Kirsten and Mark

Whew, it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post and I’m only getting to it now because I know that if I don’t I might not for another week.

Brit’s first Easter that he was aware of was pretty fun. We had a bbq with friends the night before and he gathered some eggs. He loved shaking them because that’s what we do with the eggs at Music Makers.

To get into the Easter spirit Kristie and I made sugar cookies. Someone (her) was more creative and perfection seeking than I. But, here are my creations.

She is a real full-service salon. She came to me, made cookies while processing color and cutting. Too bad she’s moving across the country!

We woke up Easter morning to this: Apparently the Easter Bunny likes Brit.

First he had to inspect his goods…

Then he realized he was excited about it. He really loved the bubbles and the eggs.

This is his Easter outfit. It looked really cute on him. Thanks Shanni for the pants…his shorts were a little long.

Brit and I enjoying a snuggle.

We had a great day. Church was lovely and we had Jared and Kristie over for dinner. I even got flowers–pretty purple tulips. There was ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, rolls, carrots and strawberry short cake for dessert. After a year and a half we have a new table configuration too–it’s perpendicular to the wall now just looks better.

Also on Easter Brit learned how to stand up by himself from the floor. He makes a slight Downward Dog, then lifts up. He’s getting really good at it now and walks really well. He still falls when he gets too excited or goes too fast, but has great core strength and balances well, even to pick things up.

He started giving kisses. They’re open-mouthed and slobbery, but it’s super cute. Today at church he pointed to the circle in his shape book when I asked him where the circle was. He loves his shape book, so maybe it’s rubbing off!

Something we’re not loving is that he likes to turn around and try to stand up in his high chair. So not cool. So, we’ve resorted to putting a pillow behind his back so he doesn’t have room to turn.

In other news, Sprout Shell was on BabySteals.com last week (it’s a deal-a-day site) and they sold out pretty quickly, so we’re really excited about it. It also encouraged a lot of people to buy other designs from our site, so things are picking up. We won’t hear about the contest till the first of May…so we’ll keep you posted.

And, if that wasn’t busy enough, we’re looking into buying a condo in The Valley (seriously, I googled “The Valley” and that was the first entry). We’ve found a few options in our price range so far, so we could be moving soon. Mark’s commute time would triple, but his distance would quadrouple and he’d feel like he was actually getting somewhere instead of waiting at poorly-timed lights. So, we’ll see.

We have a natural on our hands. Brit loves to make people laugh. He does little things over and over again if we laughed the first time he did it. Then he comes up with new things he thinks will be funny. Whenever he has a new audience he tries his tricks out on them too. He has the most expressive eyebrows and eyes I’ve ever seen on a baby. Another trick–his head bob. He bows his head and does a little bob. He’ll do it over and over as long as he’s getting a laugh. Lip smacking–another new one. And, he says ‘mmmmmm’ whenever he eats something he likes.

Last night he had tears rolling down our cheeks because he had such a silly expression. Then he kept doing it as we laughed. After a while he started laughing too.

This morning’s hilarity. Man, that headband must’ve tasted good.

So, this past weekend we drove up to Utah for my sister Shaela’s bridal shower, Mark’s Mission Reunion, and unfortunately didn’t make it to our other Big Event–Hudson’s birthday party! Sorry buddy, we hope to see you soon! On the way up we ran into a big snow storm. Yes, this is April. Not fun. Luckily it was only about 30 miles that we had to go through the major part of it.

We had a nice time at the reunion, but he wished there were people there that he actually served with and knew better. His mission president and wife were so nice though.

The shower was fun. We had a beach theme and our house was packed!

Another hair cut. His grows super fast. First one from Aunt Shaela. He was really good the whole time.

The girls. Me, Mom, Chezney, Shaela.

Brit with Grandma and Aunt Teri. He loves them both a lot.

And, Brit got to see his cousin Spencer for the first time since they were like a month old. Brit wasn’t too interested in playing, but there were no major incidents to report.

We also saw how much house you can get for so little money in out of the way places. Shaela and Ethan just got a house that’s huge for under $170! It is really far from much cvilization other than all the other new houses by it, but still. It still, it makes me a little jealous. Congrats guys!

Brit is getting better at walking and can almost go across the room now. He lets go of things and tries venturing off on his own. He can even turn a little bit.  It’s still fun now, but I’m sure pretty soon I will be wishing he still needed to be carried everywhere.

All of a sudden, there he was, letting go on his own. Standing firmer and more steady. Then, bam, exactly a week after his first birthday…there was this:

He did it several times before we got the camera out, so technically they weren’t his first, but it was still the same 10 minutes. Maybe he felt more confident wearing his awesome drum set shirt from RockerRoos. Maybe he felt a sudden surge of strength in his legs, I don’t know, but whatever it was worked!

During the past week he’s gotten more confident and will let go and walk for short periods of time to get to something else. He has really good  balance too most of the time, like he can bend his legs and stand back up without falling.

This, also a couple of weeks late…sorry!

I am also way behind on sharing some pictures…
Like, St. Patrick’s Day–nobody was going to be pinching him, that’s for sure.

Our baby the lounger. He just likes to sit back and relax while he eats.

Brit has also cut two more bottom teeth for a total of 8 now. They haven’t been fun, but he’s doing better!