Christmas Has Come and Gone!

Wow, what a busy week. Here is Brooklyn in one of her new Christmas dresses.

What a cutie!

We went to my parent's house on Christmas Eve to celebrate. My dad built a fire for us. It was so nice!

The kids on the swing in the backyard.

My family...

My brother and his family...

Brooklyn was getting the hang of opening presents this year. She was actually playing the drums on this one though.

Loved the paper...

Got a new bouncy turtle. Not so easy to do in a dress though.

We went to Kurt's mom's house for Christmas morning. Here is Brooklyn with her new kitchen.

Playing with the ribbons sure is funny!

This isn't even my present, but I think I'll open it anyway. I love tissue paper!

Then we went to my Grandma's house Christmas afternoon. Brooklyn was cracking me up. She was running circles around the front yard for like 20 minutes straight!

The grown ups were standing by the street to keep her from running in front of cars. Thanks!

She even gave up her fear of walking in the grass and was running around there as well.

Kurt took a nap on Grandma's couch while we all watched home movies from 20 years ago. Boy was that funny! We haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Everyone sure looked different 20 years ago!

My nephew got a power tool set and he liked drilling his teeth. Hmmm... do I see a dentist in the future?

Then we went to Kurt's dad's Christmas evening. Brooklyn chased his dog around all night calling it Bailee. It was too cute.

Now that it's all said and done, mommy has to find places for all of Brooklyn's new stuff. That kid sure got spoiled this year!!!! We are going to need a bigger house :)

Playing with her kitchen...

Stirring up some soup for Bailee :)

We had such a good time, but I'm glad it's over so we can relax and get back into our normal routines!

Santa, Christmas Cookies, Haircut and Other Fun Stuff

Brooklyn got to see Santa this week. She didn't really like it though and brought out the tears. Luckily they took the picture before she really freaked out.

She liked the big fish tank at Bass Pro Shops though and kept pointing at all the fish.

So mesmerized!

I just couldn't get over the expression on her face in this one. She was rocking her bears in my Grandma's chair. Must have been serious business!

We made Christmas cookies at Grandma's. Here's me, Katelyn and Sage decorating them.

The finished product! Yummy!

Sage taste testing them...

Brooklyn "helping" wrap the Christmas presents.

What a goofball!

She finally got her first haircut, bangs anyway. Here's a before shot.

And after. It really made a difference and made her look so grown up. We had to pin her down for Heidi to cut them though. She hates her hair being messed with.

I watched my nephew a couple weeks ago all day long. That was fun with both little ones running around. They kept eachother company.

"Here, let's go this way and find some toys"

"No, follow me. I know where they are"

"Yeay Toys!!!" These two crack me up. I'm glad they're starting to be friends though!

One of Brooklyn's favorite things to do... hang out in the dog's bed. She is always full of dog hair!

Cousin Tanner showing her how to play shoot em up video games!

Doesn't she look thrilled?

I got a new Wok this week for free from the grocery store just from saving their stickers when I shop. Anyway, Brooklyn keeps carrying the empty box around the house. It's as big as she is! Who needs Christmas presents when there's all this other fun stuff to play with?

She keeps driving her car into the corner so she can sit in the seat and watch cartoons.

So a friend of ours gave her a little chair of her own. She carries this all around and plops down in it. Just her size!

Whew, that was a long post. I guess I've been slacking lately! We've had a busy couple of weeks!

New Family Pictures

We were at Kurt's mom's house this weekend and thought we'd take some new family pictures in her pretty backyard. I also needed recent shots for our Christmas cards :)

We thought it would be nice to take a few in front of the fireplace that was decorated with garland and lights, but we sat too far to the side to show all that. Oh well...

By the fountain

There was a blow up snowman on the balcony and Brooklyn just noticed it in this one. I was cracking up. She wanted to go get him!

And what are Christmas pictures without a Christmas tree?

Brooklyn was being shy in this one. So cute!

Thanks to my uncle for taking these!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I love this time of year! We put up our Christmas lights (not as many as we usually do, but they turned out cute anyway). Brooklyn just loves them. She points at them and says "oooo". It's cute!

Our tree. I was debating on where to put it so little hands didn't "undecorate" it every day.

Ended up sticking it in the corner behind the baby gate. Brooklyn loves when it's lit up though. She stops to check it out! She says "tee" when she points to it. I told Kurt we should leave it up year round because she likes it. :)

All the stockings are hung...

Brooklyn playing with her car. She keeps putting bear in the drivers seat and then stands behind it to push the handle like I do when she takes a ride. It's too cute!

Playing with bear... She just loves her bear!

Styling in her new cheetah outfit. It's perfect for this chilly weather!

Inside the house she just carries the jacket with her everywhere she goes.

What's the point of pushing around this toy if you can't take bear and puppy for a ride. She always loads them up and pushes them around the house.

She likes to lean on things lately. I found her in the kitchen just chillin by the cupboards. She's so silly.

Playing computer. Mommy doesn't like this game though because she's going to end up breaking the laptop. I guess we'll have to find her a toy one of her own so she doesn't feel left out.

Being a little monkey playing with her house. If you look close, you'll see that she's standing on top of one of the pieces. I keep telling her she's going to fall down, but she likes to climb.

And that's what we've been up to lately.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Turkey day! Except for the fact that Kurt was still sick and didn't celebrate with us. He didn't want to pass his germs to everyone else. You know he doesn't feel good if he skips out on a good meal! :)

Silly me though, I didn't really take many pictures. You'd think I'd know better than that by now!

My uncle gave Brooklyn her first sucker while I wasn't looking. She LOVED it! We don't really give her sugar yet, so of course she jumps at the chance when someone else spoils her!


She knew exactly what to do with it too!

Yummy! She only got to lick it for a few minutes before Grandma snatched it away. She sure enjoyed it though!

Me and Brooklyn Thanksgiving morning. She hates it when I mess with her hair, but daddy held her down for me so I could put in some pigtails. She looked so cute! I don't know why she throws such a fit when I try and make her hair pretty. She better get over that soon!

I just had to throw this picture in too. I've been working really hard at losing my baby weight, but since it's so gradual, I don't realize what I've accomplished.... until I looked at this picture from Easter this year. Wow, that is a big difference!

I hit my original goal of dropping the weight I gained while pregnant, but I still have a way to go to reach my next goal. Realizing that I've accomplished this much already makes it easier to stay focused though!

Happy 1st Birthday Brooklyn

Today our baby girl turned one! Wow, where did this year go? She is getting so big.

Here she is at her birthday party with her new pink car. She LOVES it. She's already figured out how to make it go by pushing the button on the steering wheel. So smart!


I thought you had to be 16 before getting your first car :)

Yummy food at the party:

Brooklyn and Grandpa:

The birthday party theme:

Really delicious cake (and was decorated to match the theme)

Brooklyn had her own cake to devour.

This was her first time having sugar. Of course she loved it. She was on such a sugar high the rest of the day too. She skipped her nap and stayed up an hour past bedtime. She was having so much fun!

And got it EVERYWHERE...

We had to take a break and go straight to the bath to clean this little girl up.

She got so many fun presents and cute new clothes. I just love the expression on her face looking at the package. She thought it was fun to open her gifts.

She kept rumaging through all the gifts finding new things to play with.

Playing tea party with her new tea set. Look ma, no hands!

Mmmmm

Helping daddy put together her new playhouse... actually it was more like getting in the way :)

Taking a break to "talk" on the phone. I was cracking up. I was on the phone with my mom, and Brooklyn, being the copycat she is, had to mimmick me on her phone.

Playing with her new house.

This little girl has brought so many smiles, giggles, joy, and happiness to our lives. We are loving every moment with her. She is such a happy little girl. Here's to many many more birthdays. We love you Brooklyn!

She's Walking!!!

She's been at this for a few days now. Finally got over being scared of doing it on her own... Yeay Brooklyn :)

She's still pretty wobbly, but she's all over the place now! What a big girl!

Green Thumb!

Kurt is allergic to the grass, so the backyard has always been my project. Well, with me being pregnant and caring for a newborn last year, the yard pretty much was neglected and died. Since we are having Brooklyn's Birthday party at our house next week, I didn't want a dead yard so decided to plant my winter grass.

Here is a before picture.


Another angle. Since there wasn't really any grass left, I just dug out the old stuff, laid fertilizer and threw a bunch of rye seed.

One week later, it started to sprout.

Two weeks later, looking good! I watered it 3-4 times a day.

Two and a half weeks later.... it's time to mow! I didn't realize it would go from dirt to this in just 2 1/2 weeks!

Look at this lush green grass! Isn't it beautiful? I must have a green thumb afterall :)

Now, if only I can keep it alive through winter.

Halloween 2009

We had a fun Halloween this year. It was Brooklyn's last 1st holiday since she's going to be one in a couple weeks.


Here she is "walking" on her knees. She's so funny! We keep telling her that's cheating, she needs to walk on her feet.

Carving pumpkins...

We let Kurt do the dirty work!

We went to a Halloween party Friday night with some friends. We dressed up with a family theme this year. Brooklyn was a ladybug, I was a butterfly, and Kurt was the bug catcher. Someone had to keep tabs on his girls, right?

My wings...

Me and Brooklyn...

The kids having a party of their own. Always time for play time!

Group picture with friends!

Silly poses with friends! Notice Kurt catching me with his net!

Kurt was playing around with the camera and got this shot of Rachel. So cool :)

Halloween night. Our little ladybug.

What a cute little bug!

Cousins... Tanner was a train conducter, and Sage was some kind of dancing diva.

Heidi made a cool train out of Tanner's wagon. She is so talented.

My mom tried to give Brooklyn a ride in the train, but apparently she didn't want to. Poor baby.

Our happy family!

When we were trick or treating, Brooklyn kept grabbing all the candy out of her bucket.

At one of the houses, the lady let Brooklyn grab her treats on her own. She grabbed one in her right hand and three in her left. What a little piggy.

Check out her face. She's eyeing all the candy in the bowl. She's never had a taste of candy before, but she sure liked the wrappers.

Everything went straight to the mouth.

Yumm! Cardboard tastes good.

Looks like a little mouse ate through the box. Nope, I guess that was just Brooklyn trying to get a real taste!

Her loot. We don't think she needs all that sugar, so ended up giving most of it away, and of course hiding some away for mom and dad :)

I just love Halloween and seeing all the cute kiddos dressed up in their costumes!

Date Night

Earlier this week Kurt and I had a date night with no baby. It was fun. And it happened to be an outdoor event on the coldest night we've had in a long time.


Kurt's cousin is in a band called The Last Good Year. They currently live in IN, but were touring out west so we had the opportunity to watch them live.

They were playing at Tempe Beach Park for part of the ASU Homecoming. They sounded awesome! We've heard their CD before but hadn't gotten a chance to see them perform live. It was so much fun!

Here's me and Kurt with his cousin.

And us with the whole band after their show.

What a great night! And since it was part of ASU's homecoming, we got free t-shirts and free pizza and subs. What more can you ask for? :)

State Fair

We went to the state fair this past weekend. Here is Brooklyn on the way there. I was laughing so hard at her eating her feet in the car. I guess she needed a snack. She is very talented!

Us at the fair:

Brooklyn thought it was pretty neat doing some people watching. She was checking everyone out. And of course they were checking her out too. Some lady even asked if she could take a picture of Brooklyn because she looked so cute eating her snacks in her stroller.

These were the baby chicks. Brooklyn loved them.

She also loved all the farm animals. She kept wiggling around in my arms trying to get a closer look.

We pushed her limits a little too far though and missed the 2nd nap of the day. I figured she'd just sleep on the way home, but no.... she had to tell us how mad she was instead.

Here is proof that this baby girl does have a meltdown every now and then. I guess we can't have smiles 24/7.

SNACK TIME

She looked so cute eating her baby cheese snacks the other day, so I had to throw in a few of these shots as well...

She sure loves her food; just like her daddy!

Mmmmm.... those are tasty!

Nothing Major Happening

Brooklyn playing with Bailee's toys. Frisbees make a good hat, right?


And they're fun to play patty cake with...

And of course they're pretty tasty! Nothing like sharing chew toys with the dog :)

Here she is playing basketball.

And this week she experienced her first time being sick. She had a cold, but is feeling much better now. Poor thing, I felt so bad for her. She was just not herself. I caught her mid-cough.

She loves to push things around the house. Here she's pushing the walker, which is pushing the activity center, which is pushing the Wii Fit board. Boy is she strong!

Giving baby kisses!

She had the best bed head after one of her naps. The picture doesn't even do it justice though. It was hilarious!

She loves to read her books.

Kurt's dad gave her this shirt. It says "My Dad Knows A Lot, But Grandpa Knows Everything". I love how she's blowing raspberries while wearing it. Kurt says that's because the shirt lies, Daddy knows everthing :)

Gotta love the raspberries!