Remembering my Mom

October 9th, 2006 my mom and best friend passed away. It was the most devastated day of my life and it was really hard for me to accept for a long time. This time of year is very hard for me. I try not to remember her passing and how hard it was on me and my brothers, but to remember the good times i had with her. She was an amazing woman who was always there for me. Given, she had some struggles in life, as we all do, but that did not define who she was as a Mom. She always tried to give us everything we wanted or needed. She was the only person I could talk to about anything and everything! She was always willing to listen and gave me such great advice. I miss her so much and wish she could be here to see Brynlee grow. I know she is always with me and watching down on us. I just sometimes wish I could talk to her one last time, give her kiss and tell her how much i love her. I didn't get to have that closure before she passed away. But I know she knew how much we loved her. I can't wait till the day i get to see her again and give her the biggest hug and never let go! I know she has guided me and helped me become the person I am today. I love you and miss you soooooooo much!!!!

Leaving Cedar City

So the time has come for us to leave Cedar City. Chris is in his last year of school for his masters and will only have 2 online classes left during Spring semester. I was planning on staying here till next summer till Chris came to me and said he was ready to head back north. I was soooo excited!! I asked him why he wants to move back and he said that he felt there was really nothing here for us anymore. We could stay here making nothing or move home and get real jobs. After hearing his side of things, it all made sense. Plus the not having to travel part sounded amazing! I have been searching for apartments online and have found a few that i really like with good prices. We are going home for a few days in a couple weeks so chris can get his knee looked at and were gonna spend a day looking at apartments. As much as I'm so excited to move back home by family i will miss cedar city and all the memories we have made here. Its been fun but i am ready to start a knew chapter!

UPDATES...UPDATES...UPDATES...

Wow it seemed like forever since i have blogged. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I have been trying and trying to get/help Brynlee to crawl and it wasn't working. I was worried she would never crawl but UNEXPECTEDLY she started crawling on her own at Chris's parents house. I was in complete shock. I knew there had to be something good she wanted and surprisingly, it turned out to be a small button. hahahaha. That girl cracks me up! I don't even know why we have toys for her cause all she wants are water bottles, my jewelry or anything she can't have! That was such a fun milestone to watch! Anyways, over labor day weekend we went up north. This time we stayed at the Judds. It was a lot of fun. That friday we went to Swiss Days with chris's parents and Denise and I went crazy the boys not so much!! There were so many little shop things and we were both loving it! We both got a couple cute fall/halloween decorations and Denise got brynlee a quiet book! She loved it especially eating all the little pieces! hahaha. I had a ton of fun shopping with Denise! I want to do it again next year! Then on Saturday it was my niece Summers 1st birthday party. They had it at Sugarhouse Park and it was decorated soooo cute! We had a bbq, summer opened her gifts and dove into her smash cake! It was so fun and she was so cute when she opened all her gifts. She also started walking really good with a little stroller she got. I can't believe how big she is now! Then on sunday i shopped till i dropped for winter clothes for Brynlee. All the stores had amazing sales so i was able to get her alot of cute things to hopefully last her through the winter! On monday we drove back to cedar. It was nice to be home. Since we have been home, chris has been SUPER busy with school leaving me home alone for the majority of the day! I thought staying home was gonna be boring and i would be lazy but to my surprise, i have kept pretty busy! I have been working out alot and Brynlee is a handful! She has become the ultimate mamas girl lately! She won't even go to chris for more then 10 minutes. Its kind of exhausting but i love it at the same time! :) Brynlee is also a master at standing up by herself with the help of furniture! I was so excited at first but we have already had a few close calls. She stood up on coffee table and knocked the candy dish over and it fell on her head. it was soooo sad :( We also had her 9 month check up today. She is:

weight- 19.15 lbs (68%)

height- 27 inches (29%)

head- 46 cm (92%)

So basically she is short, chubby and smart!! hahahaha. While we were at the doctors, he couldn't stop saying how beautiful she is and that i need to get her on a magazine cover!! lol it was so funny! I love her so much and love seeing her grow! I can't wait for the next milestones to come. I am so excited for her birthday coming up. I've already started planning :) It's going to be fun! I have also almost completed her baby book!! I only have a few more pages to do included halloween, thanksgiving and her birthday! I've been having so much fun putting her book together and can't wait to share it with her and our family! Well thats pretty much what we have been up to lately. :)

School

So today was the first day back to school. I was pretty excited to go back and get into a routine and finally get off the couch and do something. I enrolled in 3 classes and chris enrolled in 4 classes this semester. We knew that it was going to be tough having to swap brynlee 3 times on tuesdays and thursdays and juggling studied and family time. I didn't realize how tough it was gonna be till i got home and chris said he had a 50 question quiz to do tomorrow and i had a 50 question assignment to do that was due the next day in my Math 1050 class. We both sat down to begin our homework and the screaming and crying began! I tried holding brynlee and doing my homework, feeding her treats and giving her toys and none of those worked. On top of that, i had NO clue how to do any of the problems!! After 2 freaking hours of trying to figure out the problems i lost it. At that moment me and Brynlee were crying! I just didn't realize how hard this was going to be. After about an hour of discussion, Chris and I decided that its not the best thing for our family for me to go to school this semester. I was so bummed when we decided that but i know that its whats best for us right now. I am definitely looking forward to when i can go back and give it my all! I am not the best at Math and i need hours and hours to study and i honestly would rather have that time to spend with my baby girl! I am sad but i know that i will eventually finish! :)

Vaca Up North/Anniversary

A couple weeks ago Jimmy, chels and Bree came to Utah so we headed up north to see them. We had a busy week ahead of us!! On saturday we celebrated my nieces birthday so friday i shopped till i dropped getting her a gift and everything for the party. Saturday was also Chris's grandmas big 80th birthday party so i went over the help chris's mom prepare for the big party then i headed back to my dads to get ready for Presleys party! Needless to say i was pooped by the end of the night but we had so much fun. Presley party was a success and we got to see all the Judd family which is always fun! Monday was our 3 year anniversary and chris's dad put everyone in the Grand America hotel for the night. We we stoked cause it happened to fall on our anniversary so we were excited to have a night to relax in a nice hotel. We got there at 3 and immediately went down to the pool and swam. After swimming, all the older kids and Brynlee went to Biaggis at Gateway for dinner. It was delish! After dinner me, chris and Brynlee just hung out at the hotel and ate Cheesecake that Chris's mom got for everyone! The next day everyone had to leave super early but we had nothing going so we just lounged for a while and went down to get breakfast. Did i mention how spendy the Grand America is???? We got 2 bagels, 2 orange juices, banana and a small coffee and it was a whopping 18 BUCKS! It was ridiculous but delicious! On Wednesday we had family pics with the Judds and i think they turned out really cute. I love family pictures and everyone looked so cute! Brynlee was SO fun and SO cute during the pictures! After pics we all went to pizza factory then we had to head back to Cedar cause chris had to work the next day. We didn't get in till 1 a.m. I could barely stay awake but when i would doze off, i would wake up to chris singing and dancing to keep himself awake! It was hilarious. Well our summer has been busy and full of fun. I can't believe its almost over. We are looking forward to being in Cedar for a little while though. We have done WAY to much driving!!

24th of July

Wow....July had flown by! I can't believe its August and school is about to start. I have some down time so i will update you all on what we have been up to. On the 24th of July we went up to my family cabin for the weekend. We had so much fun and the weather was amazing. We went to the Rodeo down in Fairview and i ate way to much. It was so fun to take Brynlee! She loved all the horses and clapped the WHOLE time! hahaha. Up at the cabin we just hung out, went fishing, and rode the four wheelers. It was a much needed trip. We have been so busy and it was nice to be able to just relax with family!

4th of July weekend

About a week before the 4th of July weekend i was desperately trying to convince Chris to go to my cabin then drive from the cabin to his parents house for a few days. So after a LONG week of convincing him, he said yes and we headed up on Friday. I have been wanting to go camping for SO long and the weather this year has delayed that! So needless to say, i was so excited to get up there. We arrived in Fairview and had dinner at the little cafe there. The food is so good there by the way! After dinner we headed up the canyon to the cabin. Everyone else in my family arrived a little later that night. It was so nice up there and we just lounged, went fishing, lounged some more and had good "camping" food! Brynlee loved it up there and loved playing with her little cousin Summer. I was sad to leave on Sunday but excited to go see Chris's family. We drove to West Jordan on Sunday and had an AMAZING home cooked dinner that consisted of the best pork chops ever! Denise knew they are my favorite so she made them just for me :) The next day was the 4th and we planned on going swimming but the weather was crappy so me, Brynlee, Brookie and Denise stayed back while the others went. I took Brynlee to my parents so they could see her cute 4th of July outfit then we had a BBQ and watched some cook fireworks at the Judds. It was so fun to see Mark, Maddie, Ada and Hannah and watch all the girls play with each other! On Tuesday we went out to lunch with Denise and Coco to a sushi place called Makodos. It was delicious! If you ever go, try the Playboy roll. It was by far our favorite roll there! That night we got ice cream and did a few fireworks at my parents house. On wednesday we headed back to Cedar. We had such a fun 4th of July and i am so glad we got to see our family. Living in Cedar i tend to get a little home sick and want to go up and see our families. I am glad that we live close enough that all the girls can play and our families can see Brynlee. I can't wait till we can (hopefully) move closer so we don't have the long drive and long months away from everyone!