pregnancy update

I really wanted to do better at bare belly shots this pregnancy, but so far, I am a big failure.  At least I took one at 15 weeks, haha.  

15 weeks

16 weeks

17.5 week appointment with new doctor

I LOVED the new doctor, but I was not happy about having to be at the office for 2 hours.  We were in the waiting room for an hour before they called us back, and Brooke kept trying to poop, which was really sad.  They put me in a room, and asked some personal history questions (that I already filled out on the paperwork), then switched me to the sonogram room to wait for the doctor.  I waited in there for 30 minutes before finally meeting Dr. Northrop.  Right before she walked in, Brooke finally was able to poop, so I was mid-diaper change when we met.  She was SO sweet though, and threw the diaper out for me and made the whole transition really seamless.  She let Brooke lay next to me on the table while we listened to the "heart beeps", and saw the baby on the screen.  Her bedside manner was 100 x's better than my last doctor, and I feel confident in the switch.  As long as every visit doesn't take 2 hours!

18 weeks

 19 weeks

And I just hit the 20 week mark on Sunday.  I was supposed to have the anatomy sonogram yesterday, but last week, the office called to let me know that the sonographer wasn't going to be working this work, and that I would have to reschedule my appointment.  That was strike two against the new office, but since I had no choice, we rescheduled for Wednesday the 24th at 10:30 am.  I think I was so frustrated about the change, that I didn't even realize that the new appointment fell on our anniversary.  But, I guess that's a good thing to do on your anniversary, right??  Only a few more days of waiting and then we will know if Brookie is going to get a little brother, or a little sister :)

she's two

We officially have a two year old.  I am not sure how those two years passed by so quickly, but they are gone.  Thankfully, I have taken a ton of pictures to try and remember all the moments throughout those years.  It really is so amazing how much they change and how quickly they grow.  Her two year old stats: 36.5 inches (98th percentile), and 28.6 pounds (70th percentile).  Based on the baby center height predictor (haha), she will be 5'11'' by the time she is 18.  I get comments ALL THE TIME about how tall Brooke is, especially compared to other kids her age. 

I was excited to see her the morning of her official birthday. She was not, however, in a mood for pictures.  This is hopefully a phase, because she doesn't want to look at the camera very often.  I also don't want to have a bunch of pictures with forced smiles...so I am just going with it.   

I met Joanna and her kids over at Hawaiian Falls for a day of fun.  After playing for a few hours, we headed home.  (see what I mean about not wanting to look at the camera?)

We made a quick stop at Chick-fil-A for a chocolate "froobie", which really made my girl happy.

After a long birthday nap (3 hours!), she was ready to play.  It was just the two of us until Daddy came home from work and we could have some dinner.  

After dinner, we face timed with Naynay and Papa so they could watch when we showed her the wagon they sent for her.  (Which took forever to build, haha.  I was grateful she took such a long nap!) She LOVED it, and wanted to open her next present INSIDE the wagon, haha.  The wooden mixer set was from Kevin and I, and as soon as she saw a tiny bit of the picture, she yelled "make cookies", haha.  

Then we went on a long walk around the block.  Half the time she wanted to be in the wagon, the other half she wanted to be pulling the wagon.

Overall, I would say her birthday was a success.  We feel so grateful for the time we have had together and for all that we have learned thus far.  I know that we have a lot more to learn, so hopefully we can rise to the challenge.  The next hurdle will probably be potty-training :)

the after-party

Kevin wanted to buy Brooke a bike at Christmas, but I didn't think she was quite there yet.  I also was pretty set on getting her the play kitchen for Christmas, so we decided that she would get a bike for her birthday.  She had been noticing other toddler bikes, but called them "baby bikes", haha.  I mean, they do look pretty small compared to adult bikes :)  I did some research, and finally decided on the Strider bike. The pink bikes were adorable, but I opted for red so it could work for either gender.  (Assuming the bike stuck around for multiple kids to use.)

Once it arrived, it just looked VERY masculine.  It had a huge Strider sticker on the crossbar, and the handlebar cover was black with white writing.  Kevin peeled the sticker off, and I went to the fabric store to find some strawberry fabric to match her helmet.  I had ZERO luck in the strawberry fabric department, but I did find a cute floral print that coordinated well.  Once we added the bell and bow, it looked a lot girlier, and I was happy.

So was Brooke :)  We all went into the garage and told Brooke that we had a special present for her.  Kevin came out the front door and started ringing the little bell.  Brooke was looking around trying to figure out what was going on, and where the sound was coming from.  

She was super excited about her baby bike.  We snapped her helmet on, and she was off. 

I love that she can be completely independent on that thing!  We have since raised the seat a bit, and it seems to fit her perfectly.

She opened presents from G + G Meador (the adorable picnic table the girls are sitting at), and the Peacocks (a sprinkler, and some water balls).  The girls needed to test out that sprinkler ASAP. 

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the garage.  It was a hot day, but by some miracle, the garage was nice and cool, which made it pleasant to be outside.  We even ordered pizza so we could continue the family bonding time.

The pizza was taking forever, so we had to bust out the teddy grahams, haha.  Aubrey was shoveling them in as fast as she could get her cute little fingers on them :)  We really loved the extra time we had as a family, and ended the night with baths, books, and snuggles.

I assumed that Brooke would sleep like a rock after such an eventful day, and no nap.  But, that was definitely not the case.  She woke up several times during the night and seemed to be in pain.  I think it was due to her stomach/constipation issues, and after several up and downs with her, I finally brought her into our bed.  She slept pretty soundly by our side, but I felt like death in the morning.  Since Kevin has church meetings in the morning, we all woke up about 7 :(  Around 9, Brooke was trying to poop again, and after a painful 45 minutes, finally went.  Once she was calm again, we had a little breakfast, and I almost decided to skip church.  I just wasn't sure that she was okay.  In the end, I figured we would just give it a shot and see how long we lasted.

I took this picture on the way to church. (With her new stethoscope which she LOVES.)

She just layed on my chest for the first half of sacrament meeting, then began acting more like herself.  She pooped again at church, and then seemed great.  She had a hard time transitioning to nursery, but they said she was fine after 5-6 minutes. I have an almost identical picture/video of her on the way home from church, complete with snoring.  Poor thing was worn out.  And we hadn't even made it to her official birthday yet!!

pooh bear party

Since Brooke has become quite the fan of Winnie the Pooh, we decided that a pooh bear party was in order :)  Although I am not a fan of character things, I caved because I knew how much she would love it.  I ordered her invitations on etsy, which was super convenient. Most of the character items were ordered from Amazon because stores only seem to carry things like Minnie, Frozen, Hello Kitty, and superheros.

She LOVED her balloons, and wanted to give Pooh Bear lots of hugs and kisses. Cute girl ;)

We had water in the cooler, and some ice cold lemonade.

Food included pinwheel sandwiches, fruit kabobs, chips, a vegetable platter, watermelon, and honey teddy grahams. Brooke mostly ate the fruit and the chips :)

The party bags, which had little winnie the pooh trinkets, and a few candies.

Cute little friends :)

The cupcakes...

Getting ready to sing to the birthday girl!  She was pretty intrigued with the candles.

During the singing, she was acting a bit shy and wanted to hold my hand (which I secretly loved).  After we passed out cupcakes and the attention was not on her anymore, she asked for the candles again.  She pushed them all the way into her cupcake, looked at Kevin and I, and said "sing happy birthday please", hahaha.  So adorable!  We sang to her, then she made the same request again.  I think we sang to her three times.

I didn't get too many pictures with the friends, but while Kevin was snapping a few pictures, he did get this one :)  Rachel (left) came with her boys, and Joanna (right) was there with her whole family.  Doug and Tracy Myers came with their kiddos, as well as Andreia and her kids.  We were missing the Sturgill family due to sickness :(

The Peacocks were there as well, and of course, Grandma and Papa Meador.

Brooke loved pushing Marlie Jo around in her pool float.  Marlie is seriously the happiest baby I have ever seen.

The three hours seemed to fly by, but it seemed like everyone had a great time.  Brooke loved to have all her friends there, and kept talking about her "pooh bear party".  After everyone (but family) left, we cleaned up our area, but decided to stay and swim a little longer. Kevin felt like he didn't really have much time with Brooke during the party, so they spent some time swimming together.

We are trying to get her comfortable in the water.  I don't know the first thing about teaching a child how to swim, but I figure floating, kicking her legs, blowing bubbles, etc. should help, haha.  

While in the splash area, Brooke started crying out of nowhere, and I could tell that she was trying to poop.  After 10 minutes in the pool of crying and pushing, I took her home in case she was going to need a suppository. It was a rough 15-20 minutes, I finally gave her the suppository, and she pooped a tiny bit and seemed a little better.  By that time, everyone had come home from the pool, which was kind of a relief so we could move on to presents.  Kevin and I were both super excited to give Brooke her new bike!!  (Post to follow.)

hawaiian falls

Last summer, when Andre and Daleth were here visiting with the twins, we made a visit to Hawaiian Falls.  It is a fun water park located about 7 minutes from our house.  Brooke seemed to enjoy it, as much as any 14 month old could enjoy a water park :)  I had considered buying a season pass this year, now that Brooke is older, and when our HOA posted on Facebook that Hawaiian Falls was offering residents an amazing deal, I quickly made my decision.

Kevin and I are officially season pass holders, and Brooke is still free.  Woot-woot!  We went for the first time the day after we came back from our lake house vacation.  Brooke absolutely loved it.  They have a really great area for babies and toddlers to play in shallow water, with little slides and water features.  They also have another large area with small tube slides and the red slide pictured below.  They have a rule against "lap riders", which I don't understand, and I am not about to send Brooke down a tube slide by herself.  She would be terrified!  But she loved the red slide, and did it OVER and OVER again.  Maybe by the end of the summer she will be brave enough to ride one of the tubes by herself.  

We enjoyed time in the lazy river, and also checked out the splash pad.  Having a season pass is nice though because I don't feel like I have to stay all day to "get my money's worth".  This particular evening, we only stayed for maybe an hour and a half, and it was perfect.  They close pretty early on weekdays (6 pm I think), but are normally open later on Friday.  So, Kevin and I decided that we will make it our Friday Family date night every week :)

lake house livin'

We just returned home from a wonderful vacation on the Colorado River.  We rented a lake house with Jerry and Beverly on an arm of the river by Lake LBJ.  Never having stayed in a lake house before, I was somewhat skeptical of the accommodations.  Although they looked nice online, you can never really tell. But, I was pleasantly surprised. The home was very well maintained and the location was absolutely perfect.

We headed out bright and somewhat early on Sunday, March 31st.  Jerry and Bev had stayed the night before so that we could all just wake up and go.  The drive should have been about 3.5 hours, but of course we stopped for lunch, and to stock up on groceries before we arrived at the house.

Thankfully, Brooke loves to ride on "Papa's boat", and we were able to make a lot of fun memories :) She also really loves her life jacket, which is another relief.  Having to fight a toddler about wearing a life jacket at all times is not very high on my list of fun activities.

The next four days were spent going on boat rides, watching Daddy ride the wakeboard, splashing on the back swim step, having picnics, grilling yummy food, and relaxing.  Brooke was golden the first two days of the trip, but by day 3 she was a bit whiny and moody.  She was sleeping so well at night, but her naps were not consistent and I think she was maybe just burnt out?  It was wearing on me, and she was constantly asking for her pacifier, which she normally only uses when she goes to sleep.  I finally relented, because it gave her comfort and allowed her to relax a little.

I love this picture of Brooke watching her Daddy :)  She would wave to him forever, and say things like "go daddy", or "good job daddy".

Our last afternoon was probably my favorite.  We made a special effort to be back at the house so Brooke could nap, but then she only slept for like an hour.  Kevin and Jerry were outside smoking a chicken, so we filled Brooke's wading pool. and enjoyed the afternoon in the shade.  The house really was so perfect in that the whole back side was fully shaded in the afternoon.  The guys manned the grill, Kevin hung up his hammock that he was super excited about, and Brooke and I played in her pool, picked flowers, and looked for lizards. She ended up pooping that afternoon (which took a while and was super painful for her), which might have explained her orneriness the day before!

We had a lot of great family time, and I loved seeing Kevin with his little girl. I love watching them drive the boat together.  On one occasion, Brooke wanted to sit in the seat all by herself.  Kevin sat behind her and was helping her steer, when all of a sudden Brooke reached over for the throttle, and pushed it forward which caused us to accelerate quickly.  It took us all by surprise, haha.  I am not sure if she really knew what she was doing, but I think she did because she had spent a lot of time sitting there with Kevin.

We also spent a lot of time talking to Brooke about her upcoming birthday, and how she was going to be two years old.  She was having a hard time holding up only two fingers on one hand, so I showed her that she could just hold up one finger on each hand.  When she was feeling compliant, and you asked how old she was, she would put those little fingers in the air and say "two", with a big smile :)

My first experience with a lake house was definitely a positive one and I would do it again in a heartbeat.