A teeny tiny novelish recap

So it may or may not have been almost eight months since I've updated our blog. I have a list of excuses on hand that include 1. I've been busy (the lamest one, I think), 2. Blogging is not a huge priority for me, 3. I now have TWO kids, and it's madness around here, 4. I like working on my hobbies when I have free time, 5. I may or may not be a little addicted to Dr. Mario.

I know, I know, they're not very creative excuses, but, well, what can a lady do? So I've decided I am going to do a picture-captioning update that will not be super long-winded. Or it may be long-winded. I'm not sure. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Okay. So on March 2, 2010 (coincidentally the day before our baby was born) our court marshal, Bob, came and took some maternity pictures for us. Here are a few:





Then on March 3, 2010, our beautiful baby girl was born! She was born via c-section again, which I was disappointed about, but since having a healthy baby was the goal, that was what was best for her. She was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long and perfect in every way! She was nameless for a few days (again) while in the hospital, but was then given the name of Brylee Reece Fish.







Brylee (or Brylers, as her parents and sister call her) has been growing so much these last seven months or so! She is a BIG, CHUNKY baby, but she is seriously the happiest baby in the world! She hardly ever cries, and she's slept about six hours at night from the get-go. Glorious! We love her so much. Brylers is the perfect addition to our family!







In the beginning of May Jackson gave Brylers a sweet baby blessing. We were very fortunate to have lots of family come and support us. Brylers did great and didn't even cry. We dressed her in the same dress Addy had for her blessing. It was good we blessed Brylee when we did, because she barely fit into the dress. What a cutie pie!





Brylers has grown so much! She rolls over like a champ and she is IN LOVE with her jumper. She jumps sooo hard in it, and then will turn and look and me and smile this huge grin like she's so proud she can jump so much. I just LOVE her!!





In the meantime Addy has been growing up so fast! She is officially a little girl.. and a messy one at that. I swear, every time I turn my back she's into some other mess. I try to take pictures and laugh it off, and that works...sometimes :) Most of the pictures need some sort of explanation, so I'll try my best to explain..







This was when my parents were watching Addy one night while we went to the temple. Addy found some Girl Scout cookies in my brother's room. She thinks, hmmm, this is a nice treat, so she starts to pull the cookies out of the box. Then she lines the cookies up in a nice, neat row. Finally she starts to eat them one by one. They took pictures, let her eat a few cookies, and then took the rest away. Apparently they didn't think it was the best idea to let her eat a whole box of cookies...even if they were lined up.











Sad baby + too quiet toddler = chocolate sprinkles anyone?





Busy parents + toddler who likes to play in the Tahoe while we're outside working + toddler who finds a bag of cheetos from who knows where = cheetos anyone?







This is when we went to feed the ducks at the river. Addy liked the idea of feeding the ducks, so she would try to throw a little piece of bread to them. The bread would land about an inch and a half from where she was standing, so then she would decide, oh, well, and just eat the bread. I don't think the ducks were too starving..





Here you can kind of see that she got into my mascara and tried to beautify herself with the mascara. It kind of worked..



Addy absolutely LOVES the water. She spent half her summer, I swear, in those cheap little pools you can buy for your house.



She loves the water so much that one day I was showering and I happened to turn around, and guess who was sitting fully clothed in the tub? What's a mom to do besides let her take a bath and reward her for all her hard work :)





In the midst of all of this growing-upness that's going on in our house, Jackson went on a little venture to Oaxaca, Mexico for a study abroad program. Long-term this was a really great thing for our family because it allowed him to get enough credits to graduate a semester early and let him graduate in the spring instead of the fall. This was a great deal for us, because, being a teacher, most of the job opportunities for him will be after the spring semester. So it really was a good thing.

Short-term I have to say that I missed my sweet hubby sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!! I got to experience what it's like being a single mom, and let me tell you it is NOT easy. To top it all off, I ended up having a slight problem with my gallbladder, in that it quit working and had to be taken out. Bummer deal since I was trying to take care of two little girls at the same time. We are soooooo fortunate though because we have a wonderful family close by and wonderful friends and ward members who helped us out so much. I just want to take the time to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped us. You have no idea how much we, as a family, appreciate all the help we received.

Okay. So that was a super long monologue, and I only have three pictures from Jackson's Mexico trip for some reason. They represent two interesting months, so take a good, long look! :)







We've also gotten to experience the wonders of sibling love/rivalry. When we first brought Brylee home from the hospital Addy wanted nothing to do with her. She would simply look for opportunities, you know, to hit her or step on her or do something else you could call a little malicious. After a little bit though Addy grew to love Brylers and now she is such a sweet sister. Addy will look for Brylee and shout out "Bylers! Bylers!" and then giver her kisses. It's sweet.











While Jackson was gone Addy turned 2 YEARS OLD!!! Such a big girl! One of the things she got from her Grandma and Grandpa Fish was a card that sang The Little Mermaid. She would sit there and open the card, let it sing, close it, and open it again and again and again and again until the battery on it died.. She also got some glasses as part of a doctor's kit from her Aunt Mandi. She loves to wear them around all day.













When Jackson got back from Mexico he took the girls to Arizona by himself! Brave man, brave man.





During the summer we had a family reunion at Lagoon. I was so surprised, because I thought that Addy would really love all the rides since she is kind of what you'd call an adrenaline junkie. Surprise, surprise, she did NOT like the rides AT ALL (the second picture down basically sums it all up).. except for this little ride where the kid sits in a boat and goes around in a circle in the water. Luckily, the line is only like an hour long for all these toddlers to ride the water ride. Oh, and, yes, Addy is wearing a leash...one of the best investments I've made thus far for this little girl.












Addy had a wonderful experience dancing in the rain with mom. We were originally headed out for a jog, but then got poured on, so we decided to get our exercise dancing instead.







Lastly, we took a little rafting boat trip a few weeks ago with my parents and my sister and her kids. The trip was lovely...except for the last 45 minutes or so when it decided to storm like crazy while we were out in the river. Luckily for us we had a plastic tablecloth so the kids could get under our "house" when it was windy and raining like crazy. The weather was cold and the crying was loud, but, hey, at least it was (mostly) fun!!





Whew. That is the catching up post.. the sad thing is that it's already a couple of weeks old. Lame-o.. Oh well!! Hopefully I'll be better at updating in the future, but if not.. I guess sporadic posts are better than nothing at all!