August 25th, First Steps

It's like he realized "Oh! I'm one now! I better getta move on!" 

This was the day after Isaac's birthday. Sorry it's SO late!

 I've been having trouble loading videos on the blog.

The Birthday Present

Babies Becoming Real People

 Issac Daniel, 14 months old, weighing in at 32 pounds.

 He loves his green blanket, mac'n'cheese, his bottle,going outside

 and doing everything big brother does.

 He says "Uhoh" when he drops something, "No" to answer most questions, with the occasional "Yeah" to things he really likes and "Momma" and "Dadda" when sad.

 Can you say "Daring Duo", how 'bout "Demolition Team", hmmm, or maybe just "Trouble"? Yes those just roll off the tongue after acquainting yourself with these young lads.

 It's true, these adorable boys look sweet but I kid you not when I say "Watch your back!" They are evil geniuses just lulling you into a false sense of security til they can squelch your soul!

The ring leader, Garrett Bradley, turns three this weekend and weighs 35 pounds. He is becoming very articulate, he is a real problem solver and a thinker, he's too smart for me! He LOVES to run and play and loves to be around family. He constantly talks about seeing grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. He loves to help, read, craft, eat junk food, cook and most importantly, LOVES to play with his daddy. Both my boys LOVELOVELOVELOVE to play with dad!

Isaac's First Birthday Cake!

Super Garrett!

So fast he can only be seen as a blur! So intelligent he's been outsmarting his parents since birth! So brave he makes Chuck Norris look like a chump. It's SUPER GARRETT! He made himself into a super hero with baby sunglasses that wrap around his head and a blanket for a cape. We love this little kid!

Four Years

There we are. The Price Family. A family of four.

Four years ago, Brad and I were dating. It was his freshmen year and we were newly returned missionaries. We knew each other as missionaries, friends, then much to everyone's surprise we came to know each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, for a short period as fiances and then as husband and wife, all by the end of his first semester as a freshman at the Colorado School of Mines.

By the end of his second semester as a freshman at CSM we found out we were going to get to know each other as husband and crazy pregnant wife, with our son due three weeks before our first anniversary. We knew money would be tight and sacrifices would need to be made. Brad, through counsel from our wise bishop applied for several scholarships, school work programs and worked all summer in an internship for the state of Colorado. I worked long hours at an optometry office 5 days a week until two days before our due date. By the end of Brad's first semester as a sophomore we came to know each other as new parents. Garrett Bradley Price was born December 2nd, sixteen days before our first anniversary.
By the end of Brad's second semester as a sophomore, the Price family was going through some trying times. I was still working, driving an extra two hours a day to take Garrett to our kind bishop's house for daycare. At night I was helping Brad grade college biology homework. He had taken on work at school as a grader for two math classes and a biology class, I stunk at math so I took over biology. Some how Brad was able to keep up in school with a 4.0 GPA, as he was writing text books for Uganda for his Humanitarian Engineering Scholarship, grading two math classes and attending 2 hour practices every day to be the 184lb varsity wrestler for CMS.
We came to know each other as survivors through this as well, the struggling through postpartum depression took it's toll on our whole family.

First semester of junior year we were thinking we had things figured out with this whole parenting thing. Brad had worked in Borger, TX for the summer, without Garrett and I. That was hard but good for us in the long run. I was able to get through the depression and Brad learned what would become his future profession. We were thinking the next year would be better than the last. By the end of Brad's first semester as a junior, Brad was going into his third year as a college wrestler, we'd celebrated Garrett's 1st birthday, our second wedding anniversary and found out that against all odds, we'd be expecting our second child.

Junior year came to an end with us packing up and moving to Texas two weeks after Brad had knee surgery and a week and a half after school was out. Thankfully this was the last year that Brad graded and also the last year that he would have to write text books for Uganda. I was six months pregnant and Garrett was a ball of energy. We went to Baytown so Brad could work as an intern at Chevron Phillips Chemical.

We started off Brad's senior year with a bang! He missed the first week of school! I gave birth to Isaac Daniel Price on August 24th 2011, two weeks after Brad had knee surgery on the other knee. Two days after giving birth, I flew back to Colorado with our newborn and Brad drove from Tx to Colorado. We got acquainted as parents of two boys, running on little time, money or sleep. Thankfully this go around with a newborn was smooth sailing compared to the last.

Brad finished up his senior year at the Colorado School of Mines May 2012. He graduated magna kum laude with his bachelors degree in chemical engineering. He was a varsity wrestler all four years of college. He was awarded the Presidents Senior Scholar Athlete Award, one of only two given. He was given a special title from the chemical engineering department and his name is now engraven on a wall at the Colorado School of Mines Chemical Engineering Building, the male recipient of the award that year.

We made it. We were so abundantly blessed and could not have made it on our own. We made incredible friends and met so many who touched our lives more than they'll ever know. Heavenly Father had a hand in every detail of the journey. We survived four years at one of the toughest engineering colleges in the nation, two children, almost zero money, five trips to the ER, countless stitches for everyone, two knee surgeries, four wrestling seasons, two major callings at church, more tears and laughter than we could ever count and three and a half years of marriage.

We are a family of four. We all worked hard. We all sacrificed. We all learned a lot. We can't believe we made it through. Especially Brad, the super human. I'm so proud of you.

Incredible father, patient and loving husband, scholarly genius, persistent wrestler, worthy priesthood holder, college graduate, Process Controls, Automation and Chemical Engineer at Chevron Phillips Chemical.

ps: Brad's wonderful parents were able to come out for graduation day from Idaho.

My family came up from Colorado Springs.

To top it off, it snowed during the May Commencement Ceremony!

pps: Then two days later Brad had one last 5 week high intensity course of school and then we moved to Houston. But I'll tell ya more about that another day.

Garret and Isaac

Garrett is two years and four months old.
Isaac is seven months old.
Both are adorable and crazy.

Garrett is 38 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds.
This is him with his favorite blue blanket.

Isaac is 29inches tall and weighs 21 pounds.
And yes, he is doing a perfect push-up in this picture.

Garrett is growing up so fast. He's constantly talking and expressing his opinions, needs and wants, like a real human being. Don't let him fool you, read my last post before this one and you'll realize he's still very much a savage.

Isaac is a crawling machine! He's so fast! He's actually pulling himself up to stand and walking along the couch or any other surface at his height to steady himself so he can walk. Heaven help us, it's only a matter of time.

Why is my foot warm and wet?

I was about to put away the newly folded laundry when Isaac begins to whine. So I start nursing Isaac and figure I'll just put the clothes away after I'm done. Well...while I'm nursing Isaac, Garrett takes off his diaper and proceeds to pee all over the floor...and my foot. So I put Isaac down for a nap in his crib and put Garrett in the bath and I wash my foot. While cleaning the pee off of the carpet, I hear Isaac crying and then a "THUD"...and the crying got louder. Isaac, our seven month old, climbed out of his crib and flew face first onto the floor. While I'm caring for Isaac, who is in shock after his first flying lesson and screamin' his head off, Garrett gets out of the bath , comes over and pees on me AGAIN. I calm Isaac and put him on the floor away from the urine so he can crawl around, which is what he prefers. While I'm cleaning up the pee AGAIN, Garrett tries to share his cup of Chocolate Milk with Isaac. Isaac pours the entire cup of chocolate milk on the floor. So after I've cleaned up the pee AND the chocolate milk off the carpet, I see that all of the newly folded laundry is now scattered and of course, unfolded, all over the floor.
All before 10am.
Actually, that all happened within an hour.
While I've taken the last 5 minutes to type this I'm sure my kids have turned our apartment into somewhere between a petting zoo and a Walm*rt dumpster....with the smells to match.
I may not make it out of here alive.
To any one who wants kids but has not been "blessed" enough to have them, I just thought I'd let ya know, you're really not missin' out on much.
I also thought of titling this "I should invest in Resolve"
Now more than ever I want a SpotBot. So badly.

Garrett's words

Every time we get into the car:
Garrett: Yay! Zoo! Going to zoo! Yay! Thanks Mom!
Me: No, Garrett, we're not going to the zoo today. Sorry buddy, we have to _______.

After a few days of this I felt guilty and really did consider going to the zoo but we've always had other things to do so the conversation changed to:
Garrett: Yay! Zoo! Going to zoo! Thanks mom!
Me: Sorry Garrett, maybe tomorrow.

Later that day:
Me: Garrett will you help pick up your toys?
Garrett: Sorry Mom, maybe tomorrow.

This morning:
Garrett: Mom, bread? Please? (he signs please)
Me: Sure. (I hand him a piece of bread. He takes it AND the rest of the loaf and puts the loaf away in the cabinet where it belongs)
Me: Thanks Garrett! I love you!
Garrett: Welcome Mom! I love bread!

Zoo with Two.

"AHHHH! WE'RE AT THE ZOO!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!"

That's our squirrel bait climbin' on a hippo at the zoo.

Garrett loved playing on the hippos with the other kids at the zoo and thought one little boy was hysterical, he had him laughing pretty hard.

This is one of Garrett's current favorite animals, we have 3 plastic dollar store ones at home that he is constantly carrying around.

Isaac and Garrett both behaved really well while they were there at the Zoo with me.

Isaac is six months old now and has the best smile!

And this right here is Bert. He's 35, territorial and loves apples. He's also the reason we had to attend the zoo.

We were there for hippo snack time and Garrett LOVED watching the zoo keeper toss apples into Berts mouth. He wanted to spend all day with the hippos. ALL Day. Thanks Bert, it was a fun 6 hours.