Looking back at 2011

I was sitting here for the past 20 minutes or so, enjoying the quietness of a napping child. As I sat, I started thinking over the past year.

It has been a complete whirlwind of a year.

Starting in January of this year, my life was changed forever. I had Shiloh. That, in and of itself, was enough to change my life forever, but we also have had so many other life altering events come over us this year.

Kenny started looking for jobs and that seemed to be crazy enough. Then came all of the interviews, all of the flying back and forth.

Then it was official. ken got a new job in Missouri. We had four weeks to put our house on the market and look for a new one in Jefferson City Missouri. We went through our house and sold everything that we couldn't take with us.

We had to say goodbye to two of the best pups ever. That I think was one of the hardest things about leaving Utah. Besides everything else we had to say goodbye to, we had to say goodbye to Piper and Pixie. I still miss them.

We also had to say goodbye to the first home we ever owned and to the home that we had so many good memories in. It was also Shiloh's first home.

We packed up flew to Missouri and beat all of our stuff here by about 2 weeks. Our first homebase here in Missouri was the Baymont Inn. Kenny started his new job, and I started trying not to get lost on my way back from the grocery store.

Then we moved to an apartment, that has been home base ever since. We sold our house in Utah. We spent countless hours looking for one here. We found one, it didn't work out. We found another, it didn't work out. We went back to the first one, it was seeming to work out.

In the meantime, we found out we were expecting our surprise kid #2.

Finally, we closed on the house this week. Just in time to be added to our list of events in 2011.

We have made many, many memories in the past year. All in all, it was an exciting great year, albeit one that I do not want to repeat because of all of the craziness. Here's to hoping that 2012 will be just as good, but maybe a little quieter...

I have an 11 month old...weird

I can't believe that Shiloh is almost 1 year old! Where did the time go? He really is such a great kid. This past month has been a bit of a challenge for us, but Shiloh is learning and growing all of the time. Some of his favorite past times include, turning pages in books as fast as he can, playing with and pulling out all of the canned goods in my cupboards, learning to climb, putting things in his mouth and crawling with them like a puppy, bath time, and anything that has to do with outside. His favorite toys to play with are probably books and stuffed animals, chapstick, paperclips, the printer, and cans and his toothbrush as long as he is the one holding it and no one is trying to actually brush his teeth. He is terribly afraid of any toy that makes noise. So much so that we ended up throwing one of his stuffed animals away(it sang the abc's... i know...very scary) because every time he saw it he would whimper. We ended up nick naming it "the Chucky dog". He weighs just a little over 20 pounds as of last week per the doctor when we took him in and he had strep. His favorite foods include spicy foods, beans, fish, bananas, anything squash related, and he has been on a pea kick lately as well. He is a professional turbo crawler as of late. He also can stand unassisted if you trick him into it. He can walk along and climb up on anything, but he is still too scared to walk. Kenny and I had fun trying to get him to take one step last night between us. It worked a couple of times. He says mama and dada and most of the time doesn't call the wrong thing those names. He also says " Na na na na na" very loudly when he is angry or doesn't want something. I think he is really trying to say No not na, but we can wait for that word to be correct I think. He has also started to be quite cuddly and will come up to you and give snuggles for no reason and then go back to playing. He gives open mouth kisses which are very cute and very disgusting all at the same time. I sure love this little guy. He is a handful and that will hopefully keep me young and not give me gray hairs, but either way I will take it!

This is an example of one of Shiloh's fave ways to sleep. We call it "the stink bug"

An example of him carrying something in his mouth like a puppy. He is such a cute little goof.

He discovered balloons this month and LOVES them. He was very disappointed that it was no longer floating when he woke up the next morning.

Yes...he is still a major drooler and has a total of 6 teeth currently.

I love you little Shiloh. I am so glad that you are my little guy!

Gratitude

So, lately I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself. I kept feeling like the whole world was combining its forces of bad luck and stress and dumping them on me. I had been feeling alone and overwhelmed. And to be completely honest I still am feeling a bit that way. I kept praying and asking why these stupid little things had to happen to me. Wow, how quickly I forget the lessons I learned just last month. Gratitude. I have a lot of this world to be thankful for. A LOT! Who cares if you sprain your ankle? Who cares if the only thing you get cleaned that day due to you and your child being sick is yourself? Is it really that big f a deal if your head is pounding and you want to sleep but you have to take care f the cutest little boy in the whole world? What is a few more weeks of living in an apartment because the house you are buying needs to have a septic tank installed? Although, admittedly, these things are not fun, they are but fleeting moments in a grand life! I have a wonderful family. I do have my health. What is a little sniffle compared to all of the life threatening diseases or life altering injuries out there? I have the Spirit for comfort and for a friend when I don't feel like there are many others out there. I have so much to be thankful for. I am still going to try and remember that, instead of dwelling on all of the little things that go wrong. I guess if you look at all of the little things that go wrong, you will find so many. If you look for all of the blessings, the little moments, like your kid smiling or your kid knowing that you are "mama" and calling you that, you realize life is good.

Feeling bad about a little clutter? Feel bad no longer...

This is a pic of what happens to your house when you hurt your ankle and your wrist, you are pregnant and morning sick, and you have a ten month old that you cannot keep up with any longer....

If you are feeling bad about yours, just take a look at mine and you will realize that your house isn't in such bad shape :D

First big boy haircut!!

I have to admit that I have been dreading cutting Shiloh's hair! He has such a beautiful color of hair and it had that great baby soft feeling to it. I finally broke down and cut it though. The fact is, it was in his eyes all of the time, and it tickled his nose and his ears. I was starting to feel a bit mean making him endure all of the tickling and itching he was constantly doing just because I was in love with his baby locks. So, the day after Christmas, I got the nerve up to cut his hair. The minute I got the nerve up, I told Kenny we had to do it right then or I would chicken out. I was quite nervous to cut his hair. I was at a loss at first of how to get him to sit still. Well, he did great!!!! You see, we don't let him watch tv or movies. We don't even have a tv. We decided that for this special occasion, we would put on a movie on the laptop, Cars to be exact. He was, needless to say, MESMERIZED by all of the music, colors, and lights. On rare occasion he would try to look at me to see what I was doing but for the most part, his attention was glued to the array of action in front of him. The other thing I gave him which he rarely gets to play with was my phone. Also very flashy and colorful.

Here are a few pictures of the during...please excuse my appearance as I had not been out of bed long. Also take notice of the expression in the first pic. Quite priceless.

We decided that he just looked so grown up and so cute that we did a little mini photo shoot of him on his little rocking chair after we bathed all of the hair off! I sure am in love that little boy! I won't post too many, but they turned out pretty cute

In this picture below, I have to admit, that I think that Shiloh looks like his older cousin, Spencer! I had thought Shiloh had a bit of the Williams' look, but not much, but there must be more to him than I thought because they look similar in this pic.
And here is a pic of the back.

He looks so grown up! I can't believe the difference a little haircut makes!

Christmas time!

I do have to admit that we were not the most "Christmasy" family around. Shiloh was getting over strep, I had (and still do have) a major sinus infection, and Kenny was getting over his sore throat as well. Nonetheless, we had a great Christmas, which was quite laid back. In the morning we let Shiloh open the presents that were left that he hadn't already gotten to previously in the month. He had, of course, no interest in opening any present for the camera! Apparently, he had already gotten the ripping paper need out of his system and was completely bored with it by Christmas morning. Kenny and I obliged in opening his present for him, and trying to keep him interested in the process was a bit difficult.

This is the closest he got to the presents on Christmas morning. After this one he was bored. (You can tell by looking at the picture that we even stopped and had an outfit change before opening the rest.)

Here is daddy helping the smiley by open up a present!

Once the books and toys were unwrapped though, it was whole new story. He loved playing with and hugging everything he received. I also made Monkey bread for breakfast. That is a Williams' fam tradition and then I made wassail, a Russell family tradition. Shiloh didn't want either, so we gave him bananas:)

What a goober! I love all of his cheesy smiles!

We went to church for an hour and listened to hymns and talks. Then we came home and had naps and made some food for a get together we had been invited to. After nap time we headed over to Brother and Sister Hippen's house. They are a very nice older couple in our ward who invited us and many other families who lived away from family over to their house fro Christmas dinner. We had a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring camera for the latter part of the day, but you can imagine that it was crowded, there were a tone of kids running around all hopped up on sugar from their stockings, and their was a ton of really great food. We had a blast and are so thankful for their kindness in letting us come.

Our first snowfall of the winter

Early in December, we had our first snowfall. It has been the only snow fall so far this winter. I am sure we are just being spoiled, but I am really liking it. (Also, on the plus side to no snow, we were able to get the septic tank installed at the house we just bought, so it was really a blessing) The snow that came was super powdery, and barely even covered the ground, but it was beautiful. We decided to have Shiloh go outside and try it out. He was a little afraid of it, but not as afraid of it as he was the Christmas tree, so I count it as a complete success! We didn't stay out long because it was freezing. But we had to document it.

I love my little cutie, even if he is afraid of most winter things. I am sure by next year, I am going to be wishing he was more afraid of things!

When I was a child

When I was a child, I remember falling down and getting back up again. I remember being told to brush it off, and most of the time, I would. Sometimes, the fall would end up in a scraped knee or elbow. Most of the time a trip or a fall resulted in me forgetting about it 20 minutes later and never thinking about again. I woke up this morning sore! I currently feel like all of my muscles hurt. I am walking with a limp or a cane depending on which is more annoying at the moment. My hand that caught the fall is killing me. I can't pick up Shiloh with that hand. I still can't look to the right. Oh, that I were a child once more, and could just brush it off and not be wishing that yesterday didn't happen...

Interruption in the blog catching up....

Two things that I would like to blog about....

First my nephews are here!!!!!! Benjamin Paul and Crew Russell Hutton were born on Monday. They are happy and healthy and big for twins. They both weighed the exact same... 6 lbs. 9 oz. Congrats to my sis and her hubs. They deserve the new little babes and I am glad that everything with the adoption went through smoothly. We cannot be more thankful for the blessing of adoption and for their birth mom who selflessly thought of the boys, which resulted in my sister and bro-in-law having the opportunity to become parents. Truly a miracle.

Second is a short list of some things that I don't think should happen to a pregnant lady, or really anybody for that matter, in the which all happened to me today. (complaining involved , so skip it if you don't want to hear it:) )

1. A pregnant lady should never wake up with a kinked neck that makes it impossible to move her right arm for a few hours, or her neck, and gives her a headache.

2.A pregnant lady should never be allowed to fall down the stairs (It was only two, but it was on the cement in the rain before 7 am).

3. A pregnant lady should never be let to twist her ankle until it pops falling down said stairs, leaving her limping, swollen, and bruised.

4. Also, a pregnant lady should not have to endure trying to fall to the side because of fear of falling on her stomach, thus ending in the result of a very bruised and skinned hand which took the impact first before everything else.

I did not die. My baby is just fine. But man! I hurt! and I am having hard time keeping up with Shiloh. Luckily, Kenny only had to go to work for 5 hours, and a good friend of mine came over for an hour and a half to chase Shiloh for me. Sorry for the complaint, but I just thought I should note to everyone that this should not be allowed to happen. ;) I guess I was overdue for another Brittani klutzy moment.... I should have been expecting it.

Shiloh and Daddy

So one of the downfalls in being in an apartment where you have no room and can't child proof anything, is that Shiloh has opened almost all of the presents that my parents brought at Thanksgiving. He got one set of cute jungle puppets. He LOVES them. He and daddy. crawl around the house playing with them. Kenny will crawl quickly to another room, and then peek the puppet around the corner and make a lion noise or something like that. Shiloh will squeal and then turbo crawl to get to him or walk along the walls til he can find them. Then, just as Shiloh reaches them, the process is repeated all over again, racing from one room to another and then back again. It can go on for a quite a long time. This is a game that I am apparently not good enough to play with Shiloh. He is a puppet snob and I just don't make good enough animal noises to get the job done, so he waits for the this game every night after Ken gets home from work. It is just so dang cute to watch. I am pretty sure that Kenny is having a little more fun than Shiloh is, and Shiloh is having a lot of fun! The game always ends when Shiloh is starting to get frustrated at not catching the puppet, so Kenny makes one more move and it inevitably ends with Shiloh hugging and hitting the puppet and feeling quite accomplished at "catching" it. Here are a few shots of the process:)

Setting the bait...

The Hunt....

The end when daddy lets Shiloh "catch" the Puppet

These two are best pals. It is just so fun to watch and just so fun to see Shiloh at this age!

First December weekend... Part 2

Wow! Did I keep you waiting long enough? Sorry about that. Not feeling great plus a lack of motivation, makes for a long wait for part 2. So Friday night we went to an event called The Living Windows. Downtown Jeff city blocks off a huge portion of a street downtown. Everyone walks down the streets, that are lit by Christmas lights and decorated. On every street corner there is free hot cocoa, apple cider and cookies. There are people passing out candy canes. There are of course treats and such that you can buy as well. All of the business store front windows have cute little kids dancing or singing. There are caroling choirs and bands everywhere. It was just such a festive fun filled way to kick off the season.

Here is Shiloh all bundled up ready to walk down High street

This was a fun little group that was playing Christmas carols. There were so many more, but since it was at night it is hard to get good pictures

On Saturday morning we went to a small town called Hermann. The add for this event sounded way more fun than it actually was... I mean it wasn't boring by any means, but it was a lot smaller than expected and I probably wouldn't make the trek again, but it is a good memory. One interesting fact that we found out in Hermann is that Shiloh is TERRIFIED of Santa Claus. Especially obnoxious creepy ones that come up to your 10 month old uninvited, and then after he starts screaming and trying to hide, he touches him without permission anyway. So my kid is afraid of Christmas trees and Santa Claus. Next on the list is Gingerbread houses I guess, or maybe even snowmen. Not really sure. We only took one pic in Hermann and it wasn't of the lame booths. It was of a beautiful vineyard outside of a winery. It was gorgeous.

After getting back from Hermann, we went to the Governor's mansion. They open the bottom level so that you can see it all dressed up for Christmas. It was beautiful and very historic looking. This was way more fun the previous event.

It was such a fun weekend, and we didn't even do everything there was to do that weekend, but I think we did enough to get the Christmas Spirit awakened in us. Still on the list to do, go to Rotary park and look at all of the lights and then there is a 27 acre field that is decorated and lit and you can drive through. Hopefully we get to that before the Christmas season is over.

The first weekend in December....Part #1

I know, I know, I know, I am totally behind in my blogging, but I am trying to get caught up. The first weekend in December Kenny had Friday off. So we decided to kick ff the holiday season and see what Jeff City had to offer. Let me tell you, it has A LOT to offer!!! There was no way to get to everything there was to offer the first weekend in Jeff city and all of the cute little surrounding areas. I can't even fit the whole first day into one post! There are so many things we still are planning to do, but we will see! I just love the small town feel here and how they do so many fun things. I took some pictures of the events we went to!

Well since we were supposed to move into our house before Thanksgiving, and we are still waiting for it to close, I wasn't really sure that we were going to do any holiday decorating, but it was just making me soooo sad. All of our Christmas Decor is in the storage unit and almost impossible to get to. I was getting pretty bummed about it, so we thought we would look for a Christmas tree lot and get a tiny Christmas tree. My mom had bought me a few decorations while she was in town. We drove all around town, but there were no lots to be found! I thought that it was kind of bizarre. So, I looked online and found out that they do not have any lots here. Instead, you go to the Christmas tree farm and go pick out your own and cut down your own. How fun! So we decided to go check it out. It was so fun. We didn't cut our own because those were bigger, but they had a little section of smaller $10 trees that were pre cut for you. There was free hot cocoa and coloring books and candy canes. There was even a free hay ride! It was sooo fun and I am not sure why we would do it any other way. So here are a few pics from that part of the outing.

Cute little pic of Shiloh standing by himself for a few seconds....

This is the Truck that they do Hay rides on. So Fun!

There were soooo many trees!

The owner offered to take a family shot. He was the nicest guy. He said that moms always got left out of the pics, and he thought we should have one with all of us!

After we got it, we went home and decorated the tree with our few decorations. Shiloh only got one ornament off the tree before he realized he was terrified of the tree because it was poky! I guess I should be happy about that, but I have tried to no avail to get him to touch or come close to the tree, but he won't.

Our little tree. It is shorter than me, which you can't tell from this pic. We don't have any lights, but it still turned out pretty.

The only time Shiloh got near the tree.

His new favorite noise maker:)

It was such a fun morning. I am also super excited that I was able to get a tree and feel a little less bah humbuggish!

13 weeks...heading into the 2nd trimester!

Disclaimer: Please don't ask if I am having twins or say something along the lines of, "You're Showing already?!" or "You're getting so big!" For some reason I am super sensitive this time around, and have already gotten those comments, and they made me cry, really really hard.

So, I was looking back at pictures from when I was pregnant with Shiloh...all 4 of them, and decided that I should better document this pregnancy. I am making no promises, but I will try to get more than 4 pictures of me pregnant:) So here it is. Me at 13 weeks...

Thanksgiving (Finally)

So I have waited way too long to post about Thanksgiving, but I was bummed about forgetting to get all of the pics my mom took on her camera before she left, so, needless to say, this will be me mostly telling about the fun time, not a whole lot of seeing. Maybe I can get my mom to send me some of the pics:)

My parents got here the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for them I was quite sick the whole time they were here. So they mostly just played with Shiloh, which they didn't seem to mind, and he just basked in all of the attention. His favorite thing to do was to walk under the table between my mom and my dad. He could do it for hours and they were kind enough to let him. Saturday night we went to a GREAT bbq place called Bandana's BBQ. It is one of the most delicious places around, and Kenny and I have to really use restraint s that we don't go there every other day. My parents loved it and Shiloh really really loved it!

Sunday was just kind of a kick back day. We went to church and then we drove around and out to the house that we are still under contract to buy (keep your fingers crossed for us). We didn't go with the realtor, but my dad was able to look around the property and it was a lot of fun to show my parents why we loved Missouri so much. We also drove to a lake that is only 5 minutes away from the church.

Monday and were pretty similar. We shopped a little and just hung around. They played with Shiloh and he was in Heaven! I have been such a lump lately and have had no energy. He was just pumped to be playing with people that moved. Monday night my parents let Kenny and I go on a date. It was so nice of them and so nice to get out of the house. We went to a great Italian restaurant here in town called Madison's, then watched a movie at the dollar theater here in town. That is the first time Kenny and I have been in a movie theater since Shiloh was born. It was a momentous occasion for us :)

Wednesday, while Kenny was working, My parents, Shiloh, and I went to the Capitol building and went to the museum inside. The building is gorgeous. I was really sad not to have the pics my mom took of this day. By this time Shiloh and my Pa Pa had become the best of friends. They walked around together, and we had all sorts of cool pics of the building. Oh well, maybe I can get them later.

Thursday we made dinner all day. We had a wonderful Turkey that was crusted in cranberries and vegetables and basted in white wine. Hats off to the chef on that one! It was delicious! We also had mashed potatoes, a great spinach salad with home made poppy seed dressing (I made it), Home made rolls, cream cheese and corn with green chilies, stuffing, celery sticks with cheese spread (my side of the family's tradition. it wouldn't be Thanksgiving for me if it wasn't there.) and then some sparkling apple cider. It was yummy and a big mess. Later we had pie. We made one. It was an apple pie with a pecan pie layer on top! Also really great. I can't wait until I can have a Thanksgiving where I am not pregnant though. Two years in a row for me. Always slightly more enjoyable when you have room in your tummy, and you aren't feeling under the weather.

Friday the whole gang of us did Black Friday in the morning. We went at 7 though, so we weren't too crazy. Got a few things and went home. We fed my parents some lunch and then they went home. We had a blast! I am glad they came.

Here is Shiloh and my dad being buddies. They did this a lot of the week. Since I wasn't much of a hostess!

Here is Shiloh opening a Christmas present. This is one of many that he has tore into. I wish we has some place high to put them, but oh well. He did this one right before my parents left. They were happy to see him open at least one. He sure loved the cow pillow and blankie they got him. He carries and hits it, which is his ultimate way of showing affection currently.

Random Stuff

So I have some random shots of the boy either being cute or getting into trouble. None of them were really pics that I could blog about all on there own, however I still wanted them to be on the blog for memory's sake, and so that you could all see how cute and mischievous he is:)

He is such a funny kid. He loves to get into my office supplies and to play with the printer. Of course this is always done with close supervision. I CAN"T wait til I am somewhere that I can actually child-proof things.

What a cute little face. His hair was crazy this day. I took a ton of pics, but I am just posting my favorite one.

Can we say flexible? When he first started to go from belly to sitting up, Shiloh always ended up in the straddles. I was lucky enough to catch on camera one day. He never stayed in that position long.