For. E. Ver.

Soooo much has happened in the last two months since I blogged last. I always have such lofty goals of catching up and letting everyone know about EVERYTHING that's happened. Then I get to the point I am at now - I give up. I'll just do a couple of things. Haha. So here's a couple of the highlights.

Here is Hazel Rebekah's two month picture for her baby calendar. That's not a crotch shot, by the way. If you look closely, you can see her Tweety band-aids from her shots. She was a trooper. That outfit was one her Daddy picked out so I put it on her for her two month birthday.

Here is the latest and greatest - my favorite so far. Her three month pictures. Thanks to our friend and awesome photographer, Louie Traub (louietraub.com) for taking such beautiful pictures of our daughter. I swear she gets more adorable every day. If you look closely at these pictures, you can see we pierced her ears. For all those who think we are oh, so cruel, just know she was more upset at being stabbed in her legs with a needle for her vaccines.

This is a picture of us as a family who would only be together for the time here on earth. San Diego is one of my favorite temples and since we got married civilly, I wanted to go here to get sealed. We got sealed on our monkey's 3 month birthday and she got to wear her blessing dress again. She filled it out much better this time.

This is our first picture as a forever family. We went back to the temple grounds the next day and there was a cute old couple serving their mission. The Elder offered to take some pictures for us. A huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders now that we have made this important step in our lives. It was a long wait which we knew would happen since we chose to get married civilly, but it finally happened and we couldn't be happier.

I'm so blessed to have such an awesome husband who works so hard to provide for his family and is the most amazing father ever. He never complains about spending time with his daughter and was my saving grace many times when he told me he would take Bekki (as he calls her) for the night to let me sleep. He's changed lots of diapers and is introducing her to the world of sports by watching football with her. He has taken her many times on some of his errands and though I feel left out, I just tell myself to get over it and try to get as much accomplished as possible in their absence.

We couldn't have been blessed with a better baby. Our little monkey is so good and hasn't had any real problems. We know we are so lucky to have gotten pregnant so quickly and then continue through the pregnancy, labor and delivery with no serious complications. She has been a perfectly healthy and happy baby. She's a good sleeper and a good eater and has the sweetest disposition. She has her moments when she's overly tired, but I'll take those moments too. She is very active and loves to babble and tell stories. She smiles so much - I love her smile! We are finally getting comments on how she's starting to look like me, but I still think she looks more like her daddy. She's beautiful either way.

Our dogs continue to be amazing. Sometimes they bark too loudly when they shouldn't and wake Hazel up. Most of the time, they make us chuckle as they play together and get excited for a cookie or treat. They are great with the baby and will probably become some of her best friends.

Google It!

So I got this cute idea from my fellow blogger, Candy Mandi, and figured since I'm STILL wasting time on the computer, I would do it. For each thing, you look up the answer on google image search and choose your favorite picture from the first page only. This is what I came up with!

MY AGE: 30

Apparently this is a Zonohedron generated from 30 vectors. I thought it looked cool so I chose it as my favorite picture.

MY FAVORITE COLOR: Purple

The heart says it all. I love purple.

MY FAVORITE VACATION: Canada

My awesome friend, Lisa from Canada (as I like to call her), lives up in Calgary. I have been to Canada four times now and I've enjoyed every single trip.

WHERE I LIVE: Las Vegas, NV

It's fun being Mormon and and living in Vegas. Whenever I go other places and tell people where I'm from, they look at me incredulously and say, "You live in Vegas?", "Do you live in a hotel?" or "There's Mormons in Vegas?" Haha.

WHERE I GREW UP: Las Vegas, NV

It'll always be home. I might even be stuck here for the rest of my life. I'm okay with that. Or I'm okay with moving somewhere else, as long as it's a big city. We're city folk.

WHERE I'D LIKE TO TRAVEL: Hawaii We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon and I went there a few years ago with friends. It was gorgeous and very relaxing. Brody and I want to go again one day.

FAVORITE FOOD: Ice cream, of course!

I picked this picture as my favorite because it looks more like the frozen yogurt I get from TCBY. I love that place. Especially white chocolate mousse. It was a great treat that would help settle my stomach in the first trimester of my pregnancy. It's also a tasty treat that I don't need to have a reason to go get!

FAVORITE TREAT: Ice cream, again.
Favorite food, favorite treat - ice cream is the best of both worlds!

FAVORITE ANIMAL: Dog
When I was little, I liked white tigers. But now that I'm married and step-mom to two awesome dogs, I think they are my favorite!

A PAST LOVE: Peanut Butter
I chose peanut butter because I couldn't really think of anything and I remember eating peanut butter sandwiches when I was little. I just don't like it anymore and every time I say that, my husband looks at me like I'm from another planet. I swear I informed him of this BEFORE we got married. As long as he knows how much I love ice cream, we are good. He thought he'd be able to break me of that addiction, but I'm as stubborn as he is and he's had no luck. :o)

MY FIRST NAME: Jennifer

Jennifer Aniston is pretty. It was a choice between her and Jennifer Garner, who is equally pretty.

MY MIDDLE NAME: Lyn

I have no idea where this is from, but it was more appropriate than some of the pictures that came up and a little more exciting than the rest.

MY (OLD) LAST NAME:

I was curious to see what Little would come up with and was happy to see this image. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite Disney movies as a kid. Sometimes I would cry when King Titan broke the statue of her love. *sniff*

MY LAST NAME: Broderdorf Is this my husband? Cuz under the caption it said "Jason Brody Broderdorf is on facebook." Weird.

WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW:Lots of interesting pictures went along with this one. This is one of many favorites, though it was hard to decide. Lots of cartoons and funny sayings. This one says, "Blogging: Those who have nothing important to say often speak the most."

I TAG EVERYONE!

Stuck in Denver

We came up to Denver for Thanksgiving to visit Brody's brother. All of his dad's sons were up here and got to hang out together. Josh, Brody and Charles. I'm sure they've had a good time. Thanksgiving was fun. We had four adults, three teenagers and five dogs in one small house. We played lots of Wii (I went from 68 to 26 on the Wii fitness age in one day - go me) and Guitar Hero and the boys watched a lot of Battlestar Gallactica.

I, of course, am reminded of how I'm pregnant every day. Crying for no reason (hadn't done that in a while, so I thought I was over that prego symptom), and pounding headaches that I can't take anything for (except Tylenol, which does absolutely nothing for me). I just want to go home to my bed, but the weather has stated otherwise. It was supposed to be bad weather on the way up and good weather on the way home. Silly Mother Nature and her lovely way of proving all weathermen wrong. It was the opposite - great weather on the way up and horrible weather the day we are supposed to be packing up and heading home. Blizzards and closed roads are forcing us to stick around a bit longer.

On the bad side, besides not being able to just be home again, neither of us will be working tomorrow or doing the things that we need to and there is a chance I won't get to see my sister and her husband one last time before their baby comes. On a good note, it's fun to visit Brody's family and see the beautiful snow and watch the dogs playing together inside and outside in the snow. I should put up some pictures from our trip, but it's time for breakfast and a heating pad on my hurting head.

Oh, and I love food. It just stinks that I get full after four bites. Haha.

Proud Parents - Bostyn & Emmitt

Bostyn and Emmitt showing off their new neckware after their annual check-up with their doggie doctor.
It's amazing how you can get married and instantly become the stepmom. Grandma Little always said I would marry a guy with kids - I just didn't know they would be dogs! I already knew I liked Emmitt when I dated Brody the first time, but Bostyn was a new addition when we got back together so I had to get to know her. Just in the past few weeks, I have come to realize how much I love my kids. They are always happy to see me and even happier when I ask them if they want to go outside. Their ears perk up and Bostyn goes berzerk (more than normal). Emmitt, on the other hand, prances around and get that gleam in his eyes. Of course, their hearts will always belong to their dad - they only have eyes for Brody when he's home, no matter what I do to get their attention. Such devotion.

I realized last night that I was becoming one of those "parents." You know the ones. Always talking about how adorable their kids are and showing pictures of them. Ya, I do that. I have tons of pictures and videos of them on my phone and as soon as anyone asks what kind of dogs we have (which I can remember - finally), I whip out my phone and bore everyone to tears. But that's okay - I just love them! I talk to them all day and boss Bostyn around to do all the things I should be doing. One day I'll come home and she will have cleaned the house for me, right? Ha. Just teaching her how to "shake" took quite some time and lots of cookies, dog cookies, that is.

The weird thing is, Brody added Bostyn to the canine team at a time when he thought he would be a bachelor forever. He also wanted someone Emmitt could hang out with. Both dogs are rescue dogs and have some of the most interesting personalities. The most interesting part of it all is that the saying "owners are like their pets" is VERY relevant here, which is quite amusing. I marvel at the way our little family has come together. Emmitt (or Brody) tries to be the alpha male and is calm, loyal and steadfast. He can also be somewhat of a creep, with his shifty stare or his slow crawl when you're not looking. (Okay, Brody doesn't creep up on you like Emmitt, but he can look at you with those beautiful eyes of his in a creepy kind of way sometimes. It's cute.) Bostyn (or Jen) is always on the move, wanting to know what's going on with everything, extremely curious, yet cautious and fearful, and pretty much psychotic and needy.

We enjoy taking the kids out to the grassy area behind our condo and letting them play with their new friends. I always remember the names of the other dogs, but as much as we talk with the owners, I have no clue what their names are! Bostyn doesn't care how small the puppies are (like 5 month old Abby) or how big Bella and Czar are (they outweigh her by 60 & 95 pounds), she enjoys playing with them all - and we enjoy watching them. It's also great because they sleep through the night and don't stir too much when we're up at 4 in the morning to get Brody off to work. Emmitt will be a great big brother and Bostyn will be a great big sister when the time comes to add a human baby to our family!