Brock's Birthday Party

Brock's birthday was AWESOME! He woke up pretty sick that morning, so I was kinda worried. Luckily, he slept all morning! I woke him up around 2 and pumped him full of Motrin. Then Tyler and Poppa took him out for lunch to get some nuggets, french fries and Coke! I know it's gross, but those are three of his very favorite things!
While they were gone, I decorated the house, blew up balloons and got everything ready. Also, His Grandma and Grandpa McLachlan, Lisa, Megan and Cory all arrived while he was still gone. It worked out really well, and turned into more of a surprise party which was really fun! Collin was able to make it to the party also, but had to come a little late because of work. The picture below shows him walking in from the garage before he saw any of the decorations!

He was SO SURPRISED! He held his hand over his mouth for probably ten seconds while he took it all in. I think it was a combination of all the decorations, balloons and having everyone he loves all in the same spot! This picture says it all...



His party was a Mickey Mouse theme. I gave him a choice of two different types of party plates, and he picked Mickey!

He wore his Mickey ears the WHOLE time, and threw an absolute fit every time they fell off!

We opened presents first. He loved all his presents...especially these shoes and all the cars and movies! He wasn't as excited about the clothes as I was.

He was not a very efficient present opener, so Bradlee finally had to take charge.

I have no doubts that Brock will grow up to be a gentleman, so this T-shirt is really for his safety! Besides...he's a mama's boy!

Here's the birthday boy eating his cake and ice cream. This is actually the first time I have ever let him eat with a fork on his own. He did amazingly well! It appears that he even got some of that yummy goodness in his mouth!

If you ask me it was a very successful party! Thanks again to everyone who came to celebrate this special day with us. Brock had a blast!

My Baby is Two!

Then... Now...

Brock turned 2 this weekend. I wish he could just replicate himself at every stage of development, so I could keep him how he is, but still see how he'll turn out. Does that make any sense? His favorite things to eat are fruit, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and pretzels. I still can't get him to eat vegetables. He also loves nursery, cars and Diet Coke (don't even try to give him Sprite). He always says please and thank you. He even tells me thank you when I brush his teeth, change his diaper and put him in his crib! He has quite the temper! He is very easily agitated and let's you know it by making fists and screaming as loud as he can! I love how he snuggles into my shoulder and sucks his thumb almost every time I pick him up. He is always super excited to see Tyler when he comes home. As soon as he hears him come in the door, he stops whatever he is doing to run and give him a hug! He said a prayer for the first time this last week. I can't wait to see what kind of a person he'll turn out to be. I am sure there is something special in store for him!

Aquarium

Last Tuesday we took our Spring trip to the Aquarium. Sorry...these pictures are in no particular order. Every time we go to the Aquarium the kids like it more and more. This time they wanted to take a second trip through to see everything. The main reason we went was to see the penguins. They are a fairly new attraction. Bradlee liked them just fine, but not as much as I thought she would. However, later in the car when we were talking about what we liked best, Bradlee did say her favorite part was the penguins.

I would say that Bradlee's favorite part was petting the sting rays. That is where she spent the majority of her time.

They always like to find Nemo...

Brock's favorite part was definitely the "Sharks!" He yells "Shark!" every time we talk about it. He kept running back to the shark tank and never got tired of standing there. The sharks were my favorite part too!

Campfire Videos!

Have you ever been disappointed by a Tyler video?

Cory is here to entertain as well..

.....wait for it.....

Sad, I know!

Campfire Fun!

Tonight we went up to Heber Canyon to have a campfire and hot dogs with the McLachlans. The kids had an awesome time running around outside. The adults managed to find things to occupy their time as well! There are lots of pictures, but I just couldn't narrow it down any more!

Brock HATES having the sun shine in his eyes!

Bryan "Mountain Man" McLachlan

Ty da Supa Fly

In the following photos you will see me being attacked by my tricky husband...Everything started out just fine.

Here I am...happy and content with a fair amount of personal space...

He lures me in with a fake hug...

Things are starting to get a little crazy...

and BAM! I almost lost my face!

Wendy and Brockers!

This is Bradlee's new pose for all photos.

Lisa is a genius and put the kids in the back of the truck to keep them from wandering off....and BONUS...the kids loved it!

Sharing some quality man time in the back of the truck. Apparently man time is pretty serious...

Throwing rocks in the stream. We can't keep these kids away from water...or rocks.

Now begins our UGLY photo shoot competition.

First you see Tyler's lame attempt at an ugly picture. Funny? Yes. Ugly? No. OK...maybe it is a little unflattering!

Lisa...pure sexy!

Wendy...she totally ate that piece of licorice after I took this picture. Just sayin'...

Megan and Cory...I do love this picture, but next time I would like to see a better effort. Not everyone has what it takes to be ugly enough to be a true contender in this competition.

AND THE UGLY PHOTO WINNER IS...

Seriously, I don't know why anyone even competes with me....I cannot be beat.

Finally we moved on to the balancing portion of the evening. This rock was a lot harder to stand on than you might think.

We also took a few awesome videos that I will post very soon!

Tattoos

For a fun wholesome (and super classy) Friday night activity....we gave each other tattoos with a ball point pen.

Look at those sexy and ridiculously hairy legs...

Yep, we let Bradlee in on the action as well because we are awesome parents who are going to have a very hard time explaining why we can draw on her but she can't draw on Brock...

Bradlee gave Tyler some sort of a landscape tattoo. All we know for sure is there are some mountains.

Mother and daughter with matching palm tree tattoos! It was Bradlee's idea.

And to top it off Tyler gave me this super awesome and accurate tattoo of our family. I had no idea I was so busty...what a pleasant surprise!

Aren't you glad you took time out of your day to check our blog today?!

Boogie Update...

Well, I spent some time last night reading over all of my previous blog posts, and I am now recommitted to being a better blogger. So many cool stories and videos that I had totally forgotten about that I am glad to have recorded. From here on out I will be better...I PROMISE!

Bradlee has the most amazing memory ever! She remembers song lyrics that she only heard once, yards where she saw a cat five months ago, what she ate at the movies the last time she went...it is incredible! She still isn't speaking up to her age. I always know what she means, but she skips over/slurs a lot of her sentences. I need to look into getting her in speech therapy again now that we are here in SLC, but for some unknown reason I keep putting it off. Currently she is terrified of being burned. She thinks all water and food is too hot and will burn her.

She has also taken a liking to these glasses recently. My siblings might remember these as Grandpa Ken Bricco's glasses. I find Bradlee wearing them all the time. In this picture I had gone in one night after I thought she was asleep to check on her. As soon as I got close to her she threw the covers back and looked at me with these huge eyes and even bigger glasses! She cracks me up, and the best part is she knows she is funny!

Brock will be turning two in a couple weeks so stay tuned for a B. Chunks update very soon!

My First Half Marathon

I had been planning to run the Salt Lake City half marathon since I started running again in February. Molly and Rowdy were going to be in town the weekend of the race, so they decided to run the race with me. My farthest run before the race had been 11 miles. I felt pretty optimistic about the whole thing until I got super bad shin splints. My only real goal was to finish the race and never walk, so I guess I succeeded, but next year it would be nice to be a little faster. Molly and Rowdy both did awesome and were super fast with hardly any training!

Getting ready at 5:15 AM on the morning of the race.

All three of us before running our fist half marathon...

View of the finish line at The Gateway. It was really fun to finish at the Gateway. The Briccos and the McLachlans were all there to cheer me on. It was so nice of everyone to come out to support me. Next year I promise to make it worth their while and run a little faster.

After...

Gotta give a shout out to everyone who helped me reach my goal by watching my kids for me for hours while I got my runs in...Thanks Mom, Dad, Wendy, Bryan and especially my hot husband! Couldn't have done it without any of you guys!!!

This may have been my first half marathon, but it will definitely not be my last. I can only get better from here. I will never be fast, but I would at least like to be average. Next up...I will hopefully get in the lottery to run the St. George FULL MARATHON! Wish me luck...

Dad's surgery...

We found out just about a month or so ago that Dad would need to have open heart surgery to replace a faulty heart valve. Apparently, it was a birth defect that no one had noticed until now. He had just recently started to black out during runs, but other than that he had no real noticeable symptoms.

Last Saturday, April 17th, all the boys in our family came together to give my dad and mom blessings before he went in for surgery. My dad bore his testimony to all his kids and grandkids. Between that and the blessings...we were all pretty emotional. I just thought how special it was that Rowdy, Jamie and Craig would all travel from out of state to be there for my dad. Tyler would have traveled too if he had needed to. What a blessing the priesthood is! So happy that my husband and brothers are all worthy to exercise their priesthood when asked to do so!

Surgery went well, and my dad is now home to finish recovering. He still has a long road ahead of him, but the doctors say in a few months he should be better and stronger than ever!

Princess Bradlee

Here is Bradlee in her Princess Tiana dress. As soon as she put it on, she started referring to herself in the third person..."Princess Bradlee will help you make dinner", etc... She also told us that it isn't her temple dress....but it is her primary dress! Don't worry, there is no way I am letting her wear that to church!