Redneck Mobile

The other day I found a mobile I bought a while ago but I didn't have a way to hang it up so Dayton could look at it. As you all know Blaine works from sun up to way after sun down so I can't always sit around waiting for him to complete my honey dos. I constructed a wreath hanger and I fastened it to his crib with some non-stick drawer liner underneath so it wont fall on him. Now he can look at the cute animals and pretty colors while he lays there! I know pretty REDNECK but at least it works (for now). Once he can reach it I will have to take it down because the entire thing might fall on little Dayton.

Notice the cute John Deere Bumper thanks Becky for letting our "Little Farmer" barrow it from Kimball.

This picture is for Alicia and Andrew they love when he does this.

Too little for a walker still but it is fun to try anything new just to entertain him for even if it is for 20 minutes.

His feet don't touch the floor yet...thank goodness, but he is getting so big.  He is starting to recognize when we leave a room and he is alone. 

Home Sweet Home!!!

         My Birthday was on Friday the 7th.  I spent the day in the car going from Rexburg to Pocatello to take Dayton to his 4 month check up and shots. (Yuck)! He weighs 12 lbs 9 oz. and is 24 1/4 inches.  He is in the 25% for his height and 15% for weight...sorry little guy you are just tall and skinny just like your Daddy. Then from Pocatello I went to Malad hoping to sign our house papers but they weren't ready for us yet.  Then I drove out to Arbon to stay with Blaine and his parents for the weekend...I was going to return to Rexburg and wait to for the word on power...but I ended up staying with them the week which worked out even better.  When I got to Jeff and Irene's after my long day in the car and poor Dayton too, Blaine was still working late, I got a special Birthday dinner that Melanie and Irene made for me! YUMM! It was so thoughtful of them to do that for me and make me feel special.  Then on Sunday it was Mother's Day, my first, although last year I was pregnant on Mother's Day and didn't know yet.  We had a wonderful day with Blaine's family.  My exciting gift was Dayton's first time rolling over from his tummy to his back 3 times!  He timed that just perfect!
             During the week we kept hoping the papers would be ready to sign but we just waited and waited.  FINALLY we heard we were getting power hooked up and turned on Wednesday the 12th and we were able to spend our first night in the house that night. Hooray!!  I didn't have a hard time sleeping at the new house but it was a little bit weird for Blaine. It hit me the next day that 'this is our house ' while I was in the shower and then it was a little weird for me.  But we are very excited to have the big project come to an end. We finished signing the paperwork on Monday the 17th and now we get to start living "Real Life as Adults" paying a mortgage and property taxes. It is all so new to us but we are pretty excited to have a place we can call our own and a new chapter to add to our life.  Blaine and I looked around the house one evening and started taking about the memories we will get to have here with our children and it was really fun taking about it.  We have spent the last week getting everything set up and some what organized (it is an organized mess but nevertheless we are home!) We love having our little family gathered back together in our very own "nest". We got Dayton's crib and room set up last week. It is so nice that he has his own little space for growing and playing.
         We have so much to be grateful for and so many many blessings to count.  We both have such amazing families.  I personally would like to thank our parents for all the love and support they have given us.  I would like to thank them for letting us crash with them for the 2 weeks we had to finalize everything.  We seriously couldn't have done it with out everyones help!!  Melanie and Dusty dropped everything to come help us get packed and move everything out of the other house.  Jeff, Lance, Mitchell, and Brent come over the last night we were in the other house while Blaine was working late and finished getting us moved out just in time for our deadline.  Thanks to Lance, he was covering the trench (he and Blaine dug for the power cable to go through) the morning the power company was here to hook us up.  It had to be buried before they would turn on power and he had it nearly finished before we got here.  mandy has been my secretary, nanny, etc...you name it...thanks.  Family is EVERYTHING!  The older I am getting the more I come to understand our Heavenly Father's plan to be perfect.  Ask me as a teenager if I wanted to be with my family forever and my answer might have been different then the one I have today.  Now I want more than anything for that to happen.  I love to sing Dayton to sleep and one of my favorite songs to sing to him is 'Families can be Together Forever'.  Each time I sing it to him I feel the burning in my heart telling me that it is true. (Yes, we have to do our part in order for that to happen).  I am starting to gain a greater understanding of our Heavenly Fathers' love for me now that I am a parent.  I can only imagine how much love he must have for ALL of His children.  I only have Dayton and I didn't know you could have love like this.  I am grateful to have the knowledge that I do so we can one day be an Eternal Family. 
         We offically had our first visitors.  My parents came and stayed with us Saturday night and on Sunday we went arrowhead hunting.  We have turned that into an annual tradition to have them come out in the spring to go wandering, have a picnic, enjoy nature and we never miss out on letting a tick enjoy a ride on our jakets!  Which Blaine always loves to drive home singing the "Check you for ticks" song!  Dayton had a pretty fun time going along for the ride too although he might have had a little too much sun!
   
         Here are a few pictures and mile markers that have happened in the chaos of the last few weeks some are a little past due but fun to see anyway. 

Power is here!

Cousin Carson 1 month and Dayton 4 months

Friends or Foes?...They will probably be both over time but we hopefully Best Friends.

My younger sister Alicia and her baby came to visit while I was staying at my Mom and Dad's.

The Young Woman and Young Men came to help us move it was such a great help and service.

Dayton's first taste of rice cereal. (May 19th)  He didn't like it very much.  He just spit it out all over me and didn't know what to do with the texture. Oh and our little blue eyed boy is turning BROWN EYED!  Mommy won sorry Daddy for the recessive genes! I guess you will be full of "Crap" just like me too, in Daddy's words!

Ready for church.

Check out the cute mohawk! It's a little tricky to see. 

Out of the Tub at the old house (about a month ago but I forgot to post this cute picture).

So close but still SO FAR....

        Our home made rapid progress a couple of months ago and now we have to wait.  The power is still not connected to the house yet and our septic system is incomplete.  We had to move out of our old home because it was being rented out to someone else.  I know you are thinking, "Who in their right mind would want to live in Holbrook"?  I know I wonder that myself sometimes too but they moved in so that meant we moved out and because of that we have been homeless as of April 29th.  It is a terrible feeling having to move out of our old home and we have a brand new house that we can't even live in yet.  Most likely it will be next week.  Things can easily be moved back by the week(s) when we have to rely on other people to do the work.  Hopefully it will be soon, Dayton, Blaine and I need to get back on a regular routine together as a family.

         Dayton is 4 months old tomorrow.  He is getting so big.  We love him so much.  While we have been "homeless" I have been staying at my mom's house and Blaine will call and check on us to see how we are doing.  I feel so bad that he has to stay back in Arbon (with his parents) and work so hard and miss out on our adorable son growing up...even if it is just for a week.  When he calls and asks how Dayton is doing, it is hard to believe what we use to talk about before we had him.  I am getting more and more remarks about how he is starting to look more like his mommy.  Although, I still look at him and think he is his daddy's boy through and through.  He is totally fascinated with his hands and he is becoming more interested in toys every day.   He giggles and laughs when we raise his arms above him head and say "big boy".  His big eyes sparkle and his smile widens lighting up my day when we do that.  He still loves his binki and still loves his baths kicking and playing vigorously.  His new thing is to hum when I rock him to sleep.  There are new discoveries daily.  He is also starting to teeter to his sides a little more when he is laying on his tummy, that means he will be a mover pretty soon and that gives me more to worry about.  I am grateful he is growing and developing perfectly normal.  There is a whole new side of worry when you are a parent.  But we do love our little boy he is the joy in our lives...and his grandparents too.  

       We are wishing all the moms a Happy Mother's Day on Sunday.

Everything happens at once!

         (I have listed what has been happening then the pictures follow).

         Well the long await for Elder Bird happened. He was suppose to fly in at 1:00 pm but his plane had problems so we had to wait even longer until 4:00 pm.  It's good to have him back! Welcome Home Mitchy!!
         Dayton's first Easter came and left so fast good thing we got pictures for the event.  We gave him his first tractor and the Easter bunny treated him well too with new toys he will soon one day appreciate. (He hasn't figured them out yet).
        Alicia and Andrew got their baby on April 7, 2010. (Exactly 3 months after Dayton was born).  His name is Carson Scott Archibald.  Weighing 8 lbs 8 oz with long BLOND hair. We are happy that after the fever scare and making a visit in the NICU for about 5 days, he was released to go home with his mommy and daddy last Sunday. 
         Dayton's Blessing and Mitchell's homecoming talk were both last sunday. I kept joking about "hitting two 'Birds' with one stone". It was a wonderful day.  It was so nice to have the love and support of all the family members who came the long distance to be here.  We know it is quite a drive to get here so we really appreciate and love you all. (And those who couldn't come...my immediate family we missed were; Shelley, Riley, Scott and Sophie because they live in Colorado.  And for more obvious reasons we missed Alica, Andrew and new little Carson.  (Great) Grandpa Bill also missed because he didn't feel well.  We know you all would have loved to come but we will see you all hopefully soon)!  Oh yeah the day before his blessing, Dayton gave us his first belly laugh. It was so cute.  Luckily Blaine and I were both around for it.  Blaine was singing for Dayton and I was holding him and he laughed pretty loud for his daddy.  He is also cooing for us alot more now that he can focus on us.  He loves to watch us move and walk acound.  He is starting to get a bald spot on the back of his head from looking back and forth.  He is the highlight of our lives. And rightly so!!
         The house is almost ready after a long time out.  The power is about all we are waiting on now.  I went to the house and started to clean all the counters and cupboards in preparation for the move. It will be so nice to finally be settled and relaxed in our new home.

Waiting for Uncle Mitch.

The hole crew waiting.

more waiting

Older brothers waiting.

He's HERE!!

(I was so excited the next pictures are blurry because I was shaking)

Dad's first hug, I missed mom's because she was to quick.

Blaine's hug.

Seeing his friend Levi.

The kids were so happy to see Mitchell again, they followed him all over.

Mitch with mom and dad.

All the boys...except Brandon he was on a business trip.

All the girls.

Mitch with his 9 neices and nephews. He is meeting Emma, Keathen, Paityn and Dayton for the first time.

Welcome Home Buddy!!

(It was snowing coming home from the airport)

Happy Easter Dayton!

Easter Sunday with cousins Madison and Keathen.  We had a fun time getting ALL the family together again for Easter and Confrence.

Dayton's blessing.

He did so good during the blessing, he didn't even cry.  Blaine and I expected him to cry but he did awesome.  Although right after the blessing during the sacrement Blaine was holding him and he had a massive blow out of the front and back.  Good thing for being a crazy over perpared person, I had a extra pair of pants and shirt for him.

Update on....well....life!

        A lot has been happening the last week.  We got the other half of the house and they set it on the foundation.  We are very exctied to move in when they give us the ok. (optimistically thinking in about 2 weeks, we have to wait a week for the power company to come hook up the power.)  Dayton is growing so quickly, everyone warned us that would happen and you know they were right!  He will be 3 months on the 7th, crazy how time flies. 

Alicia is due on the 6th and we wish her and Andrew good luck with the start of their new chapter in life...it is fun and exhausting at the same time, but mostly FUN!  We are excited to have a new little cousin.  Happy Labor Day Alicia...we don't know when but it will be soon! We love you guys.

Blaine's younger brother, Elder Mitchell Thomas Bird will be returning home from Columbus, Ohio mission TOMORROW!!  We will post pictures after the event happens.  He will be coming home to 2 new nieces and 2 new nephews. (Dayton is the newest).

Here is our smiling boy! 

 

Our house being set on the foundation. It looks so good.

MY KITCHEN!

I went to Salt Lake to Becky's house last Wednesday and stayed the night.  We then packed up the kids and drove mom's car back to her in Rexburg (Blaine and I had borrowed it to get home because his semi broke when we last visited). Everyone thinks that Dayton looks similar to his older cousin Kimball so here are the two big eyed boys!

Dayton loves to cat nap so I have to hold him in order for him to stay asleep...which defeats the purpose of naps...to get other things done...so mom taught me a new trick...lay him between 2 pillows so he thinks I am holding him and he stays asleep longer...Hooray! Go mom...sorry, I mean Grandma!

I think tub pictures are the best, I snapped these this morning.  They are kind of blurry because he loves to kick and splash in the water.

Home, Home on the Range!!! IT'S HERE!!

        Our house rolled in to its new destination of Holbrook this morning at 9:00!  Blaine got a call last night that our house was in Burley and that it was going to be here in the morning.  We were supprised and very excited because it wasn't supposed to be here until Monday.  Well actually we only have half a house as of right now.  The other half will be here Monday, so we will anxiously await the arrival of the second half.

There she is!! Beautiful sight!

I was in the middle of getting ready and Blaine ran in and said, "Heather, it's here." I ran out in the road with the camrea and took these pictures.  Blaine was in the house with Dayton and I did a little jig in the road and he saw me and was like what was that?  I told him I was just so happy!

The proud owner.

All our paper work has become reality.

The Bird's House! Dayton slept the entire time we were checking it out but he will love to have his own room.

Happy Day!

Dayton Can Smile

        Oh how our little boy is growing so quickly. We both agree that life was good when it was just the two of us but now it is SO much better with Dayton. We love being the three musketeers. Dayton was learning to smile and grin at six weeks but of course we could never capture a picture of his first official smile. Between 7-8 weeks he started to smile in response to us. Oh this is really what life is all about. Blaine often reminds me that, especially after Dayton has just thrown a big crying fit, finally settles down and falls asleep on Blaine’s chest, he will turn to me and tell me “This is what life is all about”. Amazingly he is 10 weeks old this week and we think he is so adorable (if you can't tell). He has started to coo a little bit too. Dayton's favorites are; his binki, his swing, his mommy and daddy, watching mommy and daddy walking around, his baths, his bouncy chair with his woodland animal friends, and he loves being held and cuddled. I can't even begin to give him enough hugs and kisses. We love our Dayton! (When I can finally get a picture of him smiling then I will post it)!