to take the spot of a guy who left and he cast the line for me. Not more than a minute later I felt a fish on my line! Like I said I have never caught a fish before so I didn't know what to do. I ended up losing the first one. Shad cast the line out again and boom another fish. This time I was able to reel it in! I was going nuts!!! My first fish and it was AWESOME!! For those of you who haven't experienced the rush of catching a fish you gotta try it! When I reeled it close to the bank Shad brought it out of the water. It has swallowed the entire line and hook. He had blood all over trying to get the hook out and he even hooked himself (ouch)! We tried a couple more times after that, but I was so excited I couldn't concentrate on getting another fish. We decided to head back home. When we came home Shad told me I was going to learn how to gut it and fillet it. If you have a weak stomach you may not want to look at the slide show. Anyway, I was a little sick at first, but I got through it! We even had it for dinner. It was a great day!!

Shad and I both worked yesterday so we went to the mall for a little bit to bum around and then we came home. My wonderful, perfect for me man got me a beautiful watch, a sweet card and portrait certificate. I am spoiled! Thank you honey...I love you! Thank you to all of who who sent me birthday wishes....it means so much to me to know people care!!

Spring has Sprung (hopefully)

Shad decided he needed a bigger, "badder", sweeter, faster and overall better motorcycle. He bought the bike in Southern California and decided at the last minute that he was going to fly down and drive it back. Surprisingly enough he did just fine and he said his back hasn't hurt him too bad from the ride. While he was gone Brinley and I went up to Bridal Veil falls for a walk since the weather was soooo nice. I hope it continues!!! Here are some pics! Later Kourtnie and I went and got pedicures. It was great except for having the Asian guy doing the pedicure get mad at me for putting my foot into the water when I wasn't suppose to. Yeah, it was great. I don't think I will go back there again.

My niece's b-day was last weekend. I have posted pics of her cake to my cake blog: sweetcakesbyaj.blogspot.com. Happy birthday Jazzy!! We love you!

Shad's Birthday and Mark's Funeral

On Wednesday the 17th it was Shad's Birthday and also Mark's Funeral. The funeral was amazing. The family did a really great job. Mark's four daughters did a celebration of their Dad by taking turns saying what they remembered about their amazing father. The music was beautiful and the dedication at the grave was so peaceful. To give you an idea of how much Raelynne loved Mark here is what she wrote on the program. You can click on the program to enlarge it so it is readable! Also, Angie (the oldest daughter) made Shad a birthday cake. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Shad had almost all the strawberries eaten off of it before we got home. A BIG THANK YOU for the cake and for all of the thoughtfulness and love it is much appreciated!!!!!!




Since the funeral was the same day as Shad's b-day he celebrated in Dallas at the Monday night football game (Cowboys vs Eagles) which was an awesome game. We also celebrated last night. I made him his favorites...pork chops with honey mustard sauce, funeral potatoes and strawberry shortcake for dessert. He wasn't able to take pictures at the game (he didn't take the camera) so here are a few pictures from last night! Shad will never forget his Birthday it will always be a memorable day for him to always remember Mark.

Audrey's Birthday

So, Audrey's birthday was Monday the 9th and being the good husband that I am I loaded up our fifth wheel and all of our camping necessities and took her to Currant Creek the weekend prior to her b-day. It is a reservoir that is about 17 miles past Strawberry. It was a pretty cool place. I surprised my wife by giving her a fishin' pole and all the gear to take her fishing. She has wanted to go since we went on our vacation in April to Lake Powell. I hate fishing so it took a lot for me to go with her while we were campin'. Unfortunately (says my wife), neither one of us caught anything. The wind was pretty bad so it was hard to cast a good line. We had a really great time just relaxing and eating awesome food. I took up my old red dirt bike and was a stud riding it around. I even built this huge tee pee fire that was pretty sweet, here are some pics of me by my fire. Audrey had a hard time downloading the video I made so if she can get it downloaded along with some other pics from our trip we will get them posted! I also took my wife out to dinner and even surprised her with roses. I am pretty sure she loved it! Peace.

(This is Audrey) I LOVED MY BIRTHDAY!! Shad made it very special and being pregnant also made it memorable. I am so very grateful to have him as my husband. I couldn't ask for anyone better. He sacrificed more than I know to get me fishing stuff and to go with me. He even bought night crawlers and put them on my hook for me :) I love my fishing pole!!! It is pretty sweet. I have a video showing all the stuff he gave me, but my computer hasn't been downloading the videos. Hopefully, Shad will figure it out so we can post some more videos.