I've Been Tagged TWICE. grr...

1st Tag- A survey:

1. What is your husband's name? Seth Kimball Rasmussen
2. How long have you been together? On March 10th it will be 3 years
3. How long did you date? That could get complicated...
4. How old is he? 24
5. Who eats more? Seth for sure!
6. Who said I love you first? Seth :)
7. Who is taller? Let me think...probably Seth.
8. Who sings better? DEFINITELY Seth. It's the only way i got to sleep when i was pregnant. :)
9. Who is smarter? Seth for sure
10. Whose temper is worse? Mine. I've only seen Seth get angry 3 times since i've known him.
11. Who does the laundry? Me
12. Who does the dishes? We both do, it's really fun, and it usually ends up in a water fight!
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? haha. Well it depends. Seth has been very particular about that lately. He woke me up in the middle of the night about 2 weeks ago and asked me to switch him sides...so as for right now...i sleep on the right side! :)
14. Who pays the bills? Seth works VERY hard to provide the money, and i take it and pay the bills
15. Who mows the lawn? The landscapers...
16. Who cooks dinner? um...Mom & Dad...sometimes Amanda, OR the cooks at Outback, Cafe Rio, Cheesecake Factory, Wendy's, and sometimes McDonald's
17. Who drives when you are together? That's a FUNNY question! Well usually Seth has a "good reason" why i shouldn't drive because he likes to, BUT in my defense he's got 6 tickets since we've been married (and it's been 6 YEARS since i got one) so that usually trumps HIS defense which is mostly, "Brandi you don't have your glasses!" ...but to answer the question...he does. :) Because he's so cute i usually let him drive. ;)
18. Who is more stubborn? That is DEFINITELY a tie! ...maybe leaning a little toward me ;)
19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? 95% of the time, Seth
20. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine :) We prefer to hang out with them versus ANY other friends! (no offense Amanda)
21. Who proposed? Seth
22. Who is more sensitive? It depends on what. ...but probably me
23. Who has more friends? Me
24. Who has more siblings? Seth, he has 6!
25. Who wears the pants in the family? Definitely Nicci!
26. Where did you meet? At a joint "toilet papering" extravaganza in 2002! He was the crazy driver and i was the crazy girl that sat on his lap and steered! Let's just say it's a miracle we're still alive to talk about it...
27. What was the first thing you said to your husband? (This was a couple months later when we were in college at UNLV. I can't remember anything i specifically said before this) "..yes, i guess you can carry my backpack.." He was so cute. He walked up to me and said, "Hi, i'm Seth can i carry your backpack for you and walk you to class?" (he was the most handsome guy i had ever seen!)
28. Where was your first date? that could get complicated as well... but we'll say it was the "Green & Gold Ball"
29. Where was your first kiss? On my doorstep :)
30. Where did you get engaged? On TOP of Sunrise Mountain, looking RIGHT down on top of the temple where we were sealed! It was a fairytale!
31. Where were you married? The Las Vegas Temple
32. Where was the honeymoon? All of Southern California! It rocked! We went Sky Diving, spent a lot of our time on the beach, went to Six Flags & Knotts...it was amazing.
33. If you could have changed anything about it what would it have been? LESS communication with the outside world! :)

2nd Tag-

Now, thanks to Ashley, i have to empty the insides of my purse. Prepare yourself for Brandi's "Purse CHECK!"... I have: Nicci's "Who loves Baby" book, sunglasses, lotion, Excedrin Migraine, change/business cards purse, wallet, checkbook, coupon to McDonald's, a magnet i need to give my best friend, a little bag of clips for Nicci, a mint, Swiss Army knife, paperclip & rubberbands, chapstick, hair accessories, lip gloss, mirror, Victoria Secret mints, VS perfume stick, Nicci's sock, Nannies calendar book, an extra diaper, my favorite gloves, gum, wrappers, more lotion, & someones email address.

GOSH. I think that's all. :)

Exhaustion Turns Into Tender Joy

Lately i have been so tired that makeup literally won't even stay on my eyes. We have been waiting forever for Nicci to get more than 5 teeth...she's almost 2 for heaven sakes! :) We've taken her to the dentist and they told us because of all the trauma she's gone through it can be normal for the teeth to be delayed as a result. Well...it's true, they were delayed, but now she's catching UP! She got almost ALL her right top teeth within one day. She has never really complained about teeth before so i have been one lucky mom to not have experienced the "teething days", but now i can say i've joined the team! She has the toughest time when it comes to sleeping. Her naps are short, she's up in the night, and she has this constant whine that never shuts off. BUT, she's still the sweetest darn thing i've ever laid eyes on. :) Speaking of eyes, notice in this picture she has a black eye! It's her FIRST black eye not induced by surgery or head trauma! lol. She was twirling around and around and lost her balance and pinballed between Seth's leg and the corner of the dresser at our hotel last week...she was so TOUGH she hardly cried at all! She actually looks kinda cute with her little shiner. :)

There's been times the past couple of days i thought i'd fall asleep standing up, or just start to cry for no reason...BUT last night my sweet daughter livened things up a bit! We child proofed all our kitchen cabinets and drawers two nights ago and when Nicci woke up yesterday she was very upset to see she couldn't empty out our cabinets and drag the contents all around the house; but i couldn't contain my smile as i watched her try to open every one and not succeed. Finally we had eliminated 12 places she could get into and we thought we were home free!...until she took her frustration and used it as determination to destroy MORE!!!...Last night our little midget learned how to open all our doors...i seriously wanted to laugh hysterically and cry all at the same time!! As i watched her empty out our coat/shoe closet and walk around opening and shutting all the doors i thought to myself, "No more keeping her out of our bedroom...no more shutting the bathroom doors...No more keeping our shoes nice and organized...No more privacy...Nicci is on the move! AAHHH!"

She is very proud of herself...

After Seth and i got through laughing and discussing our new battle plan i decided to clear my head and do some cross-stitching. Nicci and Seth were playing and i could hear them in the background for a while but then all i heard was "Daaaddy"..."DaaaaDDY!" I got up and rounded the corner to see Nicci patting Seth on the shoulder repeatedly because he had fallen asleep. I went to quickly grab her so that the poor guy could just sleep when i saw the sweetest thing in the entire world...

... Nicci grabbed her blanky and laid down right by her Daddy and said softly, "Daddy...Daddy..." over and over like she was singing him a song. I had to take a picture, it was so tender. It's so amazing how children can make you so tired and absolutely bonkers at times, but at the end of the day they are usually the little angels that put everything in perspective for you, take away all your frustration, and fill you with a joy only the Savior can bring. I love my little family with all my heart, and i would give up years of sleep if it meant being able to witness something this special only for a moment.

Happy Birthday Seth!!

Last Thursday (January 10) was my dear husband's birthday!! He turned 24 years old; he's almost a quarter of a century! :) I'm a little late posting because we've been in Utah. We were in Salt Lake on Seth's b-day because Nicci had a Dr. appt. We found out everything looks good and she wont need another surgery for 2 years! It was a great birthday present for Seth to hear all was well with Nicci. After the Dr. appt we went out to 'Rodizio Grill' (a Brazilian Steakhouse) for Seth's birthday dinner with Mom, Dad, and Jeff. It was a blast!! It was so awesome for all of us to hear a bunch of stories from Seth's mission and taste a lot of the things he actually ate in Brazil, and it was so fun for Seth to relive some of those special memories from his mission. It was a very special dinner for all of us. :) The next day Seth and i went snowboarding at Brighton ALL day long- until 9:00pm! It rocked to say the least!! We had so much fun; it snowed the entire time we were there. Everytime we went up on the lift we would board down on fresh snow!! The craziest part of the day though was when the guy at the ticket window told Seth he didn't have to buy an 'adult' pass for his 'child'... yeah...Seth thought it was hilarious, but i was mildly irritated. The day after that (Saturday) we had a "football" day! It was so fun...We watched the Packers vs. Seahawks (we weren't so happy that the Packers won...grr...) but the MOST important game of the day was the Patriots vs. Jaguars and our Patriots came out undefeated once again!! It was awesome. Overall Seth had a wonderful birthday weekend!!

Here we are at Rodizio Grill!


Here is Seth with his favorite drink 'Guarana' and one of his favorite Brazilian sausages.

(he is so adorable...)

We had way too much fun on the lift rides! Seth had me laughing so hard i couldn't even keep my eyes open for this picture.

Funny Story: So we are riding along having a good ol' time and Seth says, "Oh look, lets go down there i think there's some awesome jumps!"...so i follow...Let's just say there were NO jumps...just a WHOLE lot of deep powder!! We got stuck and we had NO idea where we were at so we decided to bust out the camera and take some pictures to remember this very cold but hilarious moment!

Seth has his own snowboard but it wouldn't fit in our trunk. (Mine fit perfectly because i'm a midget, but his was a tad too long) We thought about putting it in the backseat but Seth didn't want to take the chance of getting into a car accident and having it hurt Nicci, so we decided to just rent him a board when we got there. Since it was his birthday we decided to rent him the newest and nicest board they had, "the Demo" and Seth LOVED it! It took all he had to take it back the next day! lol.

Last week we had Family Home Evening with our friends Dan & Amanda and they had a really fun activity planed. We were suppose to write down the first word or a phrase that came to our minds, starting with every letter in the alphabet, when thinking about our spouse. It was really fun and i thought since it was Seth's birthday it would be special to share my "A-Z Feelings" for my wonderful husband.

A- Ambitious
B- Brilliant mind
C- Comfy; Colorful personality
D- Determined; Darling dishwasher
E- Endures to the end
F- Father of the century; Forgiving; Family focused
G- Genuine; Gracious
H- Humble; Helper
I- Intimate
J- Joker
K- Kite lover
L- Like Grandpa Ras; Listener; Loving
M- Meditator; Manly
N- Never-ending smile
O- Optimistic about everything
P- Polite
Q- Quick to help
R- Rescuer
S- Sings me to sleep
T- Tender; Truthful
U- Underestimated for his potential
V- Valiant; Vivacious
W- Willing to serve; Wiper of tears
X- eXhilarating personality
Y- Yearning to learn (constantly)
Z- Zipper - he has his family zipped up inside his heart and remembers us in all he does.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart - I love you to the moon...& back again. :)

Our Wonderful White Christmas!

Christmas this year was by far our most special yet. It began at the beginning of Dec. with Christmas specials on TV every night...'hot chocolate talks' by the fireplace...teaching Nicci about the Nativity...and so much more. This year we spent Christmas with the Bullocks and it was wonderful!! It has been 14 years since all 4 kids have been in the same state for Christmas, so it was very special! We even had our FIRST white Christmas! We went to Provo, UT and stayed at the Courtyard hotel with Mom & Dad, and that was ours and definitely Nicci's favorite part!! We had two suites across the hall from each other and when Nicci would wake up she'd knock on the door for us to let her out so she could go see Grandma & Grandpa...it was so cute! We created so many memories we will cherish forever...LIKE: enjoying the Temple Square lights with Mom, Dad, & Grandma...Seth's first time experiencing the 'Bullock Christmas Morning Tradition' (which we have now adopted as a new tradition for US!) where we listen to the entire Christmas story from the scriptures, sing Away in a Manger, and then say a prayer together-it's my favorite tradition! ...decorating the trees in our rooms... sitting on our balcony watching the snow fall... late night talks with Mom & Dad... going to church with Grandma Bullock...visiting Grandma & Grandpa Ras...Christmas morning with Mom, Dad, and Jeff...and all of us staying up late on Christmas Eve laughing and talking as we watched the snow fall for hours!!...gosh, we could go on and on! :) We have many pictures to share that will hopefully give you a small visual of our very special Christmas! (you might have to enlarge some of the Temple Square pictures, they're a little hard to see) Enjoy!

~TEMPLE SQUARE~

Seth & Mom are keeping Nicci warm!!

I was REALLY excited about this tree! You can't see it in the picture but it had this amazing glow around it.

This manger scene was incredible!!

This picture is so awesome...look to the left of the tree and you'll see the "First Security" bank lit up in red. That's where my parents met!! I'm so happy that bank exists...! :) I love you Mom & Dad!

This tree was PINK!! Hot PINK!...i got very excited...

Are we the cutest ever, or what?! :)

This picture is SO cute...Nicci was screaming her head OFF and as soon as Mom took her hand she started laughing!! All she wanted to do was walk with her Grandma...it was adorable!!

More pink trees!! EEk!

Nicci was playing with the lights...it was so precious!

~CHRISTMAS EVE~

Nicci is watching Seth decorate our tree. Doesn't her smile just melt your heart?!

Christmas Eve morning pedicures with my best friend Amanda!! We got matching toes :) Cool fact: we are both 4'11"! (I'm a little under, but it's close enough!)

It was snowing like crazy so we were getting ready to go play in it. This picture definitely wins the "MOST PRECIOUS" Award!!
We are on the balcony enjoying the most beautiful blizzard ever!

Me & Kyle were just a little excited to see each other...lol! The Christmas Eve 'acting out of the Nativity' was about to begin!!

The Nativity Begins: Here's Mary, the Angel, and Joseph

Jeff got to be the donkey (hehe) and Seth helped Ethan be the star!

It's hard to contain our craziness when we're together...

Nicci was running around with her cousin's new 'Cars' slippers. We call her "Little Abu" because she's such a thief!! But since she's so cute she always gets away with it! :)

Nicci LOVES playing with her cousins! In this picture they are all playing with Kyle's new MAC computer...it was sweeeet!

Right before Nicci went to bed (which was at like 4:30am-haha, (we had way too much fun with Mom, Dad, and Jeff!) we took a 'Christmas Eve' picture of her in front of the tree in her Christmas sleeper. How cute is she?! :)

~CHRISTMAS DAY~

On Christmas morning we had our wonderful tradition of listening to the Christmas story, singing 'Away in a Manger' all together, and saying a beautiful prayer before opening gifts. It was so special. As soon as we were finished we went out by the tree and sure enough Santa's sleigh had tipped over! (or Mom and Dad's jeep tipped over...!) In the middle of all the beautiful wrappings and bags full of presents was something very obvious for little Nicci from Grandma & Grandpa...here is a picture of Nicci's reaction: Priceless!...

Her very own Dora chair!!

Nicci sat in her chair FOREVER! Seth and i gave her a baby doll for Christmas and she sat and rocked her baby for at least 15 min. It was so sweet. :)

Here she is telling secrets and giving kisses to her new babydoll! ... so precious.

This was a very special gift...Seth has loved the 'Care Bears' since he was a little boy. He has expressed this love numerous times in random conversations with my mom. On Christmas morning Mom and Dad surprised him with this 'Special edition 25th Anniversary Care Bear'! It has a Sterling Silver plated nose & hip heart, sparkling SWAROVSKI Crystal eyes, AND...

...the Special Edition 'lost' episode DVD! It's called "The Land Without Feeling" and it aired in 1983 and has not been released since! Seth was so excited that it was the only gift he would NOT pack to bring home. It sat safely on it's own seat in the back with Nicci. This was Seth's favorite & most treasured gift! I love the little boy in him. I think that's what makes him such a wonderful Daddy & husband. :)
"Thank you so much Mom & Dad for such a thoughful gift! I love you guys." -Seth

Kyle & Nic Nic gave Nicci a Dora purse, and being the girly-girl she is, she immediatly started puting all of her treasures inside. lol. It was really cute.

Mom & Dad gave Jeff an "iPod Touch"...he played with it ALL day!! He also loved his new little Penguin (he's still thinking of a special name for it, lol!)











Here's the story behind this crazy smile!...Amongst all of the presents around the tree i found one labeled "TO:Seth LOVE:Brandi." I responded something like this,..."Um...i didn't wrap this...and this isn't my handwriting." Seth had this HUGE cheesy grin on his face that went from ear to ear and he just stared at me. The whole room went quiet and all eyes were on us. Finally Seth said, "I got ME a present...from YOU!" His grin remained ear to ear and so i proceeded to tell him to open it! He ripped away the paper and there shining in a little box was a ROLEX watch. The room erupted with laughter as Seth started thanking me and kissing me over and over as if i had thought of the whole thing! It was by far one of the funniest things he has ever done!! 'Don't ask your wife if you can buy a ROLEX, buy it for yourself and SAY it's from her'...nice Seth. He's definitely Mr. Creativity...and more than that he's my Mr. Wonderful who deserves way more than his precious ROLEX! :) I love you honey.

I love my mom. :) so much.



Look...we have fun matching socks!! We wore them pretty much all day, it was fun.

...don't we look like sisters?!

Nicci looks like she's skiing in my shoes! haha. Just recently she has started getting in everyone's shoes and walking in them...she's surprisingly good at it! Maybe that means she'll be a good skier! :)

THE COOLEST GIFT EVER!!...

My parents gave us this "Smart Shopper" gadget that is SO rad! It has little magnets on the back so it can go on your fridge. All you have to do is hit the record button and say what item you need at the store OR say which errands you have to run (bank..store...etc...) And if for some reason it doesn't have the specific thing you are asking for, you can add it! For example: i didn't like just 'crackers', so i programed in an option for 'Club Crackers'. ...Then when you are ready to run your errands or go to the store you hit...

...PRINT!! Then it prints an ULTRA organized grocery list/or to-do list out for you and breaks it down per category!! It is the coolest most convienient gadget ever made! If you enlarge the picture you can see the detailed list priniting out. No more "finding a pen...or having 3 lists you need to combine"...now it is ALL neat, organized, and ready to go when you are! It ROCKS!! Thank you Mom & Dad!! :)

Well, that's the end of the pictures, we hope you can feel a little bit of the excitement and joy we experienced this Christmas. Thank you Mom and Dad for making this Chritsmas more than special and so much fun! We love you!