Ethan's Baptism and Birthday

Ethan decided that he wanted to be baptized and he wanted it to take place in Utah since his birthday is over Christmas and more of the family could be there.  We are so lucky to be within driving distance of family again and lucky that my parents and sister were willing to come out and visit us as well.  It was such a special time as Ethan's grandmothers taught him about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and his dad performed the baptism.  His grandfathers served as witnesses and help confer upon him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  Ethan has some pretty amazing people there to support him and love him and we are so proud of him for making the decision to follow Jesus' example and be baptized.

 

 

 

 

The Fastest Trip to Utah

Back in October we had the chance to head to Utah for our niece's baptism and we had a blast visiting with ALL of Abe's immediate family.  It was such a whirlwind trip that I didn't take nearly enough pictures but thanks to Abe's parents we did have some professional pictures taken with everyone that we can treasure for a long time.

 We had almost forgotten what Fall looked like after our time in Texas and Arizona.  It sure was a lovely reminder, although when we had to take a bathroom break on the way back and it was snowing we decided we weren't quite ready for that cold of weather yet.

We can't wait until the next Fish reunion. Hopefully we won't have to wait quite so many years for it to happen again!

Has it already been 18 months?

The 18-month milestone is big in our house since it means that Brooklyn is finally old enough to go into the nursery at church.  I think it is even more highly anticipated than the 1st birthday at our house.  I can't believe how much Brooklyn has changed in the last 6 months so it is a great time for me to catch up on what she is doing.

Brooklyn is starting to realize that she can make us all laugh with her choice of words.  She is getting a little bit bigger vocabulary but it is totally random.  Her favorite words are "taco" and "attitude" right now.  Ethan was getting a lecture on having a bad attitude and Miss Helpful decided to chime in by saying "attitude" over and over again like she was taunting him.  If you ask her if she has an attitude she will smile and nod her head yes.  And she is usually right.  She is full of sass and attitude, just like her siblings.  If you ever ask her what she wants to eat she will always say "tacos".  She can even identify a few places in town that sell tacos and point them out to me as we drive.  She still doesn't say Ethan or Taylor but she can say: mom, bye bye, socks, shoes, up, cracker, chip, ball, dog, no, dad, more, cheese, book, waffle...and a few more.  I need to get a video of the way she says "no". It is pretty darn cute.  She holds the "o" for a really long time and pushes her lips out.  She will probably out

 grow it so I need a reminder.

She loves to scrunch up her face for pictures when she smiles and although it makes for some terrible pictures I love it because it is usually when she is the happiest. 

She loves to dance and loves any type of music.  She constantly begs for "Elsa" while shaking her shoulders, which means she wants to dance to the Frozen soundtrack.  She has learned that it is more fun to dance with someone and hold their hands.  But she is just as willing to shake it in her carseat if she hears a song she likes.  She is still obsessed with books and would let you read to her for hours.   Luckily I have a lot of good readers in the house so no one person goes crazy, except when they are all gone during the day and I have to read the same books over and over again because that's what she wants to hear. She always asks for books to look at in the car so I have to have a good supply ready to hand back while I drive.

She is a daredevil when she tries to keep up with the big kids and loves to stand in the 3-wheeled scooter and rock herself down the drive with its slight slope and she screams if anyone tries to touch her.  She figured out how to climb out of her bed using stuffed animals for boost, which I say as I found her laying on the railing of her bed. But she is terrified of anyone in a mast (which Ethan loves to torture her with), large stuffed animals, Cabbage Patch dolls, and many other toys at the store that are even a little creepy.  She doesn't cry but just says "no" in the saddest little voice to let us know she is freaked out.  She loves to play with older kids but she is a terrible sharer when kids her age try to get near what she has.

She loves being with her big sister and reading together.

I love her sweet hugs and kisses and the little firecracker that she is!

Abe's Loving His Job

After way too many years I think Abe would say that he is back in his element.  He is back in the Army where he gets to do Army things.  I may not understand it but I sure know that it makes him happy.  And we love having him home every weekend and seeing him most nights. 

There are definitely some perks to being the only doctor at the clinic, like a sweet parking spot. 

And not every doctor gets paid to play around in the wind tunnel during the week.  I think any other job Abe ever takes won't quite compare.

 Abe finally got back in the air for his first freefall jump in a very long time.  I don't think I am ready for him to be jumping again but he sure does love it.  Now if Abe could just stop seeing clinic patients and get an ER out here to work in then it would probably be the perfect job.  But we will take what we can get.

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.