Date Night

Spencer and I have really been wanting to go the rec center in Gilbert to play walleyball! We love playing and never really do any physical activity anymore. We have been wanting to go for weeks and have not been able to have anybody watch Brynlee. It just kept falling through. Well, Sunday I was reminded that Spencer has a cousin who is a senior in high school who loves to babysit and basically begged me to babysit! SWEET!! I always forget that she is available! We made the plan for Tuesday and got really excited! It was finally going to happen. Madison comes over and we get all dressed in our walleyball finest! We get to the rec center, walk in, tell the lady we want to play, and she says they don't have any rooms available until after 8....it was 6:45! We couldn't wait that long and didn't want to be out much later than 8:30 anyways so we left. We were seriously so bummed. We decided to just go walk around Superstition mall. We never have the chance to just walk around and browse. We stopped back home, I changed into my cute clothes, and we headed to the mall. It was actually so much fun! We looked at T.J. Maxx, sniffed every candle in Bath and Body Works and even ended up getting two things on sale so we only spend $7! That's unheard of. Then we went and walked around Icing (I know, my hubby is the best!) and just laughed and joked together. We got to walk around holding hands and acting like a real couple! :)

On our way out we stopped back and felt some blankets at T.J. Maxx and got a cheap hamper for our bathroom. We decided we weren't quite ready to go home yet so we stopped and ate ice cream cones at McDonalds and 'people watched'. I love that me and Spencer are actually friends. We seriously just walked around the mall and had the best time! I am so glad we got to go on a date together AND we get to go tomorrow night to the rec center and we are calling to reserve a room! Whitley and Nick agreed to watch Brynlee for us since it's right by their house. They rock!

One other crazy thing from that night. The next morning I was making sure that Spencer was ready to leave for work by going through the checklist. Phone: check. Keys: check. Heart Medicine: check. But then Spencer told me that this morning he realized that he hadn't taken his heart medicine the day before. He felt kind of funny he said but wasn't quite sure why. It actually ended up being a huge blessing in disguise because if we would have been able to play, he probably would have had an episode and it would have really put a downer on our night.

Sometimes the best plans fall through, and you end up doing something BETTER!

Hunter is Pretty Cool

My brother in law Hunter is pretty cool. He is probably the one I know the best and feel the most like he is my brother. This fact is why I am SO SAD that he is leaving on his mission. I am so excited for him and so happy that he is choosing the right, but this is one of those times I wish he wouldn't ;)! (JK!!!! I totally want him to choose the right!). Anyways. This past Sunday he had his farewell talk. I can't believe that in 2 weeks he will be gone. When he got his call it felt like forever until he would be leaving, and yet it has come so so fast! He is going to be an amazing missionary. He is so friendly and genuine. He has a great sense of humor and isn't afraid to be his own crazy self. The people of Poland are really gaining an awesome guy! I am so not looking forward to going to the airport to see him off because I have never done that before and I don't know how I'm going to handle it. I hope I will be just fine, but I'm afraid my new mommy hormones will kick in and I will be a wreck. I am already looking forward to mother's day when we get to skype him...and he hasn't even left yet!!

Brynlee Girl is 6 months old!

I seriously cannot believe how fast time is flying! It has already been

Half A Year

since Brynlee was born.

Brynlee had her Doctor's appointment on Tuesday and these are her stats!:

Weight: 13 lb 6 oz 5th percentile

Length: 24.5 in 5th percentile

Head Circumference: 25th percentile! Guess she has a big head :)

Likes: FOOD. If we are eating, so is she. Sitting up, her binky clip, spitting, being thrown in the air, taking baths, taking naps, water bottles, and ice cream.

Dislikes: Over stimulization, vegetable beef baby food, cold peas, shots, getting stuck, and being alone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This time has been amazing and terrifying and exhausting and exciting and yucky and adorable all at the same time!! 

I have gone from being my own person to being a provider for 2.

 I have gone from wife to mother. 

I have gone through a lot of things that I could never have dreamed would happen.

 I love someone more than I ever thought would be possible.

 I have fought through pain like I never thought I could. 

I have been patient in times that before Brynlee I would have lost my cool. 

I have cried over silly things that all of a sudden mean more to me because I am a mom. 

I have gone without enough sleep for way too many days in row and still been able to function. 

I can carry more things that three of the old me could carry at once. 

I have learned the art of one armed....everything!

 I have gained muscles in my arms that only being a mom can produce.

 I have willingly acquired more baby items in my home than can fit. 

I have given up a clean home for a home filled with toys and books and blankets and swings and bouncers and bumbos and bottles. 

I have learned the art of sneaking in and out of a sleeping baby's room. 

I have learned the art of changing a diaper without taking off their pants.

 I have accepted my post baby body and love every stretch mark I have. 

I have learned to love the 5 minutes I get in the shower.

I have realized that my work as a mother is never going to end. Even though I am fully grown, the first person I call when I need help, advice, or comfort is my mom.

 I have learned that nap time snuggles on the couch are way more important than anything else I have to do. 

I have learned that I need Spencer.

 I have realized that more people say hello to the baby instead of saying hello to me, and I'm ok with it.

 I have come to an understanding that if the baby is wearing a white onesie, she WILL poop on it. Every time. 

I have seen so many dirty diapers....

 I have been shocked by how much I miss her if we go on a date for 2 hours.

 I have been amazed at how quickly Brynlee picks up new skills. I have watched her go from sleeping and pooping to sitting up and trying to crawl. 

I have learned that a sleeping baby is probably the most peaceful thing.

 I have learned to appreciate silence. There is nothing like the quiet moment when the baby is actually asleep for the night and you sit on the couch and just soak it in. 

I have realized that with a baby to stare at, I can walk almost any distance and love to! 

I have realized that I talk in baby talk and accidentally play peek a boo with Spencer and I'm ok with it.

 I have come to a small understanding of the love my Father in Heaven feels for me. I feel so grateful and blessed that he trusted me with his precious daughter.

 I am in awe of the many miracles I have experienced in the last 6 months and I'm sure I will see many more. 

And Cue adorable pictures!

My ninja baby :)

She kinda likes  herself!

Daddy is training her young. Little gamer girl.

This picture perfectly captures the way her mouth looks when she is talking. She moves it so funny and it cracks us up!

She always takes her morning naps in my bed. This time, it was laying like a big girl!

These are her 6 month pictures we took at the park! That was the only smiling one we got except for on the swing.

Big girl sitting in the high chair!

At work with Daddy :)

Seeing what Daddy does for work.

I'm a Bzz agent

*I received all of these products for free and all thoughts are my own*

So a little while back, I got the urge to go online and sign up for a bunch of those websites that give you free stuff to test out and review. The two main ones that I have been a part of are Bzzagent.com and influenster.com. They are basically the same thing except bzz agent seems you things to try out and get you to talk about it. They send you coupons and things to share with friends and is usually just one thing. Then influenster is a little more generic. They send you a box (voxbox) of stuff and then incentivise you to talk about it by saying that the more you do, the more you get chosen for more things.

From influenster so far I have gotten one voxbox and I have one on the way! My first one wad called the jolly Voxbox and came with a bunch of random stuff. I'm going to review them here just in case anybody wants to try them out!

From being a bzz agent I have received the cottonelle flushable wipes with a bunch of coupons and also a schick Razor. I also have more stuff on the way so stay tuned! Ok here it goes!



This is the Schick Hydro Silk sensitive care razor.
I was using the Gillette Embrace razor before so that is what I have to compare it to.

• First off, it looks WAY prettier than my other one did, so right off the bat, points go to the Schick.
• I love using a new razor so I was excited for this one. It does give you a really nice, soft shave. There is a strip of like protecting gel or something in it that a lot of razors have these days to prevent razor burn. It did it's job! Maaaaaybe a little too well. I had to keep running it under the water so that some of it would wash off because there was so much on my leg that it couldn't really get to the hair. 
• The shave did NOT last very long. Normally if I shave according to my regular habits (like once every 3-4 days) I don't feel prickly until like the third day. With this razor I shaved my legs in the afternoon one day and by the next morning I was already feeling it. 
• The shape is a little weird. My old razor is the one on the bottom in the first picture and see how it has that nice little bump where your finger should go? And also the bumpy handle so you can hold it? The Schick has the opposite shape which I thought might be good too but it was terrible. I was terrified of cutting myself the whole time because I was afraid I was going to drop it.

Overall? I give it a 7. If you want this razor purely to prevent razor burn then buy it. But I still love my Gillette.

This is the Cottonelle Flushable wipes container. The wipes are gone now so this is all I have.

• This is not something I have ever/would have ever bought if I didn't get it for free. The thought of wiping with a wet wipe was not that promising to me. I actually got my mind changed though! I'm just going to be honest here, I felt so clean! I didn't use it every time...but when you do your business, you use a LOT less toilet paper with one of these first.
• The size of them was a little small. They didn't quite cover your whole hand so you had to be a tad careful but it wasn't that bad.
• The container was my biggest complaint. I wish it was like the old ones where they pull out of the top. If a wipe was out of that hole at all the top didn't close all the way and if the next wipe didn't feed through you had to open the bottom, push it out, you know...way more trouble than it's worth.

Overall, I give it an 8. I might actually buy these again if I have coupons!

This is a picture of my voxbox right when I got it.

 

This is NYC color trio eyeshadow. I don't really wear eyeshadow because it annoys me. I did try this though and I liked the colors! They have a nice shimmer to them without being strait up sparkly. 

This is Rimmel London Show Off Lip Laquer. I also don't wear lipstick very often and it's because of the exact reasons why I didn't love this.

• It's SO STICKY. I hate not being able to open my mouth because my lips are glued together with lipstick.
• It smells funny. I am way more of a lip gloss girl. The kind that smells like candy! This just smelled weird.
• It did have a really nice cover though. It didn't make it splotchy or anything and the shimmer was nice. They gave me a really bad color for my skin tone so I won't continue to use this bottle, but if you don't mind the sticky, you should try this!

Overall, I give it a 5. Minus the sticky? Probably 7.5

They sent me puffs lotion tissues. As you can see from the picture, they have been used. To me it was just a normal pack of wipes that you can take with you. The only difference was they were sturdy. Lots of times the tissues in these packs are a little...wimpy. These ones were lotiony and thick and much nicer to use. The downside to that is it feels like there are less in a pack because each one takes up more space.

Overall: 9. Who doesn't love a good tissue!

They sent me a roll of mini duckling duck tape! I am not in love with the pattern I got, but it's such a cute little roll! I honestly haven't opened it yet. It is sitting in my craft drawer waiting for a project to come along that I can use it for. I saw some things that other people did with it though and it looks like you can do so many things because the strip is so skinny it is easier to work with.

 

I don't have my own picture of these, but that is because they were gone too quick to get a picture! These were my favorite part of the voxbox! I was a little nervous because it looks like chocolate for dieters and hey...I don't diet. I like my chocolate! But I was pleasantly surprised by how seriously good these were. There are three little squares in each pack and each pack has only 130 calories. It is the perfect amount of chocolate to fill a craving without throwing you into a guilt spiral. The chocolate was really smooth and they tasted so yummy. If you are someone who likes to eat chocolate but probably shouldn't, these are a good thing for you! I highly recommend them!

My rating: 10!

So that is my review of the things I have gotten so far! I will update when my new stuff gets here! :)

*I received all of these products for free and all thoughts are my own*

Our future missionary!

Hunter went through the temple last Saturday! He leaves on his mission mid February and we are so proud of him! He will be serving in the Poland, Warsaw mission! Brynlee LOVES her uncle Hunter!

They even matched!!

Brynlee passed out at lunch after the session :) I love this picture because her lips look like her Newborn lips ♥♡

Seeing Santa

Just realized I never blogged about Brynlee seeing Santa! Tannis and I took Brynlee and Jayne to bass pro shop to see Santa. It was kind of a long wait but it was free so it was worth it!

Tannis and Jayne

My funny girl

I don't know how to go about blogging the past month and a half of Brynlee's life in any order so here goes nothing!

Brynlee is now 5 1/2 months old and weighs just over 13 lbs! She is getting heavy. She doesn't look it though, she just feels like a brick! She has been on baby food for about a month now and has 2 oz of pear juice every day to help her poop. She loves her food and our food! She eats anything! She always wants what we are eating and just recently we have started giving her little bits. I will dip my finger in whatever we are eating and let her suck it off!

She also has had a really bad rash all over. We are pretty sure it's excema so we have been trying to stay on top of it.

She scratches everything! Herself, me, the couch, her blankets... everything! I think she likes the sounds.

She is so loud! She pretty much screams every time she talks. It is also so high pitched. So funny.

She always gets herself stuck under the couch because she rolls all over!

She loves her jumpy toy!

She loves playing with her friend Jayne!

She has a cute room! I have finally gotten around to finishing all of my projects and a few of them are for her room!

She is bald. No kidding! She woke up with no hair one morning and still has none!!

She has started getting into trouble...

The swing was moving when I took this picture!!

She likes to wear the clothes I make her! Tannis and Jayne came over one day last week and we made them cute shirts with my new sewing machine!

I gave her some bananas in this baby feeder thing... she wasn't so sure about it...

She fell asleep all by herself the other night. Looks comfy??

She is so stinking cute! (I know that's nothing new,  but look at her!!)

She has stated doing this weird thing where while she is eating her bottle, she takes it out of her mouth and plays with it. It's so annoying because it makes such a huge mess!!

She likes to eat those little puff snacks. 

She is getting really good at sitting up! She can go up to a minute sometimes without falling down! I can't wait until she can sit up... that will be so nice!!!

She has her 6 month appointment on the 28th so we will check back in after that :)