Bramhall Family

Mike and Alison with their children, which we don't get to see very oftern, have come to Utah and we have already had so much fun. Friday night we went camping up American Fork Canyon. It was chilly but we had a lot of fun. The kids were so cute and loved going for hikes with Grandpa.

Sunday we blessed the newest member of the family, Lydia Rachel, and it was such a wonderfual blessing.

Monday we went to Discovery Gateway and followed it up with swimming at the Ivory Ridge swimming pool.

GO Dave & Happy Birthday!

Dave did his second triathlon this year and Taylor and I got to go watch. My mom and dad watched the twins for us, thanks!

Dave was fast! He shaved off 4 minutes from his time last year. He was 5th in his age group and 16th overall. Just a side note-Dave hardly trains! He amazes me.

Taylor and I had so much fun together, just the two of us. He even got to have his face painted.

After the race we had a great lunch at Tucanos for Dave's 30th birthday-the Francom's joined us. Then Aimee provided some delicious cake from Magelby's.

Sunday, Dave's actual birthday, Cindy came up to our home and watched all three children while we went to the Oquirrh Temple Dedication. That was such a relaxing and peaceful time. Then we partied with some families around the neighborhood with cake and ice cream. Happy 3oth Honey. I love you!

A Couple Smiles to Brighten Your Day!

Don't you just love baby smiles. I finally caught some on camera.

Drew has been laughing for a little while now, today I got the biggest laugh out of Lana while singing Itsy Bitsy Spider to her. Love it!

Idaho

We visited the wonderful town of Burley a couple weekends ago and I wanted to post some pictures. Dave's grandparents live there and we wanted to introduce them to the twins so we took a quick trip. We drove up Friday evening and on our way we stopped at an awesome restaurant, Maddox, which is in Brigham. We had a great dinner and we even met L. Tom Perry (1 of the 12 apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and his wife. Then we continued on to Burley. As we entered the town we noticed an obundance of people and realized it was the Cassia County Fair. Exciting!!

Saturday morning we went to grandpa's old feed lot and checked out all the baby cows and the big cows. Taylor loved it. Then that afternoon we hit up the fair. We looked at all the booths, tested out tractors, looked at the prize winning animals, and even had some deep fried Oreos and Twinkies. It was a good time.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Allred for the fun weekend. I did not get any pictures of the feed lot and fair because I kept forgetting the camera but I did get some good pictures of the kids and great grandparents.

Potty Training

Taylor has been in the potty training process for awhile now. We have not been very pushy and to be honest I did not want to spend the time helping him go. Finally last week I decided to step it up and have him wear underwear all day. Lets just say we went through a lot of underwear and shorts the first few days but things are getting better.

Today I helped him get on the big toilet and then I ran to give Drew some attention. When I came back Taylor was standing on the toilet seat pushing with all his might. So, picture it - Taylor is standing on the toilet seat with his hand on the back of the toilet squating and pushing. It was so hilarious. I could not help myself and grabbed the camera (I did not put the picture on it is inappropriate and Taylor would be so upset later in life if I did post the picture). The little guy was standing and pushing for about 10 minutes. Bless his heart! I could not believe it. But, I was so proud of him, he is finally catching on. His potty ways are a little unconventional, but to be honest, whatever works. If he will poop standing on the toilet seat, have at it Taylor. I will just have to fix his pooping habits later.

Draper Family Reunion

Over the 24th of July Dave and I were in charge of the Draper Family Reunion. We choose to go camping up at Albion Bason which is above Alta Ski Resort. Dave did almost all the work and planning, I have an amazing husband. We had so much fun. We did a hike, went rock climbing, played many games, got very dirty, went Mt. Biking, and had some fabulous meals. Thanks to everyone, especially Duff and Amy for letting me take over their camping trailer.



So, Draper Family, I have finally got to downloading the Draper Family Reunion pictures. They are on Picasa for all to see and download if you are interested.

Dave's Garden

I call it Dave's Garden because I really don't do anything with it. He does all the work and I greatly appreciate. We got our first big crop a couple weeks ago. We decided to get some pictures.

This is my niece Sierra, she was staying at our home to help with the twins, and she helped pick the veggies.

Big Peppers

This is Dave's precious pumpkin. The pumpkin even has a tent to shade it. Dave is trying his hand at growing giant pumpkins, I think he is crazy, but it has been a fun adventure.

Progression of the Twins

May 28


May 29

June 5

June 25

June 27

July 2

July 23

August 2

Now I have to admit I have not been very good at taking pictures. While I was doing this I started feeling bad that I haven't taken enough pictures and I have already missed so much. I have committed to myself to improve.

They are changing so quick and it is so much fun. Drew has been smiling for awhile but Lana decided to join the party this last week. She is really starting to smile and "coo" at us. They love to watch Taylor.

Catch up!

Sorry I been out of the blogging world but am ready to begin again. I have done a few tonight and have a few more to go. I will get to those next week.

As far as our family goes. Life is a little crazier. We really love and enjoy the twins and have had so much fun with them. They are getting so big so fast. I was going to post some progression pictures but my camera is dead and I could not get some pictures downloaded. I will do that later. Lana is now 8 lbs 9 oz and Drew is 10 lbs 2 oz. They both still roll over and I think Drew is getting teeth. Yes I know it is really early but that is my only conclusion to a very sleepless night. He was up almost every hour or even half hour last night just crying and the crying continued today. He had no fever but was just upset. I finally decided to check his mouth and sure enough he has some teeth poking through. Poor guy!

Dave and I are trying to hold in there. Life is much more busy. I barely get showered each day and my house is really hard to keep clean. Luckily Dave's mom left some frozen dinners last time she was here cause I use those often. Plus I have a wonderful mother who has been coming to help at least once a week and wonderful neighbors who come clean and cook dinners for us. Sometimes the days are just so crazy. The twins have not been able to get on a nap schedule. I talked to the pediatrican last week and he thinks they are mildly colicy. They wake up every 10-15 minutes crying. I leave them in their crib and put back in the binkie and 10-15 minutes later they are up again. The sad part is they usually are not up at the same time so I going in and out of the room A LOT.

Taylor is dealing with everything pretty good. He is so cute and so much fun. He has taken his anger out on the dogs, which is kind of hilarious. I do feel bad for Dre and Boggie but I am glad he is taking it out on them and not the twins.

Well, I thought I would just share a few thoughts about life right now. There is so much more but I will leave that for another day.

Blessings

We blessed the twins on July 12th. Dave gave them beautiful blessings. I feel blessed to have such an amazing husband who was able to give them those blessings. (That is a lot of blesses!)

Thanks to all those that came and supported us. We have amazing families.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

I have to keep myself busy to keep myself sane so here are a few of the things that we have done the last couple months.

Dinosaur Museum with the Staheli's, Kace and Isaac.

The Hogle Zoo with family and the Smiths.

Boating with the Smiths. We left the twins with some amazing babysittters, so we could have a night out with Taylor. Crazy enough he cried and was so upset that we left the twins.

Campfire with the Derricks.

Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point with the Smiths.

The 4th!

We had such a great time on the 4th of July, I wanted to make sure and post about it. Our amazing friends, The Smiths, invited us to breakfast at Brighton. I did not know what to expect but I was wanting to get out of the house and thought that sounded fun. Dave went biking at 6am up Big Cottonwood Canyon so he met us up there at 9am.

It was so much fun. We had breakfast, watched a parade (it was small but cute and there was lots of candy, Taylor thought that was cool), and walked around the lake at Brighton.

Then we all needed naps so we crashed and got in some good rest. Then that evening we got to party with the Derricks (and the Brown family) which is always fun. Thanks to them. We had a BBQ and watched the Thanksgiving Point fireworks.

All of the children were very good the whole time, which made me happy. Taylor loved the fireworks and got to play with this first sparkler. Unfortunately he hit another sparkler, as a child ran by, and burned his finger. It was pretty sad.