San Diego Trip

In October we took our first trip to San Diego.  I totally understand why people love this city.  The weather was amazing and such a contrast from the 100+ degree heat of Yuma.  We took the dog with us and went to a dog beach and had a blast.  Zoey was a little bit of a handful with some many other dogs around and all her puppy excitement so we never got the camera out at the beach.  But Coronado Island is beautiful.  After a day at the beach I tried to convince the family to take some pictures near Balboa Park but I didn't have the most cooperative subjects at the end of a long day.

Brooklyn had no nap and was totally slap happy so she wouldn't stay still to save her life.

This was pretty much all she did as she ran around in the soft grass.  I think she was just as excited as I was to see green grass and trees.

These kids were pretty darn patient with me under the circumstances so I will just be happy to have a few pictures of their adorable faces.

Brooklyn Turns One!

I can't believe my baby is already one.  Time has been flying by.  The poor little girl was so sick on the day of her party that I didn't get a single cute picture.  Since we didn't really know many people in town we just had a bbq with a few friends for her birthday but Brooklyn had a 103 degree fever and just wanted to be held by her mama all day.  I had put a lot of effort into making a special cake for her because we are having a hard time figure out foods that don't upset her stomach.  So I made a gluten free, sugar free, milk free chocolate cake and she didn't even want to look at it.  It took her almost 2 weeks after her birthday before she ate a piece from the freezer.  She did end up loving it so all the effort wasn't in vain.

Here she is when she finally agreed to try her birthday cake.  She was pretty skeptical (as was I) until she put it in her mouth.

Brooklyn is so darn independent and strong-willed just like everyone else in the family.  She doesn't want help doing anything and thinks she should be able to do just what the big kids do.  She isn't much of a talker like the other kids were.  Around her first birthday she probably only said mom, dad, shoes, and Elsa (from Frozen) on a regular basis.  But she understands everything that is going on around her and is learning some signs to help her communicate.  She knows how to say "please", "thank you", "milk", "more", "eat", "drink", and "book".  I love to see how enthusiastically she does them when she wants something really bad.  "More food please" is just a panic of flailing arms.

Brooklyn has a love-hate relationship with the dog, Zoey.  She wants to be her best friend but then gets so frustrated when she knocks her down or steals her toys.  But they have moments when they are great together.

Brooklyn is quite the fashionista, which should be apparent from one of her first words being "shoes".  She loves all the accessories at Target, but who can blame her.

I love the fact that my little baby is a book "reading" machine.  She has an amazing attention span for books and will sit to be read to for a long time and flip through board books constantly.  I love this sweet, fiesty, opinionated baby more than words can describe.

Its Getting Better Here

I have fallen so far behind on blogging with everything we have going on.  So just ignore me as I catch up on the past 6 months here.  The weather finally started to be reasonable, which means around 100, and we have been able to get out of the house a little more in the evenings.  We had a nice walk down the bank of the Colorado River one evening. 

The sun is still so bright that it is blinding.

Brooklyn is an outside girl through and through.  Even when it is too hot for clothes she loves to play in the rocks in the backyard and sit in the little house.  She will open and shut the door a million times and is so proud of herself every time.

We love the flat streets of our neighborhood for bike rides.  And now Taylor has also learned to ride without training wheels!

We even managed to find some real grass at the park. And shade!

Taylor and Brooklyn have a lot of fun together.  Taylor is definitely "motherly" and always wants to tell Brooklyn what to do.  Some times it works and some times it doesn't.

Taylor stayed home from school one day and the girls played so great together.  Taylor can't wait to have someone to play babies with.

We love picnics in the park on the warm fall days.

Poor Brooklyn has had so many run-ins with the tile floor.  Her little forehead may never heal.

Brooklyn loves to help her dad.  She is a total mama's girl unless there is a project and she has to get right in her dad's space to "help".  She is an all around amazing helper for a one year old.  She can pick up clothes and put them in the basket better than all the other children and loves to organize things.  It amazes me how they just come out with such little personalities.

In November we went to visit the new Phoenix temple for the open house and it was so wonderful to walk through it with the kids.  They were so great and we all felt such a wonderful spirit there.  It is sad to move to a place where the temple is 3 hours away when it was in the same town in San Antonio but it is neat that we have 4 temples that are all about 3 hours away.  And now we have seen all of them, Phoenix, Gilbert, Mesa, and San Diego.

The kids participated in the school's "stackers" competition.  Who knew that stacking cups was a sport but I guess it is something to do when it's too hot to go outside.  Taylor has such a serious look of concentration.  She approaches everything with that same level of intensity.  I love it.  Ethan's team won a prize for their grade level so he was pretty darn excited.