Brooke is growing up so fast! And that particular comment wasn't even about her birthday. She is excited to be a big sister, and loves to take care of her stuffed animals. This past week I've seen her rocking stuffed animals, burping them, and changing their diapers! I know she's helped hold baby Lyla's bottle too. She's getting ready to be a big sister, and I think she's going to do a fantastic job!
As mentioned, it was our house-iversary this past week on the 15th! It's crazy to think we've already lived here for 3 years! It's fun to look around the house and see all of the projects we've done. We put up shelves in the garage, remodeled/painted Brooke's room and bathroom, painted the exterior, made various pieces of furniture, and finally are finishing the basement! It's fun to see all of the improvements we've made!
This year we got Chinese food for our house-iversary. We hadn't had Chinese in a long time... possibly since the last time we got it for a house-iversary! It was really good, though it didn't re-heat very well... Brooke also got to have her first fortune cookie! I think she enjoyed it, though it was harder and not quite the taste she was expecting.
Friday was Brooke's birthday! And Monica did an amazing job of making the whole day wonderful for her! Monica is super great at making birthdays a very special occasion. I really like it and hopefully some of her skill will rub off on me!
Anyway, back to Brooke. For breakfast we had her favorite food, pancakes! Also, Brooke has been on this reindeer kick lately where reindeer are just the greatest things ever, so Brooke got a reindeer shaped pancake! And she got some chocolate chips! She loved it!
After breakfast we opened a few presents. We got her a car seat and a stroller and she loves them! We got the idea because we went to visit Tyson and Tina and they had a little car seat and Brooke loved it when we were there! Thanks guys! The only unfortunate thing is that Brooke saw the stroller in our closet a day or two before her birthday, so it wasn't a surprise. I think she would have gone crazy if it had been a surprise.
Monica spent a lot of time the past two weeks getting things ready for Brooke's party. It was all animal/zoo themed. She made masks for all of the kids!
And as much as Brooke loves tigers, when we asked her to pick one she picked the panda, which was not the case earlier in the week. But in the end we forgot to make sure the kids left with their masks and crafts and bubbles, so Brooke currently has a lot of masks.
Monica also made a monkey corn hole like game for the kids to play. I think everyone enjoyed it, though there was a surprising lack of throwing, and a whole lot of hand feeding.
Monica set up all of the decorations for the party while Brooke was taking her nap, and when Brooke woke up and came down the stairs she couldn't even make it all the way down she got so excited! It was fantastic! Brooke played with her car seat and stroller while she waited for her party to start. We're pretty sure she picked up her car seat holding technique from watching people at church as 1) we don't hold our car seats like that and 2) we've never held one around her.
Also, Monica was going to take Brooke swimming on her birthday since Brooke loves to swim, and Monica wanted to try to make her whole day be filled with things she loved. Brooke was having so much fun with her stroller and car seat that she told Monica no! She didn't want to go swimming! Just look at the excitement on her face!
Monica also made these little Popsicle stick alligators for the counter by the food. Brooke even helped paint them all green!
We also made a welcome sign for our front door.
We asked Brooke who she wanted to invite to her party, and she picked a few of her friends from church. When everyone got here we played games, such as the monkey toss game, and even painted plates to make chameleons!
Monica also made a lion cake! It was perfect because then we just gave all the kids a cupcake instead of a slice of cake. Much easier. The downside, we still have an entire cake, though now it's a female lion because we gave away the mane.
Here's Brooke, listening to Happy Birthday, waiting to blow out her candle.
And here she is eating the frosting off the top of her cupcake. And when she finished the frosting? "All done!"
We tried to get a picture of everyone all together before people had to leave, but Eden didn't want to stand by the wall with everyone else, so here's everyone minus Eden. At least we got most of them!
And here we are!! What a happy baby!
Brooke got a lot of fun gifts for her birthday, and she's been having a great time playing with them all. One gift was a floor piano. She had a lot of fun stepping on it and playing music, and it got even better when she found the tiger roar button!
I spent several hours in the basement during the week and on Saturday. I was able to get a lot of the interior walls up and in place! Here's a panorama of the progress.
I took some additional pictures so you could see things better. Here's a picture of the utility room framed in. Through the door on the right is were the bathroom will be.
Here's a picture of an open room we'll have down there, mostly likely a play room for the kids. On the left side is the bathroom again.
On the opposite side of the basement I got up this wall that splits the bedroom from the storage room. We'll build bigger/taller shelves in there to replace the ones we currently have.
And this is the space that will have the bedroom. I still need to put in the rest of the walls around the bedroom. I'm hoping I can get that all done this week! Once the framing is done it'll be time to start running the electrical!
Jelly has been having fun this week. She climbed into my drawer when I was changing into my pajamas one night, and then went all the way through to the back of my dresser. She also likes to come in and drink water while we brush Brooke's teeth!
What a full week! A few weeks ago in gospel principles we had a lesson talking about the spirit world, and a quote was shared that said something along the lines of when we are in the spirit world most people will accept the gospel and want to repent. I had been thinking about that the past few weeks, and then this last week I read through 3rd Nephi and read about Christ coming to the Nephites. After Christ ministered to the Nephites, and subsequently the disciples he called, there was peace in the land for about 200 years and everyone was righteous! Just think of that, an example of what happens when Christ ministers to his people, and it aligns with the quote. It's incredible! I know that God loves us all, and want's us to return to him. I know that through the gospel we can return to live with God, and that those we love can return with us. I share this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment