Two months and counting

Brooklyn has changed so much since the day she was born and she is only two months old!  I've told her several times that she is growing too fast and needs to slow down but she just isn't listening to me! :)  I've tried to savor the precious time of having a newborn but it goes so quickly.  It has been a wonderful two months. 

Here are the first real smiles I caught on camera. 



Now we get several smiles daily and each one is so precious.  It's almost a game to see who can get the best smile out of her.  The boys are constantly saying, "I saw a smile!" or "Brooklyn smiled at me!" or "She gave me a HUGE smile!"  





Here are the boys trying to get her to smile.  Poor girl takes it all so well.  Kyson especially is always in her face loving on her and trying to make her smile.  I'm so glad both boys adore her, she's just got to feel smothered sometimes!



And here they are bouncing a ball in front of her because they just KNEW it would make her happy:)


Kyson truly does love Brooklyn.  Although he is a little too rough sometimes, he is a sweet big brother.
 

Caleb asks several times a day to hold her.  He does not like to hear her cry so he will try really hard to comfort her and help her be happy.  He is great at helping me get things I need like diapers and wipes when she needs a diaper change.  I'm grateful for his help when I need it.



Brooklyn continues to be such a happy baby.  She still sleeps through a lot of the boys craziness and when she wakes up she will sit in her swing happily for quite a while.  She really only gets fussy when she is hungry or really tired.  She will often be sitting in her swing just looking around and the next thing I know she is off in dream land, sleeping away.  At night she still wakes up every 2-3 hrs to eat but I don't mind too much as long as she goes right back to sleep.  Some nights are hard, but I truly can't complain because she is so good overall.

Happy two months Brooklyn!  We sure love having you in our family! 

The great outdoors

The last weekend in April we decided to join our friends who were out camping at Bear Canyon Lake.  A few days before going, Jared went to Bass Pro and bought our boys fishing poles.  He has been promising them he would get them one and take them fishing for a long time.  They were SO excited!  Every day when Jared got home from work they begged him to take them outside to practice casting.  They both got pretty good at it.

FINALLY Friday came and we had to wait for daddy to get home from work.  I'm sure I was asked at least a hundred times how much longer it would be before daddy got home.  Once he FINALLY got here we took off.  It was a great drive up as all three kids slept most of the way.  The boys had woken up early because they knew it was the day we were leaving and just were too excited.  It sure made the drive up wonderful!!!

We made it to where our friends were camping and soon everyone was headed down to the lake to do some fishing.  I know the boys had a good time although it did get frustrating at times.  They kept getting caught on the rocks and things in the water and the fish just didn't want to bite!  Very few fish were caught so the boys would lose interest.  I think they still enjoyed being outdoors and having as much space as they wanted to run around and just be boys!  






When we weren't down at lake fishing or riding the boat, the boys were just running around getting dirty.  They played a lot of "baseball", hide 'n seek, digging in the dirt for worms, and whatever else they could think of.  Here are some random pictures.




This kid just LOVED the bat and ball.  He was pretty much carrying it around with him 90% of the time!


I was a little concerned about camping with such a young baby but she did great!  This is how she spent a lot of her time...

Karli brought stuff to make dirt with the boys (pudding, mashed up oreos, and gummy worms).  They definitely got dirty!





Overall I would definitely call it a successful camping trip!  I'm already looking forward to the next one as I know the boys are too (Father's and Son's is this weekend for them!).  I think I'll need a few trips out of the crazy heat this summer to stay sane:)

School time!

This school year Caleb has been going to preschool four days a week.  It has been a good experience for him.  He has learned a lot and grown up so much!  He seems to enjoy learning which I am grateful for.  He will start kindergarten in the fall, which brings on a lot of mixed emotions!  How did my sweet little boy grow up so fast?  He is just not so little anymore!  I am excited for him to learn new things, make new friends, and enjoy going to school...but I'm not ready for him to be away from me all day and have to face the big, crazy world out there.  I'm starting to realize that ready or not, kids grow up and there is no stopping them!  (Not that I want to stop them, I just wish I could pause time for just a bit every once in a while!)

With Caleb going to school most days, Kyson has been sad to not be able to join him.  Sometimes while Caleb is at school, I will work with Kyson at home, teaching him new things.  I have been so impressed by how he picks up on things and has such a desire to learn.  He loves numbers.  We will be driving in the car and Kyson often asks me to give him an addition problem.  I'll say something like, 3+4 and he will hold up three fingers on one hand and four on the other and add them together to get 7.  For some reason, he just loves doing this and is so proud of himself when he gets it right...I love it!  Just recently Kyson has been learning how to write his numbers and letters.  He is finally getting where he has a little more control of the pencil/marker.  One morning a couple weeks ago I sat down with both boys and helped them write the whole alphabet all by themselves.  I knew Caleb would be able to write most of it on his own, but I was so impressed with Kyson's determination to write the whole thing all by himself.  I definitely had to sit by his side and instruct him but he would not let me touch his marker or white board.  When he was finished I had to take a picture because it was such a huge accomplishment for him.  He really worked hard to complete it! 

They both wanted Brooklyn to join them for the picture:)

 
After finishing the alphabet they each wanted to write their names and take a picture of it themselves. 

Wishes do come true!

It's official! In 34 days we will be on one of these...

We will be headed here...

to make Kyson's wish come true.  

His wish was to meet

and 

We just got word that we will be going from June 5th-June 12th!  Not only that, but we get to go with the Warner Foundation!!!  Kurt Warner and his family (he has seven kids) spend the week with 10 wish families at all the parks in Disney World.  
Click here to learn about Kurt Warner, his family, and his foundation called First Things First.


I am so excited and humbled by this opportunity.  One year ago Kyson was going on five weeks in the hospital recovering from his third surgery.  Now, in just a few short weeks he gets to experience a trip of a lifetime because of the generosity of so many amazing people.  I am so excited to spend this time together as a family.  I know memories will be made that we will NEVER forget!

Easter celebrations

This year Easter was a special time for me. There were two things on my mind constantly as we celebrated this special day. I was so grateful to watch Kyson run around playing with cousins and being a normal, happy boy after spending last Easter in the hospital. I was also so grateful to have Brooklyn a part of our family this Easter. She has brought a lot of joy to our family. The week before Easter we all caught a nasty flu bug and were quite sick. Thankfully by Saturday we were all healthy again so we were able to enjoy all of the Easter activities we had planned. Saturday afternoon we headed out to Queen Creek to my Grandma's house. As I have mentioned before my boys love it there. I love it too because they just run around and play with cousins the whole time and never get bored! It's great! Here are the kids all full of anticipation for the Easter egg hunt.
Ready. Set. GO!!!!!

Fontan anniversary

This was Kyson one year ago today...

This was the beginning of a LONG 5 1/2 weeks for our family but we made it through it! I look at Kyson today and I am so proud of how far he has come. We have been extremely blessed to have him doing so well.

I am so grateful that this year instead of doing this for Easter...

Kyson gets to run around at my Grandma's house and participate in a real Easter egg hunt today! Last year he was NPO for Easter (meaning he couldn't eat or drink anything) so all he got was stickers in his Easter eggs. I'm excited for him to be able to get a little candy this year:)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! I am deeply grateful for the true meaning of Easter and although we definitely won't skip out on the "fun" Easter traditions, I will try to focus my thoughts on my Savior. What a special time of year this is!

Two special weeks

I have been wanting to sit down and write down some thoughts I've had. Feel free to just skip to the pictures if you prefer not to read my ramblings:)

Today Brooklyn is two weeks old. It truly feels like she has been a part of our family for longer than that. I am so grateful for the past two weeks. It has been more wonderful then I ever dreamed it could be. During my pregnancy I often stressed and worried about what it would be like to have a newborn again. My last experience with a newborn was Kyson and lets be honest...it was HARD. There was so much stress and anxiety involved and thoughts of "what if I have to do that again?" would creep into my mind. I also was concerned that I would worry about every little thing that Brooklyn did...every grunt, every cry, every everything...and I would not be able to enjoy her. Well, the complete opposite has happened. She has brought so much joy into my life and I have enjoyed her so much. Despite everything being so difficult with Kyson, he has taught me so much about life and living in the moment. That is what I have tried to do with Brooklyn. Although waking up every two hours all night long isn't my favorite thing to do, I have been able to enjoy that time with my sweet baby. This stage just doesn't last very long and I'm not going to wish away a second of it! Although she is only two weeks old, she is already changing. She eats constantly and I can see her already filling out. In a way it makes me sad because the newborn stage is going to be gone so fast but I am also excited to see her grow and see her personality develop.

Here are some pictures I've taken over the past two weeks.

Three days old. In Daddy's arms...







One week old...wearing the beanie Aunt Allison made her. Love it!






A little glimpse of her smile.


Thirteen days old...snuggling with "Yellow." This bunny was given to Kyson by his Uncle Reed and Aunt Melissa when he was in the hospital last Easter and he named it Yellow.


Can you believe I'm a mother of three? I have certainly been blessed!