Happy Halloween!

Halloween is so fun when you have kids! I have loved dressing Brilee up all day long (she has not enjoyed this AT ALL)! She is the cutest little bear. Jake and I taught her how to growl and have been practicing it for a couple days hoping she would growl in her costume. She was growling on command all day long. She would growl at anyone who would growl at her, but then we put the costume on and everything changed. She just froze up and wouldn't smile, talk, growl, or do anything. We took her around Roosevelt to see her cousins, and then we went to Vernal. My Dad made a delicious dinner then the trick or treating began! We put her back in her costume, and she started crying. She cried all the way to the Wheeler's, but they knew what to do to make her happy... GIVE THE BABY A SUCKER! She loved the sucker and it kept her happy to Gillman's. They voted her the cutest trick or treater of the night, GO BRILEE! After that we went to the Parrack's and Cloud's and then took her home and let her get out of her costume! She was so happy to be back at Grandma and Grandpa's. I told her when she was falling asleep she has a whole year before she has to be put in a costume again!

Our beautiful Brilee before she rubbed her nose and whiskers off!

On our way out!

BreAnna was a Mid-Evil princess and she looked so pretty! Brilee sure loves her!

Birchell's

Elly was Goldilocks and Brilee was Baby Bear. 

Goldilocks, Baby Bear, Little Bo Peep, and her Lost Sheep!

Mid-Evil Princess, Fancy Nancy, Dead Cheerleader, Snow White, Cowboy, Lost Sheep, Little Bo Peep, Baby Bear, Goldilocks, Spider Man, and a pretty little Witch!

Bri Bear and the beautiful Mulan

The bear and monkey! Cy's eyes explain both of their thoughts!

The escaping bear (Cy thought this was funny, but not Leeb)

My Dad's tasty sushi! He is getting pretty good... a lot better than the first time Stacia and I tried!

All the kids at the BLM work party. 

NiNe MoNtHs!

Here we are another month older. I love thinking back at everything she was doing last month at this time compared to what she is doing now. Babies change a lot in a month! This month Brilee has figured out everything she is NOT supposed to get into (so of course that is what she wants to play with). She loves power cords and Daddy's horse magazines. She thinks she is funny when she rolls over to the magazines and starts pulling them out of their basket and ripping the pages up. She amazes me at how quickly she can destroy my living room. For a baby whose main form of transportation is rolling she sure makes a lot of messes. Brilee is still doing awesome at work (especially now that Scott made the guys shampoo the carpet because of how dirty her clothes were getting). She is still the best baby (as long as you don't ask the baby-sitters!) and the love of our life! 

NINE things I was saying (and meaning!) NINE months ago!

1. My baby will NEVER sleep in our bed. (Unfortunately, Brilee cries ever night around mid night and she doesn't stop until she gets her way and ends up in bed with us!)
   
2. My baby will NEVER drink pop. (Two weeks ago Brilee figured out how to drink out of a straw, and last week the only thing we could get her to drink was 7-Up. UGH... the habits!)
3. My baby will ALWAYS be asleep before eight. (Way easier said than done! We try but it is hard.)
4. I will decide the schedule my baby will be on. (YEAH RIGHT!)
5. Babies aren't that much work. (Ignorance is bliss.)
6. My baby will be able to go to anyone and be good for a baby-sitter. (Jessica could tell you stories about how UNTRUE this is!)
7. My baby will put herself to sleep every night. (See the picture below.)
8. No candy for my baby. (Sometimes a sucker is the only way to go when we need her to be good.)
9. Our life won't change very much. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

Her new favorite toys are wooden spoons and measuring cups. 

We read There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly tonight and she LOVED it so much she had to get down and read it again!

It was a little heavy so she needed her feet to help her hold it up.

Snuggling Mommy before bed time!

Long Weekend!

So my last post(Wed.) I mentioned how Bri had HFM and was teething. I knew she didn't feel good then, but what I didn't know is how sick she would get before she got better. It has been hard! I decided Thursday she felt good enough to go to work with me, but I was wrong! She cried all day long. Lucky, there were only two other people in the office who were kind of enough to pretend it didn't bug them. After staying up all Thursday night I decided to take Friday off. She was miserable all of Friday, and me having been up for forty-eight hours cried when Brilee was(so pretty much all day). Jake was so helpful Friday. He took Brilee on the 4-wheeler, let her play with the dogs, let her watch the cat, and pretty much anything else he could do to keep her mind off of crying. But then he had to leave Friday afternoon to go hunting with his Dad. When it was time for him to go he was scared to leave his two girls' crying. He called my Mom and made sure she was on her way before he left. As soon as she got here she took over. She sent me to the store and on some other errands to get me out of the house! Brilee by this time had quit eating and couldn't even shut her little mouth. The only thing we could get her to swallow was 7-Up out of a straw and Popsicles. After feeding her a Popsicle Jenny and Julie started looking at her "rash" and noticing it looked more like hives and it was all over her arms. I felt so bad for her.  My Mom stayed up with her all Friday night (Brilee slept some, but only because Grandma held her all night long) so I could sleep. Saturday morning Brilee still wouldn't drink her bottle, but we found she would eat apple sauce. We did everything we could to keep her happy, but nothing seemed to work. We fed her Popsicles, and then we started to notice the only time the "rash" looked like hives was after she ate her Popsicle. So now on top of everything else I am pretty sure she is allergic to something in the Popsicle.  Every six hours her fever would spike and so finally I was over it and decided she was going to the emergency room. I called my sister-in-law Andre who advised us to stay FAR away from the ER due to the Swine Flu epidemic in Roosevelt. She came over looked in her ears and thought they were infected. :( She contacted the on call pediatrician who agreed with her and called Brilee in a prescription. My Dad picked it up and raced to Roosevelt. Right after we gave her the medicine she ate some of her bottle and then she went to sleep. She slept twelve hours and never got a fever. She woke up this morning and ate a little and then went back to sleep. She has slept most of the day, but she started wanting to eat on her normal schedule. Finally, tonight she started fussing so I made her bottle and she was back to normal with her eating. Bertagnolli would have been proud of her "Gallon Challenge" tonight... I KNOW I WAS! I couldn't have made it through this weekend without all the help I got! Thank you so much Mom, Dad, Andre, Jenny, and Julie! I am so grateful for you and all you do for me and Bri Bear. 

Halloween Preview

Brilee's costume came in the mail today and I was so excited I couldn't wait to put it on her. She was not a big fan of the costume when it was on her but she thought it was pretty cool laying on the floor in her room! 

Our little Bri Bear

Unfortunately, she has already figured out how to take off the hands and feet.

Relieved to not be wearing that "thing" anymore!

On other Brilee news she woke up last night with a fever. She has had a runny nose and I noticed some drainage from her ear. I gave her medicine and put ear drops in and then called in sick to work. Today we haven't done anything but lay around. I started noticing a rash around her legs, mouth, and hands this afternoon so I called Andre. She came over and looked (thank you so much!!!) and she thinks Brilee has hand, mouth, foot disease. She has little sores in her mouth, on her feet, her hands, and her thighs. It really isn't a big deal and most kids get it, but it isn't a lot of fun. She will probably have it a few more days and then the rash just goes away. When we were looking in her mouth at the sores we noticed her eye teeth were getting close to coming in. I put her down for her nap and when she woke up I checked her mouth again. I didn't notice any more sores, but her left eye tooth was all the way in! I couldn't believe it. Her poor little mouth. She got a popsicle for her reward, and she liked it so much I think she would go through the pain again to get another one. Good thing I am a nice Mom and will probably give her another one before bed! 

It has been a rough day! HFM, teething, and Bear Costumes UGH!

Nothing like Mobility!

The past few days Bri Bear has been getting really mobile. She isn't really crawling (other than backwards and in circles) but somehow she can get from one end of the room to the other in a matter of seconds! Yesterday morning Jake woke up with Brilee so I could sleep in. Around eight I heard the shower start so I got up to be with Brilee. I walked in her room and she wasn't there. I went to the kitchen, no Brilee. Walked into the living room and about had a heart attack when she wasn't there either. I ran to ask Jake where she was and he said "In her room". I ran back there and sure enough there she was IN THE CLOSET chewing on a dog collar. She thought she was pretty sneaky in there and now every time the closet door is open she is making a run for it. This afternoon I left her in her room (closet shut of course!) so I could vacuum. I put her on her blanket with a bunch of toys hoping she would stay entertained... but obviously she needed more. When I came back to check on her she had made her way to her basket full of stuffed animals. She looked so guilty!

The Joys of Fall

Jake and I both have elk tags and so we have been hunting like CRAZY... with NO luck! Saturday we hiked from Ice Cave Peak to Whiterocks, on the hike Ben (Jake's brother) got his elk. We had our chance at three spike elk, but they were 1,000+ yards away and on a run. We tried tracking them down, but it was impossible. Sunday Jake and I woke up early and got on our horses. We rode through a blizzard, a lighting storm, and wind gusts up to sixty MPH! I was so cold I was in pain. Uma decided to try and knock me off by running me into a tree. The only thing that hit was my knee and it is still sore a week later. At that point we decided to build a fire and wait for the lightning and snow to stop. We finally were able to get back on and we RAN to the truck. When we got back to the cabin I knew I wasn't leaving again! Jake, on the other hand, wasn't finished. Ben, Tytan, and Jake all drove up to Paradise so Jake could go on a short hike. He started tracking an elk and lost sight of where he was and the time. He then was caught in a white out and lost all his tracks to get him back to the truck. He got on what he thought was a good road and walked up it for an hour and a half to find it was a dead end road. He turned around started walking through the timber to find Paradise Creek to get him out of his predicament. Meanwhile, we hear that Jake has been gone for five hours, is only wearing a hoodie, doesn't have his phone, and there is six NEW inches of snow from when he left. Ann, Barry, and my Dad all came up the mountain to help us look for him. Luckily, just as we all got up their he came out of the trees eight miles from where he had been dropped off. It was a scary day for us, but Jake always knew what to do so he was never scared (except he said he was scared when it was getting dark because he knew he would be in trouble with me!). Monday Jake and I went to our friend's field. We walked through a swamp and thick brush, but we got so close to a herd of elk that it was worth it. We were close enough to smell them (GROSS!!!). Just as we were getting there they must have smelled us too because we heard them get up and take off. Jake started calling at them and they stopped and called back at him but then the dog barked and it was over! Thursday Jake went on a LONG horse ride to see if he could find any. He saw a nice five point, but was in too thick of timber to even try. On their way back to the truck he and his friend were riding down the trail talking and not even trying to hunt when they came across two spikes right in the middle of the trail. It took them by such surprise that by the time they got off their horses the elk were gone. We drove all over tonight and will try again in the morning... wish us luck! (Del we are doing ALL of this for you! It really is pretty fun though. Next time maybe you will have to come out.)

Us at 5:00 AM (UGH reason enough not to hunt!)

Jake was trying to beat the timer on my camera. It was a cold morning.

After our hike off the mountain. 

We had so much fun camping with these guys all weekend! Of course, we had to keep our tradition alive and go to Ice Cave.

Jake took today off of work to stay home with Brilee and he found her mad bomber hat. He was so excited, and hopefully his excitement of the hat will eventually wear off on to Brilee. :)

On our hunt today! Jake stopped to look at some horses and Bri Bear and I hung out in the truck.

She kept pulling herself up onto the steering wheel. I thought it was so cute.

Big girl!

Here comes the hardest part of this whole hunt: Brilee is sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's tonight so Jake and I can get up way to early for man kind to try and finish this hunt. I know she will do fine but I wasn't sure if I could handle a night away from her. This was right before our tearful goodbye's (not really but I was close).

BOO'ing

Every year the girls (and this year Ty and Jens) and I make treats and take them to the neighbors houses with this poem attached: 

BOO

The air is cool, the season is fall

soon Boo's will come to all.

The treat that came with the special note

Is yours to keep, enjoy them both.

The fun comes with friends like you

now copy this and make it two.

Then others here among our friends, 

will give warm fuzzies that will never end.

We'll all have smiles upon our face,

no one will know who BOOed each place.

Just one short day to work your fun,

or a big ZAP will strike, SO RUN!

And don't forget a nifty treat,

like something cute or something sweet.

Please join the fun, let's really hear it,

and spread some Boo's and lot's of spirit.

Directions:

1. Enjoy your treat.

2. Place the picture of your BOO on your front door.

3. Now you have 24 hours to copy this twice, make 2 treats and 2 BOO's and secretly deliver them to 2 neighbors who do not have BOO on their front door.

4. Then watch how far this spreads by Halloween. (http://www.kidprintables.com/halloween/boo.shtml)

We always try to be so sneaky, but somehow we always get caught! Our first house of the night was Julie and Kevin's. Things started okay (not counting Wrangler tackling Tytan) but turned out rough. After dropping the treats off we realized we didn't ring the door bell. Annalee, Elly, and Jaylie ran back to try again. They came running at the truck, but poor Jaylie couldn't get in. Julie had to get out and throw her in. Needless to say we were caught! Next, we went to Ben and Andre's. We ran up their road rang the door bell and went to the side of the house to hide.Tytan went to check if the cupcakes were still on the porch and came back and said "I saw her." We asked if she saw him and he got very excited and said "She looked at me!" So we went to Jenny and Donny's. We were golden there, but Donny came out chasing us. Something tells me he knew what was coming. We dropped Jens off to them and went over to the Caldwell's. This was our best house of the night (the only house we didn't get caught at least). We went to Norman and Sharons after the Caldwell's. We did the job and ran to hide and when Norman opened the door he let Little Bear out of the house. Well Little Bear knew something was up and wouldn't go back in the house. All of the sudden Little Bear saw us and came ready to attack. Elly and Leeber started screaming and almost got ran up a tree. It was rough! We went to the Wall's house next and again it was great. Then Leeber decided she couldn't "lie" to her Grandma Wall so she had to go tell her it was us. We ended the night at Rich's (we don't really know them but Melissa and the Harris' weren't home). We only got caught by them when we were driving out of the drive way (it helped that most everyone stayed in the truck). It was such a fun night and something I LOVE to do with these cute kids. I am already thinking about next years BOO'ing adventures.

All the goodies!

The decorating crew.

Brilee and Jake in hiding. Brilee loved having all her cousins at her house at first, but then when dinner time and bed time came around she was OVER it!

It was wild!

They all had to eat a cupcake before we could go.

The BOO'ing team! We put mascara under our eyes so the kids all thought that meant we were on a football team.

Chloey running up Ben and Andre's drive way.

Corn Maze

Mylee has her birthday party every year at the corn maze, and every year Jake and I have a blast. There is nothing like getting lost in a big ole' field of corn. This year Brilee got to share the fun with us... we are hoping next year she will like it more!

Annalee, Tytan and Brilee getting ready to head in.

Me and Bri going down the bumpy slide.

I wonder what these two thought of the world around them during all of this!

Jake and Brilee... LOST!

Here is most of our group in the maze.

Brilee was worn out! (That's what happens to her when she goes on nap strike for three days!)

Chazzy in the pumkin patch.

The kids on the tractor ride with their treasures from the pumpkin patch.

After the party Andre decided to let Angie give Cy his first hair cut. Cy did awesome with the whole thing!