Brady Birthday Month

(My new dress Tyler got for me, I love it)

In the last 2 weeks we have celebrated all of our birthday's, plus 2 sister in laws, a grandma, and hopefully no one else that I've forgotten about.

My birthday was great. We went swimming and ate a the most fantastic steak dinner (compliments of Mom) and then Tyler took me to buy fabric and pick out a book (100 easy bread recipe's).

(My birthday cake, compliments of Mother Asay)

That weekend was Grandma Asay's birthday, so we drove to Worland and hung out there. We picked up 10 bum (orphan) lambs, burned a corn field, rode the 4-wheeler, and ate delicious food.

(Alex and her Great Grandma Asay)

(Us in the lambing shed picking up our babies)

(After the first wall of flame had traveled on, and here Tyler is setting some more little fires)

( don't worry, Alex was safe)

The next week was a crazy mess of feeding baby sheep every 4 hours (luckily Alex loved the sheep and has learned to push back) and sewing aprons (i'll explain later). And finally, yesterday was Tyler's birthday. I had this great plan to make the coolest cake ever, and I feel like I succeeded, although it did not turn out quite like I planned. Although we got him books, chocolate milk and a medicine ball (alll things he wanted) the absolute best gift he got was permission from my Mom to let him get a dog.

(the frosting was suppose to look like flames, but the red turned neon pink and so it just looked more like a cake for a 6 year old girl, not a 25 year old guy. The inside was a bit more symetrical than I was going for, but the colors were so cool!)

Tyler has been wanting a dog forever. He has been talking about getting one everyday for probably the last 3 months. This was HUGE for him. So as soon as he got off work we went to the animal shelter and promptly fell in love with no less than 3 dogs. Seeing as it is going to be a farm/family/kids dog we still have to gain approval and therefore do not yet have one. After the pound we went to Shipton's to get Alex some functional baby clothing.

I got a pair of rain boots to use when feeding sheep etc. They are beautiful and fantastic and I decided everyone needed a pair, especially Alex. So we went and got her a sweet pair of Carhart overalls so she wouldn't get mud and manure all over her cute clothes, and we got her a pair of boots so all her nice shoes would stop getting covered in poop. She is adorable, and best of all I can stop worrying about her sitting in the straw.

The best home video of all time

At first Alex was a bit wary of the sheep. That wore off after about 45 seconds when she figured out she could scare them away by waving her arms. Now, she would spend all day playing with them in the straw if we would let her.

MISSION CALL!!!

Stephen Asay, my little brother, just got his mission call yesterday. In his own words...... "I have been called to gather Israel in the Brazil Sao Paulo Interlagos Mission---speaking Portuguese!!!"
We are all very excited for him, although pretty surprised. With 4 years of German in High School, we were all guessing somewhere in Europe, or Texas. He is going to be a fantastic missionary.

So much has been going on this week, and I'll try to post pictures once the Internet gets working on our laptop.

Yesterday we went to Worland and picked up 10 bum lambs. Now that we have those we will be feeding them every 4 hours and so things are bound to be a bit hectic. I do have some great pictures to post though!!

ONE YEAR OLD!!!

(Alex in the Hospital)


Today, St. Patricks Day 2009, Alexandria turns 1 year old. The last year had gone by so fast and been filled with so many exciting changes. This morning when we woke up we discovered it had been snowing all night and it was a winterwonderland outside. Of course by noon it had all melted away.



(6 weeks picture)

Alex spent the day playing with the balloons and streamers we decorated the dining room with and later on we went and got her pictures taken at Kiddie kandids. Afterwards we went and got her free ice cream from cold stone. Alex loved the treat even though it was their new yogurt ice cream, which isn't ice cream at all, just plain yogurt frozen. Who would have thought that it would be my mom that keeps sneaking Alex and cookies and treats while I become the health nut. For her cake I decided to just make muffins and frost them with whipped cream. I know, how boring, but other than the cookie bits she gets fed under the table, Alex hasn't really had a lot of sugar, and I didn't want an overdose with a frosted cake.


(6 months picture)


When Tyler got home from work we ate dinner (shepherd pie and Brazilian lime aid for St. P's day), and then opened presents. Alex got some really cute things, Grandma Asay made a book for her about the first year of her life and all the adventures they had together. Grandma and Grandpa Brady gave Alex a children's scripture book and Grandma made her a beautiful Easter dress and sweater. Tyler and I each gave her a toy and she also got a spiderman ball from us (she picked it out).



After present opening we ate "cake" I dyed the frosting green and Alex loved it, she made a mess of it all over her and her Dad, it was very cute.
I am not anti pink, but it is my least favorite color. Well, the day before St.Patrick's day the only color of streamers left in town were pink. I thought that was funny, so all our birthday decorations are strangely pink.



The day ended with alex and Tyler playing and Alex laughing her head off every time Tyler jumped. Tyler got a great workout and Alex was literally rolling on the floor laughing at him.



What a little treasure she is. She has so much fun walking around exploring everywhere and getting into everything. I've decided my favorite thing is when she gets caught doing something she knows she shouldn't and when she sees you headed for her, she turns and scampers off. It's hilarious.



(1 year picture)



It's sort of funny looking back, when we took Alex to get her 6 week pictures, I waited and waited until all her scratches had healed up, her acne was gone and her complexion was perfect. Times have obviously changed, if you look at the right side of her face you can see the cut where she fell and hit the shelf, the cut where she fell and hit the bed frame, the most recent fingernail scratches, and the left over from her parking lot face dive black puffed up lip. But, seeing as this is what she looks like most of the time now, it is somewhat appropriate I think.

Brady Ready Response Unit

This morning my fantastic husband let me sleep in. When I awoke I was pleasantly surprised to find that Alex was actually behaving herself quite well and being happy. I wandered out of the bedroom, and this is what I found. Tyler had decided to practice his rescue knots with Alex's assistance. She was actually quite ok with it, and didn't mind at all being strung up in a rescue harness and then hauled around. In fact, she decided to practice her rescue abilities as well.... As it turns out there was a small boy who needed rescuing from a big scary cat under the apple tree. Unfortunately she needs a little more practice, although the application of her leaf poultice may have stabilized the patient.

Cute Daddy Daughter picture of the week.

Alex likes the new chickens, and the new chickens like the Alex. We have 25 baby chickens who have taken up residency in our entry room. They will remain in their cardboard palace until they are old enough to survive the outdoor weather. Alex LOVES these guys. Whenever I let her roam around the upstairs, she heads straight for the chicks. She has gotten David on a steadily shortening leash, and can get him to pick her up to see the chicks almost whenever she wants.

Saturday we went to the Billings St. Patricks Day Parade. It was pretty fun, a bit chilly, and not at all comparable to Utah Parades, but still good. This is my attempt at a family portrait while walking, that's why my head is so big and weird looking.

Another cute Daddy Daughter photo. Alex hugging her Dad's leg. so cute.

Geo Caching

On Saturday, Tyler, David, Alex and I went Geo caching at Phipps Ranch. It was cold and windy but we (I) were very excited to go treasure hunting. We had gotten the coordinates for 3 caches in the "easy" section of Geocaching.com, and though we searched and searched we never found the first one.

The second cache was super easy and rewarding. David found the little pouch clipped next to the trunk of a thick pine tree. We left a stuffed mini mouse that Alex got in a cereal box, and took a golden Thomas Jefferson Dollar. Sweet huh!! The last cache was a bit of a hike and involved some slippery climbing up snowy sandstone rocks. The picture below is the view from the top, not a picture of what we climbed with a baby.

Tyler is an amazing mountain goat though and scaled it safely with Alex in his arms, faster than I could do it alone. I was also amazed at how strong David is, after I got tired of hauling Alex around, I handed her over to David so I could get a break, he carried her forever, up and down hills until Tyler took her for the assent. The third cache was a coffee can in which we left 35 cents and a piece of candy (everything in our pockets) because Alex wanted the yellow car.

The adventure ended with Tyler, Alex and David racing back to the car, leaving me in the dust.

Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

So I got tagged to do this. It turned out to be the most hilarious thing ever. I laughed so hard. So if you choose, you should all try it. I'm not going to tag anyone though, because i don't think anyone I tag would actually do it.

also, because i have used every clean Chuck Norris joke there is,i am now going to start using "the onion" articles to headline my posts.

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”or click here The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"or click here The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click here The third picture will be your album cover.4 - Use Photoshop or picasa or something similar to put it all together.

Chuck Norris runs Windows Vista on his Etch-a-Sketch.

Alex adores the cat. Coincidentally the cat's name is also Alex. This is bound to get confusing for her once she really starts recognizing her name, and wondering why we are always shouting at her to "Get out of the HOUSE"!!!! I never liked the cat until I saw how gentle and nice he was to Alex (the baby). They are very good friends and Alex will follow Alex anywhere. In these pictures, Alex is trying to feed Alex grass.

We went outside a few days ago to play and Alex was simply enthralled with EVERYTHING. She chased after the chickens until she tripped, and then pulled up grass and threw it in the air until she discovered rocks. She had a very hard time understanding that we do not eat rocks. She jumped on the trampoline and laughed and laughed about that. It's when she discovered mud, and successfully got a few muddy rocks into her mouth, that we went inside and gave her a bath.

Yesterday I had that wonderful opportunity of calling poison control. Tyler takes a camel back to work, and when he gets home he drops it on the floor. Alex thinks this is great and has developed a cute habit of walking over, plopping down on the floor and then sucking on the hose until she is thoroughly soaked. Well, while I was cleaning up our tile entryway Alex was playing in the same room. I had my back turned for about 15 seconds and when I turned around, Alex was sucking on the detached hose of the swiffer mop cleaner bottle. I couldn't find a picture, but it looks just like a camel back. The very nice poison control lady said that kids usually do fine with this, and she couldn't have gotten much. I spent the next 15 minutes forcing water and milk into her mouth, which she also thought was hilarious.

To top off the exciting week, we got to go to the BYU Folk Dancers Concert here in Billings. It was pretty pricey, $20 on sale, but worth every penny!!! Honestly one of the best dates ever. Alex even behaved for the first half of the show. She sat in my lap staring at the dancers and kicking her legs to the music and even clapping now and then in the middle of the show. So cute! It was especially fun because we got to see my dear friend Steve-o!!!! We met while working at Aspen Grove and had a few fun adventures together (cave of death and the bat cave most notably), He was one of that dancers and did a fantastic job! For those of you living in the BYU area, I would suggest going to as many of these great events as you can afford, you never realize what great opportunities you have until you are living no where near them.

My new favorite fabric collection....... Good Folks Fabric. I think that my dream quilt comforter will actually be made out of this. Sigh, oh why is beautiful fabric so expensive?!

Chuck Norris can speak braille.

I have this strange new addiction, to fabric. I love looking at it, imagining all the wonderful things each pattern could be made into, i love touching it and laying it out on the ground, but to rarely do I take the plunge and actually cut into it. I have built up in my mind that each of my different patterns has some perfect purpose, and to use it for anything less would be sinful.

I've recently discovered Amy Butler fabrics. They are magical. I would die for a quilt comforter made from one of her patterns and fabrics. So much in fact that I've contemplated learning how to quilt. But then the fear that I would buy the fabric and chicken out, or worse, butcher the quilt, keeps me from doing it. These are the kinds of fabrics where anything you make would turn out beautiful regardless of what it was. You could even have beautiful kitchen rags.

So this is my zen for the week, the eye candy that lifts my spirits.