Brady, Brady, Brady

Around here, it seems like BRADY is the most loved, popular, and perfect person on the planet!  The kids (and their parents) are totally in love with this little guy.  It's been fun (and annoying at times) to see how much the kids love him.  And I love watching him grow, although I wish he'd slow down a bit.  He has gotten into much better sleeping and eating patterns, which is soooo nice.  His record for sleeping is still just 4 hours, but he's getting pretty consistant with 3 or a little longer.  And the kid is chunking up nicely. At his 2 weeks checkup, he had already gained 1 lb. 10 oz.!!  I love fat babies! 

Here he is at 1 week . . .

 . . .2 weeks . . .

 . . . and 3 weeks.

And with the 3 kids that are completely smitten by him.

Brady's Birth Week: Gymnastics and the County Fair

Brady came a week late. The week before he was born, when he should have come, I had nothing--absolutely NOTHING--on my calendar.  Just waiting for a baby to come.  But he was in no hurry, or maybe he thought it would be funny to try to make chaos the following week, but whatever the reason, he decided to be born right in the middle of county fair. 
This was Connor's first year showing a steer at the fair, so he was there all week with his animal--Monday through Saturday.  He did great and had a great time!  He stayed in a camper there with his aunt and cousin who was also showing a steer.  I'm so grateful to her for taking care of him all week long since I really couldn't be there.  Tony had a crazy schedule all week, going back and forth to Evanston (a 30-minute drive) I don't know how many times! He would go in every morning and evening to help with chores, bring hay, etc.  He even stayed a couple nights.  I went into labor Monday night, and Tuesday morning was still not ready to go to the hospital.  Tony needed to head into the fair to help with chores, and I didn't dare let him leave without me in case things started progressing better while he was gone. So I went along and labored at the fair all morning!  Great memory, huh?  Anyway, the rest of that day and the next, he was back and forth between the fair and the hospital.
My first night at home was without Tony, and Brady hardly slept. The next morning, I loaded up 2-day-old Brady and the girls and headed into the fair to watch the steer show. Crazy, right?  But I actually felt pretty good, and my family was coming to watch the show and see the baby, so I had help.  And how could I NOT go watch Connor?  He had been working so hard for this day since last December!  Sometimes moms have to do crazy things to support their kids, I guess.

 Connor learned a lot about fitting his steer to show. Mariah always likes to help brush the steer.

Mariah was great help in the barn. What a worker!

Setting up the feet

 Poke loved to have his belly scratched.  Connor did a nice job of keeping Poke's head up and looking at the judge. Great smile, too!

Connor and Poke

Another thing to remember about Brady's birth week is that he was born during the Olympics. I LOVED the Olympics! In one way, it was good timing since I could sit around and not feel guilty about watching it so much. (I'm recovering, right?)  But I also stayed up way too late every night watching, which doesn't mix well with having a newborn.  My kids loved the olympics, too, especially the gymnastics!  And we had lots of gymnastics in our house. Mylie was able to do lots of vault (using the arm of the couch as a vault), floor routine, and balance beam. Here are some cute pics of my little gymnasts.

Don't you just love the fancy gymnastics suits? You can do anything with stickers!

Look at that cartwheel!!

INTRODUCING . . .

Brady Joseph Micheli

Brady was born earlier this week, and has brought so much joy and excitement into our family.  He weighed 8 lb. 3 oz, and was 21 inches long.

I wanted to have a natural, unmedicated labor and delivery this time around. I've actually always wanted to do that, but never fully committed to it or prepared for it the way that I needed to.  This time I decided early and went into it whole-heartedly.  Luckily, everything went really well, and I was able to have the birth experience that I had wanted to have.  I was also grateful to have cousins and friends who had done this and I was able to talk to them and get so much good advice.  Tony was so helpful, and it was a great experience.

Since coming home, I have had so much help! All three of the older kids just LOVE him and are always excited to help out.  And they are actually old enough to be helpful!  Mylie folded and put away all his laundry yesterday and cleaned the whole house, Mariah watered all my flowers, and Connor is a great babysitter and can't get enough of his new little brother.

So far, Brady has had trouble in the night, and Tony and I have had very little sleep (like 2-4 hours per night). I've never had a baby struggle so much. Hopefully we can get things figured out and the poor kid (and his parents) can start getting some sleep! This pic of Mariah this afternoon looks about like how we feel!

Luckily, he's totally adorable, which makes it so easy to not be upset with him.  We love our new little guy!

Pioneer Day

We have a fun little Pioneer Day celebration here in Bridger Valley.  This year, the kids got more involved than they have in the past, which made it even more fun!  We started the day with the races.  Connor decided to enter the kids triathlon, which is a 1-mile bike, 50 meter swim, then 1 mile run.  He did great and had lots of fun!

The girls also wanted to race, so they did the kids fun run, which was really short, but included an obstacle course.  They had a great time as well.

Later that morning, we went to the parade.  What kid doesn't love a parade?

A mad dash for the candy!  So sweet how Connor is giving a piece to Mariah.

Mom and Dad enjoying the fun from the curb.

 I love the joy on the faces here!  They were just running away from the spraying fire truck.

And in the afternoon, there was a play about different pioneers and their experiences crossing the plains.  Mylie had a part and did a great job!  I was proud of her for memorizing her lines and taking on her stage fright!  She made one cute pioneer girl!



Briant Teichert Family Reunion

Last week, we had a Briant Teichert family reunion. This is something we haven't done for 5 years (since Tyson got home from his mission), and now that Sullivan is home, we felt it was high time to get together for a few days!  We had such a fun time together.  It was wonderful just to be all together, but we also did some fun things.  We missed Austin, who couldn't leave work in OK City to be there, but otherwise everyone made it.

We started out Sunday evening with family pictures.  Sullivan's fiance, Michelle, took the pictures and is very talented!  I haven't seen a full family pic yet, but these pictures of us siblings and the grandkids turned out super cute (well, the grandkids anyway!) and are so fun to have!  Thanks, Michelle!

(Sorry, but the rest of the pics won't be quite this quality!)

That evening, we also enjoyed some time just visiting and playing, dinner, and a great FHE by my dad.

Connor and Mylie with Sedona.  She was sick most of the reunion, but was pretty happy that first night.

The next morning began with breakfast and then a hike up Big Hill and a visit to Tille's grave at the cemetery.

Everybody made it to the top, even the 3-year-olds who walked all the way!  My mom hikes the hill almost daily in the summer and has kept a tally over the past 5 years.  She recently hit 500 trips up the hill.  She's amazing!

Heading up the dump road before turning up Big Hill.

We made it to the top! (Even the 9-month pregnant lady!)

After that, we packed up and headed to Bear Lake.  I LOVE Bear Lake!  It is so perfect for kids! We went to the north end, and the water is shallow for forever. It's so warm, too.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

 

The kids had fun making a "hot tub". The water was actually almost hot in that shallow area.

The adults spent most of their time playing volleyball. We didn't have a net, but had tons of fun just passing it around seeing how many hits we could get in a row without dropping it.  Our record was 51, but the best were the awesome dives into the water, especially Tyson's!  Wish I could have gotten a picture of somebody going down.

 

That night we camped in a campground near the lake.  It poured rain a couple times, but in between, we were able to get everything set up and have a good dinner.

Silly Kids!

Cute little Owen. This kid's hair is the BEST!

On the final morning of the reunion, we went to Minnetonka Caves.  The youngest kids didn't care so much for this tour, but the older ones were really interested in the cave and formations.

I LOVE my family! It was great to get together, and hopefully we will do this more often.

Pack Trip

Early this month, Tony and Connor were able to go on a pack trip.  Tony's parents and one of his brothers, along with his wife and two oldest kids, had gone up the day before with all the horses.  Tony and Connor hiked in, a 12-mile hike up into the Uintas.  Although their trip got cut short with the news of the passing of Tony's grandma, they still enjoyed their hike in and out and Connor did a little fishing as well.  They also got some beautiful pictures!

Baseball, Tee Ball, and Swim Lessons

June was super busy for this family with baseball every Monday and Wednesday nights for Connor, tee ball games every Tuesday and Thursday for Mylie, and swim lessons 5 days/week for 3 weeks for Mylie and Mariah.  Seemed like we were constantly on the go!  But the kids had a great month.  Here are a few highlights:

Connor played pitching-machine baseball this year.  He had a great year and was able to play on a team with a couple of his friends.  His favorite position to play was catcher. (I tried to upload some video of him playing, as well as Mylie's tee ball, and the girls swimming, but it wouldn't work, and I'm tired of trying and waiting . . . and waiting.) So you just get some boring mug shots, I guess!

Mylie played tee ball for the first time this summer.  She really loved it!  She played on a team with two of her cousins and two uncles for coaches.  She learned how to hit and throw, but what she was best at was running the bases!  She could really get around in a hurry!

We didn't do swim lessons last sumer, so Mylie hadn't done it for awhile, and it was the first time for Mariah.  They both had tons of fun!  Mariah wasn't really scared of the water before, but she became even more comfortable in the water, especially with going under water.  I knew Mylie could swim before she started lessons, but she lacked confidence.  But by the end of the three weeks, she was swimming all over the place!