Stewart

Besides impregnating me, Stewart has been up to a lot in the past little bit. He came home from Afghanistan March 27, 2010. I was SO happy and I think he was too. ;) After he came home we had some time before he had to go back to work so we went on a few vacations. The first one was to Capitol Reef which was a failure since we all three spent the weekend puking in a hotel room.
Our next trip was too Mesa Verde and on our way back we hit a couple National Parks in Utah. It was awesome. Probably the best family vacation we have ever taken. I loved every second of it. Part of the fun of that trip was the truck that Stewart bought. He loved driving it and even offered to let me drive it when we were off-road. That's true love. I didn't take him up on it but still...true love.

Stewart also had a birthday! The big 31. We had a 31 flavors of ice cream toppings to celebrate. That was a lot of sugar.

Stewart's hobbies nowadays are making bullets and then shooting those bullets out of guns. I think both parts of that are equally fun for him. He has had some camping trips and other types of boy things that I mostly stay out of. He built some target stands that were pretty sweet.

He's had some wicked fights with Eli (Eli won) and some kissing matches with me (I won).

Other than that he is still in the Vegas Cavalry unit so he goes down there once a month. He is currently job hunting more than he is rabbit hunting. Having him home has been so much fun and I love him to bits.

Eli

We moved into the house on September 17th and 18th and Eli turned 7 on September 19th. We had a big party with both sides of the family. Luckily, the house has a nice covered porch so we ate and partied outside, away from the boxes that were everywhere.

Since Eli's birthday last year I have had it in my mind that I was going to make a wonky cake. (look for the wonky looking cake. There's no other explanation.) Well I didn't know that I'd be in the middle of a move so I settled on 2 ice cream cakes that tasted fine but were kind of lame.

Eli started first grade again after the move. He was like a superstar. All the kids were so excited for the new kid and they surrounded him when we went to meet his teacher. I felt kind of bad for Eli because he was on A track out in Herriman and right before his break is when we moved. So he started first grade July 26th and will get out the end of May or beginning of June. (not sure) After he'd been at his new school for a month he asked when he was going to get a long break. haha

I was lucky that we moved so I could get a first day of school picture since I am a bad mom and didn't get one the real first day of first grade. Whoops.

Eli is a fun guy and is actually a great help. He has stated cleaning his bathroom and has always tried hard to keep his room clean. He shovels snow like a pro and has his own garden tools...which are the only garden tools we own. haha. He excels in school and his teacher keeps thanking us for moving here. He has enjoyed being the "top of the class" and I have loved seeing him learn.

Most of all Eli is so excited to be a big brother. He wanted a sister very badly but is now excited that he's going to have a brother. After all it will be 3 against 1 (boys to girls) but Eli said I can have the baby on my team. Which means the baby and I will get tickled a lot. When I suggest parents against kids Eli nixes that idea.


All in all we love our boy. It has been fun to see him grow up so much in the past few months. Something about them being away for lots of the day changes them. He has friends and interactions that I (sometimes) hear about after the fact. It makes me sad to not be totally involved in every aspect of his life anymore but it's fun to see him grow up too.

And that is the catchup on Eli. Next I'll catch you up on Stewart...

I'm baaaack!

I hope I can remember how to do this blogging thing. Reading back on my previous blogs I realized how hilarious I was and how you probably all really missed me.

I was going to start back up in January, (not as a New Years resolution thing though) but then I couldn't find the cord to Stewart's camera. I needed that camera because it had the pictures of the house that we bought in September. That camera has a weird SD card so the only way to transfer pics is with the cord. It seemed like God didn't want me to blog so I just chilled out and then lo and behold Stewart found the cord on Saturday.

That reminds me of another thing I didn't think God wanted me to do which was have another baby and lo and behold in September I found out I am pregnant. When we move to Bountiful I get pregnant but this one has stuck and I am as big as a house. We are SO happy and excited and thankful and anxious...wait, I should say I am anxious because I still don't trust myself to carry a baby full term and I can't believe I'm going to actually have another baby! Stewart just is patient with me and listens to all my worries and then says don't worry.

I'll leave here with a few pictures because if you think I'm going to type everything that's happened since I last wrote you are nuts. I will probably go into more detail later on some of these things but for now...enjoy.

Christmas Letter 2010

Dear Friends and Family

Once again, it’s that time of year when you wish you’d have moved and “forgotten” to give me your new address. I suppose you can always stick this letter back in the envelope, and mark it “return to sender”. In any case, now you have a New Year’s Resolution already picked out, right?

This year has been one of the least boring to date. I usually start by telling you about the youngest members of the family first… This year we have a new arrival on the way – and the doctor said after the last ultrasound it’s 90% likely to be a boy. I told him that it’s 90% likely that this baby will likely be his supreme dictator in about 40 years, but he just stared at me blankly.

Regardless, there’s a greater than 90% chance that we don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl – we’re just ecstatic to have a baby on the way after five years of waiting. We are trying to come up with new names, but nothing seems to be working for us. Becca likes family names – I like names related to the Army. I submitted for Becca’s review the following names: Colt (like the Colt M4 carbine), Ranger, Creighton (as in the General Creighton Abrams, for whom the M1A1 and M1A2 series battle tank is named), Browning (as in the M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun)… Somehow, I don’t think she’s on board with any of those.

Anyways, Eli is showing Machiavellian ruthlessness at an early age, by teaming up with me against his mom. On a daily basis, he clarifies this in front of the entire family – “Dad, we’re allies against mom – I’m on YOUR side, right?” Usually I can’t reply because I’m so choked up, and my eyes are brimming with tears – so we just tackle Becca to the ground and Eli bites her toes until she gives up.

Eli’s goals of world domination have taken a twist now that he has an unforeseen sibling in his future. Rather than “weeding out the weak”, he intends to mentor his younger brother (90% chance that it won’t be a sister) in the ways of ruling with an iron fist. Likewise, they can focus on different areas of dictatorship – Eli will concern himself primarily with the impending Zombie Threat, and little “Knox” (as in Fort Knox, Kentucky – home of the 15^th Cavalry Regiment) will concern himself with determining whether pirates or ninjas constitute a greater threat to their dominion. (FYI, it’s ninjas, and the best way to fight off zombies is to get to a second floor of a building, and block the stairs).

Becca has been enjoying having her own house – it’s about time too. When we consider that Eli has attended three elementary schools and he’s only in the first grade, and he’s lived in seven different apartments/homes over the last seven years… It’s about time we settled down. Becca has been a trooper, keeping herself and Eli together until I was able to safely return from Afghanistan, and then putting up with me as I adjusted to being back home again.

We’ve been living in our new (to us) home in Bountiful since the middle of September, and have loved it. It’s a strange thing to go from living in relatively austere conditions that require body armor and gun, to living the “cushy” life we enjoy here in the United States. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve our country, and grateful to be back home again. Somehow, every day is a little bit sweeter now.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and that you can fully enjoy this coming year with your families.

Love,

The Broughs

St Patty's day.

Eli was planning on catching a leprechaun and keeping it for a slave so I think it's good Eli got some tricks played on him!

Winner

My cousin is an amazing seamstress and she had a giveaway. All I had to do was leave a comment to win. So I did and then didn't spread the word because I didn't want to hurt my chances at winning. My selfishness paid off and I won! Look how cute this apron is! It's reversible and so fun to wear. If you like it you can buy the pattern or a kit to make yourself. Here is her Etsy shop. When you go there you will see many other amazing things that she has made. She makes the cutest baby shoes and Mei Tai baby carriers. (Sorry for the poor photo quality. I was too lazy to go find my camera.)

Thanks Danielle!

Finishing the Race

Quite a few years ago Stewart and I ran a 5k. It was kinda pathetic because I hadn't trained at all and if you know me you know I'm not a natural runner. Anyway, we were near the end of the race and the finish line was in sight and Stewart told me that we needed to sprint. I couldn't sprint! I could barely keep shuffling. Stewart told me that there is always energy to run because it's anaerobic or something else that I didn't understand. I just remember that it seemed impossible to run faster than I was running. I think I managed to run a little faster the last 100 yards or so.

Fast forward to now and I feel like I'm nearing the end of a race and I have to sprint to the end. I still feel like it's impossible and I can't do it anymore!

I know that people go through things that are hard and they realize that they are stronger than they thought. After going through this deployment I have realized that I'm not as strong as I thought. I'm so glad that it's almost over and I will have my husband back where he belongs.

I think that with support even the weak can be as strong as they NEED to be. I'm thankful for the support that I have had while he's been gone from family and friends.

But most of all I'm thankful for him: