Egg Nog and Cookies

So, I have a new favorite cookie recipe!! Mendy made these the other day for our card swap and they were super yummy...I don't think she'll mind me sharing the recipe. This recipe couldn't be easier and the cookies couldn't be tastier. She said it is a Weight Watchers recipe and that each cookie is 1 point (not that I care...I think I ate 10 points of cookies yesterday). They don't get credit for being the most attractive looking cookie, but man are they good!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box spice cake mix
1 (15oz) can of pumpkin
chocolate chips
-mix all ingredients together and put spoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Yep, there really are NO other ingredients...DON'T make the cake mix as directed, just simply use the dry mix and add the pumpkin and chocolate chips...it's sooo easy!
And on another happy note, Dan brought home some Egg Nog from Sam's club yesterday...is it really already time for Egg Nog...YUM!!!

Happy One Month Brynlee!

I can't believe a month has flown by already! Baby Brynlee is doing great and we're adjusting to life with two kids. Bryn has been a pretty good baby. The first couple weeks she was a great sleeper and did good at night also, but the last couple weeks she has been great during the day but not so great at night. Hopefully that won't last long. She really is a sweet baby and mostly sleeps and eats. She has been gaining weight steadily and i can already tell she is getting almost too big for a couple of her newborn onsies. It's amazing how fast they grow. Carson is doing great and really seams to enjoy having "baby sister" around. He is usually very gentle with her and a great big brother....let's just hope that lasts! Here are a bunch of pictures that were taken today (the picture of Dan was actually taken BY Carson...not too bad).

Ward Halloween Party

Our ward Halloween party was extra early this year. We had it on Friday and it was super fun! Carson was really excited to dress up like a Pirate and he had all his pirate talk down. My mom had taught him to say "Arrrr", "Ahoy Matey", and "Shiver me timbers". Brynlee didn't dress up in a costume, but she sure looked cute in her Halloween outfit. We all had a great time at the party!

We also went back to church yesterday for the first time after having Brynlee. It was fun to dress her all up in her cute dress and sweater and to show her off at church. She did great...slept, ate, and slept some more!

Here are some pictures...
Pirate Carson

Cute Sunday dress
So sleepy
Happy pirate

Dead prom Queens (some of my Young Women)
Daddy and Carson
Wendy's Hot Juicy Burgers (another YW)
Camera face off with Gwyn
Mommy and Baby Bryn

Hershey Park

Last Saturday we went to Hershey park and had TONS of fun! Dan was going to originally go with just Carson since I thought I was going to have just had a baby. But since I had a baby almost 3 weeks earlier, I decided that I would like to go too. So, we all went as a happy family and had a blast! We met up with some friends and one of Carson's favorite friends, Lindsey. Carson had a BLAST on all the rides. He wasn't scared of anything and went on almost all the kiddie rides. He would just jump right on and loved it! He even got to go on one of the big adult roller coasters called Trailblazer. It doesn't have any larger hills or loops, but it's a real roller coaster. I was pretty surprised that he was considered tall enough to go, but he was and he loved it. His head was really wobbly and the force pulled his head down a lot, but he kept saying "WEEEE" and was so excited to tell everyone about it. Dan and I even got to go on a couple fun roller coasters too. We went on one together while our friends watched the kids and then we took turns to go on another one. The great thing about the day was that Dan's job bought out the whole park, so there were a lot less people there than usual, which meant really short lines...yeah! It is a really fun park and we all had a blast! Carson was so worn out that he fell asleep in the stroller on the way out to the car. And Brynlee did awesome too, she just slept and ate all day long...what a girl. It was a great day...here are some pictures...

I haven't done one of these in a while...

....so here goes.......



5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
*In my freshman year at BYU and loving it!
*deciding what I wanted to major in
*dreaming about all the good-looking college boys
*enjoying time living close to my grandparents
*learning how to be an "adult" and on my own



5 things on my To-Do list today:
*laundry
*go to Wal-mart
*visit friends at work to show off Brynlee
*enjoy some time with family
*get some things together for Hershey Park tomorrow


5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
*definitely save A LOT of it!
*buy a house
* put money away for my kids educations
*make the coolest ever sewing/craft room with a new sewing machine and long-arm quilting machine
*help out family


5 things I'll never wear again:
*a banana clip in my hair
*glasses (at least I hope not for a while)
*jeans that are french rolled
*jelly shoes
*spandex


5 favorite toys:
*my sewing machine (if only it were working)
*computer
*my sewing machine (oops, did I already mention that)
*Okay, right now it's just my sewing machine!




5 people to tag:
*Who
*Ever
*Wants
*To
*!!!

How do they get so smart?

Lately Carson has just blown us away with the things that he remembers and the connections that he makes. It's so fun to see him learn new things....and a little scary to see what things he copies. There have been quite a few times that he repeats funny things that we say. He also puts so many connections together, like when we see cars that look like other peoples cars he knows, he'll point them out to us and say "it's like papa's van"..etc. Today he shocked us a couple times with things he knew. He was "counting" and then he said "in spanish". He LOVES the show Go, Go, Diego, so we wondered if he learned some spanish from there. So, we helped him out by saying "uno", to which he replied "dos, tres". Apparently, he did learn some spanish from his favorite show. Dan and I were shocked! Then later that night, Dan was changing him into his pj's and said he was going to put him in little pants. I started singing "little pants" to the tune of "smelly cat" from the show Friends. We had sung that to Carson once before about a week or so ago. Carson looked at me and started singing "Smelly Cat, smelly cat"....how does he remember these things??? I'm just amazed that he remembers things and makes those kinds of connections. It's so fun seeing how smart he is getting. He also loves to read books and has been memorizing lots of sentences from the books. He is just so fun these days!!

On a different note, Brynlee had her first doctor's appointment today. The doctor said that she looked great! He said that she is obviously doing great breastfeeding. That made me feel good. I breastfed Carson for 6 months but had a lot of pain, so I've been very happy that things are going better this time around. The doctor also said that although you should try to keep your firstborn away from too many germs at first, that it is totally different with the second child and they can go out wherever you need to go. That made me feel good, since I've already taken her a bunch of places already and am planning to go to Hershey Park this saturday. Here are her stats from the doctor: weight - 9lbs 8oz, height - 21". Everything is going great!

Happy 2 Weeks Brynlee!

It's already been two weeks since we had Brynlee! We've already had the baby, my parents were here for a week, and now Dan is back teaching seminary and going to work full-time. How did that all go by so fast? We had a great time with my parents here. My dad took lots of pictures and my mom and I got to hang out and talk a lot. They were also very helpful cleaning the house and helping with the kids...especially Carson. Carson loved having them here and was sad when they left. We'll see them again at Thanksgiving...can't wait!

Brynlee is doing well. She is getting cuter by the day! We just hope she switches her nights and days back to normal soon. She's still got them messed up now and thinks she should be sleeping all day and awake at night. Dan is super helpful, but Sunday night I just took her downstairs and spent the night there b/c Dan had to teach seminary and so I wanted him to get as much sleep as possible. I'm re-reading "Baby Wise" and am starting doing that with her, hopefully it will work as well as it did with Carson. Last night was already much better, let's hope it wasn't just a fluke. Brynlee ate a little before 10pm, then slept till 2:30am (I woke up and decided she needed to eat) and then slept again till about 6:30am and is now sleeping again. Not bad at all! Let's see if we can do that again tonight, that would be awesome!!!

Here are a few (or maybe a lot) pictures....