Brother and Sister

Brinley and her swing

Lately, every time we put Brinley in her swing she sits bolt upright instead of laying back. It is so funny! Usually, she eventually ends up laying back, but earlier this week, I put Brinley in her swing while I was talking to Sam on the phone (he was on a business trip in Houston) and the next thing I knew, Brinley had fallen asleep bent over the tray of her swing--it looked cute, but not too comfortable! Then, I noticed she had a bear and doll tucked in behind her... thanks to Levi I am sure. He just thought his baby sister needed some toys to sleep with. :-D Don't worry, I'm not a mean mom... I didn't make her stay like that, I tucked her nicely into bed... of course I took pictures first though!

Solids!

About two weeks ago (April 15th...see, I'm trying to play catch-up), Brinley had her first (official) taste of solid food! Hooray! I used our mini food processor to grind up some oatmeal for her and added some apple juice. She made some pretty funny faces, and I think it was a bit too much texture for her. Since then, we have fed her peaches, pears, bananas, and applesauce. Though she doesn't eat much, Brinley does a great job with eating. She doesn't spit it out (unlike with the oatmeal), which is pretty amazing!

Beautiful Surprise

This spring brought us a beautiful surprise:

We moved into our house last summer, so by the time we even first saw the house, the tulips had come and gone and left no trace. We had absolutely no idea that there were tulips planted around our house, so when they bloomed this Spring, it really was a beautiful, and very welcomed, surprise! Ahhh....I love Spring.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

My grandma (Mom's mom): Artice "Mickey" Warren McDowell Kolcum Balcom

On April 19, 2009 we celebrated my grandma's 90th birthday! Doesn't she look great?

You know it's bad when....

...your two-year-old points out how dirty the house is.

Levi (pointing at the floor): Ma! Ma! Wash!

me: Oh! That's great Levi! You want to help by washing the floor?

I go and get a wet washcloth and try to hand it to Levi. He shies away from it like it is a disease.

Levi (pointing...at me this time): You!

So I washed about two square feet around the garbage can. I guess washing the floor isn't too high on my priority list... especially since I am blogging about this incident instead of doing it. The rest of the kitchen is clean though (well, more or less... :D), so that's saying something!

Another blog...

So I have started another blog. When I made this announcement to Sam, he said "What? One wasn't enough?" Well, I guess not. Actually, this other blog has a whole new purpose. I set a goal to improve my kitchen (and all things related) skills, and I wanted a way to record my progress and experiences. Since I like blogging, I decided that would be a good way to do it. So, you are all welcome to check it out and join with me on my journey to kitchen mastery! (Errr...or...something like that...) You can check it out here.

p.s. This new blog is not private. That explains why I refer to Sam as Husband and Levi as my two-year-old. (I don't think I've mentioned Brinley yet as she doesn't eat solids...)

Cute Kid Parade

Here are some random pictures taken over the last week or two of my cute kids.

Brinley right after a bath...check out that hair!

My cute Levi

The last few weeks, Brinley has really learned to reach out and hold on to things. This bunny is one of her favorite toys. As soon as it is in her grasp, it goes straight to her mouth. Yes, she is sucking on both the bunny's ear and her thumb...

Sweet Brinley

A boy after my own heart...

The other day, Levi brought me this and nodded his head:

Who could resist giving in? Not me!

Believe it or not, I had not yet introduced Levi to this scrumptious combination...he figured it out on his own (or figured it out from candy he's eaten...but that still takes some brain power). Perhaps he'll be a chef someday with an innate sense of what flavors go well together.

Susan Boyle-Britian's Got Talent

I just had to post this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Maybe it is because I really love this song, but this is just amazing.

Easter Baskets

We started our own little Easter tradition of doing Easter baskets for FHE the Monday after Easter. (That way I can go get the candy on clearance that morning, hehehe... Plus also, it makes it so we can have a worshipful Sunday Easter and a fun Easter on the days around it. ) Everyone gets a gift that is Christ-centered (or has to do with Church). This year, I decided to start carrying on another tradition from when I was a child: I hid the Easter baskets in the living room and made Sam and the kids "hunt" for them (it wasn't too much of a hunt, but it wasn't either when we were growing up. It didn't matter, it was still fun). Sam and I got a book called A Christ-centered Easter, Levi got the Primary Songbook on CD, and Brinley got a book called You Are Mine by Max Lucado. Kudos to me, I only put about half the candy I bought into our Easter baskets, because I decided we probably really didn't need that much candy (still trying to lose that baby fat...), so now I have candy all ready to go for next year! Good thing candy keeps forever! Hope you all had a happy Easter as well!

Egg Hunts

We had two Easter egg hunts this year in one day! Levi was in heaven! The first one was at our house with the Thurgood side of the family. We had lots of fun hiding the hunts, but it was even more fun watching the kids find the eggs. Having kids just makes holidays more magical...like when you were a kid yourself. Here's pictures from Egg Hunt #1.

Egg hunt #2 was at Grandma and Grandpa Clements' house. This time Sam got to hide Levi's eggs. We made Sam's sister Lauren participate, and she was not thrilled about it, but ended up being a good sport. After the kids found their eggs, they hid some for the adults. Although I only had two eggs to find, I loved it! I forgot how much I love being the one to hunt the eggs! And Levi was like an old pro this time around!

Here's some video we took:

Dye Addict--Last one standing

On Friday night, the Thurgood side of the family got together to dye Easter eggs. My sister from Seattle was in town with her kids, so it was quite the group! Levi absolutely loved, loved, LOVED! dying eggs. In fact, he ended up being the last one at it. He only stopped because we emptied the dye out of all the cups. P.S. How cute is Brinley with her chubby cheeks and straight-up ponytail?
Levi was hilarious...I couldn't keep him out of the dye. He would reach right in with his hands to pull out the eggs. By the time he was through, his hand was bright red (you can see it in the pictures below). Levi even started redying eggs that the other kids had dyed because he wasn't done yet. I had to get some pictures of him being the last one out there. Seriously, this kid wouldn't give it up! "Egg" is a new word that we've been hearing quite a bit this Easter holiday.

An Apostolic Easter Message

Elder Holland gave an excellent talk (you can read it here) at General Conference last week that really touched me. The Church media department created a video using a portion of this talk that I wanted to share here. Please enjoy and take a minute to ponder what we are commemorating this Easter Sunday.

Imagination

It has been so fun to see Levi's imaginative play come to life! Levi has loved cars for a long, long time. I've thought about getting him one of those rugs that have streets and town pictures printed on them, but I never have. As it turns out, who needs them? Levi, with his brilliant imagination, came up with a street of his own: the tracks of our closet doors. They are just the perfect size for his Matchbox cars--even better, they are free and don't take up any more space in the house!

p.s. I just had to throw this picture in because Levi is such a cute boy!

Oh, how I love a good deal!

All of this (+ a dress for Brinley that is brand new w/ tags that didn't make the picture) for just $3!

We went to a garage sale today in between sessions of Conference and got there just 30 minutes before it was set to end, so they were selling everything you could fit in a grocery sack for $1. I went a little hog wild. Some of the highlights (in addition to the new dress) of our awesome purchase were: 1. A Kelty child carrier for hiking; 2. a new, never opened computer game, Railroad Tycoon II; 3. 4 of those surfboarder swim shirts; 4. 6 videos including 3 Tae-Bo ones; and 5. 39 books! Plus some other greats finds as you can see in the picture. Seriously, getting great deals just makes me completely elated. I have been on a high all day. Hooray!

Brotherly Love

I just love this picture of my kids. Levi loves to love Brinley...which sometimes can be a little scary for Mom and Dad. We'll often say "Levi! Don't poke Brinley in the face!" just to have her give him a huge smile instead of crying. We always think, "You are sending the wrong message here, Brinley." Oh well. Brinley absolutely loves her brother and Levi absolutely loves her back.

Animal Sounds

Brinley's 1st Ponytail!

Too cute!

(Unfortunately, the coloring is a bit off. Oh well...)