Little Miracle

So if anyone out there is going through the potty training thing or is coming upon that blessed time, I have a great little invention that will help. I saw it on the news one night and thought "how perfect". It's made by a Utah couple that thought it would be great if their potty trainer had some kind of timer that would go off to tell them it was time to go potty. So they made one. You can get them at Macey grocery stores and Kid to Kid. Anyway......it has made our life so much easier and Andee loves it!

The BraithwaiteBunch

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GROSS!

So it all began Friday afternoon when Andee and I made a trip to the grocery store. She was such a good helper so I let her get a treat. the treat of choice was "Bubble Tape". She LOVES gum and has finally figured out to chew and chew and chew and chew and not swallow right away. So she got home, opened her gum and started chewing. A little while later I noticed that her bubble tape was half gone and her mouth was clear full of wads and wads of gum. Needless to say, I took away the gum.
So that night about midnight she started coughing. She had a little cold so it was understandable that she was coughing. I brought her into my bed where she continued to cough. She was pretty awake at this point so I we were just whispering to eachother and talking a little bit when all of a sudden she coughed and THREW UP all over me, the pillow, her nightgown and my bed! I thought, "oh great, we will all be getting the stomach flu now." So I rushed her into the bathroom and came back. While in the bathroom Dave had started to take the sheets off the bed and noticed what had made her throw up. Yup! You guessed it. THE GUM! She had eaten so much gum that it made her throw up. She was fine after that and ready to watch a movie at 1:00 am. What a fun night!
So you can guess what the moral of the story is.
Sorry to gross you out!

Here She Is!

So here are some pictures of our latest girl. Paityn was a little bit upset that it wasn't a boy but today she patted my tummy and said, "Mommy I love the baby because it's a girl." Thank goodness because I don't think I can handle another relationship like hers and Andee's. Hopefully Andee takes better to a little sister than Paityn did when Andee was born.

It's a ..........

GIRL!!!!!
I know, I know. We just haven't quite figured out that boy recipe yet.
For those of you who don't know, we are expecting #3 on April 12th. We love those spring babies!

October

Just a few happenings in October. First of all, one day I walked in the front door of the house only to find two things that I wasn't expecting, greeting me in the house. The first was this stuffed turkey. Paityn was a little startled at it as well. Dave shot this a few months ago and had it stuffed. I think it will go nicely in the garage next to the elk head that should be coming soon!

The second was that my downstairs bathroom was in the beginning stages of a much needed make-over. This also startled Paityn but she became really excited after she understood what it meant. Check out the black moldy wood we found at the base of the shower. Ya, that's fun!

One weekend while at my mom's house, Andee suddenly disappeared into a back bedroom. I thought she was just playing in her Cinderella dress but my mom thought it wise to go check on her anyway. This is what she found.....Andee hiding in the closet......ASLEEP! I guess when you're tired, you're tired.

And October wouldn't be October without all of the Halloween activities. Dave and I have carved pumpkins every year since we were dating. The tradition continues. Even Paityn has gotten to where she can use those little carving tools and kind of carve her own, simple face. Andee on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the slimy guts on the inside. She wouldn't even touch a pumpkin.

Halloween day was very long but the girls had a lot of fun! They both had Halloween shirts to wear and both wore their hair up with their costumes. They really looked like sisters. And get use to Andee's sideways-head pose. That's what she thinks you do when someone says "cheese".

I took Andee to school with me all day and she couldn't have been happier. She loved entertaining the kids and doing a few "1st grade" things.

For some reason, Paityn really wanted to be a vampire and we figured Andee would want to be Cinderella because she wears her ratty old Cinderella dress-up every day, all day. I got a cute shot of Andee with "Tater Buzz". They walked around the school carnival together. Just as cute as could be!

After school we hurried down to Manti so we could do trick-or-treating with cousins. Manti does trunk or treet on Main Street where they close down a few blocks of Main Street and then you can walk from trunk to trunk and from store to store. It was pretty neat! We loved that Halloween was on a Friday and that we were able to go down and be with family and cousins for Halloween.

This is one of my favorite things Andee does. Well, sometimes. Sometimes it just really frustrates me. If something doesn't go her way she'll cross her arms, put her eyebrows down, lip out and then she won't do anything but sit or stand there. I just laugh at her.
Spirit week was a few weeks ago and we had forgotten to dress up on a few of the days but we didn't forget about crazy hair day. This was our quick and easy crazy hair. She thought it was pretty funny.

Ours, All Ours!

We are officially home owners! After living in my aunt's house in Orem, rent free, for 7 years, we decided to just buy it. We looked around for what seemed like forever and even made an offer on another house but the owners would not budge on the price. I think we were just meant to stay here. We love Orem, we like our ward and we have a huge yard that we couldn't have found anywhere else. My aunt sold us the house for a smokin' deal. We just feel so blessed by my aunt's generosity and kindness! It's kind of weird though. It doesn't feel like we bought it. It kind of already felt like ours in a way. Really, the only difference is that now we'll be making a mortgage payment! YIKES!!!!!
We hope to make lots of changes, updates and improvements so stay tuned. We're just so glad to have it be ours, ALL ours!

What a Bunch of BULL!

So after 10 years of waiting and MONTHS and MONTHS of waiting, preparing and anticipating.....Dave got his Big Bull Elk. Total cost of this whole adventure? $1300, which includes the hunting tag, the price to mount the darn thing and the price to have it cut up and made into something edible. Dave's experience? Priceless!


Dave has the "deer in the headlights look" on his face because the elk was STILL ALIVE! He said he was a little nervous to even get by it.


This is Dave's favorite shot. Just look at those antlers!


This is his "Captain Morgan" pose. He said it was sooooo heavy and they couldn't help but snap this pose. What a stud!


This is the hunting posse. What a bunch of hunting nerds:)

Out of Shape!!!

Just a little funny that happened to me today. I'm sure you're all interested. Well, I am the primary song leader in our ward and for one of our songs today we sang "Give Said the Little Stream". In senior primary I thought I'd make it a little more interesting. We usually try and sing it without saying the word "give". Trust me, it's harder than it sounds. So anyway....I had them all stand up and I told them that they also had to sit down on the word "give" and then stand back up. If you sing the song to yourself you'll see how many times the word "give" is said and how close they are together. The only chair I had around me was one of the little sunbeam chairs. So the first time through I could feel the burn in my legs a little bit from going up and down, up and down, over and over onto this little, teeny, tiny chair. To make things worse, the kids wanted to do it again! By the end of the second time through I couldn't even make it back up because my legs were cramping up and hurting soooooo bad. And 10 hours later I can barely walk. I guess serves me right for not exercising! Go ahead. Try it at home. I think I'll even try it again once my legs stop hurting enough to walk.

Also, a little shout-out to my sister Haylee who had her baby last week.

This is "Baby Blake", as we call him at our house, and I think most of his 8 lb. 6 oz. were in his cheeks :) Such a cutie. Congratulations Nate and Haylee. Can't wait to see you!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary and listen to how sad this is. I didn't even get to spend it with Dave. That's right....he's hunting! I ask you. Which is more important? Hunting or 7 years of wonderful, glorious bliss. JUST KIDDING!! Well, part of it anyway. It really is my anniversary and Dave is really hunting and well, I guess it's been 7 wonderful years but I'm not really that bitter about him being off hunting. Does that sound bad? Let me explain. Dave has been waiting for this hunt for about 10 years now. It is the Big Bull Elk hunt that he has put in for, for the past 10 years and finally drew out. He's been so excited so I've been OK with the whole "being gone on our anniversary" thing.
As I was eating my lunch yesterday, our secretary brought in THIS........

It was very sweet of him to think to do that ahead of time and I couldn't help but to tear up a little bit. I really do have a wonderful husband and am so grateful to be able to be with him forever. He is such a fabulous dad and such a great example to me. When we got married in the temple 7 years ago it was so special. Dave made so many good changes in his life so that we could be married in the temple and I am so blessed he chose to make those changes. I love you honey! (Even though he never looks at this:) )

September 11th?

I didn't even realize that it was "9/11" today until someone asked me if I had talked about it in my class. At first I thought, "why would I talk about September 11th with my kids?" and then I realized what they were talking about. Could I have forgotten already? It has been 7 years. My kids in first grade weren't even born yet. I will never forget where I was when I heard about it and the feelings that I had. I was driving over the Springville exit bridge on my way to work when I heard it on the radio. I wasn't sure what was going on. All I knew was something about airplanes and New York. I think TV's were on all day and night for the next 2 weeks. Even though it was hundreds of miles away, it affected me. When it happened 7 years ago, I was getting ready to get married. 11 days later was my wedding day and the thought actually went through my head that it wouldn't happen because of the tragic events. I will never forget it and we all need to remember those that lost and sacrificed. Lesson of the day: Time heals.

Back to School

Not only is it back to school for me, it's also Paityn's year to begin school as a Kindergartener. No one needs to tell me that the time just flew to this point in time.

Paityn is in Mrs. George's afternoon kindergarten class and absolutely LOVES it! I take her to Marnie's in the morning where she plays with Forbes. I understand that they love playing Barbie's together:)

Paityn's classroom is right across the hall from my classroom and I couldn't help but peak in there on the first day of school too see if she was OK. I saw her at recess playing with her friends and she had no idea that I was out there too. I'm glad she has a personality that makes it possible for her to make friends easily but her personality also makes me afraid that she will be really obnoxious!

I didn't cry on her first day of school like I thought I would and maybe that's because she is only 20 feet away. Now I just need to be that mom that gets the backpack checked after school and make sure her homework is done and handed in on time. I'm always complaining about my student's parents that don't do those things. I guess I'll be more understanding when it comes to those things now.
Andee will be going to "Becca's" again this year, which we love. Becca is a lady in our ward that does a daycare/pre-school and just loves my girls. It makes me feel so much better about working and not being at home when I have someone like her to watch my kids.
One thing we had to do for the beginning of the school year was get the traditional hair cut. We cut about 4 inches off Paityn's head of hair and for Andee's very first official hair cut we just trimmed the ends and took off about an inch. Andee was sooooo good about it. She sat so still and almost fell asleep while getting her hair washed. Can't say that I blame her.

Summer Fun!

It's been a while since my last post (oh really? You hadn't noticed? Oh good) so I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures of things we've been doing.

The girls got a little kitten which was so dang cute when it was little. It was rescued from my mom and dad's haystack. It was a little furball. It is now growing up and still cute but litterboxes are not fun!

One night Andee just HAD to sleep with this little ring that had make-up in it. Whatever it took to get her to sleep. So a few hours later when I went in to check on her she had that make-up smeared ALL over her face. At first I couldn't figure out what it was and was actually a little worried but then remembered what she fell asleep with. It was then that I started laughing and had to get a picture.


Paityn got her ears pierced too. She was so brave and didn't cry at all. Her cousin on the other hand, was a different story. It took 3 adults to hold her down so she could get it done. Paityn loves having her ears pierced.

My sister, Haylee, came out with her husband from Oklahoma for a visit. She is having a baby in September and Paityn is fascinated with babies in tummies. Oh, the questions I get.

This was the summer of developing talents and learning new ones for Paityn. She learned to swim by herself and loves the deep end of the pool (frightening for a mom). She got these new goggles and had to wear them around the house. Hilarious!

One Sunday we took a ride up to Bridal Veil Falls and walked along the trail they have there. It is so green and so beautiful. I couldn't help snapping a shot of my two girls actually getting along. So cute!

Paityn also learned how to ride her bike, FINALLY! Is it bad to threaten her with not being able to go to kindergarten if she didn't learn to ride her bike? OH well. It worked. That's all that matters. She was scared to death to take off her training wheels but I was getting sick of her whining about it so I took her out and spent about 15 minutes practicing with her and then she just took off. She was so proud of herself and just had the biggest smile on her face the rest of the day. Now we can't get her off her bike.

Andee wanted to ride her bike too but just hasn't quite figured out the tricycle yet. She goes a little tiny bit and then gives up. But Dave helped her and that was good enough for her.

And these two pictures were just too cute.

For the 24th of July we took a trip up Manti Canyon. We love going in the mountains! We stopped at one place where my family had always camped at when I was growing up. We found all of my family's names carved in the trees. I was 2 years old when we did it and 29 years later they were there. We stopped at another place where I had carved mine and Dave's names in the tree 8 years ago. AWWW!





This is just my silly Andee! I can't get enough of her.


We have the cutest little neighbor girl, Mahlia, who is almost the exact same age as Andee. Just a few days difference. Recently they have discovered that they live right next door to eachother and it is so cute to watch them play. Mahlia's mom and I hope they will grow up to be good friends!


This past week has been my last full week off before school starts and Dave also had the week off so we decided to take the girls and go do some fun things. One day we went to Thanksgiving Point and did the Dinosaur museum and Farm Country. Dinosaurs must be a boy thing because my girls could have cared less. They did like the sand though. They liked Farm Country because they got to go on a pony ride and get their little fingers licked by little, tiny goats.




We did go to the Living Planet Aquarium too. The girls really liked seeing all the colorful fish, the sharks (even if they were small ones), and touching the stingrays.




And lastly, we took a trip to Lagoon. The girls could have stayed there longer if we would have let them. I thought 8 hours was enough time. Paityn's favorite ride was "the ship ride". She was so funny. Andee loved all the little kid rides. They were able to go on quite a few rides like the Rattlesnake Rapids. We got soaked but they didn't care. Andee loved the bumper cars even though all she did was go around and around in a circle. We had a great time even though we weren't able to go on all the big rides. I guess when you have kids all you care about is seeing them having a good time.

Paityn is the one in the middle on the very top row. She loved it! Her arms are even in the air.




One of my summer highlights was meeting up with my best friend from high school. I hadn't seen her since my wedding and it was so good to see her and meet her kids. Paityn and her little girl became fast friends. I should have taken some pictures. Maybe next time. Thanks Em.
So there you have it. Our summer in a post.
We have had a great summer and Paityn is getting so excited for Kindergarten. Me, on the other hand, could handle another month or two of summer before school starts. I love being home with my girls and spending time together as a family.