{My Girls}

 Brynlee Bug--14 months

Where to start with this girl?!

I can't get enough of this girl's smiles and zest for life. She is a happy girl! She loves to explore and loves wandering around playing. Constantly on the go means no time for snuggling..except for the past week she's realized that is she snuggles me at night I have a much harder time putting her down, thus momentarily prolonging her bedtime. She is an awesome sleeper and has been since I stopped nursing at 9 months. If she wakes up at night, which is like never, something is actually wrong (ie teething, sick, diaper rash..etc). She is also a great napper, making my afternoons peaceful! She loves to be tickled, and most of all, she loves hugging her sisters. One of Bryn's favorite things is to run into Brooke's bed in the morning or after nap and wake her up. It seriously makes her laugh. Last week, she wasn't down for nap but Brooke was and before I knew it, I heard her laughing upstairs and ran up to find her trying to wake Brooklyn up. Luckily, she was too tired to wake up. It was pretty cute actually. She lights up when she sees Brooke! They mostly play really well together, although Brooke sometimes gets frustrated with her taking toys and such...pretty normal I suppose. Bryn has 4 top teeth and 4 bottom, and at her year appointment, she was 40% for weight and 90% for height, taking after her dad, not me :) She loves talking, and can carry on a pretty sweet conversation, one of her most used being being "ya." Hasn't learned "no" yet and hope she never does, haha. She loves to imitate sounds and actions. She is a TOTAL binky girl. Taking away Brooke's binky at 13 months was painless and so I thought "oh we'll do the same thing with Bryn." Well.....we haven't tried yet. She is SO attached to her binky! Like tries to take it out of her bed every morning and after nap, and is looking for it before she'll go in her crib. Needless to say, it will be a painful process. But I'm in no hurry. She is also a blanket girl, and loves to rub it on her face and carry it around. Brynlee bug has a determination and stubbornness I'm learning to appreciate. If something hurts her, she seems to learn not to do it again. If she gets in trouble for playing in the toilet (i.e. frequently), she thoroughly enjoys having her hands washed, and will sneak into an accidentally left open bathroom door every chance she gets. Luckily Brooke is super responsible and is good about closing the bathroom door. She loves playing in cupboards, especially pulling out dishrags and water bottles. She loves toys, especially princess ones (could it be because 90% of our toys are princess related?), and LOVES outside. She had so much fun in the pool this summer, always laughing and having a good time in the water (and enjoyed intentionally swallowing water as well :)  We love this sweet smile and absolutely could not imagine life without her. She has the same activity level that I did as a toddler, and for that I have gained more appreciation for my mother :)

Brooklyn girl--Almost 3 1/2 years

I thank my Heavenly Father every day for sending us such a calm, sweet, appreciative, sensitive, responsible girl. She is such a joy to have in our family! One of her most used words is "fanks" (aka thanks..working on the -th- sound), and she has an excitement for life that makes me so happy! It's the little things that make her the most happy. She is such a good big sister, always looking out for Brynlee's safety and giving her hugs and playing with her. Sometimes I can't believe how grown up she is. She is such fun to talk with because she is an awesome conversationalist. She loves to have her nails painted and her hair done and sits so still while I'm doing it. She is into matching her clothes and is surprisingly good at it. She loves to draw and color (and I wish she had a better art teacher..I'm the world's worst artist), and she could listen to us read books for hours. Of course, she loves movies as well, but we try to limit those a bit. When you ask her her favorite thing, it's always whatever we are doing, eating, playing, watching, reading at the time. This is indicative of her personality..happy and content. She has an amazing memory, which forces me to be careful what I say. She wakes up in the mornings and asks, "What's the plan for today?" She loves parks, dolls, friends, nursery, and climbing into our bed in the middle of the night. She loves learning and I'm always amazed with her knowledge of the gospel...which is why we bit the bullet and spent the large amount of money on the Living Scriptures DVD's. She saved up money to pay for half of the Bibbidi Boppity Boutique before Disneyland by doing her chores and she did them so well! She loves to save money in her bank for "tollege" (working on the "c" sound also), and is excited to go to "BYU" when she gets bigger. She is a pro staller at bedtime, going to the bathroom, switching blankets, repositioning, talking to herself, but is so sweet in the process you can't even get mad at her. The word she uses the most these days is "Say?" Whenever you say something to her, before she even tries to process she responds "Say?", meaning "What did you say?", but shortening it to a much faster and easier question. We're working on getting her to listen before she says, "Say?" She loves to jump on the tramp, ride her bike and run (I think we might have a cross country girl on our hands in a few years). She was a total fish in the pool this summer, and spent many hours in the pool on her noodle (she didn't like life jackets and was pretty good at listening so we let her get away with it). She loves jumping off the diving board on her noodle, but never loved the slide...maybe next summer? When she wants to learn something, she is very motivated and can write a "B" and an "r". She LOVES preschool and was so excited to have the show and tell bag yesterday. We can't get enough of our princess Brooke. She will not give into peer pressure..if she doesn't want to do something, no one can talk her into otherwise, and I hope that never changes. 3 1/2 going on 13...