A Weekend of Birthday Fun

We had a busy, fun-filled weekend of birthday parties last weekend. It was a lot of work, but we all had a blast (especially Brookie) so it was all worth it. We ended up having 2 separate parties just b/c our house wouldn't have been able to accommodate everyone at one time. On Saturday we had our friends and their kiddos over and then Sunday we had Andy's family over to celebrate. Both days were a lot of fun and we totally lucked out with the weather - Saturday was perfect - warm and sunny - which was a lifesaver b/c we rented a moonwalk for the kids to bounce around in. Sunday on the other hand was rainy and cloudy all day but it didn't matter b/c it was all inside that day.

Anyway...I'll keep this post short (the written part anyway since there are a zillion pics I've included). Just wanted to thank everyone for coming out to help celebrate Brooklynn's 2nd birthday - we all had a blast and she has loved playing all her new toys :)

These first pics were taken on her actual bday on November 7th. She got to open up her presents from Andy & me. I also included her birthday present she rec'd a few weeks earlier from her Grandma Irma & Uncle Michael - she LOVES her kitchen.

The rest of the pictures are from both birthday parties on the weekend:

Here's a pic of her invites I made for her

party. This is where the whole Pink & Zebra

Stripe theme started. :)

(I just erased the personal info for displaying

it on the blog)

The entryway table with the party favor

bags for the kids

The niche in the front hallway

Fireplace in the living room


View into the living room from the kitchen

Kitchen Table

The theme continues with the bday cake

(l-r: Zoey, Blakelyn, Brooklynn, Chloe)

The neatest thing happened the year I had Brooklynn. All my friends that were pregnant the same time as me ended up all having little girls so Brookie has lots of little girls to play with. From the oldest to the youngest there is a total of 8 months difference in age so they all had a blast playing and jumping together.

Getting ready for cake with Daddy

Happy Birthday to you.....

Waiting for her chance to blow out the candle

one...two...three...

OMG - I did it!!!!!


Finally get to eat the yummy cake

Time for presents!!!

Maybe a future baker on our hands??

Well you gotta have the right outfit!

And finally...there were a couple of cute/funny moments caught on camera. Like this one - Brookie climbed up on her slide against the bar counter to help herself to some snacks - that is just so her!!

And this shot.....we were trying everything to get this girl to smile for the camera and she just wouldn't do it. So I asked her to show us her teeth thinking that she would open her mouth with a smile to show us.....well nope - we just got this instead - gotta love 2 year olds!


And if you actually made it to the end of this post - congrats! Thanks again to everyone who made Brooklynn's 2nd birthday so memorable! :)

Then & Now - 19 Weeks

Well I thought a fun thing would be to compare my 2 pregnancies. Anyone that knows me, knows that the first time around I didn't take very many pregnancy shots - I just wasn't loving the whole pregnancy look. Don't get me wrong - I was THRILLED to be pregnant but I just wasn't loving the expanding waistline - therefore leading to very few pregnancy pics. I promised myself that if I were fortunate to get pregnant a 2nd time, I would definitely make the effort to capture the changes throughout the pregnancy.

Well here we are - a few days away from reaching the half way point of the pregnancy and I am doing worse than the first time around. Tonight I finally took my FIRST belly shots. Shame on me. But honestly - before the last week or two - there really hasn't been anything to see. So I had a reason this time for lack of pictures. Anyway I thought this was a good time to start b/c looking back at the few belly shots I did take while pregnant with Brooklynn, I actually had some from right at this same time. A perfect way to compare the 2 pregnancies and the growing belly. I thought for sure I was bigger this time around - but comparing the 2 pics, they are pretty equal. I guess this time it just seems to have popped out of nowhere, whereas last time it was very gradual and less noticeable since I was so sick and not gaining a whole lot of weight. This time around I have already gained 10 lbs which I am completely happy with. I lost a lot of weight after Brooklynn - all the baby weight plus an add'l 15 lbs (not on purpose)so I had some room for catch up. So I am just a few pounds short of where I started when I got pregnant with Brooklynn. So hopefully the weight gain will follow the first time around and just be a little at a time. Its funny - with the first pregnancy I was so excited about getting the baby bump - it couldn't come soon enough. Little did I know how uncomfortable it would become later down the road. This time I am happy and content with the rate I am going - I know I will get to that point where it is obvious that I am expecting - just trying to enjoy every stage this time.

So here are the 2 pics. I tried to wear a similar outfit so the comparison would be pretty accurate.

Pregnancy #1 - 2007 - 19 Weeks

Pregnancy #2 - 2009 - 19 Weeks

Everything else is going well with the pregnancy. The morning sickness has kicked in (a little late...I know) but its only really in the mornings and occasionally at night. So I just keep granola bars beside the bed so I can eat something before I even get out of bed each day - that does help it some. After I am up and moving around the day, it generally goes away - so its not too bad this time - definitely not a 24/7 thing like the 1st time with Brooklynn. I guess they are right when they say every pregnancy is different b/c everything about this one has been very different from my pregnancy with Brooklynn - probably why I had that gut feeling all along it was a boy :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Brooklynn

November 7th, 2007 @ 5:52am

On this day exactly 2 years ago our lives changed forever. We welcomed our beautiful little girl into the world and nothing would be the same again. Everyone warned me how fast time goes and how fast they grow up but I had NO IDEA it would be this fast. I can still remember the day like it was yesterday - the happiest day of my life. It is so hard to believe that my baby is 2 years old today - where has the time gone???

These last 2 years have been some of the most challenging but at the same time most rewarding days I have ever experienced. I have probably laughed, cried and who knows what else, more than I have in my entire life. Just like the Johnson & Johnson commercials say, "Having a baby changes everything" - I now know how true that is. Brooklynn has grown into such a fun-loving, crazy spirited, caring and beautiful little girl. She makes us laugh so much with all her little quirks - there is never a dull moment with this girl. She is so active and into everything - keeps us on our toes. We have truely enjoyed watching her grow into an adventurous toddler.

Its hard to believe how much they change in such a short period of time. I was looking back through her pics from when she was first born - I can't believe she was ever that small. She was so tiny - so much smaller than I realized she would be - all the clothing just swallowed her up for the first few weeks - and the socks - I could pretty much forget about her wearing socks - her little skinny legs and feet were way too small for even the smallest ones. Its overwhelming to look back at those first pics from her first few days of life - we've come so far since those first few crazy sleep-deprived months.

The official parties won't be until next weekend but we'll definitely be celebrating our special girl on her special day. Happy Birthday Brooklynn - We love you!!!

Here are some of our very first pictures of Brooklynn...enjoy! )


Finally....my dream come true...



Getting to see you for the 1st time



Such a tiny little bundle...



Your favorite place to be - sleeping on Daddy

Ultrasound Pics

Well as promised - here are the ultrasound pics from yesterday's appt. The first 3 are basically looking directly at the face - you can see his (still seems so weird for me to say him and his and he...lol) hands right beside his face. The last one is what I like to call the "Money Shot"....lol - he's definitely a boy! Like I said yesterday, when the technician was moving around on the screen, before she even said anything - I kept seeing a little something extra that I didn't see on Brookie's ultrasound so I knew even before she confirmed it. I am really excited - getting even more excited as time goes by - its a whole new adventure once again :)

And we're having a......

For those that are not on Facebook or haven't heard already...I'm going to do something I haven't done before - post without any pics. But I thought this was newsworthy enough on its own.

We had our 'big appt' today with the Dr and turns out we are having a BOY!!!! I could see all the parts even before she said anything....it was pretty obvious. We are really excited that we finally know and can move onto planning things - (everything) - since we really haven't done anything yet. I'll post the ultrasound pics as soon as I can get them scanned in!

Trick or Treat

Halloween 2009 was a blast. We had a busy, fun-filled day full of games and treats. We started off the day by attempting to go to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures - big mistake waiting until the day of. There were hardly any pumpkins left (imagine that...lol) so we ended up skipping it and heading to Grandma's to play for a bit before we went to the church festival. The kids had a blast at the festival trying all the different games and getting TONS of candy. The moonwalk/slide combo was the favorite for both Brooklynn & Andrew...they were in that thing forever. I didn't know how Brookie would be in one of those - especially since there were bigger kids all around jumping all over the place - but no surprise she had a blast and was unfazed with being the smallest. She was cracking up the entire time and loving every second of it. Andrew was helping her climb up the wall to be able to go down the slide and keeping an eye out for her - she loves her big brother so much :) Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to the festival so I missed out some cute pics.

We ended up staying at the festival longer than I originally planned since they were having such a fun time we and didn't get home until after 4pm. That only left about 45 mins for a nap for Brookie before heading out for the evening to go trick or treating with her friend, Blakelyn. Well she didn't even take that long of a nap - I think she only slept for about 30-40 mins max and was ready to go again....lol. I called her my energizer bunny yesterday - she was so wired - and she hadn't even had any candy at that point.

We ended up going to our friends, Natalie & Jimmy's house to go trick or treating with them and Blakelyn. Andrew went to trick or treat and spend the night at a cousins's house so unfortunately, I don't have any pics of him in his costume - he was an Alien Commander - it was pretty neat...Anyway...the girls had a GREAT time going house to house and running up to the door and getting candy. They didn't say trick or treat but at each house they would stand there for like 2 mins afterwards and say 'thank you' and 'bye-bye' and wave - it was THE CUTEST THING EVER! We were cracking up so hard. I only got a few pics of them before my batteries decided to die - and I had just finished charging them earlier that day....I was NOT happy...but luckily there should be more pics to follow later from Natalie's camera of them in action. For now here are some pics before we headed out. Blakelyn was a Texans Cheerleader and Brooklynn was a Butterfly Princess.....they were so stinkin' cute!

After trick or treating, we headed out to Natalie's parents house for a halloween bash. Of course the kids were still running around and going strong - no sign of slowing down for either one of them. Our favorite costume was Natalie's cousin dressed up as Swine Flu....it was HILARIOUS!!! Brooklynn was terrified of him though - not sure if its b/c he was wearing a Dr's costume and it reminds her of getting shots or b/c he had a pig nose on and she was scared of the funny looking pig. She would jump into my lap everytime she caught a glimpse of him from across the room. We stayed there for a couple of hours and enjoyed some great food and just hung out and talked. We didn't get home until almost 11pm - and Brooklynn ran straight to her toys and thought she was going to get to play once we got home. Seriously - where did she get that energy from? Of course, once I changed her into her pj's and she had some milk - she crashed pretty fast. She's still sleeping now and to her it still feels like almost 9:30am since the clocks just went back last night. Don't ask me why I am up so early - I woke up and was ready to get up - very strange.....oh well - just enjoying my peace and quiet before the Energizer Bunny wakes up for the day :)