brooklyn turns TWO!!!

we spent brookie's actual birthday day having so much fun as a family. we waited for daddy to finish his peds shelf exam and get home fast...to open presents! she was so excited, maybe mommy was just a little excited too! i wanted to get some pictures of her that morning to remember. once daddy got home we opened presents...

a stroller and baby from mom and dad
a diaper bag filled with goodies for baby from grandma and grandpa barrus
a movie, tinkerbell, tinkerbell dress, and more from grandma and grandpa bingham
and brody picked out his own gift that he wanted to get brookie this year all by himself....he got her tinkerbell shoes....she loves them
she also got a princess hooded towel that she adores (christian and mo had one for alina and brooklyn loved using it while we were visiting them)

after presents and dressing up we loaded in the car to get lunch and go shopping some more. we took brooklyn to the mall to get some fall clothes and play in the play place. she demanded bringing her new baby doll and stroller to push around. she also didnt take off the dress up dress she received from grandma so she looked like a princess. then we came home for naps and that night we had a ward party to attend. brooklyn had a fabulous party. she is my little baby doll that i get to play dress up with and spoil her buying all these fun toys that i would have wanted as a little girl myself. josh said, "it is so fun buying her girlie things" and she is such a GIRL! with turning two she has the attitude that comes with it now. she loves to play pretend with brody. she loves her fingernails painted. she loves loves loves to read books. i probably read to her for an hour or more a day. she is a great eater and will always eat all her veggies first. she loves princess stuff. she sings songs all by herself now and loves to learn new songs. her favorite person in the whole wide world is her daddy. doggie protects her from lightning. she is scared of lightning. she sleeps with blankie, sheepie, baby abby, and millie moo cow. her favorite color is pink. she likes to wear stick on earrings and get dressed up. her favorite book is millie moo. she is just a beautiful little girl and mommy and daddy love her to pieces. happy birthday baby!!!

presenting princess brooklyn

(cutest thing EVER!!! while we were setting up for the party we were listening to disney princess music, brody dressed in his "prince charming" outfit went up to princess ainsley and asked her "ainsley, want to dance with me?" how dang cute is that. i have a little heartbreaker for a boy. so they started dancing and i grabbed my camera as fast as i could!)

the romantic couple

birthday girl brooklyn

birthday girls together

brooklyn wishing ainsley a happy birthday


she's TWO

we played pin the jewel on the crown

when planning this party i realized oh no...the only girls coming to our princess party are the birthday girls...all the rest were boys. so different than last year when all we had were girls and brody was the only big boy. so the princesses made crowns...this was brooklyns favorite part of the party...and the boys decorated top hats. it was sure cute.

brooklyn kept coming up to me during the lunch and demanding "i want to open presents!" it was so adorable. she was so excited for everything. the BIG brothers had to help their sisters open the first few presents, until the little sisters got the hang of it and didnt want help anymore.

birthday girl ainsley

i was so proud of brookie....she blew out the candle all on her own. good girl!

for brooklyn's birthday party this year we planned a princess party. she is SOOO into the disney princesses ever since we went to disney world. we thought we would add to the fun and make it an priness etiquette party with "tea party" food and all. i have been planning this party for awhile when in june....a resident family moved in. ian is just a few months older than brody and ainsley is two weeks older than brookie. calli well she is just the best EVER!!! we were instant best buds. i asked her what she was doing for ainsleys birthday and upon finding out i asked her to do a combined party with me. i couldnt have made brookies party as fun or as cute as i did without her help. the girls were thoroughly spoiled to pieces and the moms had too much fun making it all happen. thank you to all the moms and kids who came and spoiled our girls as well. we love all of you.

aquarium

i dont remember what this one was called

us


calli, ian, and ainsley

elise and braydon

the group

brooklyn didnt know what to think of the seals

braydon

last week we had the chance to go to the aquarium with some of the med student families. with so many of us here now we all have different memberships to different places. elise was so kind to use her membership to get us all in to the aquarium. our little family had been here twice before and it was okay but not great. the last couple times they were in the process of remodeling. well now its done and it is AMAZING!!! we literally could have stayed there all day. the kids had to much fun running around to see all the different animals. i have to say i acted like a kid myself since a lot of the animals i had never seen before. thanks elise for taking us. we truly had a great day.

morning hair

so there is a picture of me as a kid with crazy hair sitting on a red chair watching home videos. i love that picture and this picture of brookie reminded me of my own childhood. morning hair runs in our family.

botanical gardens

one of the best things we did this spring/summer was to get a membership to the botanical gardens. it gives us something to do for free for the next year and we LOVE it! this place is seriously amazing. the kids love to go and run, play, smell the flowers, ride the train, go to the butterfly garden, splash park, etc. this summer they did an enchanted forest where they built little play houses all around this trail. each house is designed after a fairy tale story. they have jack and the bean stock, alice and wonderland, the old woman and the shoe, three little pigs. it is so much fun. pictures of the houses will be coming soon. our summer days have been so full of fun.

prayers and priesthood

well as most of you already know i did not have to have surgery. our prayers were answered when i went in for another ultrasound and the cyst had gone down to 2 cm. we are so relieved, grateful, humbled, etc. i am so grateful for the priesthood josh holds and that through that priesthood i could receive a beautiful blessing from my Father in Heaven. i truly believe that that blessing had a huge impact on keeping me at peace with the entire situation and comforted no matter the outcome. the doctors will continue to watch the cyst and hopefully in a couple months it will be completely gone. i am so grateful for everyone's support, prayers, phone calls and thoughts. i felt stronger because i knew all of you were there for me.