Dear Luke,

You are now 2 years and 2 days old. I haven't written to you in a while, and today I am really sad that I didn't write you this whole year. Although I was planning on writing you this letter, I was more inspired to do so today. A couple weeks ago, a tragedy hit my small home town of Heber. A car accident killed a few members of a well-known and well-loved family in the community, one of them being an almost 2 year old. Not even as big as you, yet. Immediately, I found her parents' blog, (I know members of the family, and know OF the little girls' dad, but not personally) and I couldn't help but cry reading her monthly letters to her little girl. She was doing the same things you do. Saying the same words and throwing the same tantrums. Seeing her precious pictures made me think of my own sweet baby boy. How blessed I felt to be able to still hold you and kiss you. I even had trouble sleeping for a while because of the anxiety I felt if I lost you. Now, 3 weeks later, you had a birthday and I have thought a lot the past two days about the little things in our life that make me love you even more.

I love your cute little voice that seems to have an expanding vocabulary every day. You can repeat almost anything we ask you to, (which isn't always good because daddy thinks he's funny having you repeat some words I won't state here....). You have the sweetest heart and are so concerned if you think anything is wrong with me, or anyone else. Although you are a complete terror and your favorite thing to do is tear through your toys (or anything really) as if you are the Tazmanian Devil, you still find time to cuddle and sing, "I Am a Child of God" with me.

You change so much every day, and I can't keep up with it unless I write you letters. So I'm going to try to do this again. Because I want to cherish every. single. moment. I have with you. Even the peanut-butter-in-your hair and spilled juice moments. I want to remember the cute things you say and the cute sounds you make when you're excited.

You are still our world. You light up our lives. And you make me happier than I ever thought  a tiny thing could make me! I can't believe you are 2 whole years old! It still feels like I should be strapping you into your baby swing or crawling around on the floor with you. But instead I'm chasing you around full speed and begging you to slow down so I can kiss you. I love you little man. Until next month when I write you again, remember that!


Love, Mom

Tagged!

I'm bored at work, and my dear friend Lauren tagged me to do this a couple days ago. So here we go!

Rules:
1. post these rules
2. post 11 random things about yourself
3. answer the questions provided by the one who tagged you
4. create 11 new questions for the people you tag
5. tag 11 people

Random Things:

1-I don't have a spleen, a galbladder, an appendix, my tonsils or my wisdom teeth!

2-I don't eat meat.

3-I love to travel and have been blessed to see many beautiful places in my life so far. Including 46 of the 50 United States, Australia, and Mexico!

4-I am the only girl, with 5 brothers, and when I was born they wanted to flush me down the toilet.

5-I absolutely hate bubble gum. It's soo gross. I hate the smell, the taste...everything. So please don't chew it around me.;)

6-When I was 3 years old, I lost a lot of my hair. My doctor told my mom it was "due to stress". (What kind of stress does a 3 year old have you ask? We moved across town from my bff!) I am a huge stress ball...and when I get stressed I pull at my hair. Resulting in hair loss! :(

7-I've lived in only 3 places (Heber City, Cedar City, and Henderson) but have moved 10 times.

8-I have the cutest little boy in the entire universe, his name is Luke!

9-I love to sing and dance. I miss performing.

10-I took piano for 11 years and I was the Music Sterling Scholar in High School.

11-I am a really messy person. :( My closet has clothes everywhere 99.9% of the time. Poor Drew.

My questions to answer:

1. if someone was holding a gun to your best friend's head and told you to smoke a cigarette or they would shoot your friend, would you?
Yes! Without a doubt, yes!

2. soda, pop, or soda pop?

Before I met Drew, it was pop. He hates it called that so now..soda.

3. dream vacation destination?

Anywhere in Europe or Chile.

4. ever bought something off an infomercial? what?

Acutally, no! I was super tempted to buy some pajama jeans though. (lol)

5. chipotle or cafe rio?

Mmmm..mexican food...cafe rio!

6. guilty pleasure movie or tv show?

I watch too much tv, which I am guilty about, in and of itself! BUT, my guilty pleasure is 16 and pregnant, and Teen Mom. haha

7. favorite britney spears song?

Hmm..Dear Diary. HAHA JK! Womanizer is pretty catchy..

8. do you floss? be honest.

To be honest, nope. :( My permanent retainer on bottom gets in my way and then I just avoid it completely! Alyse, help me!

9. favorite app?
Drew bought me the People magazine app. Guilty pleasure #2. Also, Draw Something is super fun! Is that an app? (Lauren, you are the queen of apps...help me out.)

10. dream career? i mean, if you could do anything for the rest of your life, what would you do? and don't be practical about making money or how much schooling you'd need. what would you love to do?

Definitely a sonographer. I work with them every day and see what they get to do and I have to do it someday. It will happen.

11. what's currently on your shopping wish list?

I need some new bare minerals foundation powder! My birthday is coming up! ;)

New Questions:

1. What are 5 foods you couldn't live without?

2. What is something you're afraid of?

3. Favorite book?

4. If you could spend a day with anyone famous, who would it be and why?

5. Coke or Pepsi?

6. What is your most fond memory of your childhood?

7. In a perfect world, where would you live? What would you do every day? (job, kids, etc.)

8. Favorite Michael Jackson song?

9. Biggest pet peeve?

10. Favorite tv show or movie?

11. Most embarassing moment?

I tag: Leesha, Jenna, Alyse, Alison, Lily, Mal, Katy, Micah, Jayme, Lola, and Cassie!

Did you learn something new about me? :) Have fun!

BAHAMAS 2012

I heart cruises. They are amazing. Seriously, if you have never been on a cruise, I highly recommend you put it on your "Vacations to take" list. I know you have a list! Add the cruise! They are just soo much fun. You get to see so many cool places, you get loads of yummy food of all different kinds, you get to sit on the boat at night time staring out at the ocean while eating ice cream cones, and best of all SOMETIMES you get to swim with dolphins! It's just the way to vacation I tell you. Although you pay for your food and your views and your activities, it doesn't seem like it because once you get on the ship you don't have to pay for anything! (Unless you want extra stuff...like to swim with dolphins or parasail or jet ski...) Just go on a cruise, that's all I'm going to say :)

Our cruise was soo much fun! I could go on and on about all the cool things we saw and did, but here are some pics instead. (In no specific order because that takes too much work! ;)

Disclaimer: I know most of you are on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about my dolphin encounter, but that post is going to have to wait because I had to order the pics! They wouldn't let me take my own camera, so I had the photographer take some, and after I order them, I will post about that specific activity. Because it was amazing, and needs it's own post.

Random, but good!

I don't know what my deal is with blogging lately! When I think about doing it, I come up with a million excuses why I can't, "I don't have the pics I want to add," or "that's not exciting enough," etc. etc. But when I wait so long I DO have exciting things and pics. I don't know, maybe I will make a new goal to just post once a month (which is pretty much what I am doing). We'll see.

First on the list:

I threw my sister-in-law, (Drew's sister) Bree, a baby shower three weeks ago. I kept thinking and thinking of what a cute "theme" would be because she is having a girl and since our house is all boy, I knew it would be really fun for me to plan a girl shower. After lots of pinterest inspiration and trips to Hobby Lobby, I think we pulled off a slammin party! Here are some pics.

Bree with the present I got her.

My mom came down for the weekend just for fun and to help me out.

Bree and I. Ready to pop huh!?

"It's a Girl" banner I made. There was also one that said "Brighton Kris"

Onesie banner

The game table with prizes and Bree's diaper cake I made.

Our "Chandelier"

More tulle decor.

The cupcakes Lori (Drew's mom) made! :)

FOOD!

Secondly:

I have blogged a little about my weight loss here and there, but I am happy to announce I reached my goal that I wanted to be when we left on our cruise! We are leaving Sunday, and I am actually a couple pounds under my goal. Which is great because let's be honest, who wouldn't gain a few pounds on a cruise! I am really going to put my new "eating healthy" and "exercising" skills to use on the cruise though. It has been hard work getting the weight off and I'm not going to let one week ruin it! Don't get me wrong, I will enjoy my vacation and splurge a little here and there. But portion control and running on the track on the top of the ship are two things I am planning on. Anyway, I have lost 26 lbs, with 9 more until my ultimate "wedding weight" goal. More importantly though, I feel absolutely amazing. My clothes are loose, I like what I see in the mirror, and the confidence I have is something I have never experienced. I almost want to cry as I type this because it doesn't even sound like me! Though I am happy that the number on the scale this morning was one I haven't seen in 3 years, I am more happy that through this journey I have become someone I have always wanted to be. I have learned that what I weigh is not who I am, and more importantly what OTHERS think of my weight is not who I am. I am proud of myself and excited to move forward with this new found confidence. To be honest, I think I will still be confident even when I (if I) get pregnant again and gain some weight back! That's what I am most happy about. I feel like even if I gained some weight back or hadn't lost the weight in the first place, I just have learned to love myself. And I know it's been a loooong time since I could say that. When I blog about our cruise I will put some before pictures up so we can see the before and after pics. :) Speaking of my cruise...remember my last post about dolphins? Well my amazing husband booked a dolphin encounter at the Atlantis Resort for us. I am so ecstatic. I can hardly wait! Obviously there will probably be a whole post about that. Here is a pic of my new hair! I don't usually like blonde and haven't done highlights forever, but I love it for summer!

Moving on...our little man is changing and growing every day. It's going to be hard to leave him for 5 days with my parents. I know they will do a great job with him and he is in good hands, but he just does new things every day and I'm sad I will miss those few! He is talking so much, and has kind of become a little brat. Haha, not really, but he is definitely in the terrible two's a little early. There are days I almost lose my patience, and then I try to remember what a sweet boy he is and that he is just learning how to be independent. His cute little face gets him out of lots of trouble. Darn it. But he is still my best little buddy and makes his dad and I so happy. These pics are blurry from my phone. But still super cute.

We LOVE his little v necks we bought.

So, I am in the process of starting a "learning/activity" blog for mom's. I'm really excited and it's going to be awesome. So keep your eyes open for that. However, I have a cruise to go on, and I'm focusing on THAT first. :)

Valentine's Day 2012

So heres the story. For those of you who don't know (I would be surprised if you don't) I am OBSESSED with dolphins. I seriously feel like I have this weird connection with them. Haha, those that know me will laugh at that, but it's true! I want a pet one sooo bad. I want to be a dolphin trainer soo bad. And, when we go on our cruise in April, my life long dream of wanting to swim with them will FINALLY come true!!!!! Okay..enough of that. I got SOO many pictures of our Valentine's date, it's kind of embarassing. Drew took me to The Mirage to Segfried and Roy's "Secret Garden". It's basically amazing. They have 3 huge dolphin pools with about 5 adult dolphins and 2 baby ones. (I about died, really.I went craaazy with the camera.) They also had some awesome white tigers and white lions. Of course 90% of our time was spent by the dolphin pool, and lucky for us it was cold and windy so it was SUPER slow. So we pretty much got one on one time with the dolphins and became best buds. I could have stayed there all night, but we then went to the new movie, The Vow, which was really good, too! I am a lucky girl to have such a handsome, thoughtful and funny guy to take me on such a fun Valentine's Day date! (Also we are lucky to have a grandma and grandpa close by, free babysitting! ;) ) Here are the (some, I will spare you the album) pics from our date!

Disclosure: Drew had told me it was going to be a low key date, and that I didn't need to dress up or anything..thus, I really didn't get "too" ready this day. I wish I had for pictures sake but hey, we had fun and we're in love and it doesn't matter if I didn't have make up on, right? Right. Ok, let's proceed with the cute pics!

Me and my brother!


The small ones are babies!!!

Eye contact!!

So cute! Wet hot dog skin...

Jumping in sync...

Cool trick! :)


An attempted shot of us with our new friends.

Haha..the best picture we got of the two of us. Drew's head is cut off! :(

Pretty boy!

They looked fake and a little creepy just standing there still.