I am a blogging dummy. That is all.

Deem Family Update

Hello again, fellow bloggers. It has been quite a while! There are way too many things to cover since my last blog (10 months ago) so we're just going to start anew. BJ and I are finishing up the semester at SLCC and soooo ready for the summer! (Well, at least I am. BJ will be taking 2 or 3 classes in the summer, but I'm giving myself a break). By the end of fall semester BJ should be ready to apply to nursing programs. He's doing very well considering his work and school loads -- taking 10 credit hours and working full time at night. Yuck. He's a great husband and daddy and is doing all he can to support his family!

I've changed my major to Music (instead of health science), which now I'm kinda goin... DUH what took me so long to figure that one out?! I've only been playin the piano since I was 6 years old and I've always loved to sing. I actually just had my first recital performance on Monday. I sung two songs, 'I Can't Make You Love Me' (Bonnie Raitt) and 'On My Own' (Les Mis). I cannot tell you the mental strength it took to overcome my anxiety about singing in front of an audience bigger than just my vocal teacher. But, I did it and it was so much fun! I can't wait to have to have the chance to perform again. (And I NEVER thought I'd say that! :) ) I really had a wonderful teacher this semester, Kathryn, who is such a sweetheart and so extremely talented -- I know I couldn't have had the confidence to perform without her encouragement. She and I have actually become good friends, for which I am very grateful! She is a great person and so much fun to be around!

Now, for Braden. Man, what to say about that little stinker. He is now 28 months old. He is so so so much like me, it's exhausting. BJ's Grandma John always says, "You pay for your raising by raising," and I'm finding that she was definitely not kidding. My mom always said that she was outwitted by me from age 2. Braden is going to be my challenge because he is so smart and advanced for his age. He keeps me on my toes 24/7. My biggest challenge with him is going to be keeping him busy and channeling his energy in the right direction. (Please, let me clarify, I'm not looking to brag - he is extremely bright, I'm really looking for sympathy here since I have no idea what to do with this kid!) He is talking in 7- to 10- word sentences, knows how to count to 20, knows his ABC's, sings to every song on the radio and on my iPod, and is working on being potty-trained. He probably would already be potty-trained if it weren't for his parents :). So umm.... WHEN DOES PRE-SCHOOL START?!

Okay, now for pics....

This is BJ's Grandma Ila Mae John. She's the sweetest lady you'll ever meet in your entire life. Last week we found out that she has terminal cancer in her liver and brain, so we're spending every moment we can with her. She's staying at BJ's Aunt Leona's house - which is next door to BJ's parents' house - which means she's only 5 minutes away from us! We're very lucky to be so close to the family during this precious time.

Well, BJ just called from work and told me to QUIT BLOGGING and to get ready to go root on the Jazz at Jordan Commons, so off I go! I shall post more pics tomorrow!

Okay so I admit, I'm a total blog slacker. It doesn't really help that we still don't have the internet at home... that's my excuse. :) I guess a lot has happened since my last blog. Braden is now 18 months old and talking like crazy. He calls me 'Sarah' instead of 'mom' no matter how much I call myself mom and tell him to call me mom.. I swear he does it just because I don't want him to. We had a fun birthday party for him in December (that's B.J. and little 'B' just before the party started). That's when he had his first piece of cake, and unfortunately it left him with a permanent sweet tooth... like his mommy. This is the birthday cake I made him (with a little help from Grandma Joani), delicious German Chocolate! You can't really tell, but the top says "Happy Birthday Braden" :). He had the best time digging into his piece of cake. He kept making the funniest face. Lucky for us, Grandma Mary Ann got the perfect shot of him doing it! We had lots of family and friends there! Thanks to everyone who was able to show up and make Braden's 1st birthday party a memorable one!

What else is new...? Today is the 1-year anniversary of Braden's surgery. His fingers look great and to tell you the truth, we don't even think about it anymore.

His personality is really starting to bloom (along with the temper tantrums, which include throwing things like lemonade that splattered all over the back of the driver's seat in the car, biting, screaming, etc..). But the good thing is, he does make us laugh every day. His newest favorite thing to say is "Oh cute!" but he says it like "oh cyoo!" He knows how to tell you what a dog, cat, snake, elephant and lion says, and he knows ASL for bird, please, thank you, more and eat. He surprises us at how smart he is... not that we expected otherwise.

We've taken a few trips to Missouri over the past few months. All three of us drove out there the day after Christmas, braving a nasty snow storm and everything. While we were out there, we decided to go see Leon on his mission in Kentucky. He was actually in New Albany, Indiana when we saw him. This was the first time Leon and Braden ever met. Leon left about a month before Braden was born, so this was a really cool thing for Leon.. and us, too, for that matter.

While in MO, we stayed the night up at my parents' property. We went fishing and and had a blast gettin' muddy on the 4-wheelers. B.J. and I even shot clay pigeons... my first time shooting a shotgun! Braden loved riding the 4-wheelers with PawPaw. They are such cute buddies; Braden is really drawn to him and PawPaw is really good to him. We're actually going to drive and meet them halfway next weekend so they can keep Braden for a week or so. Nana misses him too much when he's gone. Plus, it's a good opportunity for B.J. and I to spend some time together too.

In April I went to the Britney Spears concert, from which I'm a little scarred. I walked out feeling like I had just seen a nudey show in Vegas. It was really fun to go out with my Control4 girls though! We had a blast eating at the Dodo and dancing at the concert. We don't get to hang out much since I was laid off in November. But we try to keep in touch and go out to lunch as much as we can. I just love them!!

Since I was laid off, I decided to start training to be a Medical Transcriptionist. That's what I'm doing now, along with working part-time at Bath & Body Works. I can do all the training from home, and when I'm done with the training I'll be able to work from home as well. I really like it... both things that is... working at B&BW and the training.

B.J. is still working at LDS Hospital as a Central Processing Coordinator, and he's glad that school is out for the summer. It's nice to be able to spend time as a family before he goes to work in the afternoons.

Anyway, I'll try to post blogs more often. Love you all!

Lucky & her pups!

Well Lucky had her puppies last Saturday. One boy and one girl. We named the girl Cheyenne and the boy Chattanooga. It was quite the experience. She started going into labor at 10:00p.m. Saturday night (Nov. 1st) so we put her in her little box that I made for her. She was panting and freakin' out, so I called Kandy (dad's ex-wife) and said "Come help please, Lucky's going into labor and we have no idea what we're doing!!" She and Amy came over and we watched Lucky for about an hour, and then she started contracting and we could tell she was pushing. We were surprised at how much we had to help her. The boy came out okay, but we had to help get the sac off of his face and cut the umbilical cord. So Chattanooga was born at 11:30p.m. and Cheyenne was born an hour later at 12:30a.m. Cheyenne was harder because she was breech. Lucky got tired of pushing so the puppy got stuck. Kandy had to hold Lucky up while B.J. literally pulled the puppy out... while I sat in the background and went, "Good job guys, you're doing great!" We've discovered that I'm great with the before and after and comforting part, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty blood and guts of that kinda thing, I have anxiety attacks. They cleaned off her face and cut the umbilical cord and she's doing fine now. Both puppies are eating well and growing fast! Thanks to Kandy for all her help! She and Amy didn't end up leaving until about 1:30a.m. that morning.

Teddy Bear

So here is the Teddy Bear costume. It's really cute! Nana was very excited to see him smiling in the Teddy Bear costume. He still doesn't like the thing on his head but he tolerates it... for a little while... This was him just before he started smiling...
We took him over to Grandma Mary Ann's and she held him in his costume in front of the mirror and he smiled at himself, so at least he thinks he's cute. :)

B.J.'s input

We get so excited when Football season comes around. We're Oregon Duck fans. GO DUCKS!!!

POOR BRADEN!!!!!
I felt so bad for our little guy. His mother did this without my consent:) He's obviously not going to be the chicken for Halloween.

Braden loves playing and taking pictures with the cell phones.

October Fun!

I can't believe our little boy is 10 months old already! He's so much fun! He loved riding around in the big boy car. Look how his feet don't even touch! :) He was playing at Jill Allred's house while we were tending Maizy & Wyatt. Braden plays with Maizy & Wyatt every Monday & Wednesday while I go to work in the afternoon. He loves playing with them and looks up to them like a brother and sister. However, Wyatt on the other hand isn't such a fan of Braden's at the moment. He's dealing with a jealousy issue since his mommy has to pay a lot of attention to Braden on those days. He tells Braden to "Go 'way!" and Braden, obliviously, smiles at him and continues on bugging him. :) Poor Wyatt. On this particular day when we were tending Maizy & Wyatt, they were playing with the big bubble maker thingy's... ya know with the wands that you wave around to make bubbles... anyway, Wyatt took his wand and went up to Braden and put the wand on his head and got soapy bubbles all in his hair and said, "Bubbles..... hair..... cute!" and walked away. It was so funny!

What else is new... Lucky is pregnant and is due on Halloween. We're hoping for lots of puppies to help put B.J. through school! :) haha... no it's true.

Braden is going to be a Teddy Bear for Halloween. It's really cute. I'll be sure to post pics after Halloween. He was originally going to be this cute Chicken, but Nana Lisa & PawPaw Pat wouldn't have him be "no damn chicken". Which I don't know why, I think the chicken is dang cute, but they insisted that he wasn't going to be a chicken for his first Halloween. Sending her this pic of him screaming in the Chicken costume didn't help matters, I'm sure. So Nana bought him the Teddy Bear costume instead.