Summer Time!

Here are a few things that we have been up to lately…

Some of Micah's family came in to town for a family reunion. 

The kids played (or just ate) in the dirt,

climbed a net,

and picked the grass.

We got to go to Great Grandpa Hilton's house up Cottonwood Canyon and spend some good time with him. I LOVE his house. He lives right on the mountain side and his backyard is water running through rocks of granite. I got to bring some beautiful rocks home to use in my classroom. I'm so excited!

We spent a lot of other time with his family, but I didn't take pictures. 

Brighton has found a new favorite toy. He loves covering himself with dad's shirts and then getting his head stuck in the sleeve. It's so funny to watch.

We celebrated Father's day. He got a new drill and Texans hat (please let this year be a better season.) Micah is the best father! 

I really mean that, honey. I want you to know that we are so grateful for all that you do. Thanks for being a wonderful father, companion, friend, son, and confidant. I'm so lucky to get to spend eternity with you.

Lila celebrated her 3rd birthday and she got a fun tunnel on her actual birthday. She and Brighton had a great time breaking it in. It was bent before the first hour of using it was up. :)

I got to use my new mini-bundt pan. Red-velvet chocolate chip cakes. Yum!

I also got to go to my high school's marching band reunion. Yes, I am a band geek and I am proud of it.  Here's most of my family with our band director in the middle. It was good to see so many people. 

It's been a great beginning to the summer. I've really only had the last week off since I had tons of meetings the first two weeks, but it's still been a lot of fun. I look forward to the rest. 

Lila is Three

Our spunky, little gal is now three years old. 

She is a whole bunch of fun and I'm so grateful we got to have her first! We celebrated her birthday by having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party with the family. 

She was so cute this year because she really understood a lot more when it came to parties. For weeks in advance she would ask about her party and would tell me she was so excited. I was happy to feel like she finally knew what was going on. :) 

The kiddos wore Minnie and Mickey ears. 

Then we had a hot dog bar (hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog) and some other delectable delights as well! 

(Ignore the spelling error please.)

My brother-in-laws birthday is also on June 5th so my sister and I put on this party. The giant Mickey cupcake was for him.

My sister Sarah who loves Mickey Mouse, lent Lila this special cup for her birthday. :)

Good times were had. 

She got tons of fun gifts from the family. Thanks everyone!

At three years old Lila is quite the little smartie. She knows almost all of her letters when they are capitalized. Honestly, Micah and I have not really worked on these with her so I'm surprised by how many she knows. Some days she knows ALL of them and others she struggles with a few, like Q and K. She knows her numbers from 1 to 20 and understands the value of the numbers 1-10. As we drive along the street she'll point things out and say things like, "Look momma, three flags" or "look five balloons!" She gets VERY excited! :) She also knows many shapes including square, rectangle, triangle, circle, heart, star, crescent (although she calls it a moon), rhombus (diamond- I kind of hate this. ;)), octagon, and a few others. She also knows all of her colors without getting to crazy with the names. 

This little girl is the funniest little thing. I will tell her she's cute or she's awesome or something like that and she'll say, "I am cute" or "I am awesome" so matter of factly. She loves whispering and having secrets. She loves princesses, all colors, ANIMALS, playing outside, playing in dirt, bubbles, candy, carrots, green beans, cheese, and so many other things. She loves to play with Brighton, although they're not always the best at sharing right now. :) She still eats everything, but not every time it is offered to her. There have been some very frustrating meals with this little one. 

She has the best testimony and says the sweetest things in her prayers. She always talks about temples and when she's building things out of her blocks she often builds a temple. 

I wish I knew her stats (from the doctor- I know I can measure her and weigh her…), but her 3 year appointment isn't until August! :( She does get prettier and prettier every day though.

A creation from Lila that we woke up to one day. 

She loves shoes just as much as her momma. 

Lila has become very independent and really is showing me how quickly she is growing up and how capable she really is. I love this little one so much. I wish I could accurately portray in words just how much she means to me and our little family. 

Lila's Prayer

The other night Lila said her very first prayer entirely by herself. She's been saying prayers for a long time now and lots of parts by herself, but this one she did NOT want any help from me. It was just so cute, I had to share…

"Thanks for my party. Thanks for Brighton's party. Thanks for the day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

One Year Older

So this will be my final post on Brighton's first birthday. I just wanted to write a little bit about this love of mine. His stats at one year are:

Head: 19.5 inches (99 %tile)

Length: 28.5 inches (5.93 %tile)

Weight: 20 pounds (28 %tile)

I know big ol' head and a tiny little body. The doctor did look at his head more closely when he saw the statistics, but he said that he really is just fine and we don't have anything to worry about. He just has a great big brain, I guess. ;)

At one Brighton likes:

LILA (of course)

Bananas

Pears

Pineapple

Strawberries

Green Beans

Peas

Carrots

Corn

Chicken

Indian Food

Pasta

Rice

Water

Chocolate

Cookies

Crackers

Chips
breastfeeding

(as you can probably see, the list of food could go on and on… I haven't found one he doesn't like)

Bathtime

toys

walking/running

being chased

playing with water

"building" with blocks

climbing on anything and everything (he is way more adventurous than Lila was)

cuddling

being tickled

"kissing"

wrestling with Lila

crawling all over Lila

following Lila around

chasing Lila

Harold, Lila's giant bear… he'll get his at Christmas time

being outside

and many, many other things!

Brighton doesn't like:

Getting his diaper changed

being left alone if he's feeling clingy (especially when he first wakes up)

if food is out and it isn't being shared with him

...that's all I can honestly think of right now.

What a wonderful little boy we have. Love you little guy! 

My little boy's first haircut

Like Lila, Brighton has a TON of hair. Unlike Lila we didn't think we could wait until he was almost three to do it. His hair was starting to get in the way and kind of always look messy (but adorable) so the morning of his birthday party we decided to cut his hair before church. I was really sad to do it, but I knew that it needed to be done eventually so why not then?

Something I have always loved about Brighton's hair is that it's pretty dark, I would say brown, and had curls coming in at the back. He was just the handsomest little boy in the world! 

We started to cut his hair and right away I kept thinking, "what are we doing?!" By the time it was done I was sad. It didn't look bad at all, but he no longer looked like a little baby. In fact, he definitely looked like a little boy! My baby was gone! 

Also, his hair is SO blonde now. :( Don't get me wrong… I love blonde hair, but the darker hair was something that I felt like he got from me.

Before:

During: Sorry it's so blurry

 After:

I do love his hair now, but I still miss his baby hair. I feel that way about Lila's hair, too, though. 

Oh well, I guess they have to grow up sometime right? It just feels like it's happening so fast. Who knew I'd get so emotional over a haircut. :)