5 Important parenting tips from Brittany!

Hey everyone!
 So a lot of you always ask me "How is Carson so well behaved?!" Or I get the comment "He is such a good baby!"
So I thought I would take a minute and share with you a few things I find to be the "key ingredients" in my parenting choices.

1. We don't say the word "NO".
   - I'm sure you have all heard the 2 year old at the grocery store screaming "NO NO NO NO NO!" and yes, that mom IS in fact tired of hearing it too. There is a way, however, to have your child steer away from this habit that all kids this age have. Use positive affirmations! Instead of telling Carson "No, you can't play with that!" I say "Carson, let's put that away and find something else, please."

2. We imagine how we would feel.
  - Now this part goes hand-in-hand with number 1.
You probably work better when your boss is kinder to you, right? You would rather hear "Hey, Brittany, instead of throwing the paper in the black garbage pail, can you please recycle it in the green one?" V.S - "No, Brittany, that's not right. quit putting that in the black garbage pail!"

3. Let him experience life.
  - We all want to protect our kids, that's a given. We definitely wouldn't let them touch the hot pot on the stove intentionally. But for the things that don't matter, let them figure it out on their own! Let them make a mess of their food! Let them go play with the kids at the park. Just let them be. This is, assuming you will intervene when necessary, we don't want the poor kid in the sandbox to be knocked unconscious. (Most of the time.) Your child will become independent and social if you let them PLAY.

4.Never underestimate your child!
  - I made this mistake! Carson and I were outside picking out things to gather in his "treasure bucket" and he wanted to put a HUGE rock in there. I said to him "That rock is too big! You won't be able to lift it!" Sure enough, he did! We often think our children are incapable of something, but that is because we haven't seen them try it yet! Believe in your child, and they will believe in themselves.

5. Share the love.
  - My mom taught me how important it is to tell someone you love them. ALWAYS have it be the last thing you tell your child. Even when we got into fights and were screaming at each other, the last thing we screamed over the phone before hanging up on one another, was "I LOVE YOU!" *click*  I'm so happy my mom taught me this because I have friends who don't tell their parents over the phone, and I always silently think "What if that were the last time you talked to your mom?"  For me, I'm glad the last thing I said to my mom was "I love you." TELL YOUR CHILD YOU LOVE THEM, AND THEY WILL KNOW IT FOREVER.

I hope you liked my blog! You don't have to "agree" with me on this matter, I just thought I'd share, since so many people comment on Carson's behavior!

Millie- The Fighter.

This is Millie Flamm. Millie is 6 years old and has the best smile I have ever seen!!! How do I know Millie? She is my aunt's niece! What makes Millie so special? Well, she has gone through 2 years of chemo for a horrible disease called leukemia. She was just 4 when she had to go through it the first time. YES. I did say THE FIRST TIME. Her and her family were celebrating "no more chemo" when they found out, the monster was back. Her only hope now is a bone marrow transplant. They tried to see if her younger brother was a match, and unfortunately he was not.  You can help Millie! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider donating your bone marrow. It is crucial for children (and adults) with this horrible cancer. THIS IS HER LAST CHANCE! Millie deserves this so much. She deserves to do great things in life.

I went to visit her while I was up at Primary Children's Hospital last week for Carson. We were talking about how awesomely her room was decorated for Valentine's Day. Millie started talking to me and do you want to know how her sentence started out? "The first time I found out I had cancer...."  To me, that is soooo sad! No child should have to say that. I just started to cry and wanted to hug her so much. She has such a wise soul and seems so innocent, yet she is so grown up already.

If you can't donate marrow, please try to donate a little time to making a card or note. Those sort of things just light up her day, I'm sure! I plan on visiting Millie again soon and would be happy to deliver your cards (or anything else you would like) to her. Thanks everyone, and pass along the message!

If you want to talk to Millies parents or ask questions, please contact me and I will give you her parent's facebook info (by asking them first)

MRI Results/ Valentine's Day

Well today was really awesome! I woke up early to make Adam some home-made waffles, but soon found out we were out of eggs, so I sent him to the store. He came back with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and orange rolls. We had a BLAST cooking together  :)    After our yummy breakfast, we watched a Johnny Depp movie <3 (Adam also brought it back from his trip to the store.)  We babysat our cute nephew Blake and adorable niece Kaitlyn. I also had job training today and may I say, I DID AWESOME! I love my life!

Carson's doctor called us today! They got the results and everything is A.O.K!  He does have a little fat patch at the base of his spinal cord, but they said that is nothing to be concerned about. I am soooo grateful for all the love, positive energy, and prayers everyone has sent our way. Thanks for all your support everyone! I feel so much better knowing that Carson is not going to have all the struggles I have had to go through. I know that there are worse things that could happen (believe me, I've seen worse off!) but it is a HUGE relief knowing that there is without a doubt no question that he is free of Tethered Cord Syndrome! Yay! So Carson will (continue to) live a care free and normal life. Such a happy little booger!

Carson's MRI

Everyone has been asking about Carson. (I recently posted via Facebook we had an appointment with a neurologist) Here is the update so far: Carson has an MRI on the 13th of February at Primary Children's Hospital. It is nothing that anyone should be concerned about because we don't know anything yet! The ONLY reason(s) they are doing an MRI is because he has a Sacral dimple (right above his bum on his back) and because I have a syndrome called Tethered Spinal Cord. They said they normally wouldn't do imaging, but due to my history, they want to make sure. He has so far met all the milestones for his age. There are other symptoms that we won't know about until he is older (bed wetting, tripping, pain, etc) but they want to find out now while we are ahead. I REALLY struggled with the decision of giving him an MRI because I didn't want to sedate my poor little booger. I've heard many stories about the anesthesia damaging children and I didn't want that for him. I also didn't want to put him at risk for developing more issues if we didn't "catch" this syndrome now. So I finally made a decision after talking to several people and getting input from other parents. We are going to go through with the MRI. It is scheduled at 1 on Feb. 13. I am very anxious, but I'm also 100% sure that I need to go through with this. There was just an overwhelming feeling that I needed to do it (once I had calmed down and put my worries aside.). Thanks for all your guys' support on this situation and love  :)  Let's think good thoughts this Monday!

A short update. :)

Well, it seems like I never have time to blog anymore! But here are some of the things that are going on as of late:

• Putting gutters on the house!
• Finding out what we need for our home.
• Carson had his first birthday!
• Joining a great, new ward  :)

This will just be a quick blog, but at least its a blog, right?
Here is Adam on his new ladder putting up the gutters on our house.

One of the MANY presents Carson got for his birthday!

Stay tuned for more updates. No time to blog today! AHHHH. 

TOMORROW... I LOVE YA... you're only a day away!

So everyone, the big day is tomorrow! Yep, we are FINALLY moving! This morning after Adam got off work (around 8 am) we went to sign all the closing papers!!!! Last night was the longest night of my entire life. It was seriously like Christmas! So tomorrow we get to pack up a U-Haul, lug all of our stuff to our new place, and then we get to unpack it!
(If anyone is willing to help, please let me know!)

We are so excited about this move... There is so much going on all at once. Carson is turning one in like two weeks, or less!
We will be having a Halloween Costume/ House Warming Party on October 29th, so let me know if you can come! (This party is family appropriate) Gifts for our new home are appreciated, but not required for the party! I can't wait to see you all at our new place.  :)

Beginning of another story/book.

(We will see where this "story" goes. I'm feeling confident about it. It's not much, yet. I'll keep adding to it as ideas flow.)



I thought about you today. I think about you everyday. As I was thinking about you, I started to cry. Where are you now? I'm sure you're happy wherever you are, but I truly wish you were here. I wish I could lay on your chest and  tell you about my day, about the cute couple I saw at the grocery store, and how they were talking about their perfect wedding. She was still holding her bouquet and had her veil on. Wearing a white sundress. Do you remember our perfect wedding? How we had to stop at the gas station on the way to the hotel, so I could use the bathroom?My wedding dress hardly fit into the doorway! We laughed so hard, the tears rolled down our faces. I wish we could do it all over again.

All the wishes in the world could never bring you back to me. We don't have a second chance. Do we? So many questions are swimming around in my mind right now. Can't you just come back? Why did this happen to us? Do you think about me, and our three beautiful children?
 I even have anger toward you. How could you do this to us? You left me with so much to take care of. I'm still too scared to go down into the basement when a fuse blows. I need you back to do these things for me! We were so pleasantly happy together. Why at this moment, did you choose to leave?

Either you were too perfect, or God wants me to be miserable. He took you away from me. Way too soon. We never went to Italy, we never built our own house, we never took the kids to Disneyland. But most of all, we didn't open your restaurant. We still had so many dreams to make come true and I'm sorry, I just thought we had our whole lives to spend together.