Saying Goodbye to my 20's...

Well, I hit the big 30 last Thursday. And I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty good! :) And since Kurt has Thursdays off, this was the first year that we were able to spend the day together on my actual birthday since I don't have to work anymore. It was great!

I bought a new dress, my mom watched Brooklyn and we went to see Time Travelers Wife and have dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was a FANTASTIC day!


I think my favorite part though was the surprise I got when going to wake Brooklyn up from her nap. Daddy had snuck in while I was showering and put my present in the crib. Brooklyn noticed right away that there was fun stuff in her bed, so she opened it all up. When I went in the room, she had a bottle of perfume next to her leg and she had opened the envelope from the card, pulled the card out and there was a massage gift card inside the card that she was chewing on. It was so funny!!!

I guess she figured that whatever was in her bed belonged to her. I was cracking up.

And what would my post be without some random pictures of Brooklyn. She was having fun riding on daddy's shoulders.

It didn't take Bailee long to find her new favorite spot in the house.... close to the high chair. She's figured out that she gets snacks that way :)

Brooklyn is doing chores and helping out with the dusting, haha.

I was clacking my tongue and she was trying to copy me.

What a big girl. She makes me laugh every day. I just love being her mommy!

We are headed back to CO for yet another vacation tomorrow. I can't wait to get out of the heat again. Relaxation, here we come!

Handyman Husband

Our den downstairs never had a door on it, it was just an opening. I had hung some curtains to separate it from the rest of the house, but curtains are not soundproof and Brooklyn likes to jabber which interupts Kurt when he's working. I forgot to take a "before" picture so this will have to do... you can sort of see the curtain on the right.

And here is the opening (pardon the mess, it's a construction zone).

Kurt decided rather than pay someone an arm and a leg, he would take on the project himself. So he ordered this custom door frame.

And went to work installing.

Had a few little hiccups along the way (like dropping the door and taking a couple chunks out of the door and the drywall at the bottom of the stairs)

But he's a good fixer upper and patched the drywall... You can hardly tell he messed it up in the first place.

Even I helped out a bit by painting when it was hung.

Voila! Finished product:

It actually looks like it belongs in the house! He did a FANTASTIC job!!! And boy does it help keep out the noise.

Kurt amazes me with all his handy work around the house. Who would have known a computer geek could have so many other tricks up his sleeve? :) I think I'll keep him around! You never know what may need fixed next :)

Another thing she figured out...

Yep, the cabinets are no longer a safe zone...

Our project this week will be putting the latches on to keep little hands out. Baby-proofing the house seems to be a constant thing lately. She keeps showing us what we need to do next :)

One More Thing...

I almost forgot... One of the best parts of coming home from being away from my husband for a week was that he missed me and surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

And there were a few gerber daisies too, which I LOVE!

He's too good to me. But no complaints here :) Thanks honey!

"Girls Only" Trip To Colorado

We just got back from our girls trip. It was totally different than any other CO trip we've taken. There wasn't much on the agenda and we mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the weather! (80's during the day, high 50's - low 60's at night).

My mom wanted to go to the Escalante Days fair that was in town. It was not like any fair we've had in AZ. Small towns are so neat. This was seriously the most people I've seen in this town at once. It was great!

And I realized that my baby is growing like a weed when I put her in the Bjorn. I don't think we'll be able to use that much longer. She's getting too big!!!!


This was the only "ride" at the fair. A tractor pulled the little car train around the street. It was cute. Brooklyn will probably get to ride this some year.

She was worn out with all the festivities! You can tell by that look on her face.

This was one of her favorite things to do during the week and it made me so nervous. She loved climbing on the fireplace ledge, but it's solid stone and one slip can really hurt her. She only bumped her head once on it so that was good.

My dad has a lot of "elk chew" custom furniture throughout the house. It's exactly as it sounds... made from wood that elk have chewed in the wild. It makes a neat design in the wood. Well, Brooklyn added some "Brooklyn chew" to the furniture while we were there :) She had to taste everything!

I love this pic. It truly shows her sweet personality shining through. She has such a happy spirit! I just can't get enough of her.

Her other favorite thing to do was climb up on the oven, dishwasher and fridge and lick the stainless steel. It was cold and I guess felt good on her tongue. Once she'd lick it, she'd finger paint in the drool. We had a lot of prints to clean off when we left. She was leaving her mark!

This is my little "baby bird". Every time I'd feed her, she'd just sit there with her mouth open waiting for more bites. Too funny!

The hummingbirds kept swarming the feeder. My mom had to fill it daily because they'd empty the whole thing. We had to make another trip to the store just to get more nectar. At times there would be 8 or 10 at once.

My mom has a big soaking tub in the master bath. Brooklyn loves to take a swim in it while we're there. (and so do I, we just don't pull the camera out for that... )

Of all the bath toys, the plastic dixie cups are her favorite.

I caught her splashing herself in the face in this one.

Bath time is fun time.

On the drive home, she looked like the closet scene in ET with all the animals surrounding her and just a head peeking out.

We stopped at my Grandpa's house in Payson on the way home. He has a stuffed Chihuahua toy that says "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" and she loved playing with it!

It was a nice spur of the moment trip and we truly enjoyed ourselves and the little break we got. We are headed back up with the whole gang again in a couple weeks.

Another Tooth and We're Standing

We've had another busy week. Brooklyn cut her 3rd tooth so of course is chewing on EVERYTHING and drooling all over the place.


I gave her one of those biter biscuits to chew on and she went to town on it. It made a huge mess, but she LOVED it.

We took a day trip to Tucson to go to my friend Laura's baby shower. I haven't seen her in a couple years so that was nice. She's having a little girl sometime next month.


There was a dog there and Brooklyn LOVES dogs. She was all smiles and squeels.

And of course she was digging the coffee table. She loves to pull herself up on everything these days.

Standing up playing with her jumper toy. It's much more fun this way!

Pulling herself up on the carseat. And now that I look at this post I realize I've been taking a lot of pictures these days of her in her diaper. I promise she has clothes, it just seems like she spends a lot of time in just a diaper lately since it's easier to crawl. Dresses were getting in the way.

Standing up against the walker. She doesn't like being in the seat because she's confined, but she loves to stand next to it and push it around the room.

Standing by Grammy's refrigerator. She was playing inside of the fridge pulling everything out and when we closed the door she was trying hard to figure out how to open it back up.

Oh... look closely at this little monkey. She's not just standing BY the walker, she stepped up ONTO the base of it. What a little climber! She cracks me up, but also makes me nervous since what goes up must come down!

Thursday we are heading back to CO for a girls trip. Just me, Brooklyn and my mom. I'm excited to get out of the heat again, especially for some girl time!

Have you ever thought your day was off to a bad start?

We were heading over to Kurt's mom's house yesterday for swimming and BBQ and she called saying she couldn't leave for the store because her car wouldn't start. It was probably the battery so Kurt was going to help her out. We got all loaded up in our Expedition and it wouldn't start either! WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? We jumped it with our car so we could go have our battery checked.

When we drove down our street we saw this... I made Kurt drive back around the block so I could take a pic :)



I guess our vehicles not starting wasn't so bad after all. There wasn't even a storm. One of the trees just decided to break in half. I bet the owner of the car didn't find this so funny.