A Jolly Good Time - Christmas 2010

Whew, what an eventful, fun and busy couple of weeks this has been! Lots of family, fun, food and memories! Let's see if I can recap all that we did over Christmas...

Well in the week leading up to Christmas, Brenley got pink eye...yuck! And the sweet daughter that she is, decided to share it with me! And then, hers decided to flare back up again for a couple of days, but after a trip to the doctor and two perscriptions we have finally conquered the pink eye!

Here is my poor baby on day 2. It looks awful, but thankfully she ate well and still smiled!

The day before Christmas eve, my parents took Brenley to a little train in Cedar Hill. My dad, Bobby and myself decided to cram in there with her. :)

Then on Christmas Eve we all went to see ICE at the Gaylord Texan. Very cool and VERY COLD! EVERYTHING is carved out of ice. If you have never been, I recommend it, but bring gloves!

Brenley actually fell alseep while we were in the nine degree area!

They have ice slides too -- so fun!

Later that night we had Christmas with Bobby's family.

She was pretty good with tearing that paper!

Family pic -- excuse the no eye makeup -- still getting over the pink eye

Christmas morning we discovered Santa had come!

Brenley in her new rocker!

She loves DVDs, well, mainly just carrying them around :)

Later that afternoon we went to my Nanny's to celebrate with my side of the family

Getting some assistance from Nana-D

She loves her sock monkey!

Playing with the cousin's Toy Story figures

Her very own wagon!

Well I think that about sums it up! We had a great time and really enjoyed Daddy being home for 6 whole days!

So grateful for family and their love - we made some great memories this year!

12 Months

ONE YEAR!! One full YEAR since this little girl changed my life! I cannot even wrap my head around the fact that it has been a year because it has flown by so fast, but on the other hand if I think back to certain memories, they seem like forever ago. Very strange. But the hospital, delivery and bringing her home are so fresh in my mind and I pray they never leave!

This year has been so fun, yet so hard...so rewarding, yet so challenging. I have learned so much about being UNselfish in the last year. It really is ALL about Brenley and her needs and that was hard for this Momma to learn. (i.e. I love my sleep!) But when I look at that sweet face and see those hands reach out for me, it is ALL SO WORTH IT! Ok, before I start crying, let's get to the fun stuff...here is what my "baby" is doing these days...

• SHE IS WALKING! Early in the month she was just doing a few steps at a time, but over Thanksgiving she started toddling around everywhere. Not much crawling anymore for this gal!
• She got two more TEETH! So she officially has 8 teeth now.
• She said 2 WORDS-- "Dadu" = thank you (must be prompted and will only do occasionally), and "uh oh"
• LOVES on her baby -- she will rock it, hug it and pat it. Funny thing is, we did not teach her how to do this. Love how the Lord instills this in little girls.
• She has started HUGGING us when we pick her up and I love it.
• Met SANTA for the second time (the first time she was just 5 days old) and was not scared! :)
• She is drinking COW'S MILK and did great with the transition. She is also done with bottles and has moved to sippy cups only. She did this pretty much on her own.
• She starting to take longer naps -- Thank you Lord. They will last 1 1/2- 2 hrs at home and she takes one in the morning and one in the afternoon. She is also sleeping about 11-12 hours a night!
• She is eating pretty much everything, although she recently started spitting out vegetables. Might need to pull out some tricks!

Well I think that is about it. We are having so much fun with this little girl. She is the highlight of her Daddy's day! Can't wait to see what this next year holds!

P.S. We had her party and it was chaotic fun! Bobby's cousin took pictures of it, so once she sends them I will dedicate a whole post to her party!

Look at her go!

I can't believe it, but my little baby that I had just 11 SHORT months ago is walking around this house! And best of all she really started "taking off" over the Thanksgiving week while my parents were in town! So both grandparents got to see her new ackomplishment last week. So fun!

Here is a little video of the big girl!

On another note -- we started brushing Brenley's teeth last night. She currently has 6 teeth and 2 growing in..so it was time. She loved her toothpaste!

Serioulsy --is she growing up this fast!?!?

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great time with family over the Thanksgiving week! My parents were able to come into town for a whole 8 1/2 days!! We filled it with DBU Homecoming events, a Turkey Trot, a trip to the Dr office for my Nanny who fell and hurt her knee, cooking, eating, more cooking and more eating! It was fun!

Brenley enjoyed her first Thanksgiving mainly because she could eat ALL that was made and she loved every bite!

We spent Thanksgiving day with Bobby's parents eating and playing games and then Friday was spent at my Nanny's house with my side of the family. So glad we were able to spend time with both sides. Here are just a few pictures of our Thanksgiving!

Shoveling it in at GiGi's

Gigi and Jualito

Nanna-D introduced Brenley to a new game at Nanny's house, but some how Mom was the one that picked it all up when she was done. Hmm..

Brenley's cousins LOVE her!

More shoveling at Nanny's house

I think she is all practiced and ready for Christmas dinner now! Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

11 Months

Well my baby is turning 11 months on 11/11! Fun, huh? 11 months, wow, well I don't want to think about what next month means, so let's just enjoy this 11 months while we can!! :) This girl is changing, growing, and learning so much everyday and it truly amazes me! Here is what my girl is doing these days...

• She has taken 3 STEPS!! That is a record for now, but I am sure that will grow in the next month or so.
• She is officially WEANED from nursing and it taking formula bottles 4 times a day. I have TRIED the sippy cup but she just bats it away -- strong willed? I think so!
• She is eating lots of things these days including, Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and she got her first taste of chocolate icing and sugar cookie at school!!! She LOVED IT!
• She is starting to make some cute little faces these days and her personality is really starting to SHINE! That includes her little TEMPER as well...yes, I know this cute little girl, can sure get mad and arch that back...is it supposed to start this early? The strange thing is...she only does it for me...payback? probably.
• She went Country/western DANCING when she stayed with my parents...she loved it and so did they!! This girl has music in her soul!
• She POINTS her finger at different things!
• She is still on the same sleep schedule and is doing good with her naps, especially on school days!! :)

HAPPY 11 MONTHS LITTLE GIRL!

(Can we make this month last as long as possible!!?)

Bienvenido a Miami!

Bobby and I just returned from a trip to Florida!! We were in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area and we had a great time! Brenley and Polo stayed with my parents in Beaumont and I am not sure they wanted to come home -- they had such a great time!

Here is a recap of our trip...

Tuesday night we drove down to Beaumont to drop off our babies and we spent the night, but headed out bright and early to Houston to fly out to Florida. That afternoon/evening we spent driving down the coast down to Miami. It was so pretty! Thursday we had to go to a convention center to attend a college fair. (This was the real reason for the trip -- Bobby had to go and work at this college fair). So we spent all of Thursday and Thursday evening at the fair. Friday, we drove down to Corral Gables (near Miami) to drive around the University of Miami campus. Bobby loves UM (their football team) and wanted to see the campus. That afternoon we drove down to Key Byscane, which is a really pretty little island thing -- the ocean was beautiful!! Saturday we went to the University of Miami football game. As I mentioned before, Bobby loves their football team (the Hurricanes) and has always wanted to attend a game, so this was the perfect time! It was our first time to attend a college football game and it was sooo fun! That night we went out for a really nice dinner at this Irish eatery -- it was yummy! AND I got Bobby to try shrimp and crab meat...he does not like seafood, or so he says, but actually thought it was "ok". :) Sunday we flew to Houston, drove to Beaumont, saw our girls (which was the best part), ate a yummy steak dinner at my parent's and stayed the night so we could drive home bright and early Monday morning!

Somewhere on the coast!

Bobby and the beach!

Driving into Miami -- the palm trees really are everywhere!!

University of Miami

me and my love

It was so beautiful out there!

Ready for the game -- except for appropriate shoes...sunny Florida, turned into chilly Florida!

The Hurricanes WON! Yay!

We missed Brenley and Polo, but it was nice to just spend some one on one time together...it might be a while before another trip alone! ;)

Halloween 2010

I know it has been almost 2 weeks since Halloween, but I have been busy. :) Halloween was really fun this year with a little girl to dress up and tote around! We took our little hula girl to our church's fall festival. I think she was teething or something that night, so she was a little solemn, but still a cutie!!

P.S. Daddy requested she wear a onesie under her coconuts for church! :)

The cows can take over from here...

Well, all the nursing bras, tanks, hooter hiders, boppy pillow and pumps are put away...yep, she has officially been weaned.

Very bittersweet -- bfeeding and I had a love/hate relationship. :) Those first 2 weeks of Brenley's life I thought it was going to get the best of me and I thought it was all I was going to do for the rest of my life. But day by day it got better and less time consuming/painful and became a special time for me and my girl. Although there were days I wanted to give up, I stuck to it and I am glad I did. I had hoped to make it to 12 months, but Bobby and I are taking a little trip to Florida, without Brenley, and lets just say, I was not going to carry around a pump while I was there!! So 10 months it was!

She is doing great with a bottle and so is mommy!

Until the next baby...

(p.s. no pictures for this blog! :))

First Pumpkin/Costume Party!

Our friends Melissa and Jon hosted a Pumpkin Party last night and we had so much fun dressing the babies up for their first Halloween activity. I am not sure if the babies had as much fun as we did, but that's ok!

Brenley is a Hula girl this year for Halloween. I could not decide what she was going to be and then my parent's went to Hawaii and my mom calls me from an Island and tells me they have some super cute Hula outfits for babies, sooo she snatched one up for Brenley!

Daddy allowed her to go shirtless this night!

C. U. T. E.

Adorable babies!! Brenley=hula girl, Tatus=Minnie mouse, Gage=Tiger, Avery=Bunny, Kennedy=Cowgirl!

I think this is the only time you will see a Hula girl with a big belly! ;)

Then the girls decorated cookies!

It was a fun night!! Thanks Grimes!

Dallas Arboretum

We had some "Fall" fun at the Dallas Arboretum the other day with our friends Andrea and Luke! The pumpkin patch there is so beautiful and it was nice to just walk around and enjoy the weather.

Bren was not really in the mood for a photo session that day, so this is the best we got! :)

P.S. yes, we are getting alot of wear out of her Halloween onsie -- thanks Nana-D. Also, thanks to Andrea for the invite!!

These made me SMILE!

Stylin in her boots!

She has discovered the rails in her crib!



ICE CREAM IS COOOOLD!

Getting brave with that cruising!

Hope they made you smile too!!

Green Meadows Petting Farm

A little over a week ago, Brenley and I went with my MOPS group to the Green Meadows Petting Farm. It was a fun day and Brenley enjoyed looking at all of the animals. She was not a fan of the hay though! ;)