Mother's Day 2016

What a wonderful day!! Breakfast in bed, flowers, a sweet card and a very thoughtful note from dad!! Then for dinner John and Dan created a restaurant where Brooklyn and Paxton served! It was SO cute and fun!! The sandwiches were so yummy! What a thoughtful husband!!

Laughin in the Tub

Tonight there was a tender moment in the bathtub that melted my heart.  Brooklyn was laughing as loud as she could which sent Pax on a laughing spell as well.  They were laughing and hugging for about 5 minutes.  I just sat there watching my 2 babies and realized how lucky I am!  They are best friends and love each other SO much!!  I love being a mom of 2!!  Crazy, but I think it's better than just having 1!   Maybe it's just that Brooklyn is in such a fun stage and is such a sweet girl that she is my big helper and talks to me all day so it's alot more fun then when she was a baby and I would sit around in a quiet house while she slept. Oh now crazy and fun this stage of life is!!

With a New Year Comes Change

We have so much to be grateful for as we reflect on the past year!  We feel so fortunate that John was able to be promoted to a buyer along with starting his MBA at the University of Arkansas. He does so much for our family!!  I am so grateful to be married to an ambitious husband!

In July I started working at Gymboree Play and Music teaching developmental classes for kids under age 5.  It has been nice to have something to look forward to each week which lets me get out of the house and also to make a little extra spending money.  I also started making fabric button jewelry in the fall and participated in a craft fair in October.  I have had alot of fun creating and selling!!

 Brooklyn has grown so much!!  She is so cute and has so much personality!  She loves being the center of attention and has the cutest laugh I have ever heard.  She will eat just about anything!  And I mean anything.  She also loves bed time.  When we ask her if she's ready for bed she will say, "ya" with a huge grin and take our hand and walk us back to her room.  It's so cute!  She is extremely smart!  She says 30+ words (not bad for 16 months) most of which only John and I can understand what she is saying.  Below is the list in no particular order:
- Kay (ok)
-Ta U (thank you)
-Mommy
-Dadda
-Book
-Baby
-Ball
-Puppy
-More
-Ya
-No
-Jesus
-G'ma
-G'pa
-Brush
-Coat
-All done
-Bay (belly)
-Shs (shoes)
-Toes
-Nana (bananna)
-Pleese (please)
-Uh Oh
-Sof (soft)
-Pree (pretty)
-Nate (every little boy)
-la u (love you)
-Wh go (where'd it go)
-Bye
-Hi
-Eyes
-Nose
-Ears
-Mouth
I wish I could include a sound clip for each.  It's so cute to hear her talk!! Her voice is my favorite!

Our ward split this past week (it has only been 2 1/2 years since the last split) and we are no longer in the Centerton Ward but are now in the Bentonville 3rd Branch (ok it's a branch but we have 250 members and are 90% active... it will likely be only a few months before we top 300 and can be moved to a ward).  The growth in this area is just crazy.  So many people are being recruited to this area to work for Walmart or a vendor.  We feel very blest to live in an area where the church is so strong and only getting stronger!  With this change did bring change to my calling.  I had been with the Mia Maids for the past year in the Centerton Ward and now I will be serving with the Laurels.  I am really excited to have a new group of girls to learn from.  John was called to serve again as Elder's Quorum President.  He had that same calling in the Centerton Ward for the past year or so.  Although at times his calling is very demanding, it has been a blessing for our family!  We have all grown as a result of his serve.

The most exciting aspect of 2013 is that we are welcoming in a new addition to our family this year.  Paxton John should be arriving within the next month!  We are anxiously awaiting this arrival!! Mom has been very busy getting the nursery ready to go!

Toy Story Halloween

We had alot of fun this year with our Halloween costumes.  We decided to go as Woody, Bo Peep and our sheep.  I made John's vest (which I am extremely proud of). He even had a pull cord out his back that he insisted the little kids pull so he could say cool things like, "Who poisoned the water hole?" and. "There's a snake in my boot."  He is so silly!  We had a lot of fun!

 

She is ALL Girl

We are constantly amazed at how girly she is!  How does she know that girls are supposed to like bows and shoes and necklaces?  She is such a little ham!

Brooklyn's First Birthday

 Cindy came into town the week of Brooklyn's birthday.  It was so fun to have her here!  It was a really good opportunity for me to build a relationship with her. We had a lot of fun sightseeing and also preparing for Brooklyn's party.  We had her bday at Gymboree Play and Music.  Since I work there, I was able to rent it for really cheap.

We messed up a little on the cake batter but good thing B didn't know any different.Cindy helped me with the icing, which I was so grateful!  It would've have turned out that cute if I had attempted on my own.

She had so much fun opening presents!

 Grandma and Grandpa Coley gave Brooklyn a rocking chair which was from when I was a kid.  It was the chair we played on at grandma's house.  Brooklyn loves her new chair!

Summer Fun

Brooklyn and I spent lots of time at the pool this summer.  She loves the water!!

Give me more plum and no one gets hurt!

 We had a few fun family outings this summer.  One Saturday afternoon we went for a hike in Bella Vista.  Fortunately, it wasn't too hot under the shade of the trees. In the sun was another story!  This summer was another miserably hot one!!  We had record breaking heat with most of the summer being in the high 90's and 100's.

 

Looking good!!

 We also went to a drive through safari zoo.  Brooklyn wasn't too sure of some animals.

Brooklyn liked the goat!

Baby pigs, so cute!

A kangaroo!!

4th of July

This year for the 4th we had an extra special treat, Daliena was here to celebrate with us!  We made John a special birthday shirt.  We made our handprints into fireworks! 

 Of course we had to go bowling for John's special day!!

 One of our sweet friends made John a nice festive cake!

 

Trek 2012

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 2012 Youth Conference Pioneer Trek.  We were Ma and Pa Hurren which happened to be John's ancestors.  We had 10 exceptional youth in our family and man did we have fun despite sleeping on the ground, rain, walking 6 miles a day, and having to pee in the woods half a dozen times (lets just say I became really good at spotting the kind of leaf that makes great toilet paper).

John did a wonderful job getting our youth excited by creating a family cheer which we yelled out lots while trekking.  We also won a contest and received a watermelon (which was a huge blessing because the next morning we had it to accompany our gruel breakfast or flour and water).

Our family was victorious in the stick pull (one of our sons won over all the boys and then John wanted to go up against him and of course pa won) we also won the handcart races both in the kids division and the ma and pa.  That is a funny story, one in which I almost died.  We took off and immediately fell because John's old boots had no traction and the grass was still wet with morning dew.  So we get up and I'm thinking we are done because we are so far behind, but John just starts running and I am on the outside of the handcart just running alongside.  Well John motions for me to get inside with him and he lifts up the handle to allow me to get under, but he is still running full speed.  So when I stand up, I am at the back next to wheel about to get ran over.  I yell at him to slow down.  I was running as fast as I could and trying to not trip over my skirt but he is of course way faster than me so I can't get up to the front easily.  I eventually get up there and I am just hanging on for dear life while John pushes the cart.  We pass the other couples and move into first place and win the race.  Man was it a sight.  I think half the camp was rolling with laughter and the other half were shocked into silence.  It was a fun memory!   

Each night we had dances which was a blast for both of us.  We had fun just cutting a rug along side our kids.  We had fun learning how to cook in our dutch oven.  We didn't really think too much of it, but apparently there is a science to how many coals to use and how often to rotate the oven.  Well we figured this out the 2nd day, but our chocolate cake was kinda burnt the first night.

By far, the best part of the trip was the stories of those who we were reenacting.  They sacrificed so much for the gospel.  It really hit home with all of us and the youth!  The day after the trek, most of the youth in our ward bore their testimony of the experience and how it strengthened their testimony. We were very grateful to participate in such a great adventure!

9 Months

 On May 17th Brooklyn was 9 months old! She is getting such a fun personality!!  Wow she makes us laugh all the time!  She has been crawling backwards for the past few weeks and is able to get up into a sitting position from the floor but is still not very good at moving forward.  She also has been pulling herself up on this and last night we had to lower her crib because she pulled herself up and was standing... it has begun!!!

Well she loves food!!  

 I have been making most of her baby food and had just froze some peas in an ice cube tray.  I decided to just give her the ice cub and she went crazy over it!  Peas were everywhere, so cute!!