Hogle Zoo

Yesterday we took a little field trip to the Hogle Zoo.  We have had this planned for a long time and Avery was looking forward to it so much!  We took this trip with Alisha and Isaac.  We left at 10:30 which is Isaac and Mary's nap time.  Mary fell asleep and slept almost until we got to the zoo, but Isaac was just too interested in Avery to fall asleep I think.
When we got to the zoo we ate our lunch outside then headed in!  Avery was so excited and all she wanted to see was turtles!  Out of everything at a zoo, she wanted to see turtles!  We didn't end up seeing any turtles, we think they might have been in with the snakes and we didn't end up going to see the snakes.  Poor Avery.
We saw lots of fun animals and had such a fun time playing around!

Sometimes

Sometimes you have bad weeks.  Last week was a bad one for me.  Things just were off and not good.  We were all grumpy.  To add to the grumpiness Avery drew on something that was not paper for the first time.  

She colored on the dishwasher, the fridge, and the kitchen floor.  I'm grateful that all the surfaces were easily cleaned.  I made her do the dishwasher and the fridge and I did the floor.  

While we were cleaning Mary got into the wipes.  That was fun and something else to clean up.  

Later in the week I was bringing the hampers downstairs to do laundry, one stacked on top of the other, when they tipped over and spilled all over the place!

Last week Mary also started climbing even more than before.  She has started climbing on some toys.  

On the drawers of the dresser.

On the windowsill

Through out the whole week among the not so good stuff there were a lot of sweet moments.  First.  When the laundry fell all over Avery immediately said "Oh no Mom!  Let's clean up."  Then started picking up clothes and putting them back in the hamper.

We got to be outside and play.  

 Avery got to wear this cute ladybug dress from my sister Sarah and loved it!  She was so cute!

Avery tried egg nog for the first time and called it Egg-a-dog

I got to push Mary in the swing

Avery wanted to read the scriptures all by herself

Mary officially became a walker

With the late nights the weekend before both the girls slept in every single day!

 Avery in the ladybug dress of course.  

There is always some good among the bad  I'm grateful that through out this week I was able to stay positive and see the good.  I am very grateful for that and my sweet kids and husband that cheer me up.  

Sibling Supper Birthday Bash

I was in charge of the last semi-annual Brandley birthday bash.  I decided to make it a birthday party for Louis!  His birthday is usually overshadowed a bit by his Grandma's (they share a birthday) or conference.  He was very excited to have a party all for himself!  It turned out great!  We had it on the 4th at our church.  Everyone was able to come except Josh and Megan for obvious reasons.
We started out with dinner.  I let Louis choose what we had.  We enjoyed lasagna, I made a regular pan and a healthier pan made with whole wheat noodles, ground turkey, and mozzarella cheese.  We also had garlic bread on my homemade bread, green beans and corn, and pears.  Everyone enjoyed it.  Avery even ate a green bean.  I didn't even make her do it.

After dinner we had a quiz on Louis.  I think either Joel or Phillip ended up winning.  Then we played pin the beard on the Louis!!  Everyone loved it and it was funny!

My face is CRAZY because Avery got so close to getting it right on!

Annette tricked Louis by moving it up before his turn!  So funny!

After this game we played a candy ball game.  We had taped a bunch of candy up into a huge ball.  When it was your turn you could unwrap it and keep all the candy you got while the person next to you has two dice and was trying to roll a two and a six (because this was Louis' 26th birthday).  When the person next to them got it they had to pass the ball.  This game took forever!  I couldn't believe how long it took, but everyone enjoyed it so it was okay.  

After this we played a game that Alisha and Jon had prepared.  They had different themes such as, top hits of 1987, best selling Christmas toys from 1987 to 1997, all the Superman movies.  With these themes we had to organize them from earliest to oldest.  It was hard!  Louis was the only one that won.  

After that game we did cake!  I made a cookies and cream cake and it turned out super yummy!  

After that we talked and just enjoyed each others company then went home when the man came by to clear out the church for the night!  

I'm so glad I could help Louis celebrate his birthday!  I love his so much and am so grateful that he is mine.  He is such a great support and a wonderful father!  Our children are so happy when he comes from from school or work.  

Happy birthday Louis!

Mary Olivia, You Are One

Mary-

You are one.  These 12 months have gone by too fast.  Soon you will no longer be my baby, but my toddler.

We celebrated your first birthday today.  You had so many family members there to celebrate you.  You have so many people that love you.  We had a breakfast brunch and you enjoyed it.  You scarfed down all your food, you opened your presents, and you scarfed down your cake! 

You are such a joy to have in our home.  You are so sweet and chill.  You love to watch others and take things in.  You are my good eater, our bottomless pit, I appreciate it so much!  You love dogs and climbing.  Whenever we go outside you speed straight to the parking lot.  You go down the slide all by yourself.  You are starting to stand on your own and take a few steps.  You'll be walking in no time!  You know how to fold your arms and can sign more and please.  You can make a lot of animal sounds, dog is your favorite, you also know how to do pig, cow, horse, dinosaur, and fish.  You say dada, hi, and ball.  With a lot of babbling in between.  As I was planning your first birthday it gave me time to reflect on this last year together.  I'm so glad you came to our family.  I was worried about how it would be, but it has been nothing but wonderful.  You and Avery love each other so much!  You have been such a blessing in our home.  I love you Mar Mar!

Love, Mom

Man VS Mud

I did my second 5K on Saturday!  This one was the Man VS Mud.  It was so much fun!  Before it started I was thinking. . ."I don't think I know what I got myself into!"  It was great though, maybe I'll do it again next year!
I did the race with Alisha and my friend Holly.  Holly's tenant Jami also did the race with us.  She was very motivating through the whole thing, I'm glad she was there.
To start out the 5K you slide down this steep slide on a tube.  Then you have to run the tube back up a hill to drop it off for other runners.  After that you run around a bend in the trees and through a very small shower of water.  Then we ran over to something called the cargo net.  You had to climb up a robe ladder then climb over and make your way back down.  Climbing over was terrifying.  It was very wobbly up at the top!  We continued running and encountered our first real mud!  I very carefully walked along the edge of it and everyone else went straight through it and Alisha slipped!
We ran up a hill and they were handing out water.  Then we got to another slide.  This one had a rope to hold onto while you slid down because it was rocky.  The next part was the grossest of the whole race.  It was called the trench.  It was deep nasty muddy water.  It was super long and I was sinking down in mud all the way to my knees at some parts!  I am so thankful I didn't fall in that stinky water!
After this there was more muddiness and a hay bale tower we had to climb over.  So you can imagine how nice it was climbing over hay after being in the mud :)  Then there were tires we had to walk through.  After that we climbed up a slide with a help of a rope and we got to clean our hands at the top!
I can't remember what was between this point and when we got to the spider web.  The spider web was just a bunch of bungee cords creating a maze you had to climb through.  After this was a huge rope stretched across a river and we had to hold on and get ourselves over.  I just held on with my hands and let my feet float.  It wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be.
The next part was not so great.  It was a very small swimming pool made out of hay bales and a tarp.  They had laid boards over the top and the water was ice water!  FREEZING cold ice water!  That was probably the fastest I moved in the whole race.  After I got out I tried running, but it hurt!  I was tingly from the ice water and it hurt my entire body to run.  It was just a little ways though until we were able to walk through some mud and water and it warmed us back up so I could run again.  We then got to the army crawl.  There were ropes strung low across a shallow stream.  It was hard!  I've never really army crawled before and had to figure out how to do it.  While trying to get across the worker was yelling into a megaphone and said about me, "Why is your hair still blonde?  It should be brown!"  and tried to get Alisha to throw mud at me.  Thankfully she didn't.  Then we went a little ways and climbed through a torturous tunnel.  I say torturous because you had to crawl and there were lots of rocks on the bottom.  After that you just ran basically to the end.  You climb up a hay bale tower and crawl or walk (or I saw one guy roll across) a rope bridge.  Then slide down a slide into muddy water!  I could not believe how fast I was going down that slide!  I didn't get my right eye closed fast enough and got gross muddy water in it.
After we slide down that huge slide you had to run up a huge hill then we were done!  We took some pictures and tried to shower off the best we could.  We all donated our shoes afterwards.  Then headed home.  It was really fun.  I was proud of myself.  I ran the entire time except when we were running through the mud and didn't want to get stuck or slip.  If I can I'll do it again next year!

I wish I had pictures of us doing each obstacle, but here's what I have.  

Before the race

Before going down the last slide

Going across the rope bridge

I'm sorry you were so muddy Holly

I did it!