I love this laugh

Donovan loves playing with his daddy when he gets home. They have so much fun together.


I have to tell you how cute this little boy is. We have been taking advantage of the sunshine and comfortable temperatures while they last and take a walk around campus every morning. They are always slow because he has to stop and examine all the new things he sees. It is a lot of fun to watch him discover how things work. His favorite thing to do is push the buttons to open the handicap doors. When he decides he wants to go inside the school, he tries to push the elevator buttons, but they are a little too high. This morning, a girl pushed one of the buttons while he watched her. He grabbed her hand and pulled it toward the buttons so she would do it again, it was SO cute. He has never really done anything like that, I was a little surprised. He also knows that when we cross the parking lot to the other sidewalk, he has to hold my hand; so this morning he lifted his arm up toward my hand as we got the end of the sidewalk. He is such a little smartie pants. One more story, we were walking in the building to drop off some mail in the mail room the other day. As we were walking, a big guy passed us followed by a girl. He stopped and stared as the big guy passed and when the girl passed, he blew her kisses! We have a little flirt on our hands! We usually have to ask for a kiss before he will blow us kisses, I was a little jealous, but it was still cute. He is only 1 and he is already like his dad was in high school!

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet your husband? My freshman year at IWCC in Council Bluffs, IA. We were at a soccer dinner when we met, but the first time I saw him was after the women's team had gone for a run and the men were getting ready to go. I was immediately twitterpaited by his good looks.

2. How long did you date before you married? Not very long, about 9 months.

3. How long have you been married? 3 years and 4 months

4. What does he do that surprises you? He isn't very romantic, so when he says or does something really sweet it is a little surprising. The most surprising thing he ever did was buy me the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and a recent favorite, North and South (also BBC). I was shocked, he hates movies like that!

5. What is his favorite feature? I love his eyes, but I love them most when he smiles because they light up.

6. What is his favorite quality? For how silly and unromantic he is, he has a very soft heart. I love when he comes home and dotes on Donovan and me. It's easy to see how much he loves and adores Donovan.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? He always calls me "babe", something I don't think anyone else would have ever gotten away with.

8. What is his favorite food? Probably steak, he isn't too hard to please though...most of the time.

9. What is his favorite sport? If you don't know that, you don't know Bradley very well (it's soccer of course)

10. When & where was your first kiss? In my dorm room after our first official date. You should ask us about the story, it is a good one.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We have only done this a couple of times, but I love going to MLS games with him. We are going to the KC Wizards game this Sunday!

12. Do you have any children? Just the one, but I keep hearing from my mom that people I went to high school with think I have at least 2 for some reason. I don't, I promise. Why do people think I am a baby machine?

13. Does he have any hidden talents? The only thing I can think of would be the rubicks cube, but because of me that isn't hidden. He plays the guitar and sings really well if you didn't know that.

14. How old is he? 25

15. Who said I love you first? He did, actually he said, "I think I love you". Again, another good story.

16. What is his favorite music? Like me, he likes pretty much everything. One of his RA's has gotten him into Breaking Benjamin lately.

17. What do you admire most about him? When he wants something, he works very hard to get it. He is very determined and ambitious and provides very well for our family.

18. What is his favorite color? Honestly, I don't know. I don't know if he has one.

19. Will he read this? Not for about a month...he is a little overworked and busy right now. He barely has time to breath!

I tag anyone who wishes to do this. The only reason I did was because it wasn't about me! I like to Brag about my awesome husband.

More zoo fun, and a bad mommy moment

Donovan and I decided we were going to the zoo yesterday because Brad was out of town this weekend. Lenna and Mason had the same idea because Scott had a lot of studying to do, so we went together.

Mason was cracking me up at the petting zoo. He was so excited to be there, but when a goat got too close, he would shy away.I hope Lenna doesn't mind me posting these, I still have to send them to her. They were too cute to pass up. He warmed up to the goats a little bit and would feed them VERY long pieces of hay. Donovan is still pretty brave, so he fed them leaves. He thought it was great.It looked like he might steal their food for himself, but he didn't try to eat it, thank goodness!

Now I will confess my bad mommy moment. We went to Joyce's yesterday, after Donovan's nap, to see how the remodeling on her house is going. Her wood stairs are GORGEOUS, just so you know. We went upstairs to see the master bathroom and while we were up there, Donovan would show his face in the bathroom occasionally and I would peak my head out in their bedroom to make sure he was behaving, I promise I wasn't neglecting him. While Joyce was showing me the shower, we heard a loud thud, thud, thud. I knew immediately what it was and sprinted out of the room to see him lying sideways on the 4th stair up, I was very thankful he caught himself before hitting the tile. By the time I got there he was bawling, I think he was more scared than anything, so I took him to the family room and sat cuddling him on the couch. His little arm was wrapped around my neck, but he wouldn't let me cuddle him too close. I looked at his head and it was already bruised and there was a little bump. We examined him to make sure there weren't any other injuries and he was fine, just a few red marks on his back. I, of course, was trying to hold back my own tears and shaking while Joyce got him some Nemo fruit snacks. Once he got his fruit snacks he was lying on my lap as content as could be. About 5 minutes later, he was up running around and grinning at us. If you think this has cured him of his stair obsession, you are mistaken. He tried to go up there again before we left.

I don't know if you can see his bruise, I took about 20 pictures trying to get a good one, but this was the best I could get. No, it isn't the red spot by his hair, that is jelly from his PB&J he had for lunch today. It is the dark little spot between his eyebrow and the jelly.
As you can see, the fall did not affect his appetite.

Could he get any cuter?

We have had Donovan in our family for over a year now and I am still amazed by his cuteness. Just when I think he can't get any cuter, he does. I think I give him a "you are so cute" kiss about 20 times a day. His toothy grin is usually what does me in. Here is our little cutie in his adorable green PJ's. Brad calls him the "green machine" when he wears these. I think he looks like a "Who" (from Whoville...know the place?)We took another trip to the zoo this week. I got a call from my friend Jessica while we were there and she said we always go to the zoo...it's true. In our defense, we got an annual family pass for $60, we have to get our money's worth, and then some.
He was amazed by the waterfalls, they have a few small ones in different areas, but this is the big one. He tried to get in the water for about 10 minutes before he gave up.

There is a small resemblance. He saw this spider web and immediately wanted to climb in. There were no kids around so he just sat there and I bounced him.
At the petting zoo, he always seemed to go for the goats bottom half. I was quite proud though, he didn't hit or grab their hair. He just pet them softly.
He was a little nervous to touch their faces or ears. I think he got scared after the goat's ear twitched when he tried to touch it. He still grinned at him.

I am so glad we have a zoo so close. Donovan gets tired of sitting in the apartment all day, and besides the park that is a 5 minute drive away, there isn't much to do around here. We are both going to go crazy during the freezing Iowa winter. We are going to start going to a story time for new walkers next Wednesday. I am actually very excited about it. Not only will it be a fun time for us to bond and be with other toddlers and adults, but it will give me ideas for fun activities Donovan and I can do at home.

The Office Premiere

I am so sad. Last night, Brad had to work, so I recorded The Office while I watched Grey's Anatomy. I pushed the button and saw that it was recording so I proceeded to watch Grey's. At 10:00, two of the soccer girls came over to watch it with us and I couldn't find it on our recorded list! Somehow it didn't work! Now we have to watch it on the internet :(

Teeth Grinding

Donovan is grinding his teeth a lot lately. How do I prevent this? It drives me insane and it can't be good for his teeth. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is a problem that needs to be fixed. Any advice?

Our silly little stinkbug

Donovan is feeling better now. His nose still has the runs, but he is slowly getting less slimy. Our weekend started when we went to the mall Saturday morning and ran into Lenna, Scott, and Mason. Mason wanted to push Donovan in their stroller and ended up pushing him everywhere. It was pretty funny. I love his cheeser, he is so cute. Donovan was tired and grumpy, so he isn't looking his cutest.We went to a soccer game on Saturday afternoon and he loved it of course. He only played on the track a little bit. There were people around us who wanted to play with him and he liked the attention.
I'm not sure how or when this started, but it cracks me up every time he does it. He does it when he is being silly or when he is throwing a tantrum, so he pretty much does it all the time.
He loves to run down the hill but has a hard time getting back up.

I love to watch him when the crowd claps or cheers. Even if we are down on the track, he has to stop and clap for his Reivers.

Nice belly.

I can't get over how silly this is.

"whas da?" (translation: "what's that?")
What a silly little monkey!

Best picture ever.

I'm sure Bry really does like his new sister...somewhere deep down.What a pretty baby!

Welcome to the world Sara Lu!

Donovan has another new cousin! Brad's brother Caleb and his wife Heather had their baby today. We are still waiting for pictures and can't wait to see our new little niece/cousin. Congrats to the Heather's!

Sick Days...

Donovan has been sick for the last few days so we haven't been able to get out of the house much. Our days consist of snuggling to watch Baby Einstein and reading books. It has been pretty monotonous. I am going a little crazy. I am hoping we can find a babysitter tonight so we can both get out of here for a while! Illness doesn't agree with Donovan. He has been tired, whiny, and doesn't have much of an appetite for good food. He only wants to eat crackers and drink water. I guess eating real food is too tiring. I don't remember him ever being this pathetic when he was sick. I guess I notice it more because he isn't running around being silly like he usually is. I don't even know if he was crawling yet the last time he was sick. He seems to be getting a little better. Yesterday was the worst day, but I think that was my fault. He was doing really well on Wednesday so we went to our ward party at the park. He had a lot of fun but went to bed late and woke up early the next morning. I think the lack of sleep triggered something yesterday. It was nice that he would actually snuggle with me. He is too busy to do that most of the time.

If I were a Palin

My sister in law had this on her blog, I thought it was pretty darn funny. This will show you what your name would be if Sarah Palin were your mother (her kids names are Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper).

Click Here
to find out what your name would be! Enjoy...

Sincerely,
DeAnna, Bradley, and Donovan
(Falter Locust, Spine Breeder, and Trough Gutted Palin)

Popcorn popping

I love to watch Donovan learn new things. He is getting more attentive and excited about the games we play with him. He loves when we play songs and sing with him. We took this video yesterday after church.



The teams had games on Saturday. Donovan and I only made it to the last 15 minutes of the girls game but stayed for the boys. Donovan had so much fun walking around and trying to steal people's soccer balls. Luckily, Joyce was there to keep me company as we walked around the track. The international students were playing soccer on the flooded soccer field and Donovan really wanted their ball. The international kids LOVE Donovan. I love to listen to all of them coo at him in their native tongue. Who can resist an adorable baby/toddler?


Earlier in the day, he discovered his old bath tub. He knew exactly what to do with it.
He really did climb in there by himself, it was hilarious.

Faye Lee Goodman

For those of you who don't know, my brother Dustin and his girlfriend Erin recently had a baby! She was born on July 21, 2008 in the afternoon. I know, it has been a while! I was holding out for pictures. We got some in the mail today! Thank you Erin! We are so excited to finally meet this little girl in December. Donovan is so excited to have 2 cousins on his mommy's side of the family now (yes, we count Erin's daughter Jayla as a cousin, we love that little girl!). We are so happy for them and hope that we will be closer some day so that Donovan can play and get to know all of his cousins. I know this isn't the best picture, but we don't have a scanner. I had to take a picture of a picture with an average quality camera. I think she looks just like Dustin.
We apologize for the late congrats. We are really excited to meet the little cutie and can't wait to spoil her at Christmas!!

I love rainy days...

...and so does Donovan!
I decided that we need to get out more, so Donovan and I went to the zoo this morning. It was actually a lot of fun even though it was just the two of us. We didn't have an agenda, I just let Donovan go where he wanted to. It was fun to see how curious he has become.
His favorite part is usually the aquarium, but he really enjoyed the butterfly house. They have an area after you go through the butterflies that has different insects and a few birds. He loved to watch the birds go back and forth.


He loved the water too of course.
When we left the butterfly house, he got out some energy, I know this video is pointless. He is just so cute in his Sambas! He is pretty cute when he walks, it is hard to resist.

He was mesmerized by the fish at the aquarium, but he also played with his vents.

"Hey G-Pa, do you like my jeep?" Sorry dad, I think he is a little cuter behind the wheel of an old jeep.

Donovan's awesome laugh

I wish I had a better video of this, but whenever Donovan gets excited about something, he does this laugh. It cracks me up every time.


He is so cute, look at those blue eyes!! His hair is getting pretty shaggy, I know, I don't want to cut it yet though.I have to tell a funny story about this picture. Some of you already know about it. It made me laugh because Donovan shows more and more of his daddy's personality every day. When Brad was younger, he used to say he wanted to be a girl, just like his big sister Lenna, when he grew up. At least we don't have any pictures of Donovan in dresses...yet. It doesn't bother me because Brad turned out just fine. Maybe we will make him a cute little Iowa Hawkeyes cheerleader for Halloween and get him a wig :). I can already see my dad cringing. He was cringing when I put Donovan in man capris. He kept telling me that they weren't capris because men don't wear capris. I beg to differ and I think they are adorable. I couldn't find a cute picture of him wearing them so just know they are adorable and he totally works them. Mason looked pretty darn good in them last year too, Lenna can back me up on that one.

My husband, the genius

As some of you may know, I have started reading a lot again. In high school I was always in the middle of a book, but once I got to college I had to deal with soccer, school, and something foreign to me, a social life! Needless to say, I fell out of my reading habit. When I was pregnant, I passed the last week by reading the Twilight series, but once Donovan was born, I had plenty more to worry about. After reading Breaking Dawn this year, I remembered just how much I love reading. Anyway, I will get to the point. When Donovan goes to sleep, Brad is usually working so I read. He always comes home to find me reading and used to tease me about it, but now he has his own little hobby. He has figured out the rubix (sp?) cube. Now every time he finishes it, he hands it to me and tells me to mess it up. Last night he even asked me to time him. When I teased him about it he brought up the fact that my nose is always in a book, which is something he will never understand, he HATES reading. Don't worry though, he can read, he just doesn't enjoy it like I do. So he is the rubix cube champion now. He was pretty impressed with himself last night and was pretty confident that he is the only person in his family who has done it, so unless someone can prove him wrong, I will let him have his glory. I am so proud.We moved our apartment around, Brad insisted. Now Donovan is trying to find different ways to annoy us and get into things. He loves to push the buttons on the TV, even though he has to squeeze by his toy bin. I guess that is the fun part though, the challenge of it.
He is getting so cute when he reads books or points to things. He will look at a book and point to something and say, "what's that", but it sounds more like, "tssa". We know what he means!
The other night he was being so stinkin cute. He was pounding on the wall and singing some Indian Pow-wow song. Sorry, the video is pretty blurry, our apartment doesn't have the best lighting.


The other day he discovered his hat drawer. So of course we had to try on all of his hats.
These were the two cutest pictures.Maybe he should be a pumpkin for Halloween!
Donovan and I have a fun weekend ahead of us, Brad leaves with the soccer teams tomorrow afternoon and won't get back until late Sunday night. I don't know how I am going to stay sane that long without him. I guess it will prepare us for the longer road trips ahead of us, I think they are making a trip to Wyoming this year. Yuck, but at least they don't have to drive to Northwestern Idaho again!! I did get a new book at the library for the weekend so I will have something to do after 7:00 every night!!

Am I naturally blond?

For those of you who know me very well, you know I have my fair share of ditsy moments. And for those of you who know my mother, you know where I get it from! I often put dish soap in the dishwasher because I don't feel like they get clean enough with the electrasol tabs. I just got a new kind of dish soap and I guess I put too much in, and of course Donovan found the mess before I did.
He looked like he was trying to finger paint with the bubbles.That was my blond moment for the week.

In other news, we went jet skiing for the first time this afternoon with some people from our ward. It was a lot of fun! I have decided that we have to have a boat and a jet ski...some day. One of us would stay on shore and play with Donovan while the other went out on the water. FYI, Lake Manawa is 10x more disgusting than Utah Lake. That should give you an idea of how nasty the water is. Instead of being brown like Utah Lake, it is green and maybe 1/8-1/4 of the size. We still had fun though, it was nice of them to invite us! Donovan loves playing in the sun so he had a great time, it was the perfect outing, until he got grumpy and tired!