*Welcome Home Elder Bracken*

My brother in-law Logan is FINALLY home from his mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was my first time welcoming home a missionary, and wow what a awesome, emotional, and exciting experience it was. The anticipation of waiting for him to come through to the airport waiting area is crazy high, and also very surreal. He looks way taller, and very grown up since I last saw him. It really is crazy how much changes in two years, Logan came home to his new nephew Eli, and Jaden being a crazy 3 year old, his niece Brityn (who he will see very soon) and lots more.

To me the two years went by super fast and I can't believe it's already over. When I ask my mother in-law if it went by fast for her she said "no way" and it was one of the hardest things you have do as a mother and member of the Church. I seriously don't even know how I'm going to handle letting Jaden and Eli go on missions, I told Josh he will have to drag me out of the airport crying when those days come to let them go. Anyways, it is so awesome to have him home and I feel that our whole family is complete again!

*Nine Months Old*

Eli is nine months old! Here are the stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 4oz (3rd percentile, so still a little thing)

Height: 28.75 inches

Still nursing, but I'm kind of over it. Really want to loose weight already but oh well.

Sleeping good, wakes up some times but for the most part he will just take the binki and go back to sleep.

Eli has his two bottom teeth and FOUR front top teeth coming through. I feel so bad for him,  because I know it probably hurts like crazy and he has been a trooper!

Still not crawling yet (my fault, I don't make him do tummy time enough) but I really don't care if he crawls yet, just as long as he does eventually!

He babbles all the time and says babababa, I am trying to get him to say MAMA hahah. He laughs and smiles all the time, very happy little guy.

Eats anything and everything. Loves to drink water/milk from daddy's glass, it's super cute and so big of him.

LOVES to take baths, especially since he can sit up and splash now.

So that's the nine month update on my little man. Hopefully we will have some crawling news for the next one.

*Jaden's 3rd Birthday*

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Jaden!! Can't believe it has been three years already since I gave birth to him in good old Rexburg, Idaho. This year both Josh and my family were out of town for his birthday so we are having three different parties, spoiled spoiled haha. Some stats on Jaden at three years old:

Weight: 25 lbs

Height: 35 inches

Potty Trained: YES!

Likes: Trains, CARS, riding his bike, iPad, helping me clean, riding in the rhino, going to the park, playing with his best friend Matt, church (nursery), books, learning and anything outdoors.

Dislikes: Dislikes belts haha not sure why, the doctor (although he has gotten better) and brushing his hair, putting in hair gel and getting his hands dirty while eating.

Speech: Jaden talks very well and is super smart so no concerns in this department!

Sleeping: Good, but sneaks into bed with mom and dad every once in awhile.

Eating: Awesome! This kid can put it away now, and a good thing too cause the kid needs to gain some weight.

BIRTHDAY PARTY #1

First party was the day before Jaden's actual birthday and we celebrated with Josh's family with a little get together at my house. Good food, cupcakes, and one awesome present from his Grandma and Papa....a MINI TRAMPOLINE! He loves his new trampoline and it came at the perfect time because the weather is nice now so he can enjoy being outside.

BIRTHDAY PARTY #2

Second party was on his actual birthday and it was with all of Jaden's friends! This was the all out party and I think this one tops all of them. As he gets older his parties get funner because now he has friends to come, and he actually gets the whole birthday concept now. This birthday's theme was CARS (Lightning McQueen and Mater) and I have to say I did a pretty awesome job at decorating this year! Now that Jaden is potty trained he often is only in his underwear or naked (he can't put his own shorts back on by himself), hence the reason most pictures are of him with no shorts hahah!

BIRTHDAY PARTY #3

My parent's are still in London since my sister had her baby so party #3 will be next weekend when they get back so stay tuned!

*One of those days*

Today was one of those days where it just sucked haha for lack of better words. Jaden woke up with a cough from hell and nothing I did helped. So I took him to the ER ( big mistake) and sat for six  hours just for them to say he has croup and to give him a steroid shot. Wow something that could of taken 15 minutes was six freaking hours, so mad and wish I would of just went to urgent care but whatever. Luckily my dad stayed with Eli so that part of the day was good. However, Eli is getting 3 or 4 top teeth so he is hurting bad right now and miserable (thankfully he was happy for my dad). 

On top of all that Jaden is not grasping going #2 in the toilet so I end up cleaning gross poop up all over the bathroom and him. Oh and his throw up from when his cough was at it's worst. I realize all this is part of being a mom so I try not to complain too much. But had to vent that today was just one of those days that I am  happy it's over!

*Potty Trained*

September 6, 2013 is the official day that Jaden was potty trained! It really just non intentionally happened on that Sarurday morning. I took his diaper off after he woke up to air out his little bum and then told Josh to take him in to the bathroom and show him how to pee like a big boy (standing up). He totally did it, and I was so surprised and thought why did I not try that before?!? Basically from that point on it just clicked and he has been out of diapers ever since (except for night time) although he usually wakes up dry. He even tells me he has to potty and I rarely have to remind him, which is nice cause I forget to ask for long periods of time  occasionally.

I'm so glad I did not push the potty training and waited till he was 100% ready, it made both our lives easier. So the only thing he struggles with is going #2, which I'm not sure how to tackle that one, so any suggestions are welcome! So that is Jaden's potty training story. I feel so proud and accomplished as a mommy that we have reached and passed this big milestone in his little life, and right before his 3rd birthday too!!!

I wanted to put a cute picture of Jaden in his little undies but Josh said no (I did not agree at all), so I guess this will due haha.

*Hudson Davis Meise*

My baby nephew was born October 6, 2013 at 9:47 am. He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and 19.5 inches long. I was fortunate enough to watch his birth through FaceTime and it was absolutely beautiful and an amazing experience! Love this baby like my own and can not wait to meet him in December!!!

*Eight Months Old*

Eli has changed so much in just the last month. He is around 16 lbs (not very big, but growing great from the tiny little guy he started from). He is still doing awesome on solid food and wants to eat everything we eat. I am still nursing him GO ME!!!! I have been tempted to stop nursing for selfish reasons of wanting to lose weight, but I can't bring myself to do it, so I will probably go for the full year. Really nursing women should get an award for sticking with it for an entire year cause it's not an easy thing to do. I feel bad because I do find myself judging women who don't nurse, even though I only nursed Jaden for a few months and quit cause I hated it. However, I think if you never try nursing (assuming a women can nurse) it is very selfish and you take away a great bonding and healthy thing from your baby. Now of course there are reasons women can't nurse, or try it and just hate it, and I totally get that!

Anyways, back to Eli and enough of nursing hahah. He is sitting up great by himself and rolling from front to back and back to front. Not crawling yet which is totally fine with me (Jaden was a late crawler too, but walked right at a year) so I know Eli will do it when he is ready! He babbles all the time, and it almost sounds like he is saying mama haha wishful thinking. Still a very happy go lucky baby, and is now full time sleeping in his crib. Up until a week ago he was still sleeping in the pack n play in our room at night, and taking naps in his crib. But since we got back from our disaster lake trip last weekend I didn't feel like setting the pack n play back up, so I decided he is ready to sleep in his room ALL the time now.

Teething is still going on ( I hate it) no new teeth have sprung up but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time. Which seriously I hope for the sake of my chest he doesn't get any more soon because he has started to bite when he nurses and it hurts like a B*%$#. I tried flicking him lightly and screaming ouch really loud but he just smiles at me thinking I'm being funny hahah. Eli loves his jumparoo, loves to play with his toys on the ground or sit and watch Jaden do puzzles. His sleeping has back tracked a little, waking up once a night, which is weird cause he eats solids and I stuff him full before bed. Hopefully this is only a growth spurt phase and he will grow out of it soon. I think that's all I can think of for now, so until next....

*Bath Time*

I have finally put away Eli's baby tub and he now takes a bath with his big brother! It really is so much easier to bathe them together, and Eli loves to play with his brother in the bath.

*Minnesota Trip*

Yeah I am so behind on blogging but I guess better late than never. So back in the beginning of August the kids and I traveled back to my home state of Minnesota for a visit to my best friend of over 20 years. Jaden and her little boy Nathan are right around the same age so they had a blast together, and of course Nicole and I just picked up where we left off as always. It was so fun just staying up late and talking, or watching the kids play together in the backyard, and just being together like old times (except we both have two kids now). We were there for a whole week and it really went by way too fast. With four kids it is harder to get around, but we managed to get out and go to the Mall of America and the Zoo (which is AWESOME by the way, and so much better than the Arizona Zoo). Getting out of the heat was so nice and being able to be outside all the time was so refreshing. I miss living in Minnesota and wouldn't mind moving back maybe someday if Josh found a good job there, although I hate tornado's and during the summer it is definitely a constant threat.

I really want to buy one of these for my kids!

Fun rides at Mall of America!

Nathan and Jaden already best friends at the age of 2 and 3 years old!

It was so cool how close you could be to the animals, wish we had this kind of zoo in AZ!