Big Sister To Be

In light of our last post, I figured I'd better go ahead and throw out yet another Brinlee photo montage!

You didn't think I was going to let this baby come without at least one more of these, did you?  What can I say, her "only child" status is almost expired!  Might as well soak up every last drop. And I mean seriously.  Just look at that face.

Oh how we LOVE this girl!

These past couple weeks, aside from feeling tired and swollen, I have felt super excited about seeing her as a big sister!  She has seemed so grown up to me.  She is so stinkin' smart, and fun, and cute, and sweet, and loving.  She runs around like crazy and yacks all the time and brings us so many smiles and laughs.  We just basically can't get enough of her!

It has been a little sad to think of losing the one-on-one time with her.  But not as exciting as it has been to think about her rubbing off on our new sweet little one.  She is so excited for baby sister to come!  It makes my heart happy  :)

What a special, awesome little person, 

and what a perfect soon-to-be big sister! 

Any Day Now

Well I had my 37 week appointment today.  Baby Sister still looks awesome, AND they deemed me the blessed full term!  In other words, this baby is cleared to come any time.
Hallelujah!

I remember this part with Brinlee.  It's an odd mix of excited/nervous/don't know what to plan for/feel totally under control/feel totally unprepared that, in the end, mostly just leaves me exhausted.  But all around, I think we are more than ready to meet this sweetie...

We have meals in the freezer,

an infant car seat buckled in,

clothes and blankies washed and in the closet,

a crib set up,

overnight bags packed,
an excited mama and daddy,

and one very anxious soon-to-be big sister!

Now all we need is for this little one to go ahead and make her grand appearance, any day now!

Skinned Knees

Awe childhood...

Life sure can be rough.

Treat Box

Growing up my MawMaw and PawPaw always lived kind of far away.  It was a bit of a bummer, but they were awesome about making the distance not seem so bad. They made visits, sent cards and letters, called often on the phone, and a couple times a year, they would send treat boxes.  

Those were awesome!  They were never related to any holiday or special event, just at random times our family would get a big box on the porch full of all kinds of goodies.  We loved it!  I still have saved some of the little things that came in those boxes.  It was such a fun and special thing for us.

Well.  Now Brinlee's MawMaw lives kind of far away, and today on our doorstep we found a special, fun surprise!  MawMaw and Aunt Amy had put together an October time treat box, and boy was Little Miss Brin in heaven!  There were toys, and books, and jammies, and happiness!

She was VERY excited about it!

Mom and dad got some treats too, and they came just in the knick of time.  Tim made it through a rough study session or two, thanks only to a package of mint Oreos.  And a good old batch of yellow cake and chocolate frosting took care of a rather long, tiresome day for me, as it always does.  What can I say?  My mother and sister know me too well.

Thanks ladies for the fun surprise, you so totally rock!  You made some happy campers out of this little family  :)

Hocking Hills

We decided to take a day with no chores and no homework and get out to enjoy some nice fall weather.  Tim whipped up a delicious batch of french toast this morning, and when we were all stuffed we headed to Hocking Hills State Park.  We had heard good things about it around this time of year, and we weren't disappointed!  The fall colors were amazing!!!  And we were pleasantly surprised how hilly it was.  A little taste of home!

We did two small hikes (read: two leisurely walks in the woods) to a cave and a waterfall.  Brinlee climbed in some dirt and rocks - aka heaven!, and BeBe Sister took the off-road walk way better than we expected.  Mama was happy about that!  

Yay for family days out!

Totally Feeling Fall

We are tickled pink to have Fall finally here.  It is totally the best time of year!  We've already eaten two batches of caramel corn (not tough for a 34 week pregnant woman to do), and have officially broken into the sweater side of the closet.  That's the best part!
(Mom here's your belly update.  Baby Sister is doing swell.  And getting big!)

We even got some Fall and Halloween stuff up.!
I know, I know, I'm going against everything "me" and attempting to do Halloween this year... not my forte.  But Brinlee has been in heaven, and it's dang cute to watch!  She's a true kid already, loves anything Halloween.  We still need to get some bats and ghosties up in our twig tree, but she has watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown probably 500 times and cannot wait for costume candy night to come.  Kids do make this holiday better, so bring it on I guess!

We did some painting the other day.  She points out the "cover-foe weaves" (that would be colorful leaves) every time we leave the house, so I drew her a tree with falling leaves and set up some Fall-time paint colors and let her go to town.  Best entertainment ever!  For both of us  :)

 We hope you are all welcoming fall as happily as we are!  :)  Here's to a splendid October!

Conference Time

Well our General Conference weekend was wonderful.  And it was actually semi-successful!  We had talked to Brin about conference, so when it came time to turn it on, she was actually fairly excited to see "Pesident Monson" and "the umposles" talk  :)

When she realized what conference really was though she wasn't as excited.  She spent some time napping, some time reading books, some time rolling on the floor, and a decent amount of time begging to watch Toy Story instead.  Over all she actually did awesome.  But in the end we all may have gotten a little distracted.  Thank you i-Pad.

We love and sustain the Brethren and are grateful every day for the blessing of the restored Gospel and for living prophets.  It really is true happiness!  

If you missed it, be sure to catch up.  It's a must see!

Goodbye Passie

I had been feeling a bit like a failure as a mom lately.  We attempted a round of potty training a few weeks ago and it was a disaster!  I won't go into details, but I will say neither Brinlee or I have been emotionally ready to give it another shot just yet...

BUT!
I decided I could feel a little bit better about myself when out of the blue we very smoothly and very successfully became a pacifier-free zone!  I'm still not sure quite what happened.  We were down to doing passie for only bedtime and nap.  Every so often I would put Brin down without offering it, but she always ended up realizing what happened and would holler until she got it.  What can I say, I'm weak.  Well, a few nights ago she went to bed super happy and distracted, so I decided to not offer passie...
She went down like a dream, slept all night, I gave her a treat in the morning for being such a big girl, and neither she or I have mentioned it since!

It's been a week now and she hasn't once looked back.  Success!  I am more optimistic now about the potty thing.  Perhaps one day she'll just do it and never look back.  Everything with toddlers is that smooth and effortless and easy... right?