Christmas Time

for some reason she really wanted to hold our hands in the pictures

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  We stayed in Memphis and it was just the 3 of us, but Craig had 2 weeks off from his externs and Brooklyn understood a little bit more about the whole thing this year.  She was so excited to help me decorate the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  I think she liked that the tree was just her size.  She did pretty good about not touching the tree, well at least with her hands.  She liked to test us, she would stick her hands behind her back and touch it with her tummy or she would walk really close to it and let her elbow brush it or she would hold one of her stuffed animals and let them touch it.  She though she was pretty sneaky, but she did get a few timeouts because she just had to touch the tree.  We didn't put any presents under the tree though until she had gone to bed on Christmas eve.

Since Craig had time off we decided to go see the march of the ducks at the Peabody Hotel again.  Brooklyn loves ducks and is a pro at quacking so we figured she would enjoy it.  We got there early and looked at all of the beautiful Christmas decorations.  Brooklyn loved the huge tree with the huge ornaments.  She really liked to see the ducks walk by and watch them swim in the fountain.

We didn't go see Santa this year.  We were pretty positive that she wouldn't take a picture with Him so we didn't want to waste our time.  At our gym there was a mechanical life size Santa that would dance and sing if you pressed a button and it totally freaked her out, but because of Him she thinks that all Santa's dance.  Anytime she sees one she starts to dance.  On Christmas Eve we went to Texas de Brazil for dinner...so good.  Brooklyn did great.  She loved to people watch and she liked all of the meat.  She really liked the coke bottle that the brought to Craig for his Cherry Coke, it was just her size.  After dinner we came home and lit the fire and read the story of Christ's birth from the bible and drank "fancy juice" (sparkling cider), which Brooklyn thought was awesome.  She loved the fire and pulled her little chair up in front of it and just watched it.  we then got her ready for bed and she watched a little bit of The Grinch with us and then she was off to bed.  Craig and I finished the movie and brought out her presents.

Christmas morning was a blast.  When she woke up that morning we brought her down and we were hoping to get her to eat a little breakfast before she opened presents but as soon as she spotted the presents there was nope hope for breakfast.  I told her she could open some after I changed her diaper, well that wasn't soon enough for her so she took off toward the tree and grabbed 2 presents and ran out of the living room.  So we let her open one small gift and then we changed her diaper and she ate a banana and then we let her open the rest of her presents.  After each gift she was content to just play with that gift.  It took us a little while to convince her that there were more toys for her.  She loved all of her toys,but I think her favorite is her Mickey Mouse stuffed animal.  she is obsessed. After gifts we then ate breakfast of monkey bread and an egg casserole.  A little later we went to the park and went for a walk and then that evening we had a nice Christmas dinner.  It was a great day that we were able to spend together as a little family.  Later that day I told Brooklyn that her birthday would be soon and that she would get to open more presents and she asked if they would be under the tree, what a sweet girl.  So grateful for this wonderful holiday and the chance we get to celebrate our Savior.

Brooklyn is 22 months

December 22, 2014
23 lbs
Size 4 diapers
Size 18 month clothing

I can't believe my little girl is almost 2, time truly does fly.  She is continuing to talk more and more.  Still not putting sentences together but she knows a lot of words and communicates what she wants and needs very well.  She loves letters.  She has some toys and puzzles with letters and she can identify quite a few letters and can say a good amount of them as well.  We have been working a lot on colors.  For the longest time everything was blue regardless of what color it actually was.  She all of the sudden could say orange, and no we did not purposely teach our daughter blue and orange (go Broncos!), she did it all on her own.  She now also can say grey.  She can recognize a lot more colors but refuses to say them.  She is completely obsessed with books, we read a minimum of 30 books a day, I guess that is a good problem to have though.  Her favorite food at the moment is banana.  She eats one a day, sometimes two if daddy doesn't realize she had one earlier.  Between her and Craig we go through at least 12 bananas a week.  She has started to show a little interest in the potty.  Sometimes she wants to sit on it, but she has yet to actually go potty in it.  I don't think she is quite ready for potty training, but hopefully it will be sooner rather then later, but its not something I am going to push too much.  She loves to go to nursery and still loves going to the gym. She is really happy most of the time, we do have to do timeout every once in a while, but that is to be expected.  Her naps are starting to get shorter and somedays are non-existent, which makes me sad, but I will have to deal with it.  She has had a cold with a cough and runny nose and also been teething the last few weeks.  She didn't sleep well for a little while because her cough kept waking her up but she is now back into her good sleeping habits.  She is now just barely tall enough to reach the door handles.  She loves to open and close doors but she can't turn the handle, so there have been time when she has got herself stuck in a room and can't get out until I get her.  She is so much fun and such a joy, I am so grateful I get to spend everyday with her.

She wanted to wear one of mommy's scarves

fun at the zoo with her friend Peyton

She was saying "moo" as the picture was being taken

Her new favorite thing at the library is to sit on the zebra

She loves to crunch leaves, a girl after my own heart

Rockin' her boots and sweater dress

Loving the cupcakes I made for my primary class, she just kept wanting more frosting

Brooklyn wanted Daddy to check her eyes after my exam

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since most of our SCO friends are no longer in Memphis, we decided to get together with some families from our ward.  There were enough families that we needed to do the dinner at the church, which Craig is not a big fan of, but it worked out really well.  Everyone brought a few items of food.  There was more than enough food and everything was fantastic.  Brooklyn had a lot of fun with all of the other kids around.  She didn't eat a whole lot since she was preoccupied with all of the people, but she got enough.  She did get locked out of the nursery on accident and got a little scared because she couldn't get back in and didn't know how to get to the gym.  Luckily one of the other moms found her and brought her back into us.  We all had a very enjoyable day and are so grateful for the friends that we have made in our ward.  I just wanted to list off a few other things that we are grateful for right now in our lives:

Loving and supportive family, friends, the education and training that Craig is receiving, my jobs (even though they aren't much they do still help), our health, our beautiful daughter and the joy she brings into our lives, our house and cars, the knowledge that we are an eternal family and all of the many other blessings that the gospel brings into our lives.  

Craig had his eyes closed in every single picture

A few of the families and missionaries that we had dinner with

Brooklyn with Emma McKonkie

Caleb Bockholt and Brooklyn 

21 Months

10/22/2014
23.2 lbs
size 4 diapers
size 18 month clothes

Since getting back from Boise Brooklyn's speech has really taken off.  I think spending time with her cousins really helped.  She says a lot more words and is starting to put together 2 and 3 words at a time.  My favorite new word of hers is please.  She does pretty good about saying all by herself, but if she doesn't I just have to say "what do you say" and she'll say "pease".  For a while she was obsessed with saying "hi" to everything and everyone, but now her obsession has moved to saying "bye". She can't leave a room without saying bye to her toys, any person that is in the room, the T.V., absolutely everything.  It is pretty cute.  She also refers to herself at Baby.  I think this is just because she can't say Brooklyn.  She has gotten really comfortable with me leaving her.  Since I had so many doctors appointments recently and now work at the gym 2 nights a week, she will just give me a kiss and say bye and doesn't care one bit that I am leaving.  It is super awesome, which also makes taking her to nursery at church so much easier.  She has started to have issues with sharing.  The funny thing is she doesn't mind sharing with other toddlers or older kids, but if a baby gets close to a toy of hers or to me, then she freaks out.  I guess someone isn't quite ready for a sibling yet.

She has been eating a ton the last few weeks and sleeping really well, so she must be going through a growth spurt.  She will eat anything I put in front of her, which is so nice.  She still loves fruit and veggies.  One day for an afternoon snack she ate bell pepper, carrots, and cucumbers.  If she doesn't want to eat something then I will just give her a sauce to dip it in and then she will eat it.  When she's hungry she says "eat" and starts walking to the kitchen.

We finally had her start sleeping with a blanket.  She gets so excited when we tuck her in at night.  She doesn't always keep it on her,but hopefully it keeps her a little warmer.  Next we need to have her start sleeping with a pillow.  A new thing she does is she recognizing sizes of things.  She has three stuffed animal dogs and the biggest one is the daddy, the medium one is the mommy and the smallest one is the baby.  She does this with everything, crayons, trash cans, pens, bowls, shoes, etc.  Luckily the biggest thing is always the daddy and not the mommy. A new thing she has started is blaming her toots on Craig.  If she ever toots or burps she automatically starts giggling and then says Daddy.  She will even accuse him if he isn't home.  She thinks it is hilarious.

She still loves to read her stories and go to story time at the library

She had fun helping me make treats for my primary class

Showing off her new boots that I got for $6

Wearing Daddy's BSU hat

Having fun at the park

It's a Miracle: She can see!!

I GOT LASIK SURGERY! YIPPY!  So, starting from the beginning... Craig is doing his rotation right now at the Toyos Eye Center,  Dr. Toyos is the top ophthalmologist in the mid-south and he also has the best technology in the area.  He very kindly offered to give us a 50% discount on Lasik surgery for me.  I had to wear my glasses for two weeks in preparation for the surgery, which was awful (especially when teaching spin classes), but totally worth it.  On Tuesday I went in for my pre-op appointment and got cleared for the surgery.  My cornea was just barely thick enough.  Friday afternoon, the 21st, I dropped Brooklyn off at a friends house and one of my visiting teachers drove me to the office.  They scheduled me as the last surgery of the day so that Craig could just drive me home when I was done.  I hung out at the office for awhile, they were running behind (surprise surprise). They then started some drops and eventually gave me a Vallum.  Then it was go time.  Dr. Toyos let Craig watch the surgery and joked with me that he was going to let Craig do the surgery.  I love Craig dearly, but no way that was going to happen. The surgery was super fast.  The first part where the machine cut the flap, there was a lot of pressure, but no pain (love me numbing drops).  The second part after the Dr. pulls back the flap, the laser literally burned away some of my cornea, it seriously smelled like burning flesh for a few seconds. And just like that it was done. The nurses and Dr. clapped for me.  I sat up and could see.  Seriously the coolest thing ever!  After the Dr. took a quick peak in my eyes they sent me home with a sleeping pill and instructions not to open my eyes until morning.  I even got to sleep in some awesome goggles so that I wouldn't accidentally rub my eyes, oh and I get to sleep with them for 2 weeks.  After Craig got me in bed he went to pick up Brooklyn and then hung out with her the rest of the night.  I slept for almost 13 hours, not many moms can say that. I went to my 1 day post-op appointment this morning and everything looked great.  I was seeing 20/15 already.  I have to put in a bunch of drops for the next few days and will probably have to use artificial tears for a few months.  Other then my eyes feeling a little dry and not being able to wear eye make-up for 2 weeks, everything is fantastic.  It really was the coolest thing to be able to drive with out glasses or contacts.  I can even read the bottom line on ESPN.  I am just so amazed and grateful for the technology.

Last time wearing my glasses

Right after surgery with Dr. Toyos and Craig

The super sweet goggles I get to wear the next few weeks