she makes me smile

Brooklyn has started smiling a lot and I love it.  I get a little picture happy and can't help but take tons and tons.

This next picture is proof what a mean mom I am!  But it also cracks me up.  Since I have started working and do some of my days at home, I make her take at least a few good naps throughout the day so I can get my work done.  By make I mean as long as she has her binkie she is a happy camper - but the problem sometimes is that she can't keep it in and then it wakes her up when she is asleep.  So I found my solution to that. 

and it seems to be working...at least for now :)

 I can't get enough of this sweet face.

One Year Anniversary

We celebrated our anniversary last weekend (March 20th).

I cannot believe we've already been married for a year - it has flown by.  I still remember everything about that day.  It was the best day of my life.  I cannot imagine my life without John.  He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I am so lucky to have married my best friend.

We started our weekend by driving to Bridaveil Falls in Orem.  This is where John and I had our first kiss and we thought it would be fun to visit.  We took Brooklyn with us and luckily I had her snowsuit in the trunk because it was cold.  I carried her in the Bjorn (I love this thing!) and she slept the whole time.



We stopped at the Fry's house to wish Heather a happy birthday before we headed home.  Mike came over to watch Brooklyn while we went to dinner at Tucci's.  It was dee-lish!!  It was my first time there (John's in awhile) and definitely not our last!  We treated ourselves - drinks, appetizer, dessert, on top of our meal.  We were stuffed and had plenty leftover to take home.  It was so fun to be together and extra special to be just the two of us.  We reminisced about our first year of marriage and how much fun it has been.  

the babysitter

We came home and put this little girl to bed...

 and then pulled out our wedding cake from the freezer.  Now despite this being the ugliest wedding cake you'll ever see, and NOT the one I ordered, it was still pretty tasty for being a year old.  I will always laugh at my wedding cake.  It looked nothing like what I wanted - but that really was the only thing that went wrong that day..so I can't complain. 

John :)

We finished the night watching our wedding video.  I absolutely LOVE my wedding video.  It is my very favorite thing from my whole wedding.  My videographer, also my photographer, did an amazing job.  I cannot count how many time I have watched it this past year.  Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, you should.

Here's to another year!

one happy mom!

Brooklyn slept 8 hours last night.  And then another 4.

She was pretty excited and pleased with herself.

And has also discovered her tongue.

I felt like a new person when I woke up.  I had forgotten what a good night sleep felt like :)   Let's just hope we can make this a habit!

a hard, but good week

I went back to work this week.

I didn't want to go back, especially not so soon, but there are hospital bills and tuition waiting to be paid for :)  I feel so lucky to have the job that I do and to have such a great boss.  I will still be working full-time, but able to do half of that from home.  My sister has offered to watch Brooklyn the two days I will be in the office.  I am so grateful for her willingness to do this.  I don't know what we would do without her!        

John was on spring break from school this week, so I worked the entire week in the office.  It was so hard to leave Brooklyn every morning, especially on Thursday, when I think she realized I was leaving once again and just started sobbing.  I have been so anxious to get home every night and am so excited to see her.  She always smiles and coos when she sees me, which makes it all worth it.    


This is what she does when John has her....watches the NCAA tournament.

This week has been good for both John and I.  It helps remind us of our goals and what we are working towards.  John made the comment, "I don't think I want to be a stay-at-home dad."  I just smiled and said I don't want you to be either.  We feel so blessed to be in the situation we're in, even though it's not easy, it will all be worth it.

Anyway, we are so excited the weekend is here and that we get to celebrate our 1 year anniversary!

my paradise

Over the weekend my sister Jeannette and I took the kids, her five and my one, to Worland, Wyoming to visit our aunt and uncle.  This is the one thing I wanted to do before I went back to work and I'm so glad we were able to.  We love Worland and it seriously is our favorite place to visit.  Aunt Claud and Uncle B always spoil us and we never want to leave.

A few things we did:

•  lots of sewing (Jeannette and I finished a quilt together)
• bow making with the older girls
• Super Mario and Just Dance on the Wii
• Maverik at least 3x a day
• games with the kids
• Taco Johns
• jumping on the tramp
• excerising with Jeannette in the mornings
• bath time with cousins
• and of course eating delicious food all weekend!

A few pictures:

Emily was the biggest help with Brooklyn.  She was so cute with her and always willing to hold or watch her for me.

 

 These two crack me up!  Here they are playing "Just Dance"....they were good and knew every move.

 

I can't wait to go back in August, if not sooner!

playdates with Lucy

While I was on maternity leave my cousin Meg and her daughter Lucy would come over every Wednesday.  Meg had Wednesdays off and was nice enough to spend the day with Brooklyn and I.  We spent the days catching up, going on walks, shopping at the Gateway and Target, eating lunch, and letting the girls play (well Brooklyn would mostly just sleep :))

I can't wait to see these girls turn into the best of friends, just like their moms. 

24-hour flu

John woke up yesterday morning not feeling so great.  We weren't sure if it was something he ate or the flu.  He threw up all morning and skipped classes for the day.  He was able to sleep a ton and slowly started to feel better throughout the day.  Last night I was checking a friend's blog and she made the comment that she would rather take care of 10 sick kids than 1 sick husband.  I started laughing out loud and read the comment to John as he lay on the couch with a wet clothe on his head.  He started laughing too and we both thought it was really funny.  I don't know...after taking care of a sick husband yesterday I might take my chances with 10 kids :)

Anyway, I'm just glad neither Brooklyn or I have caught it and that he is feeling better and back at school today.

Brooklyn's Blessing

Brooklyn was blessed yesterday.

John and I were both really nervous.  John was nervous about giving her the blessing.  I was nervous about her spitting up or having a blowout all over her dress.  But luckily none of that happened and it was perfect.  Brooklyn fell asleep during the opening hymn and was in a deep sleep when it was time for John to give her the blessing. 

Before I forget, I wanted to write down a few things that I remember John blessing her with:

• a healthy body and mind
• to be a leader and an example to friends and future siblings
• to have a strong relationship with your parents, especially your mother
• to have the armor of God to protect and watch over you
• to always have integrity

It was a very sweet blessing and I am so proud of John.  He was especially excited to do the "simba" hold and show her off to the congregation after he blessed her :) 

Afterwards we had a dinner at our house for family and friends that had come to the blessing.  We are so lucky to have such supportive, loving family and friends.  It was a great day and it couldn't have gone any better.

cousin Kate

cousins - Emily and Lindsey

gushing milk

Brooklyn has been spitting up a lot the last couple days.  I'm not sure why...if it's something that I'm eating that is making her stomach upset...or something else.  I kind of think it's because she gets so anxious/excited to eat and my milk comes out so fast that she literally is gulping it down...and it makes her stomach upset. 

Anyway, the other day she was laying on the floor after I had just fed her and she started spitting up a ton of milk...it was literally gushing out!  I have never seen so much milk come out of a baby...it looked like she spit up everything she had eaten in the past few days.  It reminded me of the "milk challenge" and the time I recorded my brother and cousins drinking a gallon of milk in an hour.  When they threw it back up it came gushing out as fast as a hose. 

I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.  A lot of the milk had soaked up in the blanket by the time I took the picture, but you can still get a good idea of how much milk it was.