Puppies, Cousins and Siblings

I've been REALLY bad about taking pictures lately! However, thanks to my trusty iPad, there has been some documentation! 

Life usually seems to be about the same around here, but when I look back on these pictures, I see how much things really have slowly been changing!

This probably deserves its own post (and maybe I'll get to it), but last month, we gave our dog Cooper away. He was just jumping on the kids (and me) too much and we kept feeling guilty for not giving him the attention he deserved. He was such a good dog and we knew if someone who took the time to train him right and give him the right amount of attention had him, he'd be better off. We took Grant with us to meet his new family and we asked Grant if he was sad we were giving Cooper away. He replied, "I get sad when Cooper jumps on me". I guess we made the right decision...only time will tell I guess! 

Hard to believe we were able to say goodbye to that face!

At the grocery store a while back, both kids said they wanted to walk instead of ride in the basket. I told them they could if they would hold hands. I had to get a picture because it was so cute!!

This shirt describes Remi perfectly! And I love that she always picks to wear it when I let her choose what she wants to wear. I also loved that on that day, she chose to wear the pink tutu because she spends the rest of the day following her brother and uncle around, dressing up like army men or superheroes!

Remi LOVES her brother! She's spunky and hard to pin down, but whenever he wants a hug, she always obliges! She also HATES seeing him sad and will always come around to try to make things better when she sees him upset. She also always makes sure she gets to sit by him when we say family prayers.

Last month, my brother's baby girl (who's the same age as Remi), unexpectedly had a cluster of seizures. We were all SO worried and praying that things would turn out alright.  It was so scary! I can't imagine what Brian and Mel had to go through, up all night, hoping she would make it through the night okay and that they'd find a way to figure out what was wrong and be able to fix or control it. They are such great examples of patience and faith! She hasn't had another one, and we're all praying she won't have another one again.

The week after everything happened, the kids and I went and stayed with them for a few days. We had SO much fun, and as always, after being around Mel, I came home with a better attitude about being a mom and a wife. She's such a good example of those things!

Brig and Grant

Remi and Emy. They're the only two girls so far, and they are spunky!

We made popcorn one night and watched a movie.

The whole gang (minus Zacky, who was at school). 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but Remi is a Daddy's Girl! She LOVES Mike! The second he walks in the door, she's attached to him! She'll do anything with him, as long as it means she gets to be around him. And she loves listening to him play the guitar! This picture of them is so fitting!

I've wanted to have sort of a personal separate blog for a while now to help me keep track of different goals I'm working on and ways I want to improve myself. Also to maybe vent things that don't really have a place on our family blog.

Anyway, I finally started one, and along with it, I'm hosting a "Goal Weight Competition".  I'm so excited about it! It's been a lot of fun keeping in contact with friends and having a common goal to try to get healthy! The competition is already about halfway done, but if anyone's interested in still following along with what we're doing, you can read the blog or even just get the menus I'm making here.

Grant and Chase helped me with some pictures for a post I was trying to make about green smoothies one day and they were SO cute! I'm glad they thought it was fun and hope they're always such willing little helpers!

Lately, Remi's hair has been a little out of control... 

So I finally (very stupidly) took matters into my own hands and after a few hours over a few days, I think the end result is pretty good! (The problem is it only lasted a few weeks, and now it looks more like the above pictures again...I guess I need to just be patient and let it grow out!)

Isn't she darling though??

She's apparently been watching Grant go to the bathroom lately, because I keep finding her in here trying to go like he does. She's been mimicking him a lot lately. Good thing he's such a good kid!

They are the BEST little helpers! And mess-makers! They spilled birdseed all over Grandma Velda's floor and they insisted that they be the ones to clean it up!

 Mike is SUCH a good dad! Do I say that enough? He's always thinking of the kids and always tries to make the most of the time he has with them when he's home. He surprised them with the "Hungry Hungry Hippos" game the other day when he got home from work. Grant was in HEAVEN and has been obsessed with it ever since! He ALWAYS wants to play it and lights up whenever anyone else suggests playing it. We found an app for it that he's also obsessed with, and when he's not playing one of those, he wants to watch the old commercials for it on YouTube. I tried to get a good picture of his face when Mike brought it in, but it came out pretty blurry.

These past few weeks have been kind of tough, with irregular schedules for various reasons and a sick bug that we can't quite seem to shake. On this particular night, Grant was the sick one and had been running a fever all day. He went to bed WAY before any of the rest of us and Remi struggled with some insomnia for most of the night.
When I was about at my wit's end and decided that she WAS going to go to sleep, regardless of how much she fought it, she stood by her door and kept saying "baba, baba". I asked her "Do you want a bottle?"
She'd shake her head all frustrated like and yell "Baba! Baba!"
After this went back and forth several times, Mike came in and figured out she was trying to say "Bubba". When we asked if she wanted "Bubba", she excitedly nodded and ran back into our room and laid down by him. It was SO CUTE, I told Mike to take a picture. As soon as he got the camera out, she pulled out her pacifier and started giving us all these cheesy smiles...I think it's one of my new favorite pictures though! These two make our lives infinitely better!!