Brooke is almost 9 months old and has recently started sitting. I really wanted to take advantage of her new skill and capture some pics before she figures out how to crawl. My sister, Laura is a budding photographer (and a VERY good one), and she agreed to take some pics of Brooke. I just LOVE how they turned out. Here are a few of my favorite ones....it's hard to just pick a few, though!
As our family has gotten bigger, gotten busy and has moved around, it is a rare occasion that we are all together all at once. Well, this past weekend, Dan and Kim were in town for her Spring Break from Tulane grad school. EVERYONE was able to make it down for a family meal and evening together. It was so nice to see them and spend time with them. We took the opportunity to have my parent's neighbor to come over and take a picture of us all. Pretty informal, but so nice....
Four is such a fun age (most of the time). Gavin is such a cuddly little boy. He loves to just sit with you, hug you and love on you. He also says some just sweet little things right now. Here are some of my favorites:
Gavin: "Mom, I have something to tell you..."
Me: "Yes, Gavin?"
Gavin: "I just love ya'"
"I never want another mom" (or dad, if he is talking to Jeremy)
"Can I be your best boy forever?"
Of course, these sweet sayings are also coupled with some not as nice ones when our sweet little boy is having a little meltdown about not getting his ways.
"I don't love you anymore! I'm giving you no more kisses!" This one always makes me laugh. He knows I love kisses, so he's trying to deny me from them.....thankfully, he doesn't hold out for long.
I love this little guy and want him to stay little forever! (As I do with all of my children)
So having the girls share a room has been a little challenging in the space department. They were doing really well actually sharing a room, but I seriously wanted to pull my hair out everytime I walked in there. It was just….cramped. There was always stuff everywhere and it drove me nuts. I saw a bed at Ikea I wanted and lucky me, found a used one on Craigs List for half the price.
This is a picture of the disassembled bed. Not very girly….but I took care of that. we painted the wood pieces white and covered the blue panels with pink fabric. This thing was a pain in the you know what to put together. Well, actually, the assembly wasn’t that bad, but getting those panels into the grooves about put me over the edge. Jeremy helped me though and with some true Wonder Pets-style teamwork, we got it done.
This is a picture of the girls’ room when you first walk in the door.
This is a view of her bed. I am SOOO pleased with how it turned out. I really love this bed. It is a loft bed, but it is only about 4 ft off of the floor, so changing the sheets and putting Kayla in to bed isn’t tooo bad. It has helped greatly with some storage issues. We moved the stuffed animals out of their closet and into the bins underneath her bed. Their dirty clothes, which always seemed to be all of the floor, now has a bin in the closet to stay. The nightstand will have to move eventually (before Brooke figures out how to crawl out of the crib), but we’ll cross that bridge later.
The kids have loved have a little play area. Mikayla likes to take Brooke under there and play with her and read books to her.
It has been a fun place for all to play. I also like that her toys pretty much stay under there, which means they aren’t all of the room. I can actually breath and enjoy this room now. That’s a success in my book!
I have a new niece! My sister had a sweet baby girl on February 24th. Her name is Nora Jean and she is just so darling. I love getting to cuddle with her!
I was fortunate that Jeremy was off the day after Emily delivered, so I was able to drive to Athens to see the new babe. I’m not going to lie, I got very teary when I picked her up. She is so teeny and my baby is so big (relatively speaking at least). It feels like yesterday that Brooke was that small.
Doesn’t Emily look fantastic for just having had a baby 24 hours ago? That’s what you get when you only labor for about 6 hours and push for, maybe, 15 minutes (she’s a delivery rock star!).
Look at all of this hair! And that is not baby fuzz, my friends. That is big girl hair that you can put all kinds of clips in. I must say that I am a tad jealous.
The kids, well, mostly Mikayla were so anxious to see their new cousin. So the weekend after Emily and Nora came home, I made the trek out to Athens again with my little ones in tow.
Mikayla was a natural holding Nora. She has had a good bit of practice! She just loved getting to hold a little baby again.
Gavin did a good job, too. He was satisfied with a quick hold, though. He did remark at how “shute” (cute) she was.
We thought that Brooke should have a turn holding her baby cousin, too. She was pretty enthralled with her. She particularly liked trying to poke her eyes out. I think she is jealous of all of the hair.
I love this picture. Brooke was just so interested in Nora. I like to think they were reacquainting themselves after their brief separation from their time in Heaven together. : )
This picture makes me a little emotional. I love how happy my mom is when surrounded by her grandchildren. She is a great grandma to them! I also want to note how good Andrew has done with having a new baby sister. He has been so gentle and patient with her.
This is just a funny pic I had to share. Nora’s foot is on the left and Brooke’s midget-sized foot is on the right. She is barely in a size 1. I have no idea what I am going to do when she starts walking.
I get to see Miss Nora again soon and I can’t wait to see how much she has grown….they grow all too fast, especially in these first few weeks.
Gavin’s preschool class has a stuffed dog that gets to spend the weekend with one of his classmates each weekend. Mr. Scuffles got to come to our home over President’s day weekend. Here are some pictures of his adventures with us.
On his way to a visit at Grandma’s house.
He came with us to pick Kayla up at school after her animal club meeting.
We had a twin version of Mr. Scuffles! They enjoyed getting to visit with one another.
Mr. Scuffles had lots of fun with our family. It was fun to include him in our everyday comings and goings. We finished off the weekend with a journal entry complete with pictures.
We decided to stretch out our Valentine’s celebration this year. On Valentine Eve, I made breakfast for dinner ( a favorite here! ). We had heart shaped pancakes and I attempted some heart-shaped bac0n that I saw on the internet – they looked a little more like bacon blobs.
On Valentine' morning, I made some heart shaped cinnamon rolls. Very easy and very yummy!
I made the kids Valentines this year that they shared with their classes. Gavin’s were suckers made to look like Super Heroes. Mikayla’s were suckers made to look like butterflies. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of those. I made those the night before she needed them while I had a migraine, so the thought to take a picture of them did not cross my mind. They were cute, though!
On Valentine’s Day, Jeremy had to work late, so my grandparents invited us and my parents to go out to dinner for some Chinese. I wanted to make sure that Jeremy came home to some Valentine happiness, so we set out cards and cookies for him.
I helped the kids make this card for him…their thumbprints made those little heart. <3
Some pictures of my sweet little Valentines before we headed out to dinner. I just love them so much!
We had a great night at with my parents and grandparents. Brooke was quite the little charmer that night!
When I got home, these were waiting for me…..I have a wonderful husband.
I tell you, Jeremy is a master flower picker. He always picks the most beautiful bouquets. This one also had lasting power….it stayed near perfect looking for nearly two weeks!
Mikayla’s school had their annual father/daughter dance this evening. Jeremy always tries to make it a special day for her. He had a McDonald’s lunch with her at school – she was so excited. It was apparently the first thing that she told her teacher about this morning. Then after school, Jeremy sent Kayla and I off for a manicure and pedicure so that she could get ready for the dance. It was so nice to have an afternoon with my big girl (plus a foot massage!).
We came home, curled hair, put on a little makeup and Kayla was ready for her date with Daddy. I don’t know who was luckier. Jeremy was so handsome and Mikayla was just beautiful….she is growing up way too fast.
Jeremy had to have a picture with me, since we were having a date night at home. : ) Our evening was filled with Pokemon and Super Mario Brothers. Fun times with my sweet boy!
Well, we had a pretty normal New Years Eve and Day. Jeremy and I stayed up on New Years Eve and watched the ball drop. We had church on New Years Day. The kids met their new teachers at church (they have some really good ones) and we had a relaxing day. On the 2nd, everything was getting back to normal after the craziness of the holidays. Jeremy was at work so it was just me and the kids. We had dinner and then it was time to get them to bed. I put Mikayla in the shower in our bathroom and Brooke in the Exersaucer. I started a bath for Gavin and then went up into the attic to get a couple of baby items. Nothing big, just a couple of things that I could throw down the steps. As I was climbing down, I missed a step, fell back about 4-5 steps and hit the back of my head. I remember having an instant searing headache when I did this. That is also the last thing I remember for probably about an hour. I did not pass out (according to Gavin at least who saw the whole thing), but I definitely had some memory loss. According to Gavin, I got up, closed the attic steps and turned off his water. I then called Jeremy, twice apparently, I told him I had hit my head and that I needed him to come home. He knew something was wrong since I don’t ever do this. He was quickly trying to close up the warehouse and make the 45 minute trip home. After calling him, I called my parents. I told them the same story that I had Jeremy and they quickly started driving. It’s a 30 minute drive and I apparently was impatient and confused because I called them at least 2 additional times with the same story. They had my youngest sister stay on the phone with me to make sure I was generally okay. They also prompted me to call a neighbor from church. This is when I started remembering things. I remember opening the door for my neighbor. Its weird because, I didn’t remember calling her, but I knew exactly why she was there. During all of the conversations with my mom, she kept asking if I needed to call an ambulance, and I kept saying I didn’t. As I was sitting down on the couch, with my children now safely in the care of my neighbor, I started putting things together. I had no idea when it was. I knew it was Christmas time because of the decorations, but I honestly couldn’t remember celebrating it. This is when I got really scared. The downside of being a nurse, is that I started thinking about all of the bad things that I could have done to my head…do I have a subdural bleed, and epidural bleed, a skull fracture. This is when I decided that I needed an ambulance. I called them…I’m surprised that I knew what to tell them. I barely remember making the call. Thankfully, the firehouse is right around the corner, so they were there very quickly. My parents arrived shortly after the ambulance did and my dad was able to give me a priesthood’s blessing. I was very grateful for this. It helped me to feel less scared about everything. I was taken to the hospital and long-story short, they did a CT and everything was okay….just a pretty bad concussion. I took a week off of work to recuperate and now I am mostly back to normal. I am still having some problems with my memory, but nothing horrible…its getting better and better each day. I was amazed at how long it took for me to be able to think quickly and clearly afterwards. I look back on this situation and I am so thankful that my children were protected during all of this. I somehow knew to turn of Gavin’s water and I knew to call for help, even with all of my apparent confusion. I keep thinking about how differently everything could have turned out, but I firmly believe that my Father in Heaven was protecting my children and I. I am so profoundly grateful for that.
Here is a picture of my view from the stretcher in the trauma room at Northside Forsyth….
That is the PALS algorithm that is used in a pediatric code…it was nice to see something familiar. ; )
I had aspirations of doing monthly updates of the comings and goings of Brooke. Then I remembered that I have three children and life is crazy.
She had her 6 month check up about 2 weeks ago. She weighed 12 lbs even (<5%) and was 26 inches long (50%). She is a tiny little thing! We are actually watching her weight, but I’m not too concerned. She’s healthy and has a good general appearance. She is learning new things and progressing as she should. She can roll over and can sit unassisted for about 10-15 seconds. She could probably do it longer if she would stop arching her little back! She loves the Exersaucer and Jumperoo. She has strong little legs. She loves to stand up in my lap and bounce up and down. She is a sweet, sweet girl. She rarely cries…pretty much only when she is tired or hungry. She loves to play peek-a-boo and we get the biggest belly laughs when she is tickled. My only regret with her is that she is just growing up sooo fast. I feel like this year is flying by and it just makes me sad to think about. I am enjoying the ride, though, even if it is a little speedy.
I hope you have enjoyed the photo spamming. There were just too many good ones to not share. : )
