Lots to update

It's been some time since the last post. I don't have a good reason other than just being busy (and lazy). Here are some pictures of the last few weeks proving that we're still alive and well!

Our new game...walking on the treadmill.

She can turn around in a full circle while the treadmill is running!

She wanted Greg to pick her up. I had her too close to the snow!

She likes the snow as long as it's not directly touching her!

The pool isn't looking so inviting right now!

I can't remember what she was doing here, but it was probably her favorite past time...dancing!

This is how we get Brooklyn ready for bed. I don't think they mention this in any of the parenting books!

Getting ready to race with Daddy.

Showing off her new pajamas.

Walking through the snow with Daddy who knew better than to let go!

Another project from Gymboree. It almost took pulling teeth to get her to put any of the candy on the house and not in her mouth!

After taking a bath she LOVES to put on lotion.

Brooklyn had her 18-month check up and she did great (as long as it was just the two of us in the room!) She knows a little too much about what goes down at the doctor's office. Everything checked out great and she's still got a big head for her little body! The other day we measured our heads at home (for snowboarding helmets) and she's only 5 cm behind her mother! Yikes! She talks ALL day now and loves her books, puzzles, drawing, driving, dancing and "talking" on the phone. Oh, and she is slightly obsessed with puppies. Every magazine that comes in the mail is turned page by page to find a single glimpse of a puppy. And I made the mistake the other day of pulling up a video of puppies playing on youtube. Oops! Greg has an app on his phone of rotating puppy pictures. The girl enjoys her technology! We also took her to a puppy parade in St. Louis and there is one coming up in McKinney that we are planning on attending. I'll do anything to not have to get her a puppy for home!

Some new words she's been saying lately include: brrrr!, puppy, hi, bye bye, jaja (jacket), shoes, up and down, pants, shirt, ocks (socks), ights (lights), eight, purple, ello (yellow), scadoo (sqwarado - Italian for diaper rash, thanks to my parents!), drive, draw, bath, tweet (for birds), monkey (although it sounds a lot like puppy!), giraffe, hat, hair, eye, ear, ready, set, go, baby, paper, and just today she said, "oh wow, mama!" She found some bb's from a gun at the park. I loved it! I'm sure there are more because I haven't heard "eh, eh, eh" while she's pointing to something in a while!

I'm going to try to post more later!

Santa visit

Brooklyn and I went to visit Santa at the mall last week. She was a happy camper 3 seconds before and 3 seconds after seeing him, but was TERRIFIED while on his lap...which made for some awesome pictures!

Here they are seconds before Santa

Merry Christmas to all!

Consoling each other after the ordeal

All smiles again

I just thought this was a funny picture!

More Gymboree fun!

Brooklyn has had 2 more Gymboree classes and is starting to really show off her creative talents. She is the ham of the class too, which I think is so funny since the other kids are 2 and 3 years old. She loves talking while she creates and watching just how the other kids do things. And she can finally finish all of her goldfish by the time the story is over! Small victories!

Not much has been going on around here. My crazy headaches are finally under control with the help of some steroids. Hopefully they keep working their magic and we can be pain free in a couple weeks, although I've had enough of their side effects already! I feel crazy, exhausted but can't sleep, hungry all the time and ready to break down at the slightest bit of adversity! But at least I can remember what happens throughout the day, which is more than I can say for the past month on pain meds! I pretty much slept through Thanksgiving, I think!

We went to a Christmas tree lighting at a nearby mall a couple weeks ago...it's all a little hazy to me! Good thing the camera remembers which day the pictures were taken!

Apparently a single bloodshot eye comes along with the headaches I had. Tell me that doesn't make your eyes water! I'm crying right now just looking at it! So gross!

But Brooklyn looks so cute in her hat!

Now it's Christmas time and the fall decorations are still on display at the house! Hopefully we'll get our Christmas tree up before too long. Brooklyn has already demonstrated her ability to take ornaments off of random trees we've seen, so we'll be placing them just above her reach! We're also planning a trip to go see Santa, so I'm excited to see her reaction this year! I have a feeling we'll either get a screaming gal or sticking her tongue out. That's her new thing when you take a picture of her. Lovely!

Arboretum and 15 month check up

A few weeks ago we met up with our friends, Jill and Isaac, at the Arboretum. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time! The great pumpkin festival was still in full swing so there was lots of playing with pumpkins!

Such nice kiddos sharing pumpkins with each other!

Brooklyn couldn't believe how big these pumpkins were!

A little posing outside the entrance

Posing in front of some mums

A house of pumpkins!

Look how excited those kids look to be taking another picture!

Brooklyn also had her 15 month check up a few weeks ago. She's still a light weight and "average" height (sure!) according to the doc. And is still in the 90th percentile for head circumference. I blame Greg! She's doing so much new stuff lately. Our new words include bubbles, pop, puppy, thank you and oh wow! She's learning sign language faster than I can look up new words! She likes to use all the words she knows at once if she really wants something. So you'll get please, thank you, more, all done all at once. She's a bubble blowing machine, loves to jump and go on walks, still takes 2 naps a day and sleeps almost 12 hours at night (I love it!), loves giving hugs and kisses to Mommy and Daddy and still has 3 teeth! I think that's all for now! We're looking forward to the amazing weather this weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gymboree

So a couple months ago we bought a Groupon for 4 weeks at Gymboree. I took Brooklyn to one of the play classes a few weeks ago and was a little disappointed because I felt like we could do the same stuff at the mall play area or at the park. I also peeked in on the music class and it was very similar to what we do at the library. But there was one more class that they offer and it was an art class so I thought it might be something we could try. Too bad you have to be 18 months to participate and the Groupon expires at the end of the year. So Brooklyn's birthday was moved up 3 months and we went to our first class today! She did amazing! See for yourself!

The teacher picked out green and pink for Brooklyn to paint with. She was very impressed that this was Brooklyn's first time painting!

We had to get an extension put on for Miss 90th percentile!

Mommy did the gluing and Brooklyn did the feather coloring.

She painted this turkey using a feather and then shook some glitter on!

We also played with cornmeal which took Brooklyn a minute to get in to. She kept brushing off her hands when she touched the cornmeal. Eventually she started playing with the toys and not worrying about getting her hands dirty. We played with Play-Doh for the first time too! What a wonderful experience! I'm getting ideas for art projects at home. Apparently Brooklyn is ready for some!

Gracias, Tia Katie!

Thanks for my beautiful rosary! This is how I like to wear it! I walked around with it on all day! Thank you for remembering the first anniversary of my Baptism! I hope I get to go to Italy one day too!

UT vs. Baylor game

We went down to Austin this weekend for the UT football game. We took 2 delicious breaks at the Czech Stop in West on the way down! Despite the good guys losing, we had a great time at the game. Brooklyn loved looking over the railing at the band. Any time they were on the field, she was leaning over to get a better look. She also read the program to see how both teams were looking. She fell asleep after A LOT of pacing in the hallways and was able to get some sleep in the car on the way back. We got in around 2:30 Sunday morning and she started stirring at 6:30 and finally woke up at 7:45. I miss those weekends of sleeping in!

We were able to meet up with some of Greg's old roommates and college friends who live in Waco and Austin while we were down there. We pointed out Austin landmarks to Brooklyn as we crept along stuck in Austin traffic. Overall it was a nice, quick getaway weekend. Thanks for inviting us down again, Ryan!