Mother's Day makes me happy!

I love celebrating Mother's Day! I have been blessed with so many wonderful women in my life. I am especially grateful for and indebted to my wonderful mother who has sacrificed so much for me, and who has supported me in everything I have ever had an interest in. Now that I have been a mother for just over a year, I wonder how she did everything she did with 6 crazy kids, and I have gained an even greater respect, love and appreciation for her. I am thankful for the mother that she is to me, and for the wonderful grandmother that she is to Brooklyn. It is so much fun to watch how much Brooklyn loves her grandma, and it is wonderful to live so close to my mom and to be able to learn so much from her.

"Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it certainly is that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us." --Sheri Dew

There is so much joy in motherhood! I am so blessed to be a mother. The hugs, wet kisses, cuddles and cheesy, messy face grins make even the most tiring days so worth it! There is not a job in the world that rivals being a mother. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there!!



How could you not love this cute little face?!

Surprise visit from...

The Easter Bunny! (A couple weeks ago that is..always behind we are!) Best $5 after-Halloween costume I ever bought! She looked so cute as our little bunny, and we had such a fun Easter! She wore her pretty dress to church (thanks to Grandma!) and we dyed Easter eggs, had a yummy ham dinner, had an Easter egg hunt and got Easter baskets. Best of all, we were able to remember the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior which makes possible eternal families, for which we are so grateful! We want to spend forever with our sweet little Easter Bunny!

Utah Trip

Brooklyn and I were able to fly down to Utah last week for Trenton's graduation. (Poor daddy had to stay home for school). So many memories flooded back as we drove down the streets and saw all the places we had come to love during our time in Provo.

Highlights of the trip:

• Brooke's 1st plane ride. She did really well, and people were so nice to help out. She actually took a nap on the airplane, which is simply amazing because it is nearly impossible to get her asleep not in her bed or in her carseat.
• Seeing Uncle Trenton and Aunt Sam, and Uncle Tyler. They sure love Brooklyn and she is lucky to have such fun uncles/aunt.
• "Swimming" -- Ok, this was more like a traumatic experience for Brooklyn, but whatev. For some reason, when she saw the pool, she started screaming and shaking. But being the good parent/grandparents, we put her in the water anyways. (And oh my gosh, I have an obsession with baby swimsuits..cutest things ever! Brooklyn might just have 3..) After about 20 minutes, she finally kinda looked like she might sorta be enjoying herself (aka small splashes and half smiles :) But then the next time we tried, screaming and shaking. I thought we had made some ground, but maybe not so much. She LOVES bath time, so not sure what the deal is with pools, but we really gotta get over this fear before summer...
• Lots of eating...always too much of that, especially when visiting a place that has some of our fav ever restaurants! (Cafe Rio, Zupas, a new fav..Cafe Pesean)
• Shopping in Park City -- My parents rented a condo in Park City so it was fun to stay up there away from the busy-ness of Provo and to relax.
• Trent's graduation (of course...since it was the reason we were there :) We are proud of him!
• Brooklyn's newest trick---WALKING! Brooke took her first steps the night we got down to Provo. (Daddy was a little sad she waited until he wasn't there)..she took several steps while being highly coaxed (holding a cell phone out for her is good motivation to walk apparently).
  
• Trenton's graduation--It was fun to watch him walk, and to celebrate with him! I think graduation's are so exciting! We took lots of pictures and ate lots of good food in Trent's honor. Congrats Trent!
• Visiting Timpanogos Hospital --I took Brooke in to see the nurses who took care of her. They were thrilled to see her, and took pictures of her. We told them that they did good work and Brooke has been healthy and happy since leaving the NICU.
  
• Seeing Brooklyn's Great-Grandpa Barnes -- On the way out of town, we stopped by to say hello. Brooklyn waved and smiled at Grandpa, and he even smiled for a picture!

We rode home with Grandma and Grandpa and Brooke did really good in the car all day. The last hour was a little rough (we were all ready to be home), but overall, it was a great trip and a nice get-a-way!

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)!