From the Best to the Worst

Not too long ago I could call myself pretty much the best blogger around. I felt like for a person who had a busy life with a baby and a job I was doing pretty darn good at keeping track of my life. Now the best blogger award goes to my cousin's wife, Vandy, and my friend, Joanie. The point is I'm now the WORST blogger ever. And it's horrible because this is supposed to be my journal/family scrapbook. Gahh!! It makes me crazy to think about how much I've missed.

My life has been ultra busy. I started photography school in June and I've been so busy with other things that I'm still not done with the first lesson. Wow, I said it out loud. Feels good to get that one off my chest! I hate being so behind with that. It's an amazing opportunity that I'm taking totally for granted. This summer has been super super busy and now it's almost over. I'm lucky we were able to take a week long trip to New York in May, otherwise I'd be going crazy right now. With teaching piano, family parties, neighborhood parties, babysitting, Cupcake Diaries, along with many other things...it seems so hard to get other things done. A majority of what I need to get done involves my computer. I'm just now getting a jump on Brycen's first year album (on Shutterfly) and I feel like I need to start his second year just so I won't have to feel this overwhelmed this time next year. I don't take enough pictures of my little man AT ALL. I was queen of this category at one point or another, but now I'm just lame as ever at it.

Speaking of which, I captured this little moment at my parents' house on Sunday night. They had all their kids over for family home evening, root beer floats, and some ring toss. Brycen enjoyed the backyard and all the adventures out there:

Sure do love this boy! Here are a few little tidbits I should probably make note of:

• He is officially a walker! He took his first steps almost a month ago, and on probably Monday, July 25, he took off. He is now ALL over the place. I love watching him toddle around.
• His favorite movie is "Monsters, Inc." His least favorite movie is "Up." We tried watching it yesterday and he cried. I think the angry old man scared him a little.
  
• He loves eating chicken nuggets, dry fruit loops, Veggie Straws, and string cheese. He also loves yogurt.
• We're trying to get him off the bottle. Yesterday he did really well all day. Then I went with a friend in the evening and came home to find Brycen in bed with a bottle, given to him by his dad. We're back to square one.
• I have to put him in his crib during piano lessons. Usually he goes down for a nap and it works out perfectly. But sometimes he is too fresh from a nap and wide awake so I have no choice but to keep him out. That doesn't last very long as he's trying to pound on the keys and open all the books. He usually goes right back to his crib where he plays for the rest of the lesson.
• He gets compliments everywhere we go about how cute he is. I feel lucky to be the mother of one of the cutest kids around.
• Only two more months till nursery!
• He weighs 25 lb. and he's in the 65th percentile for his weight. What's funny is that he gets fat kid remarks from people, and these people have kids and grand kids who are super tiny and in about the 6th percentile for weight. Not that percentiles even matter. But pretty sure 65% is closer to being "average weight" than 6%! (Can you tell it drives me crazy?)
• Brycen is a great sleeper. Every now and then he has a bad night and has a tummy ache or nightmares or something, but most of the time he goes to bed at 8:30 an wakes up at 8:30 or 9:00. We've been SO lucky to have such an easy-going kid all around. I love my boy.
  

As for Tyson and I:

• We are in love with our Jack LaLanne juicer. We just bought one a few weeks ago and we've been juicing everything in sight since. We love getting a Bountiful Basket then juicing the crap out of it. We don't eat nearly as much veggies as we should so we are convinced that this juicer is a great investment.
• We want to go back to New York. Badly!
• I currently have 8 piano students and plan to have at least 3 more start up in the fall when school starts. I love the extra income and being able to refresh my mind on what I learned so many years ago.
  
• I've started taking more pictures and have now had people start asking me to take pictures for them. This is very exciting for me but also incredibly nerve racking/scary/intimidating. I just appreciate the practice they're giving me though! I just took my sister-in-law Britney's maternity pictures and they were so fun to do. We got some really good ones from that photo shoot. I'm excited to meet my new nephew in a month!!!!!
  
• We just had a garage sale and it was LAME. There were at least a gazillion other garage sales going on around us so we had a hard time getting people to come to ours. Thankfully our neighbor was having one right next door. (They're moving, PS, and we're sad about it.) We did, however, make some extra money so we're happy about that! Everything that didn't sell went to the DI. And it was fun to hang out with some of our family on a Saturday morning/afternoon.
  
• Tyson and I are still serving as executive secretary and 2nd counselor in the primary presidency in our ward. We love our callings and our ward. I'm thankful for the friendships I've made in our ward. There are a lot of people I can call good friends and it is the coolest thing.
• I just did cupcakes for a wedding for the first time and they turned out really well. Their colors were dark purple, neon green, and white so they were really fun to do.
  
• We saw the last Harry Potter movie and it was wonderful. I want to go back and see it again!

I need to put blogging back on my priority list. It makes me sad to see the month of July with on 2 posts. Boo. I'm ready to get back into gear and get it together! You'll definitely be seeing more of me on here! (Those four people who still read this blog ha ha. Thanks for staying faithful!)