We have a new addition to our family!

And no the baby did not come early ...

We got a puppy! She is a chocolate lab and is super cute. We named her Trixie and she has come to be a fast part to our family. Makayla is in love with her and cant get enough of her. I will post some pictures later today!

Makayla is 4!

So this post is a few weeks late but at least it is making it on the blog!! I can not believe that my baby is 4 years old. She is doing so many fun things and her personality is so much fun - well on most days! We did her party on the 15Th and decided to do it at our house and since we have such a big family and there is not a big open room in our house we broke out the carpet for the garage and held the party in there. It is amazing how warm a garage can be when it is full of friends and family!!

The kids decorated foam picture frames and we played "pin the jewel on the crown" donkeys just don't go with a princess party!

This was Makayla's first attempt and when it didn't stick we let her retry and she actually got pretty close! Then we broke out the pull string pinata. I like the idea of no sticks or bats involved because there were a lot of people crammed in our garage. The idea of the pull string pinata is that one of the strings attached to the bottom opens a trap door that will release the treats so we had all of the kids grab a string and pull at the same time. Well apparently we missed a string and guess what string that was ... yup the string that opens the door. So as the adults cracked up I got to pull the door open so the grabbing festival could begin!

We decided to make cupcakes this year and they turned out to be a huge hit. Makayla picked funfetti cake and the colors for the frosting. I love that she has her input! Makayla had a great birthday and got lots of fun presents and it was great to be able to celebrate her birthday with so many of our family and friends, even those who could not come.

So Happy Birthday to our little princess and many more great fun birthdays to come!

Is there an echo in the house???

As you may know Makayla has a speech delay but is catching up and saying more and more words and sentences everyday. And now she has figured out how to be mouthy!! Here is the conversation last night between Clint and Makayla - keep in mind that it happened with me about 25 minutes later too!

Clint - Makayla go get your fingernail clippers please.
Makayla - Daddy fingernail clippers
Clint - Makayla please hurry and go get the fingernail clippers.
Makayla - Daddy hurry and go
Clint - Makayla
Makayla - Daddy ( by this point I am trying to hide behind my arm because I am cracking up)
Clint - Please hurry and go get your fingernail clippers.
Makayla - hurry go get fingernail clippers - as she is attempting to push Clint toward the bathroom and Clint is fighting the urge to laugh.
Clint - Starts Counting - One
Makyala - One
Clint - Two
Makayla - Two
This is when the Time Out threat hits and she decides to go and get the fingernail clippers. This whole process took about 5 minutes of arguing and if she had just decided to go get the stupid fingernail clippers it would have taken about 30 seconds. Needless to say we had a good laugh and I really hope that this stage ends soon. I don't know if I can take much more of it. I have a hard time not laughing because when she does it she is so stinking cute that I have a hard time keeping a straight face. I don't want her to think it is funny and do it all the time.

Gotta love 4 year olds!!

Boy or Girl ...

Our ultrasound was today and the baby looks wonderful! They said that everything is going great and that everything looks fine. Here are some new pics of the little one.

Here is a good shot of the face and arm

Leg and Foot

And the one we have been waiting for is it a boy or a girl ...

It's a BOY!

We are very excited and Makayla has been practicing saying "Baby Brother". It is very cute and we can't wait for April!

It Must Be a Miracle!!

With the cost of everything going up - mostly gas - it has been hard to get the motivation to fill up the tank. Especially in our gas guzzler of a Durango! We stopped at the Murray Costco for gas yesterday and it was $1.96!! We just got gas for under $2.00 a gallon.

I realized how sad it is about how excited we are for gas to be $1.96 when we were paying under that this time last year but as long as it stays where it is or keeps on going down I will be one happy camper!!

Baby

I had a doctor's appointment today and everything is going great! After the few complications that we have had that was great news. I have an Ultrasound scheduled for November 17th so hopefully the baby will cooperate so we can find out the gender. I have a poll to the left if you want to try to guess what gender the baby will be! Come check out the blog next week to find out if you were right!

Was that a flutter???

Well during our Primary Program on Sunday I felt a little flutter in my belly. I was not sure if it was the baby moving but after a few days of the same movement I think it is safe to say that I am feeling the baby move!! It is so exciting and makes this whole pregnancy seem much more real. Here we are at 18 weeks (tomorrow) and it seems like time is flying some days and other days it feels like April 4th will never get here!

Have a wonderful Halloween everyone!!

Monson Family Halloween Party

This last week has been super busy and we have had some fun activities! We went Deer Hunting last weekend and on Saturday Makayla and I went with my Dad to the Monson Family Halloween Party then back to the camp ground after the party!! It was a crazy but fun day.



My Mom loves Halloween so much and this annual party is always fun. We ate yummy soup for dinner, played some very fun games - drop candy into a mason jar, wrap your partner up like a mummy with toilet paper, and eating doughnuts off a string ... - the kids had a blast and got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. This is always a favorite.




Makayla picked an awesome pumkin and kinda cheeted with dropping her candy into the jar. You are supposed to drop it from your nose!



Makayla did not want to be wrapped up like a mummy and ran like a running race when we said to go. Poor Alexis was chasing her with her toilet paper streaming out behind her. But after that little hiccup they had a blast and there was toilet paper spread over almost the entire lawn!

I thought that Alexis looks cute and Autumn got Ariana pretty good!

Oh No it is a vampire princess!!

Makayla got to dress up with all of her accessories for her Cinderella Costume and Clint and I had a hard time getting them off of her for bed. She just wanted to wear her costume to bed. And now she will pretend to introduce herself to you by shaking your hand and she says that her name is Cinderella. So cute. I guess we have a full fledged princess on our hands ;o)

Baby Update

I realized that I have not done a pregnancy update for a while. I will first say that this pregnancy has been so different from the first. While I was pregnant with Makayla the pregnancy was so excitingly uneventful! This pregnancy has given us a ride!! Oh my ...



To give you a little background on our family, we have been trying to have another baby for a while but have been unsuccessful. I had a miscarriage 2 years ago and my body just never quite recovered or regulated after that. So with our Doctors help - no fertility drugs thank goodness - just some medicine to regulate my cycles, we were blessed with this pregnancy.

I am currently 16 weeks along and feeling ok. I have been so extra tired but am starting feel better. And the morning sickness has not been as bad as it was with Makayla. But with blessings come some trials, I have had some bouts with spotting and weird pains in my lower abdomen which have all lead to nothing. And the most recent stress was 2 weeks ago when I found out that I had an infection on my cervix. A round of antibiotics seems to have taken care of it. We were able to have an ultra sound done last Wednesday and everything looks just fine. We will have another ultra sound in about a month to check for gender and growth of the baby. As for now there are no complications and we hope to keep it that way!! ;o)

Here is a profile shot

Here is a cool picture of the baby's hand


It was so exciting to see our baby's heart which is beating at the correct rate and watch the baby move. Seeing the baby just makes it seem so much more real since I haven't been able to feel the baby move yet. And with what we have been worried about it was wonderful to see that the baby is ok. I will try to be better with updates!!

Brown Family Dinner

Yesterday we had a dinner at Clint's Mom's house and the kids dressed up in their Halloween Costumes. They had fun playing and we had a yummy soup dinner.

Here are the kids!

Our little Princess

Silly Mylee

And baby Lilly slept throug all the noise!

Picking Tomatoes at Day Farm's

Our tomato plants did not do super great this year so canning tomatoes and making salsa did not happen. A guy that works with Clint told him about a farm in Layton that you can get lots of tomatoes and that they are inexpensive.

So last Wednesday we took a trip up to Layton to get some tomatoes before the cold weather - and snow - hit this weekend. This farm was so much fun. They give you a box and you go and pick your own tomatoes. Makayla did not want to walk in the middle of the plants but she was the delivery girl to the box!! We would hand her the tomatoes and she would run them to the box. She had a blast.

Well we got lots and lots of tomatoes, which are mostly green - oh well - and they are ripening in paper bags in our kitchen. And this will be my first time canning tomatoes and making salsa by myself!! Wish me luck.

Silly Goose

You would never be able to say that Makayla is camera shy. The second she sees a camera she starts saying me me me me me and then will smile with her super cheesy smile. This happens mostly when we aren't planning on taking pictures but when we want her to smile for a picture usually she is a stinker and will not cooperate. The joys of a 3 year old!

We recently got a new camera and Makayla has started making funny faces and she will crack up after she makes them and laughs like she is the funniest thing on the planet. Here are some pictures we caught of her a couple of days ago!!

What a goof ball!!

5 Years ...

WOW Clint and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last Thursday September 25th. How time flies! We have been through lots of fun and interesting adventures over the past 5 years but have loved every minute of it! We moved 4 times in the first 2 1/2 years but have stayed put in our house since which we love, because moving stinks!!

We celebrated our Anniversary on Saturday. We first went and saw the new movie Forever Strong about the Highland High School Rugby team - which was great. Then we tried a new restaurant that we have learned about from a friend of Clint's from work called Goodwood. It is a very good barbecue restaurant and I am pretty sure that we will be visiting there again!!

I feel so amazed that I was lucky to marry my best friend and to know that our family can be together forever is a wonderful feeling! Here is to lots more Happy Anniversaries!!

Well ...

We are very excited to let everyone know that Makayla is going to be a Big Sister!! Our due date is April 4th and our little family is very excited for this new adventure!

Makayla seems to be excited, we have been showing her pictures online of what the baby looks like and she always gets excited when we show her. We will see how her reaction changes when she actually sees the baby and we bring the baby home!! On the other hand we have a new little niece named Lilly that Makayla can not get enough of. When we are around her Makayla is content to sit and hold her. And if we want a turn she simply says, "No, my turn". Maybe this will be a sign of what is to come!

Makayla's First Football Game

We were able to get some tickets from Clint's Work to go to the Utah vs UNLV football game on Saturday. Makayla does not handle loud noises very well so we were a little nervous on how she would handle the noise of the game. The nerves were not needed!! I warned her on the way in that it might get noisy so whenever something new happened she would cover her ears then realize that it was okay - then she got into the game. She was cheering and yelling at the team and waving her pom poms. It was such a fun night. And it helps that Utah won - after a very scary first half, we didn't think they were going to pull it off - but the team had a fantastic 2nd half and won by 21 points!


After the game they had fireworks in honor of the Armed Forces. It was a fun finish to a great family night out!!

Sad Day for Mom and Dad

Well Makayla is headed back to preschool today. I don't know how many of you know but Makayla has been in a special education preschool since she turned 3 last year to help her get ready and caught up before Kindergarten. She has had some developmental delays but is doing so well. Right now we are working on speaking and focusing on all sorts of educational things like the abc's and counting etc.

While Makayla loves going to school I am sad because she rides the bus to and from school ...

My brave little 3 1/2 year old practically runs to the bus and sometimes will not even say goodbye to me because she is so excited!! I am glad that she doesn't cry because it would be hard on both of us but come on - she gets more excited for the bus than me!

She gets to go to a brand new school not too far from our house and I am excited for her new teacher. Good Luck my little Makayla and we hope that you continue to do so well in school. We love you so much!!

Rock Out!!

Makayla's last potty training bribe (she received this after being fully potty trained - well worth the purchase of the toy!!) was a Backyardigans Guitar that plays music, has a strum bar and luckily for us volume control. She goes through phases where she has to play with it playing the songs over and over and over again!! Again thankful that I can turn the volume down!

Thanks to Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii, she has learned to rock out! She pulls this funny face and moves the guitar around, then kicks her leg out. It has to be the funniest thing on the planet. I have tried to get it on video but when the camera comes out she stops so be prepared as soon as it is captured it will be posted!!

Fishing Trip!!

Over the 24th of July weekend we made a trip down to Mayfield to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. We had lots of fun playing with Corey, Christie and Ava on Saturday.

Makayla and Ava had a blast. I think they ran and chased each other for a straight hour!

Sunday morning we took an interesting 4-wheeling adventure in our Durango on the way to Deep Lake to go fishing.

We had a successful fishing trip and Clint and Makayla caught 3 fish and Clint caught 2 more on his own! We had so much fun and are glad that we went to Mayfield that weekend!!

Flowers from Daddy

Every once in a while Clint will pick some roses or some of my favorite flowers from our flower garden and bring in for me to enjoy in the house, this last time he brought some in for Makayla too. I think we found the way to her heart. Give her some flowers!

She carried them around until I made her put them in water so we could eat dinner. It was so fun to see her so excited! Good job Daddy!!