Please come warm weather!!

Brooklyn loves pounding on the keyboard (which may explain why our computer has some weird things going on), so as I was starting this post, she came over and made her contribution. xWerqsxsxxxx56/TGRzdx$#aF--There you go, Brooke's first blog post! Always wanting to be in on the action!

Brooklyn is officially 1 year, 1 week old. She's probably thinking 1 year old isn't all it's cracked up to be. She celebrated her new age with another ear infection. Seriously, I think having a sick kid is the saddest thing. It's pretty easy to know when she's sick because she is M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E and fussy..not her norm at all! Needless to say, her and I have had spent some "quality" time together in the middle-of-the-night. Thank heavens for antibiotics! And since we're going to focus on the good, here are a few pictures of the week!

Brooke got a birthday package all the way from Poland! Uncle Troy sent Brooke lots of chocolate, and even told her she doesn't have to share with us..spoiled!


Lots of baths! She always loves herself a bath.


Posing for some pictures. Thanks Natalie for the adorable dress!!


And playing with her new picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves it! And we can't wait until it's nice enough to play with outside!

Brooke turned 1 on April 1!

April 1st was no laughing matter just one year ago with Brooklyn born almost 2 months early. But this year, the mood was much different as she had us all laughing at her cuteness! She was quite the entertaining birthday girl, clapping and throwing her hands in the air while "opening" (or while we opened) her presents! It was so much fun celebrating with family and friends and she was very spoiled!

The Birthday Girl!
(Thanks for making the cute skirt nana!)

The party theme was "Brooklyn's 1st Birthday Safari." We had so much fun planning the party details, but the best part of the night was watching Brooke have so much fun. She thrives on attention and was full of smiles the whole night!
Thanks grandma for all your help!! We would have never pulled it off without you! (The cute jungle cupcakes were thanks to grandma :)

She received so many cute clothes and fun toys. Thanks to everyone for coming!

For the first five minutes, she seriously picked at the frosting on her cake with 2 fingers! She has never eaten so dainty before (of course it's when we want her to dig in and get dirty!) Grandma shared lots of ice cream with her (maybe she's more of an ice cream kind-of-girl), and then she played in her cake for a while. She did enjoy the sugar, and we were glad she wasn't sick afterwards!

We have had the most fun year with this little bundle of energy and we are looking forward to many more birthdays!!! We love you Brookie babe!

Brooklyn's latest discoveries

• She learned how to wave a few days ago and thinks it's the greatest! Still a spastic wave and it's adorable!
• She has two teeth! She got the first one over a month ago and the second came a few weeks later. Still waiting for some top ones to come on down!
• She loves funny noises. Grandpa taught her to make noise when he wiggles his hand over her mouth and she LOVES the change in pitch. Anytime we put our hand over her mouth she starts "talking" so she can hear herself make crazy noises.
  
• When she hears the bath water running, she books it (ok, not that fast since she still only army crawls :) to the bathroom. She loves bath time and can't get enough of it!
• She went through a phase a couple months ago where she would shake her head "no" all the time. Well, it's back! Tonight, we played a game. I would shake my head "yes" and then she would get a big grin on her face and shake "no." Already being contrary..starting young :)
  
• She loves walking along furniture and is getting pretty brave with it (but still cautious enough that I don't have to be right next to her when she's doing it). She is such a scaredy-cat when it comes to standing on her own. As soon as she realizes no one is holding on, she sits down. I'm not sure what's come over her because she used to be such a wild one. But I'm actually grateful that she isn't too much of a dare devil.
  
• She has already had her share of bumps and bruises. We've hit that stage and there's no going back. I put her in our bed the other night (she's still not sleeping through the night consistently) and I couldn't sleep very well so I went and slept on the floor. I told Curt she was next to him. Well...apparently she can no longer sleep on the bed. We woke up to a "clunk" followed by screaming. She fell off the bed onto her head and definitely got a nice goose-egg complete with a rug burn. Yeah, definitely no "Parents of the Year" award for us! And on top of that, my parents have hardwood floor upstairs which has led and will lead to many more injuries I am thinking.
  

She makes us smile and laugh everyday! She has the sweetest disposition and loves to smile at anyone who will smile at her. She is definitely spoiled living by (and with) all of her grandparents and she thrives on attention! Sometimes we just wish she would be sleeping through the night (she is almost 1 afterall), but then we remember how easy of a baby she is and we would have another like her any day! (Ok, not for a while maybe :) We have been SO blessed to have her in our family and couldn't be happier!

March Madness...

And I'm not even talking about basketball! March has been a busy month, full of lots of holidays and celebrations!

First, we celebrated Uncle Tate's 18th Birthday on March 7th. (Well, we celebrated Uncle Troy's birthday in spirit on March 4th.) For Tate's birthday, we made delicious gyros and had Death by Chocolate for dessert. Can't believe the baby is an adult (at least legally!) Brooke was happy he had a birthday so she could play with his balloons!


Then, we celebrated Mardi Gras (a day late). We waited for grandpa to get home from Minneapolis. We made yummy Jambalaya, and attempted to make a King Cake, but since I was in charge of the yeast part, it didn't rise and was a bust! But we still enjoyed the jambalaya and masks and necklaces. Even Brooklyn liked the dinner and chowed it.


Next, we had Pi Day on 3.14 :) Unforunately, we didn't take any pictures but we had Shepherd's Pie for dinner, complete with Very Berry and Pecan Pies for dessert.

And then, we couldn't forget our heritage a few days later. We had to have the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner on St. Patrick's day. I've trained Curt to like it, and he even says he likes the cabbage better every year, surprisingly! We had green pina coladas with our dinner and of course, dressed up in green (except Curt who forget it was St. Patrick's Day..you can tell he's not Irish :) I made a green Jello cake per Curt's special request for dessert (he's been begging for it for over a year since we had one that Sam's mom made.)


Can you find the common denominator in all of our festivities? Yes, we do like food, and themed food is the best! We have had a fun month, and we're totally enjoying Curt's spring break this week. Brooklyn loves having daddy all day for a week! And even though the celebrations are over for March, we have a special someone's birthday to celebrate on April 1st. That's right, Brooklyn will be 1 in just over a week! Not sure how that happened, but we are excited for her party!

Stop and Smell the Roses

We had a Happy Valentine's Day at our house! Curt surprised Brooklyn and I with flowers, and he got me 2 60-minute massages (which I am sooo looking forward to! Thanks babe!) We were also able to go to dinner (thanks to Nana for babysitting) and it was so nice just to chat about us (we didn't even talk about poop all night :) I am so blessed to have the greatest husband (who also happens to be the sweetest daddy) and to have the cutest, happiest baby girl! I am so in love with both of them!

My sweet Valentines :)

Christmas Catch-up

Here's the quick run down on Christmas 2010! It was WAY fun! Little Miss Brooklyn sure made Christmas even more fun than we imagined! Here's a picture synopsis of our Christmas celebrations!

This cute girl got to sit on Santa's lap 3 different times! And each time she loved it and tried to grab his beard. We know next year probably won't be as enjoyable so we took advantage this year!

Festival of Trees and Davenport Hotel with Uncle Tate..cuties!

Christmas Eve fun full of "Minute to Win It." Brooklyn was a crabby patty on Christmas Eve (tired and overstimulated) but she did enjoy a gingerbread cookie!

Jordan, Tyler and Kylee gave Brooke a Holly Moose Build-a-Bear. It's adorable and she loves it! Thanks cousins!

One of the many "Minute to Win It" pictures. Good looking brothers!

Annual Gingerbread Houses..usually Curt and I make one together..but we couldn't agree on our designs so we did some solo work and we were both happier at the end I do believe :) Brooke enjoyed the sugar high!

Christmas Eve Pajamas!

Annual Christmas Nativity. I was excited actually have a real baby this year, but since she was already asleep, Tate was happy to play the baby part. Quite a large baby if you ask me!

One of the best parts of Christmas was talking to Uncle Troy! He's on his mission in Poland and it was so fun to hear his voice. He is a wonderful missionary!

Brooklyn was spoiled like crazy! She got dolls and all sorts of toys! Thanks grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins!

Our Christmas Quiche breakfast. Delish!

We thought Brooke would LOVE opening presents because she loves paper..well, there were too many things going on so she didn't love it as much as we thought. But she had fun playing with her toys and watching everyone else open presents.

Grandpa was told not to buy this, but as you can see, Brooke LOVES it! She has had lots of fun with her giant teddy bear. Grandma can't wait for us to move out and take it with us ;)

Great-grandma Murphey took good care of Brooke while we played at Albertsons on Christmas day. This is one of the last pictures we have of Great-grandma. She passed away on January 14.

Supermarket Sweet contenders...after 3 rounds, we were beat! We love our Christmas day Albertsons games!

Brooklyn had fun at Albertsons being pushed around in a cart, thanks to great-grandma and Ernie.

We had lots of Christmas fun and are excited to see what the New Year has in store!

It's a good thing I'm not a man...

I thoroughly enjoyed 5 months of work-freeness. But unfortunately, money doesn't grow on trees and our bank account was only going the wrong direction. I began looking more seriously for a job in December. Curt ran across an ad in the newspaper classifieds. And less than 2 weeks later, I had a job offer. I am working at the Good Samaritan Society, a long term care center.
And since Lisa told me I should blog about my job, I am following through. I work part-time (2 days one week, 3 days the next..and so on) from 6am-2:30pm. I have now had 4 days on my own (after 5 days of orientation), and so far, it has gone pretty well. But I really am grateful that Curt is going to school so he can provide for the next, oh 40 years or so.
If Brooklyn didn't have the world's best babysitter, I really don't think I could have gone back to work. I'm so grateful that my mom is willing to watch her so Curt and I can have less debt at the end of his school. It is such a blessing. My parents are sacrificing so much (personal space, food, time, energy..you name it) so Curt and I can have a better future and we are soo grateful to them!! I love that I know that Brooke is in good hands while I'm gone, and I love getting home at 2:30 so I can spend all afternoon and evening with her. It's also nice that my job is 5 minutes away from home..I know that I can be home quick if I need to be. In short, I don't believe I was cut out to work full-time for the rest of my life, but I can do part-time for a few years to keep things running. I definitely love motherhood and it's what I want to do forever! But in the meantime, you can find me at Good Sam's (a couple days a week anyways)!

And where did November go?!

Happy December 1st! Those who know me know Christmas is my MOST favorite time of year ever! But since I haven't really blogged lately, I better catch up from October and November before forgetting all else and focusing solely on Christmas! Here's my attempt to remember what we've been up to recently: WARNING--PICTURE OVERLOAD BELOW!!

Brooklyn learned to roll over in October. She even surprised herself with her skills. She still only rolls from back to stomach, but it's nice that she now enjoys spending time on her tummy!

We had tons of fun dressing Brooke up for Halloween, making mummy hot dogs, and of course, spending time with family! Oh it's fun having a little buddy for each holiday!

Brooke spent lots of time cuddling...with dad, mom, grandma's and grandpa's, aunts and uncles..you name it! She sure is one lucky little girl!

(We went to watch Madi run at State XC in Pasco,.clearly Brooklyn was wiped out!)
Brooklyn learned how to sleep on her tummy in weird positions. We just hope she can breathe with her face smashed against the mattress. She is just like her mommy with her sleeping patterns :)

Brooklyn learned to sit up all by herself! (We just can't go too far away..we don't totally trust her yet.) And of course, she has watched too much TV with grandpa (yes, we are bad parents!)

Grandpa took her to get her ears pierced. She did so well and looks even cuter! Now hopefully people don't confuse her for a boy with her bald head

Brooklyn has gotten lots of grandma cuddle time. Grandma is the master at rocking babies to sleep..she always has been and always will be!

Brooklyn loves stuffed animals. They are especially fun to eat. She loves Mr. Duckie (thanks Sam and Trent!), and also loves playing with her uncles and aunts. We can't wait for aunts, uncles and cousins to come at Christmas..we are SOOO excited!

We have spent lots of time playing with Brooke in the bath. And my oh my does this girl love bath time! I think the only bath she didn't like was her 1st one at home (because we had the water too cold!) She loves sucking the water out of the washcloth and splashing like a crazy girl. I think we have a little fish on our hands...

And let's not forget the time we spent watching football. Brooklyn is a True Blue Cougar Fan, and she especially loves showing her support for BYU by getting messy with blue frosting!

Blog Slacker

I'll admit it..I'm one poor blogger. It's not that we just sit around all day everyday (at least Curt doesn't)..it's that I can't even remember what I did yesterday. And the truth is, our lives really aren't glamorous. Most things we do I don't think of as "blog worthy" but you know what? That is real life! And even though there are days when I don't leave the house, don't shower, or can't even answer Curt's daily question of "What did you do today?," I really am satisfied and happy with my life. Being a mother is SO MUCH FUN!! A lot of hard work? Heavens yes (although it would be a lot harder without so much family so close by). But it really is worth every minute. I live to see Brooklyn's smile, to hear her laugh, and to get the occasional cuddle (it's getting more and more rare!) I love the times when I "disobey" Babywise and rock her to sleep. I love watching her light up when Curt gets home from school. I can't get enough of watching her stare at Grandma or Grandpa until they look at her, and then her jumping and going crazy when they look are her. I love watching her develop more coordination and learn more about the world around her. I wasn't always sure if I was going to be content with being a stay-at-home mom, but I certainly am! Although I know that I will have to work some while Curt is in school, there is no where I'd rather be than playing at home with my kid(s). (Plural meaning that we have decided that we want more than one child..someday!) I am looking forward to many more fun, challenging and rewarding experiences of motherhood.