Vacation!

I didn't actually go on vacation, but last week Brinley's babysitter did. So I took the week off and got to spend the week with her! We had a lot of fun. We went on a run everyday (loved it), played outside a lot, and one day we went to the zoo with her cousins. She didn't really get excited about seeing any of the animals but she did watch them. Next time we go she will probably be more interested in them.

We played with chalk a lot when we were outside. Brinley is quite the artist!

Friday, Alex and I went on a couples retreat with our friends to Quartz Mountain Resort. It was nice to get away for a couple days. I think Brinley wanted to come with us, but kids weren't allowed. It was our first time leaving her and she did great (I guess I did too).

This is the resort we stayed at. This picture is taken from the mountain we hiked (an oklahoma mountain anyway).

Bows Bows and More Bows

This morning Brinley kept reaching for her bows and wanting me to put them on her head. She ended up with six at one time. This is completely opposite from a few weeks ago when it was a struggle to keep one on.

Ice Cream

This is Brinley eating ice cream for the first time at her birthday party. It took her 4 or 5 bites before she got used to it being so cold. For Jeremy and Scott, her head really isn't as big as what this picture makes it look.

Brinley is 1!

Brinley turned 1 year old yesterday and I can't believe it. This past year has gone by so fast. It is amazing that just one year ago we brought home this 6 lbs 12 oz little bitty baby girl who relied on us for everything. Now she is about 23 lbs, walking all over the place and she wants to do things herself.

We had a polka dot birthday party for her. She had cake and ice cream for the first time and loved it. The top tier was all Brinley's. It took her a minute to dig into it but eventually made a pretty good dent. Her daddy fed her ice cream for the first time too. She wasn't so sure about it being so cold but she kept asking for more. I forgot to empty my memory card before the party and by the time she started digging into her cake it was full. So I don't really have any pictures of that yet. But here are some that I did get.

A funny thing happened last night after Alex and I went to bed. Alex would say a scary thing happened. About 1:30 in the morning we are awakend by a thud thud thud thud.

My side of the story: When I was awakened, I immediately thought about right before I went to bed. I walked out of Brinley's room to ours when I noticed the balloons from Brinley's party in the hallway. I thought a couple things...either they floated into the hallway some how or Alex put them there trying to scare me if I had to get up in the middle of the night. Knowing Alex, I assumed he was trying to scare me and didn't want to tell him that I knew they were there. So immediatelywhen I heard the thudding, I knew it was the balloons getting hit by the ceiling fan and said "how did the balloons float into the room?" Seconds later I hear Alex say "GOOD GOSH!!!" as he jumped. At the same time, I see an outline of a balloon right by his side of the bed. It wasn't until this morning when I realized how much it scared him.

Alex's side of the story: When he was awakened and heard me say something about the balloons, he knew the balloons in the hallway were weighted down and didn't think the balloons in the living room that weren't weighted down could possible make it into our bedroom. The only way it could possible make it down the hallway, around the corner, duck down to make it through the door way and into our room was if someone was carrying it. Seconds later, he saw an outline of a person's head popping up from the side of the bed and yelled. After his eyes adjusted, he could see the dots on the balloons.

We are still puzzled how it made it into our room, but we had a good laugh.

Pictures From Last Week

Brinley's sleeping. Alex is at Work. What a perfect time to clean the house. Better yet, update my blog. Here are some pictures from this past week.

Brinley loves brushing her teeth. If she could talk, I'm sure she would remind us to brush them whenever we forget which is probably a little to often.

This is a lot more fun than eating with a fork.

Brinley is walking everywhere now.

Swimming with Jack (only long enough to take a picture).

Brinley's awake. So much for getting any cleaning done.

11 Months Old!

I cannot believe Brinley is already 11 months old! I went through all her old clothes Sunday night to get them ready to pass to the Mullins if they have a little girl next week. I forgot how little she actually was. This is a pair of pj's that she wore when she was first born next to a pair she wears now. It is amazing how much she has grown.

Some of her favorite things right now are books, babydolls, bananas, playing peekaboo, and playing chase. She is walking now, but still crawls a lot. She is very alert and takes in everything she sees around her. The other day Alex was getting a 2 liter of pop from the top of the fridge to drink for dinner (we haven't had a 2 liter for months). He poured it in his glass and puts the 2 liter back on top of the fridge. Then Brinley looks at Alex, does the sign for more and points up to the 2 liter. She has never had pop before, but I guess she wanted to be like her daddy. Even as cute as she was, she didn't get to try any Big Red.

Brinley's first black eye.

I was giving her a bath last night, when her hand slipped from underneath her. She hit her eye on the edge of the tub. It bruised up right away.

I've been meaning to post these pictures for awhile now. They were taken by Kerri Tindle about a month ago.

4th of July

For the 4th of July, we piled in my sister's Expedition (4 adults and 4 kids) and headed to Nebraska. Once we figured out a good seating arrangement, the trip wasn't to bad. Brinley in between her two cousins . . . not good. When we got to my parents, we had a little birthday party for Camdyn. That night we set off a few of our own fireworks and watched what we could see of other peoples. The City's firework show was on the 3rd. A little strange, but I'm sure they had a good reason for it. Saturday, we filled up the little pool for Brinley to go swimming. She loved it.

Whenever we go to my parents, my mom always cooks really good meals for us. In the summers, they have lots of fresh veggies from their garden. Yummy! The day before we left for Nebraska, I told Mom that Alex had surgery on his mouth and was only able to eat soft foods. So she had some mac and cheese, pudding, etc. for him. Saturday night she fixed a big steak dinner. As we were sitting down at the table getting ready to eat, she sat a plate with a big juicy steak right in front of Alex. He sat and stared at it for a few seconds before my mom realized he couldn't eat it. While everybody else was enjoying their steaks, Alex was eating mac and cheese for the hundreth time. You can tell how swollen his check was in the picture below. This was a couple of days after it was at its worst.

Brinley's personality is developing more and more everyday. She is getting really close to walking. She can take 2 or 3 steps before she lunges for whatever she is trying to reach. A couple weeks ago Amanda, Brinley's babysitter, told me she pulls all the baby dolls off the rocker, grabs the same baby doll and carries it around with her throughout the day. One day when I was picking Brinley up, Amanda handed her the baby doll and Brinley put it over her should and started patting her back. That night we took her shopping for her own baby doll. She was very picky on what kind of doll she wanted. It had to have plastic arms, legs and head and a soft body. She didn't seem interested in any of the other dolls we were showing her.