2 Month Post

Brooke is now close to 2.5 months old and I am finally rolling around to getting up her 2 month post... oops! You would think that since I am here in San Diego all laid up that I would have the time to stay current on my blog...right??? Well NOPE! Kip described my life well, it is like being on a 24 hour ride along with my family. It is WONDERFUL don't get me wrong, but I seem to have a hard time finding time to do the things I am getting behind on like blogging, paying my bills, even taking showers because most of the time I am on someone elses schedule. You know what I'm saying? Anyway no complaints here just explaining why I am behind. So here I am to catch you up on what happened in between months 1 & 2 of our little Brooke's life. QUITE A MONTH I must say!!!!
Lets start off with a few pictures of our now 2 month old!


Well at Brooke's 2 month appointment she weighed in at 11 lbs. 4 oz. and was 22.5 inches long both weight and height being in the 50'th percentile! She is healthy and strong and the doctor says she looks great! Brooke has learned quite a bit and has changed a lot this month! It is absolutely AMAZING how fast these little ones change and grow. SO much happens in even just 1 month. In between months 1 & 2 of Brooke's life these are all of the places she explored!
Sea World 1 time!

Disneyland 3 times!

Las Vegas 1 time!

The San Diego Temple 1 time!


Brooke has been giving us quite wonderful little smiles since she was about 4 weeks old but we finally got some of them on camera, she is even learning how to laugh! Kip and I both think that the sound of a baby's laughter is the BEST sound in the entire world!!!!
(I know you just saw those pictures but I had to put them in her official 2 month post)

Brooke has also learned how to hold up her head during her dreaded tummy time! She no longer HATES tummy time so much since she can look around quite a bit more and her face is not just smashed into the ground. Here she is showing off her head holding up skillz.


On her official 2 month birthday she taught herself how to roll onto her side and has been doing it like CRAZY ever since then. This is actually taken the day she learned to roll onto her side. Soon she will be rolling all the way over, CRAZY!!


Brooke has become my best buddy since my knee surgery that I got when she was 8 weeks old! She has adjusted really well to my sedentary lifestyle and she brings such joy to me every single day! I feel so close to her having gone through this all with her by my side. Here are some pictures from the whole knee thing.
One of my best buddies!!!! Bonding with Mommy! Brooke with her daddy on one of the visits down here! Brooke has taken many naps in the cracks of chairs since this surgery. When I do not have anybody around to bring her to her bed for me this is where she ends up if I need to put her down for any reason. Since my surgery I dried up and can no longer produce breast milk so Brooke has become a bottle baby full time! Here is a pictuere of her daddy administering his first bottle to a baby EVER! SO SWEET!!!

Brooke has also fallen DEEPLY IN LOVE with her little baby toy! She can seriously play under here for an hour talking to herself and totally cracking herself up, it is the cutest thing EVER!!!!!



And for her 2 month birthday we got her shots and 3 days later got her ears pierced! I am SO HAPPY WE DID!!! She told me that she loves them! I love them and this is my theory on why we got them done NOW for all of you who think I am evil! I KNOW that she is going to want them some day and I figure why not just do it now when she will not remember the pain, will not be able to grab and play with her ears, when her little hands are not dirty and are less likely of causing an infection, and why not have her be SUPER CUTE for longer??? So we did it! She cried less for her ears being pierced than when she got her shots, SERIOUSLY!!! Here are a few shots the night we got them done, see he is happy!


Well in about 2 weeks you will be getting her 3 month post and I HOPE to be better at this! I still have about 4 posts to do to be caught up on lifes happenings! I am trying to get on it!

All Smiles!!! :)

Brooke started smiling at 4 weeks old! Unfortunately up until just recently I have not been able to get a picture of this beautiful little smile! She smiles and even laughs quite often but as soon as I whip out the camera she stops! I think she just likes to harass her mommy! She used to do this kind of stuff in the womb so I am not surprised by this at all!
Even though she likes to harass her mommy, this little girl sure knows how to melt my heart! Every single smile she does has me sitting there begging for more! My favorite time is when she occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night and as I lay her down to change her diaper she just bursts out in laughter and a TON of smiles! Who is that happy in the middle of the night? BROOKE! She is also SUCH a morning person and is such a happy girl right after she eats in the morning! What a joy to my life she is!
So here she is in all he smiling glory!!!! If you notice she has my crooked smile which I think is cute and feel bad for her at the same time! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!

Labor Day

This year Labor Day was SUPER FUN!!!! We ended up going to 2 BBQ's with friends and we had a total blast at both! It was SO MUCH FUN to play like little kid's again in the pool! We have not been so childish in YEARS and it felt O' SO NICE!!!! Here are some fun pictures we got that day!
The Hubby & Wife

Mommy & Brookers

Brooke was such a good girl, she just sat there and watched her mommy and daddy go crazy!

Emily & I showed up in the same swim top's and we still rocked them with no shame :) Quite a funny feeling to show up to a party wearing the same thing as your friend!

Kip ( you have to look at Todd's face, it is SO FUNNY )

Emily

Todd

Kip

Me

Kip


Me

Another Year Has Passed

I know that this post is 18 days late but it is still an important one for me to do! I am SO behind on my blogging and am trying to take this opportunity that I have been given with my knee to sit down and get caught up on it! This blog is important to me for all the world to see our family events but it is also going to double as my journal and for that reason I am going to be sure to post these past events even though they are super late!
On September 2'nd Kip and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary!!!! 3 YEARS, can you believe it??? In some ways it feels like Kip and I have been married FOREVER but in other ways I can't believe that these 3 years have gone by so fast! In ways I feel like I just married my best friend yesterday but it was 3 years ago, WOW!!! This 3'rd year of married life will forever be remembered as one of the hardest years of our lives (hopefully it does not get harder), but in other ways this year will be remembered as one of the most amazing and blessed years of our lives. We have been faced with many stresses and trials this past year and there were times where we thought it could not get any worse and it did! Most of our stresses and trials came in the form of financial struggle. It is amazing how much finances control your life and in many ways your happiness! I am so grateful and blessed to say that these financial struggles have in no way harmed Kip and I's relationship with one another. In many ways these struggles have strengthened us as a couple and I do not think we have ever been more of a team than we are today due to those struggles! When the finances began to become stressful we promised one another that we would cling to one another and NEVER let ANYTHING come between the love we have for each other! I feel we have done a great job at doing that, and know that there are many families out there that are not so lucky! We are still in the process of getting back on our feet but we have faith that we will be where we want to be once again with prayer, hard work, and doing all that the Lord asks of us! We have learned through these times that the Lord DOES love us and that he has constantly provided a way for us to just barley hang in there. We have gained a stronger testimony of paying our tithing and the blessings it brings when you are faithful. We have learned that love can conquer all! And we have been humbled in many ways. Another struggle we faced this year was me being injured once again, in the middle of our finances stressing us out, I hurt myself at work and can no longer work! I hurt myself standing still in one spot enough to cause me to need surgery. We believe that there MUST be a reason something so random happened and that there must be something we need to learn and gain from this! I am currently still looking for what in the world that is! :)
This year has also been one of the most blessed years of our lives with the finding out we are pregnant with our first child! Being pregnant through these stressful times in ways made the times more stressful but in MORE WAYS made the stressful time bearable! The little baby I carried inside of me was our happiness!!! The 1 WONDERFUL thing that was happening to us as a family! The 1 thing that we could smile about every single day! Brooke has been such a strength to us this past year, even before she was born! We stayed strong as individuals and as a couple because we HAD to for this little girl! I am so grateful that I had an AMAZING pregnancy that was so easy and enjoyable for both Kip and I! The day this little lady entered the world was one of the best days of our lives!!!! Our hearts and our lives were changed forever the moment we laid our eyes on the beautiful being we created together. This moment in life brought us closer than we have EVER been before and we love one another so much deeper than we could have imagined 3 years ago on the day we were married!
So we celebrate this 3'rd year of marriage and all of the lessons, trials, and blessings it has brought to our lives. Years like this shape and refine a marriage and I am grateful for that! We would not know true happiness if we did not know struggle! SO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!!!!!!




So on the actual Anniversary/Birthday this year we had one busy day!
The morning started off with going to Disneyland with our friend Kyra and her daughter Tera who was also celebrating her birthday! Boy was it the hottest day EVER at Disneyland, and quite humid, but we still managed to have a good time together. Brooke even got to get her first picture with a Disney Princess!


Tera & I the two Birthday Girls!


So for the past 3 years we have celebrated our Anniversary and my Birthday (since they are shared on the same day), in Las Vegas! We always find a great deal and never even do the whole Vegas strip thing! We have decided that Las Vegas is our annual Anniversary/Birthday tradition, which is really fun that we have a tradition without even originally intending to do so :) So even though we had an 8 week old, we went on to our Las Vegas Celebration and it ended up being WONDERFUL!!!! Both of us were a bit leery about how this was going to go, or if it would even be any fun at all, but it was a BLAST, in every way it could be with an 8 week old :) We left pretty much as soon as Brooke and I got home from Disneyland and jumped on the road to Vegas. We stayed at our beloved South Point Hotel which we are always pleased with! We got ice cream every night, ate Cafe Rio every day, went to the pool every day (after the sun went down), we relaxed in our room LOTS, and we went on a wonderful adventure drive as a family! We loved our drive and I think that was the highlight of our trip. We took lots of pictures and found a ton of trails that we look forward to hiking next year as a family. Our little girl was an angel, she did not cry at all on the drive to and from Vegas, she did not cry on our family drive, she slept through the night each night she was there, did not make a peep when we were playing in the pool, she was just AMAZING!!!! We love our little traveling baby! Enjoy our photos :)

South Point Pool


Red Rock Canyon Family Drive










Crazy Daddy & his little girl!

Family Photo!

Learning to LOVE the outdoors already!





Look what we ran into, well we found, we did not actually "run into" it... get it? Anyway there were a ton of these wild donkey's, it was cool to see!

Look at this cool place we found!



Daddy being naughty and trying to give Brooke treats already :) She did not even taste it really so people don't worry :)


A few days after we got home from our Vegas trip a bunch of the girls got together with me to celebrate my birthday! Thanks Meagan for organizing this like 3 times :) I love my ward SO MUCH and am SO grateful to have so many wonderful friends!!! One lucky girl I am! We went to one of my FAVORITE places Red Robin and enjoyed ticking off the staff because we walked in 30 minutes before they closed. Oops! People do that to me as a server so I did not feel too bad only doing it once and for my birthday! O and while we were there they decided to sing me Happy Birthday even though I was imbarassed about it :)
Everybody but me!

Ok I will jump in there I suppose :)

Meagan, Katie, Heather, Vanessa, Katie, Kim

Suzie, Katie, & Meagan

Emily & Amy

Then we went back to my house for cupcakes that Meagan made which were yummy and they sang to me again the most different Happy Birthday song I have ever heard. It was so funny! And I blew out 2 of the million candles they had, SAD!!!


Meagan & I


What a wonderful Anniversary & Birthday we had!!!