Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

My Hubby Turns 29!!!!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to celebrate Matthew's birth!!  He turned 29 and is one amazing man!  He is such a great daddy.  Brooklyn always asks for him throughout the day and is so excited to see him when he walks in the door.  Not to mention, so am I!  Even though he spends all day working to take care of our family, he comes home and plays with Brooklyn and listens to me ramble on about our day.  He is so patient, loving, and sincere.  We love him soooooooooooooooooo much!!!!  

To celebrate we went out to lunch here...

and to dinner here....

Then we came home to some yummy cheesecake and presents!

Here are a couple of pics from Matthew's special day.

 

Brooklyn made this wrapping paper for daddy at the crafternoon at the Springville museum.  So cute!

New sweater and new running toe socks

Santa Claus is Coming To Town

So... we took Brooklyn to see Santa last night.  

 Here we are waiting in line. 

And here is Brooklyn on Santa's lap.  I didn't feel like we were torturing her last night, but looking at these pictures today makes me think otherwise.  You can even see Santa's smile start to waiver as he tries to contain the screaming Brooklyn.  I guess it is a rite of passage as a child to have these pictures taken, but after the pictures were taken, Brooklyn didn't want anything to do with me.  I had betrayed her, so she grabbed for the nice daddy who was taking pictures.  Click on the image below to make it bigger.  

We are doing better today and Brooklyn has forgiven me... or forgotten.  Either way, she still gives me hugs and kisses!

Catch Up

 About a month or so ago, we headed to Utah lake to take some pics of the little babe.  We didn't get exactly what we wanted since Brooklyn wasn't feeling the "look at the camera and smile" vibe.  She is still adorable so I thought I would post them anyway.

Also, it definitely looks like Christmas around here.  We have had our tree for over a week, and decorations are brightening up our whole home.  It is the most wonderful time of the year and we celebrated with homemade pumpkin pie that was six months in the making.  Literally.  We started with a pumpkin seed and used the beautiful little pumpkins that grew in our garden this summer to make a delicious pumpkin pie.  Fresh really is better!  I couldn't wait for Brooklyn to wear her Christmas jammies so she has been wearing them for a couple weeks now.  Who says Christmas is only one day?

Yesterday was Sinterklaas day so we had to put out our shoes to be filled with lots of goodies.  The carrots are for the horses and this morning we had oranges and chocolate in our shoes!  I love this tradition from Matt's dutch family!  The clogs were a new addition this year for only 7 dollars on etsy!

Shared photo book from Corinne

Click here to view this photo book larger

I have been working on this baby book for Brooklyn for the past month.  I have finally finished and am just waiting for it to come in the mail!  It documents all of her "firsts" as a baby and shows how fast she has grown.  I think it has been really therapeutic for me because it has forced me to admit that Brooklyn is no longer a tiny little baby.  She is a little girl and is so much fun!

Our Baby Turned 1!

Brooklyn turned one on November 5 and I can't believe it.  She seems like she is such a little girl and no longer a baby.  She has been growing by leaps and bounds these past couple of weeks and it has been so much fun to watch.  She decided she wanted to start walking two days before her birthday and she is gaining confidence every day.  She learns a new word practically everyday.  Her list now includes; Dad, Mama, duck, dog, amen, thank you, ya, hi, bye, Nana, horse, baby, moo, baaa, uh oh, and I swear she says love you when I say it to her.  She raises her hand in story time at the library and during Sunday school to answer questions because she sees everyone else do it.  My favorite of all is that she gives us lots of kisses (on the lips!)  Randomly she will kiss us and make the cute little mwua sound that goes with it.  Sometimes after I am done feeding her she will give me kisses too!  She loves books, Elmo, babies, music, and especially animals.  She also LOVES to growl! We will have to take her to the zoo soon.  She has her doctor's appointment Tuesday so we will see what her stats are, but I am excited to get her into a forward facing car seat.  

Here are a couple of pictures from her little birthday party we had yesterday.  

She got a set of animal puppets and loves them.  She is growling in the second pic :)

Here is Daddy helping blow out the candles! 

She had her own cake to smash and eat by herself.  She was very ladylike when eating her cake, and made sure to take her time.  

 Here is her birthday cake I made for the rest of us.  The theme was red and blue with birds.

We are missing Nana in this picture, but at least we got 3 generations!

We had a great day and look forward to all that Brooklyn will learn and experience in the next year!

Fall Festivities!

We

went to the pumpkin patch twice this year because it was so fun!  There were tons of animals to pet, including a baby kangaroo which Brooklyn loved!  There was a corn pit to play in, tractor rides and hay mazes.  All for free!!!  We love when things are free!

 Carving Pumpkins!

Yes, she is in the nude... sorry... I figured it was better than getting pumpkin junk all over her clothes.

And who doesn't love a little naked baby?!

 The mustache

 I loved her expression when she saw what came out of the pumpkin.  haha

I also loved this picture, because it typifies her hair days.  I try to make her hair all cute with bows and headbands, but by the end of the day this is what it looks like.  Normally she can only see from one eye. It might be time to get a haircut :)

 Here is Brooklyn getting caught in action.  She was going through the candy stash and thought it was so funny that I caught her.  

Since Brooklyn is too young to decide what she wanted to be for Halloween, I decided she was going to be a cute little peacock.  I have to say, she was pretty cute!  Of course, she wouldn't look at the camera, and didn't want to keep her peacock feathers on very long, but she did enjoy her very first piece of Halloween candy!

Long Time Coming

So, I have been really bad at blogging lately, but I have a good reason.  I have been working on my last class of my BYU career and can unofficially say that I have finally graduated!!!!!!  (I don't have my diploma yet, but I just have menial paper work to do until it is here.)

You might be confused thinking I already graduated because of this....

But don't let that fool you!  I still had 12 credits I needed to finish before I was done.  Well, we moved around a bunch after that, and we were no longer living in Provo, UT.  So, Independent Study it was.  Maybe this wasn't the fastest method, but three years, five classes and many hours later, I am done!

I just need to take a minute to thank my sweet hubby who was so patient and supportive these past three years in encouraging me to finish, and who is probably more excited for me to be done than I am :)  Of course, I can't forget my parents who not only paid for me to go to 4 years at BYU, but who got me through 12 years of school before that!  I have one great support system.

I can finally start working on fun craft projects that I have been putting off. :) Pictures of Brooklyn's Halloween costume, our trip to Texas, and my sister's visit to Springville are coming shortly!

Happy

I am one lucky wife and mother!  I could not be happier!

Pure Joy!

So... I have been really bad about blogging lately.  This was just too cute not to post!  Brooklyn is so much fun and pretty much always happy!  She is such a blessing in our life and we love her so much!  She just turned 10 months yesterday and I can't believe she is so old already.  I am starting to think about her one year birthday party and that just scares me!  Time flies!