11 months old

Brooklyn turned 11 months old on the 19th.

Our little girl is almost 1.....ONE!!  This year has flown by and we can't imagine life without her. 

She no longer seems like a baby to me....she has grown up so much these last couple of months.  Here are a few things that she is doing now and things I don't want to forget about her at this stage:

• loves to do "patty cake" - she starts clapping as soon as we start singing and will also "roll it" and "toss it in the air" when it come to that part in the song
• waves bye and blows kisses
• likes to push things off her high chair or drop things off the counter and says "ooooooooooh"
• says "Dada" when we tell her to say Daddy....says "Dada" when we tell her to say Mommy :)
• loves bananas and has one almost every morning for breakfast...says "nana" when she sees it
• still eats baby food but also loves real food - she is usually a great eater and eats almost everything we give her
• is getting so active - she is not very fun to take to church anymore and we come home exhausted every Sunday :)  I couldn't tell you the last relief society or sunday school lesson that I remember.
• is still usually a great napper and sleeper - she takes a morning and afternoon nap and sleeps from 8pm-6:30am
• plays by herself for longer periods of time - although now I have to be careful and always know where she is...the other day I ran downstairs to change the laundry and came back up and she had climbed the stairs all the way to the top (she doesn't know how to go down them yet)
• will NOT wear a bow or headband anymore...sometimes I can distract her and get one on for church, but it only stays in for 10 minutes max - also, will NOT wear socks.  I put them on her every morning and multiple times during the day but she always takes them off.  I've had a lot of people ask me at the grocery store why my child isn't wearing socks when it's so cold outside.
• has two bottom teeth - got her first tooth at 10 months
• follows us around wherever we go - my favorite is when I'm in the shower (I usually leave her with a bucket of toys in the living room) and I hear her push the door open, pull herself up on the tub, and stick her little head in the shower to see what I'm doing :)  

And here are a few pictures....I love how many facial expressions she has now and how funny she thinks she is sometimes....

Thanksgiving 2011

I have been a slacker at blogging lately...mostly due to the busyness of this time of year. 

I'll try and catch up these next few days while I have some time off before Christmas.

(Sorry in advance for the picture overload!!)

We started Thanksgiving off this year like we did the year when we were dating - John played football with friends and I ran/walked the Turkey Trot.  Rich, Misty, and I did it together and pushed the little girls in our strollers.  It was nice that we didn't sign up for the race and had no pressure of doing well or anything like that - we just took our time, talked, and enjoyed ourselves.  

Brooklyn especially enjoyed the bagels at the end of the race.

 sweet Sophia

Then we headed out to the Cowden's for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We ate, talked, watched some home videos, some played football, napped, relaxed, and had a great time.

 This picture cracks me up - Mike and John looking pretty intense talking about the next play.

Later on we headed to the Bowen's to eat leftovers, play games, talk, and let the grand kids open Christmas pajamas from my parents.  

what we are most thankful for this Thanksgiving

Yup, that's right.  BABY #2!!  

Is it crazy?!!..........YES.

Was it planned?!!...........YES.

Are we excited?!!.............YESSSS.

Are you shocked?!!.........PROBABLY :)

Even though we have known now for almost 2 months, it is still crazy/shocking/exciting.  We know it is fast - Brooklyn and this baby will only be 17 months apart - but we couldn't be more happy and thrilled about it.  

For those that are a little more interested and want a few more details......

I stopped breastfeeding Brooklyn the beginning of September.  It was just getting too hard to be pumping at work and in the mornings (while training for the 1/2 marathon I did in October).  I stopped cold turkey one day, after a frustrating day at work.  Soon after that John and I thought we'd see what happened for a month because we either wanted to have another baby right before we move or wait awhile until after we move.  I kept wanting to take a pregnancy test because I wanted to know for sure...but I made myself wait awhile.  Finally the beginning of October I just felt I really needed to take one and yup, it was positive! :)

That night I put the test under John's pillow and waited for him to come to bed.  He pulled back the pillow and picked it up and started freaking out a little...saying..."what is this?"....."how do you read this thing?".....what does this mean?"......"how can that be?".  I was most shocked about how shocked John was....I didn't think it would be that big of a surprise to him.  Anyway, it took a few days for it to sink in for him, but once the initial shock set in, he was so happy and excited about having another baby.  

I had my first doctors appointment on Nov. 15th.  I was really excited about it, one because I wanted to make sure everything was ok and there was actually a baby in there, and two because they did an ultrasound to see how far along I am (because we didn't have a clue).  I am now 11 weeks along..which means I am due:

JUNE 8, 2012

We can't wait to find out what this little peanut is the end of January :)

the first snowfall

The other day (I think it was Saturday) we woke up to snow on the ground and I couldn't wait to get Brooklyn up and take her outside.  She was NOT fond of her snowsuit and looked just like Randy (Ralphie's little brother) in a "Christmas Story".  She looked miserable in it and didn't like how she could hardly move.

I bought her snowsuit big so hopefully it will fit next year too

Once we got outside (and took off the snowsuit) she chippered right up.

she wasn't so sure about eating the snow

hangin' upside down

I'm excited for it to snow again and to hopefully take her sledding this time...or show her how mom and dad sled down our steep hill before the snow plows come :)

Halloween

This year we were able to attend another Murder Mystery Dinner (the day before Halloween), hosted once again by our good friends Ryan and Mandy/Raf and Claudia.  The theme was Marti Gra and we were assigned characters to dress up as.  Mandy put everything together and Raf and Claudia hosted it at their house...AND Raf made us a delicious dinner.  It was a fun night spent together with friends and without kids!

 the whole group

John and I 

 Tom and Kristie

Raf and Claudia  

Ryan (who ended up being the murderer and no one guessed it right) and Mandy

On Halloween night we had dinner with Rich, Misty, and Mike at our house (homemade chili by Misty in bread bowls) and then took the girls trick-or-treating.  We only took them to about 5 houses, which was perfect for the adults to get enough candy to eat and to show them off to some people in our neighborhood.

someone excited about the Halloween candy we passed out..

Brooklyn and Uncle Mike 

us with our little lady :) 

 Brooklyn (lady bug) and Sophia (duck)