Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Six Months and Counting

Six months old and Autumn is growing like a weed. She now weighs about 16 1/2 pds and is finally wearing 6-9 months clothes. As you can see, she loves her baths and cant resist splashing water everywhere.

The doctors say that her hemangioma is almost done growing and should start shrinking soon. (For those of you who dont know, that is the big red spot on her chest. It has slowly grown and raised since the day she was born, and it is quite large now. They were a little concerned because it is so close to her neck, but the specialist looked at it and didnt seem too worried. Great news!! It will now start to shrink over the next 3 years and should go completely away.)

She has also finally decided that solid food really isnt that bad. It took her forever to even try eating off of a spoon. She is still not great at it and wrinkles up her nose at anything that is not bananas, or sweet potatoes. We also learned that she is allergic to oatmeal. We had tried the baby rice cereal and she hated it, so we decided to see what she would do with the oatmeal. Well lets just say a nice red rash all over her face and 4 bouts of violently throwing up, told us that oatmeal is not such a good idea. Poor little girl.



She also thinks that she is pretty hot stuff now that she has
learned to drink out of a cup.
He favorite place to be is in her johnny jump up. She could jump in there for hours. Abrianna likes to help her jump-although sometimes to her detriment. She thinks that it is so funny to see how high she can get her to go, and to see how quickly she can un-twist after she has wound the whole thing up. I am amazed we have not encountered any broken body parts...YET!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Why I love this girl

How do I love thee let me count the ways...

1. I love your personality!!
(Seriously-its crazy how funny she is)
2. I love your strong will and spirit.
Although it is a challenge at times it will serve you well throughout your life.

3. I love your determination.

Even when you choose things that are wrong you go for it with all you've got. Now we just have to get you to channel all that determination into doing what is right!!!!

4. I love your raspy little voice that tells me, I love you Mommy!


5. I love the way you love with all of your heart.

I am so blessed to be your mommy, and I love you with all of my heart.

Happy Birthday Parker

Here are a few highlights from the big day.
WE LOVE YOU PARKER!!
Parker and his birthday cupcake on Thursday night. Mom had to do teach an enrichment class that night so we had a quick party with Nana and Papa. His favorite present was his Indiana Jones Lego T-Shirt and Lego set.


Parker and Dad filling up the pinata for his Friend Party on Saturday.

The whole gang at the Party.

Brigham, Spencer, Abrianna, Corinne, Gabe, Macy and Parker



Taking a whack at the pinata in the back yard.


The Birthday Lego Cake. I gave it my best effort!!

Not the greatest but the 6 year olds didnt care. Nana and Papa at the Party.

The Wonderful World of 6


I can hardly believe I am blogging about this!! My Baby turned six last week. I know it's sappy, but it seems like just yesterday we were bringing Parker home-scared to death to be first time parents. Time sure changes things. Now he is Six and becoming quite a special young man.
There are so many wonderful things about being six (or almost six-most of the pics are from last year). Here are a few.

1. You loose your first tooth.
Actually I think we are up to 3 now.

2. You get to go to School.

Parker started Kindergarten this year and is loving it.
3. You grow your first Zucchini!!.
He was so proud of his gardening skills.
4. You are only 2 years away from getting baptized.
He reminds us of this all the time.
5. Being Crazy is COOL.

6. You get to be a big brother again.

He was just slightly dissapointed it was another girl.

But loves her just the same.

7. You learn that LEGOS are the coolest ever. THANKS BEN!!

8. You are becoming more and more like your DAD!!!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Flashback Tuesday!

In light of my recent post about our beach trip and falling out of the car, I was reminded of an earlier family adventure to the coast. Only instead of falling out of the car, I fell off a horse, well jumped off really. To this day I am not quite sure where my brain was on that trip. I guess temporaraly gone due to preganancy-i hate it when that happens.

I know this is a terrible picture-it makes me look like a female sumo wrestler.

Well the fateful day went something like this. "Hey wouldnt it be so much fun to go for a horseback ride at the beach." This was my suggestion to Randall as we are on our little adventure. So we all agreed we just had to do it. Obviously my brain was no where to be found, because had I thought about it a little more I would have decided it was not such a great idea for a 5 month pregnant lady. But because I severely lacked judgement at the time I was certain that it would be no big deal. After all we were just going for a leisurely stroll down the beach. We payed for our ride and the wranglers brought the horses over for us to get onto. As I gazed over the corral they appeared to be fairly trusty steeds, until they brought over the most mammoth horse I have ever seen in my life. This thing was huge!! They called for me get on the horse-my first thought was SERIOUSLY!! NO WAY. But oh no, despite my reservations Parker and I mount the mammoth beast. My first clue to not proceed should have been that my pregnant belly and Parker could barely fit on the saddle together. But oh no, I'm an adventerous girl I told myself, we'll be just fine.

Randall and Abrianna got on another much smaller horse and we rode off through the sands with our guide. While traveling through the small dunes to reach the beach my horse kept stopping to do some business. Well 1 time no big deal, but 2, 3, 4, times Seriously!!!! He just couldnt stop. The guide thought maybe he wasnt feeling well but wasnt concerned. Well I was starting to get concerned. He proceed to have the same problem all the way down the beach. Our guide was in front followed closely by Randall and Abrianna, and Parker and I brought up the rear. Well out of no where my horse just stops, and no matter what I do he wont move. Everyone else is so much further ahead of us that no one know that we have stopped. Then out of no where we start going down. This mammoth of a horse started sinking like the titanic. My first reaction was oh my gosh he is going to buck us off. But oh no it was a slow decent and thank goodness. He first sinks to his knees in front and then in back, all the while Parker and i are holding on for dear life. My next thought was that he would roll over on top of us. So as he lowers down to his belly I grab Parker and jump off the the horse, well rolled sort of, praying that our legs would make it out from under him. We made it off and ran as fast as we could away from that horse. I have never been more shaken up in my life. At this point I am really cursing myself for this great idea of mine. Well long story short we are miles down the beach and there is no way I am getting back on that horse. So the guide gives me hers, still quite large, to ride back. And let me tell you trying to get your 5 months pregnant backside and belly on a horse on the beach-nearly impossible. Well, I can laugh about it now, but lets just say you probably wont find me on a horse on the beach ever again.

Why do I always fall out of the car!!!!

This may seem like a silly question to pose, but it is seems quite appropriate in my life lately. Let me explain. Last weekend Randall and I decided last minute to get out of town for a much needed break. We packed up the car and took the kids to the coast for an overnight adventure. Everything was going great. The weather was even in our favor, which is rare on the Oregon Coast. The kids were down on the sand playing and Autumn was bundled up so cute and snuggly-it was her first time at the beach. So naturally I wanted to capture some memories with our camera. Well I was all geared up for a great shot when the camera decided not to work. I opened it up to see what the problem was only to discover that the memory card was gone!!! Well I decided that I was not going to let that stress me out or dampen my spirits-so oh well no pictures, I guess i can live with that. We continued our pleasant afternoon until it was time to check into our hotel. Well we get all checked in and to our room and we went to find the pool and IT WAS CLOSED. WHAT!!! I specifically had chosen this particular hotel because it had a pool right near our room. We had stayed there before and loved it. Well I was bound not to let that get me down either. So I ever to cheerily told the family that this would give us the wonderful opportunity to check out the other pool at the hotel, that we wouldnt have otherwise gone to. So we loaded everyone in the car in swimsuits and flipflops and drove up the hill the the main pool. Well, we park the car and I open the car door in a hurry and before I know it I am on the ground. We were in the Expedition, so it was a long way down. I didnt even fall gracefully. There was no catching myself or even time to realize that I was going down. One minute I was up and the next I was on the wet cement. I was so stunned I couldnt even move. Randall jumped out of the car and had to pick me up off the ground. The damage was already apparent, bruises on my legs and arms and a very large one on my hip that took the brunt of the blow. At this point I began thinking to myself, "You have got to be kidding me." For a brief moment I begn to wonder Why, Lord Why!!! I had been stressed out of my mind for weeks, having anxiety and feeling so exhausted from all of the demands of life, but I was really trying to look at the sunny side of life. I guess sometimes I just think there should be some brownie point or reward for choosing the high road. Example: Well Brook, I know the pool was closed at your hotel but because you decided to make the best of the situation.... you will now have a fabulous time with your family, everyone will cooperate and be happy and life will be wonderful. Wouldnt it be nice if it really worked like that. I guess it is the Lords way of keeping us humble. Because belive me, I really feel humble about a lot of things in my life lately. Well if I have learned one thing lately its that even when life doesnt go exactly as you have planned and even when you find that sunny patch through the gray, you still sometimes Fall Out Of The Car!!!!!!!!! So dont be too discouraged, life will get better even if it doesnt seem like it today.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Has anybody seen the Parrot?


Randalls question to me last night:
Did you know that there is a parrot in our fireplace?
Me:Yeah I know. I just havn't gotten around to taking him out.

Randall:Why is the parrot in the fireplace?

Me: Well some days are good, some days are bad, and some days you just have a parrot in your fireplace!!! You really dont want to know.