Helping Bampa

Brandt loves animals and especially likes grandpa's puppies. While my mom and I were filling Easter eggs (ya, this one's a little behind, oh well) he decided that they needed some food.
So, the smart little monkey went into the garage, found a bucket and a can, put a little dog food in each, and took them to the dogs. Then he was picking up food one piece at a time and feeding it to Bandit.

He made at least a dozen trips back and forth, but it was ok, cause it gave us time to fill our eggs and it meant that "bampa" didn't have to feed them when he got home. What a good boy! :)

Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 cousins in a tub...

After the branding was taken care of, my sisters decided it was time to hit the hot tub. Of course the grandkids can't be left out and had to rinse off first, so when one got to get in the tub, they all had to. I wasn't in there, but my sister said Brandt was headed in diaper and all, so she hurried and at least stripped him down the rest of the way. They had so much fun and didn't want to get out until we told them that they got to go get in bampa's big tub.

Kelli, Brandt, Rylie, and Jana. Brandt wanted to be by or on Kelli most of the time, but Rylie got a little jealous about him hogging his mommy.

As usual, Curtis had Amanda Jean most of the time. She seemed to love it!

Notice how full the hot tub was by the time that many people piled into it; they had a lot of fun, though.

Brandt looks like he's trying to climb out here, but he actually wasn't ready to get out at all and threw a holy fit when I tried to get him.

The Circus That was Branding...

One of our favorite family activities is the yearly branding of the calves. This year it was more like a circus!! It started snowing just as they were getting everything set up, but my dad decided to go for it anyway. Everything went pretty smoothly at first other than the crew was getting completely drenched! Then towards the end, one little calf caused all kinds of chaos when it slipped out before being branded. Oh how I wish I would have had my camera to catch all the action! The ground was snow-covered and slippery and wasn't all too condusive to running or making sharp corners and several people biffed it good! It started with a very impressive slide/splits move by Jared as he tried to cut off the calf going one direction and was soon followed with Kelli going down as well. Before they caught the little booger, Van did a belly-flop and my dad tried dismounting the 4-wheeler through the front handle bars, but didn't clear them and landed on them instead. Kelli also steer-wrestled a calf because it came too far through the chute and needed to be pushed back in. Finally Bryce and Jared realized what was going on and tried to help her. By the time they finished, everyone was sopping wet and muddy from head to toe. Well, except for my mom, Jana, Amanda Jean, Brandt, and me since we stayed in the van and watched the madness from there. Has to be the most hilarious branding day we've had to date.

Finally, a color other than gray!

I have had to reschedule appointments for my hair to get done about a thousand times in the past couple months, but finally was able to get in this week. I decided to get some lighter colors back in it since it's been a couple years since I've had highlights and I got a little braver with the cut this time.

Can't guarantee that I'll actually fix it this good everyday and not sure how it's going to look when I wash it and leave it curly, but guess we'll see. For now it's definitely a fun change.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

I am actually posting this one at the request of Bryce. Brandt has his sense of humor and teasing, and I never know what the two of them are going to come up with next. All I can say is, if one picture's worth a thousand words, wonder how many words the following are worth...

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend was so great. Brandt got totally spoiled with all the easter egg hunts. We had already practiced at home during the week, so he had it down by the time the real thing came.

We went to the Montpelier city easter egg hunt for the first time this year, and Brandt loved it. It was indoors, which was nice since it was so cold outside, and although I felt clausterphobic with so many people, Brandt loved that part, too. He was giving the other little kids hugs even though he didn't know any of them. He got some candy, but also got some books and coupons to Subway, which I thought was way better than candy. And the best part is it only cost $1!!

Sunday morning Brandt was excited to see his basket filled with his very first baseball mitt, a Thomas the Train bouncy ball, and glow-in-the-dark stars for his bedroom. Apparantly when Bryce was growing up his Easter Bunny hid their eggs every year, so that's what our Easter bunny did this year.

It sure didn't take him very long to find the eggs hidden around the living room, and it took him even less time to start opening them and eating the candy inside.

Then it was off to church. Testimony meeting was so good and uplifting, something that I was in desperate need of, and Brandt actually made it through most of it. He probably would have made it except he could see "bampa Van" clear up toward the front of the chapel and threw a huge fit when I wouldn't let him down to go up there. He did great in Nursery. Tara does such a good job with them every week. Whenever I peeked in he seemed to be having a good time. One time when I looked in he was hugging Lily and tipped over on her so Tara was rescueing her.

After church we were off to my mom and dad's for Easter dinner and another Easter egg hunt with Rylie and Amanda Jean. Curtis pretty much hogged Amanda Jean the whole time! :)
We were all actually able to be there for the first time in a long time, and I think my parents especially liked standing back and watching their grandkids have so much fun.

Brandt grabbed one basket for himself and one for Rylie, but Rylie was using a bag so he could fit more in it, so Brandt just kept both baskets. It worked out ok until they started to get full. We tried emptying them into a bag for him, but he thought we were stealing them from him and wouldn't let us take them. So... he spent a good share of the time picking up the same eggs he had already picked up and was just dropping out of his basket as he went. He wasn't the only one who was afraid of losing his eggs; Amanda Jean didn't even want her mom to take them out of her hands to put them in her basket.

Since Rylie is the oldest, he was able to find some of the trickier ones pretty much on his own.

JACKPOT!! Bryce and Curtis hid the eggs for us, and by the time they got to these they were sick of it, so they very creatively dumped them on the ground in one pile and turned a plastic tote upside down on them. The kids thought it was the best!

Next on the list for our marathon day was Grandma Hemmert's for yet another Easter egg hunt. Brandt took Doug over to see the dog and even though it's dark (I'm not a great photographer) I thought this was so cute.

Most of the family was there other than the Hanke's, and it was fun to see all the Sleight cousins with their kids who are about Brandt's age. He had fun playing with them.

This picture is here purely for Kevin's sake since he was teasing me about not taking any pictures of him. Well, here ya go Kevin. You are officially on my blog now!! :)

Riley and Uncle Dan were playing football, and Brandt wanted to be a part of the action.

Brandt and Alexander, just hanging out. I promise I didn't make them pose like this, just sorta happened.

This is one of my most treasured pictures of the day; four generations- Grandma Jennie, Shellie, Bryce, and Brandt. What a fun way to remember the reason for Easter spending it with family. As I look around me, especially at my own little one, how deep my feelings of gratitude are for my Savior's atonement for me. I know that He lives and loves me. I hope that I can show that type of love to other's, once again, especially to my little Brandt buddy so he'll have a desire to build his own testimony.

It's a Miracle!!!

Last Friday some really great friends gave us tickets to the Dodge finals rodeo in Pocatello. They were on the 3rd row so we had a perfect view! We weren't sure how Brandt would do because as I've mentioned about a million times he doesn't hold still-ever!! Not even when he's sleeping. Anyway, he loved the rodeo! Sat on our laps the entire 2 1/2 hours and never asked to get down once. AMAZING!!!!!! The only part he didn't like so much was when the clown set off a loud firecracker. He bawled for a minute, but then he was good to go again. He clapped and cheered for the cowboys, cowgirls, and the calves. He especially loved the rough stock events, muttin' bustin', and steer wrestling. Every time a roper would miss a calf he would clap and holler "run baby run!" It was so cute. I didn't get any good pictures of the rodeo itself, but I got these ones of Brandt and Bryce watching the horses afterwards.

As we were leaving, Brandt saw the horse trailers and begged to see the horses again. We told him the rodeo was over and it was time to go home. So, he said "hees done, hees night-night?". Over the weekend every time we saw a horse trailer he would repeat it again; "hees done, hees night-night." Saturday we noticed that instead of just riding his rocking bull and then bucking off as usual, he was also steer wrestling it. So dang cute!! Funny how they remember and connect things like that.

That's more like it!!

No playing with barbies this weekend at grandma Thompson's (well, at least not caught on camera anyway!). Instead I captured much more masculine shots of Brandt playing with tractors with Adrie and Riley. (you're welcome, Bryce!)

Notice the Curious George shirt-oh so fitting of our little mischevious monkey! And he loves George- begs to watch "George toons" and eat "George snacks."

Riley and Brandt spent a good time of their time at grandma's playing together and wrestling.

I think these ones are so cute cause it was more like Brandt was hugging him instead of wrestling him and I love how they are grinning at each other.

Down for the count! 1..2..3....

Jolie doesn't usually want to hug Brandt much or play with him much for that matter, but guess the wrestling looked like fun and eventially she was joining in on the action. They climbed all over Kaylen and she's so patient she didn't seem to mind.

Brandt's Favorites

I'm having one of those days when I don't feel all too positive about anything, so thought I'd try to think of fun things to help improve my mood. Here's what I came up with; a list of some of Brandt's current favorites.

FAVORITE ACTIVITIES:

1-Pretty much anything outside especially if there are animals involved. The following are obviously not current pictures-just wishful thinking for sunshine and green grass on my part.

2- Playing with cousins.
3- Whatever mommy is doing- he's my little shadow and helps with everything.
4. Watching the babies (calves) out the window from his favorite place at my mom's house.
5- Wrestling with his daddy, or anyone else who happens to be sitting on the floor.

6- Reading books. I'm really hoping that this habit sticks since reading has always been a love of mine.

7- Basically anything that involves running, jumping, moving...

FAVORITE COLORS:

1- Blue- he always asks for a "blue one" of whatever we're handing out.
2- Green- if he can't have a blue one he usually asks for a green one next.

FAVORITE SAYINGS:

1- "Brandt do it!" ya, pretty much hear this one about a thousand times a day; yesterday he was trying to push the grocery cart on his own-while he was in it!

2- "Brandt toot, Brandt stinky!" (thank you Bryce! This is also one of his favorite games because he then goes through the list of everyone he knows repeating the same phrase and giggling. "Daddy toot, daddy stinky", "bampa toot, bampa stinky" and so on; he's such a tease!!)
3- "Puppy, be quiet!" Sometimes Brandt will turn his head and make a barking noise first and then holler it toward the dog like it was really him making the noise.

4- "Go Jazz!"

5- "Love you too" He mostly does this one with his daddy-they say it back and forth trying to see who can say it in the silliest most sing-song voice.

FAVORITE PLACES TO SLEEP:

1- Lately it's been on his floor about 2 ft from his perfectly good bed; he gathers up his pillow, blanket, and stuffed animals and makes himself a bed on the floor every night.

2- Near or on his daddy. He always begs to go "night night with daddy" but we're trying to cut down on his time in our bed since none of us sleep that way. He doesn't slow down long enough to cuddle very often, so when he does we definitely enjoy it.
Ok, so got a little carried away with the sleeping with daddy pictures, but they are my favorites! Feeling a little better already, so maybe I'll save some of Brandt's other "favorites" for another day.