So Sneaky!!!!

Last Saturday we went to a few stores to find Jared a new pair of pants. Brogen does not share my love for shopping and it is never easy to take him but it was particularly bad this day. I was trying to get different sizes for Jared and take to him in the dressing room, and try and keep track of Brogen and he was bored so he wasn't sticking by me very good. I turned my head for literally 2 seconds and he was gone. I thought ok no biggie he is just probably on the next aisle but he wasn't. So I walked to the front of the store and I didn't see him anywhere. I start calling his name and walked to the back of the store. No Brogen. So now I am starting to panic just a little but think to myself there is no way he left the store he has to be here somewhere. So I keep walking around the whole store and finally tell Jared to come out and help me look. Mind you this store is not very big so I am really starting to get panicked by this point. We are calling his name and then Jared says I just heard him sneeze so he is here somewhere and then a girl said are you looking for a little boy because there is one hiding in the clothes rack over here. Sure enough this is what we found.















































I was so relieved that he was in the store and not taken by some pedophile, but then I was mad at the little stinker for hiding from me and not answering when I called his name. Who does that!? I gave him a little lecture about how he needed to stay close to me because unfortunately there are bad people who might take him and I would never see him again and that it is naughty to hide from me and he was in trouble. He just stared at me and then said "No Mama, I hide! So I am positive he didn't care about one word I was saying. Jared also said my lecture became obsolete when I told him to pose in his little hiding spot so I could get a picture. Ha!

I guess it is exhausting hiding from your Mom and making her lose a year off of her life worrying about you being gone, so he had to take a little break and put his feet up.

A year gone by.......

Wow! Its awesome that it has been a year since I have blogged! What a slacker. I promised Annie that it was one of my New Years resolutions to keep up a little better on the blog. I think I just get too overwhelmed thinking that I have to do something great and always have pictures but I really don't I can just write something. Then if it has been awhile I don't know where to start so I just keep getting further behind. Brogen does and says so many cute things that I want to remember and so I need to write them down. So how do you recap a whole year? You don't, so I am just going to start with right now and go from there. So here is what we have been up to lately:

Jared- Just started his last semester at SUU. I have to pinch myself a lot because it feels like I am dreaming. We have been doing the school thing since we got married. That is 5 freaking years! He has taken a couple classes a semester until just the last 2 years and he has gone full time. I am so excited for him to be done. We just got through the worst semester of our lives and we almost didn't make it out alive. We literally only saw each other on the weekends and it was really hard. This is the second semester that Jared has had to drive to SUU everyday so we are excited for him to be done with that commute and to have a little extra money in our pockets. Paying for gas is killing us! We recently did a weight loss competition with my family and Jared lost 20 lbs and is looking pretty dang good. He also won the competition and got some money to buy some stuff he has been wanting. He is still working nights at the school and that has been a blessing for him to have that job that works around all of our schedules.

Shannon- I just try to keep up with working full time and being wife and mom to my very active needy 2 year old. I was able to cut back to 32 hours a week this last semester so that we didn't have to put Brogen in day care and that was so amazing to get to spend that time with him that I don't normally get. I am crossing my fingers that after graduation Jared can get a decent job and I can become jobless or at least part time. I am crossing my toes too :) I lost a few pounds doing the weight loss competition but I am still working really hard to lose more. We are trying to be a lot healthier at our house and I am trying to do some sort of work out everyday which is not easy. Some mornings I get up bright and early and get to the gym and some days I just do a work out at home but anything is better than nothing. I have a new found love for pinterest. I just started a couple days ago but I have already spent way too much time on it. I have been loving all the fun ideas I can use someday if I ever get a house.

Brogen- I don't even know where to begin with him. He is a one of a kind that is for sure. He is in a really fun but hard stage right now. He already has a very strong willed, stubborn personality so put that with the terrible twos and watch out! I think he is teaching me patience. He will be 3 this April, I can't even believe it. He is a smart little guy and has the memory of an elephant. He knows his alphabet, all the colors, can count too 25 and knows all the numbers. He can totally run our computer and has been for months now, mouse and all. It took him about a minute to figure out how to run the mouse. I couldn't believe he could do it! So now he can play Starfall all by himself and I don't have to sit there and click it for him while he bosses me around. He loves to draw still and he always draws a moon. He is obsessed with motorcycles and his cars and trucks right now and he loves playing daddy's motorcycle game on the Xbox. He has no interest what so ever in potty training no matter what we do and he has started having night terrors so he is waking up screaming in the night and we can't seem to ever feel like we get enough sleep. Over Christmas break he missed quite a few naps and then just decided he is done with naps altogether so that has been rough because he still needs a nap. We still have to go to great lengths to get him to eat but he is getting a little better. Right now we can get him to eat pizza, PB &J's, popcorn chicken, broccoli, hotdog, and corn. He loves popcorn and M&M's and he loves to sneak swigs of my "Mama juice" as he calls it (Diet Pepsi). He still has to have his juice and blankies and says to me I want to hold you Mom. So I get to snuggle him until his juice is gone and then he is done with that. He loves going to the nursery and playing with other kids. My friend Mikell tends him for 3 hours 2 days a week for us and her little boy Cayson is the same age as Brogen and he loves going there and playing with Cayson and it has been really good for him. He can still be pretty shy when he is around new people but he is getting better with that. He has been saying the funniest things. I wish I would have written them down but a few that I can remember:

-He wanted me to play the motorcycle game on the Xbox so I humored him and I wasn't very good so when I finally passed a level he said "Good job Mama, you are so big"

Since he doesn't eat great we really praise him after he eats a meal and say "you did it, you ate that pizza so good" and one day he ate really good so I let him have a chocolate kiss and when he was done he said, " I did it Mama, I ate that chocolate so good!" Like we really have to talk him into eating chocolate :)

The other day my Mom was at our house tending him and he wanted to watch Toy Story so she was trying to figure out how to do it since we got a new TV and it was taking her a minute and he finally said, "What the duece Grandma?" He learned that one from his dad, he says it all the time.

My little nephews taught him to say, "what's up brotha" and he folds his arms and moves his head around when he does it. It is hilarious!

We were watching Tangled and I started singing the song and he said, "Don't Mama" so I stuck out my bottom lip to let him know I was sad he didn't like my singing and so he said, "Ok, do it Mama."

We have been asking him for awhile now if he would like a brother or sister to come live at our house and his answer varies but the one we get the most is, "No, this is Brogen house!" And no, we are not pregnant we just like to bug Brogen about it because he is so spoiled and we are going to have to prepare him for another sibling like a year in advance.

I know there are a million more things that I can't remember and I am going to be better about writing them down and doing at least a monthly update. We can shoot for that! I am looking forward to 2012. It is going to be a good year for us!