Meador Family Dinner

While in Utah, we knew we wanted to see as many family members as possible!  Lucky for us, the Carter/Meador family has started a monthly potluck, and it happened to fall on the Sunday we were in town.  It was absolutely perfect since we were limited on time, but wanted to see everyone.  Almost 50 people were in attendance!

We went to Aunt Shelly's house a bit early so we could have a little extra time with Brooke's Great Grandma and Grandpa.

Little Rylie, who is two and a half, kept wanting to hold Brooke.  She would walk up to me while I was holding Brooke, and would just hold out her arms.  I was laughing because Brooke seemed almost as big as her, and wouldn't really fit on Rylie's lap, haha.

Several of Kevin's cousins were super surprised to see us since they didn't know we were coming!

We enjoyed those couple of hours together, and I feel so grateful that I married into a wonderful family.  Everyone has always been so welcoming to me, and they are a fun group of people to spend time with.

Eloise's Baby Blessing

My brother's little girl, Eloise Marie, received her baby blessing while we were all in Utah.  Kevin flew in on Saturday, so he was present and able to stand in the circle as well.  Sometimes it is really hard to be far away from my family, but I am so grateful for times like this, where we all get together and support each other in these important moments.  I know I take a million pictures, but I just don't want to forget anything!

Our good friend Annalise came to the blessing with her husband, baby Lucy, and her dad Doug Curley.  They were such close friends growing up, so it was nice to spend time with them.  They also came for dinner on Thursday, which I was grateful for, since you only have so much time to catch up while at church!  

My cousin Amy was also there with her baby boy Zach!  So many babies :)

Uncle Kevin getting in some cuddles from Miss Ellie, and Brooke enjoying story time with her Uncle.

Jeffrey's Graduation

I am so proud of my little brother.  He graduated from the MAcc Accounting Program at BYU in April with High Distinction.  Not really sure how you qualify for that, but we had dinner with one of the Professors, and he told us multiple times that Jeffrey was the top student in the program.  I am not even his parent, but it made me proud, haha.  Brooke and I were able to attend his graduation ceremony.  We enjoyed a nice lunch at Riverside with the Robinsons beforehand, then headed over to the ceremony.  Mom headed over with Jeffrey, Madison, and Ellie to take pictures, and the girls went over with Dad to get seats.

I think this was the first time she sat directly on the grass.  Texas grass has fireants :(

Everything was going smoothly, until I realized that although Brooke had table foods during dinner, she was probably going to need to nurse before the ceremony was over.  Clearly, I hadn't thought of that when I was picking my outfit, because I was wearing a dress!  We had about 20 minutes before the ceremony would start, so my Mom helped me look for a Mother's Lounge or somewhere to sit down with Brooke.  The Stadium was super busy, and we couldn't find anything of the sort.  My mom suggested we try the bathroom, which I was certain would not work.  But when you are desperate, you try anything!  So, all three of us went into the noisy bathroom, and into a stall.  Mom held Brooke while I took off my dress and laid a seat cover on the toilet.  It is there, on that toilet seat, that I had to nurse Brooke.  The worst part, besides sitting on a toilet seat in a loud bathroom, was the fact that Brooke kept reaching behind my back and touching the toilet. (We washed her hands after!) Actually, the worst part was when the lady next to us was pooping and stinking up the place.  This will definitely make the top of the list of worst experiences while breastfeeding, haha.  But in the end, I guess it was a win because she had a full tummy, fell asleep during a beautiful musical piece at the beginning of graduation, and slept through all the speeches and things she would need to be quiet for!!

She then spent the rest of the time reading books with Grammie and sitting with Grandpa and Auntie Kimberly as they read the names of zillions of graduates.

11 Month Snapshot

Things to note this month: Brooke's first trip to the Dallas Zoo (called most animals /duh/), took small steps as she pushed her music table, reached down to pick up toys from standing, started sleeping 12 hours at night and skipping an afternoon nap, started saying /puh/ for her puffs and /daw/ for her dolly, laughed so much when I would blow on her tummy, ran a fever off and on for a few weeks, celebrated her first Easter, received a blessing from her Daddy,  responded with /wack, wack/ when you asked her what a duck says, flew to Utah and did terrible on the flight!!, met her cousin Eloise for first time, went to Uncle Jeffrey's BYU graduation, took family pictures, attended Eloise's baby blessing, saw lots of family and friends, took a walk around BYU campus, drove down to San Antonio with G + G Meador, started saying /bye/ with her wave and /pop/ for popcorn popping song, put Brooke in her new pool floaty but she didn't move much in the freezing water,  got another tooth on top, suffered from some constipation (went 6 days with no bowel movement), and figured out her bathtub squirter toy. 

Our only picture from the Zoo!  Brooke unfortunately couldn't see a lot from her stroller, so I tried to pick her up and point to animals as much as possible.  I actually really love the Zoo, so hopefully we will go often once Brooke is a little older.

Loves her occasional play dates with Brooks, who is 6 weeks older than her, and oh so adorable!

She is in love with this mirror in our room!  She crawls over to it, kisses it, pounds on it, and stares at her cute face :)

Started pulling up with her baby stroller, but needs a lot of assistance to push it forward,

Only one more month until our baby girl is ONE!!

Easter

Poor girl woke up on Easter morning with another fever!  She has been struggling with fevers on and off for the past few weeks, with no other symptoms.  I took her to the pediatrician once, and she checked out as healthy.  We were thinking it was teething related, but no new teeth came through, and the Doctor said it was more likely due to a virus.  We decided to only go to the third hour of church since Kevin was teaching, then headed up to Flower Mound.

I am probably an awful mother to make her take pictures when she was not feeling well, but I needed a picture of her in her Easter dress from Grammie.

The Easter bunny brought Brooke a new dolly (so we could have a spare), a ducky, some yogurt melts, and a duck spoon and fork set.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner with our family, and between Brooke's two naps, she was able to sleep almost 5 hours. 

Grandma had Easter buckets for the girls and lots of eggs filled with treats, but Brooke didn't seem to have a lot of energy.  She did put some of the eggs in her bucket, but needed some assistance from Daddy :)  She has almost no color in her cheeks! It is the absolute worst when you can't do anything to help your child.  Towards the end of the evening, she was just laying on my chest, totally lethargic.

Hopefully next year she will be healthy so she can enjoy all the fun activities associated with Easter :)

10 Month Snapshot

Things to note this month:  Says "mama" and "dada" a lot when she wants us, went on her first boat ride of the season with a family in our ward, had apple puffs for the first time (with pincher grasp), slept in a LOWERED pack-n-play since she now sits up on her own, bought some new clothes as lots of her shirts have become 3/4 sleeve and her pants are looking more like capris, started crawling a week after she turned 9 months old, started Stage 3 baby foods, got her first fat lip on the coffee table, fed the ducks at the park, started cruising along the couch, first taste of ice cream (followed by lots of the "more" sign), refused lots of purees in favor of table foods, had her first daddy-daughter date while I went to a baby shower, started waving when you ask her if she wants to call someone, holds a phone to her ear when you say "hello" with inflection, got 2 new teeth, stood in her pack-n'play for first time, and picked up a virus (woke up with snot smeared all over her face, had 3 blow-outs, and threw up in the Kroger parking lot) on her 10 month birthday!!

I am in love with those chubby little fingers on her cookie :)