Pictures!

Finally! Ok so I had way too many pictures so I had to make collages, so hope you can still see the small ones! So I haven't posted pictures since Halloween which is my favorite holiday, so I have to post pics of that. We had a neighborhood -costumes included- Halloween party and it was lots of fun! I had help from the girls in the neighborhood to bring soup and we had bread bowls and salad...with {of course} the root beer and dry-ice witches brew! We set up tables, couches and a projector screen in the basement with a spooky Scooby Doo movie and we partied all night! Mimi and Papa even came for a few minutes too! It was a lot of fun and I think we're going to have to make it a new tradition! Brock was an elephant for Halloween and Luke and I were safari hunters!

Next came Brock's 1st Birthday!! I can't believe he's getting so big! I'm sure I've already told you that his favorite movie is Finding Nemo, so we had a Nemo-themed party for him. He had to wear his orange and white striped shirt to look like Nemo of course!
Grandma Lisa made the coolest Nemo cake you've ever seen and Brock was not shy to dig right in to it! I was so glad he got messy cause I wasn't sure if he would cause I don't usually let him get food all over when I feed him.
He got a pet fish from Mimi and Papa (Gibbons)...it's a beta fish and we named him Gilligan Cornelius Flinders, but we just call him Gill for short. G&G Flinders got him a sit/push truck that has all the bells and whistles a little one could hope for! He absolutely LOVES all the toys he got for his birthday, so thanks everyone!!
Both sides of the fam were able to come except for Luke's sister Brianne who was sick in the hospital with Spinal Meningitis. She gave us all a big scare, but she's doing much better now thanks to many prayers and Priesthood blessings.

Happy Birthday Brocko!!!Last came Christmas! We had such a fun Christmas this year! We got to participate in 2 nativities and spend time with both of our families, which makes us so grateful that we live so close to both of them! We also got to take some time on Christmas Eve and remember our Christmas Eve 2 years ago when we lost our first baby. I think Christmas will always be a bittersweet holiday for that reason. I am so grateful we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior at the time when we remember the loss of our little one because the Savior made it possible for us to be together as a family forever. That will always be the only Christmas gift I ever need.

2009 was a great year and we are so excited for a wonderful 2010!!

I almost forgot about you...

but not completely! I can't believe I haven't posted since October!! I have WAY too many pictures to post since then so I will just have to do a collage of some of the highlights like Halloween, Brock's Bday and Christmas... Luke started his grad school this past week so I have a feeling I'm going to need a few extra hobbies to keep my mind off of how much time he's not spending with me. It will be a difficult two years to get through, but...

I am really proud of Luke for having the courage to do it.

I've already started crafting away and I'm also doing my very first wedding cake this weekend! I am super nervous but also really excited!! I hope it turns out beautiful even though Luke's mom will be out of town so I'll be on my own. yikes. I'll post pictures of the final product {hopefully}.

I can't believe it's already a new year, I feel like time is flying by and I'm so busy. I haven't even had time to make New Years resolutions yet! Oh, speaking of new years resolutions though, last weekend my mom and I went to do initiatories (sp?) at the Bountiful Temple on Saturday night, which is a nice thing to do on Saturday evenings because there is usually no one there so it's quiet and peaceful {and usually pretty quick}, but when we got there at 7:50pm there was an enormous wait like I've never seen before! When we asked the lady at the desk what was going on she replied, "I guess it must be New Year's Resolutions!" I guess the whole temple was so busy that they ended up having to do an 8:30 and a 9:00 session to fit all the people in. It was a little crazy, but quite a cool thing to see. We should have new years more often!!

Well I will post pictures soon, and maybe even a short clip of Brock walking. Yes, I said he's WALKING! He is at such a fun age right now; trying to imitate everything anyone says and cheezing up a storm. And yes, I still get stopped in the grocery store and at the mall for "having the cutest little girl." Poor Brock. I guess dressing him in orange, brown and camo from head to toe isn't quite doing the trick.
One last thing!! My sister Brook and her husband Dan just had baby #3 late on Saturday night and they named him [Jesse Perkins Black]. He is a 9 lb 3 oz butter ball with lots of brown hair and I can't wait to meet him!!! Congrats to Eliza and Porter on their new baby brother!
Love to all! xoxo

Gone Witching at Gardner Village

Brock and I went with Luke's sisters and their kids to Gardner Village last week to the Witch Festival. It was so much fun!! There were people dressed as witches everywhere! This was our first time going, but next year we are definitely dressing up. Brock had a great time with his cousins, thanks for inviting us!! (L-R) Jace and Izzy Wetsel, Brocko Man, Gabe and Lincoln Sanchez. Izzy was dressed as a witch, but she's not wearing her hat in this pic so you can't tell. She was scaaary! :)

Mr. Mano sittin on a bale of hay all by himself. I love fall, babies look so cute bundled in their jackets don't they?!

Mommy and Brocko. I didn't even have to dress up and everyone thought I was dressed as a witch. I guess if the broom fits, ride it!

We walked past this witch and I thought I was looking in a mirror! Brockton didn't like her too much if you can't tell. Oh well it was a fun night!

My Bigger Boy

Brocko in his jumperoo toy, he loves this thing! Of course he has his finger in his mouth because he's holding his "loving". The minute you hand him his little blankie his finger goes straight in his mouth. I love that about him.

Brocko snuggling with his other "loving" aka his mommy. These moments are few and far between with a busy little one always wanting to explore, so I never take these moments for granted. What a sweet boy.

It's these moments that make the hard work of motherhood completely worth it. There is not a better feeling in this world than to have your precious little one fall asleep in your arms snuggling. I'm so lucky to be his mommy!

Brockton wanted to try out his cousin Lincoln's toy car the other day so I was pushing him around the room and he was just loving it! Boys just have an instinct when it comes to cars and stuff, no one even showed him how and he was steering with the steering wheel and everything.

He kept trying to stand up while inside and the car would slide back and he would end up underneath the car. He couldn't figure out how that kept happening! He looked like such a big boy in the toy car, I can't believe I have an 11 month old baby!!

Cake Class Week 4

I finished my last cake class for Course 1 a few weeks ago!! I thought I should probably post these pics to redeem myself from the pics I posted of the cake from week 2 of my cake class. This was a really fun cake to make and I'm so excited that I can actually do something like this! The next class I'm going to take is learning to do tiered cakes and fondant. Wish me luck!!

I've been inspired, so...

I'm going to start blogging even when I don't have pictures to post. Brock changes daily and I feel like if I don't write some of the little things down then I'll forget to tell you later, so cut me some slack if my first try is boring, I'll work on it.

So first of all, he is growing up so fast right now. He'll be turning 1 in a little over a month and its starting to freak me out. I just keep thinking - ok when I got pregnant I signed up to have a baby, right? What is this baby thinking turning into a toddler?! I'm loving every minute of it, but it is just starting to hit me that he's not going to stop getting older...ever... {sniff sniff}

Seriously though, he's adorable. I'm thinking that the stork may have gotten the wrong address when he dropped Brock off at our doorstep, but we are KEEPING him anyway!! Some of his new favorite things are:

1. Naptime.... Not because he likes to sleep, but because he's figured out that if he stands up in his crib he can pull the soft toy things off of his mobile and play with them, or stand up in his crib and bounce to the music in his mind, or just talk and sing as high and as loud as he can until his mom comes in to tell him that it really is time for nigh night, that wasn't a joke.
2. Letters. He has his name spelled out on the wall in his room and I'll point to each letter and say it's name and then tell him that it spells Brock. He'll keep pointing to it until I repeat the process about 20 times. He'd better know how to spell his name by kindergarten is all I have to say!
3. Say Jesus. He can audibly say the word which is amazing to me because most of the other words I try to teach him usually come out as dada, mama, or baba.
4. Watch Nemo. Finding Nemo is his favorite movie and he will watch it from the "first day of school" scene (I skip the beginning cause it makes me cry) until the very end of the credits... and if I try to talk to him while he's watching, he'll lean over and peek around my head so he still has a clear view of his movie. He even gets into some parts, like the part when all the fishes are saying "swim down", Brock will get really excited and yell right along with them. We decided it would be appropriate that his first birthday party was a Nemo theme. Or "Noono" as he calls it.
5. Flexing his muscles. I don't know if he saw his dad flexing in front of the mirror (hehe) or where he learned this one, but if anyone flexes their arms and grunts, he'll do it right back. It's a classic.

Well there's much more, but I have a feeling that if I keep going I'll never stop...

But I just have one more thing to say...I'm so glad that Brock has such a wonderful dad. He is so helpful with Brock, and has such a way with him. Sometimes I feel a little jealous that I'll never have the special bond with Brock that only a father and son can share, but I'm so glad that he has such a wonderful role model to look up to in his dad. I can always depend on Luke to pick up right where I left off when I have to go somewhere without them and Luke knows exactly what Brock's schedule is and what to do...it's really incredible. I'm so lucky to have two amazing boys in my life. I don't think I could love them more, but I know by tomorrow I already will.

First Day of School

Ok so no one in our family really started school this year, but I started taking cake classes a few weeks ago, so Luke took pictures of me like it was my first day of school. I'm really excited about the stuff I've learned so far, and I can't wait to get into the really exciting stuff (and really hard) like the fondant and lace work. The picture below is my very first cake. It's really ugly, but I was just trying to impliment all of the techniques we learned in week 2 on one cake so it's really um...pretty. As you can see, I have a LONG way to go, but you gotta start somewhere right? Mrs. Flinders is well on her way! :)