brigs gets a hair cut

My first time cutting hair with scissors folks.  (I always cut Nate's hair, but only with clippers.) What do you think?  I'm pretty sure I looked legit.  I figured the perfect opportunity to do your first cut is on a 1 year old; that way you can blame any problem areas on them moving around suddenly.  

Ah yes.  Look at those bangs.

I'm laughing so hard right now because it looks like I totally missed the hair in this picture, but it's the only one Nate got of my sweet skills in action, so I am un-ashamingly (another Becca-made-up-word) posting for the world to see.

Once again, little camera fail on my part as I didn't take any after pictures.  It really doesn't look that different, I kept it the same style, just much shorter; the poor boy was sporting a mullet and bangs in his eyes.  In a few months I'll give him a little boy hair-cut, but I just couldn't loose my baby yet. 

It is so crazy for me to think that when Eden was his age I was already 5 months pregnant with him!  It gets me every day. 

In other short news, he is taking steps!  Only a few at a time; unless he thinks you're holding onto him, in which case he'll take off across the room at lightning speed until he realizes you tricked him. Then he'll pull a very dramatic World-Cup-worthy flop to demonstrate to us that he definitely CANNOT walk on his own and that we should never let go of him again. 

We love our little Buddy!  (Please note that Eden calls him Buuuud-sounds just like Rudy on the Cosby show and the way she called her friend Buud.  She also calls him "son" which is totally hilarious.  Mostly that's when he's crying for no good reason; she says, "son, son, you're just fine" in the EXACT tone that I do.)

Doutre Family Reunion

We got back from an awesome reunion with Nathan's parents, siblings and their spouses/kids a few weeks ago, but with running to more fun filled reunions, I didn't have a chance to document until now.  Can you believe that we were together 3 days and the only pictures I have to show for it are 3 adorable kids in a tub?!

We spent our days going to 7 peaks, playing games, setting up and playing both a soccer game and an Ultimate Frisbee game, had some amazing discussions, topped it off by having our annual DouTube competition (trophy included), and added a new favorite...the lip sync battle;  Jimmy Fallon style. 

All classic I tell you.  You should have seen the performance that Austin and Julia put on.  Epic.  Epic.  I do have video footage, but I think they may disown me for releasing that to the public.  Just know that I believe it will be a repeat.  Nate and I were definitely the worst-you'd think crazies like us would've done something totally out there, but alas, we were surprisingly conservative.  I'm pretty sure we were just lolling the fam into a false sense of security so that we can blind side them next year with our bodacity.

We loved being together and feel so blessed to have such amazing family. 

adventures of a new home

The thing about a new home is that it also means packing and moving.  Again.  We've done this 6 times in under 4 years, so you'd think we'd have it down to a science.  Well, we do have it down to a science, but I've never moved with 2 MOBILE children that can throw things out of boxes, move piles, rub dirty hands on newly cleaned walls and on and on faster than I can keep up with.  Luckily, they are pretty cute, so we made it through.

Blurry Brigs, but full of joy.  Nothing better to 2 babies than a big box.

Did I mention that they made messes faster than I can clean up?  Luckily I had packed the rest of the pans already.

Packing and cleaning non-stop makes for falling asleep while watching a show with the kiddos.  Please take note of Eden's band-aid.  She was in a SERIOUS phase.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual move.  What?!  How does that happen?  Regardless, I needed to remember some of our first memories here in our beautiful home.

Our first breakfast in our home.  Briggs is showing the sub floor well.

The kitchen when we moved in, with the yellow wall.

Painting of the wall.  Nate takes these things very seriously.

We painted the 2 days after moving in, but we figured it would be easier to get it done before we had our floor in.  We LOVE how it looks now.

Having a lawn means buying a lawn mower.  Nate was in his element.  Please note our neighbor's cotton tree and the lovely gifts bestowed on our yard.  He has since cut down said tree.  We are very grateful:)

The first fort in our new house.  The kids love having all the space to run around in.  (We're still waiting on the stair nose piece of flooring for our stairs so we don't have the baseboards up yet.) 

Eden made dinner all by herself for the first time.  She made us hot dogs (all her idea, I put them on the stove, but she did everything else.)  She cut the watermelon (with a butter knife after I cut off the rind), set the table all by herself, and got everything out of the fridge.  She was so proud of herself and I loved the help and positive attitude during dinner time. I could get used to this! 

Life is really rough when mom is getting Brigham out of his high chair and you climb on the table holding your full cup of milk and then fall off right onto the floor pouring the entire cup of milk on your head in the process.

So sorry for the dump truck of pictures.  My original plan of doing lots of posts to really document each thing wasn't happening, and I was falling further and further behind.  It's better to have a sentence to remember things by than nothing at all. 

Mother of 10

No, not me.  But it is someone that both my sister-in-laws know.  This woman has 10 kids and gets them all up at 6am to run with her. 

I've been really struggling finding a good time to exercise. Now that we've moved, my gym membership doesn't help and I have a goal to really work on my running, but Nate leaves at 5:45am each morning and Eden sleeps until 9am. By the time she's up, Brigs goes down for his first nap.  I would try to go at night, but something always came up so I wasn't very consistent. Mostly all of that was just excuses.  The second I heard about this exercise-is-my-priority mom I knew that I had no excuse.

I now wake the kids up at 7:45, give them each a piece of bread to eat in the stroller and head out the door.  It's been so good in many, many ways.  We take a different path each day and just explore our new neighborhood.  We've already found 2 jogging trails that I didn't know about, a shortcut to the elementary school (that only requires the kids to cross 1 road which happens to be the road our house is on and has next-to-no traffic) a duck pond about 1/2 mile away in the middle of a neighborhood (what the awesome!?) and a new park.  We've found some gems and it's only been 3 days since we began.

Eden also yells "faster Mom!" when I start slowing down from getting tired.  Sometimes that kicks me into gear and sometimes it doesn't, but it's appreciated all the same. I love that my kids are seeing me exercise.  I thank them each time for helping me exercise and I talk to Eden about how my goal is to be a fast runner. It's opened up the conversation about having to work really hard at something if you want it.  She encourages me and tells me I can do it.  I also think that there is probably no better way to train than to push about 65 pounds in front of you.  I went running by myself the other night and was amazed at how far I could run when I wasn't pushing anything.

So thank you; thank you Mother of 10.  Some would call you super woman-but I've been a mom long enough to realize that you have your struggles too.  Regardless, one of your strengths has helped push me to stop making excuses and get to work on something that really makes me happy. 

Brigham Roger is 1

I needed to acknowledge that this boy is one!  I can't believe that it has been one year since I've done the hardest thing I've ever done.  I've never been so scared, or happy, or miserable, or joyous, and I've never felt as much love as I did when he was finally placed on my chest.

He has brought such joy to our lives these past 12 months.  I'll have to write more after we move and get settled.  It's a good thing he is 1 and has no idea that it's his birthday because with moving in 3 days, we are having some cupcakes with candles in them and giving him a book.  Eden gave him a little truck, but we're saving our real present for after we move.  There is no way I'm moving another thing that can easily wait until after our move.  So we'll have a party with our family in a few weeks when we're all settled.

At that point, I'll do a cute photo session and I'll document Brigham's highlights from this year.  But until then, I just need to document how much I love him.  His coming stretched me in every way possible; from letting me know he was ready to come to our family far before I was prepared, to having heart problems during pregnancy and after, to coming so fast I delivered naturally without being prepared for that.  It is his life that has taught me to really trust my Heavenly Father.  I told a friend the other day (she just found out that her son has a few health concerns) that we are so blessed to have boys with small problems and big hearts.

While Brig's little heart has a tiny irregularity, it is so much better than mine in so many ways.  I love my boy.

a break to talk about an amazing woman

Well, I'm about as tired of packing as one can possibly be, and writing seems to be therapeutic for me, so while I should be working like crazy...here I am to document one of the greatest women alive. This is my grandma.  One of two amazing, incredible, loving, nurturing grandmothers. 

I'm so glad I snapped this shot of her at our annual family Easter Egg Hunt.  I don't have many pictures of my grandmas in recent years and that HAS to change.  They have shaped me so fully into the person I am.

While Grandma probably won't like the look on her face in the photo, it captures so many of things I love about her.

 First, during the Easter Egg Hunt, my grandpa was really sick in the hospital.  Grandma didn't leave his side except for this family event.  She and grandpa have always showed me that family comes first.  Always.  That family is extremely important.  That it's worth sacrificing for.  That family means putting aside differences and giving everything you have in love.  They taught me that family will always be there for you.  Once you are a part of the Williams' family, you can never get away.  It truly is the more the merrier as we all bring our in-laws, our friends, our evil next door neighbors, and while they are with us, they are family; and they'll probably be invited to the next family gathering even if their connection person isn't coming.  My testimony of eternal families and everyone being my brothers and sisters came easily because of the example taught by this woman.

Also, she doesn't go anywhere without that trusty camera. Notice it hanging around her neck so that she can whip it out at a moments notice and then print all of the pictures off with multiple copies.  She needs multiple copies because she sends the picture to ANYONE who is in the shot.  She really documents and records our family history with that camera.

She and my grandpa have served 3 missions together.  That was a huge sacrifice for her (I've already explained how important her family is to her).  And yet, 3 times she left us all so that she could serve her Savior and her Father.  She plays the organ in the temple and spends hours and hours there every week.  She is at all of our sports games, choir concerts, weddings, baptisms, birthdays, ect.  And that's quite a lot when she has almost 40 grandchildren all living within 20 minutes of her.

This woman is always up for an adventure.  She still does aerobics faithfully, loves camping, tells doctors that she can beat any odds, and is the most loving, patient and kind grandmother and great-grandmother anyone could ask for. 

I could go on and on, but someone has to pack those toys...

 

We Bought a Home

Well, we did it.  Thursday afternoon we closed on our first house.  And it felt amazing.  Our loan officer (Nathan's awesome aunt...ask me if you need a loan officer, she was INCREDIBLE to work with and really knows her stuff) asked us if it was hard handing over the check.  And I responded even suprising myself that it wasn't hard at all.  We have worked SO hard to have that money to put toward a house.  And when I love a house as much as I love this one, it felt perfect to hand over the money that was designed to go there.

Because we bought a home that wasn't even on the market yet, there aren't any pictures up to show you.  I went through and took some, but I want to wait to really put up pictures until it's our stuff in there.  Most of the house is BEAUTIFULLY decorated and I don't want you to be let down after seeing her amazing style:)  But, I'll give you a little sneak peak of the kitchen.  Keep in mind that all of their blinds were closed and I was snapping fast so I wouldn't take up too much of their time.

 I'm going to paint the yellow wall behind the oven.  It is the only wall that isn't a tan-ish color and I'm not the hugest yellow fan, but pretty much, that's the only change I really need to make.  The pantry is right behind Nathan and Brigham there in the corner.  And we'll be using the computer center on the left of the picture as our microwave station right now.  (Our computer is our TV so it doesn't really make sense for us to have it in the kitchen right now.  I also want more counter space so I don't want my microwave taking up that whole corner of space. Ultimately I hope to put it above the stove.)

I'm standing in the kitchen for this shot.  Let's just take a moment to acknowledge that there is a dishwasher.  4 years of marriage, and 6 apartments later, and this will be the 2nd one we've ever owned.  Oh, to simply rinse the dishes and stick them in a box to run later in the day. 

Also, there is no carpet in the kitchen and bathroom.  BLISS!  It's the small things in life.  My mom gave us advice when we were married to pick the dinkiest apartment we could because we would love to always move up.  And that advice is really coming to fruition.  Going from our apartment now to this home is NIGHT and DAY. 

Most kitchens these days have more counter space.  But, if you could see what I have now, you would be in AWE of this one.  I have as much working space as there is underneath that microwave.  So I'm thrilled beyond measure to have a whole bar of space.  Also, I have a pantry!  One that I don't have to walk through the whole apartment to get to.  (I'm currently using a closet that it by my master bedroom, through a doorway.   And anytime I need something, I have to go walking through the whole place to get it.) 

Anyway, we are thrilled to have our own space.

I told Nate that the first thing I'm going to do is run through the house, waving my arms in the air and screaming.  Because I can.  Because FINALLY I don't have to worry about my kids bothering neighbors.  Eden is almost 3.  And for 3 years, I have been paranoid that I'm bothering everyone around me. 

We feel so blessed.  So very blessed.