Birthday Week and Halloween

We really enjoyed the last week of October. We had a ward harvest party, a family bday party for Dan, Megan, and Zach (but mostly Dan), Dan's bday on Tuesday the 27th, a ward trunk or treat on the 30th, and then the 31st was Megan's bday, Zach's bday party, a neighborhood costume parade and some trick or treating! We love our little Princess and our litte Pea! By the way, if you didn't catch "The Office" last week, Dan went as Jim Halpert who dressed up as "the famous social networking site, Bookface". Here's a million pictures...enjoy :)

Ward Harvest Party


Dan's party


Dan taking his quiz on his b-day (he barely passed :) but DID earn his present)


Our little princess watching Cinderella (her favorite...we literally watch it everyday)



Sweet pumpkin. This is the outfit we put Megan in the day she was born (it was huge)..and on her first birthday (it was a little snug then--it's a size 3-6 months). It's perfect for Brooke right now.







Trunk or Treat night




Halloween Breakfast


Zach's party


Neighborhood costume parade


Ready to hit the street!


Megan and Gracey-2 cute princesses! Megan was a little shy from time to time but loved saying "trick-TREEEEAT!", "Ha-WEEEEN", and "ga-pow" (thank you--weird, I know).

Sisters

I love watching Megan interact with Brooke. She loves to give her kisses and hugs and make her smile. Brooke loves watching Megan play--it will be fun to watch her learn to join in someday.

10/22/09

10/21/09

10/16/09 (right after Megan's first checkup at the dentist!)

10/16/09

10/9/09

10/6/09


9/10/09

10/9/09

September Highlights

The rest of September flew by! Brooke turned 2 months old and weighed in at 13 pounds even (what a chunker--90th percentile). Megan is part of a little music class on Tuesdays at our house and that's been a fun way to get to know people in the ward better (plus Megan loves singing and dancing with other silly girls). I'm on the enrichment committee and we had our Super Saturday on Sep. 19. It was a lot of fun and I ended up with a very cute FHE board. Other than that, we went to craft days at Granny's house (where my sister-in-law, mom, and I have lunch, chat, and occasionally work on a project), had playdates, and tried to stay cool in that last long stretch of heat.

Here's our little smiling Brooke on 9/9/9:

And our crazy dancing Megan (also on 9/9/9):

Cute, cute, 9/23/09

Dress-up Megan, 9/29/09

Brooke's first bottle, 9/24/09

Smiling, 9/24/09

Church girls and daddy, 9/20/09

Happy baby, 9/17/09

Pedicures!, 9/16/09

Brooke's first big tub bath with Megan, 9/14/09

What Megan does while I'm in the shower (aargh!), 9/14/09

My finished FHE Board

Brooke's Blessing

Brooke was given a name and a blessing in church on September 6, 2009 by her Dad. Both Grandpas stood in the circle along with the Bishopric and her Uncle Shad. The blessing was beautiful and we are so grateful to have our sweet little Brooke in our family. It was a really nice, low-key Sunday. We loved being surrounded by family and friends. My Mom, sister (Carrie) and little brother (Tyler) joined Dan's parents and Grandma and our family for a little lunch after our meetings.

Grandma, Papa, and Grandma Great

Earlier in the month, we got to spend an entire week with Dan's parents and grandma. They arrived on September 2 and stayed through September 9. We felt like we were on vacation since Dan was able to take that Thursday and Friday off (and also had Monday off for Labor Day). We had so much fun chatting, relaxing, seeing some of the sights of Houston, watching them get reacquainted with Megan, and watching them meet our little Brooke. When we lived in Utah, we'd see them about once a month, but typically that was with all the grandkids running around and we were usually needing to leave pretty quickly after dinner. It was great to have them stay with us. We've realized that even though it's hard to be so far from Dan's family, it was nice to have his Mom and Dad all to ourselves while they were here.


Megan was a little wary at first, but SLOW-ly warmed up. The rest of us enjoyed some extra hugs from Megan while they were here (when she's nervous about new people, she's awfully cuddly with the people she knows). Also while they were here, Megan pretty much potty-trained herself. She's doing great in that area and rarely has accidents now.


Brooke (and I) absolutely enjoyed a week of being spoiled by 2 Grandmas and 1 Papa. They held and held and snuggled Brooke and she was blessed the Sunday they were here. Her little smile began emerging more frequently that week and it was so fun to watch her interact with Dan's family.


We enjoyed seeing Kemah, Galveston, HMNS, River Oaks (an old, ritzy area of Houston), Old Town Spring, and the Houston Temple AND enjoying food from Pappasito's and Goode Co. BBQ.

Kemah


Galveston Ferry


Museum of Natural Science


Rose Gardens


Goode Co. BBQ


Temple

Pigtails, revisited

Lately, we've tried pigtails again. And the consensus is that now they look much more like pigtails...and much less like antennae.

Our favorite way to make the bed

Can you see little Brooke in this shot? No?


There, that's easier.


Brooke still sleeps in the pack and play but for my benefit, it's been moved just outside our bedroom so I can hear her cry but I don't have to hear every little wiggle. Because of this, I usually let her take her morning nap on my bed (away from the curious hands of big sister). Since I try to get the bed made early too, this is how it's done most days :).

Lucky Me...

Some women are dripping with diamonds
Some women are dripping with pearls
Lucky me! Lucky me!
Look at what I'm dripping with
Little girls
:)

Well, since the last post, things have definitely been improving as a mommy of 2 kids. It's still busy and Megan can still get in one of "those" moods but we've all been settling in to this new routine. I'm not so stressed every time I have to venture out with both kids (but it DOES still take a good 15-20 minutes from the time I start heading out the door until we are actually on our way). We still have some trying moments, but most days are good overall. It's been weeks since I've called Dan in tears--or even cried at all--a sure sign that things are getting better.

What have we been doing these past 5 weeks then? Well...

I turned 25 on August 8. I told Dan that for my birthday I wanted to sleep in and eat out at Pappasito's. We did both! And it was a really nice day. Dan also got me the Harry Potter movies and we've enjoyed that as well. We had a nice little family party at my parents' house on August 16 in between their vacations and my Mom made angel food cake served with Blue Bell--mmm, mmm, good.

Megan watching Daddy mow the lawn on my b-day (he had just finished making me breakfast too--what a fantatic man I married)


Our little family of four at the b-day party


We also survived 6 days and 5 nights (but who was counting) with Dan in Florida for a business trip. No, the smoke alarm did NOT go off and we had a nice quiet week. I did better than I thought I would without my other half and spent my evening time getting caught up on cleaning that had been neglected since Brooke's birth. I also spent 2 nights at my Mom's house to help pass the days. My parents and Ty had been gone for the 3 weeks before Dan left and Brooke and Megan were in need of some Granny and Grandpa time!

Kate (one of my best friends growing up) came to meet Brooke and see our house while Dan was gone. Megan warmed up to her pretty quick and wanted Kate to read her book.


Also while Dan was gone, Brooke did a lot of this

and this


while Megan "helped" empty the dishwasher (or whatever other task I was doing).


Dan got home on Aug. 15. Megan, Brooke, and I spent the rest of August being little social butterflies with lots of playdates, lunches, and fun times with friends from the ward and neighborhood. I've discovered that having people over gives me the break from the norm that I need to stay sane without actually having to pack the kids up and go somewhere! Woo hoo.

August actually involved some rain in the afternoons (the typical summer weather pattern here) and Megan is a big fan of watching/splashing in it. Megan continues to amaze us with her exploding vocabulary and her energy. She's starting to string phrases together and when she finds one she likes, we get to hear it often--"beh-bee cah-ing" (baby crying) is a current favorite--whether baby is crying or not. She is a sweet big sister (most of the time) and loves to give hugs and kisses to Brooke. Brooke is the name mentioned most often in Megan's prayers. Megan's biggest milestones this month included using the potty for the first time on Aug. 27 and sleeping in a big girl bed for her morning nap on Aug. 31. (*note that neither of these are perfected habits yet, but it's a start. actually, the potty training has been super-easy and she's wearing panties for the first time today--sep. 11. It's 10 am and so far, so good.)

Brooke started smiling on August 18 and is just the cutest, happiest baby (unfortunately, our camera is slow and it's hard to capture those fleeting smiles just yet). She spits up a lot!! but judging from her expanding cheeks, it's not affecting her growth at all. She is a great sleeper with 2-3 long naps during the day and sleeping from 9 pm to 4 am most nights. She's starting to coo and LOVES it when we coo back at her. She doesn't even seem to mind the not-so-gentle love from her big sister.

Sorry about the lack of posting--it's not for lack of trying! It's just that every time I sat down to start, Megan would decide it was a good time to pull a chair to the sink and empty the dish soap all over the counter or strip down and pee on the tile or some other such toddler happening. The only reason I'm posting now is because both kids are asleep! I can't pick which pics I like best, so enjoy a slide show :)