Coming to an end...

Our Utah vacation has been pretty fun, but it's almost over. Just a few more days and Donovan will get to see his cousin Mason and his favorite aunt, Lenna! Sorry to you other aunts, but he loves Lenna almost as much as his Grandma's.

Donovan has been his usual cute self. We will have some adjusting to do once we get home because he has been so spoiled, but he has enjoyed himself very much! The first Sunday we were out here, my family did gingerbread houses. It was fun to be in the same room as all of my siblings joking around and doing something we did as little kids. Thanks for all your hard work making the gingerbread mom!!

Donovan and I tagged along with Grandma Mindy (my mom) and Uncle McRae to Cabelas. He really enjoyed all of the stuffed animals.

Grandma started a bad thing, but he loved her for it. Every night while we were staying in Lehi (before Brad got to town) she would dance with him until he was almost asleep. He wouldn't leave her until he was too tired to protest. He likes to snuggle with his Granny Silvey too, but I haven't taken pictures of it yet! Don't worry, I will get some before we leave.

Our child is learning to play Guitar Hero, he is pretty much a rock star by now.

Rockin' out!

What a stud.

Donovan LOVED playing in the snow...when he had mittens on. He did not like to get cold hands or have any snow in his face. He did like getting buried with his cousins and would pull more snow onto himself when Brad was piling it too slow.

You can't really tell by this face, but he was really having fun. Once he was done though, he was DONE.Colin ate a little snow and was a little upset about the cold, but tried more anyway.

If Donovan doesn't play some sort of instrument I will be surprised. He is so fascinated by anything that plays music. He loved pounding on the piano at my parent's house and even played softly with his fingers sometimes.

Sweet little baby Faye. She is so adorable. She has the biggest blue eyes and the longest eyelashes, she is going to be even cuter when she has hair!

I caught Sara Lu Who with some big smiles when we spent the night at Caleb and Heather's last night. She was being so cute. She is such a fun baby when she is happy!! Donovan has been a dancing machine the whole trip. Anytime he hears music he is moving!

He can jump on two feet!!! Not consistently, but he sure tries! He doesn't quite get it until the end of the video, but it happens so you have to watch all of it.

Worst date tag

Thanks for the tag Kirie. I actually enjoy reading other people's bad dating experiences, but I can't seem to think of one completely horrible date. I will give you an example or two of dates I didn't particularly enjoy, but don't get too excited, they aren't that horrible or funny.

I had this boyfriend my senior year of high school and I tried not to get too serious with him by dating other people while dating him. I wasn't dishonest or anything, he knew I was dating other people. One night, I was getting ice cream with a guy I met at the physical therapy clinic where I was working (he was a really cute bull rider with the same injury I had the year before and I flirted with him shamelessly until he asked me out :). While we were out I got a call from my friend Jessica about going on a triple date with her boyfriend, his best friend, our friend Tina, and another one of her boyfriend's friends. I decided to cut the time with bull rider short (I am so rude, I know), and go out with Jessica. Right after the bull rider dropped me off, Alex (boyfriend at the time) came to my house to hang out with Tyler (baby brother) and me. I told him I was hanging out with Jessica so he offered to give me a ride to her house and everything (awkward), so I let him. I felt really bad, but when I walked in the door and saw my date I realized that I would be punished enough and wouldn't need to feel bad for ditching Alex. While Jessica's boyfriend and his best friend are pretty attractive, their other friend was not so much. I try not to be shallow when it comes to looks, but this guy looked like he was at least 30. I don't think he was that old, but he looked it. We went to the hypnotist show at Johnny B's which was fun, but we ran into Jessica's old boyfriend and there was silence in the group the rest of the time. It was pretty miserable. Sorry Jessica, but I think I told you how miserable it was for me.

Oh sweet Jensen. My mom's friend at work has a son my age and we went out a few times and every time we went out I was horrible to him. He took me to his homecoming dance and in the pictures, I convinced him to sit on the opposite side of the bench so he wouldn't be touching me. It's not like he was gross or anything, he was a nice kid and was actually pretty cute. He was just very touchy feely and that isn't really me, especially since I had a boyfriend when I went out with him (this was a different boyfriend, I really don't know why they wanted to be with me, it was a requirement that I would date other boys but they still stuck around). On the last date we went on, we went to a BYU football game and he kept brushing up against me or putting his hands on my shoulders so I would bend over to tie my shoe or anything else to avoid him touching me. I finally told him, and showed him, that I have a personal bubble and I would appreciate it if he would stay out of it.

So those are my bad date experiences, but they really weren't all that bad.

I tag whoever wants to do this.

Big News

I am assuming my husband told all of his family members the big news so I will now spread it to the masses. Brad accepted a new position at IWCC. He is the new head coach for the women's soccer team! This means we will be in Iowa longer, but I am starting to accept it. It is still hard for me to be so far away from family, but now that I know it is going to be much longer I am going to make the most of it. That is my New Year's resolution, to learn to love living in Iowa...or at least tolerate it better. We won't have to live on campus anymore and Brad won't have to deal with the stress of working in the Housing Dept! Woot! This job will be a major stepping stone to where we want to end up in the future so we are both very happy about it and I know he will help the team find success!

Tiny Dancer

Wow, we have such a cute child. Last night we let Donovan watch Baby Van Gogh before going to bed (it's his new favorite Baby Einstein) and he was having so much fun dancing. I think his cousin Mason has had a lot to do with the evolution of his dance moves. Thanks Mason, you are such a good teacher. Brad was calling him a ballerina because he was dancing on his toes.



Donovan and I are off to Utah this evening. I am excited to see family, but dreading a 2 1/2 hour flight with my child that doesn't know how to sit still. Here's hoping the DVD player is a good enough distraction and he doesn't figure out how to take off his leash while we go through security.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Donovan's secret

Donovan got in our room this morning and found my bra drawer. I walked in on him trying one on so I helped him out. I hope he sticks to trying on our shoes. He is going to love us when he gets older :). I had a picture of it up earlier, but Brad didn't seem to appreciate it so I was nice and took it down. Sorry if you missed it!

I probably won't be posting anything for a while because I have a LOT to do before we leave on Wednesday so I thought I would leave you with my cute child doing ring around the rosie by himself. How cute is he?

Can't believe I forgot

I took the cutest video of Donovan and Mason copying each other and forgot to post it! They are such cute boys.

I also forgot to post Donovan's sliding. He doesn't know how to sit without falling backwards so this is how he does it. It is funnier in person.
I am always nervous that he is going to hit his face and get rug burn, but he loves it! We may have to get him his own slide, that is his favorite thing to play with at Mason's house.

Early Christmas

Merry Christmas to us! I have been dreading the flight alone with Donovan on Wednesday and told Brad we had to get a portable DVD player to help the child sit still. After failing to convince Scott to let us borrow theirs, he decided he had to get the best, of course. He got the one that has an ipod dock in it so it was a little more expensive than I was planning on, but he is the sugar daddy so I let him spend his hard earned money. We practiced watching it the other night and Donovan lasted with the headphones for about 10 minutes but wanted to keep watching the screen. Do you think they would mind if we didn't use headphones on the plane? Anyway, we have our leash and our DVD player, I think we are set :)

Lately, all Donovan wants to do is play our Rockband drums. He is pretty good. Look at that form (does that term work for drumming?). Last night, I was trying to do my hair before we went to the IWCC basketball game so I sent Donovan to his daddy after his bath and came in the living room to find this. Brad thought it was pretty hilarious...okay, so did I !This morning Donovan took off his PJ's, almost. He couldn't quite figure out how to get them off his feet so he walked around like this for about 20 minutes. I wanted to see if he would get them all the way off. Yes, his diaper is sagging.
For those of you who think we should be reproducing again, I won't name names, you will be disappointed to hear that we will not even be thinking about more children until we are in a more permanent position. We hadn't planned on our Iowa experience lasting this long and fear that it would last even longer if we got pregnant again before we get out of here. So I will continue to take my pills every night at the same time to prevent having children and I will still rejoice as TOM/Aunt Flo come to visit on schedule. I don't want to hear anymore on the subject. I am trying to have some willpower here and you guys are making it difficult.

Thanksgiving week

Nate and Kirsta are flying back home this morning. It was so much fun having them around but now we are getting back to normal life, for a week anyway. Donovan and I will be going to Utah a week from tomorrow, woot!

This is pretty long with plenty of pictures so you should only start reading it if you have the time.

Our family fun week began the Friday before Thanksgiving when Hannah came into town. Lenna and I packed up the boys and picked her up at the airport. She came bearing gifts for Mason and Donovan so we wouldn't have to take an extra suitcase full of presents when we go out. Donovan loves his Mickey tent. He loves when we peak at him. It's a winner Hannah! Good pick!Hannah watched Mason at our place on Saturday so Lenna and Scott could prepare for the rest of the family's arrival. He enjoyed watching Baby shows with Donovan and playing in the Mickey tent.Mason had a lot of fun when his cousins got here. Donovan liked having them around but didn't really play with them. He is a bit of a loner. He prefers adults or toys to other kids.On Wednesday we headed to Kirksville, MO for Thanksgiving. Donovan and I rode with Brad's parents and younger siblings (Hannah and Little Scott). Brad was on call so he wasn't able to go, thanks again for taking care of him Joyce! Donovan sure did miss his daddy. He was getting restless in the car so I gave him my phone and guess who he called! The video is a little long but you have to watch the whole thing to see how cute it is.


While we were there he called his dada again.



I didn't take a whole lot of pictures while we were there. Scott H and I took the kids to the park on Thursday morning because we were a little bored and the kids were getting restless. Scott took pictures but I forgot to take my camera. When we got back the kids had fun walking around with Papa and playing on the porch swing. Cutest picture EVER! Donovan enjoyed walking around with his Papa.Donovan and I left Kirksville Thursday night in Lenna and Scott's van so we could get home to Bradley. It was crowded with 5 adults and 3 babies but we were ready to get home and be with Brad. Friday was a beautiful day so we headed over to the new pedestrian bridge that connects Omaha and Council Bluffs. The rest of the family was still in Kirksville, but we still had fun.
Sweet baby Colin. I get to see him again next week! We miss having babies around, but don't really want one for ourselves yet.Donovan LOVED the bridge. He had so much fun running around.

There is a park near the bridge so we headed over to play. He still loves swings!Colin's first swinging experience was a hit. I took a million pictures of him, but I am sending them to Kirsta. I don't want to steal all of her thunder.
This picture was taken right before he leaned forward and ended the slide on his belly.Bradley and his bestest brother Nate had fun at the park too. They are about 16 months apart so they have always been close. Bradley loves his big brother Nate.What big boys they are. I think they were having a competition to see who could pile up the most sand.Little Sara Lu and daddy Caleb! She is so cute. I held her for like 30 minutes and loved every minute of it, only because I was able to keep her fairly happy. She likes to cry, but I kept her pretty entertained, I was pretty proud of myself. She has SO much hair, it is crazy how thick her hair is. It is so cute after it gets wet, Heather (her mom) puts a little gel in it and it gets so curly. I love it. I hope that I have a girl with a lot of hair someday.Everyone had a lot of fun with Bradley. He was playing with Rachel and Donovan was getting a little jealous.He had to join in. He didn't really like me holding Sara either. I didn't realize he was so possessive. I guess he is used to Mason because he never gets mad when we hold or play with him.Bry and Kaylee Bug. We had so much fun having all the nieces and nephews around! Don't be jealous Lenna, but we get to see them again very soon and we are so excited!For those of you who don't already know, Brad's sister Lenna is PREGNANT!!! YAY!!! We are hoping the girl trend continues so we will be more likely to have a girl when the time comes. Cross your fingers for a little girl, I know I am!