Purple Paisley Designs

My awesome cousin Erica Pratt Dixon has started her very own design blog. She does everything from Wedding Announcement to just about anything your little heart can think of. She is AWESOME and designed this adorable birth announcement for Brinlee. I posted her button on my blog so check out the right hand side. If you don't...............you better watch your backs people! :)
Thanks again Erica!

Merry Christmas

Warning: Big post with lots of pictures.

It has been a while since my last post. With Halloween and lots of other stuff going on I have been busy.
Brinlee is now two months old and is cute as ever. She is a very happy, calm, good sleeping, good eating baby. I haven't been to her two month appointment so I don't know how much she weights or how long she is. Sorry. Chandler is her best friend, or at least that is what he told me while I was taking her pictures today. She was crying and he said he needed to hold her hand so she would be happy. Guess it worked.

We blessed Brinlee on the 1st and it was great. We had lots of family support and are so grateful for all of them. Dave did a great job and Brinlee didn't even cry. She did however fill her diaper as soon as the blessing was done resulting in a wardrobe change in the chapel.

Our costumes for Halloween this year had no rhyme or reason to them. Brinlee was a flower and was not happy about it.

We carved pumpkins and Chandler dug right in. He didn't want to save the seed and was constantly trying to throw them away. It was funny.

Chancho and his BIG pumpkin.

Here are our costumes this year. Chancho was a puppy and we were a white trash couple. I even had a black eye. It was awesome!

Chancho getting ready to trick or treat.

Before and After....again.

When we purchased this home we knew the space under the front windows was a really strange space, not very functional. Some people with similar homes have put their TV or couch in front of the windows and it looks stupid. I can't figure out why someone would want to put something in front of a window especially low windows. So after watching lots of home improvement shows we came to the conclusion we needed more storage.

So this is what my handy man came up with. Four storage shelfs with a blanket box in the middle. It is awesome and the front room is staying clean.

I love it and Chandler loves driving his cars on it. Thanks to Ikea we now have lights above it and baskets to put our crap in!

More Before and After.

From this.................. To this.........................

What do you think? I love it! We bricked the front on the house, had new vinyl windows installed, a new garage door, new exterior door, and new lights.

LeGrande and Marcia did a great job on the brick and we are so thankful they were willing to do it.

I don't know if I will ever be able to leave our "little red brick house".

Crafty

Armed with the hot glue gun and other sorts of crafty stuff Chandler and I have created some fun things for around the house.
This is not a craft it is Brinlee doing what she does best. I have been wanting to make this for a while now. A friend from Ogden had one in her front room and I just loved it. All it is is an old window I picked up at the antique store, a piece of wood painted white (I used bead board because I am cheap and we had it), dried flowers, and moss.

What do you think? Too much bead board for the kitchen?

The other kid friendly craft Chandler and I have been working on is this cute little turkey. I know it isn't close to Thanksgiving but I wanted to make something fun Chandler could be involved in to put up as a decoration around the house.

Cute and super easy. All you need is pine cones, feathers, google eyes, and pipe cleaners. The pine cones came from a neighbor and the craft supplies were at Michael's.

JP Creative

A cute girl I went to high school with is a graphic designer and designs some great stuff. Everything from wedding invites to children's room wall posters. She is having a give away that will end October 30Th. Check her out at http://jpcreativedesign.blogspot.com/.

Kids

Brinlee is now three weeks old and is fitting in with our family perfectly. Chandler still likes her and is always wanting to hold and give her kisses. Life with two kids has been a little bit of an adjustment but we are all getting use to this new routine (as if we had one before now). Dave has been back to work for four days now and we are still surviving. The house is messy and our dinners consist mostly of breakfast and stuff out of a box. It has only been three weeks so I am not really pushing myself to hard. Although I started going to the gym this week and my legs are pretty sore. Oh well I did just have a baby, did I think I was going to be able to run a marathon?

Still not sure what to do with Chandler all day long. Sometimes I wonder if I am cut out for this stay at home mom thing. I mean don't get me wrong I love it and would never ever want to go to work, I just don't know what to do with little kids all day. If any of you have good ideas/websites or anything like that pass the info on.

Pretty cute kids don't you think?

Baby

Just some new pictures of the baby.

Brinlee Rae Black

She is here! She even decided to come on my birthday. Brinlee was born Sept. 20th, 2009 at 8:10 p.m. weighing 8 LBS 5 OZ. She is super sweet, cute and has tons of hair (check out the white streak). More to come.

Phone pictures sorry about the quality.

Full Term

I am officially full term today! So I have been cleaning like crazy. You know mopping, wipe down walls, vacuuming out corners of windows, stuff you don't normally do unless you are trying to start having and keep contractions going. Unfortunately I haven't had any luck. Oh well, at least my house will be spotless. We will keep you all updated.

Big Boy Chandler

I can't believe how big my little boy is! The last few days I have been pretty sad that it will never be just me and Chancho ever again after the baby is born. I keep thinking that maybe I haven't spent the time with him that I should have, that I could have been better at playing and not just watching. Hopefully he is ready to be a big brother (most likely not) and wont hate mommy for very long. Although two year old are extremely challenging and can push your buttons like no one else, they are the best little people out there. Just look at this cutie. David brought home some crazy glasses a few weeks ago and Chandler thought they were hilarious. He would never put them on himself, he just liked when adults wore them. My mom and dad were up a week ago and grandma had them on. When Chandler saw her he put his hand to his head and said "Oh my heck Grandma" and ran away giggling. As you can see he is now enjoying wearing them and with his striped jammies he looks a lot like Waldo.

He thinks he is pretty hilarious. Being nine months pregnant and having a funny two year old are not the best combination, I nearly wet my pants taking these pictures.

A few weeks ago I made play dough. Yes I made play dough, just call me Molly Mormon Mommy. Anyway, while playing with it one night Chandler told me it was his baby. So we wrapped it in a dish towel and he carried it around all night. Singing it songs, rocking it, making sure it was warm, and of course giving it some serious baby talk. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

By the looks of it he is ready to be a big brother.

35 Weeks (well almost).

Just a little update on the pregnant lady in this family. Hmmm lets see.......... I have been feeling great minus typical aches and pains. I went to the Dr. yesterday and have only gained nine pounds this entire pregnancy! This is great considering with Chandler I gained over 40 (a lot was water but holy cow). I am right on track as far as growth for the baby and she is head down. My blood pressure is low and right now I have no signs of toxemia. Hopefully it will stay that way. The baby is really wiggly and moves all night long. Last night I got about 3 hours of sleep in between going to the bathroom and waking up to move with the baby. Chandler is ready for this baby to come out. He can't figure out why mom can't hold him, snuggle on the couch, or why she is so emotional and sleepy all of the time. He does love to put his cars on my belly and say move baby, he thinks it is hilarious when she moves and the cars roll down. We still haven't decided on a name yet but I can tell you it will either be Kamry Rae, or Brinlee Rae. Chandler calls her Kamry, David calls her Kamry and I call her the baby or it. So that is the update on me and I would appreciate it if all of you pray I have her in 3 weeks not five =).

Mini Team Tiger

David's dad gave us a picture of the brothers golfing in Monticello when we were down in July. Chandler thinks it is the coolest picture. Everytime he looks at it he asks if he can golf to. A few days ago I told him we would, so I went outside to get his clubs (yes he has real golf clubs) and he wouldn't let me leave until I got him a hat. I gave him one of David's old hats and he wouldn't have it. He wanted a golf hat (meaning a Tiger Woods hat). So I put it on him and he was ready to go. David and Chandler love to go on the front lawn and hit practice balls. They usually go out every single day.

Look at that form.

Mini Team Tiger!

Little Update

Here are a few pictures from the last month. We finally got Chandler set up in his "big boy" bed and it seems it isn't just for little big boys. We headed to Blanding for a mini family reunion and enjoyed the parade in Monticello, camping at Camp Jackson and relaxing. It was great.
This picture was actually taken at Orchard Days in Santaquin. Chandler really loved these puppies.

Four Generation pictures with Grandpa Christensen.

If you will notice the side bar to the right you will be happy to see we only have 59 days until the baby due date!

How did the garden grow?

This is our first year to attempt any sort of gardening. We purchased a few Topsy Turvey tomato planters and they seemed to be doing really well. Until recently, lets just say I wasn't going to waste a digital photo on them. Hopefully they will keep growing. In addition to our tomatoes we planted green onions, raspberries, blackberries and peas. The peas are the only real plant growth we have had and trust me they are delicious. Chandler really likes them and says "more peas, peez".

I know there are not very many in this picture but by the time I thought of taking any photos we had already ate most of them.

Hope all of your gardens are growing well.

Summer Fun

We just got our computer back today, due to some software problems we had to get repaired. So after talking to my mother yesterday she made me feel like a big slacker (so this one is for you mom).
Last week we took Chandler to the Dinosaur park in Ogden and the Union Station. It was great considering he loves dinosaurs and trains. We had a great time!

This is Chandler taking a picture of us. He is a strange child.

We also visited the Oaker Mountain Temple open house. It was really cool and Chandler slept the entire time (score!). I think everyone needs to go see this Temple if they haven't, it is beautiful inside. I think it is the most simple Temple I have been in, but it is now one of my favorites!