This picture...

just about sums up our lives right now! Brighton upset and having a hard time, Brandon wondering what is going on, and the two of us parents smiling through it all. Ha! 

We had a great time at our ward Christmas party. Awesome dinner (well at least the turkey was awesome....I'm SO sick of this strict diet!), great friends, fun crafts for Bran and a sweet Santa!

Our trip to the Oakland Temple

We made a trip over to the Temple to see the lights and enjoy the live Nativity. It was a beautiful night!

We also listened to some Christmas Carols in the Visitors Center. Brandon got to shake some jingle bells during one of the songs. :)

Little binker all bundled up! 

I sure do love making special Christmas memories with my little family! 

3 Months!

Our baby is three months old today. She is amazing and wonderful and challenging all in one little tiny package. (A not quite 12 pound package.) She is an incredible sleeper! Last night, in fact, she slept TWELVE hours!! Seriously, she sleeps so well that it sometimes scares me! I woke her up twice to feed her. She still loves her hands and loves to make lots of cute noises. She has taken on the nicknames of "stinker binker" and "brighty boo." Pink blankey and purple blankey are her favorites...she is "eating" one of them in a picture below.

Happy Three Months stinker binker!

Holiday Frolic!

 A week ago we went to the downtown "Holiday Frolic." It was super cold but a lot of fun. :) 

 Last year we saw Brandon's good friend Anya and her grandparents there. Well guess who we ran into again? Anya and her grandparents! 

 We watched the parade, bounced in the bounce house, talked with our friends, made ice cream cone Christmas trees and saw a bazillion people from our school! 

On the way home we got some cups of "Christmas Cheer"- 1 Egg Nog shake and a couple of cokes! 

our girl

This little girl is almost three months old. It has been a challenging but wonderful journey with her so far.  Brighton we love you!

Our Thanksgiving Trip!

We had a wonderfully packed weekend in Southern Ca. From beginning to end, it was non-stop going and doing. John and I drove from one event to the next and were a bit frazzled by the end...but all in all it was an incredible trip, spent with the people we love so much. First on the agenda was Thanksgiving at the Proctors. They rented a bounce house which everyone thought was the BEST idea ever! Brandon really enjoyed himself! 

Here is Brighton with her Nana on John's side. 

On Friday we headed to the beach to have Thanksgiving with my mom and Papa John. Here is Brighton feeling sand between her toes for the first time. She liked it! :) 

Here are the 3 Johns in our family and Parker.

Brandon got in some good cousin time. 

So gross but I love it. ;) 

This really is not a very good pic but it's the best I could do. Julie got completely cut out. Sorry J! I should also have taken a picture of the BEAUTIFUL table by itself! My mom made it look amazing!

I love this guy.

My four siblings and I. It was so great to be all together.

Brandon got to spend some time with his dad Jeff. So fun for him!

Saturday was very special. London and John's sister Julee got baptized.

Becca made the cutest chocolate scriptures for everyone to take home!

Sunday was Brighton's special day. She was blessed by her daddy and she cried through the entire thing! Ah! We love you anyway baby.

Poor Brighton, you have a crazy family!

So tired from all that crying. Ha!

After the blessing and more visiting with John's family, we headed out to my dad's new place. Everyone had such a great time. Yummy food, basketball, swings, an awesome giant tree to climb in, playing in the creek, roasting marshmallows by the fire and lots of family time. 

My dad and Mary with little stinker.

These boys had a great adventure out there in the wilderness! I am so thankful that Brandon has Parker to look up to. What a huge blessing.

What a great trip. We are so excited to go back down in just three weeks! Yahoo!

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Brandon's class had a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" the Friday before turkey break. They got to enjoy all of the things that the Peanuts gang had in the movie. I thought it was such a cute idea. On the menu: toast, pretzels, jelly beans, popcorn and ice cream! 

Little turkey was there too. It's funny how all of Brandon's classmates adore her. :) It's going to be a wonderful Thanksgiving!

2 Months!

It has been a crazy wonderful past two months. Brighton has already lived up to her name...she has most certainly "brightened"up our world. She LOVES her changing table and always smiles and "talks" to us when she is being changed. She loves to suck on her hands. It is so loud and cute! She moves her head side to side constantly when she is on her tummy. Her favorite stuffed animal is a black bat Nana gave her for Halloween. She stares at it forever! Brandon loves to make her smile. We are all in love.

With all the joys we've experienced however, there have been some sorrows as well. At three weeks old Brighton started to be really fussy. It just seemed like something was not right, like she was hurting. After taking her in, our doctor said she found mucus and small traces of blood (unseen by the eye) in her poo, which was a pretty sure sign of an allergy. From that point on, I was cutting things out of my diet. First the doctor told me to cut out dairy, then dairy and soy. After those failed to show any change, the pediatrician sent us to see a GI doctor. She said we were now officially too complicated for her. Hoping the GI doctor would be able to help us, we quickly went to see him. He said that we should put Brighton on formula for three days and see if that clears up the mucus and blood. I was not happy with that advice, but wanting to do what was best for our baby, we headed home to give her a bottle of formula. Ha!! Well Brighton was NOT having any of it! She screamed like crazy the first time I tried to feed her. She kept looking at me with tears in her eyes. It seemed as though she was confused as to why I was not feeding her the way I always did. She cried and cried and then fell asleep hungry. That I must say was the worst hour of my life. I was crying just as much as she was. Neither of us wanted this. I wanted to nurse my baby and feel the closeness that comes with breastfeeding. I wanted to give her want she wanted. I was so frustrated and sad. So so sad that we were having to go through this...that my milk was not perfect for her. I gave up. John tried when he got home, and he gave up too. It was just much too difficult to see our daughter be that upset. 

So, I called in the big guns, my mom! She flew in from Utah to try and feed our little stubborn sweetie a bottle. She gave it such a good try, hours and hours of trying. Brighton just cried and cried. I couldn't take it. I will never be able to thank her enough for her efforts and love. She is the best.

 So now here we are five weeks into this allergy mess and I am on a very strict diet. No dairy, soy, corn, peanuts or eggs. I think it is helping. We go in tomorrow for another poo test and she will be weighed. So far she is gaining weight perfectly so I hope that continues. 

Oh little Brighton, we love you so much! Please get better so we can stop stressing out!