Sweat before the sweet

On Saturday, in preparation for the super sweet birthday cake Sunday we had, we decided to do The Heart Run as a family. The Heart Run is this big 5k run in Anchorage that 8,000 people participate in, in order to raise money for heart disease and further research for the American Heart Association. Anyway, strollers are allowed so we packed the jogger and went! It was a ton of fun! They even gave Brighton a medal at the end of the race! It was a great family tradition and when we go down to Cedar City we hope to find other fun fam runs as well!

The Big 1

Today was a fun-filled Sunday! Brighton actually turned 1 whole year old! I still can't believe how fast she's growing! Next thing you know she'll be dating (Eeeek! I shouldn't even talk like that!) The day started out with a good day at church, then we came home and made her cake (a watermelon slice as shown above) and decorated the house while she was napping. She didn't wake up until dinner so she had a birthday dinner (sweet potatoes and turkey in a jar) and after that she opened presents (all from grandparents and great-grandparents! Thanks guys!). Next we let her go wild with her cake and she loved it, although I think she liked the ice cream more (she's definitely her mother's child!). Finally, we went for our first ever family bike ride. For her birthday, my parents got her a bike carriage thing that attaches to our bike (I'll post pics soon) which is so great because Kyle is finally starting to show a love for the sport (that I have loved for so long) and is really excited to get out there and hit the biking trails this summer. Now we can hitch little B in the back and go! Anyway, it was a great day and we recieved many calls from family and friends wishing Brighton a happy day! Thanks again to everyone who made her day so special!

The Hairless wonder

Brighton probably has the least amount of hair out of all the babies I know! She is super bald. Well, the only area that her her really grows is the back, which makes her look like a balding old man. So she finally had enough hair to put into a sickly ponytail and I thought I'd share the little rat tail pics for everyone to see! I'll definitely have to show these to her boyfriends in the future! I'll never let her live this one down!

"Boo"

On Saturday we went to the duck pond in town and it was a lot of fun! They have a ton of ducks there and a few peacocks all over the place and Brighton was loving her life! I've been showing her blue things and she started saying the word "blue" (it actually comes out "boo")! We couldn't believe it! Well the peacock was blue and she kept saying it and pointing to it! It was crazy! What a little girl she's getting to be! In one week she'll already be 1! Time goes by too quickly! I guess we should enjoy the time we have now and we sure did this weekend!

'Orange' you glad for babies?

Brighton has gotten to the point where I can turn my back on her for a second and she'll be knee-deep in trouble when I turn back around. Well, I was getting her dinner ready and she managed to pull the entire fruit basket from behind her booster chair and started mowing on some oranges. She then proceeded to find the kiwis and eat the hair off of them! Gross huh?! She finally broke the skin to the kiwi and actually enjoyed the fruit inside. Well, instead of taking them away like any normal mom would do, I decided it was a great photo op! Let's just hope she continues this love for vitamin C and healthy nutrients in the future!

I'm hooked

Since I've been a little on the lonely side up here in AK I've had to find a few hobbies. Knitting being one and card making being another. My friend started ordering all this stampin' up stuff and invited me to a party which totally reeled me in. So now I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm hooked on their stuff! Well, the demonstrator of the stamp stuff talked me into having a hostess party which I'm having tonight and am very nervous about because I'm not good at the whole product party thing so wish me luck! If you have a minute and feel like looking at super creative stuff go to www.stampinup.com

Early Birthday Surprise

We recieved a package the other day from Grandma and Grandpa Comin and inside was an early birthday gift for Brighton. It was a special Carebear which she loved! She is obsessed with giving kisses to her stuffed animals and in the pic above she giving it a big smooch! She hasn't mastered the whole kiss thing because she leaves her mouth wide open and drools all over. Needless to say, you definitely get a mouthful when she puckers up! Well anyway, thanks Gma and Gpa Comin! You're great!
One last thing. Brighton has been doing this crazy thing lately when she gets excited. She clenchs her fists and teeth and tightens every body part and her eyes get really wide. Then she shakes! It's like she's really cold or trying to flex or something like that! There's a pic of it above but it doesn't do it justice. I'll try to post a video once I figure out how to get one on! Well, hope all is well with everyone! Thanks again to Van and Wendy for the birthday box!

Crabby Cakes

No Brighton hasn't been too crabby lately but she did have her very first taste of king crab! She loved it! She also shared an asparagus tip with her daddy! We had a great dinner last night and Brighton finally got to sit and eat adult food with the family!

Happy Easter

We just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter and show you a few pics of our day. Well we went to church and thought we'd take a family pic for all to see. After church, we had Brighton find her Easter basket and she seemed to LOVE all the candy inside. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to eat any of it so she acquired quite a taste for the wrappers. Anyways, we hope everyone had a great day because I know we did!

Our little monkey

This was Brighton's first banana experience. Kyle was eating breakfast and Brighton crawled right up and started chowing down. I think she was just super excited that she was eating big kid food instead of baby mush. So I guess we found her new favorite food!

Good Read

We started this book club in our ward and last night was our first monthly meeting. We read the book called Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate. It was a pretty good book and a little bit of a tear jerker in the end. I just wanted to recommend it to everyone. It has a good message about what matters most in life...family. So if you're interested pick it up!

Good News from a friend

We have these friends in our ward named Delmar and Jared Foley and about a month after we moved into the ward, they received a foster baby from the Alaska Native hospital that was 2 weeks old! They've been going about every way to start a family and they've been on the foster care list for a while, so it was a great blessing to have Taya. Well, Brighton and Taya are about a month and a half apart so they've enjoyed hanging out together. Well, right from the very beginning, Delmar and Jared have been trying to adopt little Taya, but since she was an Alaska Native baby, the state has to go back to the village and see if anyone in the tribe wants her. And if they don't get the mother's consent to adopt, then they have to wait a lot longer to even START the adoption, so as you can see there were a ton of hoops to jump through and they have been nervous and praying for it to all work out. I think the entire ward has been praying for this for a while! Well, no one in the tribe has wanted her, and last week the mother (who is in jail) signed the consent form which means the adoption can fully go forward! So by the end of this month, Taya will officially be a Foley! We couldn't be happier for them and just wanted to share the good news of Brighton's pal with everyone!