A Great Day to be Alive!

And to be born. Like I was 24 years ago. I love birthdays and today has been great. We had a crepe breakfast with blueberry pie filling, ice cream, bananas, raspberries, cool whip, nutella and honey. So yummy that I ate some for lunch too! hehe.

I got to open one present so far (which, unfortunately I already "spoiled" in my own little way as Preston will ensure you I always do). Preston bought me a groupon for flirty aprons because we used to see them in the mall and I always thought they were cute, but never wanted to spend $30 on an apron.  When I saw the groupon I told him about it and he said we could look at it and then the time was counting down and we never did look at it, so I decided to buy one for myself since obviously Preston had forgotten. Of course he didn't actually forget but thought he'd try to surprise me. Oops. Well, now I have a fun gift for someone else or two cute aprons. . . we'll see.

Now I've had some time with the boys napping, and I just have to say that I love that they will both usually nap at the same time! Sweet! Anyway, I pulled out this birthday gift that I bought myself with the birthday money I knew would be coming. I'm still figuring out how to use all it's functions, but it's pretty neat and will be fun to play with especially with photo editing and stuff. I got the Bamboo Fun on an amazon lightning/gold box deal and it was really reduced or I never would have considered it. Usually it's $200, but I paid $79. Still more than I like to spend, but sometimes I give in and splurge a little :) At least I'm enjoying it so far!

In about an hour we'll pick Preston up from school and head to Hungry Howie's for a cheap pizza and then over to Chuckie Cheese for some birthday fun! I haven't been there in at least 13 years, but it used to be my favorite birthday spot when I was little, so we're gonna enjoy it again! Plus, it'll be fun for Brayden I think. And when he can appreciate it more maybe we'll go for him! We have a coupon for 95 tokens for $15 and then we'll buy a dessert pizza there. Yum yum. I can't wait! It'll be fun!

Oh, and Preston has a couple more gifts for me as well as the wonderful gift of having my mom here today! She got here on Saturday and will stay until next Tuesday. It's nice to get a little break from holding Zander Man all day long. That's birthday gift enough. But, she's also going to take Zander in her room all night and let us sleep. Minus pumping time because I just can't make it all night comfortably :)

Well, there's my birthday update! Hope you've had a good day too! It really is a great day to be alive!

Little Brother

Here's a few pictures of our little Zan Man. He's been a good baby, but really doesn't sleep that much during the day. He does great at night though, unless he has bubbles that won't come out. Which, unfortunately, is more often than we'd like. He's looking more and more like Brayden as he gets older, but still has his own look too. We love him so much!

He's such a smiler and has been laughing on occasion since he was 1 week old. Happy little boy :) I'm pretty sure he stays up during the day due mostly to his noisy big brother. But, he seems happy enough. I guess he doesn't need as much sleep as some babies.

1 WEEK

This kid can hold his head up for several minutes now! So strong!

4 WEEKS- yesterday

first real bath. he didnt cry at all. 

learning from big brother

a little smile. he has another smile that is to die for!

I love that he's smiling in this one!

Today during some tummy time Zander started fussing, so I helped him roll over and roll back to his tummy. Next thing I know, Brayden's right next to him rolling around :) what a good teacher.

Big Brother

Brayden's still being a champion big brother. Here's a few pictures to see what he's up to! Some of these are from the week before Zan Man was born.

Football

And so it begins. Another season of college football. I just have to preface this by saying that I do enjoy sitting and watching the games with Preston. That being said, I don't often get to sit and watch anything  these days unless the boys are asleep. Preston was teasing me about how I used care about football and now I don't seem to want to watch ever. Just to prove him wrong (even though he's right) I made sure to dress the kids in football attire and even made football shaped pancakes for breakfast. So, even though football is no longer my ideal way to spend free time and our only together time as a family, here's to the start of another great season!

Brayden helping with Saturday chores (in his BYU jersey)

yeah, some of the pancakes look more footballish than others.

Haha. . . ironic?

I just realized that I just posted 2 things today - one birth, and one death. Maybe I'm the only one who finds that funny. But, "if you were in my head, you'd be laughing too!"

In loving memory. . .

of Ronald Brown.  Preston's grandpa passed away Tuesday night. He took a couple of bad falls over the weekend apparently. We were lucky to be able to visit them last Thanksgiving in Missouri and spend some time with him. I think we're going to take our first long road trip with 2 kids tomorrow and head up there for the funeral. A sad reason to get together with family, but still a good opportunity to support them!

Cousin Makaila

Congrats to My sister and her husband on their new baby girl! She was born last Saturday (September 3rd) and is a cutie! I don't have a picture I can put up yet, but hopefully there will be one soon!

Makaila Bean Baker
7 lbs 12 oz
20.9 inches

Just for the record, Brayden and Zander's only 2 cousins are both named Makaila, but spelled differently. Preston's sister's daughter is spelled Mikayla. I just hope that they figure out that all cousins aren't named the same thing. Hehe. Good thing it's a great name!