Brooke's Checkup

Brooke just finished her 18 month checkup-even though she's 19 months now...
Here are the results:
Weight: 27.6 lbs
Height: 32.5 "


She's movin right along. This week she sang her ABC's all the way through with the exception of E and J! It is so cute. If I knew how to post videos from a camcorder I would...anyone that can help me with that?

She is talking non stop and can say just about everything...which is not always a good thing!

She loves to give hugs and gets sad if she can't give everyone a hug-especially babies.

She loves to be a little mommy and will rock, shush, feed, change, clean her dolls right along with me taking care of Braden.

She is counting and imitates reading. I have been teaching her the letters in her name so if you say, "what does this say?"...no matter what it is she will say "B...R."

She loves to sing and dance. In church she gets out the hymnal and sings, LaLaLa pretty loud but in a cute way.

She is understanding prayer and why we pray and also what a priesthood blessing is. She told me the other day, "Mom, I have a tummyache. Daddy blessing?" Love it!

Of course, anytime I have the camera out she insists on taking a picture. These are some of her work.

Not bad huh...lol

More fun

Dressed up in their Sunday best

Grandpa Skyler, Braden, Uncle Brice

You know you have been doing something for a long time when you do it in your sleep! Especially because the machine is LOUD!

Want some oreos?

6 month check up and some poop and pee!

I took Braden in for his 6 month check up today. He weighs 19lbs 8oz and is 27.5 inches long! When we got there I took him out of his carseat only to find that he had pooped and it was ALL over the carseat and his back and clothes! (This is the second time this week). So I wrapped him in a blanket and took him inside. I went straight to a room to change him. We made a royal mess but luckily we were on the paper stuff that is on the exam table. I got him all cleaned off, rolled up the paper to tear it off and toss it and what do you think happened? Yep, he peed all over himself and the table and the floor! So I cleaned it up as good as I could one handed. I didn't want to set him down because the doctor's office floors scare me. Finally I got him cleaned up and everything taken care of, only to wait in the waiting room for another 45 minutes! It never takes that long! Everything is looking good! He's a chunk.

~Likes to be in his walker. He can walk backwards but gets stuck and then frustrated.
~Crawls backwards and rolls all over the place.
~Puts himself to sleep (Brooke NEVER did)
~Fits into Brooke's clothes!
~Has the stinkin cutest dimples
~Loves to laugh and smile at everyone. He will even laugh when he is mad and that makes him even more mad
~Is starting to coo and says things like dada
~Puts up with Brooke's beatings and pulls her hair occasionally
~Puts everything in his mouth, yet he hasn't cut one tooth!

Bad dreams and repentance at 18 months

BAD DREAMS:
Last night at about 4am I had just finished putting Braden back to sleep when Brooke woke up. I laid him down and could hear Brooke in her room. She was just sitting there saying, "Mommy? Daddy? Grandma? Mommy? Grandma?" over and over. Usually if she's been up this long she'll get out of bed. I went in there and she was just sitting there. I gave her a hug and shushed her a little and noticed she was looking at something. I picked her up and asked her what she was looking at. She said, "Horsey" and pointed to the vacuum in her room. "Oh honey. It's just the vacuum" I said. She said, "Oh. Oh. Ok." I turned on the light to show her but it was too bright for her to see so I stepped out of her room. She got a startled look again and looked up at the clock. I realized that the tick tock of the clock was so loud it was scaring her. I stepped away from that and she said, "doggy?" I had to assure her that there was nothing in the house that could hurt her. Dogs and horseys and kitties are all outside. After a prayer and some milk and cuddling she relaxed a while later and fell back asleep. I felt so bad that she was so startled. (Later that night I had a dream about dogs in our house! HAHA...)

REPENTANCE:
Brooke was eating her cheese roll up and all of a sudden just threw it at me! WHAT?! So I told her that wasn't acceptable. I told her to take her food and eat it in time out. Also, to pray to Heavenly Father and tell him what she did wrong and to say sorry to Him. After that she could come back and apologize to me.
Well, I got busy with Braden and about a minute later looked over and she had her arms folded and eyes closed! I was so touched! She was repenting! When she was done she told me sorry and we went on with the day. I love that girl!

Can't forget the little guy

I don't have too many pictures of Braden this month. This one was at my cousin's reception. He looks so sad because he is SICK! Poor baby...

So peaceful.

Valentine's Day and bubbles

Valerie was in Mesa doing clinicals on Valentine's Day. She called Daniel and told him that she sent him a suprise and to open the door. Brooke was standing there with chocolate and a rose.

Aww...how cute!

We went to our cousin Shalee's wedding. Brooke had a blast!
This is the first time she was successful in blowing bubbles! She was on top of the world!

All the bigger kids were blowing bubbles for her but really they were blowing them on her! Her head was soaked with bubbly soap!

GVT ground breaking

This is a picture of the picture that was at the ground breaking ceremony.

Brooke diggin the footer on her new temple.

Grandpa, Brooke, and Grandma

Our family. Crazy to think that someday in the future we can all be inside the temple together!

Gila Valley Temple Pics 1

We decided to take progressive pictures of the temple being built. This way Brooke will understand that it is a new temple. In fact we told her that it is her temple :) We will take new pics every Monday for FHE.

This is the left side of the fields.

The Center
The Right
This is looking from the South side towards the highway.

BROOKE!

Tag You Are It!

Here are the rules:

Go to your documents/pictures

Click on the 6th file

Click on the 6th picture

Blog about it

Tag 6 people

This is a picture of Brooke mixing her dad's birthday cake. She loves to do everything grown up. If I do anything on the countertops she says, "See please" and I have to lift her up to watch. She loves to help in the kitchen and play in her fake kitchen. She likes to stir and says "I stirring it." She also likes anything grown up like cell phones, remotes, etc. The other day she was sitting there and out of the blue said, "Mom, I'm texting Daniel" as she held the phone pushing the buttons with her thumbs! She can turn the TV on and off with the remote, knows how to put the keys in and start the car then pull the gear shift down-she is hilarious!

Sorry if you don't like it but,

Tag-You're it:

Kamala

Nancy

Jesse

Chelsey

Dasha

Valerie

New dinosaur, new car, new friends

Braden showing the dinosaur who's boss!

Trenton, Brooke, and Braden all piled in the car! Wow, that's a lot of buckling!

We traded in the white Ford for this new Explorer! Woot woot! I love it!

Braden was rollin all over the place and got twisted up in the blanket (picture below). It made for some stinkin cute pictures though.

Help? Mom?

GOOD MORNING!

This is our new friend Trenton. I'm watching him during the week now. He is a cute kid!

Brooke is helping build the new temple!

Brooke has been earning pennies for a while now. I decided that every fast Sunday she will pay her tithing. We are taking progressive pictures of the temple being built so that she will understand that it is "new" and "special." She knows that some of her money has to go to Heavenly Father and that it is helping build the new temple! She was SO excited to pay her tithing last Sunday. She kept it in a bag in her room and then took it in her purse to church. After church we excitedly ran to the bishop and when we got there her excitement turned to confusion. "Why is he taking my money?" "No, I earned that!" "Hey! That's mine!" But I reminded her that the bishop was going to give it to Heavenly Father and that it was going to help build the temple. She seemed a bit eased by this but still not sure. It was fun and memorable.

On our way!

This year our goal is to be OUT OF DEBT! Woop woop...I was so excited when I got this in the mail that I hung it on our fridge! It is our second credit card paid off for FOREVER!

Oprah Good Ideas

Oprah had a bunch of good ideas on her show today. Most of them had to do with saving money. One that I really liked was unplugging anything you are not using. The lady that does this brought her bill from $260 to $60. That is amazing! I didn't think I had many things plugged in but going around my house I found 13 things, including the microave, toaster, night lights, chargers, dvd player, etc. I'm gonna see how much this changes my bill next month.

The other thing I liked-is something I already do! I felt like I should've been on the show haha. I am having a big head moment, but I can save some mad money on a grocery trip. I usually save at LEAST 40% but it averages around 50%. The other day I saved 68%!!! WOO HOO! And that was shopping sales, not even using coupons! I think I'm gonna add up the savings and see how much I save in a year. The lady on Oprah has saved around $72,000 in the last 15 years!

Another idea was swapping furniture. Two lady friends switched out furniture with each other for a little redecorating.

Another lady took money out of the bank every Friday and divided it into 6 envelopes: takeout, gas, groceries, etc. Not a bad way to do it.

Pretty cool-

For all the other ideas see Oprah.com