Mark took Brigham to his first stake priesthood meeting tonight. He brought him along so he would have an easy excuse to leave early. Well Mark enjoyed the speakers and Brigham was well behaved so they stayed the entire time. I meant to get a picture of them but I forgot to. I enjoyed my time home with no responsibilities. I watched the Real Housewives of Jersey marathon and gave Reagan a MUCH needed haircut. When Mark was driving home I got him to commit to paying $25 for her to get her haircut. After he agreed to it, I told him thank you for giving the rest of the money I needed to my new bathing suit fund. ha ha The bathing suit I want is $55 and I don't know if I will really be able to spend that much money on a bathing suit. I normally just get them at Target but Target has failed me the last 2 years.

AWFUL

That is what I have become when it comes to blogging. Last summer I did a picture a day (I think it actually only lasted a month rather than the whole summer). Well I am thinking of doing that again to get my blogging mojo back. Brigham has grown and changed so much and we have had so many fun experiences that will never make it to the blog since I have an awful memory and they are now long forgotten. I have been taking the occasional picture so as I add them in here, hopefully they will jog my memory and I will have some fun stories to tell. So once again, here is an update in pictures.

Brigham loves this chair! We had it on the couch so we could vacuum and then Mark took Brigham to take a shower. As soon as he got out, he ran straight to the couch and climbed up into his chair. It made us laugh because it seems like the entire time he was showering, all he could think about was getting into his chair that was on the couch rather than on the floor like it normally is. Mark likes this picture because Mark sits this same way all the time and Briggs does too!

The boy has become VERY independent. He doesn't want help doing anything unless he knows it is something he can't do on his own (putting his shoes on). Gone are the days of us feeding him. He has to do it himself. He is getting better though and for that I am grateful!

When we go out to eat the first thing he looks for is the sugar caddy. He then proceeds to eat packets of sugar. I hate this! He learned this from Mark. Mark pours Splenda into his mouth. I try to hide the sugar before it spotted. This kid gets enough sugar as it is!

This is his first time playing in the rain. Mark took him out in it and he was in heaven! I don't even know if he realized it was raining. ha ha.

Before Mark started his summer internship at TIAA-Cref on June 1st, he and Briggs would cuddle in bed together and watch a mix of sports center and Nick Jr. Now, whenever Briggs is on our bed, he rushes to this spot, pulls up the covers over his legs, and presses the power button on the remote.

This is another thing he has learned recently. He has figured out that he can pull this stool up to things so that he can reach things better. Lucky for us he doesn't have a ton of interest in the water dispenser on the refrigerator. Our next one definitely needs to have a lock on the ice and water!

Mark and I have ALWAYS hated our poor excuse for a pantry. I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside to give the full effect of it crappiness. The first time I saw this thing, I couldn't believe they even made doors this small! The door is only 12 INCHES wide! This is right after Mark cut around the door to expand the opening.

Here it is with our NEW roll out shelves/drawers and newly painted walls. Mark wanted to paint the drawers white to hide some of the imperfections in the wood but I didn't. I like the look of old, soft wood (this wood is neither). I probably should have just painted these drawers. I think it definitely would have been prettier with the green. I love green and white. Honestly I was tired of painting and was just ready for this project to be done! It took 3 times longer than we planned because the walls in this house are all so crooked. It makes everything so much harder and the end product can be a little disappointing because it doesn't always turn out how you imagined because of all the imperfections due to the imperfections the builders made when building this place.

Here is this beauty with the doors attached to drawers. All of Mark and Nate's hard work ended up doubling our storage space in the pantry! We LOVE this thing now. It is so much more organized and we can see everything that we have! My favorite part is that now my baking supplies are so much more easily accessible! I used to have to take out 3, 4, or 5 other things just to get to my flour or sugar! I am so grateful for the talents of Mark and Nate. They built each shelf and made all the necessary adjustments for each shelf/drawer to fit into our trapeziod shaped pantry.

Over the last couple months, Brigham has started saying more words and doing more things. By doing more things, I mean he understands most of what we ask him to do and he does it. One funny thing he does is put on deoderant. He doesn't put it in the normal place a person puts deoderant. He rubs it on his butt. ha ha. Mark was joking around with him and telling him all the places to put deoderent which ended up being basically his entire body. Well all Brigham remembers from that life lesson is to but it on the butt. Mark has shown him how to put it on just his underarms dozens of times since then but the kid must think his dad is crazy for putting deoderant on his underarms. He just laughs at him and refuses to put it there. Crazy kid.

His vocabulary has also expanded.

Words he uses:

go

no

yeah

yep

shoes

mo (this means both milk and more)

dude

whoa

stop

uh oh

buh (ball, balloon)

book

please, thank you (he only says these when we ask him to)

tickle, tickle, tickle

jump

do it

amen

*He will "say" anything we ask him to if we say "do it"

He has also recently started "singing" along with his fridge radio. By singing I just mean he makes noises to go along with the tune on the radio.

He will also make a pig sound and howl like a wolf. The howl is our absolute favorite!

Now, for the less fun updates on our life here.

On May 20th my grandma left this world. It was unexpected, tragic, and shocking. She was 76 years old and lived like she was 30! She didn't look anywhere near 76 and she definitely didn't act like someone in their 70's! I hope that I am that young when the number says otherwise. After her death, I kept thinking of the last time I saw her in August and I can remember everything about the time we were visiting her. The other memory of her that I think of often is when she came to Charlotte to see Arden when she was a few months old. We were standing in Krystin's kitchen and I can't remember what she said but we were laughing so hard we were crying. That was my grandma. She would always make you laugh. She was a strong courageous woman and we love her so much and are so proud of her!

My grandmother has been in and out of the hospital since January. She has had tons of tests, MRI's, ENT's, ect and until she saw a neurologist 2 or 3 weeks ago, no one knew what was causing her weakness she was experience. She has to rely on a walker and has no appetite at all. They neurologist discovered that her heart meds were not supposed to be used by anyone over 65 and they have caused her nerves to die. Yesterday she was moved into a nursing home while her body works on regenerating these nerves and she goes to physical therapy. It may take up to 6 months for her nerves to regenerate. She may be able to leave the nursing home in 2-4 weeks. We are hoping for a quick and full recovery. Briggs and I went to visit her this morning. When we go back next week I am bringing her flowers or something to brighten her room. It is so drab and boring in there. There is a bed, tiny dresser, closet, and small television. That is it. We need some happiness in that place!

On a happy note, on Mother's day we were at church and the primary kids and male leaders were asked to come up front to sing the rest hymn for the mother's. Well Mark was the only adult to go up with the children. The girls were on one side and the boys were on the other side of the podium. During the boys part in "Love Is Spoken Here," Mark sang a solo because none of the 4 boys were singing anything that was remotely audible. I could not stop laughing (like much of the congregation). I actually laughed the rest of the day and I am laughing now just thinking about it. Poor Mark came back to our pew and his arm was soaked. He did a great job especially for singing a solo on the fly. It was a wonderful mother's day gift and will be remembered forever! I do love that man. I don't know of anyone else that could do that be be good at it! He has so many talents in so many areas and Brigham and I are truly blessed.