Stormy Weather

One thing I really miss about Texas is having thunder storms. Especially at night. The sound and smell of the rain, the sky lighting up so bright it looks like day time, even the loud booms. I love thunder storms. The plains of Texas sure got good ones too.

Here in this little valley the mountains steal all the storms! I always see them up at the top of the mountain, pouring away, but they must run out of juice before they pass those rocky peaks.

Well last night a few sneaky clouds did make their way down to us, and it was awesome!

It only lasted about 30 minutes, at about 12:30. Good thing I cant sleep at night or else I would have missed it!

Tatum has been sleeping in her crib the last few days so I have the baby monitor on. Her window was cracked just a little bit, and when the storm first started up all I could hear was this crazy noise through the monitor. It scared me for a second. Tate had never made a noise like that before. But then the rain came down harder and I could hear it through my window too. We got a few big booms and I thought for sure she would wake up, but she slept soundly through the whole thing.

What a good baby :)

Update for Grandmas

Tatum loves it when I sit her up in this chair and take her picture :) First pic is Tate modeling her witch tutu... I have since trimmed it down so the foof dosnt hit her in the face.

Next is Tate modeling her cute fall shoes that Mimi won. They sort of stay on her feet if she is wearing socks. I think by the time we visit MD they will really fit.

On Sunday she fit into her first church dress! It was really cute! She had a green bow in her hair for most of the day, but these photos were taken late that night.

Enjoying a soak in her whale baby tub. She loves this better then Dad baths.

Tomorrow is my six week postpardum appointment, its been 6 weeks! I cant believe it, but I can. Everyone always says its so sad their growing up to fast, blah blah blah. I like her better the older shes gets.

Holy Cow!

I was watching the news and saw this story of a 19.2 lb baby born to a women in Indonesia the other day... it is huge! I cannot believe that a baby can get that big in 9 months! Luckily he was born via c-section. This is the only pic I could find on google images of him, the other baby looks like a little burrito next to the 19 pounder!
While googling him I found these other whoppers....
This 17 lb girl was born to a women in Russia

And this boy was 15.7 lbs, born in Poland.

I thank my lucky stars that Tatum was only 6lbs!
The biggest baby every on record was 22.4 lbs

I won!

Today was a looooong day. Tatum has been so fussy, I dont know why some days are fine and others are let's scream all day long days. She is a mystery to me.
Anyways I entered into a drawing yesterday for this sweet headband:

And when I went to check the results my name had been drawn! It made my whole day better seeing my name up on the screen!
The creator is a girl named Ariel whos blog I have been following for a while. She has the sweetest little girl named Serena whos just a few months older then Tate. She started making these headbands to keep her busy being a new stay at home mom, and she just opened an Etsy shop up...

Check it out here
Serena Bee Frills and Fancies

One Month Birthday

The official pic :-)

Tatum had a pretty fun one month birthday yesterday. We started the day off with a nice soak in the tub. After many a screaming session we finally figured out what was missing in Tatum's baths... Dad! That's right. Stick her in the tub alone, chaos. Stick her in the her Papa and she's happy as a clam. Then we got Emily and Talia and went shopping for their Halloween outfits for the little witch day at Gardner's Village. We bought tulle to make their witchy tutus, and then went on a search for baby tights and black onesies. I dont think anyone makes a plain black onesie. Please let us know if you know where to find one.

For the evenings event we went up to Heber to the Wasatch High homecoming game! It was really loud, and rained on us, but Tate stayed sound alseep. She was nice and bundled in many blankets, sitting in her carseat. I think Tate must be lucky because this was the first game I've been to where the Wasps actually won! At least we think they won. We left at half time with a 42-7 score.

At one month Tatum is working on holding her head up and making cute baby noises.

She wants to make a shout-out to all her awesome Grandma's and let you know she thinks you rock!

The outtakes:

Almost Fall

Im so excited, the air has started to cool down and the leaves are changing in the canyon. It has been perfect at night. Hopefully soon we'll be able to go out on walks during the day and not come home dripping with sweat.

I put Tate in her crib for the first time today... she looked so small and sweet in that big old crib! She usually takes a looooong nap in the afternoons, but she only slept for 30 minutes in the crib. Hopefully this means she'll be super tired tonight and take her long shift then.
Cute cousins :-)

Four Weeks Old

Can you believe its been 4 weeks since this little girl joined our family? We really want to get her on a better schedule so we can get real sleep at night, but I like when she takes long naps during the day too much! I can actually get a nap, or clean the apartment, or read a book.

Poor baby has had a bad rash on her bum for a little over a week now :-( Desitin was not helping, so I called the Dr. and he said to get two special creams and use them, stop using wipes and just use wet paper towels, and soak her bum in a bath with baking soda 1-2 times a day. Too bad she HATES the water.

Greg has been SO busy with school and work and his calling in the branch, we feel like we never see each other now. Unless you count me looking at him while Im awake nursing 4 times a night. We picked up an OAT prep book the other day, something else to take up his time :-P

Im having a brain fart trying to come up with mutual activities for my Young Women. Anyone have any suggestions? Its hard because we only have two girls so we cant do anything that requires a big group, which most fun activities do.

P.s. Nicole Richie had her baby, finally. She named him Sparrow James Midnight Madden
Her daughter is Harlow Winter Kate Madden.
Greg and decided our names weren't as cool as the Maddens so we came up with some new names for our family:

Greg Blue Spruce Brandt
Daisy Thyme Dani Brandt
And Tatum Ruffles Adventure Brandt

Blue Bow

I thought I'd post this pic of me and my Tatum girl, since it was one of the only days I've actually gotten dressed and ready for the day :-P And I loved this blue bow in her hair.

A few weekends ago we went to the new Wasatch High School grand opening/open house extravaganza, it was really nice. LuAnn is going to be teaching a few classes there so she was there to give us the grand tour. Half way through said tour she received her very own classroom! In the PE building! (She teaches Spanish). They built this brand new school with all the bells and whistles, but don't have enough classrooms for all the teachers and classes. What is school for anyways?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well my b-day was on Aug 31st, but I haven't gotten around to posting my awesome day! Actually it was pretty uneventful. Other then the fact that I turned 22...

Tatum and I had a leisurely morning at home waiting for Greg to get done with school and work. Becca and Lauren cameover with birthday soup and salad from Zupas, yuuuuumm! Then when G got home he took me to the Quicksilver store so I could get a birthday hoodie! Yay! I love it! He also took me to A&W for dinner and a root beer float, and then we rented 17 Again- so funny!

My mom and sister got to come visit us and meet Tate and they brought me this cute apron (since I am such an amazing chef) and new curtains that make my apartment look 10x better!We also hit the mall and got the cute jeans pictured above. I have been waiting so long to be able to fit into jeans again :-)We went to the new Texas Roadhouse in Lehi for my birthday dinner while they were here. Of course there are no pictures of the birthday girl there, but we had to get one of Tate and her Mimi and Great-Aunt Val!Then over Labor Day weekend my Dad and Bea came out for their visit! We had a fun "hike" up to Bridal Veil Falls, and then even ventured further up the path! There really wasn't much else to see, but it was good to get some exercise. And we wore the doggies out so they wouldn't be restless in their hotel room :-)

Dad took me to Barnes and Noble for some birthday books! I love bookstore shopping. I got a few new reads, including The Time Travelers Wife- which I am really excited to read but sort of wanted to see the movie first. I usually like the movie better if I see it before I know the real story from the book, but I dont think it will be out on video soon enough. And I will not be going to the theater anytime soon with a baby. I hate it when people do that.

I didn't get any pictures of their trip on my camera, but I know my Dad took about a million of his little grand baby! She's so cute he couldn't resist :-)

And here's a picture from today. She looks so comfortable, don't you think?

We're back

Back to posting on our normal blog... I guess this is our normal life now! We have had lots of visitors, and lots of grandparents come into town to help us get situated with this new little girl, but today we're on our own.

Tate is getting so big already! She definitely feels heavier and looks longer, though she still doesn't fit into any newborn sized clothes.

We usually spend a few hours every day doing the above picture. It must be the most comfortable position for her because on mom and dad she will always fall asleep like this.

I still cant believe shes really here, and that she is my daughter. You'd think getting up 5 times a night and changing 15+ diapers a day would make you feel like a parent, but it just seems like a dream I guess.