The Chubby Challenge

Right now, I'm in AZ and Clint is in UT. Guess what he did yesterday? He took on The Chubby Challenge at some diner in AF with his brother. It's 1 pound of burger plus 5 pieces of texas toast/burger fixin's and 1 pound of fries. The burger is piled so high, they had to use a knife to keep it standing. Clint totally failed but Kade ate the entire thing with time to spare! They have 15 minutes to eat everything and Kade had the entire burger down in 6 minutes leaving 9 minutes to take his time to eat his fries. Crazy!! The Marines teach that boy to do some craaaazy things!

Pictures are before, during, and after from Chad's cell phone. Get this.. they went out for ice cream after!!

Before.

During.

After.

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas Eve after we were married, Clint and I had a midnight snack craving but everything was closed - except Denny's! We decided to make it a yearly tradition.. aaaand that lasted only 2 years. :) I have a picture from 2006 but can't find it and 2007 we went with Becky & Ryan and little 1 month old Grace! Then, last year, we were in Phoenix and we were just too tired and I was a little manic about going anywhere in public so we opted out. This year we decided to upgrade and change our tradition a little into a trip to IHOP and it was SOOOO YUMMMY. I had apple cream cheesy whip creamy crepes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and sausage. (Can you believe I'm actually losing weight right now?? HA!) Clint and Kade had everything else on the menu. It was simple and yummy but the tradition is BACK. ON.

Also. My camera broke in San Diego at the beginning of December so now all my pictures are horrible. But it sorta does the job.

How I Get Ready in the Morning

Cookie Monster, Trix, Apple juice,

and a little entrapment. :)

Picking Up Kade

I'm finally getting around to this post. Holy smokes. At the beginning of December, we went to San Diego to pick up Kade! It was such a fun, fast, long (yes.. fast AND long), and PAINFUL trip.

Quick sum up.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Drove to San Diego, checked into MCRD, and got lost A LOT. Majorly stressful.

Thursday: Waited and got teased by Drill Instructors who kept our recruits from us all day while we walked from event after event until we FINALLY got to see Kade that afternoon. It was ridiculous how long that took... Spent all afternoon letting Kade show us around and tell us all

about his last 13 weeks. He's so grown up now and has totally mellowed out. Our little brother has grown up!

Friday: The actual graduation! It's amazing how much pride you feel for America when you attend one of these. The plan was to leave at noon that day but Kade had to buy new clothes since he had none and then spent a few hours getting lost trying to find the Pizza Hut that was 15 MINUTES AWAY. Ugh. Meanwhile, I was experiencing the most horrendous painful medical issue that is crazy embarrassing and I will definitely NOT be sharing the details on this little blog.. but I will openly tell you what happened if you asked me in person. I have class. :) HA!

Jayne, me, & Kelsey waiting to see Kade

Darbi chillin' to the max.

First time seeing Kade at the "motivational run". They just run by us before they run a little 5K while we scream and holler. Kade is right in the middle - I think 7 heads from the right. (6.5 heads from the left) :)

Aww! Brothers!

Kade & his friend Private Fuller

Merry Christmas!

Before I commence with the December blog catch-up,

We wanted to wish you and yours a late Merry Christmas! :)

I think I love Thanksgiving the best.

I think I love Thanksgiving the best.. More food, less stress in the money area, AND it's all about being thankful. Christmas is great but I think the message is easily lost in the excitement of all the lights and presents. Thanksgiving is sweet and simple.. and tasty! This year, we spent the

long weekend with my family in Idaho. Remember that ridiculous "Blizzard of 2010"?? We were

all set to leave Wednesday but with the ominous threats from the news about this storm, we left

Tuesday and ended up getting stuck in it worse than if we had left Wednesday. We had fine weather until we crossed the border into Idaho. Then it was like a wall of fog and bam! Crappy roads. We had chains with us but didn't actually need them until we hit my Grandparents driveway. There was a 3 foot snow drift blocking our way and chains or not, we weren't getting through. I think 8 different cars stopped to try and help us, 2 were cops and we had to get pulled

back 2 different times. To top it off, Clint was in shorts AND it was -2 degrees NOT counting the wind chill! What a man. :)

Wednesday we headed up to a cabin in Island Park we rented for the weekend and surprise,

surprise, got stuck in that driveway too. The chains pulled through and we were fine. Then, we

drove back down to Sugar City for Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family.

OH funny story. We totally saw a Moose and her calf in the road on the way to the cabin except I was freaking out because Clint told me, like 20 minutes before, that even if you're in the car, a

moose will kill you! He said that if you hit one their antlers/bodies crash right through the windshield and instantly kill the passengers!! I was a maniac! I was stressing out so bad thinking that they were going to charge us! Even my hands were falling asleep. I'm such a baby..

Trip highlights:

- the "hazardous" drive to ID

- Getting stuck in the driveway - TWICE

- Darbi's first nosebleed from slamming her face into the ground from slipping on the super slick

cabin wood floors.

- Me forgetting my winter coat. Dumb, I know.

- Snowmobiles and snowshoeing

- Darbi mastered saying "Hi Gigi" (for grandma) and "Hi Paca" (for grandpa)

- Darbi playing in the snow for the first time

- Chili and cream of broccoli soup after being outside

- the stuffing at Thanksgiving dinner (I don't know who made it but it was AWESOME)

- Clint says "Watching my Patriots WALLOP the Lions"

- Grandpa's new big screen TV!

Picture overload.

The cabin.

Darbi makes this face all the time and it's my FAVORITE!! PURE excitement!!

Dad and his brothers after Thanksgiving dinner.

Darbi in the snow! First time ever!

Clint on the snowmobile!

We're so mean!

This was Halloween night.
Since we didn't have very many trick or treator's at Grandma's house,
we let Darbi raid the stash in Grandma's special monster hand treat bucket.
We're so mean.
And sorry the video is so dark.

A Witchy Halloween

We didn't take D trick or treating. She nor I needed the candy so we went to Corn Belly's Saturday morning with my Mom who was in town and let her walk around and run herself ragged. The big slides we her favorite and it made no matter that she was 2 hours late for her nap. She wanted to ride that slide all day long. Oh the tantrums in between slide rides. It was hilarious. She was adorable. That's pretty much it.

Isn't that the best expression ever?! She made this face over and over that day.. It's so perfect.

A little video of our slide rider.

A bit of Halloween

A video of Darbi in part of Grandma Linda's witch costume...
More to come.

What Happened in October...

How did October just come and go?? I was looking at pictures I took back in August and that really doesn't feel like it was 3 months ago! What the heck?! Here's what we did... (It wasn't a super exciting month for us..)

- At the beginning of September, Darbi got a nasty cold that seemed to last ALL month. On and off... we think she caught 2-3 different things (lucky lucky us with her crappy immune system) and it turned into bronchitis. Not pneumonia though. She was having some crazy bad breathing retractions and I kind of freaked out thinking she needed her O2 again. We made a midnight trip to the ER, got some antibiotics, and slept the entire next day. She recovered just fine!

- That same time Darbi made her trip to the ER, I had been suffering from the worst migraine of my life. I tend to have headaches a lot but this was something altogether different. Oh the pounding... I lasted like 6 or so days before I went into the Dr. just to have him tell me I had a sinus infection! I had no idea I was even sick! Yucky..

- On Oct 12 the sequel to The Maze Runner came out! It's called The Scorch Trials and I have yet to read it. :( I'm still waiting for my turn to get it at the library.. Monday or Tuesday and it should be my turn!

- We had our 4th anniversary on the 14th! It was pretty uneventful. I think we went to Texas Roadhouse... or Mi Ranchito. Is it sad that I can't even remember? :( It was only 3 weeks ago. I did take a picture of us though! But the Saturday after that, we went up and had dinner at The Copper Onion in SL. A.MAZ.ING. It was so good, I was literally suppressing moans between bites. THAT. GOOD. Go. You'll thank me.


- Darbi had her first bubble bath. She hated it. Hilarious.


- I started babysitting my neighbor's little boy 2 days a week and he's ADORABLE. Totally fills my baby cravings. Darbi is so helpful when he's around. He cries, she hands me everything she thinks will make him happy. It's adorable.

- Clint had sinus surgery at the end of October. They fixed his deviated septum, took out some polyps and cysts that shouldn't have been there, and cleaned out a chronic sinus infection on both sides. Gross I know. He can breath so much better now though. I don't know if the snoring will stop but here's hoping!!

Before surgery watching Sesame Street in the Pre-Op room.

After surgery with the new 'stash.

- Halloween with my Mama in town! But that will be another post!

- My cousin Andrew saw this super cute dress while on a trip to San Antonio and instantly thought of Darbi. It's adorable on her! She looks like a little Spanish Senorita. Thanks Bratsman fam!!! I need to make a giant flower bow for her to wear with it.


- This part may be too personal but because this blogs main purpose is about Darbi and our baby making issues (I think...) I'll share this lil' tidbit. A few days ago I got an IUD. A copper one. I hated every minute of getting it but I think it's going to be awesome. I'm in no shape to be getting pregnant so no babies for us from us anytime soon. Hopefully at the start of the new year, we'll get our adoption papers going. Getting pregnant is way way too risky for us right now so it had to be done.

- In an effort to get in shape to someday make a baby again, I started shunning sugar! The first 2-3 days were incredibly difficult but I'm having no problem staying on top of it. We'll see how the holidays "treat" me... (That was for you Amy..) :)

OORAH!

This is Clint this time. Audrey thought it would be best if I wrote this post.

A few weeks ago, we had kind of a big event in our family... 6 months ago, my Mom called me and asked "Did Kade really join the Marines?!" I had no idea, but it was true. Kade had been speaking with recruiters for the previous few months to decide if it was right for him. A few weeks ago, the day finally came for him to report to San Diego for boot camp. The day before, we had a family barbecue.

Boot Camp for the Marines is 12 weeks long and is the most demanding (both physically and mentally) than any other. To add to that, Kade got pneumonia his second week there and spent a couple days on bed rest. From his letters, it sounds like he's actually having fun. Not that we're really all that surprised. Kade has been preparing for this for 6 months. He knew what he was getting in to.

They say a recruit can never receive enough letters. We've been writing him almost non-stop. If you feel like dropping him a letter to let him know you appreciate his sacrifices, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

Recruit Pedersen, Kade D.

2nd Bn. Golf Co. Plt 2141

36001 Midway Ave

San Diego, CA. 92140-2141

Semper Fi!

Play Kitchen

For Christmas, I'm going to figure out how to make Darbi this...

or this...



They're cuter than the store bought ones.. Any tips for me??

Midnight Munchers

I thought I should put up a post regarding this post from this vacation..
About the bed bugs..
My friend Amy informed me that all my friends in real life and web life probably think disgusting things about us. (assuming people actually read this)
She said it nicely though. She's a good friend. :)

We don't have them! Wahoo!! I just didn't want anyone out there thinking we were nasty little bed bug transports and out there sharing them with the public.
Instead, we had other fun little critters munching on our deliciously sweet bodies! I don't know what exactly but our good friends at Guardian Pest Control assured us they would put an end to the midnight snacking.

We are sleeping soundly and waking up bug bite free nowadays.

Blowing Bubbles

Try to ignore any spit noises I make..
I was chewing gum and blowing bubbles and Darbi thought she could do it.
It's just too cute not to share.

Build-a-Bear

Today, my Grandma Linda (D's great grandma) took Darbi to the mall to get her first Build-a-Bear. It's the softest cutest bunny and she l.o.v.e.s. it!! The funny thing is, just yesterday, I was walking around the mall and took D into the B.a.B store to look at the bears. I saw this bunny rabbit with long ears that were hot glittery pink and I loved it! I showed Darbi and let her hold it for a minute. I didn't tell grandma about it though. Grandma said she let Darbi choose which animal she wanted and she totally wanted the bunny with hot pink ears! I loved it!! And so does D. She drags it everywhere and is constantly giving it loves and kisses. I can't even stand how cute it is.



Giving kisses. :)

The Tissue Box

I left a tissue box in the backseat. Within arms reach. :(

1 mile down the road and we're at the grocery store...
they were literally floating out of the car.. there were so many tissues!

Labor Day BBQ

First of all.. prepare for picture overload. There's really only like 10-ish pictures..
Second of all.. Can you believe I've never been ice blocking?! Never! Whenever they went for a YW activity, I was always gone.. soccer practice, x-country race.. something. Anyway.. It. was. AWESOME. So for Labor Day/Kade leaving, we had a BBQ at the park near Clint's growing-up-home and went ice blocking!

Baby Tyler.. adorable right??

Kade & Kelsey.. also adorable right?? :)

Chad, Kade, & Clint

Chad, Pam, Kade, & Clint

Darbi & Kelsey

I took Darbi down the hill with me. It was a small hill. I don't think she cared either way.. :)

Darbi wasn't feelin' so hot today. I love when she gives little loves.

Zoo Trip

Last Saturday we went to the zoo. I think Darbi loved it but the whole thing kinda sucked.. for me anyway. I had the stomach flu all day and still decided to go. It was hot. I wore a sweater cuz I'm stupid. The animals were boring. That's pretty much it. And I fought myself all the way home to make sure I didn't lose it in the car. Darbi did love the monkeys and the birds though.. We'll try again when it cools off. Hopefully the animals aren't so boring next time..