eleven months and cuter than ever

cant believe its almost been one whole year since our little maddix brigham was born. maddix is growing so fast and keeps us super entertained. he has SO much energy and is such a happy little guy {most of the time}. he loves laughing, smiling, crawling {if thats what youd call it}, eating bananas & crackers, nursing, walking around furniture, being curious, baby einstein, getting into cupboards, “talking”, lots of attention, fighting his naps, going to bed easy at night, walking the halls at church, stealing kids toys, being adorable, & his mamma and dadda :)

motivated by money

brigham is in a competition at work with a few other managers. they are trying to see who can lose the most body fat %. i am excited for this..not because brig needs to lose the weight, but because now i get to cook healthy simple meals without any complaints {and if he wins, he gets lots of moneys} :) i told brig that our grocery bill WILL be a lot cheaper the next couple of months. i will buy a large bag of chicken breasts, lots of veggies, fruits, and healthy snacks like almonds.
dinner #1 {we ate tonight}:

• grilled lemon marinated chicken on top of a salad
• roasted sweet potatoes and zucchini

forgot to take a pic of our dinner, but this is what it looked like :) image found here and here

lemon marinade

• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and marinade chicken in it for 4-8 hours {i did 4}
i also made the marinade for the salad dressing. mmmmm. we also put grape tomatoes and feta cheese on the salad. so good!
roasted veggies
“Put two tablespoons of your favorite seasonings (thyme and corriander are great for this recipe) into 1/8 cup olive oil and let it sit while you're preparing the veggies for the oven. When you've finished chopping, whisk in 1/8 cup of vinegar (balsamic or wine vinegar give a great flavor boost) and pour it over the vegetables in the roasting pan.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Whatever roots you've got, dice about two pounds of them into one-inch cubes (you can leave carrots round). Be sure to remove the skins, as these will turn tougher and bitter when you roast them. Spread the cubes in a roasting pan and pour the oil and vinegar mixture over them.
Bake your sweet potatoes and whatever other veggies you've included for 45 minutes. Take the pan out and give it a brisk shake every 15 minutes or so to roll the cubes and redistribute the coating.”
recipe found here
this dinner was very delicious, filling {even for brig!}, and pretty simple!
i could eat like this every night :)

love story {caution: mushy stuff}

    

{pic 1: dating} {pic 2: night he proposed} {pic 3: engagements} {pic 4: married}

i’d like to consider myself a pretty lucky lady. at 18, fresh out of high school, i fell in love with a young 21 year old, fresh off the mish. when he came to pick me up on our blind date i thought he was THE most handsome guy i had ever met. i was pretty excited to be able to go on a date with such a good looking guy! he was so down to earth, honest, sweet, easy to talk to, fun, spontaneous, and charming.
first we went to mesa frozen yogurt. i ate his leftovers. on a blind date. embarrassing? kinda, but i felt so comfortable and was totally able to act my normal self. after fro yo we went to freestone park with another couple and went long boarding. he showed off his amazing skills in a humble way, while i pretended like i knew what i was doing. we were both having a blast! we raced down the hills, ran through the sprinklers, star gazed on our long boards, and walked around the park and talked. we hit it off so quick. i wanted to hang out with him over and over and over again.
i didnt want the night to end. i absolutely loved being with him. he made me feel so good about myself. he made me smile SO big! when i walked in the house after the date, i went to say goodnight to my parents. i could not stop smiling! they knew right away that something was up. i told them that i had an amazing time and that he was an incredible guy. then i went to bed. i could NOT sleep! i kept replaying the night over and over in my head. i was afraid that he would go home and realize that i wasnt good enough or cute enough or whatever.
but nope, i cannot explain how excited i was when i got that text from him that next day and found out that he couldnt sleep that night either! crazy. we ended up going and playing tennis that night, desert the next night with some friends, tennis again the next night with family stuff, and the pattern continues. we did not want to miss a day of seeing each other and we didnt.  im pretty sure my friends  thought i fell off the face of the earth. i was head over heels!
after dating for four months, he proposed. we were hiking at usery pass and when we got to a turn, there it was. a blanket with a pizza that had a heart made out of olives, candles and an ice chest. {his sister and brother in law helped out a lot! and recorded the whole thing :)} he began to tell me how much he loved me, and all that good stuff. then he got down on his knee and popped the question. im pretty sure i didnt say yes or no or look at the ring. i was so happy and emotional i just hugged him so tight! but the ring did fit and i loved it. and later i did say yes :)
2 years ago today, we were married for time and all eternity in the mesa arizona temple. this was such an incredible feeling and such a spiritual experience to know that i was being sealed to my best friend for FOREVER.
we have had an amazing two years. including having an adorable baby boy :) we are loving married life.  we learn from the rough times and come out stronger than ever. i am so lucky to have a husband that i can communicate so well with and have so much fun with. can’t imagine life any other way. 
happy anniversary brigham! i love you so much!
 

Merry Christmas

one of my absolute favorite days of the year.

last night we had a wonderful christmas eve party at the ferrins. lots of delicious food! grandma leavitts homemade tamales, chimichangas, nachos, and grandma leavitts delicious carmels. we had a very entertaining talent show that included all of the kids singing or playing the piano. they are too cute. i wish i got some pictures! then of course, we had the gift exchange which is always a plus :)

this morning we woke up at 6:30..am. earlier than maddix! mostly for brigham. he could not wait to have me open up my gifts that he got me {and he was secretly..or not secretly..excited for his ipod touch that santa got him}

lets just say that i got spoiled again this year.. i must have been a good girl :)

brig got an ipod touch, church socks & athletic socks {since ALL of his have holes in them}, of course some new bball shorts, itunes gift card from brother in law, and money.

i got a flip video camera, an amazing nice cream jacket, gorgeous miss me jeans {picked out by brigham himself..impressive!}, money from family, forever 21 gift card from brother in law, an automatic ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt maker from my g-ma, and a bread maker from my madre & padre! :)

maddix got shoes and jeans, baseball and elmo toy from tate, money from grandparents, and pushing toy from grandma. he was not even interested in the wrapping paper! he was actually scared of it…

we went to breakfast at the weights and then visited family at the porters.

wonderful day!

   

i am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. i know that he lives and loves us so much. i hope that we can all make Him the center of our lives and work on following his amazing example a little more this coming year.

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S ! ! !

love, us

p.s. here is our Christmas card, if you didnt get one in the mail or see it on facebook..here it is :)

story time

so today was not the best day.

maddix slept a total of like 15 min during nap times today...not okay

walmart was extremely crowded and i only needed TWO things {one of them was needed to make dinner}.

took about ten minutes to exit the parking lot.
on my way home, went to pick up brig from getting his haircut at sports clips {free coupon}
this didnt help my day get any better, he told me the girl gave him a head massage, back massage {not with her hands thank heavens, otherwise i wouldve chopped them off}
and she kept asking him, are you happily married? do you like it? are you sure?
good thing i have a husband that loves to talk about his wifey and baby boy
he just kept talking about us to her the whole time :)
sorry lady, he's mine.

so, i got home, only had an hour to make dinner before brig had to go to school,

but the dinner i wanted to make took an hour and a half to make...

so, i told brig that he would need to be late to school because i was craving this dinner.

{i know, i'm such a supportive wife}

so when i got home from the store, i kindly asked brig to please take the groceries inside....

but the groceries were not there.

i forgot them in the shopping. cart. at. walmart. {second time}

brig asked with all seriousness, "does this happen often? like do other people do this a lot too?"

i didnt answer.

he laughed about it, i didnt

i pretty much thought i was going to die.

there was no way i was going to go ALL the way back {two miles :)} and get those dumb groceries!

{mostly because of the dang crowded parking lot}

{plus i wouldnt have time to make the dinner anyways...}

for some reason, this put me in the stinkiest mood ever.

just ask brig, if i have a certain meal/food set in my head that i get to eat and then i dont get to eat it,

no bueno.

might as well stay away from me. until i find something better to eat or to complain about.

guess what i did to solve my problem?

run.

after my run i was in a great mood and whipped up some pancakes and homemade syrup for din din :)

moral of the story: running solves more problems than you think.

try it out

waking up

there is nothing better than waking up to these two handsome beyond handsome guys in the morning.

 

 

this little guy is a rascal, let me tell ya.

chord in one hand, walking from his walker toy to the chair at the same time & to add to the kaos…he’s got crazy bed hair!

but that’s why i love my little man in the sleeper.

he always wakes up so happy and ready to play in the morning {probably because he’s in mommy & daddy’s bed}!

this is another reason why i love him…he is very spontaneous & creative just like his pops!

{if you’re wondering what on earth he is doing…he is climbing over the bar on the bottom of the kitchen chair. you’re wondering why he didnt just go around the chair? because he likes to make everything interesting!}

back to what i was saying before, i have the best big man & little man around. i love them SO much. they make me so happy everyday & definitely keep me on my toes! glad to have them for forever :)

{adorable pics of brigham & maddix by sarah webb}

ten months

happy ten months maddix!

• standing up on his own
• loves to feed himself
• still nursing
• sleeping through the night {never though i’d say this}
• not a great napper
• very very active
• loves waving his arms & kicking his legs
• loves to “talk”
• can say “mama” “dada" “bahbah” “nana”
• loves bananas
• has two bottom teeth & all four top teeth just barely came in!
• baby einstein now scares him, after watching the same one for 10 months.
• loves bath time
• does not like to sit still…ever
• getting into all  cupboards, chords, everything.
• loves to be outside. calms him down every single time
• cuter than ever

{the above pictures show this little mans attitude. happy/excited one second, nervous/worried/scared, then completely terrified & no one knows why}

***is it normal to get baby hungry when they are this age?

{NO we are not pregnant}