Another 26.2

This last weekend Mike ran his second marathon! This one was in St. George and he improved his time by about 10 minutes! Wooohooo go Mike! His chip time was 3 h 42 m. I'm proud of my little stud. (I definitely would never want to run one!) We were able to stay with Mike's parents and family since they just recently moved to St. George and that was a blast. We spent time recovering by watching general conference. It was a great weekend!

Mike on the final stretch

Scott and his wife, Christie, with us after the race. Scott and Mike trained together for the race.

Mike distracted... Brinley eating the carrier... :)

Mike: Ugh, what a miserable race... I wonder when I will do it again?

Good thing Brinley and I were there to support him! :)

Brinley and I reading together. She just loves books!

Asleep in Alanna's swing

Alanna and Brinley

Smiley bug

We are mentally preparing for the race by watching cartoons the day before the race. Brinley and I were ready! Brinley was wearing her running shoes and outfit too! :)

Leslie's Visit and Trip to Logan

Leslie, my twin, came to visit last weekend from Connecticut! She hadn't met her precious little niece yet, and had a wonderful time with her! Well, Brinley actually had a little spell of fussiness while she was here, but Leslie was excited nonetheless! :) We went shopping and took a trip up to Logan to visit our brother John, his wife Liz, and their kids Sam and Jenny. Brinley wasn't a huge fan of shopping or driving. Leslie also introduced me to the exciting hobby of scrapebooking! I'm not a fanatic, but it is fun to do on occassions.

While in Logan we played Blockus, watched "New in Town," and John made some amazing milkshakes! It was great to relive a Brumbaugh tradition of milkshakes and popcorn for Sunday dinner. :) Thanks for coming Leslie!

Sam carefully holding Brinley

Leslie and Brinley

Liz and John

Cute little Jenny

It was difficult to get Jenny to smile on camera... this was close :)

I loved this outfit on her! Kilee and Soren got us this cute skirt.. and she would be wearing the shirt but it was dirty.

Leslie and Brinley taking a nap

Little Women

Well, I am near to finishing up the novel, and I am primarily sharing this post because I think most of you have watched the movie or read the book... but if you have done neither and plan to in the future, STOP reading my post now.

It has been very detailed and at times too detailed, and I have mainly kept on reading with high hopes for Jo and Laurie to get together. (Honestly, I didn't expect the vocabulary to be so.. um.. advanced. Well, I am sure I sound unintelligent, but really I had never read some of the words in that book before! haha) Anyways, sad to say that last night when I read that Laurie and Amy ended up getting married I cried! MISERABLE! Of course I know everything will end up just fine with Jo and whoever, but it is awful that Louisa Alcott (the author) persuaded me to believe so heartily that they would end up together. (It just might have been mine own doing too :) ) I am going to finish it today with a still bitter taste in my mouth of the whole situation, but I am sure it will probably sweeten up with a happy ending of some sort.

Flying Nemo... Well kind of

Brinley has reached 2 months! She is growing up so fast! It is crazy to think about how small she used to be. Here are her 2 month measurements:

Weight: 11 lbs 8 oz - 69 %tile
Length: 23.5 in - 87 %tile
Head Cir: 38 cm - 29 %tile

I think it is kinda funny that she her head circumference is lower in percentile. I definitely think she looks normal and totally cute! She is sleeping great at night. We no longer need to bounce or walk her around to get her to sleep. Now, we just need to swaddle her, give her the bink, and cuddle her next to us. She didn't used to sleep with us before we went to MT, but now it is more frequent than I would like. As soon as our upcoming family visits come and go, we are going to try to get her to sleep in her own crib again.

Mike has started school and is a busy beaver! I do get to see him at nights... but I can't wait until grad school is over with in April! We both are on a volleyball team. It is most likely our last year playing intramural sports, so we are taking advantage of it. My team pretty much rocks. I am hoping to win a t-shirt this year! :) I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to play on a competitive all-girl team again. Anyways, here are some recent pictures.

Daddy loves his little bug wrapped up in Aunt Leslie's cute quilt! :)

She is starting to eat her fists.

I love this look!

Her adorable smile we just can't get enough of!

Brinley is sporting the cute Nike shoes Papa and Gramma D got her.

Brinley is a fan of her bouncer now. Before we started taping, she was giggling as she kicked the "Nemo" fish. I wasn't able to get her giggling on tape, but she kicked the fish! You can hear Mike cutting vegetables and talking a bit in the background. Sorry for the length, I editted it a bit, but it is still a little long.

Happiest Baby on the Block

Some of you may have heard of this book or the dvd... and I pretty much just want to put my testimonial out there for it. I wasn't totally sold on all the five techniques mentioned in his research, particularly the "white noise" or "shhhing" sound. I always felt kinda ridiculous making loud "shhhing" noises in Brinley's ear; however, that all changed yesterday!

Mike and I were driving back from Odgen from my brother's birthday dinner when Brinley started to fuss. She finally got sick of me coaxing her binkie back in her mouth and was virtually inconsolable. Then, I decided to try the loud "shhing" in her ear... and to my surprise she momentarily stopped crying (I was getting out of breath shhing for so long!) Mike heard me "shhhing" in her ear, and remembered the doctor saying that radio stations with the loud buzzing noise was also effective. So, he quickly found a station with a good buzz and turn it up so it was fairly loud. The next forty minutes was music to my ears... Brinley stopped crying!! She was still awake, and just looking around, completely calm. Granted we had to listen to radio fuzz the rest of the way home, but much better than her crying!! I started laughing to myself because I couldn't believe it really worked! IF you are near or at the frustration point with your baby's fussiness, then I highly recommend trying the strategies out!

Brinley's Baby Blessing

As I had mentioned earlier, last Sunday we were able to bless Brinley at our hometown ward in Libby, MT. We really appreciated Mike's parents, my parents and Richard for being there for her blessing. Of course we would have loved to have all of our family and friends there, but we realized that that wasn't possible. It was crazy to be back in the ward where both Mike and I grew in Christ's Gospel... only now to be blessing our first child. So many great examples and friendships have been welcomed into our lives from there and other places as well.

I can't help but think of a couple monumental days in our lives years ago that have directed us to where we are now. They were also in August. First was Mike's baptism in August 2002. (Isn't he just a hunk!!)

Then four years later, on August 19, 2006, we were married. :)

And then, three years after we tied the knot, the blessing of our little one!

I think she looks like a floating angel in this picture.

I almost captured her cute smile!

The fam there... Richard had left before the pictures were taken.

Our family in front of the same church building 6 years down the road. :)

Montana, I love you!

We went up to visit some family this last weekend in Montana. We thought the ride up was going to be just miserable with a 1-month old in a car seat for 12 hours. However, the 12 hour drive wasn't too bad. Brinley slept for about 10 of the hours, and luckily still slept at night! We were very grateful for that. The first day we were there, we surprised Mike's mom at her work... well sorta, she knew we were coming to Libby, but didn't know we were going to be showing up at work to visit her. She was super excited to she her first granddaughter. Mike's dad showed up while we were there and convinced Mike to go golfing. Mike was a little rusty at first, but soon polished his skills throughout the game. :)

We hung out with the Duthrie family later on that evening and were able to meet Krista's (Mike's sister) 3 week old girl, Alanna, for the first time. She is so precious! Grandpa and Grandma D were so excited to have both granddaughters and kids at the house. :) It was wonderful spending time with them.

The next morning we went on a hike to Granite Falls with my parents. We didn't actually make it to the falls because the trail was washed out, but it was still fun. I was so excited to get back into Montana mountains! AAaah I love MT!

Friday night my mom made homemade pizza, pretty much the most amazing pizza ever! And Richard, my youngest brother, made some hot wings. Mike was so excited about the wings, and I think between the two of them, they ate around 4 lbs of hot wings. Then we watched 17 Again.. which I have now seen 3 times.

Sunday was a very special day. Mike was able to bless Brinley at church and both of our parents were there. Richard came for it as well. We always enjoy seeing old friends who have had a good impact in our lives. I will post more pictures and thoughts about Brinley's blessing later.

Brinley was also able to meet her Uncle Thomas and Uncle Richard for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of them together... (I'm just getting used to all of this picture taking.) Now she only has Aunt Leslie left to meet. Anyways, we made it back to Provo safely with Brinley only crying for about an hour! I think we are done for long car trips for awhile. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Brinley's first hike! Doesn't she look excited?!! The first half was spent sleeping... at least she saw some of the scenery on the way back :)

A quick breather!

Some of the gorgeous scenery along the trail

On Thursday, August 20, Brinley really started to smile. My mom was holding her and she was just letting loose some adorable smiles and cooing away! It was so cute and I was so happy to get some of them with the camra.

Grandma B with our smiling angel.

The Duthrie family - Top to bottom - Me, Mike, Matt, Krista, Grandma D, Brinley, Alanna and Grandpa D.

Krista and I put Alanna and Brinley next to each other to see who is bigger. I think they are close to the same size, but when holding Brinley, she feels heavier than Alanna. Brinley is the one with the eyes open.

Grandma Duthrie enjoying Brinley.

Mike and his father with Brinley.

Grandpa Duthrie holding Brinley and Alanna.