Well, I got my wish... a snow day! It snowed all day Tuesday, and into Wednesday morning when it turned over to sleet, making the roads less than inviting. We got about 3 inches of snow, with a layer of sleet on top. My office was closed, and Ryan's didn't open until later in the morning, so we really enjoyed our unexpected morning off together! We all went outside to enjoy the snow, and introduced Brooke to sledding. She loved every second of it, and of course we got pictures and took a little bit of video. She was a sad little girl when we finally needed to go back inside!
I made a nice breakfast for us before Ryan needed to go to work, and then enjoyed the rest of the day at home with my girl. Our day was pretty perfect. :) This is why I love winter!
Getting settled in her sled! (my old sled)
Snow bunny ~
Happy girl ~
Sledding with Daddy ~
Waving bye-bye
Playing in the snow ~
Here, have some snow ~
She wore a bunny coat given to us by Ryan's Aunt Denise, which her daughter Abby had worn. It's warm, but not quite as puffy as the one we got her, so she was more comfortable and enjoyed it a lot more! It was also the first time she has worn mittens.. oh dear.. she's not a big fan of the mittens. A necessary struggle!
Can't believe it's already Thursday.. hope you all are enjoying your week!
As I type this, it is snowing like crazy outside of my windows here at work. Do you know how happy this makes me?! It's my first day back to work after being off all of last week. Monday and Tuesday were federal holidays, so we had those days off. My parents were both in Tennessee all week, and, given my Mom watches Brooke for us while I'm at work, I didn't have anyone to watch her. I can't even tell you how great it was to be able to be home with her all week! We had such a wonderful week together. :)
Rather than tell you what all we did, I think I'll show you instead. First off, though, I have pictures from Carrie's baby shower from the weekend before last. She and my cousin Justin will be having a baby boy in March! It's pretty exciting for our family, and I'm especially excited that Brooke will have a playmate in the family, a second cousin!
Baby boy's birthday cards ~
I thought this was a really unique idea! We all drew a number, and whatever number was on your card, (mine was 5) was the birthday year that Baby D. will open his card on. So, on his 5th birthday, he will read my birthday card to him. :) I thought that was such a neat idea!
Carrie and the duck pinata! The shower had a duck theme ~
Here's Carrie and her boss with the duck cake that her boss made ~
My gorgeous cousin Stephanie and I at the shower ~
Sleepy Brooke and I once I got home!
Most of the week it way too cold to play outdoors, so on Wednesday, I made a sofa cushion fort for Brooke inside. After she destroyed it, it made an excellent jungle gym. :)
*sigh* Love this sweet girl!
Busy builder ~
Happy girl!
All tuckered out ~
She really loves her Brooke chair ~
It did get warmer on Friday, so we took the opportunity to go to the playground! Half the time, she ran around in the field next to the playground, but she really enjoyed the slide, and loved the dinosaurs.
Giving the purple dinosaur kisses!
Snuggly girl on the swing ~
FREEDOM!!!
Awww. Seconds after this was taken, she proceeded to put mulch in her mouth.
Well, I should be around more this week. :) Probably shouldn't say anything, but we're supposed to get a relatively decent amount of snow tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Well, we finally woke up to see some snow on the ground this morning! It's just a dusting, not even enough to cover the grass, but I'm ecstatic, people. I suppose that I'm easily pleased. :)
I told Brooke "it snowed!" when I got her out of bed this morning, and though I'm sure she had no idea what on earth I was talking about, she was excited because I was excited! And, well, after she saw it, she was so excited about the snow! I'm sure our excitement may have rubbed off on her just a bit. :) She has never played in the snow before, since she was too little last year, so when we came outside this morning, Ryan let her play with the snow~
Like I said, it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make us happy for a little while longer! I can't wait until we actually get enough for her to really play in. Who else got snow?? Anyone else actually excited about it? :)
I mentioned the other day how much Brooke is loving her books again. Well, I first saw this precious book while browsing books at Borders when I was very pregnant with Brooke. I'd never read it before, but thought it sounded really sweet, so we bought Guess How Much I Love You (with plush Little Nutbrown Hare) for her for Christmas. True to it's title, it's one of the most adorable books I've read, and my favorite to read to her out of the books that she has. (It's the antithesis of Runaway Bunny, for anyone unfortunate enough to know of that book.) She has quite a few books, but she has several favorites that she will always bring to me to read. We also really love Goodnight Moon, which is part of her bedtime routine. :)
Times to treasure ~
Precious girl ~
For those who care to share: What is your favorite children's book?
Well, hope you all are having a wonderful week! Take care~
While Ryan and I were reading before bed last night--and by "reading" I mean that we were laying on the couch while I read our book out loud--Ryan doesn't exactly enjoy reading, but I do, and he'd much rather listen, so it works for us--we're finishing up Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs for our counseling sessions, (marital "tune up" if you will--with the pastor who did our premarital counseling) which is easily the best book on marriage that I've ever read--when all of a sudden we heard a loud noise. Ryan got up and looked out the front windows, hunkered down and whispered "come over here." I peeked out for myself, and saw a doe out in our front yard. We are nestled up to a patch of woods, but we never see deer in our front yard! Not five seconds later, a second doe joins the first, and they nibble on our shrubs together. Aww! The headlights from a passing car scares them, and they bolt for the woods, so we run to our other set of windows, and see a young buck with tiny, two point antlers. It reminded me of the home I consider to have grown up in, where we lived from the time I was 8 until I was 20. It backed to a park, and we would always see deer, along with other wildlife, in our backyard. Needless to say, it made my night.
It's been a while since I updated. This past week we had a broken oven which we had to have repaired. (to the tune of $249--which makes me very thankful that we rent our townhouse, not own! It was reimbursed to us the following day.) We won't be renewing our lease in June, and I've already started to look around to see what's available, since we have lived here for a while, and I was unsure of how much prices have changed. I guess it makes sense with the market, but prices are actually better now than they were two years ago. Wherever we end up, I do hope we don't wind up with dogs living on both sides of us! Especially hounds who howl at least 20 times a day. Lord help me.
I really need a new layout for my journal. I can envision in my head how I want it to look--it's just a matter of making it so. I used to have more time for these things. :)
It's definitely cold enough here for it to snow.. in fact, snow is in our forecast for Thursday. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm really ready to finally see some snow this winter. We even brought over my plastic sled that I had as a kid from my parents' house, so that we can pull Brooke around in it, and it's waiting in the garage for when it DOES snow. I have a classic radio flyer wooden sled, but that one will need to wait until she's a little older! Now we just need some snow.
Winter just isn't winter without snow. Cold weather without snow is so unsatisfying. Spring might as well get here already if it's not going to snow.
The girl is growing up before our very eyes. She gives her Daddy kisses before bed, which is pretty special, because she won't give them "on command" to anyone else! She loves her books again, which makes me happy. Previously, she had been too busy exploring to actually sit down. We read books for a good 45 minutes yesterday. (and didn't watch any TV whatsoever!) We actually put away all of her movies in the DVD drawer, so we initiate when she watches movies, not the other way around. That's working out well. She's such a little firecracker--very passionate! She's a lover and a fighter. :) So moody and Miss Attitude one minute--totally cuddly and Miss Lovebug the next. That's our Brooke Avery. :)
Will hopefully have some new pictures to share soon, but until then, I hope you all are doing well, and having a great week!
It's Monday. It's January. 2009! Every new year is always a bit shocking to me. Time used to go so slow, didn't it?
I had a major revelation the other day when Ryan and I were noticing that Brooke is outgrowing her 18 month sleepers. She's gone through major growth spurts recently, and is just so tall now! Then it hit me.. next step above 18 months is 24 months... as in 2 years. TWO YEARS. My baby can't ever turn two years old, can she?
I'm trying to embrace Brooke's milestones, and the changes in her that seem to pop up ever day. She is a gift, and she is a constant blessing to us. It's just hard for me to embrace her growing up. There is a part of me that wants to bottle her up and keep her forever as she is right now.
Well, I have some pictures to share! Five of us had a Secret Santa gift exchange, like last year, but we had to wait and open them the week after Christmas due to postal delays and mix-ups. :) Gotta love the USPS. Anyway, I was Amanda's Secret Santa (for the 2nd year in a row!) and Tiffany was mine! I edited out our addresses, so now they're good to post. :)
Love :) ...is about who you can't live without ~
A gift card to... STARBUCKS!!!!!!! (She knows me well!)
Mmm, Yankee Candles! (in my favorite Christmas scents!)
Yummmmm ~
Well, we had an interesting, eventful weekend. I'm sure I've mentioned it on here quite a bit, but Brooke LOVES animals. She loves animals of all kinds, and lights up if she sees one on TV, out the car window, walking down the street--the girl is definitely an animal lover, just like her mama. (who had nearly every pet imaginable, aside from reptiles, at least once throughout the course of her childhood)
So, all that to say, we got a new family pet on Saturday...
~ Meet Copper ~
It all started after I was able to get a free, perfectly nice hamster cage on Freecycle. Aside from dogs, Ryan's really not a big animal lover... at all... but he eventually gave his blessing. He even picked him out! We all went to the pet store together, and Brooke absolutely lit up seeing all of the furry little animals running around in their cages. We named him Copper after the hound in Disney's Fox and the Hound, which we had watched just that morning. He's a good little pet, Brooke adores him, and he's extremely low maintenance... and he's pretty cute to look at. :) It's definitely nice to have a little pet in the house.
Sunday morning we got a call from Ryan's parents saying that Ryan's Grandpa was in the hospital, and that it was pretty serious. Thankfully, my parents were able to watch Brooke for us while we drove down to the hospital at UVA. We stayed till around 4--long enough to find out the results from the CT scan, and ultimately the diagnosis, which was chronic infection in both lungs. It's definitely serious, and scary, but thankfully he's in good hands there, and it's treatable. We'd appreciate your prayers for quick healing!
Now it's Monday, and it's back to reality. I'm ready for this new year, and ready to see what it will bring. :) Happy Monday everyone!
We had a fantastic Christmas this year, one that we will remember for a very long time! I'm so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful family. It was also really nice to break from our usual routine, and celebrate Christmas twice, one with each side of the family. That way, it didn't feel like it was all over after one day. :)
Brooke was given a lot this year, but all of which I think she will get a lot of use out of, and nothing excessive. She likes her toys, stuffed animals and books, but is still just as happy, if not moreso, to play outside with twigs and leaves. I'm happy about that.
My break from work was nice-- it was unbelievably nice to wake up and spend each entire day with my girl! The break was not exactly what I expected, though, as I came down with yet another stomach bug on Saturday, which stayed with me for much of the week. What's with me this year? I'm usually so healthy! I was so sick of being sick. I'm feeling great now, thankfully. I hope I've at least met my quota for a long time to come!
Well, I've got some pictures to share. These aren't all that I have, but I hope you'll enjoy them!
Brooke watching the trains under the tree with her Daddy~
Brooke on Christmas Eve in her Christmas dress!
Busy organizing the Christmas cards ~
All tuckered out ~
The beautiful table on Christmas Eve ~
It's Christmas morning!
She loved her tin spinning top!
So excited about opening gifts!
Watching Aunt Kendra open her gift :)
The beautiful mantel ~
She LOVES the Minnie Mouse we got her ~
The Christmas tree and trains~
The lights! :)
Lastly, here is Brooke under our tree once we were back home ~
Hope your Christmas and New Year were wonderful! :) I'll be back on Monday with some more pictures. Have a great weekend!
