Brittney's Top Ten

Brittney's Top Ten Ways You Know You Are Definitely Pregnant:

#10: You suddenly start remembering all the things you forgot about being pregnant.

#9: 40 weeks takes on new meaning.

#8: By 7:oo at night you find yourself unable to keep your eyes open.

#7: Cold cereal becomes the family staple.

#6: You can't brush your teeth without gagging.

#5: Getting through the night with only 2 bathroom trips is a good night.

#4: You can sit and chat for hours with other pregnant women who just 5 minutes before were perfect strangers.

#3: You can't even make it through the grocery store without having something make you tear up.

#2: The fact that you have to start unbuttoning your pants has everything to do with your growing belly and absolutely nothing to do with all the Christmas goodies you've been eating.

#1: You find yourself mesmerized looking at the flashing little heartbeat and teeny little arms and legs actually moving around on the ultrasound at your first Dr.'s appointment.


*Stay tuned for Brittney's Top Ten Ways You Know You Just Had a Baby, coming July 2010.

Holiday Fun

Highlights of some fun Christmas stuff the past little while:

The Young Men and Women of our ward were participants in a live nativity down at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George last week, so we bundled up and headed down. The place was full of lights, and the girls loved it. We took down a neighbor boy of ours who also had a great time. The live nativity was beautiful and had a real donkey, a camel, sheep, and chickens! The youth did a great job. Along with the nativity we got to see Santa (Allie avoided him at all costs), pose as Christmas elves, and ride on the "train" that took us on a mini tour outside of the Tuacahn. On the way home, our 11-year-old neighbor boy who has been taking the missionary discussions said, "I really felt the Spirit, did you?" We had to agree.







Last week we also had our Ward Christmas Party. I just love a good Christmas party! For the program, they had a few musical numbers. I sang "Away in a Manger" for one of them, and the last act of the night was the Primary kids singing some songs. They had a little manger scene set up, and all the Sunbeams wore little sheep hats. Kenna just loved to wear her hat and looked so darn cute! I love to watch her sing with the Primary, my heart just beams. Before we know it, Allie will be joining her! After the program, the kids got to go in and see Santa. Once again, Allie made it very clear she wanted to remain firmly fixed to the back of mom's leg and avoid any eye contact with Santa. We didn't force the issue. Lastly, is a picture of Allie. The picture really does not do justice to the huge fat upper lip she got from falling on the ice earlier in the evening. Mostly all you see is the remains of the chocolate cake from dessert. I had been warning the girls all day to slow down on the snow and ice, and it really just wouldn't be normal to end up without any casualties. The worst part was she had her little hands in her coat pockets and wasn't able to catch herself when she went down face-first! Poor little thing. Her mouth and nose were bleeding, and she had to calm down for a while before she'd let us have a look to assess the damage. Fortunately all teeth remained in place, but she cut her lips and the little piece of skin that goes between your gums and lip. I suppose you live and learn, huh?








I love the words to "Away in a Manger," especially the third verse. It brings Christmas full circle.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me I pray
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care
And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.

Hey Baby Let's Go To Vegas!

Okay, need to start off with our Thanksgiving recap. It was tons of fun, food, and family. On Saturday, the boys on the Otte side went to the BYU/Utah game while the girls got a babysitter and went to see New Moon. We had a ton of fun. The girls and I picked up Jacob after the game was over and headed back home. Before we headed down to the game, we stopped of to say goodbye to the Israelsen fam. The girls really wanted to take a quick ride on Uncle Ross's horse, Holly. Well, to make a long story short, Holly got a branch up her tush and Kenna had a bit of a rodeo experience and ended up getting bucked off! (I was in the house and didn't see any of it, but it's probably best that way). She hurt her arm, and after 4 days of it still being swollen, we took it in to get x-rayed. That was a fun 3 hour fiasco going back and forth from Dr.'s office to hospital for x-ray, and then back to the Dr.'s office. Amid all the arm fiasco, we also discovered Kenna tested positive for strep. She had no fever and had only complained of a sore throat once or twice a few days before. After all was said and done, fortunately, there was no break and the case of strep was very mild. Unfortunately, the Dr.'s office has some major strikes against it in taking two days to get me the results of the x-ray. I think the emotional trauma hopefully won't last too long for the rodeo queen. We tried to help alleviate the fear of horses by putting all the blame on daddy. So now when anyone asks Kenna says, "Well, it was my dad's fault."

This past weekend, Jacob and I traveled down south to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. We help out a really great couple from California who have some land and animals down here by us and they treated us to some serious spoilage! Oh my goodness we had such a good time. It's been almost a year since Jacob and I have had a night or two alone together, and we loved every minute of it. It was so fun to be with each other. We got lost in all the crazy Vegas traffic, stayed up way too late, laughed tons, ate too much, and lost 90% of our hearing with two nights of awesome seats at the rodeo and a Brooks and Dunn concert. So. Much. Fun. Gotta say, however, two nights of Vegas is plenty. It's a whole other world, that's for sure. I'm not sure if there was more beer or people at the rodeo. We were the anomaly with our bottles of water. Ha! But all that drinkin' sure makes for some good people-watchin'! Aunt Marlene came down to watch the girls. We were SO DARN grateful for her! It was so nice to just go away and not have to worry about things at home. THANKS AGAIN a million times Aunt Marlene for giving up your weekend for us, it meant so much. I hope she can recover soon. :)

Husband looks mighty fine in a cowboy hat. And Wranglers. And boots. Love it.


Jacob LOVES it when I do these reach-your-arm-out-and-hope-you-get-in-the-shot pictures.


Hold on there little buckaroo. These people are seriously nuts.


A lil' Tanya Tucker doing the National Anthem. Drugs really didn't do her voice any favors. Oops, did I really post that?


Get ready for a good concert!


Now really, does it get better than this?


Boot Scootin' Boogie! Such a great concert.


Okay, okay, I know I am pure dork. Jacob laughed when he saw me sneaking a picture of this. This here beer bottle was pretty much in my lap. The guy next to me had two. He informed me that he didn't want to run dry. I gave him a good hearty laugh at that one just to make him feel extra special. He thought he was pretty suave. I really had a hard time not reaching over to take a swig all night. Actually, all the salt-and-pepper chest hair pushing it's way out of his 4 undone buttons kept me at bay.

Thanks Jacob for such a fun weekend full of great memories!