Once upon a time...

I looked like this:

Which in turn, took me to this:

(what else is there to do while you await your baby then to take self-portraits trying to not give yourselves more of a double chin than you already have!)

And then you find yourself with this:

Oliver Brandt born July 18th(his daddy's and great-grandpa's birthday), weighing in at a healthy 8lb 9oz, and 21inches long. We usually see him looking like this:

But occasionally you will see some eyes:

He is an amazingly good baby. Eats, sleeps, sleeps some more, and eats some more.

His big brothers were pretty curious about him. Charlie just loves him and is always keeping tabs on him and tells everyone (mommy and daddy included) that he is "baby" and reaches out to pat him on the belly.I think this picture of Dylan is the one and only we will ever have of him showing some affection. I don't think he cares much for his little brother yet or maybe it is the ADD in him that keeps him too distracted to focus much on him. Who knows.Here's our little "family photo" from the hospital. I just took a shower and have no make-up on so don't judge too harshly.

Mommy and Oliver made one trip out of the home so far and while we were out we went and met Oliver's future best friend Sadie. Sadie was born on the same day as him and me and her mommy were bestest friends all growing up. They're meant to be friends...it's fate.

Daddy has been amazing and has tackled the gruesome twosome like a champ. He has been wonderful. The twins I think have loved being his helpers (especially when it comes to using his tools). We've been quite busy around our house getting projects done while Brandt is off work. We've built a fence, cleaned the windows and screens, fixed the loose tile in our kitchen,painted some doors, had insulation put in our attice, had the siding, fascia, and soffit replaced outside, gone to the zoo,and hasn't forgotten to have our nightly ritual before bed...rockin' out session. This is Dylan doing his air-guitar and here he is in his guitar-stance.He is hilarious when it comes to music. He just LOVES it, like daddy of course. My mom told me that after you have a baby you are supposed to have it nice and quiet with lots of rest for 2 months. We came home from the hospital and hit the ground running. Crazy. We are all well around here, though, so I can't complain. My computer has been on the fritz lately so you're lucky you got this post. It happens to want to work today. Hopefully I will be able to post again soon.

Are you there??

So I apparently completely missed June! No posts for you. I've thought about updating about 100 times, but ya know, not such a big priority for me these days. I am large and ready to have a strapping young fellow in less than two weeks and have been incredibly busy with two rambunctious almost 2 year olds! What can I say.

So the second week of June the boys and I and my sweet niece Aspen (with the job title of my nanny) piled in the car and drove down to St. George for a few days with my parents. Brandt stayed back to live the dream delivering mail. The weather was lovely and it was nice to have a different scene. However, it's always nice to be back home and back to our normal routine. I am a creature of habit.

We went swimming in St. George:

We went swimming at Granna's a few days ago:

In June I was hosting an Activity Days for the girls in my neighborhood at my house. They were working on their project in my living room and the boys were being boys and climbing up and down the couch, sliding off the edge, laughing, giggling, having a great time. I ran into the kitchen to get something and heard a cry. I came back in and the girls said, "um, Charlie pushed Dylan off the couch." Lovely, D would hardly put any pressure on his foot. I called the doctor and she said to watch him for the afternoon and if he is still having issues with it in the morning to come in. We went in and she said it looked like just a sprain and he should be better in about a week. A week went by and he was still hobbling so they suggested seeing a sports medicine doctor. So, a few days later that was the plan of attack. In his xray it looked like there was a slight fracture on his fibula (smaller leg bone). So we have a boot. I go in tomorrow morning to make sure he is back to normal. He's walking great. Is the boot not the cutest and saddest thing you've ever seen??? What a trooper.

So, amongst all this fun, we've still managed to get into lots of trouble and discover all sorts of fun things to do to wear down mommy's patience and that fine quality is pretty much non-existent these days. Proof of our shenanigans is here: