A Day at the Mall

I met a friend at the mall on Saturday and she brought her 5-month old twin boys. We were quite the sight with her double stroller and me with my stroller everywhere we went.

This is Jaxon and Braxton watching us have lunch at the food court. They are just adorable!

And of course, little miss Brooklyn. I usually just click her carseat into the stroller, but decided since she's been so curious we'd sit up like a big girl. She LOVED it. She got to see everything that went on, and even feel the pretty clothes as we'd pass the racks. And it was so easy when she got tired, I just laid the back down and she took a nap.

We were at AZ Mills. I haven't been there in at least a couple years. And I've never noticed how many baby outlets there were. I got all this (2 jammies, 5 shirts, 4 pants and a swimsuit) for under $40.

Brooklyn has more toys than I can count, but this is her new favorite (the blinds on the patio door). She plays in them daily.

She actually broke one of the panels yesterday when she pulled them down. I guess that's not the best baby toy!

I don't think she cares though, she's having fun!

Jump Jump!

We went over to my friend Rachel's house this week to visit her and her 2 month old baby boy, Nash. Brooklyn had to test out Nash's jumper to make sure it worked right. She really got that thing going. She has a jumper at home, but it's not as springy. She was having a blast! It's a little hard to see since it was dark in the room, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

ON THE GO... And She Never Stops!

Now that Brooklyn is officially crawling, she gets into EvErYtHiNg! She definitely keeps me on my toes since I have to chase her around all day.

Here she crawls into the bottom of her jumper:


And then out the other end. She loves anything that creates an obstacle course for her to climb through. She is our little monkey child!

Up we go!

Here she was trying to stand up while using the swing as a base. Little did she know that darn swing wasn't going to hold still and she plopped back down to her bottom.

We found the dog door. She was putting her arm through the flap when I first saw her, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera.

She absolutely LOVES to play in Bailee's water dish. She splashes it all over the place.

Yes, she is standing on her own. She pulled herself up to the couch to see what we were hiding. She is getting so big.

This is a daily ritual in our house. She crawls over to her toy basket and pulls out every single toy. Then after she goes to bed, mommy searches the house and picks everything back up again.

Since she had started to climb on the stairs, we thought it was time to put up the baby gates. This was the first day she found the gates. She looked so confused. I had to laugh, she went up next to it and shook the bars like she was trying to move them.

If she could only talk, I think she might be asking Bailee "Do you know how to break through here?"

Climbing up on the entertainment center.

Magic carpet, take me away!

She loves climbing through coffee tables.

And part of the climbing/exploring stage means she ends up with bumps and bruises.... Her first bruise on her forehead: This actually came from her crib when she slipped while standing up on that.

I always want to go grab her when she starts climbing so she won't get hurt, but then remember this is all part of the learning process for her. She loves to explore and figure out new things. She is so curious!

4th of July Vacation

Wow, we had such a good time in Colorado for the 4th! And we had a FULL HOUSE! There were 9 adults, 3 kids, 4 dogs and 2 birds. Here is our group shot!


We went to Mesa Verde one day to see the ancient indian dwellings. Here is me and my Great Aunt Gloria at the top of the mountain overlooking Cortez.

We saw some wild horses on the side of the road. That was neat.

These are the cliff dwellings from the top.

We hiked down to the bottom to get a better look. It sure was a steep climb, but it was fun.

This is my Grandpa and Uncle Jerry and Aunt Gloria overlooking Navajo Canyon.

Another day was spent on the boat fishing. Here is Tanner with his "Cars" fishing pole:

And Sage with her "Barbie" fishing pole:

This is how Brooklyn spent the first part of the fishing trip. Passed out on mommy!

The only one to actually catch anything that day was my Grandpa. And I think that's the biggest trout I've seen. I always catch the small ones.

Bailee is not used to all the running and usually tears up the pads of her feet, so we bought her some shoes this time. Boy did she like them. They protected her tender feet and she was able to keep up with the rest of the dogs.

Another day we drove to Telluride. Brooklyn was cracking me up. Every time I'd say "Bob" she'd laugh. I don't know why, but we kept saying it the rest of the week. She's going to think her name is Bob. But she sure gave pretty smiles.

Tanner passed out on the drive.

Brooklyn just loves her daddy!

We stopped at Trout Lake to take some pictures. So pretty there.

Rather than driving all the way to Telluride, we stopped at the ski lodge place and took the Gondola over the mountain into town. That was so neat. Here is me and Brooklyn enjoying the ride.

What a view coming over the mountain and into Telluride!

Our family! This is much different than when we went in January! Not so cold!

Brooklyn passed out after a long day. I couldn't resist taking her pic all snuggled up with her bunny!

We found a really cool park and took the kids there one day while the boys went fishing. Brooklyn loved the swing.

All us girls at the top of the "castle".

What a happy baby!

For 4th of July, we made fun cupcakes:

And of course everyone had on their red, white, and blue. Here is Aunt G with Brooklyn:

Me and the kiddos:

Fireworks are legal in New Mexico, so we all stopped and bought a bunch on our way so we could do our own fireworks show. My camera has a fireworks setting so I was trying to get some good shots. So neat. These were the skyrockets that go up about 100 feet and explode:

We had enough fireworks to last for at least a couple hours.

We were all "oo-ing and aw-ing"

We had ground shows as well:

And then it turned into chaos. We had all the unlit stuff on the same table we were lighting things and something sparked and caught everything on fire. I'm not even kidding, about 50 fireworks went off all at once right on our table. They were flying at us, hitting the cars, hitting the house, starting the field on fire.

I took this picture from inside the house and you can see the fire in the background and the sparks coming toward the house.

We were SOOOOO lucky that nobody got hurt. Things blew up for just under 2 minutes and then it stopped. The guys put out the fires and cleaned up the mess. Here's my brother with the hose. While he was spraying down the field, one of the skyrockets went off about 5 feet from where he was standing. It was scary.

After all fires were out, they found the fireworks that didn't catch fire and started the show back up. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. And then a few minutes later, my dad lit 2 and only one shot up... there goes another blowing up on the table and starting another fire. Apparently this was put in the chamber wrong because it blew that up too.

Maybe this is why fireworks are ILLEGAL in Arizona!

Another day we went to the Elk Farm in Mancos. Here are the females out soaking up the sun.

They were eating grass out of the kids hands.

Brooklyn thought they were interesting:

Some of the males out in the field:

One day we went horseback riding. Here is Kurt and Sage:

And me and my dad. We got to take the horses out of the little corral and really ride.

We had such a busy week and had so much fun. We didn't want to come home to the 110 degree heat though! I guess it's ok cause we get to go back in 2 months.

Oh, I almost forgot, Brooklyn cut her first 2 teeth while we were in Colorado. Can't really see them in the pic, but she wouldn't hold still for me. She got the bottom two at the same time.

Hope everyone else had a fun 4th of July. This is officially my longest post ever!