The Month of November

A lot has gone on this past month. Brinley had her 2 month check up November 6th. She weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz., 23 1/4 inches long, and as healthy as could be. She also got 4 shots and she did great. She screamed when she got stuck but when I was able to pick her up she calmed down and stopped crying. It didn't seem to bother her the rest of the day.

I went back to work on the 12th. Right now I am going into the office on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and working from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is a HUGE adjustment. To get everything done in the mornings and to work by eightish, I have to get up around 5:15. The days I don't go to the office I try to get up no later than 6 so I can get some work done before Brinley gets up. By the weekend, I am exhausted.

After a week of being back to work, I took the week of Thanksgiving off. I wanted to get things ready for Thanksgiving at our house. Monday I got the grocery shopping done and that was about it. I got sick on Tuesday and layed around the house pretty much all day. Wednesday wasn't much different. Alex wasn't feeling the best either but he cleaned most of the house for me still. He did great. Thanksgiving day, I was in bed most of the day. Alex and Craig smoked the turkey and it was soooo good. We are definately going to have to use our smoker more often.

On Friday, my brother and sister-in-law came to see Brinley for the first time. It was fun to see them and we can't wait to meet their baby boy in February! We also found out that Brinley is now going to have a new cousin in June. That makes 4 new cousins in about 7 months.

That pretty much sums up our month. Alex is feeling much better. Last night, Brinley finally slept through the night again for the first time in almost 2 weeks! She would wake up because it was hard for her to breathe from being so congested.

Here are some random pics from the month.



A few pics from Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Halloween

When people asked me what Brinley was going to be for Halloween, I would say I hadn't really thought about it much. Later, we got a ladybug costume (borrowed from Laura) and a Pumpkin costume (borrowed from Tara). The ladybug was a little big for her, so plans were to wear the pumpkin. Well, about 2 weeks before Halloween, Alex and I were at the mall. I was getting my haircut and we were just going to walk around. We went into Children's Place just to look. I decided to scan through the costumes and saw a turtle. I thought it was so cute but couldn't bring myself to pay $10 for something she would only wear a couple of hours. The next week, I kept thinking how cute the turtle costume would be. On the 27th, our bible class was having a Halloween party. The kids were supposed to dress up. So that afternoon, I decided to see if the turtle costume was still there. It was! But not in Brinley's size. I decided to run to Penn Square mall to see if they had one her size there. It wasn't until I got there that I realized they don't have a Children's Place. When I got home, I was disappointed that I didn't get the turtle costume. I then started thinking about the other costume that the Children's Place had. It was a duck. It was cute, but not as cute as the turtle. Two hours before the party, I decided to go get the duck. When the cashier rang it up, I was surprised when she said it was $5. Here I was expecting to pay $10 and I only had to pay $5. Then the turtle popped back into my head. There was a size 6-12 month turtle left. It is only $5 right? So I went ahead and bought it knowing very well that she probably won't be able to wear it next year. Oh well, no matter what time of year our next kid is born, we have a Halloween costume.



Sunday after church, we had the Fortes and Carnageys over for lunch. I had to to put the turtle costume on Brinley to show them. Thanks Amy for the pics!

The last 2 weeks

When I was about 10 weeks pregnant, my boss anounced that they were taking us on a cruise. It was scheduled for 6 weeks after my due date, so I was out. I was the only one who was't going so I got to go work while everybody was snorkling, swimming with stingrays, eating lots of food and having a great time. Okay so it wasn't that bad staying behind. My wonderful boss gave me a little something since I couldn't go and my main job was answering phones and getting the mail. I also get to stay home with Brinley an extra week! I got to take Brinley up to the office with me and she did great.

Friday after we got home from work, we left for York. Brinley got to meet her great grandma Collins.On Saturday, it was a nice day outside so we decided to do a photo shoot with Brinley.



Brinley is getting a personality now. She likes to smile a lot.

Here is a preview of pictures about the next post.

Husband Tag

I was tagged by Elizabeth

1. Who is your man? Alex
2. How long have you been together? 5 years (married for 3 1/3 years)
3. How long did you date? 1 2/3 years (engaged for 10 months)
4. How old is your man? 28
5. Who eats more? I do. Alex tends to skip lunch a lot if he is busy at work.
6. Who said "I love you" first? Alex
7. Who is taller? Alex
8. Who sings better? Alex
9. Who is smarter? depends on the topic
10. Whose temper is worse? Alex
11. Who does the laundry? Mostly me, but sometimes he helps
12. Who takes out the garbage? both of us
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do
14. Who pays the bills? I do
15. Who is better with the computer? Alex
16. Who mows the lawn? Both of us
17. Who cooks dinner? Mostly me
18. Who drives when you are together? Alex
19. Who pays when you go out? Alex most of the time
20. Who is most stubborn? Alex, but I am not far behind.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Alex (I never have too. I am always right!)
22. Whose parents do you see the most? I would say we see them about the same
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me
24. Who asked who out? He asked me
25. Who proposed? Alex
26. Who is more sensitive? Me
27. Who has more friends? Alex
28. Who has more siblings? same
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Good question

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Okay, so it is more like huge, scary spider. Alex was doing yardwork one day and came across this spider on our fence. We found out it is a banana spider and completely harmless. So we decided to let it be. When the Hobbs were at our house, we showed them our new little friend. Tara told us we needed to throw a grasshopper in the web and watch it catch its prey. Later, Alex and I were outside and we happened to see two grasshoppers. So we caught them and took them to the backyard. We were amazed at how fast the spider worked.



A couple days ago, Alex went to go check on our little friend. She was nowhere to be found, but left us a little gift. It was a huge egg sack. We didn't want hundreds of little banana spiders and decided we couldn't keep the gift.

Quit the Traveler

We were on the road a lot last week. We left on a Wednesday to go to Kansas so Alex could take care of some work. We planned to be back around 4 or 5 Thursday afternoon. However, some unexpected things came up and we didn't leave until 10 p.m. That put us getting home around 1:30 in the morning. Thankfully, Brinley did great in the car! I stayed up until 4 getting things ready for our next adventure to Midland.

We planned on leaving around 8 or 9 Friday morning. It was closer to 11 when we finally got around to it. The high school that Alex went to was having their 50th aniversary celebration and homecoming so we decided to go for that. We arrived in Midland about 6 that evening. We then went straight to the homecoming parade followed by the pep rally where we ate BBQ sandwiches while we waited until it got dark. Brinley got to meet 2 of Alex's brothers and their families for the first time too.

We had another busy day on Saturday. We went to our nephew's soccer game then to the homecoming football game. It was a close game and Midland Christian ended up winning! That night we stayed at the house. Alex's brother and his family came over and we just relaxed the rest of the night. Our nephew Hayden loved holding Brinley and didn't want to give her up. It was so cute!

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Allan's birhtday. We ended up leaving Midland around 6 p.m. and arrived back home around 2 a.m. Brinley did great on this trip too. She slept almost the whole time we were in the car. She is such a good baby!



Our friends had there baby September 26. So on Monday we drove to Norman to go meet Adam. There is 20 days difference between Adam and Brinley. I didn't realize how much Brinley had changed until we saw Adam. Adam was born 1 pound 4 ounces more than Brinley and I couldn't believe how much bigger she was than he. Good thing this was the last of our travel plans for a while because Brinley was starting to get really tired of being in her carseat all the time. She wasn't very happy on the way home from Norman.

2 weeks old!

I can't believe it has already been 2 weeks since Brinley was born. Before we left the hospital, we found out that she was tongue tied (the skin underneath her tongue went all the way to the tip of her tongue). When she was 5 days old, we got her tongue clipped. She did really good and is eating so much better now. Monday we took her in to get weighed and she was already 7 lbs. 13 ounces.

She has been a busy little girl. She has met many friends and family and she can't wait to meet the rest of her aunts, uncles and cousins.

Our new little family!

When people first meet Brinley, they are amazed at how long her fingers and toes are.

Brinley and her friends.

Cousin Carter layed down next to Brinley and had to position his feet like she had her feet.