Brooklynn's First Halloween!

Brooke went as NEMO!!! She sure is cute. She loved her costume. (Not so much the head part but she tolerated that part.) I think she liked having a big belly.

Here is Brooke and I Trick or Treating at Jeff & Emily's house. I was a Target lady.

Here is Brooke with all her loot. (Yeah, that is everything, we only made it to about 5 houses.)

Am I a bad mom because I let Brooke have some sucker? She LOVED it. She wasn't sure what to do with the gum in the center. (Just kidding, she didn't get even close to that part.)

Julie wins the coolest and most creative costume of the year! Brooke wanted to take a picture with her future boyfriend on their first Halloween together. :)

A Strange Snack...

We had to finally get rid of our black chair. It kept getting worse and worse and we weren't sure what was happening to it...we figured it out. A little monster has been EATING it, piece by piece.

Kids really do eat everything.

Birthday Weekend in Michigan!

Erin, Grandpa Bean and Uncle Bill all had birthdays and were in town this past weekend. EVERYONE was there. (Well, all the Beans, anyway.) What a fun weekend!

9 Month Update

Brooke is 9 months old today. I can't believe it. This is a hard one for me; for one she is 3/4 of a year old...ALREADY. Also, she is as old as how long I was pregnant with her. That is crazy.
On the other hand, this is one of my favorite ages. She is in SUCH a precious stage. She isn't quite walking so she is still a baby and needs us, but she's old enough where she can do so much on her own and she is SO PROUD of herself. It's pretty fun playing with her.
Just this week she started being able to open her books and turn the pages. This is quite a development because she's always loved books, but the only way she's played with them on her own so far is chewing on the edge of the book. Now she looks like she's "reading." So cute. It keeps her busy for several minutes, which is a LOT for
something to keep her busy with these days. I usually have these monthly updates mostly if not all the way done ahead of time...not today. I'm really going to try not to be late with these in the future, but no promises.
Brooke is always standing. She gets mad whenever we try to interfere with her standing. She's getting really good at it too, cruising all over the place. I am definitely on my toes lately, trying to

keep up with her.
We're not looking forward to our 9 month Doctor's visit this month. Now that she's a little older I think it will be even harder because she is a little more aware of what is going on. I'm hoping she's tougher and it will be a breeze. It's harder on me than her, I'm sure.
We are leaving for Michigan for the weekend! We're very excited to see everyone! I'm off to go pack!

Brooklynn's Road to Crawling

Grandparent Central

Brooklynn got to spend the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Bean, Grandma & Grandpa Ashley and Great Grandma Ashley. What a great time! Thanks for coming to stay with us! We miss you already!

4 Generations

Brooklynn got to meet her Great Grandma this weekend! We were so excited for this moment. She lives all the way in Wisconsin and we don't get to see her that often because of distance. But this was a very special event and we were excited to get 4 generations together.

Brooklynn's Dedication

Brooke was dedicated to the Lord this Sunday! We were so excited. This was a very special day for our family. We had both sets of Grandparents, Great Grandma, Great Aunt Dale and several of our friends make it to support us. Thank you everyone for sharing our special day.

We will do our best to be examples of Christ to you. We hope that someday you will accept Jesus as we have. We are so excited to see what God has in store for your life!

The Latest with Brooke

Brooke has still barely mastered full crawling. She CAN do it, but if she has to get somewhere she usually army crawls. I'm still waiting to get a video of it. She simply WILL NOT do it for the camera. She did it for like a week, and then realized that she just has to scoot over somewhere to pull up on. She really only wants to stand. All the time. Even in her sleep.
When we try to get her to lie down to change her clothes or diaper she FREAKS out so much that you would think we pushed her over. I actually am so very careful so that she can see that she didn't just fall, but she gets so mad at us. I have even tried the standing up diaper change but she's not quite stable enough to stay standing so she falls over.
Josh and I both think she will be walking soon, even though I am REALLY not ready for that at all. I thought the crawling would be hard enough to keep track of her. I wasn't prepared for her to do it for a week and then skip to walking. I am afraid that is where she is headed. She can even stand balanced without holding on to anything for a few seconds. She does it by herself, too. She'll hold onto something and then let go and look up like, "Look at me...look what I can do! Look, Ma, NO HANDS!" It's funny.
I read somewhere yesterday that kids that are Brooke's age are exploring things with their hands more and putting less things in their mouth. I do not think she got that memo. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She ate almost an entire wrapper from a can the other day. I was doing dishes and I thought I threw it away. I must have dropped it near her and didn't notice. Then I look down and it was almost completely dissolved. I took it away and told her "NO" and she was so mad at me. I can't believe how upset she got at me taking her candy I mean trash away from her. Today she was chewing on my highlighter which I thought was safe. I looked back over at her and her whole face was black from the ink that was on the bottom. It looks like she grew a little baby beard today. And the worst is that since it's fall there are always these itty bitty leaves that somehow end up all over our carpet. She loves them. She eats them like popcorn. I can't even keep up with the cleaning them up. I vaccuum like twice a day now and they still seem to get in her mouth. She also loves to eat my coupons. Actually anything paper, but especially coupons. I think they look like potato chips to her or something.
There are no pictures on this post because I am at work and BOTH kids are sleeping! Hurray! So I don't have any pictures anyway. I have also not had a chance to really do much on the computer because Brooke is all over the place. She won't let me sit still that long. One of these days...
She's still cute. People keep telling me how big she's getting. And her hair is out of control. It's past her nose now. She's generally such a happy girl.
We are really looking forward to both sets of Brooklynn's Grandparents AND her Great-Grandma coming into town this weekend for her dedication. It's going to be a fun and busy weekend. :)

Sleep Deprivation...

The last two nights Brooklynn has been up at least 6 times but I think closer to 8. Sometimes she will eat and go back to sleep, and then wake up crying...other times she just wants to be held. I am exhausted. She is fighting a cold (runny nose, cough, etc.) and I'm assuming she is just having trouble sleeping, but also has been up a lot lately from all the teeth she's getting. (Ok, just two so far, but I think there are more on the way). Her and Josh have both been sick the last few days.
I'm surprised I'm functioning at all.
I'd say within the last 2 or 3 weeks or so she started waking up at least 3 times a night. It used to be only one at around 5 or 6...we are seriously backsliding.
I hope this is just a phase. I think it was easier to deal with when she was a newborn and I expected her to wake up all the time. Now that she WAS sleeping better and now that we're back to the waking up it is so much worse. (that and when she was really little she was in our room; now I have to walk to her room and I'm bumping into everything because I'm like a walking zombie.)