Finally!!!

I finally got my recessed lights in my kitchen!!! I am so excited. I have only waited almost 5 years to get them in and it was definitely worth the wait! From Day 1 when we moved into our house, the lights in the kitchen were the biggest thorn in my side... I hated them! We have these huge vaulted celings in our house and in the kitchen we had 2 (yes 2 side by side) of those UGLY strip florescent lights up there and then this random little single round frosted white glass light a little further over. I have no idea what the builder was thinking....but it was NOT PRETTY. Anyway one of our friends is an electrician (actually its one of Andy's partners in the electrical division at his company) and had told Andy awhile back to just let him know when we wanted it done and he'd come over and help install them. So we finally found a day that worked for everyone and now we have BEAUTIFUL lights in our kitchen....have I mentioned already how much I love them?!?!?! Here is a pic I took tonight - excuse the mess in our kitchen.....



So anyway.....that was my big excitement in this otherwise ordinary week.

In other news, we have been battling some cold/flu bugs in our house for the past week - but then again, it seems like the entire city of Houston is as well. Doesn't help that the weather is like an out of control yo-yo. One day you are wearing shorts and its 80 degrees outside, then the next its below freezing....it seems a lot more up and down this year compared to other years - it just seems more extreme. There have been days that we go to bed at night with the a/c on and wake up in the morning and have to put the heat on.....its crazy. So anyway...of course Miss Brooklynn is sick....AGAIN. Every few weeks she has another bug - and I'm guessing daycare is a great breeding ground for that. So for now, she is really congested, with a nasty junky sounding cough and a nose that is running like a faucet non-stop. What fun! We actually did take her to the dr's on Friday afternoon b/c she had been going after her ears a little and she was just barely starting an ear infection (again) so we got more of her favorite pink drug...amoxicillan. So hopefully that will take whatever bug she has too and get rid of it once and for all. Its gotten so bad that I can just take the nasal aspirator (a.k.a. nose sucker/booger sucker/brain sucker) out of the cabinet and she has a TOTAL MELTDOWN - she HATES it. It looks like we are practicing moves for the WWE as I am trying to pin her down to keep her still while trying to suction her nose...lol!

Other than that - we haven't been up to much but somehow the days just fly by. Here are some random pictures I've taken the last few weeks that I thought I would share....

This is the scene in our house every weeknight...

The minute the garage door opens they all run to the door

waiting for their Daddy to come in....its the cutest thing.

Daisy & Rocky have trained Brooklynn well :)

Waiting for story time with Grandma....

Enjoying time with Grandma reading a book together....

She loves her grandma and is getting spoiled

rotten and is enjoying every minute with her.

Storytime's over....looking to get into mischief now....


Her very own chair - just her size :)

A perfect hideout - her very own tent....

And just a cute pic of her one day when we were

trying on the next size clothing in her closet. I hope

it warms up and stays warm soon b/c there are a lot

of cute dresses that she is already fitting into :)

What a difference...

A year can make!! As I was downloading pics tonight, I started going through all the pictures from the last year with Brooklynn. All I can say is WOW!!! She was so tiny!!! You honestly do forget how tiny they start out.....and how quickly they really do grow. I decided to post a few pics that really show the difference. I came across her bumbo seat in her closet a few days ago - its like a brand new toy to her. I had to laugh b/c her chunky legs can barely fit in there anymore - and once she sits down, I have to push them into place. Getting out of it is a whole other story - it stays stuck to her butt and thighs and she rolls around the floor trying to get it off - and of course she thinks this is the funniest thing ever - cracking up the entire time. Once she finally wiggles and squirms her way out she gets right back in and it starts all over again! Anyway...here are some pics from a year ago compared to now....


She was just under 2 months old in this pic...
no worries here about getting her legs stuck.


Here is the pic from a couple days ago -
what a difference!!!

Another thing I came to realize is how much fun Brooklynn has with Rocky and how much fun he has with her. They are always ready to play together - she throws a ball to him and he runs to get it, they play tug 'o war with whatever she can find in the room, she chases him around the room.....its so cute. He has been so amazing with her since day 1 when we got home from the hospital...Brooklynn is defintely Rocky's baby..... she jumps on him, tries to hug him and hang one when he tries to run away....he is just so gentle. And for those who have met him, understand how shocking this is. Yes he is a really sweet dog, but he is also a total livewire - its defintely the Terrier in him - he's a Boston Terrier. We would have never thought that he would take such good of her when she is around....but he completely surprised us. He can be running around 90mph and barking and growling with Daisy, but the minute Brooklynn comes by - he just stops and goes into baby mode. It is really amazing. Now if only we can work on Daisy.....lol!

This is the day we got home from the hospital

when Brooklynn was born....already Rocky is

glued to her side.

This is now - always together!

The funniest thing is looking back through all the pics - Rocky is in prob at least 75% of them.....alot of the time I crop him out but he's definitely right there with her all the time.

Christmas 2008

Well another Christmas has come and gone - what a crazy few days it has been. I hope everyone had a great Christmas....It was actually a nice relaxing Christmas for us - especially since this year, none of the festivities were at our house so we didn't have to worry about trying to get our house straightened up (that's a whole other story these days...lol). We spent lots of time with Andy's family celebrating the holidays, ate way too much food, opened up way too many presents and just had a good time. The kids got spoiled (but isn't that the fun of it?!?!?) I think we need a bigger house - actually I KNOW we need a bigger house, but everyday I keep thinking that the house I think we need isn't big enough anymore either - especially after all the toys they got in the last few days. We have already converted our dining room into a play area to accommodate all of Brooklynn's toys, but even that doesn't seem to be doing the trick anymore. Hopefully in a few weeks my mom and I will get down to business and start de-cluttering room by room - it is so overwhelming - I can only imagine how HUGE our garage sale is going to be in a couple of months.....we could probably stock an entire other house with our stuff that we don't use. Its sad to think back when we got this house back in 2004 how HUGE it felt to us - especially since we basically doubled our living space from our previous house....now it just feels so cramped - its amazing how fast things can accumulate in such a short time. But I guess looking back - our family has grown since then too - we added a couple of dogs and another child to the mix so we're bound to have more things.....well thats what I keep telling myself anyway...hehehe.

Ok well I have rambled on enough about the chaos of our house for now.....see once I get going - its hard to stop... Here are some pics of our kiddos enjoying Christmas and opening presents.


Can't believe I actually got a good shot of both kids before diving into the presents...


Brooklynn HAD to be in the middle of all her big brother's presents...



Andrew got a bunch of neat new things to play with - this Bionic Eye thing is so cool (shows way more than you ever wanted to see when you put it to your carpet - we need our carpets cleaned and FAST!!)

Finally getting back to her own presents....

All ready to go celebrate Christmas Day with the extended family....

See y'all later!!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

Busy...Busy...Busy...

3 little words that desribe our household on any given day. Somehow the last month has just FLOWN by and we are just 2 days away from Christmas - where did the time go? For once though, I can say that I got my house decorated right after Thanksgiving, finished my shopping a few days ago, and even got all the gifts wrapped earlier than normal. For once, I am more or less on the ball!!! But I did realize about a week ago, that my intentions to do a cute Christmas card somehow got pushed aside......so unfortunately this year, we won't be sending any. So to all those that I have gotten cards from, THANK YOU so much - we loved each and every one of them!
Another busy busy busy person in our household is Miss Brooklynn...she is into EVERYTHING!!!! She is running non-stop and is just a crazy girl. She starts the minute you take her out of her crib until the time you put her down for the night - its non-stop 24/7 with that girl. I should have known from all the kicking she did while I was pregnant with her - we thought for sure she was training for the Olympics or something...hahaha. Anyway...thought I would share some pics of how much she has changed in just even a month - I think these pics really show her personality - esp the last ones with the presents - she is one tough little girl - no fear whatsoever - she is a little daredevil....you can see on one of the bottom pictures the scratches and stuff she has on her face (nothing slows her down)....I couldn't even tell you where they came from - just can't keep track of all her run-ins with the wall, floor, toys, etc... but she is so much fun - definitely full of personality.



Getting in the Christmas spirit one morning...



She is fascinated with our dancing/singing snowman...



you gotta love her style...lol - she loves to steal socks
and then wear them - of course she can't wait to take her
own socks off - go figure!!!



This is how her hair was styled one day when I
picked her up from daycare.....too cute!



She always has to be in the middle of everything!
I was trying to wrap presents and she thought they were
new climbing toys...



So proud of herself....

like I said earlier - no fear!