Dear Zander,

I don't have anything bad to say about you yet. You are perfect and precious. I adore every bit of you. I don't always appreciate our time together in the middle of the night, but I know that's special too and I'm working on loving it.

I can't believe how much you smile and laugh. You laughed when you were 1 week old and have continued ever since. You've started smiling at me when I talk to you or move your legs around and that smile of yours melts my heart. You have these cute little dimples over your lips and they make me smile. When you smile really big you get what we refer to as your magoo eyes. We coined the term when you were only a few minutes old because your eyes were slightly swollen and puffy. Now you smile so big your eyes puff up and look closed. I love it. 

Your sad faces and sounds are also cute, but only for so long and then we always hope we can fix the problem soon. You don't actually cry very much. Mostly you whimper and whine like a puppy. 

Now about your eating habits. I would really love if you could always sit and eat a full meal before falling asleep. You've gotten much better, but you're still more into snacking. Especially in the evening. You started cluster feeding yourself with lots of snacks to get ready for the night. The only thing is that you take a long time to fall asleep. Our bedtime process usually starts when we put Brayden to bed and you're still up for at least an hour and a half. It makes it very hard to get chores done. But, soon we'll start helping you sleep through the night and maybe that will help.

You are a very sensitive soul. You don't like Daddy's teasing and don't have much patience for discomfort. I have a feeling that you'll often be picked on by Brayden because of this. Hopefully it'll make you stronger or better in some way though.

Well little man, I love you. You are special and unique just like your name. I look forward to many more great weeks and months together.

Love always and forever,

Mommy

Dear Brayden,

The kicking and hitting needs to stop. You are much to sweet for it and you know we don't like it. I think we've been more than patient with you, but if you keep it up we're going to have to get more tough in our discipline. You won't like it, I won't like it, so let's just not go there ok?

Now that we've got that settled, thank you for stepping up into the role of big brother. You have surprised me  with the patience you've had while I care for Zander. I don't think there's anything better than seeing you smile at your brother and pat his head. I love seeing you try and make him happy by giving him him binky. He doesn't love it like you did (and still do), but I can tell that you think it's what he wants. You even shared your cherished blanky once! Which reminds me, why do you take his blankets off whenever you get the chance? Very silly.

You are a very handsome boy, Brayden. Several different people have told me that
I've got to get you into modeling. Maybe if I knew how I would. But, even better is your darling personality and love for life. It makes me smile every time you yell "truck!" when we drive by one. You always look for the moon and stars at night and sometimes spot the moon in the day. Everything is exciting and wondrous to you.

You do have a slightly devious side and are starting to tease Sadie with food that you don't want her to get. It's kind of cute except that you throw a tantrum if she does get the food when you don't want her to. I sense that teasing will soon be exercised on Zander and I hope that you will know when to stop.

All I can say is I love you. The ups and downs, the good and bad, the smiles and frowns. Sometimes I don't think I know how to be your parent and teach you everything (particularly what not to do) but then I realize that I want to be your Mommy and that it's the best job in the world. The harder it is, the more rewarding. And you're very good at rewarding me with precious moments every day.

Thank you Brayden for being who you are. I love you.

Love always and forever,
Mommy

1 Month Stats

Zander went to the doctor on the 22nd and he's lookin good and healthy. We may have another yeast infection, but the doctor only saw white on his tongue and not on the gums so he didn't think much of it. BUT, I'm pretty sure I've got yeast or something because there's still some pain when nursing. So, maybe we'll just treat the both of us and hope it helps! However, even with having yeast again this time, it's so much better than nursing the first time. It hurts a bit, but nowhere near as much as it did with Brayden. And I'm not going to let it go on for 7 months like I did last time. We'll get to the bottom of it! Anyway, here's the stats of our Zander man.

Height: 22.25" (75%)
Weight: 10lbs 4oz (60%)
Head: 37cm (25%)

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.