More Photos

We went on a few walks but it was very cold!

Kent's creation with Brooke's Lincoln Logs.


Brooke loves the "toys" that Grandma Britta finds. These cups and plate are so much fun!

She loves to dress up!

Christmas in Kettle Falls

We visited Kettle Falls on Christmas day. Brooke got to open a few of her presents! She wore her new hat and cousin Jan and her Dad really enjoyed playing with her new set of Lincoln Logs!

Kent's cousin Jan was visiting with his parents from Canada.

One of Bing's presents was this contraption that rotates you upside down to help your back. It was fun to try!

One of our many wonderful meals was a Danish lunch. It was enjoyed by everyone!

Christmas Party!

Last night, the Icicle Brass Quintet (Kent and I are members of) had a Christmas party. The evening was filled with great conversation, tasty food and music! We sang Christmas carols and the brass quintet performed a few pieces for our guests. Brooke looked especially cute in her Christmas dress!

Sisters!

Practicing New Words

Here's a short video of Brooke playing with Cassy. Her new word is "doggy" and she's learning how to tell Cassy what to do!

Brooke has many friends! In this video we were practicing saying their names. Lately she has started to repeat EVERYTHING we say. Kent and I both didn't realize that we made so many grunting noises until we heard her copying us! We are practiing using two words together "hi dada!". She's getting better at it, but it's only on her terms!

Season of Giving

One my my favorite crafts lately has been knitting. I finally finished this green sweater for Brooke. It has plenty of room for her to grow into, but I'm pretty happy with the product. Today Brooke had a little time to play outside because it has warmed up quite a bit. Good thing Kent cleared the patio so she has room to roam... she is very timid about walking on the snow (let alone touching it!).

As we think about giving gifts to our family and friends this Christmas... Brooke gave us a reminder of the greatest gift of all!

On Stage!

Tonight Brooke was the star of the show! The 7th and 8th grade drama club students invited Brooke to be a part of their winter musical. We had the first of three performances tonight and it went pretty well. She was nervous and almost started crying when we arrived backstage, but made it on stage without any major meltdown.

It's a BOY!

We had our ultrasound today that confirmed the sex of our second child! To much surprise of the women and the "I knew it all along" attitude from the men in the family we found out that we are having a boy! He weighs 8 oz and was actually given an earlier due date of May 10th. The woman giving the ultrasound could not stop talking about how perfect his heart looked. She said that it could be in a textbook for a model heart. That's great news! He was curled up bending completely over with hands and feet together but moved all over during the 45 minute ultrasound. She measured all his bone lengths and took photos of all the different body parts to send off to the doctor's to review. She had the hardest time getting the perfect head photos so at one point I had to walk around the office and she even had me tilted upside down in the bed! It finally worked and she was happy with the photos.

We caught him sucking his thumb (head on the right with hand above)! So far this pregnancy has been such a beautiful calm experience. I can't stop and feel so blessed with this perfect gift from God. The ultrasound during this pregnancy was such a wonderful glimpse to the future. I forgot how absolutely incredible it is to see your child up on that monitor and watch him kick, squirm, and even move his mouth. It was the perfect thing to end a tough week!

16 Months Old

16 months old! Crazy! Brooke is such a little toddler now we need to start remembering she is no longer a baby.

Here are some of her favorites:

Favorite Words: eat, milk, cheese, "nana", light, shoe, and all done.

Favorite Songs: "Old MacDonald, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and a little rhyme called Bumble bee. She is constantly using "E-I-E-I-O" in all the wrong places which makes us laugh. She puts her fingers together like the spider and tries to sing the first words of Itsy Bitsy Spider but it comes out as, "ish-ish-y, Aye...". At the moment she's "napping" in her crib and I hear her try to say the bumble bee song... "mmmmm... bee! mmmmm.... bee!" for "bumble bee, bumble bee" and then she sometimes gets the "up!" and the "down" part of the rhyme.

Favorite Place: Daddy's bandroom and her friend Riley's house.

Best Friends: Riley, she says, "Riiiieeee", Etta and Emma (she's really good at saying both of their names!)

Favorite Drink/Food: Milk and Cheese. She is constantly asking for milk (she drinks a gallon a week!). Too bad her word for milk is "no" (strange isn't it!). She squeezes her hand and says, "no, no, no, no, no...". Good thing she doesn't use the real "no" word very often, but when we're out in public people have no idea she's asking for milk!

Thanks to Auntie Caitlin for watching Brooke a lot in December and taking these photos for me!

Getting Messy

Loading up the spoon or fork with the right amount of food and getting that food into the mouth is a very challenging skill!

Sometimes we forget about the spoon and dive in with our fingers!


Brooke was never interested in much yogurt until I let her have the spoon and get messy! She loved it!

Brooke has a cold. I have to wipe her poor red nose a hundred times a day and we hear her coughing late at night. Amazingly this is her first cold in her 16 months of life! Still, it's so sad to see her feeling this way. Luckily this has not slowed her down one bit. The only change is the fact that she slept 13 hours last night (woke up crying twice) and took a morning nap (she NEVER does this!). Because of the single digit temperatures this week and her cold we've been stuck inside for three days. She is getting more and more creative with her toys and surroundings. Today she figured out this new hat! Her bandanna and hard hat... together! I couldn't help but laugh!

Dad and Me!

Brooke loves to help her dad around the house. When Kent gets home from school they go down to the basement to feed Cassy. She gets really excited and starts saying, "Woof! Woof!". Brooke is even learning how to bring Cassy's food bowl over to her. Tonight she found Daddy's glove and was showing us how she could wear it. She was very proud of it!

When we were up at Grandma Britta's house she was given two metal candlesticks to play with. She played with them for days pretending that they were trumpets. She loves playing with Kent's real trumpets. She blows through the mouthpiece and sings songs into it too.

She really likes to be just like Daddy!

I'm already 16 weeks pregnant! This pregnancy is flying by so fast. I'm also popping out a little faster this time, but maybe it was all that wonderful Thanksgiving turkey!?! This time I felt the baby much earlier, around 15 weeks. Usually when I'm sitting or laying in bed I feel it kicking around below my belly button. The last few days I feel like I have my energy back. During the first trimester I was so fatigued by 11am. We're only about ten days away from the ultrasound, I can't wait to find out the sex of the baby!

Our Christmas tree is much smaller this year... and perched up on our piano. I didn't want to worry about our little tornado and all the special ornaments. It's actually really fun to have something totally different!