Welp, Brooklyn's chubby little legs do not seem to be misleading, she is 22lbs & 14oz., 95th percentile for her weight! I get stopped at least 1 time when we go out for someone to stop & coo at her, and (usually ask to) pinch her chubby legs. :) She is 75th percentile for her height, dont remember her head circumference so it must have been about average. She just sprouted her bottom teeth, and crawls a few steps, starting to do baby talk of "da-da-da". She's pulling herself to her knees and occasionally to standing. Lots of fun. Bobby, for the most part, is starting to realize he can play with Brooklyn. He's not always nice (God forbid she have any toy that is his!), but I can honestly say that he is pretty good for being a 2 year old and having a sibling.

August brings alot of celebration for our family, we celebrate our 5th anniversary & my 30th birthday at the end of the month. With a turn of a decade around the corner, I've been trying to think of things to do that have "30" in them to ignite the beginning of a new age (other than having my insurance rates go up lol). I have been tossing around the idea of running 30 miles every week until I turn 30. Or trying to do 30 different things out of my comfort zone (this is tough), I haven't quite figured out what I will do, I'll probably resort to the 30 miles a week challenge since I've been pretty good at logging mileage as it is. Its crazy to realize that for the past 10 years of my life, I have shared them Derek. It hasn't been an easy road, and at one point I think everyone who knew us wasn't sure how things would work out for us, but I think it has strengthen our marriage to levels that were unimaginable. We are NOT perfect, but we definitely have had our fair shake of bad times to REALLY appreciate all the good that God has given our family. After weathering all that has happened to us, I know that we can conquer anything.

Time to go figure out what I'm making for dinner (and what am I going to get Derek for our anniversary???)...

9 months home made photo shoot

I am very proud of our little home made photo shoot! I am a rookie at all things photography - not bad if I say so myself! Very disappointed that Brooklyn's head band and flower did not show up as a better match to her tutu- I must have been looking at them in dark light because they looked better in person! Tomorrow is the official 9 month mark, she is such a blessing! Our family has gone through some tough times since she contracted her RSV, but everyday I hear her & Bobby giggle at each other is all worth it. I hope they become good friends as I was with my brother growing up. I sometimes wonder what I used to do without them. I really feel like they are my 2 best friends (aside from Derek). I remember reading those corny license plate frames that said, "Happiness is... Being so-and-so's mom", but really, its how I feel too!

Looking at Brooklyn today, she looks like me as a baby. I see a little bit of Derek in her, but mostly me. Bobby is Derek's spitting image. Those 2 look identical, its amazing what our genes can do!

Brooklyn can officially crawl and now pull herself up. If you go to grab her hands when she is sitting, or go to put her down to play its like an instinct to want to stand. Kills the back! She is finally cutting her first 2 bottom teeth so sleep has been up and down over the last week. Eating everything, playing with everything, just a delight. I think its fair to say Derek and I are not sure if we are done having kids. We are definitely enjoying the break from having an itty bitty baby to care for - so draining as all of you know!

Over the summer its been BUSY! Its been a relentless cycle of birthdays, weddings, baby showers - nearly every weekend since June! I will be so happy when a saturday rolls around, Derek is home, and we can all play as a family together instead of having to leave the house! I have definitely picked up lifting and all other sorts of physical exercise as a hobby now that Brooklyn is much easier to handle. I feel stronger and happier than ever!

I've managed, on average to get the kids to nap at the same time on most days during the week. What a victory! Its a great break - I dont do anything but goof off, i.e. dishes, nap or facebook it, but either way its so nice to enjoy some quiet time.

Wishing everyone a blessed day!

almost 9 months....

Derek's Birthday & 1st inspection

Derek's birthday was on the 10th, we didn't do much because: 1) He had just taken a 4 day trip to Lake Tahoe for James Page's bachelor party; 2) I'm sure Brooklyn probably wasn't feeling too good; 3) Our house is a disaster; 4) I bought him a bunch of new clothes that he could have before his trip to Tahoe and 5) After 30 - who cares about your birthday anyway! From this point on it will be 40, 50 etc that we celebrate big! Thankfully, Derek is SUPER easy to please, all he wanted was this banana pudding pie thing (made with Nilla wafers). Bobby was super excited when we lit candles and I sang (completely off key) "Happy Birthday". With just the 4 of us to celebrate, it was nice to just be together - we really missed him the week before!

Another part of Derek's birthday gift was a 2 weekend Gun safety program. I am doing it with him only because we own guns and I should know how it works for safety reasons. (I have NO desire at this point to go shooting for fun, or hunt either) The first Saturday you spend reading and going over all the ins and outs of a gun, laws and safety. The 2nd weekend you spend shooting out at a range the instructor has on his property (SO PRETTY where he lives!!!). I'm so nervous about the shooting part...If you would like to read about what we are doing, click on this.

With summer truly starting to show up in Ramona, me and the kids have been taking full advantage of our backyard. I just showed Bobby about water balloons and he's been just throwing them at the dogs. Hysterical! We have a little plastic pool that both kids sit in together (I try to get my big butt in there too but there's barely any room for all 3 of us). So cute to have both of them out there together. Brooklyn giggles at the dogs and Bobby, Bobby is chasing after the dogs with water, or some other toy.

We are almost ready to get our first inspection, which means we are almost done with having tons of dirt and concrete dust tracked into the house (up next drywall and sawdust, cant wait!). I sweep it up, 2 seconds later someone walks in and its everywhere all over again. Cant wait to get this over with, I dont mind the mess - - what I do mind is that everyone in this house is suffering from an allergy attack over the dust and we are all miserable. I am so excited about the construction!!!!!

So as the summer begins we are all plugging along. The kids are growing and changing daily (as all you parents know). Bobby knows his ABC's (and starts to even sing the song until he gets to letter "f" and doesnt know what comes next), he knows that his name is spelled "B-O-B-Y" - I keep trying to tell him there's an extra "b" in there but, he'll learn soon enough. He knows numbers 1-10 and a few colors & shapes. Tuesday mornings Bobby has a gym type class to get his wiggles out and learn interaction with kids (thanks to a referral from a cousin for this class). Brooklyn is scooting backwards (8 months on the 21st) and eating everything. I mash up everything and feed it to her. (ok not EVERYTHING but most stuff)

We are healthy, happy and looking forward to our busy summer with 3 weddings, 3 baby showers, out of town visits from family, and our camping trip in September at the beach....!

Happy Summer Everyone!!!

Yo Gabba Gabba

We just bought 3 tickets to the November 20th showing of Yo Gabba Gabba (2pm), but we realized we actually need 4 tickets, and also bought the party package (gets us backstage with the crew, pictures, food party etc..). We have 3 tickets for sale we need to get rid of, $36 each (I'll waive the processing fee), they are GREAT seats. If you or someone you know might be interested, please let me know!

My Mom

My mom came up to help me with the kids this weekend. For some of you who know me and my mom, this is a pretty big deal. She also let me give her a little makeover - I straightened her hair with a flat iron (which she resisted at first but then after seeing the finished product she loved) and I showed her how makeup is supposed to be worn (or at least how I think its supposed to be worn). She looked so pretty to me today so I captured a few pictures with her and the kids. Sounds kind of mean but like I said, for those of you who know my mom, you know what kind of "style" she has with her makeup. It was fun. She kept complaining about how you can see her freckles...

She LOVES being with the kids and despite everything that is difficult with her sometimes, she was great to have around - just to have an extra set of hands since Brooklyn is double duty right now. She started to get really sad and talk about how much she misses my brother. :( I hope maybe one day I can get her out to Utah to see Anthony & his family.

B-B-B & sick sick sick

I love watching Brooklyn jump. And lately she's been more unhealthy than healthy so I'm really enjoying the days when she's healthy.

For the past 2 months straight (and its been a few more times like this since January) anytime the family has caught a minor cold it has led to bronchiolitis with her. We just visited her doctor yesterday (for the 2nd month in a row for the exact same problem).

She starts off like everyone else with regular cold symptoms and then when the rest of the family starts to feel better she begins to sound worse. She begins to sound like she has pneumonia, she cant breathe right, she wont eat much, she has a terrible time sleeping. Even when she's "healthy" you can hear some wheezing with her. Its been a nightmare every time someone in the house catches a cold because for Brooklyn it always ends up with us at urgent care or her doctor's office. Her pediatrician said that if she ends up with another episode like this in the near future we will have to invest in a nebulizer machine (breathing machine) where she will have to do a breathing treatment 1x a day until whenever, or an inhaler. Because of the allergies that Derek has (I have some too but not nearly as bad as Derek) that we are assuming she will have to - it increases her chances of having asthma (allergies, the RSV infection etc..).

So we have had to cancel our trip to Utah, I just couldn't risk Brooklyn getting MORE sick (which is hard to fathom because she has been so miserable for these past few days) and ending up in the hospital again. I am praying that she starts to get stronger as she gets older and can fight off these infections better.

Its been a long week. :(