Stand Still

I've been struggling lately with feeling fulfilled in my day to day activities of cleaning, meal time, dishes, meal time, laundry, meal time, running errands, and trying to keep the kids happy during it all. I prayed last week to Heavenly Father to help me feel joyful and happy during the sometimes monotony of life. I feel that my prayer was answered with a tender mercy for which I am grateful and need to write down to remember. It might even have been the morning after my plea to Heavenly Father. I woke up before the kids woke me up and turned on my Hilary Weeks Pandora station. A song came on called, "Stand Still." Soon after the song came on, the two sweetest girls appeared next to my bed, climbed up, and proceeded to snuggle me. Of course they wanted a show on the Ipad but I asked them to wait a few minutes so I could finish the song. It struck me with such emotion because it was exactly the answer I needed. 

Ive been taking pictures for a long, long time

Some are on paper but most are in my mind

Snapshots and memories of the days when you were young

I plan to keep them

Long after youve grown and gone

I remember watching as you took your first step

Seems the clocks been running faster ever since

Every day a little taller, it says so on the wall

The days are passing

And theyre not going to stop

And if I could

I would

Ask time to stand still

So I could hold you a little longer

I'd make the minutes stop

So we would always have today

I wont let the sun go down

Until you know how I feel

I love you so much

I wish time could stand still

Fingerprints all over the sliding glass door

And I can barely see underneath the toys on the floor

I have wished away the sleepless nights, the noise and the messes made

But my heart reminds me

I'm gonna miss these days

So if I could

I would

Ask time to stand still

So I could hold you a little longer

I'd make the minutes stop

So we would always have today

I wont let the sun go down

Until you know how I feel

I love you so much

I wish time could stand still

It was as if Heavenly Father, in his tenderness, allowed me that sweet moment with my girls to remind me to try to enjoy this journey. Not to let these short but incredibly tender moments pass me by. I viewed that day with a different attitude, grateful for the little things and more aware of my blessings. I wish I could say that I've done the same since...I haven't been as good as I would like. But I know that I can keep trying, that Heavenly Father doesn't give up on me on the days where my patience is running extra thin. That He forgives me of my shortcomings and cheers me on. That even when I have no patience left to give my children, He somehow has patience with me. My lif3 is so blessed and I'm grateful for the reminder I had of that last week. Heavenly Father truly answers prayers and I'm grateful I was able to recognize His answer to me to reassure me that He knows me and loves me. 

Baby #3

We found out we were expecting baby #3 on March 21st. We actually suspected it before that, due to a missed period and me being waaay tired. Curt and I were on a date that night and decided to pick up a pregnancy test at the store. We were going to wait and do the test in the morning, but while he was busy, I made an impulse decision and hurried and took the test and almost instantly called for Curtis to come. He came in saying, "no you didn't" because we had talked about doing it together. But he wasn't really mad because it read "+." Even though we had thought that would be the case, it still seemed surreal that it actually was real! I was 5 weeks along and we figured the due date to be November 21st, 2014. We celebrated this news with Brynlee (who obviously had no idea what was going on!..Brooke was sleeping over at gma and gpa's)..really great doctor and actually has a sense of humor (unlike my last dr!). Everything looked great, and I had to go back a few times to make sure that everything was good to start blood thinners. I had an ultrasound at about 10 weeks and it was so amazing to see the little fluttering heartbeat. It's an amazing experience that always brings a few tears of wonder and gratitude and excitement. 

This pregnancy has been different from the other two. I was barely sick at all, which was a huge blessing! If I did get sick, it was only occasionally and at night, after putting the kids to bed. I only threw up a handful of times. I was super tired, but that's always the case with pregnancy, and even more so with two little ones and getting ready to move. Luckily, I mustered up enough energy to get everything done as far as moving goes, and had the help of family (another huge blessing!). The only real trouble I've had so far is terrible lower back pain (which I'm mostly contributing to moving and lifting too much). I went to physical therapy a few times, but it really has been so much more tolerable since the moving is over (thankfully!!). 

We had our 20-week ultrasound on Wednesday, July 9th. I always get a little anxious before this one, just hoping and praying that the baby is healthy. Thankfully, everything looked great, which was a big relief! We wanted to wait and find out the gender later that night, so we had the tech put it in an envelope. At dinner, we had everyone pick a pink or blue plate depending on what they thought the baby would be. Everyone chose blue except Sadie, Brynlee (Sadie told her to pick pink), and Grandpa. We opened up the envelope and saw "Girl" with a clear picture! The ultrasound tech had said she got a textbook picture and I would agree! I actually thought it was going to be a boy, just because the pregnancy felt different, but honestly did not hope for one way or the other. We are thrilled at the thought of another sweet baby girl! Brooke was pouty and disappointed when we read it was a girl. I asked her if she was sad that it was a girl or that she had picked the wrong color of plate. Turns out she was sad she had guessed wrong, so we gave her a pink plate and all was well! She has actually been calling the baby a girl or "she" all along, but I kept preparing her for the alternative because I didn't want her to be disappointed if it was a boy. Turns out, all the time I spent telling her that was a waste of time and she got her wish! 

Now to decide on a name...will the "B" tradition continue, or will we try something different?? Suggestions welcome! 

Easter 2014

We love celebrating all Holidays, but we especially love teaching the girls about why we celebrate. Easter was a great chance to focus even more on the Savior and what He has done for us. Brooke especially loved going to Journey to the Cross and asked us many thoughtful questions about Christ and the Resurrection. We love experiencing so many new things with her and seeing her understanding grow. It never ceases to amaze us! 

The entrance of Journey to the Cross

In addition to talking of and rejoicing in Christ, we did some of the fun festivities that go along with Easter. We made bird nests with Rice Krispy treats (Bryn was more into eating than making). I also organized a little Easter egg hunt at the park with several friends and their kids. It was fReEzInG (go figure in April!) and windy, but the kids had so much fun! I love how simple it is to make kids so happy.

All the kids ready to start (Bushman kids, Olaveson boys, Dalton girls, Barnhart boy, Grayson Luthy and Titan Sorenson..not in that order :)

 Brooke Bushman invited us over the Saturday before Easter to dye eggs. Dying eggs is always a bit of a stressful adventure, but a must do! We decided to strip the clothes off to take away some of the worry. It didn't last too long, but the kids had fun while it did! Then, they made their way outside to play in the Bushman's fun backyard. We love hanging out with the Bushman's!!

Easter morning was full of excitement and fun. The Easter Bunny didn't disappoint and the girls loved exploring their baskets. 

We attempted some pictures with at least a little success! Love this family of mine and so grateful that because of the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection, we get to be together forever!

After church, we went to the Barnes' for dinner and a little cousin egg hunt. Bryn was even more into it this time because she knew there was candy involved (one of her favorite words is "canny" {candy}). It was great to enjoy the day with family! 

Spring Break!

With having only one kid in school, and it being preschool, Spring Break wasn't much different, other than Brooke was home a few more hours during the week. But we wanted it to be fun, so we did a few fun things!

Feeding the goats, feeding the ducks, and a short "hike" with friends! The weather was gorgeous and it was so wonderful to be outside. I tell you my kids are angels when they are outside! We had fun with Hayden and Connor and always love playing with them! 

We babysat the little boy my mom watches for a couple days of Spring Break, so we had stay at home fun! We played outside, did puzzles, played trains, dress up (of course!) and had fun with Bentley.  

We took a trip downtown  with grandma and grandpa to Riverfront park and rode the wagon slide, fed the ducks (Bryn and mom basically got attacked by a duck that got too close for comfort..Bryn might be scarred for life), fed the garbage eating goat, and rode the carousel. It's always fun to hang out at Riverfront Park. Too bad we forgot to go see the Spokane Falls..silly us!  We love dates with grandma and grandpa!!

On "Daddy day" as Brookie affectionately calls it, we went bowling as Brooklyn so badly wanted to. Just as we predicted, an hour of bowling with these 2 cuties was too long, haha!) And we all played with bumpers to make it more fun for Brooke so it wasn't the most "real life" bowling. Brooke did pretty well until we got the pops that were included, and then all she wanted to do was sit and drink pop. Funny girls! Bryn played on Curt's phone to keep her entertained. Just as we said after the last family bowling experience, maybe we should wait awhile to go again :) After bowling, we went to a park and played. We love having daddy to play at the park with us. So fun!

Brooklyn's Actual 4th Birthday

The day after Brooklyn's super fun and exhausting Frozen Party was her actual birthday! (Remind me to never plan them back to back..I had nooo energy to celebrate again the next day! ha!)

But nevertheless, life went on, and we did party! Brooklyn requested Blueberry Oatmeal for breakfast, but she said I put too many blueberries in it so she didn't like it (can't win with 4 year olds apparently!)

You can tell how tired I was by the lack of pictures. Forgot to take one of our guests..oops! Grandma Murphey, Nana and Papa, Barb and Ernie and Ashley and her kids came to celebrate with sweet Brooklyn. She was spoiled with fun presents and had strawberry shortcake per her request. We love this sweet girl and totally hit the jackpot with her!

Our current Brooklyn favs:

• Love her eagerness to learn! She tells me she has homework that she needs to work on and practices her writing and "math." She is a sponge and very self-motivated. She loves school and I am constantly amazed at all she has learned there. Here I thought we were paying for socialization and she has gotten so much more than that! 
• She loves singing the ABC's backwards (learned at school), and has even taught Brynlee (just by singing it herself) to sing the ABC's. She is an amazing big sister and is always looking out for the safety of Bryn. She is also the "big sister" in that she likes to be bossy :) Much of the time they are playing, Brooke pretends Brynlee is her daughter (I guess that's b/c mom's get to be the boss?? Ha!) 
• Is starting to drop her nap it seems. I have been SO blessed that both girls have napped at the same time for, well, forever! But I guess at 4, she is getting too cool for naps. Darn it! She still naps probably 4 days a week, so it's a good slow adjustment into this new phase of life. 
• She is so curious and asks so many questions! If I don't know the answer she'll say, "It's okay, we can look it up when we get home." Already learning the power of the internet :)
• Continues to love Princesses and has successfully taught her little sister the names of all the Princesses. (proud parent moment? I can't decide, ha!)
• Loves Sunbeams and soaks up all she is taught. Every night when we read scriptures, she wants to know the title of the next chapter we will read, and if we try to start somewhere different the next night, she tells us where we should be. She memorizes the pictures and knows what we've already read. I wish I could borrow some of her brains/memory!
• Loves outside and is our nature girl! "Grandma's nature girl" as she calls herself. We went on a hike a couple weeks ago and she kept right up with everyone and walked the whole way. She got so excited to see all the flowers and was often found saying, "Look! Another buttercup!" We love her excitement and enthusiasm for life. 
• She is so very positive and optimistic! The other day, she was driving me a little crazy at bedtime (sometimes she is the world's worst {or maybe greatest} staller), and I kinda yelled at her and wasn't very nice. The next day, I apologized and said I didn't handle the situation very well and instantly she said, "That's alright. I'll give you a second chance." She is so forgiving and gives sincere compliments. 
• The other day, Curt took my ring and got down on his knees and pretended to propose to Brooklyn. Without missing a beat, she responded, "I can't marry you! I'm not tall enough!" No idea where she gets the funny things she says, but she is full of energy, spunk and so much sweet personality! So grateful for her in our lives! 

Brooklyn's Frozen 4th Birthday Party

It's no secret I love planning a good party. And a good party always starts with a theme. So when Brooke chose "Frozen" for her birthday party theme, I got to work! We had so much fun coming up with ideas, and looking forward with anticipation to the party. And it didn't disappoint! So many fun friends came to celebrate {on March 31st), and it was such a special day for Brooklyn. Can't believe my little miracle baby is 4! 

So many cute friends! A couple were being a bit camera shy and opted not to be in the pic :)

I think this was everyone! Next friend party (which may not be for several years), we might have a smaller group. They were all awesome, it was just exhausting! (From left to right, Top: Zoe, Savannah, Brooklyn, Jackson, Nixon, Jane, Seth; Bottom: Lucas, Paige, Brynlee, Joanna, Kylee, Hayden)

All of the yummy themed lunch foods

We played pin the nose on Olaf and Olaf snowball {marshmallow} toss

We had an awesome Frozen freeze dance party (the kids were having so much fun!), ate blue Frozen cupcakes, and broke open an "Elsa" pinata filled with candy. 

Some of our decorations 

March

As you can see below, we actually got to play outside and not even in the snow in March! We finally had a bit of nice weather and loved it. These girls were meant to be outside. They are insanely happy when they are outside. It's a lovely thing! We had another family date to Chuck e Cheese (can you tell Brooklyn picks the dates? ha!) My friend, Brooke, hosted a super fun St. Patricks day lunch where everyone brought some green food. It was quite the variety of fun lunch foods. The kids had a great time! We had our annual dinner of corned beef and cabbage for dinner (pics on my mom's camera). I actually really like the dinner, and Curt is a fan of everything but the cabbage! Gotta celebrate my Irish heritage, ya know! We went swimming at the YMCA (the once a month we use our membership), and other than Brooklyn throwing up on the side of the pool from swallowing water, it was super fun! The girls love the water slide, and we were reminded of Bryn's total lack of awareness of the danger of water. She is INSANE in the water! Must be one-on-one at all times, even in two inches of water! 

More dress up, Brooke reading books to her sissy, Brooke eating spaghetti with a giant serving fork, making fruit loop necklaces, and playing with princesses. These are the every day moments of life that I want to remember. I love these girls, their energy, adventure and creativity. They keep me smiling, laughing and tired :) Love my job and I make sure and tell Brooke and Bryn often that I have the best job in the whole world. I really am grateful to be able to stay home with them. It's difficult at times, but mostly it really is so wonderful and amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything! 

February

February was LONG and COLD!! So, once again, we played outside in the snow. Grandma and grandpa joined us and we had lots of fun! We played lots of dress up, and Bryn even learned how to take her shirt off (at least part way..she wasn't too happy when it was stuck like that!)

Valentine's Day!

We got the girls balloons and princess chocolates for Valentines day. They were so excited (and it only cost us $4!) We had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, and made/decorated sugar cookies. Troy and Tyler came home for the weekend with their girlfriends, so Curt and I celebrated with a simple date the weekend before. We have actually been quite lame when it comes to celebrating holidays. Maybe someday we'll put that higher on the priority list, but for now, we are good and happy and in love, even if we don't do anything crazy to show it!

January

January isn't always my favorite month, but looking back in pictures, it looks like we had some fun! (If I would blog when things actually happened, I'd be able to remember a lot more. So instead, I'll use pics as my memory!)

We had a fun family movie night and made cars to go to the "drive in" movie. The girls had tons of fun making the cars and watching the movie in them. Such a fun, free activity! We will be doing it again for sure. We also had a fun family trip to Chuck e Cheese on "daddy day." That's what Brooke calls dad's days off. It's adorable! We had tea parties and played games and enjoyed some solid indoor time.

We played outside in the snow, which isn't my personal fav (takes like 20+ minutes to get everyone bundled up to go outside), but they loved it so much they actually stayed out way longer than I expected! And they were giddy with excitement. They ate snow, made snow angels and ran all around. Brooke always says she loves winter, and it shows in her love of playing in the snow. {I don't share the same love of winter} We had a fun lunch/play time at McDonalds, and grampy is always such a good sport to go up the play thing. Those girls love their gramps and gram! Bryn decided to have some fun dumping out the diaper bag (she's obsessed with digging through wallets..so beware!) We made indoor smore's and had a family campout in our tent in the family room. (Ok, so maybe the whole family didn't sleep in the tent. Bryn must be contained so up to the crib for her after about 5 minutes of her jumping on everyone and running around crazy!) We had a good January!

New Year's

We had a quiet New Year's Eve, but tried to make it fun for the girls. We had homemade Chinese food (complete with fortune cookies) and even had the supposedly good luck black-eyed peas (in the best form possible of Cowboy caviar). We celebrated east coast time with the kids. We had noise makers, little confetti poppers and banged on pots and pans. I'm pretty sure the girls had no idea why we were making all the noise, but they sure had a good time! Curt and I sorta fell asleep while waiting to watch the ball drop, but luckily woke up in time for the actual thing. We shared a New Year's kiss and then to bed! He had to work New Year's day so it was just another usual day. I loved seeing tons of fireworks out the window. It was an awesome view!! Cheers to 2014!

My Golden Birthday

I turned 27 on December 27th..my golden birthday! I used to be way crazy about my birthday, and made sure the world revolved around me on that day, but honestly, since having kids, it's more like just another day. And that's ok. Curt's day off happened to fall on my b-day which was nice. Everyone felt a little sick, so it was a stay-at-home-and-chill kind of day. We relaxed, got some mexican food for dinner and had Nana and Papa and Madi over for brownie sundaes (my fav!) My parents were in CA at Disneyland, so it was a quiet celebration. The girls loved the balloons that Curt got me and had fun celebrating. I'm so lucky to have Curt and our cute daughters and can't wait to see what 27 holds! 

Christmas 2013

We had such a fun Christmas season. Christmas is SO SO magical and has always been my favorite holiday! Having kids that have such sweet and innocent excitement about it makes it even better than I ever could have imagined. We did lots of fun activities, and since it was so long ago, I'm sure I won't remember everything. But I'll write what I can remember. We went to "Winter Wonderland" at Riverside State Park, where we went on a hayride and saw Christmas lights, learned about and saw a live owl, saw Santa, and walked across the lit swinging bridge (except Curt didn't..he's afraid of heights, especially on things that move). It was a cold night, but there were fires set up all along the trails and it was nice to be able to warm up! If we do it next year, we'll definitely bring stuff for smore's! We went Christmas light looking LOTS of times, and Brooke especially loved spotting the Grinch (her major obsession!). We found lots of cool houses and never got bored of that. The girls are gooood Christmas light lookers. We did the Lake Coeur d'Alene cruise to the North Pole and had so much fun doing that with the cousins. The conservatory at Manito Park was beautiful as always. We sang lots and lots of Christmas songs and read so many Christmas books and loved everything about Christmas! My mom and I took the girls downtown on Christmas eve day to watch "Arthur Christmas" at the IMAX and rode the carousel that was way fun. We had a quiet Christmas eve with just our family and Gma and Gpa and played ring toss, clothespin game, and the dice game, our annual traditions. As well as read and acted out the Nativity, opened PJ's, and of course ate yummy food. We left out cookies and milk for Santa and Brooke was insistent that we leave carrots for the reindeer, so that we did! 

Aside from all the festivities, we really tried to emphasize to the girls the importance of Christmas, because of Christ. That He truly is the reason for the season. I'm grateful for the time of year to focus even more on our Savior and to be able to spend time teaching about Him and what He has done for us.

 Things I want to remember:
-How Brynlee would yell "Santa" every time we saw him on the corner of Sullivan and Sprague. No matter what direction we were coming from, she always spotted the blow up Santa and the Santa on top of the Christmas tree stand amazingly fast. It was totally her gauge for where we were at!
-How much the girls loved singing Christmas songs. They love music and were totally hooked on Christmas music (as am I).
-The magic that was in their eyes on seeing what Santa left. They were totally spoiled (Santa needs to learn some self-control) and they soaked it all in.
-A new tradition we started by writing our gift to Jesus on a piece of paper and wrapping it up. Our "gifts" are still in our rooms, and help us remember what we are trying to be better at.
-The wonderful time I spent with my little family, enjoying the warm, peaceful feelings that come with the Christmas season. We took Brooklyn to the store to pick out a toy to give to a child who wouldn't have presents otherwise and she chose the Doc Mcstuffins doctor kit (the one she wanted so bad) to give away. She picked it knowing that she would give it away, and did is so willingly and with such a pure heart. She really is so sweet.

Christmas Dresses

Grandma Murphey got the girls beautiful Christmas dresses! Usually by the time we get home from church, we are so ready for nap time that we never get cute pictures of the girls all dressed up (and taking pics before 9am church..umm yah right!) But since it was their Christmas dresses, we attempted some pictures by our Christmas tree. With not the most cooperative subjects, I'd say a couple turned out alright! And when I look at them, I'm reminded how challenging it is to get a picture of only 2 kids! 

Thanks Grandma for the dresses! We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting the Sunday before Christmas, with lots of beautiful musical numbers. Christmas music has to be one of my most favorite things about the season! Despite wrestling these two beauties (one of whom spilled Cheerios EVERYWHERE in Sacrament Meeting), we felt the Spirit testify of the divinty of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He really is the reason for the season and we are forever indebted to him for his life and sacrifice for us. 

Snow!

A week before Christmas, we finally got some snow! Okay, I wasn't actually that excited about it, but Brooklyn sure was. And so we spent like half an hour getting all our winter gear on to play in the snow for about 20 minutes..haha. But it was worth it! The girls loved it and the snow didn't stick around too long so it was good to get some use of it right away!

 Brooklyn Rose

 Brynlee Ann

Brooke loved making snow angels! The snow was too fluffy for a snowman, so we attempted sledding down the little hill in the backyard. After a crash into the rocks and a bruised bottom for me, we stuck with playing in the snow :) Brynlee enjoyed trying to slide down the hill on her bum. Love that these little girls help me find joy, even in things I'm not usually excited about. It's so fun to see things through the eyes of a child! 

Disneyland!

Better late than never...We had an awesome summer vacation! The Barnes' took the whole family (except Curt's brother/wife who couldn't come) to Disneyland in August! Seriously, so fun! I loved Disneyland before kids, but it was so magical with our little girls. We stayed in a hotel right across the street, which was so nice! We got to CA on Saturday, ate lunch at In n' Out, shopped a little, went out to dinner and relaxed. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were our Disneyland days. We pretty much opened the park, and closed it up (except the first night), and loved every minute! 

Lovin the airplane ride! She had fun watching movies on the itouch and listening with her new Minnie Mouse headphones! 

Monday morning Brooklyn and Kylee got to go to the Bippity Boppity Boutique, where they got their hair, nails and makeup done. Brooke had been SO excited about these, and had being doing chores to save money for it for months. (And she did an awesome job at her chores, for the record!) They were so adorable in their dresses that nana made, all prettied up! And they loved it. Then it was time for some rides. Brooke is quite timid when it comes to "scary" things, so we had some tears, some kicking and screaming, but we made her go anyways (P.S. Snow White's "Scary" Adventure should not have been so traumatic..haha). But when we went on Dumbo (all five or so times), she was in heaven! She loved the teacups, the Ferris Wheel, meeting the characters, and especially having lunch with the Princesses. We would totally do that again. It was SO fun! Brooke was so full of energy, I was amazed! Curt took Bryn home each day for a nap, and 2 of the 3 days, Brooke and I stayed and rode rides and had fun. She was in such a good mood the whole time, no whining and was in awe at everything around her. She never got impatient waiting in lines and was so excited and happy the whole trip. She is seriously so much fun to have around. She's easy going, fun loving and genuinely is excited about pretty much everything. We tricked her into going on Radiator Racers in Cars Land..there was no crying, but there was also no way we could talk her into going a second time, haha. Tuesday wasn't exactly ideal as Curtis got sick (like throwing up super nauseous sick), so he missed out on the 2nd half of the day, but the rest of us had fun (even though we wished he were there). Nana and Papa helped a ton with the girls (we had two strollers, so I couldn't have done it without them), and we had fun riding rides and watching the fireworks.

On Wednesday, our "relax" day, we went to Huntington Beach. We were so excited to lay on the beach and chill, but we didn't anticipate that it might be windy. Like really windy! So after a few minutes of playing in the water, and building a sand castle, we decided being chilly and pelted by sand wasn't our idea of a relaxing time. So we packed up and walked around some shops and had lunch. Not the beautiful day at the beach we had anticipated, but memorable nonetheless! Bryn loved the ocean and Brooke had fun doing sand angels, so what little time we did spend at the beach was fun. 

Thursday was our last Disneyland day and we lived it up. We hit up all Brooke's favorite rides, filled up her autograph books by meeting lots of characters, and sweated in the 97 degree weather. It was HOT! But we were so busy having fun we didn't really notice (if it weren't for iphones, I wouldn't have guessed it was THAT hot!) We made sure everyone was drinking lots. I haven't mentioned Bryn much. That's because she mostly just hung out in the stroller. One day we even forgot to bring her shoes into the park so really didn't walk around at all, poor girl. She was such a trooper, and had fun looking at all the fun things going on around her. Next time we go (not for a while I'm sure), she'll be able to enjoy more of the experience. For being a very busy little girl, she sure was an angel and {mostly} liked the rides she was able to go on. She was most definitely NOT a fan of characters though..it's crazy how young kids learn to be afraid of things..almost innate. She wanted nothing to do them, especially Chip and Dale. The firework show on the last night was bittersweet. Bitter because the magic was coming to an end, but sweet because of all the memories made. I might have cried a little during the firework show :) We are so grateful for Nana and Papa for the wonderful trip. Brooke talks about it all the time, and loves looking at the pins she traded (one of her favorite things to do at Disneyland), and even asked one morning after she woke up "What are we doing today? Going to Disneyland?" Oh how we wish we could :) 

Friday we took the girls to Build-a-Bear in Downtown Disney to make a bear for a souvenir. Guess what bear Brooke picked?! Princess! haha. She had a lot of fun doing it and soaked it up. Bryn on the other hand..didn't care. And we knew she wouldn't but we still wanted her to have a memory (and she does love her bear). Brooke named her bear Aurora (very creative..since she picked out the Sleeping Beauty dress..ha!), and we named Bryn's bear "Pookie bear" since that's what Curtis affectionately calls Brynlee. We had a relaxing final day in Anaheim, albeit a bit bittersweet. We shopped a bit and just relaxed before getting everything packed up and ready to go.

We flew out Saturday (after a stop by Chick-fil-A on the way to the airport..my first time), and everything went smoothly with getting home. The trip was magical! I hope I always remember the look of excitement and wonder on Brooklyn's face, how she basically ran everywhere because she was so excited. How she noticed every detail around her and especially how her dreams came true meeting the Princesses in real life. Much of her little world revolves around Princesses and that was a highlight of the trip for her. We have told her that we hope to go back in the next 5 years...not sure if that is even realistic, but we will try our best! I love how the excitement and energy of children is contagious! 

Brooke's Halloween Party

Brooke had some of her friends over for a super fun Halloween party! I had accumulated so much awesome stuff the past couple years in anticipation for the day Brooke would be old enough for a party. And it didn't disappoint! We had a ghoulish lunch with mummy hot dogs, vampire apple teeth, pumpkin poop (cheetos puffs), witches's brooms (pretzel w/ string cheese), and eye balls (grapes), decorated sugar cookies, made a picture frame craft, played pin the hat on the witch, read Halloween stories, and "broke" a pumpkin pinata (with some serious adult help..haha). 

I was a little worried with 8 little people, but with the help of my mom and a couple of the kids' moms, everything was great! It seemed like the kids had a lot of fun, and Brooke loved handing out the goody bags and telling everyone thanks for coming. I only made a dent in our Halloween goody tote so we might just be having another party next year...