Happy are we, happy are we.

I can never fully explain to anyone how happy Rick and I are. We love each other, we love Levi, we work hard, we keep the commandments, we honor our promises to our Father in Heaven, and we try to serve as much as we can. I often tell people how happy and wonderful our life is and the same reply comes, "Better be careful, you might jinx yourself. Now something terrible is going to happen." Why??? Why do we say that or think that? I just think that is so silly. Our Father in Heaven doesn't listen to us and the second we say to someone that our life is wonderful he automatically pulls out his lightning bolt and throws it down at us. I know that God loves us. The more we try and follow what he would have us do, the more we become free.
I know it is tempting to look to self help books and programs to fix things in our lives that are broken or negative. Although these ways can help us understand what we can do to be better.... they are not our solution. Our solution is to LIVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In primary if you are ever called on to answer a question, even if you didn't hear the question, the right answers are almost always, "Pray. Read your scriptures. Go to church. Serve someone." These are the most basic but profound solutions in our lives.
I know that the Book of Mormon has healing powers and is a true account of a people that existed long ago. Together with the Bible we can fully understand who our God is. He is perfect and merciful. He knows me and my strengths and weaknesses. He understands my fears and gently helps me through them. He is not a scary, fearing, angry man. He is kind, true, merciful, just, gentle, loving, and trustworthy. Those words aren't even enough to fully explain him. But don't forget we also have the Savior! He LIVES. He is the essential key in this entire plan of our earth life and the eternity. I'm so grateful for what he did for us. He died and suffered for our sins. God is merciful but he is also just. That is why all of this is so perfect. God must have laws and justice to treat everyone equal, but he gave us the Savior to show us mercy. I know all of this to be true.
It is also important to remember that there is RIGHT and WRONG. There is GOOD and BAD. There is JESUS CHRIST and SATAN. This is the perfect plan God has set out for us to learn here on earth and be happy.
Sometimes I feel like Peter that denied the Christ three times and didn't even really know he was doing it until after the third time. I sit back and don't speak up for fear that I might hurt someones feelings or get into a debate that I can't argue through. Really I am just scared to state simply what I know to be true from the mouths of the prophets and even the Savior himself. I can't be scared. I just need to state what I believe and let the Spirit touch them or not touch them. But I don't want to sit idly by. This is a small way I can speak up and let those of you that are closest to me know how I feel and what I think of life and our choices here.
I pray that if you are not in agreement with what I am saying that you respect my freedom of speech and not rebuttal me. Just take it for what it's worth to you.
I love all of you. We count ourselves lucky to have such wonderful people that love and support us. We are constantly surrounded with happy, loving, selfless people. It is so important to have people like this in our lives. You know the saying, "You are what you eat"?? Well you are who you hang out with. :)
~Alexis Brunson

Levi's First Babysitters

Rick and I had a date night and a work party over the weekend so we had our official first babysitters. Quinn is a sweet girl in our ward that comes from a wonderful family and has a good head on her shoulders. I knew I could trust her so I called her up and asked her to come watch Levi. She was excited because Levi is sooo stinkin' cute! I told her she could bring a friend so another YW in our ward came, Nicole. They were very responsible and great with Levi. I was so glad to have them in our home taking care of our most precious possession! Thanks girls for being so wonderful! (Nicole on the left, Quinn on the right) This is what we found when we came home. He loved playing with them. He couldn't have been happier. He didn't even want to go to sleep, he just wanted to be where they were!
On another note. Rick was playing with Levi the other day. It was all fun and games until Levi go a hold of the remote and began banging in on Rick's face. Rick was laughing AND hurting and that made Levi giggle even more! It sure was funny to watch.

They are so cute together!

Our little stud!

Okay, prepare to die from the "Awwww" factor!! Rick and I love dressing Levi up in his white shirts and ties! We call him our little missionary! So adorable. I couldn't pick my favorite so here are a few for your feasting pleasure! SO CUTE!! We love you our sweet future Elder Brunson.

Date Night

We went on a double date with some friends of ours. Zac and Carla Whitworth. Rick served with them in his mission. We are so glad they came from Orem to hang out with us. We went to dinner at Z'tejas at the Gateway. SUPER YUMMY! We had fun talking and catching up and then we headed out to temple square for some lights and some fun! Look how gorgeous
Rick and I love getting a picture in this same spot every year.

Aren't they cute!?

We decided we wanted to have some fun tonight so we put together a scavenger hunt around temple square. It was girls against guys. We had 15 minutes to get pictures with as many things as we could on this list I made up. Some of the things were: A carriage (being the in carriage in the picture was double points), a square within a square, animal, fire hydrant, someone with food, an old woman blowing a kiss, an untied shoe, UofU and BYU clothing, and coming up with your most creative picture. Here are just a few of the pictures. (I don't have any of the boys pictures)

We may have asked this girl to untie her shoe. ;) This was our most creative picture. We asked a bunch of strangers to do the stacking heads around a corner thing. I thought it turned out pretty good. The bottom guy was practically laying on the ground. ha ha. And um... check out that guy in the background. We raced back to the gathering place and counted up all our scores. We had a random stranger choose our most creative picture. The guys took a picture of a construction worker skateboarding on Temple Square. After much deliberation.... the GIRLS WON! By one point. Thanks guys! We had a blast.

Cold bum bum...

First off! Look how adorable Levi is when he falls asleep in his car seat. Awww!!
We got Levi a new food accessory! He loved it. It is a mesh bag on a handle. You put food inside that babies can't normally chew well such as oranges. He just bites into it and sucks all the juice out! Yummy! Nasty to clean up, but he loves it.
I've been working on "letting go" a little more. People have complimented me and also told me how annoying it is that I am such a clean freak! Well to prove that I can let go and relax I let my kitchen get messy! Look!! I'm so proud. I left bread sticks on the pans for at least an hour! There are dishes on my counter and I even left a drawer open. You can't see it but there are crumbs all over the floor too. It was monumental. I left it that way for a while until Rick came home. I wanted him to see how good I was at "letting go." ha ha. Well once he walked in and gave us both kisses and hugs he looked around. With a quizzical look on his face he said, "Um... did you know there are crumbs on the floor?" To which I replied with my explanation on my desire to be more laid back. He just smiled and said okay. Then I cleaned up and laughed when it was all clean again!

A small adventure we had this last weekend was exploring a new hot chocolate. Rick loves Stephens and I love Swiss Miss. We don't usually drink anything else. Well Rick got this free from work so we decided to try it. It has all these little milk chocolate shavings. Sounds delicious right? You are supposed to heat up milk and melt the chocolate shavings in it. Yum!???.... No!

It was terrible! As you can see by Rick's face. So we went back to our standard!

Can't beat Swiss Miss!

YUM!!

Levi can now pull himself up and often goes into the bathroom to "play." Well the other morning he found daddy when trying to get into the tub!! ha ha. I quickly undressed him and Rick pulled him into the shower to play for a few minutes! He is so much fun! He even plays peekaboo with me. He will hide behind something then poke his head out and laugh until I look! So adorable!

So after all that if you are still wondering why I titled this post as I did... well... I love winter, but no matter how high I turn up our heat or how much I move around and get my blood pumping... my bum always seems to be a bit chill! ha ha. I hate cold bum, its almost as bad as cold hands and feet!

Biggest Loser Challenge

I'm excited because some of my friends on facebook wanted to join with me in doing a biggest loser challenge. It starts Wednesday if you want to join! It should be a blast. here is the facebook link if you want to get involved!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=179547485389365

It is funny that I got some comments from people that didn't want to do it because it was Christmas time! I say, "THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO DO IT!!" Who needs to eat a ton at Christmas? No one! We may want to, but I know I feel so much better when I don't over eat. PLUS it is a good start to our new years resolutions which always involve being healthier or losing weight. I know that is what mine always are. Actually that is my all-year-long-every-year resolution. I'm hoping I can be active and disciplined in my habits to succeed in this! I did so well a few months ago and lost 10lbs. But I haven't consistently stayed below that. I've gotten down to as much as 13lbs lost, but have been going back and forth between those 3lbs. I hope this can get me back to my pre-pregnancy weight. If not, further!

The biggest challenge is staying active indoors! hee hee. Guess I'll be doing a lot of cleaning. That always keeps me entertained and moving around.

Oreo Face

I let loose and gave Levi an Oreo even though I knew that it would make a giant mess, but it was so much fun to watch him eat it and enjoy! I need to let go more often and let him be a baby and explore things and make messes. That is what babies do and he is so cute... even when he is getting into things. See how cute he is as he slowly made a chocolate mess all over himself!

It was even down on the seat of his chair. He likes to play with the buckle down there.

Great News!! and a long winded post...

No, I'm not pregnant. The wonderful news is that my Chinese companion, my soul sister, my long time friend, Wang Xiao Rong, is coming to UTAH for Christmas!! I'm so excited to see her after these 4 long years. She has tried to come to Utah for school and work but with language barriers she is currently in Hawaii doing her undergraduate work. She says he might be able to get a job here and do her masters here. She is such a loving, wonderful woman. I can't wait to have Rick meet her. I talked to her yesterday and she helped translate for me with my neighbor. There is the sweetest Chinese lady that doesn't speak English here in my apartments. Xiao Rong translated and introduced us over the phone. It was wonderful. My companion is so fun. She can see things around her that no one else would have even noticed. She would pick things off trees as we would tract and peel them and it would be some kind of food she would use in cooking our lunch the next day. Or she would plant things in our yard and grow onions, and soy beans, and other things I don't even know what they are. She is so much fun and I am always learning from her. I love you Xiao Rong and I can't wait to see you again!

We had a bunch of Rick's old high school friends over this last weekend and it was a blast to play games with them and laugh and get to know them more. I just love these guys. They are all really good, polite, crazy, and fun young men. We definitely need to do that more often! Left to right, top to bottom: Mitch , his girlfriend Laiken, Dalen, Ben, Josh , Isaac's girlfriend Anglea, Isaac, Rick, Ben's girlfriend Brittney, Emily, Clay, and Me.

Here is Levi playing with toys in the morning while I make breakfast. He is sooo stinkin' cute! Look at that grin! He is in some 9-12 month clothes that are just a little too big.

I am loving the cooler weather but it sure makes working out in the morning hard. I go at 5:30am in the morning over to the Rec Center that is just around the corner. I drive there, but it is still miserable getting out of my warm bed, getting dressed, then going outside to sit in my cold car and drive to the gym, then walk through the large parking lot... all in the cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. Did I say it enough? It is worth it when you finish working out and you feel GREAT!!

On another note: Do you ever have those moments in life when you feel like something terrible is about to happen? That has been Rick and I ever since we got married. We have been so blessed and so happy we feel like there is something around the corner that is about to make our lives miserable. It seems everyone talks about those times where they really struggled with their Faith because of such and such, or a time when they never felt more stressed about finances, etc. We have had tight financial times, we have had worries, and we have had surprises that make us a little stressed, but we have never really been shaken up about anything. I don't know... that is just something I have been thinking about lately.

Rick and I have been trying to be better with our scripture reading. Ever since we got married we have read our scriptures everyday. We started in the Old Testament 2 years ago and right now we are only in Isaiah chapter 11. I love reading with Rick. He always gets so excited about the scriptures. We decided just this last week that we would start reading the scriptures in the morning because we can pay better attention and Levi is up then and he can start being exposed to it. I am liking it a lot more. It makes going to bed less of a hassle. We all struggle with that don't we? So tired... crawl in to bed and lay our head down then realize, "OH NO... SCRIPTURES!" and then force ourselves upright and pull out the scriptures and hurry over the verses then plop back down into bed and fall fast asleep without thinking much about what we just read. Well... no more. We are making the change now! We also are trying to pick up our FHE more! Next step, getting back into our regular temple attendance which has slacked since I was 9 months pregnant.

Last night we were making muffins and we got a knock on our door. It was a real estate agent that was asking us about our plans for buying a home. He got more than he bargained for because we quickly invited him in and started firing all our questions at him. He was really positive and great about being honest with us on our situation and potential home options. We spent some time online last night looking at houses. We are locked into a lease for another 9 months so I we won't be doing anything until after that, but we are looking.

I've been looking at jobs that I can do from home and I have found a few that I think I would like very much. I am really excited about one I applied for yesterday doing general bookkeeping. I would really like to do more to contribute to our savings and also have something more to keep my mind engaged everyday. We'll see if I even hear back from that job.

What else is going on? As of last Friday Levi can officially crawl. He is getting really fast. He loves to get into all the things I clean which makes me nervous because I use bleach and other chemicals that are harmful to him. It is a struggle but I have kept him out of the way so far. I just fear he is going to do something too fast for me. Speaking of, I was not being very careful with him last night and he fell... twice... and hit his head. He has a little bruise above his right eye. It makes me so sad. He is fine, but I still feel terrible.

So I have been wondering why he hasn't been sleeping more than 10 or so hours at night lately. I realized he has grown so much and I haven't increased his formula amount at bedtime. We gave him a couple more ounces of formula the past few nights and he has slept for almost 12 hours straight! It sure helps me get more done. He is such a good child. I just love him so much.

2 YEARS!

I love you Rick! Thank you for a wonderful 2nd Anniversary!

Our 2 year Anniversary was this last weekend. I was in major need of one on one time with Rick and he happily obliged. So...we sent Levi off to play with his Uncle Joe and Aunt Jessie (well, not really his aunt and uncle, they are my cousins and good friends) and to have a sleep over with Grandma Brunson Saturday night. Rick and I were able to have a full 32 hours kid free and careless! We slept in, enjoyed the Little America Buffet, went shopping, took a nap, walked around downtown, and more! It was wonderful! We missed Levi, but welcomed the time to remember each other and play together.

If you have never eaten at Z'tejas at the Gateway you MUST go! I loved it. The menu has different sections for every kind of person: low calorie, gluten free, vegetarian, etc. And their Pecan dessert was to DIE for!! Oh delicious!After dinner we went for a walk downtown. Rick had a surprise for me and I was 100% clueless as to what it was. I told him when we were dating that he had to take me on a carriage ride! Well, he kept his promise. We were walking by the carriages and he guided me over to the curb and just got on. He had already reserved it and everything. So sweet and romantic. He even did it at a certain time (6:15pm) so that it would be during sunset.Our Anniversary was perfect! We even took a trip to the moon!

Halloween

Levi has the cutest ears that stick out and he is always making noises and likes to be swung around... like a monkey. So it was only fitting that we dressed him up like one for Halloween. He was so cute and everyone loved his costume!

Look at that smile! Awww!! Can you see the cute tail?
I took him to Rick's work to "parade" him around with his co-workers kids! It was fun for Rick to show him off to the people he works with.

One of the girls that he works with was Gumbi! What a pair! We took him to my aunts house that night to hang with his 2nd cousin and our friends. Derrick made root beer and Levi loved the foggy stuff from the dry ice.

We embarked to take him trick-or-treating. We only took him to one house then back to my aunt's house.

I tried to get him to push the doorbell. He couldn't figure it out.

Isn't that adorable!?

Last Friday Rick and I went to Provo to double with my friend who won tickets to the Haunted Forest. I didn't get pictures of that date. My mission president's wife, Sister Lindley, watched Levi for us while we were out. She dressed him up and took him to their ward party. I was laughing when I saw him because he was sooooooo cute! Look what she did?!

Now that is one of the cutest pictures I have of Levi! Don't you think?

Fundraiser for Princess Maggie

Maggie is a sweet 4 year old with Cerebral Palsy. There is a treatment called Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Therapy. HBO therapy is a medical treatment that uses the administration of 100 percent oxygen at controlled pressure for a prescribed amount of time—usually 60 to 90 minutes. This treatment dramatically increases the amount of oxygen at the cellular level. In simple terms these oxygen "dives" as they call it, should help to awaken brain cells that have been dormant since Maggie's birth. Jodie, Maggie's mother, was telling us about another child they knew that was just like Maggie and had these treatments. Apparently this year that child was running outside with other children! Can you imagine??!! Maggie talking, walking, and even running??!! She can't even sit up on her own or talk, let alone run! This is why we got involved. Jodie is a friend of my sisters and I heard about their desire to raise money by having families come together and do service! Well, my husband and I wanted to help and we got our friends, and their husbands, involved. My friend, Justine, is Princess Amerah (princessamerah.com) and she wanted to throw a royal ball to help someone in need so with desires combined we created the "Princess Amerah's Royal Ball, honoring Princess Maggie." It was a lot of work and a lot of FUN!! Here are a few pictures to show you how it all turned out.

Maggie had a special dance with Prince Charming. It was so sweet to watch. I almost started crying. The group of us that put this together. From top to bottom, left to right: Jen, Cami, Andrew, Jenn, Justine, and me! These girls... and guy are such wonderful people to serve with. We made sure to get our picture taken by our photographer that night, bookitphoto.com. Thanks Heidi for all the wonderful pictures!
The registration table as you came in. The raffle table is in the background. We have 11 prized donated to the raffle from different people wanting to help Maggie! It was wonderful!

All the cute kids and Princess Amerah (and... Mrs. Utah even came!).

You can see how many people were there! We had games, refreshments, facepainting, prizes, dancing, and storytelling by Princess Amerah.

Overall we raised about $2700. It was a wonderful cause and such an amazing event!

This is what Jodie, Maggie's mother, had to say about the whole thing:

"The party of the century, Maggie’s Royal Ball, was Tuesday evening. I’ve been at an unusual loss for words as I’ve thought about how to describe this incredible experience to all of you, and express our thanks to everyone who worked so hard to pull it off so beautifully.

As Doug and I walked in we were speechless at the beauty, and the special attention given to the smallest of details. The ball was held at Noah’s Event Center. A supremely elegant facility, worthy of the most beautiful princesses. Hard wood floors, a winding staircase, vaulted ceilings, magical windows, glittery lights galore, and tables with silky tablecloths and pretty pink flowers.

We were greeted by a beautiful poster of Maggie and Princess Amerah (done by zipgraphic.com) welcoming all the guests. When the guests arrived they were given raffle tickets to place on their favorite choice of a table full of donated items. The grand prize was a Princess Amerah party. The winner of the party was a beautiful little princess that was so beside herself with joy that it was worth the evening just to witness that.

Along the walls were various games like the Dress-up Relay Race, Evil Nanny Olga Bean Bag Toss, and the Tiara Toss, which little Lee did a fabulous job of managing. He dutifully handed out candy to the winners who were able to get the tiara on the pole. Jack, my son, was a happy winner of an orange lollipop.

There was also the “Make Maggie a Card” station. All the participants were invited to draw a picture with a special message for Maggie. At the end of the evening Maggie was presented with a binder brimming with messages of love, hope and inspiration.

One of my favorite parts was the dancing. Each prince and princess was given a dance card to wear around their wrist. It was a fun party favor. Dance instruction was given by the Old Glory Vintage Dancers. Of course there came the special dance with Prince Charming. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place as they danced. Thank you Mr. Prince Charming. Maggie's favorite activity was the facepainting.

There was a point in the evening where I was given the opportunity to introduce Maggie and tell the guests a little more about her story, and the therapy that this whole event would be sponsoring.

Another amazing gift were the BookIt Photographers that took pictures of all the guests. You can see other pictures that they took of the evening at bookitphoto.com. We’ve never had a family photo of all 5 (gulp) of us. So we were especially thankful for this gift.

Then came the big unveiling. How much did the evening bring in for Maggie’s therapy? $2700 at the last count I heard. I just have my head in my hands in awe, and wonder, and gratitude.

And finally, our patron Angels. Thank you dear friends for having this vision, and enough love to make it happen. This ball was the tipping point for achieving our goal of 80 dives for Maggie. We did it!

Princess Amerah . . . you put on one smashing party! Thank you. Gi’me Five!"