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!

Fall is Finally Here!!!

The weather has cooled off some FINALLY! We have been enjoying warms days and cooler evenings. I love fall so much here in Utah. I just hope we keep having this amazing weather. We have been having non stop fun lately (when not at work). 

I had Friday off a couple weeks ago and thought it would be a great chance for Brooklyn and I to go to our first Swiss Days in Midway. I love the drive up there and Brooklyn napped like a champ for me. We got up there and it was BUSY. Like I had NO IDEA how crazy it was going to be. I finally found a random spot to park, got the stroller, diaper bag, and baby out of the car and hiked in to the main event. It was so packed. I seriously could not believe it. I HATE CROWDS. I especially hate crowds with a stroller and no help. We worked our way around the different booths and I tried to look, but couldn't really see anything. We got a scone which was amazing!!! Best part of the whole trip. Then it seems like everyone was eating so we rushed around to the booths we had wanted to see. We stopped at a cute booth with a grandpa and grandma. They were making wooden toys for kids and I couldn't pass them up. It totally reminded me of my grandpa, so we bought a wooden duck. We called it a day and left the craziness. I'm not sure I'll be going back any time soon, especially by myself! But I did get a cute temple sign for the house so that's a plus.

I like to think Brooklyn is saying, "You made me drive up here for a duck?"

Brooklyn is getting so much better with solids! She loves picking stuff up on her own, but still likes us to feed her too. Here she is eating a yummy muffin and trying to shove the whole thing into her mouth.

 Mark had to go to Taiwan and China for work for a WEEK! That means Mommy and Brooklyn were on our own. I was less worried about taking care of her on my own and more worried about the boredom at night once she went down. We missed him on our Saturday adventure to see some butterflies and going shopping. Luckily modern technology let us talk to him every day, but it just wasn't the same. We missed him big time!

We decided to surprise Daddy with a sign, balloon, and treat. I love that Brooklyn actually colored on the sign for him!

We got there just in time to greet him!

 Daddy brought back B her very own outfit and glass monkey (it's the year of the monkey). I also got a beautiful glass lucky tree. Most importantly we got our best friend back!

 Cousin Micah let us borrow his wagon to ride around in at his birthday party!

 Cheap bread, ducky pajamas, yellow bow, ducks, and daddy! Doesn't get much better!

Two of my students play on a soccer team together. We went and watched. B relaxed in the shade with a bottle of juice most of the time while I enjoyed the game and company.

 For YEARS I have wanted to go to Brigham City's Peach Days. It sounds amazing! PEACHES! Mark and I both love peaches. We finally thought this was the year. We got packed up and headed up there for what the GPS said was a 90 minute drive.  Well we hit A LOT of traffic. Brooklyn was ready to get out of the car and there was still more traffic. Once we got there she wanted nothing to do with the stroller or Daddy, so she and I hung out. It was hot and a FAIR. NO PEACHES. I mean we had peach cobbler which was okay, but no peach stands. How can you have peach days with no peaches??? That doesn't make sense. We thought there would be peaches everywhere. We were totally bummed when we didn't see peaches. Luckily we were told if we drove on the main road we could find some peach stands. 

Brooklyn was very unlike herself all day and pretty much had this look of disappointment on her face the whole time.

 Once we found the peaches she was much happier. She now eats at least half a peach a day! She loves them.

 Later that night Grandpa and Grandma had us over for a BBQ and to watch the BYU vs. Utah football game. Grandpa gave lots of kisses and Brooklyn was in heaven playing with him. We are so lucky to have these guys close by.

 Mark's grandparents moved 5 minutes away from us with his uncle and aunt so we decided we needed to go visit. They had only seen Brooklyn when she was a baby so they loved having her stop by. I'm so glad that Brooklyn gets to spend time with her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

 On our landing we have all of Brooklyn's books. She has a ton. There are two shelves that are just board books. I've started letting her play and pull them out and enjoy moving them from spot to spot. I hate the mess, but she gets so happy about it. I hope this playing turns into loving to read.

 My sweet girl is 8 months old! She is 15 lbs!!! She has started to crawl/scoot around the room. She doesn't get far, but if there is something she wants she finds a way to get to it. She loves to give kisses and we catch her giggling to herself often. She has even started doing a silly growl. She brings us so much joy every single day!

 We had lunch with Daddy! Brooklyn's hair is so fuzzy and crazy. Mark decided to give her a special hair do that day.

 I can't get enough of this happy girl!

 Mark loves to sneak in morning hugs and kisses before work. This particular morning she was extra sleepy, but he picked her up and snuggled her for a little bit. He even laid her back down without her waking up. I love watching him love our baby girl.

Mark and I realized we hadn't been on a date in a really long time. He planned a great day for us. Brooklyn hung out with her grandparents while we got a massage, Bahama Bucks, and went to the movies. It was nice to just have some us time!

 We played later in the backyard at Grandma's house. Brooklyn loves the swing

 Brooklyn ready for church! I love when she sits all proper and holds her hands together.

 With the leaves changing colors up the canyon we decided to do some more 8 month pictures with the fall leaves. Brooklyn loved the leaves and tried to eat them multiple times.

I'm pretty sure she is the cutest baby! She was all business up Bell Canyon, but turned smiley up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Mark got some great pictures of her. 

This video cracks me up! She has started growling and will growl any time you growl at her. She seriously has the best personality!

We can't wait to keep enjoying fall!