Bridger is SIX!! :)

Our sweet Bridger boy turned six on January 4th!! 

I know that every year kids grow and develop so much, but this last year it was like he grew out of that last bit of babyishness and is now a full on little boy, closer to ten than one! :S He is such a responsible big brother, he likes to make sure everyone is following the rules, lol. He does like to tease, but he is very sweet and reminds me that he loves me often. Just this morning he told me, "I will always love you." I love him so much. He is still so particular, I would laugh when people would tell me when he was a baby "oh, they grow out of it..." Yeah, no. Not this boy and I knew it. He does not like to be wet, when I do his hair in the morning he hates the little drops that get on his neck and shoulders, if he gets any water on him throughout the day he will change his clothes. His socks have to fit right, his hair has to be right, and he wants to do things right. When I ask him to do things he clarifies like three times to make sure he does it right, lol. I love him forever. He has the most contagious, adorable laugh. We share the same sense of humor, him and I, so we find ourselves laughing together often and it's one of my most favorite things. He loves space and already knows SO much about the planets and the universe! It amazes me. He asks me very deep and thoughtful questions on a regular basis that really make me think about my responses, and he won't settle for simple answers either! I am so grateful to have Bridger as our son, it's hard for me to believe that it has already been six years since I was holding my newborn baby in my arms. He's so patient, so forgiving with my shortcomings, and so loving. I am more grateful than I can say to have Bridger as our son for eternity.   

Some things Bridger did this year:

• He started Kindergarten homeschool style! This includes doing school with me, swimming lessons on Tuesdays, Spanish with our co-op on Wednesdays, and half day school with our co-op on Thursdays! Doing structured school was a big change for him and definitely took some time to adjust to. We are still working on this. :)
• He has been reading SO well. He set a goal that he would learn to read a scripture verse all by himself in two weeks...he accomplished that goal in just a few days! He can read pretty much anything now, it's just his attention span that needs to catch up, lololol. 
• I mentioned that he has been doing swimming lessons! He is learning to swim and it's so fun to watch! He can float on his back, and kick to move. He can also kick while gliding forward, so he is getting the basics down. I'm so proud of him and how far he has come with swimming. 
• He loves his robot Dash and coding, he loves to play video games, board games and learning games on the computer. He loves to read books with me or his Daddy before bed, he loves to play with Lego's and his Lego trains. He also loves to play outside, even in the snow, and at the park when it's warm!

20 questions with Bridger: 

1. What is your favorite toy? A Transformer mustang
2. What is your favorite part about school? Learning Spanish, I like the videos.  
3. Who is your favorite scripture hero? Nephi
4. What is your favorite food? Pepperoni pizza
5. What is your favorite dessert? Carrot cake, chocolate cake, vanilla cake. 
6. What is your favorite vegetable? Carrots
7. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries and apples
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman
9. What is your favorite snack? Fruity snacks 
10. What is your favorite book? Nibbles
11. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast? Chocolate O's
12. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving
13. What does Mommy always say to you? I love you
14. What does Daddy always say to you? I love you
15. What is your favorite TV show? Jake and the Neverland Pirates
16. Who is your best friend? Calum
17. What are you really good at? Mario Kart
18. If you could have a wish, what would it be? A giant cookie *this big* (he stretched his arms out wide)
19. What is your favorite primary song? I am A Child of God
20. What vegetable do you hate the most? Pickles

Side topic here...a few funny things Bridger has said the past couple months...

---We were having scripture study in the morning a few days ago, we were reading in 2 Nephi 2:14 and it says, "...there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth..."

I summarized a few verses: We have Earth, and all the plants and trees, the universe and all the planets, and those things prove that God is real.

Bridger: Ok...but, astronauts do not go to Neptune. 

I'm going to take that comment as a win, he was actually listening. So random, but somehow kind of relevant. LOLOL. I love scripture study with kids.

---Bridger during school a few months ago while we were reviewing the days of the week...

Bridger: Friday is the day we eat fries on because it says FRY DAY. LOLOL. 

I love teaching him and seeing his perspective on things I wouldn't even think about. 

These next two were taken at Camp Williams on Governor's Day. Bridger kept asking to climb this, it's not often that he's willing to try new things, so of course we got in line. I was worried we would we wait for an hour only to have him back out and refuse. NOPE. Our little man got into that harness and went for it!! He almost made it to the top before saying he wanted to come down, he got stuck a couple times because he's little, but he figured it out and kept going. I think he found a new interest, I am so proud of him! This is what led us to where we took him for his birthday! 

On to Bridger's birthday!

I had found a really cool place called Funtopia near our house and I thought Bridger would love it for his birthday, it's a climbing place specifically for kids. A week before Christmas we took the boys and they LOVED it. Beckham was too nervous to do any high climbs, Bridger was afraid at first, but warmed up quick! Here are some pictures!

You jump from this platform and grab onto that and he did it the first try!

Here was his birthday party down in Hurricane...he wanted Mario again! Of course!

I love this one. :)

These mustaches were a hit again this year, lol, they are so fun. This is everyone that came to Bridger's birthday party!!

We celebrated again on his actual birthday here at home, he got to choose all of the meals we ate that day and we shared some treats with his friends at school, I even made him another cake! And that's when he got his "big" present, a little robot named Dash. I wanted to make sure this boy knew he is loved and means so much to us. Happy Birthday, Bridger!!

One last post from 2016!! :)

If you haven't heard yet, we got a puppy!!

This little baby's name is Captain. :)

He was born August 16th, we picked him up when he was two days shy of 8 weeks old! He is a Shichon (Shit-zu/Bichon) /Maltese mix. He doesn't shed and he will be around ten pounds when he is full grown, so just a little boy. :)

 I had been trying to convince Jeremy to let us get a dog, he was hesitant, to say the least, but my Mom showed me this listing on a St. George yard sale page for this cutie and his siblings, I asked Jeremy and he said "no," as he was cleaning the kitchen. I told him to come look at his picture and immediately when he sat down I knew he was going to say yes! Then I was like, "are you sure??" It seemed kind of hasty after saying no for so long, so we said a little prayer, and still felt good about it, and decided to buy him. He fit all of our "parameters," for a dog and we just felt like he was supposed to be ours. We kept him a surprise for our boys, it was so fun to see their reactions! My parents ended up getting his brother because they were both just so cute, they named their puppy Max and these two LOVE each other. My parents went to meet them and put a deposit down for us. Right after we put our deposit down, I started researching, I had no idea how to take care of a puppy. We started buying all the supplies and watching Cesar 911 on Netflix. LOL. We actually learned a LOT. Two weeks later we got to go down to Hurricane and pick him up, I could barely contain my excitement/nervousness...I had this image of how I thought puppies were and I had prepared myself with research and tons of puppy supplies. The boys sat in the grass and my Dad brought over a little box with both puppies inside. Benson was asleep in my arms, but Bridger and Beckham sat in the grass with their eyes closed, he set the box down and we told them to open it up. They opened it and both of them jumped back, Beckham was like, "I didn't know there was puppies!" And Bridger was like, "what the???" LOLOLOL. They were both a little unsure, but we handed one to both and told them to give them hugs and kisses, and from then on it was love. :)

These puppies kept getting Benson's toes and he thought it was SO funny.

Tiny baby!

They are so cute I can hardly handle it.

Benson LOVES Captain. He laughs when he nibbles on his fingers and toes, and when I have Captain in his pen Benson will crawl over and pull his socks over and push them through the slats so he can chew on them along with his little fingers and toes. Captain doesn't ever hurt him, he kinda just nibbles gently on him. It's adorable. My kids have pulled his hair, picked him up every way imaginable and generally are always running after him and he has always been so gently and nice with them. He is a really good boy.

We have definitely had our rough patches, but these puppies are so stinking smart and so eager to please that training really has been pretty good. We had some accidents in the house until we learned to keep him penned until we could pay more attention, but since they are so small it really wasn't a big deal. They could sleep through the night from the time we got them, so that was also really nice. They are now about 4.5 months old and I would consider them to be potty trained. Captain scratches at our back sliding door when he needs to go out and hasn't had an accident in so long I can't remember the last one! I'm very grateful. He, like all puppies, did nip a lot at first but with some training he doesn't do that anymore. He is still teething, so we have to be patient with him on that (he likes to play with the kids toys as much as his own!). And both Captain and Max are SO mischievous. Like, way. Lol. We have had to work with Beckham and Bridger on how to treat dogs, but they love him so much and are really good with him most of the time. We now have a routine with him and that has been very helpful, and him and Max are always happy to see each other when we visit down South or my parents come up here. They will wrestle and play ALL DAY. Seriously. It's so funny.

If this doesn't speak mischievous, I don't know what does.

This is a regular occurrence in our house the last four months. lolol.

We still have a lot of training to do, but I'm so grateful we were able to find him and Max, they have both been such a blessing to our families and they are such good boys! :)