Zander's Blessing

I decided this deserved a post of its own. Because we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a blessing ordinance for babies. We waited to perform Zander's special blessing until we got to Utah so that family and home friends could participate.  He was too big for Preston's old outfit that Brayden wore, so we bought a new one. And boy did he look adorable!! The blessing was beautiful! I am the worst at taking notes of blessings. I don't even think about it until they're starting and do I have paper and pen? Nope. So, it's all in the memory. Correction - whatever's in the memory is all I got :) And I had a Brayden distracting me for a small part of it :( But, I heard a lot about love. About us loving him and him loving his Savior and life.  I know there was a ton more, but love was the theme that I noticed. And it's a perfect one for our Zander Charles Brown. He is a happy, loving baby! We were lucky to have lots of people come to support us and Zander and it was a really fun experience having it at home instead of in the chapel!

handsome boy before the blessing

All the priesthood holders who participated

The mortensens with Zander

Proud Mum mum

The Bakers with Zander

Our little Family

Christmas

Only two catch-up posts left! One after this. Hope you enjoy!

I know Christmas is long gone, but I still wanted to post about the great time we had. I'm lumping our whole vacation into "Christmas" because, well, that's the reason we were gone. I got to spend a whole month with family, which was great.

I left on Dec. 10 and flew to San Diego for a little girls (and kids) getaway with my sister, Mom, and Grammy. We spent about a week there. Mostly going on walks, relaxing, some hot tubbing, one day at the beach (but not the water. . . too cold), and we even tried the pool. Pool was not a good idea. Brayden had goose bumps while he swam and then he whined after getting out because he was frozen so we had him dry off in the sauna. But he was a trooper. I was the lucky, sacrificing mother who got to get in with Brayden and you better believe I went strait to the hot tub while my mom took Brayden to the sauna. I met them in there. Brayden, Zander and Makaila loved being with their Grandy and Grammy and got some good bonding time.

After that, we all went to Utah and I met up with Preston and the rest of our families. Things of note that we did:
- Zander got his special name and blessing in my parents home
-  I got to see my little brother for the first time in 2 1/2 years! (he was serving a mission in the New York, New York South mission.)
- We played lots of new boardgames
- I got to go to the temple with my sister (so much closer! and no need for baby swap!)
- I saw a ton of high school friends! I need to better at staying in touch!
- We met our newest little niece and nephew - they're 3 yr old foster twins that Preston's sister has.
- We saw Preston's grandma for what we both feel like will be the last time.
- Went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert
- Stayed up til 3:30am playing with cousins and aunts/uncles on New Year's Eve. We had 9 am church the next morning.
- And last but not least, we opened presents! More than we expected (again). We planned on checking 2 suitcases. We needed 4. :)  Such generous family.

Here's the good stuff- pictures!

Flying out to San Diego

Did I mention my Mom came to help me out? THANKS MOM!!

Brayden's battle wound from the elevator... now I understand why kids should't touch the doors. In Brayden's defense (and partly mine as the responsible adult), he wasn't actually trying to touch the door.  The door opened for an older couple that was with us and the husband was trying to keep Brayden from exiting too early, so he put his hand in front of Brayden to block his path. Next thing ya know, Brayden was crying and his finger was jammed pretty good in the door. But, he was very brave!

A boat parade of Christmas lights!

Brayden and Grammy watching the boats

Bathtime with Grandy

A makeshift baby seat. Brayden would push him around in there :)

Swimming outdoors in 60 degree weather. Cold.

Cute cousins

Brayden likes fitting in small spaces. He seriously asked me to put him in there. He opened the cupboard, pointed and said "up?"

Once there was a snowman named Zander

Old roommates!

This is the Up house replica. Right in the neighborhood of my old roommate, Ka.

Before haircut

After haircut

Christmas morning at the Brown's! (we did Christmas two days in a row, so this was technically Christmas Eve morn)

7am - can you tell?

Zander with his great-Grandma C. Possibly the only time he will ever meet her.

Our fun Christmassy family. Brayden's shirt is a little elf :)

Meet Zander Clause

Christmas Dinner

Brayden's new favorite place. . . in the dog kennel. Jack liked it because Brayden would let him out when no one was looking :)

Long story, but the short explaination is that this is performing artist Colby Rampton and his wife after a private performance thanks to my little brother Dan (also in the pic). Preston stayed home with his fam while he can. But, one of "our songs" (our favorite one) is done by a group Colby used to be in - Loose Change. It's called the dragon song. Look it up. My fav.

Smiles with Aunt Beck

New Year's fun for the kids before bedtime. We (not the kids) stayed up 'til 4.

Brayden's Two-day

Hehe. I thought the title was clever :) It was over a month ago, but Brayden turned 2!!! It was a disappointment to me because I happen to think birthdays are a big deal and we had a couple things we HAD to do on his birthday and Preston still had work, etc. So, we didn't really do too much. But he got a special traditional birthday breakfast (the waffles/pancakes with pie filling and ice cream topping) and blew out the candle on a doughnut. Yup, no cake. We planned on doing the whole cake shebang in Utah, but that never happened. At least he's only two and will never remember :) We also had the ward party that night, so he kinda had a party and got to see friends.

The best thing about the day: singing "Happy Birthday" to wake him up and seeing his big grin.

The worst thing: we now have to pay for his plane tickets. . . going home just got a lot tougher :)

Here's some pics to document the fun day. I do have to clarify that it still was a fun day. I just wanted to do more special things :) hehe.

Some of his breakfast. And a silly face.

I think this is a great picture!

Pre-ward party

bundled as a snowman

Fishing at the ward

Getting pictures with the props