Valentine's Day

We were so excited about all the Valentine's we got from family. . .Thank you SO very much!!


It's so funny how kids get excited for ANY day where they get to each a whole bunch of unhealthy food. . .today was no exception.  The boys have been counting down the days until Valentine's. . .I can only hope this continues when they are married and have wives (yea, right!).  They've been looking forward to exchanging their Ninjago cards with their friends and celebrating at their class party.


Brooklyn and I headed over to the school for the boys' Valentine's Day party.  I was in charge of games and let me tell you I wasn't too excited about the whole thing.  It's not easy to do a party game when you also have a 5 month old to take care of. . .did I mention the party was during naptime?


Ryan and Brandon had a BLAST!!! 

Ryan playing his game. . .

Yum!!  Pizza!!

A pencil for the winners. . .

What's New?????

I just wanted to share a few pictures so you can see how much my kiddos are growing.  Time goes way too fast. . . .

Brandon posing. . .

Ryan posing. . .

 Brookie entertaining herself

Such a happy girl

This is the boys' FAVORITE picture. . .It says EVERYTHING you need to know about my kiddos :)

Brooklyn at 5 Months. . .

Well, I knew that a difficult month had to come my way and 5 months, although delightful in some ways, was the pits in others.

• Brooklyn only likes to lay on her back with her feet in the air.  It was quite a feat to get a 5 month picture with her all stretched out :)
• This whole "Bottle Business" is for the birds!!  I think I've spent $50 on different bottles just praying that Brooklyn would magically fall in love it.  No such luck. . .
• We're rolling over!!!   I kept waiting and waiting for the day and FINALLY now I can stop stressing out about the whole thing. (Funny, I kept telling everyone that Brooklyn was just going to do things at her own pace yet deep inside I'm thinking, "Hello child, you're 5 months old and you should be rolling!!"  Just imagine how this Mama is going to react when we get to the walking stage. . .the boys were walking at 10 months. . .that's a lot of pressure!)
• Sleeping at night. . I'll rephrase that NO SLEEPING AT NIGHT.  So much for my all of my bragging in months 1,2, and 3.  I'm paying for it now.  Brooklyn is still waking up several times during the night and it is very draining on me.  Nate can't really help me out because half the time the girl is voraciously hungry and wants to eat.  So I keep telling myself that this year is flying by (it really is) and she won't be a baby forever. . .tear, tear :(
• Her eyes are still the most beautiful blue color in the world.
• Her hair is definitely going be red and she has quite a bit of peach fuzz on the top at this point.
• No signs of any teeth at this point.

Brooklyn. . .4 Months

Brooklyn is growing WAY too fast.  It is amazing to me that this first year is halfway over!

What's new in Brookie's world?

• Well, I shouldn't have gotten so excited about the sleep thing, because we are back to waking up multiple times during the night.  Rats!!  Brooklyn will eat for a bit, but then she just likes to suck and suck. . .w'ere going to have to break this habit soon!  I'm afraid it's going to take several nights of crying in order to show this girl who's boss :)
• Brooklyn still does not like her bottle. . .and her eating has also become very sporadic.  At one feeding she's hungry and then she'll completely skip her next feeding.  This must be some new diet plan that I'm not aware of.
• She's rolled over from her tummy onto her back. . .sort of.  She showed me, Ryan, Brandon, and Daddy her new trick. . .so she did it a total of 4 times.  She hasn't done it since then.  Does this count?
• Her hair is growing in and I'm fairly certain we are going to have a redhead on our hands.  The boys hope her hair starts to grow faster, oh and they would prefer if it were "smooth."  (as opposed to curly)
• At her last doctor's appointment, Brooklyn was still in the 50th percentile for head, weight, and length and she weighed 13 lbs. 14 oz.

Christmas. . .Bah Humbug!!

I usually get to tease Nate that he is Ebeneezer Scrooge during the holiday season, but this year I must say that it was I who turned out to be a regular Grinch.  I was frazzled, unambitious, and a bit complacent  through Christmas and New Year's.  Not only did it hamper the spirit for the kids, but I felt horrible once the holidays were over because I felt like I had missed it.  I missed all of Christmas and what the focus of Christmas should have been.  Shame on me!!  I vow to do better next year. 

I know Christmas was still exciting for the kids, I just think I could have done a better job.  We went bowling (as we usually do on Christmas Eve), attended our church's Candlelight Christmas Eve Service, opened presents from their Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins from North Dakota/Minnesota, and went to Aunt Darlene and Uncle Tom's for pizza and snacks.  The boys were excited to get home in order to set out their milk and cookies for Santa. . . .so off we went.

Christmas Day is a bit of a blur. . .we opened presents in the morning and had Nate's family here for breakfast.  Then, it was time to quick pick up, Skype with my family, finish making dinner, all while trying to nurse Brooklyn because she refused to take a bottle, and get ready for Nate's family to head back over to our house to eat. 

The day went by SO fast. . .and reflecting back on things, Nate and I decided that we will change some things for next year.  Oh, AND I didn't get one single picture of this Christmas so this is a no picture post!!  Even writing this post, I feel just wretched. . .Blech!!!

December Events

I have to confess that our December has been atypical with a new baby in the house.  I quickly put up the decorations myself.  Usually the boys and I spend a lot of time on this and they get to help, but since they are in school all day and the decoration boxes sit in the hall until things get put up, I just took care of it. 

The boys and I decorated the tree, but I didn't make a big deal of it like I usually do.  Looking back on things, there is a lot that I wish I could change, but it is hard to juggle everything with a new baby in the routine.  I made myself promise that next year I would be much more on top of things. 

We managed to get some sugar cookies decorated this year (this was the only Christmas baking I did this year. . .Yes, I'm a terrible mother) the week before Christmas.  The boys had a great time decorating.

Brooklyn and I also went to the boys' Christmas party at school.  We got to watch them play games and decorate Grinch cookies. (Oh, and the boys made me promise to make Brooklyn wear a bow in her hair when I brought her to school so the kids would know that she was a girl.  With her pink clothes, pink stroller, pink blankets, pink everything it looks like someone threw up pepto-bismol on the girl.  I'm not sure how anyone could think she was anything other than a baby girl).

Family Pictures

My friend Suzy came and took a few pictures of our family so I'd have something for our Christmas card.  She ended getting a super cute one of Brooklyn (who's 3 months in the pictures) and some great ones of the boys.