Memorial Day Part 2

On Memorial Day we left my aunt's house and headed back to town to spend the rest of the evening with Ryan's parents.  Brynn's cousin Ansley wasn't there until a little before we had to leave, so Brynn was a bit spoiled with all the attention on her! HA!

She LOVES strawberries and blueberries right now.

She LOVES trying to be a big girl and sitting at this little table.
And look at me in the background...GROSS!  I laid out a little too long
and got MAJORLY sun-burnt earlier in the day (that's bad I know...
Ryan's already given me the lecture...) and I guess I pulled up half my hair in some
weird ponytail??  YUCK!

Ryan and his Dad

Yes...a little spoiled...getting to sit on the table! 

Playing downstairs in the "cousins" toy room.

Someone had the idea of getting out the baby "pack 'n play" AND....

DECIDED TO...

CRAWL IN THEMSELVES!

Then she decided to TRY to sit in the baby's carseat...HAHA!
This girl is TOO MUCH!

What a wonderful day with our family!  Thankfully Ansley showed up pretty quickly after all this playing...Brynn was getting pretty lonely without her sweet cousin!

Memorial Day Part 1

We had a wonderful Memorial Day celebrating with our families.  We spent the first part of the day at my aunt's house and then headed to Ryan's parents to spend the evening.  I LOVE kicking off summer with delicious BBQ and laying by the pool, but it's also important to remember loved ones we have lost, and all of those who have/are fighting for our freedom.

It smelled DELICIOUS!

I guess she was so excited about getting in the pool
that she hopped in her "swimming bee" in the house!

Brynn kept wanting to use the skimmer!  HA!

BBQ chicken, delicious potatoes...
and Curt's devilish grin!

And THIS was on my camera when I got home...
those two always take my camera and I have surprise pictures...

First Swim of the Season

It has been SO HOT here for May...like in the 90's!  So we busted out Brynn's swimsuit and decided to hit the pool!  At first she was a little hesitant because it was pretty cold, but she then she started having lots of fun.  She was splashing around and loved sitting in her new bumblebee!

I can't wait to take our little cutie swimming a LOT this summer!

Memphis in May Triathlon

Last weekend while the girls were all busy with wedding shower festivities, Ryan was having some "guy time" in Memphis.  He competed in the "Memphis in May" triathlon along with his brother Jason, and several of their friends.  

Alex, Ryan, and Jason

I USUALLY think my husband is pretty cute, but I have to be honest...
THIS DOES NOT DO IT FOR ME!  HA!

I don't have a clue what this is?  Is this people watching from bleachers?

So fuzzy...sorry!
You get the idea...there was a lot of competitive testosterone going on...

Ryan finished 17 minutes ahead of his time last year!  (Brynn was such a newborn last year that I barely let him out of the house to work out!  HA!)  He was really pleased with how he did, but Jason still beat him by about 5 minutes, so of course to Ryan, it was a fail!  HA!  I think the only failure of the weekend are those terrible looking tri-suits the guys have to wear...NERDY!

14 months

We aren't taking our special monthly "onesie" pictures anymore, but I do want to keep writing "monthly" posts, because she is learning and doing so much and I just think this is the best way to record it.  So...here are some important milestones from month 14!

• Still wearing size 3 diapers and 12-18 months clothes...several dresses are 18 month.
• Now that school is out and we aren't waking up early, she goes to bed around 8:30 and usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8.  She is taking just an afternoon nap, usually from about 1-3.
• She LOVES to eat and is really good about "praying" before we eat.  Even if we forget, she will clap her hands together in the highchair...thank you 14 month old, for reminding YOUR PARENTS to pray!  She eats pretty much EVERYTHING, although she isn't a huge milk drinker.  She likes to drink through her sippy cups with straws.
•  She LOVES dogs, and ANYTIME we see one (no matter how tiny or how huge) she waves at it, makes noises, and tries to touch it.  She pretty much loves all animals, and loves watching birds, cats, squirrels, etc.  We NEED to take her to the zoo pronto!
• I think she has Ryan's accident-prone genes...(or maybe it's just the "I'm not afraid of anything" genes).  She crawls up and down, tries to run around, etc.  She is always knocking into something...two nights ago she busted her eyebrow on the book shelf...ahhh!
• She is really trying to say lots of new words.  She tries to repeat what we say, although it doesn't always sound exactly the same.  She tries to say "bubbles", "pamaw", "amen", etc.  She also says cracker a LOT!  "crakcow"  It is so cool hearing her trying to say things!
• She knows exactly where things are in our house, my moms, and Pamaw's.  If she goes in and you say "let's go get the baby" she knows exactly where to get it, where to find the pretend bottles to feed her babies, etc.  She is also slightly obsessed with her toothbrush, and when we go to Pam's she walks in their bathroom and points to where the toothbrush is.  Then when we get the cup down she picks out HER toothbrush (out of the 4 in there!)  Stuff like that just blows my mind!
• We are now at the stage where she gets things out and we find them other places (I remember reading Kristal and Emily talk about that and thought it was so funny).  She will put her shoes in the dirty clothes hamper and we find her crayons all over the place...
• Her hair is getting longer and longer...after the bath when we are combing her hair we are like "whoa!"
• She is also getting a little feistier...she knows what she wants!  If we leave the park and she still wants to swing or slide, she can throw a little fit.  Thankfully it hasn't been bad yet...according to Nonna "she will definitely NOT be a follower."  HA!  But I guess that's a good thing!
• She is just such a fun little person!  She has such a spunky little personality and is almost always smiling and having a good time!  I can't wait to see what God has in store for her in the future...what a BLESSING!

Emily and Wyatt brought her over an easel and some whiteboard crayons and she has been having a BLAST (and not just on the whiteboard...on the entertainment center, on the floor, and on the coffee table...yes, we are going to have to move the easel downstairs I think!  HA!)  Here are some pictures I snapped...

Happy Wednesday evening...it's DUCK DYNASTY TIME so I better go!

First ER Visit and The Cabin Pot-Luck

I have been meaning to write about Brynn's first visit to the ER for almost two weeks!  Two Tuesdays ago we were at my parents house visiting with my grandparents.  I hadn't gone to school that day because I had some weird stomach virus thing that I won't go into detail about...anyway...I could hardly get off the couch all day, but by dinnertime I was feeling much better and figured I'd go say hi to my grandparents.  I started feeling yucky again, so I just went upstairs to lay down.  Ryan and Brynn were playing in a different room and I heard her start yelling and crying.  She is a bit of a daredevil, and is ALWAYS getting a new bruise here or there, so I wasn't too worried.  But she KEPT crying...so I came out of the bedroom and asked what happened.  She had just fallen weird on her arm, but after 30 minutes of her crying and acting NOT AT ALL like herself, we knew something was up.  (And sidenote...by this point I guess my mother instinct had kicked in and I couldn't even remember that I felt bad!)  She WOULD NOT MOVE her arm and kept holding it weird.  So, we took her to the St. Francis emergency room.  It ended up going really smoothly and we didn't have to wait very long.  They took some little x-rays and then the doctor came in to talk to us.  He felt around on her elbow and jerked it really quick.  She DID NOT LIKE THAT, but within 2 minutes she completely quit crying, was back to her happy little self, and fell asleep in my arms. The doctor said she had dislocated the radial head of her elbow (commonly called Nursemaids Elbow) and all he did was pop it back in place!  It was so crazy how quickly she changed back into her normal self...I guess it just hurt so bad but that little pop put it back in place!  Oddly enough, Ryan also had this when he was little, from his older brother grabbing him by the arm.  I think that's how a lot of kids get it (evidently it's pretty common) but Brynn happened to just land on it funny.  Anyway - that was our first trip to the ER, and hopefully we won't have to be there again anytime soon!

Here are some pictures from a BBQ we went to a couple of weekends ago.  Ryan's triathlon training group had a little get together at Sarah's family cabin.  We (and by we, I should say THE GIRLS...because all of the boys got back almost 2 hours later than they should have) ate and visited and had fun watching the kids play together.

Alex, Brynn, and Ansley

Somebody is a little obsessed with eating strawberries...
lately she will grab them and try to stuff the whole thing in her mouth!
I guess she thought no one was looking...

She still can't just sit all by herself and eat yet, but she's getting closer.
I can't imagine what it will be like when she can just sit at the kids table and not really
need me to cut her food into tiny little bites, etc.

The guys FINALLY made it back...they had called us and said "I guess you guys can go ahead
and eat without us" to which we replied "We already ate an HOUR ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Your children
were STARVING!"  But I guess that's just MEN for you! 

Wedding Shower Saturday

Yesterday was my sister Lindsey's wedding shower at our church.  The decorations were GORGEOUS and the girls who threw the shower went above and beyond to make it such a beautiful and memorable shower.  It was so exciting celebrating with family and friends and watching Lindsey open so many awesome gifts! We were joking how your priorities in life slowly start changing...when we were younger who would have ever thought it would be SO EXCITING to get a vacuum cleaner!  HA!  

Me, Lindsey, and my mom...we took a picture with Brynn but Lindsey's eyes were closed, so I
figured I'd just post this one.

Lindsey's wonderful Tennessee family...Curt's grandma Betty, mom Debbie, and sister Beth.
Amanda...we missed you and Mollie but we can't wait to see you in July!

The table decorations were so cute!  This one had fluffy feathers and it was so cute!
This is one of Lindsey's friends from high school and our family friend/wedding coordinator Nancy.

Lindsey, Beth, and I were having lots of fun!

Brynn and Ansley had to get in on the fun...Ansley was an awesome helper!  Brynn just wanted to
play in the tissue paper and rip the bows!

Brynn was having a blast until she got stuck inside the box!  HAHA!

It has been a tradition that our group of family friend's throws showers for each other's children.  This
group of ladies has thrown too many showers to count!

The PRINCE arrives!
My sister-in-law Sarah was telling Ansley that "Miss Lindsey is getting married just like all her
princesses".  So Ansley kept saying "Lindsey is marrying the PRINCE!  I want to meet the prince!"
When Curt walked in she was wide-eyed and got really shy. It was too cute!

How cute are these dads??
When we were all visiting on Friday at my parents house I overheard these two having
a serious conversation about Robert E. Lee and battles in the Civil War...oh my gosh...what nerds!
HA!  (My dad is obsessed with the Civil War...poor Mike had to hear all about it!)

Brynny and Pawpaw

Then we headed into the sanctuary to show Curt's family where the ceremony would take place...we all got a little carried away and had a little mock ceremony!

They may have been laughing and joking around but come
the real wedding day I think they will both be bawling!

Curt gave us a rendition of the "Full House" song that Uncle Jesse sang at his wedding...HA!

Brynn was having a blast up on the stage!

I am so excited for Lindsey and Curt!  They are the cutest couple and we love them so much!  WEDDING COUNTDOWN...2 MONTHS FROM TOMORROW!