Introducing our lovely little girl, Kinsale Mary

Wow, it has been too long since I have posted. Literally the last two months just seem like a wonderful, dizzying blur. As of The end of April I started my new job as a director of an association. It has been a job I have wanted forever and it has been an incredible journey so far.
May was very, very busy getting ready for our convention. My little baby bump joined me on my journey and working some long hours leading up to our convention. Everything was moving along and my doctor said I was fine to head up to Midway for the event since it was still two weeks until my due date. After getting all checked into the hotel and reassuring all was set for our first day the next day, my water broke. Eleven o clock that night two panic calls went out one to Bren to meet me at the hospital and the second to my amazing brother in law Tommy to drive me like a bat out of hell to the hospital. He channeled his inner fast and furious and made an hour and fifteen minute drive in 42 minutes. Less then three hours later Kinsale Mary White was born at 3:02am, 7lbs, 19.5 inches long and pure loveliness.
June has been a blur enjoying our sweet little girl. I am currently typing this blog post on my phone while she is cradled in my arms. Little girls are just a joy between the bows, the cute outfits and just the intoxicating smell of newborn. Big brother quinn has been adjusting really well and seems to just accept that she is here and his baby. He has been more of a daredevil lately but that could also be because Mom has her hands very full at times. It's chaotic, exhausting but absolutely worth it. I will try to post more with some pictures but she is here and we are all doing amazing!
Love
Bren, Alyssa, Q and K

Little Girl's Nursery

We are finally pretty much done with Baby K's nursery. Since we are getting down to the wire I thought I would finally share what we have done. I have always wanted to do a flower fairy room if I ever had a little girl. I have been collecting Mary Cicley Barker's flower fairy calendars for years hoping to be able to do this. I feel like it all came together really nicely. Our colors are a nice soft green for the walls, accent pinks and grey. Enjoy!

This is the view from the hallway, I love the fan chandelier! Bren and Papa Tom did this huge project for me over Easter, I am spoiled!

This is looking at the window view, I switched the hoop the tulle draping over the crib with a gold pearl branch. We added pink tissue pons and moss balls with butterflies to the corner. 

This is our changing station and eclectic collage of pictures of flower fairies, also the shelf above the close incorporates more moss with a moss bunny!

I love this dollhouse/book shelf, it is made by a local grandpa in Orem, its perfect for storing diapers but also books and toys.

Bren worked so hard on this dresser, this dresser is almost 30 years old and he painted the whole thing and added the crystal handles. It is perfect and really sets the room off.

Closer look at the pearl pillow and night stand

Love the details!

Love,

Bren, Alyssa, Q and K

Photography Class

My hobby for 2015 was learning to take great photos with my new DSLR Nikon 3300 camera. I took a community education class that was awesome. I learned all the bells and whistles on my camera as well as got a few new lenses and really have been putting it all to great use. I also tried to teach Bren everything we learned in the class too and he takes amazing photos as well. The class ended on a high note with everyone meeting at the State Capital in Utah and taking photos. Here are some of the final edited images, enjoy!

Love,

Bren, Lys, Q and K

Durango Trip

Since we have been really enjoying the new camera from Christmas I thought I would share some of the great pictures we got when we went to visit the Hallocks in Durango, Colorado. Durango is absolutely gorgeous and looks like a little town out of a ski movie. Big mountains everywhere and a really cool river running right through the center of town. Enjoy the pics!

Little boy before we headed out in his car seat

Our amazing driver Mr. White

So happy to finally see the Hallocks and Mr. Kaylor

Look at all these handsome boys

Sure loved watching these two play each morning, Quinn is 13 months here and Kaylor is 8 months in this photo.

pretty cute, right?

Hauling our twenty pound plus babies down by the river

Family picture

Both moms backs started to ache a bit so the Dads took over, pretty cute picture with the boys looking over the shoulders.

Can't wait to see our friend again, we had a great trip!

Love,

Bren, Alyssa, Q and K

What we have been up to

Time just goes so crazy fast. I really have been trying to make it a goal to update this blog at least every month. Sometimes between working two jobs, our sweet boy and now a puppy, time just gets away on me. A lot has happened between January and February. Starting in January we celebrated our Quinn's first Birthday with awesome friends and family here in Utah. Tom and Kathy came in for the weekend and we had a really great time. Little boy loved the frosting on his cake and was spoiled with so much love. The weekend after that Uncle Brian came to town with the best birthday gift for Quinn, our new puppy Gilles.

The weekend after that my parents came to town for a visit. We finally made it to the Draper Aquarium, which is so awesome! Quinn was just in awe of all the tanks, fishes and animals there. It was really cool and we hope to get a membership there soon.

The weekend after that Brendan's parents stayed with us after they had the Puff/Whites ski vacation for a week up in Park City. Not to miss out we took Quinn on his first zoo outing that Saturday. Quinn was just fascinated by all the new animals. Last weekend we drove to Durango, Colorado to visit our friends the Hallocks. I will do a separate post from that vacation with photos in a few days. Busy, busy, busy.

Pregnancy is going wonderful and little girl is kicking away like a rockette. We have started to get her nursery put together between the crib, and how we want to lay out everything. Its hard to believe March is next week and in June she will be here. I will make sure I get lots of photos of her new nursery. Q is on the move, he has full on taken up running and keeps us on our toes. He cracks both of us up with his antics and words. So far we say Daaaaa, dada and occasionally Maaaama. He also likes to mimic the word "hot". Very adorable and it is all going so fast. We don't have a lot planned for this spring since I am only getting bigger and more preggo. I just finished up my photography class which was really cool and we are starting Gilles puppy school on Saturday. Life is busy but so blissfully good.

Love
The Whites

Introducing.....

Our newest family member Gilles Bedlington the First. We just call him Gilles (rhymes with files) for short. I can't believe it has been a month since we got this new fur ball, he is an absolute joy. Gilles is a bedlington terrier from Coronado Island, California. He was the most wonderful first birthday gift for our Quinn from his Great Aunty and Uncle Brian and Carmen. They loved Gilles a ton but unfortunately Carmen ended up being very allergic to everything this fluff button brings into the house. He is not lap dog and loves to roll, dig and plain old get dirty outside. They knew we had lost our Oscar a few months back and asked us if we would like to adopt Gilles. We did and it has been absolute love from the beginning. He is so sweet and playful with Quinn and is by far the smartest puppy I have ever had. We start puppy school this week and have really enjoyed having him apart of our family. I truly feel like a spot in my heart has finally been filled with this sweet puppy.

Love,
Bren, Alyssa, Q, Baby K and Gilles

My little man is growing up...

(My new camera took this :)

I can hardly believe it but this week on the 15th Quinn will be one years old. I feel like if I just blink it was yesterday we were driving down our hill to the hospital to have him and knowing the whole time everything would be different next time we drove back up. What an amazing, wonderful year it has been! Our little boy brings us so much joy, daily laughter and awe. I cannot believe all that happens in a year and how they go from this tiny infant to this walking, babbling little toddler. We both have been trying hard to take in each moment from the quiet late night milk drunk smiles when he was a newborn to his laughter and determination as he gets older and decides he wants to do new things. His latest endeavor has been crawling up onto the coach and then getting this huge satisfied, mischievous grin at what he has done. Honestly just an amazing last year, incredible to think this June he will become a big brother and we will get to enjoy some of these moments again with his sister and enjoy new moments in watching Quinn and our growing family.

We loved Santa!

All of the cousins with Ga Ga and Grandpa Brecke

Quinns first tricycle from his Great Aunt Laura and Mike

The holidays back in MN were awesome, except both preggo Mama and Mr. Quinn got ugly colds that took almost two weeks to fully get rid of. We were all spoiled rotten with wonderful gifts and great memories. I laughed at how gift opening on my Brecke side of the family was completely done in about 5 minutes tops. This is what happens when you have five super excited nephews under age 8.  I got spoiled by getting a really nice Nikon D3300 DSLR camera. The picture quality this camera can take is amazing. I am also going to be taking a class to learn more about all the bells and whistles on it. Bren has been busy still getting in a lot of ski days, he got an epic season pass this year for Christmas and has enjoyed how much that has let him get out. Life is wonderfully good right now and we hope the same for all of our family and friends in 2015.

Love,
Bren, Alyssa, Q and Baby K