The Big One

My handsome little fellow Bean has turned 1! I am in complete shock and refuse to accept the fact that he's been here for a whole year! Its been such a whirl wind! At this time last year (3:13) I was in the hospital and had been told we'd be having a baby that night! I won't re post the whole story but its on this blog somewhere if you want to reread it :) I remember when he was finally out and they placed him on my belly. I've never loved something so much, so instantly in my entire life. That moment I knew I'd do absolutely anything to ensure his happiness. I've learned so much this past year about myself, my husband, marriage, and being a parent. Its been also one of the hardest times in my life. Becoming a mom is not easy but my goodness its such a blessing. Heavenly Father chose Berick's spirit specifically for our family and he couldn't have picked a better one! Here's a little recap in picture form of my boy. I was going to a do a month by month thing but I wasn't very good at labeling so these 2 are from the hospital:

The nickname "bean" came from how tiny his head was...its not so small anymore :)

He looked like an eskimo baby when he came out! He still has those cheekies to this day!

My sweet little man was 7lbs 10oz and 18.5 inches long when he was born with his head in the 10th percentile. He's grown quite a bit since then! Here are a few from his younger days:

Love that little face.

One of my favorite pics!

Berick has come a long way! He's still just as cute but much bigger! Here are his 1 year stats:

• Weight: 20.5lbs
• Height: 28 1/2 inches
• 69th Percentile for Head Size

Likes:

• Peanut Butter on Toast
• Nilla Wafers (saying like is an understatement...he LOVES them)
• Soft Blankies
• Playing with Dad
• Cuddling with Mom
• Destroying the living room
• Being outside
• Bath time
• Dirt and Sand

...the list goes on and on but those are the major things
Dislikes:

• Knees on the grass so when he crawls outside its on his hands and feet :)
• The doctor
• Being told no
• Most fruits
• Being touched by other babies and sometimes other people
• Those squishy ball things that feel like slime; he gets so upset if you try to make him hold it!

...this list is also endless but those are the major things. Here are some current pics of my guy:

Not letting his knees touch the grass :)

Watching Dad skip rocks. I love this pic!

Berick and Dad hot tubbing :)

He found a sock of mine and decided the best way to transport it was with his mouth.

He loves his bear :)

He conquered his spaghetti

Dazed from the sugar consumption from his bday cake!

Berick is so fun these days! He gets into everything he shouldn't and wants to explore everything. He's a pretty happy baby unless you present him with the aforementioned things :) Its amazing that he has been with us for a year but then again I don't know what I did before he came...besides sleep in! I love my boy so much and I pray I can always show him that. I've learned this past year that not everyday is perfect and sometimes there are times when I could just scream but Heavenly Father has granted me SO MUCH patience. I'm so grateful to him for that and for the fact that he's patient with me. Heavenly Father truly sent him for me and knew the spirit that belonged in our family. I look forward to seeing more of Berick's personality develop. He's my guy and I treasure all the moments I have with him. Thanks for being my little Nugget Berick!

Easter and the Cabin

Well this post is slightly over due but I now have a busy almost 1 year old to keep up with so sometimes things slip my mind :) Easter happened a few weekends ago and Berick really loved it! We made him an Easter basket that had eggs filled with Cheerios in it, a hotwheels car, some bubbles, and a movie provided by his Mimi. He participated in 2 egg hunts and enjoyed both! One was at Aggie Village and the other was at Kenyon's brother's house in Layton. He didn't really crawl towards the eggs but once he had some he would proceed to shake them which was pretty cute. Here are some pics from Easter:

Here is Berick's basket before he went through the loot :)

The eggs filled with Cheerios

Playing with some eggs he found

Berick and his lady friend Heidi from the ward :)

Berick with his best friend Dad

Dressed in his Easter best!

Talking to people

After Easter was General Conference which was AMAZING! I should have posted about that but have no fear I took plenty of notes! Thanks to Berick's rigid nap schedule we were able to listen to the entire morning sessions and the last hour of the afternoon sessions. It was so nice! This will probably be one of the only years we'll be able to do that for a while.

This past weekend we rented a cabin in Bear Lake with 4 other couples and had a grand ol' time! Berick was the only baby so he got lots of attention! We stayed in the master bedroom that had a walk-in closet. We put Berick in there to sleep and its the best he's slept in a while! The second morning he slept in until 7:30! The weather wasn't ideal but we were able to go to the lake and play games and have some fun. There was a hot tub there as well that we all rather enjoyed! Berick even went in for a bit! He probably thought it was a giant bathtub :) We hope to go back to that same cabin in the fall for some more fun! Here are some pics from our trip:

There was a loft at the cabin and Kenyon was helping Berick climb up to it ;)

My guys :)

Berick's face doesn't show it here but he LOVES being on Kenyon's shoulders

LOVE this pic!

Watching the guys throw skip rocks...that'll be him in a matter of years!

Enjoying the hot tub and the complimentary duckie :)

He was scared of the jets so he kept looking back to make sure they didn't come back on!

Just hangin' with the guys

This month has been so busy and isn't done yet! Stay tuned for a big post this weekend on Berick's birthday! We're excited for him and are so glad he's turning into such a big boy! Stay tuned!

Unsetting the Alarm

Well as previously mentioned in a previous post, Mr. B is turning 1 next month and he is just growing and learning so much! I won't post about it all right now because I want to save that for his 1 year post! However yesterday we reached another little milestone that made me cry.

As parents Kenyon and I follow Babywise and LOVE it. It has helped us so much with getting Berick on a schedule and without it things would not be as good for us! (Just to add quick we don't judge anyone who doesn't use it, we just happen to think its pretty neat and know that there are plenty of other ways to raise a baby.) Anyway part of the scheduling is to choose a start time for the day from the very beginning. We chose 7. So at 7 every morning since around 6 weeks we get Berick up and then base his schedule around that for the rest of the day. Berick has reached the point where he can now sleep until whenever and we just adjust around that. Well last night for the first time since Berick was 6 weeks old I turned my alarm off.

Now one would think: "wow Jeannette was it really that much of a distress to turn your alarm off? Wouldn't it be awesome for your baby to sleep in?" Well curious blog reader it was a big deal to me. The schedule had brought so much structure and relief to my life. As soon as we got Berick going on Babywise, life became so much easier with a baby. If you thought I had a super easy time adjusting to being a mom then feel free to read my posts from April of last year :) At any rate as I went to turn the alarm off I just got tears in my eyes because my baby is growing. Which is wonderful but I'll never get to relive those newborn moments with him. He's such a big boy now and I love him so much and I just hope he knows how much I love him.

So for me turning off my alarm was a big thing and I wanted to document how I cried for it. Tune in next month for one of the cutest, picture filled posts you'll read from here! Thanks for reading about my emotions :) And to reward you here is a little Berick gem:

Trying to shove this entire cookie in his mouth that he got from the bakery!

Spring Break AZ...Again!

So basically we've been going to Arizona for spring break for like the past 2 years and figured we might as well keep up that tradition! We LOVED it! Kenyon needed a vacation so badly! The weather was amazing and we always have fun with Brian and Beth and their little family. The drive their was pretty uneventful and we split it up into 2 days. The first night we went from Logan to Cedar City and stayed with our friends Kevin and Casey! It was a double bonus because our friends Cassie and Mike with Jensen had stayed the night before and stuck around to see us and have dinner! Both families have boys who are a few months older than Berick but it was way cute to see them all together! The next day was way short! We left at 4 am and got to Gilbert around noon. Berick stayed happy most of the time and enjoyed his new portable DVD player in the car! He looked like this whilst watching:

He watched Cars and LOVED it! He's a fan of those movies.

We relaxed and enjoyed the weather while we were there! I forgot how cute Berick is in shorts! We also did some shopping and just had fun! We were really not looking forward to coming home because while we were gone in UT there was great weather but upon our return a snow storm decided to show up! Oh well, apparently good weather is to come! Here are some pics from our adventure:

He LOVED Brian and Beth's bathtub! It was a nice round one and he would get up and walk around it!

Just eating some chex. I thought he had  cute face in this one :)

I made these blocks for Berick while there! I just love them and hope to do something like this for all of our kids :)

Here are my 2 handsome guys! I love them both so much!

Here's Berick playing outside. I had to give him the car to get him to look up!

All the other men got to take their shirt off including Brannon so I didn't want Berick to feel left out!

Brian had the funny idea to put him on the tramp nakey with the sprinkler going. He liked the nakey part but not the cold water on his bits part :)

Here's my handsome boy at Denny's on our drive home. I just love those jammies! Only $7 in AZ!

We look forward to going to AZ again soon! Now that we're back we've got lots of fun things coming up! Berick turned 11 months old yesterday! I can't believe it! I'll do a big post next month when he turns 1 that will be all about Berick! Other than that Kenyon gets to start landscaping as soon as he's feeling better which he is sooooo pumped for! He was not a fan of his HVAC job. We're looking forward to summer and seeing what it brings to us! We're no longer getting a modular/mobile home and instead will be looking into cheaper apartments but if we can't find one then we'll just stick to Aggie Village! Thanks for reading! I'll be posting again at the end of the week for my take on The Hunger Games which I'm so jazzed to go see Friday!

NH, Valentine's Day, Milestones

Wow I have a lot to post! Ok so I went to NH a week ago to visit my mom and my stepdad! It was a BLAST and a half! My parents spoiled Berick and I like crazy and it was so fun to spend time with them and to see some friends :) Berick did AMAZING on the plane rides! I seriously could not have asked for a better baby! He slept for good chunks during it and when he was awake he did so well! Heavenly Father also put so many helpful people in my way. All in all it was quite fun! Here are some pics from said adventure :)

Here's Berick being goofy waiting in line to check in at the airport.

Here's sleeping Berick. He was in this state for a good chunk of flying!

Enjoying his new found love of bananas :)

 The pics above were from my phone but these ones below are way nicer and from my mom's camera! She caught some really good ones!

Berick with my brother Tom! It was so cute how much Berick liked him!

Me and my babe :)

He likes my kisses...most of the time.

Berick and his step-grandpa (Poppa) Lee

Berick with his grandma (Mimi)

Happy boy after church...forgive me looking so tired! It was the day after I got there and Berick woke up an hour early!

So that was my trip to NH! Can't wait until August when we get to see my parents again for their sealing in the Portland, Oregon Temple!

Ok Valentine's Day happened shortly after Berick and I's return! We didn't go to crazy but still kept it special :) Instead of going out to eat for dinner we went to breakfast at IHOP! I highly recommend breakfast on Valentine's Day because there was hardly any wait for food and barely anyone there! Then I had to babysit and while I did that Kenyon put random little things around the apartment to find like boxes of Conversation Hearts, and little pile of my favorite candy and a little stuffed animal bee. Then he gave my dad some money to go see a movie that night so we had the apartment to ourselves! It was great! OH! Were you thinking to yourself "Jeannette what did you do for your sweet husband?" Well loyal reader I just so happened to make him homemade oreos and a deck of "52 Reasons Why I Love You" made from playing cards. It looked like this:

Oh and Berick had a cute outfit to wear that looked like this:

He totally will be a little "Heart Breaker" one day! GOSH he's cute!

After Valentine's Day things quieted down and are now back to normal for the most part EXCEPT Berick learned how to crawl FORWARD while we were in NH on February 11th! I was such a proud mama that I almost started crying! He's getting into everything now and causing all kinds of mayhem but I love it! Here are some quirky pics of my babe:

Playing in the blankets!

This is when he woke up from a nap and was all cuddly and kept just smiling at me like this!

Pouty face while sleeping.

Big Man on Campus pulling himself up with things.

I don't know what he's doing here but I thought it was funny :)

He can sit up by himself now too so often I'll lay him down for a nap and go back in a few minutes later to find this! Its cute but he goes right back down :)

First time in a swing! He loved it! My dad pushed him so I could take a few pics. He just smiled and enjoyed the ride.

Kenyon wrapped him up like this the other night and I just thought he looked so funny!

Well sportsfans that's all for now! While in NH Berick had a photo shoot that I'll post pics from in another post! Also if you're wondering how Kenyon is then wonder no more! He's doing great! He's ready for landscaping season to start up again and switching up things with school. We have a few big choices to make soon but alas that is also for another post! Hope you enjoyed this picture packed blog entry! Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, Silly Birth Control

So a funny thing happened a few weeks ago. Spoiler ALERT: I'm on birth control. Anyone who reads this and doesn't agree with birth control...get over it :) Anyway soooo a few weeks ago I do my nightly routine of brushing and flossing and taking my meds which include an inhaler and a birth control pill. Everything goes according to plan until I get to the birth control. Upon further inspection of the pack I realize the empty pill spaces seem off. I proceed to count said spaces and discover: holy pregnancy batman I've missed 2 pills in a row! Some at this point my think to themselves "Jeannette, the birth control would still be in your system so there's a really small chance you could be pregnant". Well misinformed reader, I got pregnant with Berick the month I stopped taking birth control so basically I am blessed to not have conception issues. At any rate I walked into the living room and informed Kenyon of the news. Let's just say he wasn't mad at me but he got remarkably worried.

Pros to being Pregnant:

• kids close in age (18 months apart)
• we're still on medicaid
• newborn cuddles

Cons to being Pregnant:

• kids close in age
• 2 kids in diapers
• non-medical expenses
• Kenyon, if accepted into the Landscape Architecture program, would be in the middle of one of the hardest semesters of schooling when baby 2 would come

The things I've just listed are merely a few points for both sides. Needless to say we were a little stressed. Well to break to suspense I am not pregnant but oddly enough I felt slight disappointment by not seeing those 2 pink lines on the test. It would have been incredibly hard to have kids that close and not planning on it and there's a chance I would have a breakdown after the baby was born but I still had gotten a little excited over the possibility. I feel like I was a little cheated of those newborn times with Berick because he struggled so much with his milk allergy. It would have been quite sweet to know what was wrong and have a sweet new spirit in the house. However it is still a relief that I'm not pregnant. I'll get more time with Nugget. Sorry this is just a "word" post but I wanted to write about this gem :) As long as we don't have anymore accidents we're still on track to try for Baby #2 in the fall. Its not too far off! Until then I'll just enjoy the newborns who are to be born soon enough around me.