Tears to my eyes!

This was the very first time I gave Brooke her bottle to feed herself while I ran around the house trying to get things together to leave. I set her down, handed her the bottle, started to run off, then I looked back and tears came to my eyes :( my little baby looks SO BIG!!! It is SO SAD to me! I had to stop and take a picture to remember the moment that broke my heart, and made me proud at the same time. I love and hate that my baby is growing up!

And the tears are coming back from just looking at this picture. I need to make sure I cherish every single moment!!!

Biggest Loser Week #7

We are at the half way point about now!!!
The competition is still going on I have just been slacking on posting the results, partly because it has been hard to get some of the numbers. From this point on if I do not receive your numbers by Sunday evening I will just put your # down as a 0 for the week until you call me and tell me otherwise.
I decided to do a post on the total pounds lost up to this point from January 1st. This way we can all kinda see where we are at. So here goes!

Tony Toliver 23 lbs.
Kip Robinson 15 lbs.
Todd Moran 14 lbs.
Melissa Gargalis 8 lbs.
Sarah Robinson 7 lbs.
Gregg Gargalis 4 lbs.
Tammy Carlson 3 lbs.
Meagan Hacker 2 lbs.
Katie Bruer 2 lbs.
Tammie Jones +1 lbs.
Dev Patel +4 lbs.
Lisa Patel +5
Hilary Hanson ? lb.
Hayley Hanson ? lbs.
Jackie Hanson ? lbs.
Jess Allen ? lbs.

Great job guys and keep up the hard work!!!

Look what I can do!

WOW!!!!!

The day has FINALLY arrived!!! I can put a bow IN my hair!!! Kinda, it is hanging on by just a few hairs, but it is there!!!

Isn't that SO exciting???

A few of my favorite things...

These are a few of my favorite things, well because they are a few of Brooke's favorite things, and what makes my baby happy makes me happy!!!

This is Brooke's Buddy that she cuddles with in her crib! She really loves this little guy, and I love that she does because it is a horsey!! Good Choice Brooke, Good Choice!! I will let you name him but for now I will just call him your buddy!


THIS IS OUR LIFE SAVER!!! Brooke is a blankey girl for sure! Her blankey goes everywhere with us! I would say she is way more attached to this then any other comfort object. It is so cute, if you touch it to her face when she is tired her eyes roll back and she is out! I am so thankful for this pink piece of material!



And Brooke adores her daddy! Every time she sees her daddy she gets the biggest smile on her face! He sure knows how to make this little girl laugh! My heart skips a beat every time I see them together. I am SO glad we had a little girl first! I am also so glad that she looks just like her daddy, it is super cute and super sweet! I love these pictures of them! (Daddy, just got back from the gym so he has his shirt off, he is not nude, don't worry :) )



Daddy has his girls smitten!!!

What a wonderful life!

Going Backward!

So Brooke has been working on her crawling, she still has quite a bit of work to do :) I practice with her at least once a day, but we seem to be going backward. The other day I left her on her blanket with her toys and a few minutes later I found her here....


She literally backed herself into a corner! It was quite funny! I love her face in these shots!

One of these days she will go forward right?? As for now we are working on tempting her with some of the things she loves. And this is how it is going!

Not interested!!!

Big Eater!!

Brooke has really taken to eating solid foods! She totally skipped the whole baby food deal and went straight to the big girl food. She LOVES Cottage Cheese, Deli Meat, Beats, Olives, Pickles, Carrots, Pineapple, Mandrin Oranges, Green Beans, and on and on... we keep finding new things to love! Here are some pictures of our big eater!




We FINALLY found the sippy cup that Brooke can actually figure out how to drink out of and not just chew on!!! She LOVES it!!! I highly recomend this as a way to train your kids to drink out of a sippy!

Bonding!

Just thought this was super cute so I had to capture a few shots of it. Brooke and her cousin Makenna were sitting together enjoying Baby Einstein. It was so cute to see them together, already such good buddies!

Love my girls!!!

Last Saturday evening I got to have a night out with some of my girls! We started off the evening with a trip to the very popular Cafe Rio in Lake Forest!

Traci, Erin, & Heather

Kyra, Amy, Carly, & ME


After we stuffed our belly's full as can be, we headed off to the Orange County Great Park. I did not even know this place existed, but they offer free hot air balloon rides (it is tethered to the ground, but goes 500 feet in the air). The also have free ice skating this month. The perfect cheap date night!
I was pretty positive that I was not going to join in on the hot air balloon ride due to my extreme fear of heights. When we got there I was satisfied to see that it is not the wicker basket looking hot air balloon with the fire and all! It has a metal cage type thing that you are in so YOU CAN NOT FALL OUT, and it has no fire at all, just a thick cable that winds you up into the air and then back down. This made me feel that it was safe enough to ride. What really pushed me over the edge to go on was the fact that Heather was willing to bring her 10 month old onto this ride and risk his life! I was not prepared to let a 10 month old boy show me up, so I went! AND SAT ON THE GROUND THE WHOLE TIME!!! :)IT WAS HIGH!!!!

Here we all are hanging out getting ready to board the balloon. Trying not to get too freaked out!

Erin, Traci, my head at the bottom, Mitch, & Heather

Amy, Kyra, & Carly

So happy to be on solid ground again!


They must have just recently taken down the Christmas Deco and we happened to find it in a tent nearby. So of course we had to get a few shots with our new friends!


I love hanging out with the girls from my ward. I feel so blessed to be in such a fun ward with so many girls that get along and have a blast together. Thanks so much Traci for driving and for coming up with such a fun event!

The definition of CRAZY!!!

So this is what happens on a typical night at Brooke's dinner time! I laugh myself through dinner almost every single night!
Enjoy the faces and sounds of our crazy child! I could not pick a favorite video, they are all short and funny but each have different faces that I just can't pass up sharing with you guys!



We always knew that mixing Kip and I's blood would create something quite crazy and full of energy, BOY WERE WE RIGHT!!!

For all my friends.....

...that are struggling with getting pregnant, have had a hard time in the past with getting pregnant, have experienced a miscarriage, who know someone who is struggling with conception, and for all of you mothers out there who did not struggle to conceive at all. I want you to watch this video.
My friend Diana is celebrating the short life of her daughter Emma who she lost in her second trimester of pregnancy. I saw this video on her blog and decided to copy it and put it on my blog. Diana had 5 miscarriages and lost the twin of her oldest daughter who they named Gracie. Gracie is now an older sister to Sienna who is just a few months older than my little Brooke. I am so glad that Diana was able to figure out what was happening in her body and has been able to give birth to 2 beautiful little girls.
I know that many friends and loved ones of mine are right now struggling with getting pregnant. I have friends in each stage of the "trying" cycle and my heart goes out to each of you! I love you all SO MUCH and can never even try to imagine what in the world you are going through. I appreciate each one of your strengths and the positive outlooks you have on life despite your challenges. I know that it is SO hard for each of you to hear even the word abortion, to see a teenager pregnant, to hear women complain about pregnancy, and to see and hear women and men complain about the challenges of being a parent. I respect and love you for what you go through daily and want you to know that.
As for all of you parents out there, as well as myself, I want to take this opportunity to really appreciate the gifts we have been given and to realize what a miracle and a blessing it is to be a parent. I never want to take this for granted! I always want my children to know how lucky I feel to have them in my life! And I really want to do my best to appreciate every single day, every single moment, and to do my best to not complain about this little spirit, EVEN ON THE HARD DAYS!!! I hope that this video touches each of you in your own way. I know that it made me bawl my eyes out!