"I'm so happy I get to go to preschool"

Quinn had his first day of preschool on Monday. 3 other moms and myself formed a small preschool group and I am so excited.Hey Quinn, make a funny face

He loved it. The first words out of his mouth when I picked him were :I'm so happy I got to go to preschool, can I go again right now. Glad you loved it buddy!

Its weird dropping off your little guy to go to school, even if it is just preschool. It made me a little sad, but happy because I know how good this is going to be for him. We do lots of learning stuff at home and I'm glad I still get to teach him but I'm glad for all the extra input he will get from learning from different mothers and kids. It was also super nice to just hang with the bean man and focus on him for a few hours.

A new addition...

Nope, not an announcement, though with our new van we could even have triplets and still have room, sweet.
Okay, so I know this is a really lame picture, but its cold outside and my house was warm and toasty, so this is a view of our new van through the window. Can I just say how much I love this van! Its a 2004 Toyota Sienna. I love not having to drive Peter all the way to work and back, and then go pick him and drive all the way back, just so I can use the car that day. (Though I do miss the extra time with the hubs.) There is so much space! And it is so much easier to get the kids in and out. Its so weird being the same size as all the other big cars out there. I love that it doesn't feel like driving a van- it handles super well and the windows are spaced perfectly so I don't have too many blind spots. It feels weird and luxurious having two cars. I keep finding myself planning out the week and all the errands i have to do on the one day I get the car, and then I realize I can spread out those errands, the kids won't go crazy being stuck in the car and stores all day and if I forget something at the store, no biggie. Freedom! The 1st time I drove the van I dropped Quinn off at preschool. Yup, that's right, a house, a van and a kid in preschool...wow, that's weird.

Art Class

I have wanted to learn to draw and paint for a long time. Every time I would sign up to take a class I would have to drop it for something much more exciting, like math, ugh. When we first moved to Utah I went to Hobby Lobby, (couldn't you just spend hours in there) and I noticed a sign up sheet for art class. I recklessly wrote down my name and left. I started getting emails about the art classes and each time I would dream about going to one, but money was tight and the schedule never seemed to work out. I checked out library books and dabbled in learning some drawing techniques but I still really wanted someone to really teach me. Finally at Christmas everything seemed to fall into place, so I signed up to do oil painting. Then Peter's work schedule got changed so that he wouldn't be home in time. Luckily there was an option to do the same class on a Wednesday morning and thanks to my SIL Becky and a good friend who offered to babysit, I get to go paint for the next month. We are doing 2 paintings. I finished the 1st one today. Take a peek.

Still Here

Blogging has been the last thing on my mind recently but I miss it! Its so sad to see what little I have recorded of 2011. Here is a quick run down of what happened this past year.

December-Wow! A 4 month old baby, an almost 2 year old, moving across the country, Peter finishing finals and graduating from law school. One insane month

January-Still felt crazy. Peter spent all day studying for the bar. Me and the boys started to get familiar with our new home. Quinn turned 2! We made a train cake and celebrated his birthday with his cousins. Lots of fun :-)

February- Peter turned 26 and we had our 4th wedding anniversary. Two days after our anniversary and two days before the bar Peter was in a roll over accident. He partially severed a tendon in his right hand. He still took the bar but it was one of the hardest things he had ever done

March- Job hunting!

April- More job hunting! Oh and we found out Pete passed the bar!!!

May- Still job hunting. We were getting pretty worried and frustrated by this point

June- Finally some job interviews and offers. Peter ended up getting a great job at Burton Law Firm. Its a perfect job for our family. I also started teaching at a massage school.

July- On the 4th of July we found out we were expecting another baby, surprise!!!

August- My little James turned 1 :-) A few days before his birthday we lost baby #3. It was a hard month

September- House hunting! We found a beautiful 5 bedroom, 3 bath house. We are right across the street from a park, and a 5 minute walk to another park, bike trail, walking trails, basketball and tennis courts. We can see the beautiful mountains out the front and back. And we have a yard!!! We love everything about it. I can't wait for the warmer weather so we be outside. I keep imagining all those hikes, picnics, swimming, camping and fishing. I'm so excited to explore this beautiful place. I think this is also the month that my SIL Janette won concert tickets (she wins everything, it is seriously amazing) We went to meet Michelle Branch and then Peter and I stayed to see her in concert with Parachute and Goo Goo Dolls (love them!)

October- We signed the housing contract and became homeowners. I also turned 24.

November-Nothing too exciting, just getting settled into our new home and of course Thanksgiving with the fam

December- A visit from my Mum and Lyden for Christmas. It was awesome to see them and fun to have a place for them to stay. We were able to be with Lyden as he was sealed to his parents in the Salt Lake Temple.

It was a really tough year. We had no job, and felt like we were in limbo a lot. We had to leave our life and wonderful friends in CT. Our faith was tried a lot and our stress level was high. A lot of the time I didn't think I could handle anymore. I feel so blessed that we finally have a job and a beautiful home. Things are finally back to normal and it feels so good!

Here is a picture dump from the past year. Enjoy!

James

James is a fun little guy. He likes to hear weird noises as well as make them. Sheep noises are some of his favorite. He loves to stick out his tongue and see if you'll do it back. He hates to keep still and is constantly moving. He is super independent and prefers to do things on his own. He loves playing with the basketball hoop, riding and pushing his walker, pushing cars and trucks around and watching other people. He loves the water especially playing in the bath or the kiddie pool but hates to be splashed too much. He is also finally starting to sleep through the night which has been wonderful. He has the funniest crooked smile and a deep little laugh when he finds something particularly funny. He usually likes to play on his own so I sit on the floor and watch him. He'll often suddenly stop what he is doing and come crawling over to me as fast as he can. He plows his head right into me, snuggles for a few seconds and then goes back to what he is doing. He is a super good climber and loves to do so. He climbs up onto the couch, up and down the stairs, trys to climb onto beds and without a doubt will climb all over you if you are laying on the floor.

He has had lots of firsts since we have been in Utah....first time riding his walker

First picnic

First time eating solids-just look at that face

First time sitting up on his own

and first Christmas.

He also took his first steps not too long ago, his first solid steps last Friday and is now getting more adventerous and walking around more. A video to come soon!

Quinn Man

So it has been a forever since we have posted some updates and our family has been through a lot of changes. But more on that later. For now here are some updates on Quinn since we moved to Utah.

Now that the bar is over Quinn gets to spend a lot more time with Peter. It has been so wonderful for the kids to have more time with their dad. Quinn has really liked making houses for his cars and big towers out of his blocks.

Getting a massage...what a life

Our cute little manGetting used to the snow. He loves it! sledding, snowballs, taking walks in it...you name it

Playing in the yard

Since we have been here Quinn has given up naps..so now he has quiet time. He still gets pretty tired though and one day I found him all tuckered out on the floor. Another time I found him like this....

Somehow he had gotten a hold of my mascara?!

Quinn is my little buddy. He loves going to craft and fabric stores with me, helping clean the house, cooking and looking after James. He has recently started telling me stories which are so fun to hear. One day he was telling me about a dream he had where a train flew to the moon... I love hearing him talk. He tells me what he did in nursery, his concerns about things, fun things he wants to do like can we go to the plane museum when James wakes up?

We are finally potty training. We had been dabbling in potty training since Quinn was 18 months and we finally did it. He still has the occasional accident, usually because he when he is in quiet time he has a hard time letting us know he needs to go and he still in diapers at night but he is usually dry about 90% of the time.

He is also now in a big kid bed. He had started climbing out of his crib and we wanted to use the crib for James so we moved Quinn into his own bed. It was a long process. He was always a really good sleeper but I think the move was hard on him and getting him to go to bed was something I dreaded every night. Then moving him into a different bed at the same time of the move made things even harder on him. But after a month or so we finally figured things out and it has been going a lot better

Its been so nice to be close to family. I think Quinn has a lot of fun with his cousins and love love loves Grandma and Grandpa Bracken. He talks about them all the time.

We love our little two year old!

Halloween

For Halloween this year James was a cow (a super cute cow I might mention) and Quinn was Tigger. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat which was kinda crazy and a lot of fun. We didn't get to make our chili for the cookoff this year, which would have won hands down because it has chipotles and chocolate in it, but that day got super crazy so we had to skip it. I think Quinn liked getting the candy but he was way more excited about the decorations in the rooms. One room had a tunnel you could crawl through but he got side tracked by the pumpkin and we had to spend a few minutes persuading him to come out. He also liked the skulls that lit up.

A couple of days before Halloween an aquarium near us had free admission for those in costume so I took the boys in their costumes and I dressed up as a bumblebee. It was fun to see the exhibits. They even had a blue lobster!
James is so easy to photograph. I stick him in the chair and he coos while I take pictures
Quinn doesn't keep still
Nice still cow...
Moving Tigger

It was a blast and I can't wait for next Halloween