Christmas!!!

Mark and I love celebrating Christmas and it has been so fun this year to include Brooklyn in our traditions as well as add a few!

We like to get our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We enjoy picking out a live one and decorating it all together. Brooklyn was a huge fan of the reindeer this year. We found the perfect tree at our first stop!

 Later that night we decided to take Brooklyn to go meet Santa. She wasn't so sure about him. She did okay while I was holding her, but the second Santa touched her she just wanted Mom back. (This is pretty common with any stranger these days!) We didn't have any tears though which was a plus!

 Since we celebrated Thanksgiving with the whole family we didn't have any leftovers. We decided to cook our own little meal that Sunday and invited Rob and Stephanie over to share. Brooklyn loves to help taste the mashed potatoes to make sure they are just right!

 Brooklyn also wanted to help Daddy with the lights. I think she was in shock that I was okay with this. She was just waiting for No, No..NO!!!

Mark got me Jim Gaffigan tickets for my birthday. We had the best date night and laughed so hard. So grateful for a little one on one time with this handsome guy.

 Mark's work Christmas party was at the aquarium this year. We were both so excited that it was going to be something cool and that we could take Brooklyn. We had the aquarium practically to ourselves. It was her first time and she loved the fish. Her favorite were the big sharks. She liked to growl at them as they swam by.

 My little elf hanging out by her trees and nativity set. She loves to just quietly play by herself in this spot. I love her in her Christmas jammies too.

 We love going to Draper park to see the giant tree all lit up. They do such a great job decorating the whole park. Brooklyn really liked all the lights even though it was windy and freezing!

 She loved getting to touch a few of the Christmas lights too!

 Brooklyn decided to help herself to a snack the other night! I was putting away groceries and I turned around to find her climbing in and trying to grab the bread.

Sundays are for snuggling and church! We love both of those things!

 Since Mark's birthday is on New Year's Eve he never really gets a big party. I wanted to surprise him a little early since he is turning 30!!! I invited a few friends over and we had a great time eating and hanging out. So grateful for him and all his hard work. Brooklyn and I are very lucky. He is our favorite guy!

 Our favorite Christmas tradition is to go to Temple Square. We love the lights every year and always brave the cold. We met Mark after work (5:15) in hopes of beating some of the crowds! We lucked out and it wasn't too busy at that time. It was of course super cold and Brooklyn wasn't so sure about the long sleeve shirt, sweater, coat, mittens, and beanie. I also made her wear socks! (She hates being so bundled up!)We had a great time walking around. She loved waving hi to everyone she passed and spreading a little Christmas cheer.

November with the Urrys

November seemed to fly by. We had such a wonderful Halloween and the next thing we knew it was Thanksgiving. We enjoyed an extra warm November for Utah and couldn't have been more thrilled. We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving with family in Utah as well. It has been so fun to share holidays with Brooklyn even though she doesn't understand what is going on. Her favorite part is the eating of good food!

I am loving teaching part time. It makes it so my schedule is a little more flexible. My partner and I have switched off a couple of days so I've had a few days off mid week. One day I surprised Brooklyn with a trip to the zoo! She LOVES animals and had so much fun when we went this summer. She loved it this time as well. I couldn't believe how lucky we got with the warm weather too. We had the zoo pretty much to ourselves and a few other mommies. It of course snowed the next week so I'm so glad we went!

 We were trying to get a few fall pictures of the family. Mark's Dad came over and took a few for us.

 This girl wanted nothing to do with pictures. Mostly because that meant she had to be held and couldn't just do whatever she wanted. Of course on the way back to the car she decided to give us this...

 I love this little family of mine!

 She really is the best little sleeper. I'm one of those moms that loves to sneak in at night and just watch her.

 Sometimes I cave and just let her snuggle on me until she falls asleep for her nap.

 10 month pictures with Daddy!

 She seriously hated every minute of these pictures. She would rather do anything, but lay on her back. She can't stand it. We really wanted a picture of her on her blanket though so we did everything we could to get at least a few smiles out of her.

THANKSGIVING

Some of the Urry family decided to all get together and have a Thanksgiving at our ward building. Mark and I did the set up and decor and everyone else brought the food! It was awesome. We love spending time with cousins, aunts, and uncles. 

 Hoppes tradition is the baby gets the turkey leg! She didn't really eat it, but she ate EVERYTHING else! She is a huge fan of Thanksgiving dinner.

 We took these pictures before dinner and she was just too cute! She had no idea what to expect with Thanksgiving, but she knew to be happy about it!

 

Halloween

It was so much fun to celebrate Halloween with Brooklyn! It is the perfect way to end all of our warm fall festivities. We took every chance we could to get her dressed up and collect candy. 

Aunt Nicole and Uncle Brandon invited us to their ward Trunk or Treat. The whole family went and it was so fun to see all the cousins dressed up. I wish we would have taken a big picture. Brooklyn went as a duck for this party. Grandma took her around during the parade and she loved the kids and music. In the picture she is clapping and yelling with pure joy!

We also had our ward Halloween carnival. We continued in our duck costume and everyone thought she was pretty cute!

 She really wanted to play the witch hat ring toss. She ended up just stealing the glow necklace from them so they couldn't play either.

Next we had Grandma's work trunk or treat! Brooklyn went as a ladybug this time. She had so much fun going to each trunk and collecting candy. Her favorite was a trunk full of pumpkins and another one that just had kids with music. Grandma even let her have a couple licks of a sucker!

 We decided to paint our pumpkins this year. I decided to not care about the mess and just let her have some fun. I'm so glad we did. She loved painting her pumpkin. It wasn't until the end when she stuck her fingers in her mouth and I freaked out!

She is the cutest messy baby!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was full of fun! Brooklyn came to work with me in the morning to walk in the parade with the kids. Everyone thought she was so funny as she bobbed her head to the music and waved hi. We stayed for a few minutes of the class party, but then headed home for her nap. Later I took Brooklyn trick or treating to a few houses in the neighborhood while Mark stayed home and passed out candy to all of the kids. 

Holidays are so much more fun with her!

Brooklyn also turned 9 months! Time is flying by. We had our doctor's appointment and I was anxious to see her actual weight. She is only 14 lbs 14 oz. I was hoping she would be a little bit more, but that is okay. She is my petite little girl. The doctor wasn't too worried because she is doing so well eating solids and is developing right on track. She may be in the 1% in weight, but she is full of personality. She is very sassy and knows what she wants. She is going through a mama stage right now and hates to be dropped off at the babysitter (even though she is fine 2 minutes later). She is crawling EVERY WHERE and pulling herself up to stand all the time. We are working on walking with her walker and taking big girl steps. She is still great at giving kisses and just learned how to high five. We sure do love our baby girl!

Fall Favorites

We have had some pretty great weather lately. It's been so nice to be outside and doing the things we like to do. Brooklyn is making all our fall favorites even better. 

She is a pretty great shopping buddy!

 We went and picked some grapes at Grandma's house. B was thrilled!

 We have a new nephew! Jace was born in August and we NEEDED to go to California to meet him. We made a super quick weekend trip to see him and the rest of the family. We always love our time in California, but wished it didn't take so long to get there! Brooklyn is getting a little harder to entertain for 10 hours in the car. 

We visited grandma at her library. Brooklyn loves books, grandma, and kids so a trip to her library was pretty perfect. I love that she is sitting up like a big girl with all the other kids.

 Jace and Brooklyn...exactly 7 months apart.

 Parker LOVES Brooklyn. He calls her, sends pictures, etc. He always says hi to Brooklyn first and tells her he loves her. It was so fun to see them really playing together. They played like this for an hour. I love that Parker gives her so much love.

 So much baby goodness! We seriously love getting to see these guys.

 I was sick of the house, it was a tiny bit chilly, but we decided to go for a walk anyways. B was so sure about me bundling her up. We are going to have to get use to this hat and blanket thing.

 Sometimes I'm a sucker and let her take naps on me.

 Since my birthday was on a Monday this year we decided to celebrate early. I told Mark that all I wanted was good family time. We had the best weekend! We went to Boondocks to play mini golf, play in the arcade, and win prizes!

 Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch. I have always loved going to the pumpkin patch. I think it's because I have so many great memories as a kid celebrating with my family and picking out our own pumpkins. I've been looking forward to taking Brooklyn since she was in my belly. It was so fun to share this tradition with her.

 My two loves!

Sunday we went for a nice family walk. This girl crack me up. She always wants her feet up.

 Monday I turned the big 33! WOW! This was from our celebration in California, but Mark did a great job of spoiling me. I got a beautiful necklace, dinner, and my favorite birthday cake...cheesecake!

 B loves bath time!

 I have every other Friday off so this Friday we decided to go to Gardner Village to see the witches. I love how everything is decorated and so did Brooklyn. Minus the nice witch that scared her we had a great time. I can't wait to celebrate next year when she can see even more!

 It was Daddy's choice this Saturday. He took us to the reptile expo! Brooklyn loves animals and really loves her pet snakes. She had a great time looking at everything. We then enjoyed walking around City Creek and just spending time all together.

 She still has fuzzy hair, just more of it. Classic Brooklyn bed head

Mark took Brooklyn's 9 month pictures! She is such a silly girl. I'm so glad we have these every month to document how dang cute she is!

 I was off for fall break so I talked my mom into coming for a visit. She of course couldn't resist coming to see Brooklyn. What we didn't know was that Brooklyn was going to cut her 2nd tooth, get a fever, and a cold. Boy, oh Boy was it a doozie. I felt so bad that we couldn't do all the things we had planned, but my mom still enjoyed getting to hang out with us. Brooklyn loved it too. I even got a date night courtesy of my parents for my birthday. Grandma babysat and paid for dinner. It was nice to get a night away and know that B was getting extra love from Grandma!

 By Sunday her fever was gone, but her teeth were killing her. We had given her medicine, but she wanted to chew on everything. A giant carrot that is cold...done!

By Monday Brooklyn was back to herself and oh so cheery! Thank goodness. I hated seeing my baby so sad and not feeling well. 

My favorite walking buddy! We couldn't resist the 73 degree weather!

We have been practicing our animals! She loves ducks so of course that was the first one we started with. She does a very realistic duck sound. She knows when to say quack quack in our songs and when playing with her duck toys. It's pretty cute.

Since we have 2 pet snakes Mark decided to teach her what the snake says!