DESTINATION: FLORIDA

Last week we went on a trip to Destin, FL. Brady's Dad's boss owns a few beach houses in Destin and last week no one happened to be renting the house, so he let us go for free! We drove down there last weekend. It took us 15 hours (including Madison's many potty stops! ;)). Kolton did surprisingly really well. I was proud of him. He didn't sleep very well, but was fairly happy.

This is a picture of us the night we got there on the balcony off the living room with the sun setting over the ocean. The sky was so pretty!
This was Kolton's first experience with sand and the ocean. He never smiled, but he didn't cry either (well, that day). He just took it all in.

When the waves would roll back it would mess up his sense of balance and he would almost always fall. Even if the waves didn't actually touch him, just watching it would sometimes make him topple over.

This was the only time we saw any crabs. Kolton thought it was relatively interesting. Brady, though got bit by a crab one day. He got knocked down by a wave and when his hand hit the sand he felt something hard and thought it might be a sand dollar (we had seen some earlier) so he went to grab it and it bit his middle finger.

There was a lake behind the house and it got pretty windy off of it. We went on a couple walks with Kolton. He didn't want to ride for very long, though. He wanted to push.


When you go to the beach, you always seem to bring a ton of stuff and usually only use half of it, I swear! Anyway, Kolton was being so patient waiting for us to pack all our stuff that I decided to take a picture.

The first day (Monday) that we were there was a bit cold! It was really windy and the high was like 70 or something like that, which is really good weather if you just want to be outside, but when you are trying to go swimming and sit at the beach, it is really cold!

Kolton going on a walk with Grandma Brammer (one of the few times he would). I don't know why, but Kolton gets OVERLY attached to me when we go on any sort of trip. I mean, he is always attached to me and doesn't like to do much without me, but when we aren't at home it is even worse (I know that is hard to imagine! :)). He saw the ball in the water and REALLY wanted to go get it. He was pretty upset when he learned he couldn't. :(

Brady and I at the beach one night. We kept saying we would go on a walk on the beach every night, but never did and then the last day came and we were too tired to do it and knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us the next day, so we ended up not going. I'm kind of bummed, but what can you do?

Kolton and I went on a walk down the beach, though! He was so funny about the sand! He did not like it to touch his feet as you can tell in the picture. He's so silly!

I tried showing him sea shells. He is too young, though, to really appreciate them. I still had fun showing them to him, though!

Madison, Grandma Brammer, Kolton, and I reading a book at night. He likes to show people his animal noises.

Kolton in the ocean! Yay! He loved wading in the water as long as a splash didn't get him. It was fun to take him in!

Our family at the beach!!!

Kolton playing with his sand bucket and shovel. And yes, he's wearing tennis shoes at the beach! He didn't like the sand touching his feet, so one day I decided to have him wear shoes and then he like being at the beach a lot more!

Brady, Madison, and their mom out in the ocean. The water was so clear.

Kolton watching them play in the water. He liked to watch over getting in.

Riding the waves was so much fun! Some of them were huge! Like 5 to 6 feet over your head (just so you know, that number comes from Brady...I know you guys think I exagerate a lot, but that's not me talking!). It was so much fun! And a little scary at the same time! Brady is just riding a small wave up close to shore here.

Kolton doing his favorite thing...playing with a ball. Isn't it funny how he throws it? He gets so in to it!

Before you go inside, Nick (the owner) asks that you rinse yourself off with this hose so you don't bring a TON of sand in. This was probably Kolton's favorite time of day! :) He would play with that hose for an hour if we let him!

And take a few drinks, too!

They had these little windows along the floor in the living room that opened up on to the balcony. One night we opened them and he had fun climbing in and out.

We went to the Gulfarium they had there. The coolest part was the dolphins and sea lions. They did a show too. If you have been to Sea World or something like that before and have seen those shows, than you would think these shows were pretty lame. But, if you haven't, than they were pretty neat. They did a lot of talking, though, and not much trick showing. Kolton still enjoyed watching the dolphins jump out of the water, so that's all that matters!

Kolton and I looking at the sea lions.

We got pretty wet watching the dolphins. Aparantely we were in the splash zone! ;) Kolton had a hard time watching the dolphins play with the balls, though. Of course, he wanted a turn!


And last, but not least, Kolton would throw his balls over the balcony over and over and over. We soon caught on and would have someone at the bottom throwing them back up. He thought that was the coolest thing ever!
It was a fun trip to take and we are glad we were able to go! And I know this is a humongo post with a ton of pictures, but that's me! :)

A moment for Lillian

I want to take a minute to talk about Lillian. We were driving on her birthday (the 23rd) and then we were SO busy yesterday (Memorial Day as well as the day she passed away) that I haven't had time to say a little something and talk about her life. I'm sorry this is really long, I just wanted a moment to talk about her and the impact she's made in our family's life. She would be 3 years old...

Lillian Elizabeth was born on May 23, 2006 at 9:24 pm and weighed 1 pound 5 ounces and was 11 3/4 inches long. She had such a quiet, gentle cry when she was born. I was able to give her a kiss on the forehead before they took her away but neither Brady or I were able to hold her.

Lillian did really well the first night she was in the NICU. The only problem they had was keeping her temperature up. Unfortunately, she started going down hill Wednesday (24th) afternoon. They did an ultrasound and found that she had a level three brain aneurism. Her heart rate was dropping, too. Because they had to pump so much air into her lungs, her lungs got too big and were compressing her heart. Her little body just wasn't spacious enough for full longs and a beating heart. So, they had to cut back on the oscillator so that her heart would beat. She then started forming air pockets in her lungs since they weren't fully developed. They had to resuscitate her, but didn't have to do compressions, which was good.

Thursday morning the NICU doctor and the hospital chaplain came walking into my room. When I saw them, my heart dropped. The NICU doctor told us that our little Lillian wasn't doing very well. He said that they had to resuscitate her again and that she wasn't looking any better. So, Brady, my mom, and I headed over to the NICU.

We were there for about 5 minutes and then Brady felt he should giver her a name and a blessing. He whispered those special words in my ear and then left to go call his parents and tell them that she wasn't doing very well. My mom and I stood there and just watched her as she struggled to stay alive. All I wanted was for our daughter to be ok--for her to not be in pain and for her to be able to spend more time with us here on earth before she decided to return back to our Heavenly Father.

Moments later she started slipping. I looked to my mom and asked her where Brady was. She went looking for him. If this was indeed the end of Lillian's time here on Earth with us, Brady needed to be here to say good-bye. Luckily, he was coming back in the NICU and was able to see her. Brady and I just sat there helplessly as the nurses and doctors worked fervently on our daughter trying to get her to make it. They had to do compressions with this resuscitation, but still couldn't keep her heart rate over 20 bpm. A few seconds later, the doctor looked over at us and said it was now down to 8 bpm and asked if he could stop. Brady and I looked at each other and, as much as we hated to say it, we said yes. It was so hard to watch the numbers on the machine go from an eight to a three to a zero. She was gone.

Our daugher passed away at 12:08 pm on May 25, 2006. She was with us for almost 39 hours, but it just wasn't long enough. Brady and I were able to hold her after she passed away. My mom, Brady's parents, and Jeff and Vanessa were there with us and my mom and Brady's parents were also able to hold her as well.

Lillian died with a smile on her face which was one of the few happy moments we had that day. It was good to know she was no longer suffering and in pain struggling for her life.

There's nothing you can do to prepare yourself for the death of your daughter and there's nothing you can do to make it go away. You just have to work through it.

A nurse took some pictures of us with Lillian and those pictures mean the world to me! They are the only pictures I have of her with us. Sometimes that is hard to believe.

Lillian was perfect! I will never forget the way she looked. She had so many strong characteristics from both Brady and I. She had the most darling little feet--they looked like Brady's. Her second toe was longer than her big toe and curled out to the side, just like Brady's. She had the prettiest eye lashes. They were so long and gorgeous. She had my swoop nose and little dimples. Her fingers were long and beautiful. Everything about her was perfect--which is why Heavenly Father needed her back.

Lillian has made me want to be a better person! She has made me want to do all that I can do on this Earth so that Brady and I can be with her again. I look forward to the day when Brady and I will have the opportunity to raise our daughter and hear her first word and see her first step and feel her sweet hugs.

We will never forget our daughter. We will never be able to forget the few moments we were able to spend with her. We want to be able to be with our children forever as a family. We love our children, Kolton and Lillian, so much. More than one can imagine! Lillian has become a very integral part of our family and will always be in our hearts! We love you Lillian!

a little catching up before the big Florida post comes...

Well, I thought before I blog about Florida, I'd better put a few things up here from the week before.

Poor Kolton got sunburned one day--can I really take care of a kid? :) Anyway, here is a photo in the tub of his little farmer's burn. :(
I had strawberry shortcake for dessert for Mother's day and since I'm married to Brady, he thought it would be fun to have a mini whipped cream fight. At first, Brady just sprayed it in Kolton's mouth and Kolton thought it was pretty good, so then Brady decided he would spray his face and well, you see what Kolton thought of that! ;)

One afternoon Brady was taking a break from studying for finals and laid down on the floor and started throwing one of Kolton's balls in the air. I thought it was cute when Kolton went over there and laid next to him and watched him continue to throw that little blue ball for at least 10 minutes.

This video cracks me up! Doesn't Kolton have the best dad ever?

French tips anyone?

I got my nails done today! Best Mother's Day gift ever (well for me anyway)! I haven't had them done in years, so it was nice to go and do that today! Thanks for coming with me Brittney! It was fun! And thank you Brady for the gift! You are too awesome!

Oh, and while I was getting my fingers and toes done, Brady watched Kolton for me and guess what!! Kolton didn't cry or ask for me once! How awesome is that?!? He's growing up!!! Just thought you might want to know! :)

Wedding...what more can I say?

This last week or so has been so busy! Brady's sister, Jaycee, got married on Saturday to Adam Stevens. So, along with that came some pretty packed days! :) Thursday she went through the temple to receive her endowment and Dylen had a track meet. Friday was set up at the church for the reception and taking pictures of Jaycee and Adam. Saturday was the wedding, luncheon, finding the projector for the video I made of Jaycee and Adam to show at the reception, taking pictures of the family and such before the reception, the reception, and finally, take down and clean up of the reception. Sunday was church, saying good-bye to out of town visitors, family dinner and sleep. Then Monday came and I had to catch up on everything I hadn't done around the house for the past week...laundry, dishes, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning the whole house (which I'm still not done with...). Brady has been really busy on his final project for one of his classes. He had to perform a research project and then collect and analyze his data and write a report. Then he has finals next week he has to study for so he'll be busy all week and weekend!

Here are some pictures from our week.

Kolton loves to play the piano. Anytime I'm in the office he'll go over to the piano, pat the bench and say "map" which means "lap" but can also mean "get me up on that piece of furniture so I can sit on it"

He woke up from a nap on Monday with his hair looking like this:


Kolton fell on the Monday before the wedding and scraped up his forehead. The poor guy was walking up to the house and tripped and fell on the driveway and this was the result. We felt so bad for him! ;)

Since everyone was in town for Jaycee's wedding, we all went to watch Dylen run in a track meet. Dylen did really well! Unfortunately, on the last race his groin cramped up, but he is doing better now. Here is a picture of him running in the 4x8.
Kolton learned how to knock on things while there. You have to do everything to keep him from wanting to climb all over the bleachers! He's a good boy, though, I can't complain!

He was so tuckered out near the end of the day. Everyday last week was so packed and his schedule was so thrown off that he actually fell asleep on me! This is a very rare occurance!


Jaycee and Adam had some pictures taken of them on Friday, the day before their wedding. I tagged along because I wanted to put pictures of them in their wedding attire in the movie I made for their reception. This one is just taken in Brady's parent's entry way. Don't they look like they're in love? And they both look so pretty!


Kolton all dressed up at the temple for Jaycee and Adam's wedding. All three boys wore the same outfit. They looked so cute!
Kolton and I at the temple.

The bride and groom with the three boys. Very difficult to get a picture of all three of them! I had another one where Kolton is smiling, but one of his cousins is missing, so I chose this one where they are all there and everyone is looking this direction! ;)

Kolton got ANOTHER bump on his head today. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking he fell into the hinge on the door...

Practice Makes Perfect

Saturday night we went with the Foys to the batting cages. Brady was pretty impressed with how many balls I actually hit! :) Sterling started a softball team in our ward to play at a church league. At first Brady wasn't on the team, but last week he decided to join. So, we went on Thursday to his first game and they played one inning! What a bummer! They got rained out...Anyway, Brady had a lot of fun!


See my horrible form?! :)
Brady getting ready to bat.

Awesome hit!

They had a little bat there that Kolton just walked around with the whole time pushing it around. Check out that tuft of hair flying in the wind! Yes, he's finally growing some hair! ;)

Kolton and I at the batting cages. Can you tell it was windy? Gotta love Oklahoma!

15 month old driver

Here are some things we've done the past few days...just to keep you up to date! Ha! :)
We brought Brady and Robby some lunch while they were working on Tuesday. While they ate Kolton and I just hung out and talked to them. Kolton LOVES to sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive.

Here Kolton is talking to Brady and Robby. He thought that was pretty fun! :]
Then, the next day I was cleaning out the car from the trash of the lunch before and had left the keys on the console. Kolton was playing in the car and grabbed the keys and started trying to put them in the slot. He did it a couple of times! Pretty crazy!

Brady made his return to basketball Wednesday night. He hasn't played in about 3 or 4 months since he tore his hamstring the last time he played. Anyway, it doesn't start until 9:00 which is way past Kolton's normal bed time but I really wanted to go and watch him so we kept him up and took him with us. He only got hit in the face once with the ball, so that is good!

Kolton lounging on the way to the park Saturday afternoon. It was really nice Saturday!

Kolton at the park in his now favorite swing. The baby swings are so hard to swing in since they have to hold their head the whole time, so Kolton liked this once because he could just sit back and relax. It is kind of scary for mom and dad, though, because there is nothing to keep your kid in...So Brady stood to the side in case he needed to catch a falling child while I pushed him.

Kolton got 2 popsicles this week! He really liked them, although he doesn't really eat them. All he does is just put it in and out of his mouth and if he's lucky he'll get a taste.



Brady is going to play softball this spring and so we went to buy him a glove and then decided to buy Kolton one too even though he is pretty young to use one. If you strap it on real tight, it will stay on there and you can throw the ball in to the mit. Anyway, he was having a ton of fun and then just randomly broke out in this...so we figured it was time for a nap! :)

A week of fun new things!

It has been such a long time since I've updated. I really shouldn't do that since I take so many pictures!

We went to one of Dylen's track meets last week down at OU. Kolton really enjoyed our Jamba Juice and looking through the railing.
Kolton playing on the bleachers with Dad. It is so hard to keep him entertained!

Dylen running at the track meet at OU. It was fun to be able to go. Dylen is the one in second place in the blue top and red shorts.

Just a picture of Kolton I thought was sweet.
Kolton rinsing dishes for me. I was making dinner and he was getting impatient, so I pulled up a chair, turned on the water and let him have at it. He really enjoyed it! It was fun!

Brady bought this little toy at the party store a while ago. We just found it and he taught Kolton how to use it. It makes farting sounds (yes, I know, my husband is so mature! :)).

Playing in his room with a teddy bear that Grandma and Grandpa Moffett gave him.

Kolton has been dying to try and feed himself. Here is his first real attempt. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeding him something that is that easy to scoop up. He did alright, though. Yesterday I gave him bigger pasta shells and he did awesome with those!

Kolton helped me make cookies last week. I am trying to find a recipe that both Brady and I like...I've had no such luck. Anyway, I let Kolton eat the cookie dough on the beater. He L-O-V-E-D it!



Coming out of the bedroom to see his basket. It was put right in the middle of the floor so that is all he would see when he came out.



Kolton checking out what the Easter bunny brought him in his basket. He was way more in to it than I thought he would at this age.

Kolton loves to push things around! The Easter Bunny gave him a golf set for Easter (big mistake!) and he loves to push the caddy around. Unfortunately, he isn't really allowed to play with the golf clubs...He hits everything but the balls.


After church we let Kolton get in to his peeps. He thought that was pretty cool!

We went and visited Lilly's grave on Sunday as well. It was raining, so just I got out and left her some flowers, but she was in our thoughts all day. It is because of Easter that we can be with her again!

Kolton sharing some of his peeps with Dad.

Best friends! :) Kolton and Kade and Brady's parent's house. Finally Kolton isn't the only one beating people up! :)

We placed 12 eggs around the house and had Kolton go around and "find" them. He thought it was fun for the first 5 or so, but after that we kind of had to make him get the rest. Here he is trying to share with Kade.