Memorial Day in Las Vegas

To say Nolan was excited to go to Las Vegas would be an understatement. His excitement couldn't be contained! On Wednesday morning I was sitting with him in the living room and I said, "guess what?! We're going to Las Vegas tomorrow!" But to my surprise, he was upset! For the life of me I couldn't understand what he was so distraught about until Justin clued me in to the fact that he was mad because I said we were going tomorrow and not today ☺.

That was just the beginning. Wednesday night we had softball and he was upset that we were going to softball and not to LV. I even offered him a special treat for softball (Cheetos) but instead of his usual excitement he scowled at me and started whining that he didn't want to go to softball, he wanted to "go to LV right now!" Wednesday night, instead of his usual, "I get up in the morning when it turns green and say 'mommy' 'daddy' and get milk and go out the living room and watch TV!!" he said, "tomorrow I go to Jeanni's house and then to Las Vegas!"

Thursday morning came and he seriously ran from his bed to the door. Then, finally, the time came for us to pick him up from Jeanni's and he was bouncing off the walls. We got in the car and Justin and I were famished so we decided to stop at In 'n' Out on the way out of town. He was NOT happy about that. Usually he will do anything for fries, but when we offered him one he said, "No, I have my fry when we get to Las Vegas" hahaha!

Ready to hit the road!

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Snapped this adorable picture of Granky and Branson holding hands. Two generations, nearly 100 years apart. I just love all of the time and love that this picture represents ♥

Teaching Granky about taking selfies. I think he was pretty amused.

Gp Mathews hanging out with two of the babies (Warren and Branson).

The three big boys playing.

Poor Warren, every time Branson got near him he would try to grab his face and make him cry. Branson always looked up with a "what? what'd I do?" face.

Granky was a good sport and played the "Toilet Trouble" game that the toddlers love. You basically just spin the toilet paper roll and, based on the number you land on, flush the toilet that many times. You never know which flush will get you a spray of water in the face! Granky got sprayed and the kids just giggled and giggled!

It was adorable how Rhett just climbed right up onto Granky's lap to play.

For dinner one night we went to The Blaze pizza. Nolan was SO tired that he konked out in the car. The surprising thing was how he stayed asleep through getting him out of the car, sitting down, standing up, and laying him down on one of the benches. That never happens! Poor guy must have been utterly exhausted!

Baby train. Too bad we didn't add Warren to it.

After dinner we went to Garehime Park to play! It was fun to watch Rhett and Nolan actually play and have fun together instead of just fight ☺.

Warren getting some good snuggles from Gm Mathews. 

Nolan and Rhett loved spinning in Uncle Justin's arms! Their giggling was infectious!

Uncle Preston sat down and had a little chat with Nolan over dinner. 

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Saturday we hung out at Preston and Devin's (Nolan couldn't wait to play with the microwave). Justin took N up for a nap and, to no one's surprise, fell asleep too ☺ Those two were out for 3 hours! 

Granky, Aunt Mallory, Branson, and Warren.

Uncle BJ and Aunt Kirsten were SO nice to let us swim in their pool and even heated it up for us!! Everyone had a blast! Although I'm a bit nervous that Nolan has forgotten everything he's learned in swim class and that he's gonna freak out when we take him for his first lesson this summer. We'll see. Cross your fingers.

It's just too bad we didn't have one more day so we could swim in Gm and Gp's pool too!

Rhett and Nolan. Nolan was obsessed with watermelon! He probably at half of it by himself ☺

Bran-man enjoyed his first time in the pool.

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I'm not always the best at getting together with friends when I go home, but I really wanted to this time. Kids kind of make it easier too because you can just meet at the park and let the kids play while the adults (attempt to) chat and (attempt to) keep track of thekids. It was so much fun to see so many friends from high school (and college). 

Attendies were Nick and Whitney Hobbs and their 3 kids, Courtney Horner (Brian couldn't come) and her 3 kids, Melissa and Srini and their son, Leo, Julie and Mike Humphery's and their 3 kids, Lincoln and Cecilia Rogers and their 3 daughters, Will and KT Scarlett and their 3 kids, JD Armstrong and his wife, and Preston and Devin. BJ also showed up at the end.

It's just so crazy to think about how long we've known each other and to see all of these kids we have now ☺ It's also crazy how many people from middle school/high school ended up marrying each other AND how many converted to the church. Brian, Nick, Will, and Cecilia are all converts and Nick and Will are in Bishoprics now! I love that. I guess flirt to convert is really working down in Las Vegas haha! Also, Mike was BJ and Preston's roommate at BYU. Me, Julie, Melissa, and them were all in the same ward at BYU before Julie and Mike got married, so it was fun that BJ got to catch up with him too.

Some of the kids...

Nolan, Justin, Mike, and Julie.

Melissa and Courtney, Nick and Preston in the background, and Devin.

Whitney, Will, KT, and Lincoln.

Nolan loved the swing!! Especially kicking daddy on the upswing.

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 It was seriously adorable how Rhett climbed up on Gp Mathews 

lap to play with and snuggle him ♥ ♥ ♥

My cousin Sheena came over one night with her 3 kids and it was fun catching up! 

Sheena's daughter Autumn loved the babies ♥ 

 The three musketeers watching Moana.

We couldn't believe how well Branson slept while we were in LV! He didn't wake up once during the night. Usually he wakes up at least once wanting a binky or to be put in our bed, so we were worried because there's not really enough room in the bed for him and also worried that his crying might wake up Nolan. No need to worry, he slept like a champ!

Gm and Gp Mathews both spoke in church on Sunday and they did a great job, we're so glad we got to be there to hear them!

Lunch time before the sad, sad drive home.

Also, I'm super glad we got a picture of Paul! How did he not make it into more pictures? Anyway, he decided to drive down Saturday morning and we're so glad he came down to hang out with us!

We always have so much fun when we go to Las Vegas. I really do have the best family!

Baby Teeth, Sitting Up, Army Crawling, and Spitties!

Branson is 6 months old!

Outtakes 

We were surprised at Branson's 6 month checkup to find out that he is in the 90th percentile for height! What's that now?!! Haha. I'm sure those numbers don't mean much at this age, and may not even be an indicator of future height, but still, not expecting that one!

Dr. Witt said if Branson keeps this up Nolan will be in trouble ☺

As a side note, Nolan keeps impressing the doctor with his vocabulary, he even spelled Dr. Witt's name for him! (I taught him in the car on the way there and he told him on his own).

Ok, back to Bran-man. He is a pretty good sitter although it's the stage where you always have to be nearby because he could topple over at any moment.

He also loves to make lots of noise doing "spitties" and yelling. When he yells he's not even mad, it's like he's just testing out how much noise he can make haha.

Both of his bottom teeth have poked through and we're pretty sure the top ones are just below the surface ready to come in. I guess that explains the constant drool that poor guy has going on! And man does he have a mean bite! Don't let him get your fingers in his mouth (and he wants them in his mouth!).

He's getting really good at working toys AND he's starting to be able to move himself to get where he wants! I know uh-oh haha, but we're so excited for him. He'll see something he wants and reaches as far as he can to grab it. Then when he realizes he can't quite get it he does this cute little army crawl that mostly comes from his legs.

He still hasn't given us a really big belly laugh/giggle and I'm starting to think maybe that's just his nature. Because he definitely laughs a lot (even snorts sometimes haha) - and it's easy to get him to laugh - but maybe he just has one of those quick laughs that never goes on and on and on. We'll see!

He can now eat any food (except for honey) and I have a feeling he's going to love it!

I have worried a bit that we've created some bad sleeping habits because he usually only falls asleep while eating or being held tight in our arms. But for the past several nights I've renewed my efforts to put him in his crib tired, but wide awake and he's done just fine (as long as he's sufficiently fed ☺).

At the same time, I'm not complaining about all the snuggles ♥ It's a tough balance I guess.

He still usually wakes up once a night and "needs" a binky or food, but the doc said that's probably just habit so we're currently trying to figure out how we can teach him to put himself back to sleep (aka cry it out) without waking up Nolan. **UPDATE (6.7.2017) After talking to a friend I decided I should just go for it and put them both in the same room. I also realized that when we were in Las Vegas we all slept in the same room and it was just fine. So anyway, I went for it last night and he slept the whole night! In fact Nolan was the only one that woke up crying from a bad dream. Anyway, we'll see tonight if that was just a fluke or not. **UPDATE #2, it was a fluke. As long as he doesn't wake up he's fine, but if he wakes up he can't get himself back to sleep. So yes, we have a problem, ugh.

Speaking of Nolan. Oey, he cannot wait to play and be rough with Branson. In fact, he's not waiting at all. The other day he can frequently be found steam-rolling Branson. And another time I caught him trying to pull B up by his shirt and HAIR (re-enacting a scene from Moana), and he'll sometimes hit him with his toy baseball bats ("I'm sword fighting with him mommy!"). And Jeanni has walked in more than once to find Nolan completely on top of Branson with the explanation, "I'm wrestling with him!" Good thing Branson is tough. Seriously though, the steam-rolling, and the pulling his shirt and hair? B acted like it wasn't even happening haha.

His cheese smile is my favorite. He does it when he gets really excited and it's almost always accompanied by sticking his legs out straight as a board.

If I had to describe my Branson in 5 words right now they would be sweet, snuggly, smiley, tough, and wet ☺

He has been such a light in our lives these past 6 months! It's a bit hard to remember what it was like without him. It's like he's always been with us. It's so true what people say - your heart just expands with each child. There's so much room for these sweet babies! We love our Branson so very very much! ♥ ♥ ♥

 

Piano

I've been getting the itch lately to get back to the piano. I have tried several times over the years to learn. I took lessons for maybe a month when I was younger, but the teacher moved and we never signed up for lessons again. I asked my mom a time or two to give me a lesson and she was happy to oblige. I can remember me plunking through a song and her telling me from the kitchen, "B sharp" or "that should be an E" haha. It's kind of crazy that both of my parents play the piano well, but none of us kids play. 

Anyway, I've also expressed my interest in learning to several friends over the years who then kindly offered to give me a lesson or two to give me a little start and help me 'learn on my own' (Sara Purcell, Rachelle Reid, Erica Lane (from BYU)), etc. It was clear though that I just didn't have the discipline or know how to teach myself and I needed some accountability. So about 5 years ago I started looking for a teacher and my friend Sylinda from the singles ward said she was learning to teach and would love to teach me. We could help each other! So I took lessons for about a year and a half from her. I definitely made some progress and enjoyed it well enough, but then she also moved.

Then Justin came along and I was busy dating ☺, then Nolan came along, then Branson and I was busy playing mommy ♥. Finally a few months ago I decided I really wanted to try again and hopefully find something more long term this time. I absolutely love hearing the piano being played and would love to have beautiful music in my home. I'd also love for my boys to take lessons when they get a bit older.

 I'm at a time in my life where I just don't have time for everything. It feels like balls are always being dropped whether it's housework, or going to the temple, or reading my scriptures, or working out, or cooking a nice meal, or laundry, etc. but I decided that learning piano really is at the top of my priority list, and is worth the effort to keep that ball in the air. 

So one night I got on Thumbtack, filled out the form, told my story, and within an hour I had a few teachers express interest in teaching me. Awesome! I looked at reviews, location, etc. and narrowed it down to two teachers who I asked to have a practice lesson with. Only one responded so the next week I went for my first lesson with Chelsey.

Best decision ever.

I could tell from the first lesson that she was the one I wanted to hire and there was no need to go back to the drawing board. I've been in lessons for not quite 3 months now and I have learned more in that short time than the entire year and a half I took lessons before. Before I was playing out of the grey simplified hymnbook and thought the 'real' hymnbook was much too difficult for me. But she had me playing from that and the Children's Songbook the first week! And with every confidence that I could do it. I'm learning music theory, how to sight read better and faster, etc. I'm just so so so excited about my progress! I sit down to the piano and I enjoy practicing because I can actually play new pieces without completely losing interest half way through!

I've been using a keyboard that I bought a few years ago and it's worked well - you can play hard and soft on it (which is better than a lot of cheaper keyboards), but the keys weren't weighted and I really wanted to find a nicer digital piano that was closer to the feel of a real piano. After several weeks of scouring KSL I found one! I got this baby at a pawn shop. It's a Yamaha and it's in great shape, just some very minor cosmetic issues. They were selling it for $600, but after some coaxing from Justin I negotiated a bit and got them down to $475! Unheard of for a Yamaha, even an older one!

I'm absolutely loving it so practicing is even more awesome lately ☺ Now I just have to pray that Chelsey doesn't move any time soon. Seriously, if she's still around in a few years I'm sending Nolan to her.

Doppleganger

A few days ago Gp Bailey texted us this picture and I was floored. Was I looking at Branson?!

The resemblance is incredible!
The picture is of Justin's grandpa Bailey as a young boy. His name was Everett Bailey - which is funny because we actually really liked the name Everett for Branson, but decided against it.

Even my family could see it! I showed them these two pictures: 

Anyway, I guess this makes it official, Branson definitely got some Bailey genes haha.