Some favorites

Here are some of my favorite pictures so far:









Oh, we just love these girls!

For the fam...

I've had more than one request for MORE PICTURES in the past few days. So, for our family that live away, here's a bunch of pictures. These are just from our camera. I'll do another slide show when I get the pics off my parents' cameras. Enjoy!

Sisters

Yup, we're pretty sure Megan and Brooke are related. But they do have little differences too! (you can tell that Brooke fills out that little outfit better than our teeny Megan did).

Brooke (2 days old)

 

Megan (4 days old)

 

First Week

I can't believe Brooke is already a week old. And yet it already seems hard to remember what life was like without her! Here are some pictures from this week from our camera. When I eventually get the ones off my parents' camera, I'll put up a slide show or something.


Megan's excitement over this new baby in the house has continued--she still gets pretty excited when she comes downstairs in the morning and baby Brooke is still here. Megan is learning to be soft and gives the sweetest hugs and kisses to her sister. She is always trying to help take care of her and loves to point out Brooke's features (nose, ears, eyes, etc.).


Brooke is a fantastic baby so far. Other than a rough first night home, she's been a good eater and even better sleeper. The past 4 nights she's been eating at 10 pm and not again til 3 am and then not again til 7:30 am or so. Getting up once a night is totally do-able and I am appreciative!





We had a really enjoyable first week as a family of four. Dan got to take the whole week off and I was so spoiled! My mom came over last Wednesday (our first day home) after keeping Megan one more night so we could have our first night home with just Brooke. Mom made us lunch, dinner, cookies, and let us both get naps! Our ward brought dinners the other nights of the week and Dan was wonderful to get up every day with Megan and let me sleep in--it was nice.



I enjoyed my quiet Sunday morning while Dan and Megan were at church. My Houston family came for dinner on Sunday (except my Dad). My sister-in-law Amy brought the yummy food and it was fun to have visitors.


Yesterday, Dan worked from home so I had one more day of extra hands around. It was nice to be able to go to the grocery store one more time with just one kid (I left Brooke napping with Dan).



Today was my first day all alone with two kids! It went pretty well. Megan didn't nap but that's usual :). Other than going through pool withdrawal, I'm feeling great and was able to get a nap in. We still have meals coming in and it is so nice to not worry about making dinner. We'll see how things go next week when reality really sets in!

Who does Brooke look like?

Brooke


Megan


I think she looks like my hospital picture but Brooke has more hair. Dan said a lot of his coworkers think she looks like him. What do you think?

Welcome Little One!

We just wanted to introduce our new baby girl! More pics will come later, but here are a few for now.
Name: Brooke (no middle name)
Born: July 13, 2009 at 3:17 pm (yay for afternoon babies!)
Weight: 7 lbs, 12 oz (almost a full pound more than Megan)
Length: 19 1/2 inches (an inch longer than Megan)





Here is a "before" comparison--

With Megan at 39 4/7 weeks


And with Brooke yesterday at 39 3/7


I woke up with contractions Sunday night (Monday morning really) around 2:30 am. We got to the hospital at 8:30 am and everything went great! Little Brooke was born just under 7 hours later. Megan got to come meet baby Brooke around 7 pm last night and her first reaction was pretty cute--she lunged to try to touch the teeny baby! I'm feeling good and we'll probably go home tonight after dinner (the food is good, but getting woken up by both a new baby and nurses/techs/etc every hour is not as fun). We hope everyone is having a great week!

July 4th

We just wanted to say a quick "Happy Independence Day!". We've had a nice, relaxing holiday. We skipped the neighborhood parade (it was just too hot) but had some neighbors over for a little afternoon barbecue and games.
Megan looked pretty cute in her patriotic getup. And as you can see, it's hard to get a good picture of a 20 month old when someone's not holding her down :). By the way, this is me at 38 1/7 weeks. I am finally feeling mentally ready for this new little girl to come. All that's left is to wait! Nothing is happening yet on that front, but we'll keep you posted.
Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Counting! (kind of)

Megan has recently learned to count. Or at least has learned how to say two, five, and ten. We think it's pretty cute, but you can decide for yourself.

Wake Up Call!

What an interesting morning I've had today. I don't sleep nearly as well when Dan is out of town, but after today, I don't know if I'll ever sleep well again (whether he's here or not!). Unlike Megan who (as you can see) sleeps like a rock. *this picture was after swimming on Saturday


At 4:10 this morning I was ripped out of a deep sleep to the SMOKE ALARM GOING OFF!! Talk about a heart attack and a half. I jump out of bed, my mind racing when it stops. Then I am just confused--did I dream it? but it was loud! was it the house alarm? Nope, still armed. I throw on my robe and flip on the light in my room--no smoke. Run into the main room--no smoke. But it starts to beep AGAIN!!

Now I sprint upstairs. No smoke in the game room, I open Megan's door (she is sleeping through the alarms)--no smoke. And our smoke alarms are all connected so if one goes off they all do and they speak to you--so I am hearing the comforting words "Fire, fire" during all my panicked running around. The beeping stops.

Now I'm torn. What on earth is going on? I can't see any fire. Megan is safe. I'm not leaving her upstairs--what if there is a fire but I just haven't found it yet. So I scoop her out of bed. The beeping starts and stops again.

I grab my cell phone, purse, keys, and shoes. I walk around the whole house and check every room--no sign of smoke or smoldering or fire in any way (thank goodness). Megan is in and out of sleep on my shoulder.

I'm feeling ok at this point--I can definitely get safely to all the doors or out our bedroom window if I needed to. I decide to put on clothes just in case. By this time it's 4:25. Megan is laying on our bed staring at me like I'm a crazy.

I decide that if it goes off again, I'm driving to my parents' house. I turn out the lights in the hopes that Megan will quickly fall back to sleep in my bed. I lay down next to her (my heart is still racing--at least the fight/flight response doesn't cause labor). She drifts off at 5:30. I was in and out of sleep but the alarm doesn't sound again.

Since it's been 4 hours now and the house is still standing, I'm feeling pretty confident that it's not on fire. I noticed that the "test" button was blinking on the smoke alarm in my room so I tested it this morning and the light isn't blinking now. Was that it? Was it testing itself? But why would it do that? And why couldn't it test itself at 4 in the afternoon when Dan is in town?

Sigh. Hopefully I'll get a nap today--that was pretty much the most terrifying experience of my life. And I'm calling the builder's warranty people to help me troubleshoot the problem--because I sure don't want it to happen again tonight :)

35 weeks already?

I can hardly believe I'm due in 5 weeks. It really just doesn't seem possible! I'm finally starting to get the itch to get things ready for new baby. My mom is going to come over and help me go through my 0-3 month clothes and get them organized and all.

I want to get some other projects done too. We got 4 more blinds yesterday and need to get those hung (we've only got 1 more window after those!!); I want to get the twin size bed set up in Megan's room.

Other than that, we've been thoroughly enjoying our summer! Megan and I go to the pool almost everyday and she is so much more comfortable in the water. It helps that the water temperature is almost 90. She doesn't even cry when I put her face in and let go of her for a swim--she usually comes up grinning. It's so cute. Here's some pictures from the last week--enjoy!

Megan and Daddy


34 5/7 weeks... (notice that Megan and I are twins)


Cute girl last Sunday

Piggies? or Antennae?

What do you think? Pigtails or Antennae?
I'm torn. But Megan's pretty cute either way.

Summer Lovin'

The school district in our neighborhood had its last day of school yesterday...which means that today was the first weekday our neighborhood pool was open!!!
No morning nap + 1 1/2 hour at the pool = the longest nap Megan's taken in a week and a half!!
Yessssss.
We ran into lots of friends there and had a great time. And I'm having a great afternoon because while Megan napped, I was able to get stuff done, read a little, and take my own quick nap.
Ahh, I love summertime. I think we've found our new routine for the next 6 weeks.

Home Improvement...

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and were grateful for the chance to remember those that have gone before us as well as those that are serving our country.
And, what better way to spend a long weekend than working on some home improvement?

Here's our little plumber, ready to help out... (ok, really she was getting ready to climb in the tub, but she was sporting this awesome look for a few minutes)


We found some bar stools at Ikea (I love that place) and Dan put these together on Saturday. We got four of them and I'd show them around the island but the island is covered with clutter from last night's project, so that will have to wait. But it gives us a new spot for friends to sit!


This was Monday's project...our emergency preparedness/Father's day purchase! Is that a happy man or is that a happy man? He even made us grilled burgers for lunch.


This was Tuesday night's project...it looks good doesn't it? We like it a lot better now than we did last night. We are not exactly home improvement gurus, but we figure if we can read, we can figure things out, right? After 2 1/2 hours of assembly (during which we had to repeat one step 3 times because we missed something the first two), we turned the breaker back on and Voila! NOTHING.
Apparently, we didn't know which wire the ground wire was. But after a few calls to our trusty home improvement experts (we tried our Dads, but they weren't home, so thank you Brian Wilcox!), we got to take it down one last time and connect the ground wire correctly and then it worked. Yay. And hopefully when we assemble the fan for Megan's room we'll be speedier and make less mistakes...


I just like this picture of Megan and thought I'd throw it in. We are so lucky to have little girls all over our neighborhood and this is our friend Megan. She just lives a few streets away and the Megans seem to enjoy each other. This was their favorite spot that day--the glass-less coffee table.

Belly, Belly

29 4/7 weeks...

With Megan (August 18, 2007)


With new baby (May 5, 2009)

18 Months

This is a few weeks late, but here we go anyway...
Megan is now 18 months old! We can't believe it. She's been going to nursery with us since Dan and I were put in as nursery workers in March, but now she's all official!

*This a cute dress made by Granny because I wanted to make Megan a purse and once we got started, we just couldn't stop. So Megan has a dress and purse and there are matching dresses for cousins Hailey and Chloe and for our new baby!


We love watching her interact with other kids her age and figure out social rules. She's definitely learned to defend herself (and the toys she's playing with) but isn't too aggressive. She has learned only to bully kids that are smaller than her (like her cousin Chloe).



Her climbing skills (and her falls) are becoming more spectacular. Her new favorite thing is climbing in and out of the big tub in our bathroom while I'm in the shower. She fell off the other day and I thought she'd want some comfort hugs, but NOOO--all she wanted was for me to help her get back up there to climb in again!

She had her 18 month checkup and ENT consult back on May 5.
She weighed 22 lbs, 3 oz (20th percentile) and was 32 inches tall (60th percentile). She is growing great and learning new words every day. She's got close to 50 words now and when she is in the right mood, she'll attempt to repeat anything you say! Our favorite thing to see is how good she's gotten at folding her arms and saying "Amen!". It's too cute. We're transitioning to one nap (Megan would like to transition to NO naps, but I'm not on board with that).
She's picked up a few naughty skills as well (jumping on the kitchen table, hitting, running off down the street when she gets the chance, etc) so we have more timeouts than we'd like. We've learned that when she is repeating a naughty skill over and over again, it's because she just wants more attention. So we're working on giving her attention BEFORE she turns to naughtiness!



She keeps us endlessly entertained and we feel so blessed to have such a happy, beautiful baby!

Four Years and Counting...

Hurray for us! We've now been married for as long as we were in high school! (Ok, Dan's high school was only 3 years, but I'm writing this, so 4 years for high school it is)



Compared to 50 or even 10, 4 doesn't seem like very many but I'm sure if time keeps speeding up, it won't feel like much time at all until we hit those milestones too.
I'm so thankful that we were married for time and all eternity--there are many more anniversary's to come!



Dan, you are amazing and I love being your wife. Thank you for everything you do for me. I'm glad we still have so much fun together and hope that will always be true. I love you!



I tried to think of things with a 4 in them that are significant to us as a couple. Here are as many as I could think of off the top of my head:
1. We first held hands on the lawn of Dan's aunt and uncle's house during a fireworks show for the 24th of July.
2. We started dating and got engaged in 2004.
3. Our first kiss was on August 4, 2004.
4. We graduated from high school 4 years apart.
5. We're about to become a family of 4.
6. We'd been dating for 4 months when we took a road trip to visit my extended family in Seattle and decided to get married.

Are you kidding?

So Monday is my busy "make the menu for the week and get the grocery shopping done" day. I know that doesn't sound like a lot to do in a day, but there you have it :)
If I'm really on the ball, we leave for Walmart by 9 am so we can be home at 10 am for a nap for Megan. Today I was a little slow. I was ready at 9:30 but I knew if we went then Megan would be super-cranky in the cart and ready for a nap so I figured I'd just wait til after her nap. I put her down at 10 and she was quiet for a while and I thought, GREAT! She's asleep. We'll have some lunch at 11 (or when she wakes up) and head on out.
But then, at 10:20, she starts jabbering...
Was she asleep and is now awake and done sleeping?
Was she never asleep and will soon fall asleep?
Will her crib break because she uses it as a trampoline?
I let her jabber away and got her up at 11 (because hey--quiet time is good for Mom AND Megan, even if it doesn't involve sleep).
I started getting lunch out. She downed her cheese stick and started on her PB&H. I started making myself a sandwich and glanced up to see her sitting very still--I (of course) panic and assume she must have silently choked and is now passed out so I rush over and say "Megan! Are you ok?" while trying to see if she's breathing. Her head snaps up for a second (she IS breathing) and then drops again. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
You're sleeping now? I'm ready to go! I want to be done with going out for the day! You just had a whole hour to sleep! Don't you know we only have 1 diaper left in the house?!?
So I wiped off her little peanut buttery hands and carried her upstairs where she is now sleeping soundly.
Sigh. She did look cute though all passed out in her sandwich.
That's what I get for not being speedy this morning and getting out the door by 9...
I guess I'll go clean the bathroom.