Brooklyn 6 months old!

Can you believe that she is already half a year old?! I can't! I'm not sure where the time went but it sure did go by fast! She is still my sweet little girl although she is definitely growing up fast! She has been eating solids since we got home from our Christmas/Wedding trip and she now loves eating rice cereal with bananas and wheat cereal with applesauce. Those are her favorites. The last week or so I started introducing some veggies. She has tried sweet potatoes and likes them okay and today for the first time peas. She wasn't a huge fan, but ate them alright. Her rice cereal with bananas makes her constipated, so I tried giving her some prunes the other day and she hated them! Her face was soooo funny! I had to mix some in with her cereal in order for her to even eat it, but it sure did the trick! :) She usually eats solids once or twice a day now and is getting to be quite the champ at it.

One of her favorite things to do is watch Isaiah. She loves him so much and wishes he would give her more attention. She giggles so much when he will laugh with her! It is the cutest thing ever! Yesterday when I was getting them ready for bed I pulled their shirts off part way so they were stuck on their heads like hats and had them both look in the mirror together. They were both laughing so hard I wish I could have gotten it on video, but Casey was gone and I was holding Brooky so I just enjoyed the moment while it lasted. :)

She also loves shaking her rattles, getting put up high in the air, and looking in the mirror. She loves to rock back and forth and loves slamming her head back into the couch while she rocks. She can sit up really good now, but loves rocking so much I have to be careful or she will just suddenly throw herself back. :) She is also loving bath time and is starting to learn how to make some pretty good waves. I am sure before long they will be splashing everywhere! I think she loves it so much because she can kick those legs as much as she wants in there because she isn't wearing her brace. She still loves twirling her ankles and is such a sweet baby most of the time. Lately she has been a little more cranky and I am not sure if she is getting ready to cut teeth, or if it is the little cough she has that is bothering her. But we sure love this sweet baby and her big fat rolls! And I can never get enough of her chubby cheeks! She definitely knows her name and will always look at you when you call for her. She still usually wakes up once a night to eat, but it usually isn't too bad, so doesn't bother me too much, but I was hoping now that she was on solids that she would start sleeping through the night. Oh well. Here is my beautiful baby and yes i may be biased, but I think she is a doll, even with that big scratch she gave herself. She woke up with it on Sunday morning. It sure was a big one and her fingernails aren't even long!

These are the pictures of her at 6 months old. She is my little doll, even with the big scratch.

I LOVE this cute girl!

She looks so big to me in this one! 

Her hair is starting to get thick and she already has way more hair than Isaiah did at this age. Even if it still is short. :)

These ones were taken just a few days before she turned 6 months, but she doesn't have that big scratch on her cheek, so I thought I would include them too. :)

She smiles so easy and at everyone! I love it!

All Smiles

So Happy

This face cracks me up!

Isaiah took this picture. He has been taking several lately. Most of them I have to delete, but this was a cute one. She actually likes the food, but is turning to look at him and he was so close she blinked when the flash blinded her! :) 

Potty Trained, Flowers, Beach, and MORE!

*Warning this post is long because I decided to put it all together in one post instead of doing several small ones. :) Also has a few "potty words" because Isaiah is now going in the potty! :) Hope you enjoy.

It has been a very good week! It all started when Sunday (Jan15th) I returned home from church to hear the good news that Isaiah had gone pee pee in the potty! I was shocked. Now let me back up a bit and fill you all in.  Earlier in the week Isaiah had gotten really bad diarrhea and his bum was really sore. Thanks to a friend telling us that when her little girl had the same problem the doctors recommended putting Mylanta mixed with Desitin and make a paste to put on their bum. The antacid helps to get rid of the acid that burns their bottom. I though it was worth a shot and sure enough it cleared right up after not long at all. When we put it on he screamed and screamed. Casey had to hold him down while I put it on him. Well he didn't like it at all, but is sure cleared up the rash fast. So Sunday morning came and we weren't sure if he should go to nursery since he had been sick, so Casey stayed home with the kids while I went to church. I would have stayed, but I had to teach my primary class. And when I came home he had gone in the potty twice! I was shocked because I was just the day before telling my friend how he had no interest in going in the potty at all. He was perfectly content on wearing dirty diapers and refused to even let me try and put him on the potty. (Previous to this I had let him pick out his own potty chairs and we bought him Thomas the Train underwear and tried getting him to be excited about going. He never wanted to and would scream and struggle if I tried to get him to even try. He wouldn't even try on the underwear to see how they felt. So I figured he wasn't ready and we would patiently wait until he was.)

So when I returned home from church to hear the news I was shocked! I'm not sure if he decided he was ready because we kept telling him that he wouldn't have that bad rash if he would just go poo poo in the potty. Or if he heard me telling my friend over the phone how he didn't want to and he wanted to prove me wrong that he really was ready and mom doesn't know anything! Or if it was because his dad had the magic touch and was able to convince him in a way that I wouldn't. All Casey did was tell him that he is a big boy and he can go in the potty and that when he was ready to come and tell him and he would help him. he showed him what to do and how easy it is. After Zaya went in his diaper one more time that day he just reminded him again that next time if he wanted to he could tell him and he would help Zaya go in the potty. So sure enough the next time he had to go he came to his dad and went in the potty. And he has been going ever since! And now after one whole week of potty training he is doing so AWESOME!

At first he had a few times where he would get his underwear a little wet and then realize he didn't have a diaper on and then run to the potty to finish going. Then he did have one time on Tuesday that he peed himself and he wasn't too happy about it running down his legs. So after that I think he was determined that he would stop it from happening again. Well it did happen one more time on Friday, but it was probably part my fault. We had been out shopping all morning and he stayed dry the whole time. Then when we got home I put the kids in the house and went back down to finish getting the groceries. When I came back inside a few minutes later he was frustrated/screaming and crying in the bathroom because he couldn't get his pants off his ankle and he couldn't hold it anymore and had wet himself again. If I would have helped him go before I went back down for the groceries I am sure he wouldn't have had that accident. Other than that he has wet the bed the past two nights but the other night kept them dry. I think I just need to stop letting him sneak water to bed with him and this will hopefully stop.

Overall I am SO SO PROUD of my son and how great he has been doing! Never once has he pooped in his big boy underwear and he loves all the praise he gets and how fun it is to pick a treat out of the basket off of the fridge. (It takes him like 5 minutes to decide, no joke!) But I am just happy that he is excited about it and how well he is doing! So much better than I could have hoped for! I always thought it would be much harder than this. So far so good. I never have to ask him if he has to go he will just always run in there and go and when he is done I help him put his undies and pants back on. He is SO BIG! And it is crazy how much bigger he seems now with his big boy underwear on!

Here he is in his dad's hat and his big boy undies!

It's amazing how much more grown  up he looks without that diaper!

So happy to be running around without any  clothes! :)

My little handsome man who lately loves posing for the camera and taking  hundreds of pictures with it as well. :)

On Wednesday we also got to go to a nice dinner hosted by Casey's work. It was held at a golf course in Temecula and the food was delicious! Every employee got to bring their spouse and there were lots of people there! We had a great evening spending some time together without the kids and are so grateful for our good friends Aline and Ben watching them for us at the last second. We had a couple of babysitters that we had lined up. One canceled early on because of mutual (it was new beginnings) and the other got sick and couldn't at the last minute. So we were so thankful for them to bail us out so I could still go spend the evening with Casey. And so proud of Zaya that he didn't have any accident while at their house! The event was really nice and worth the struggle that it was to actually get there.

So my week was already going really well because Zaya was doing awesome at potty training. I had heard so many horrible stories about other kids potty training that I was prepared for much worse. Well then to make my week even better Casey came home early from work with a big bouquet of flowers on Thursday! I was so surprised and excited! Happy that he was home early and I LOVE getting flowers. Although when I saw how many of them there were I was a little worried at how much he had spent! Well my day got even better when I found out that it was only.... wait for it....$16! He got it at a little flower market down the road from our house! I told him that I was so excited that if we could get flowers like this for that price we may just have to stay here forever! I wan't a huge fan of the wrap that it came in so I decided to arrange it myself and decided that since it was so big I would make two arrangements instead. I just wasn't a huge fan of all the colors and flowers all together in the same bouquet. Wish I would have taken a before picture so you could see what it used to look like. Oh well. Anyway here is what it turned out looking like when I was done with it.

So gorgeous and exotic! LOVE it!

I love the color of orange roses and birds of paradise are so fun! 

Here's the second one. It is really simple but I  liked having  the lilies and baby's breath separate from the rest.

So gorgeous!

Thanks again BABE! Totally loved getting these flowers!

 And to finish of our week we were able to watch our friend's little girl Saturday morning. Isaiah absolutely loves playing with Gabby and was so excited to find out that she got to come over and play! I think she is one of his best friends here in CA but that could have something to do with that we see them quite frequently. :) Or it may be all the hugs she gives him and the few kisses she sneaks when she hugs him goodbye! LOL! They had so much fun playing hide and seek in the closet that they were screaming with delight!

Here they are eating their snack of apples and peanut butter

Cute budds!

 Then Saturday evening we went to Oceanside harbor because Zaya had been begging all week to go to the beach and daddy was getting the urge to go fishing again. It had been raining all morning and had been kinda cold but it was still really fun and I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much despite the cold wind. When we first got there we went over to this little inlet to show Zaya the pelicans and seagulls. Then all of a sudden I saw something big surface to the top of the water. There were some seals there and it was so much fun watching them keep surfacing. I kept trying to get a good picture, but I failed. I think the one below has a picture of part of the seal, but not sure. I have never seen seals in the wild before so it was just super neat!

I think the seal is by the gap between the second and third floating doc. Do you see him?

This is on the other side of the parking lot from where the seals were. This is the ocean.  At night people have their campfires going. So fun! Although we always come back smelling like smoke. :)

View from the playground where Zaya LOVES going and the reason why he kept begging us to take him back to the beach. What kid wouldn't want to play on a playground with views like this?

Another view from the playground. In the distance you can see Oceanside Pier. It is the place I blogged about earlier that we went to. These are our two favorite beach spots.

And here's to hopefully another great week! :)

Oh Isaiah!!!!

Not sure how other mom's do it? I can't seem to get into the shower without Isaiah getting into something. Once before when I was showering I heard Isaiah come into the bathroom towards the end of my shower. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "eating chocolate milk." Immediately I though of the huge mess he probably made. I looked out to see the damage and he had a bag of chocolate chips. He had pushed a chair over to the freezer, climbed up and got himself a bag of chocolate chips. Then he proceeded to find the scissors and cut the bag open and eat them to his little hearts content! Well today I hopped in the shower and because Casey was gone this Saturday I put on Over the Hedge for Isaiah to watch while I got in. Well I am not sure if he got this idea from the movie or what, but part way through my shower I hear screaming. Brooklyn is asleep and I knew it was Isaiah! I yell out and ask him if he is alright. He yells back that he is, but he is still screaming. I decide I better get out all conditionary and all and see what is going on. Well he had decided to climb onto the kitchen counter and then up onto the toaster over and was hanging onto the shelves inside the cabinet for dear life! He was trying to reach something (i think either the pecans or marshmallows) on the highest shelf. I got him down and gave him the pretzels which he had already taken out and made sure he wasn't hurt. Then I quickly got back in the shower to finish rinsing off. Well Isaiah was still crying up until I finished showering. After I got out I came out to the living room to see what was going on and asked him why he was sad? He said, "Isaiah's sad because he's too wild" LOL!!!! He was still scared from almost falling off the toaster oven to the ground. I'm not sure what else to do, but a woman has to shower and I don't know  how to ever get in if he is going to keep doing things like this! It really could have been bad had he fallen that far! I feel like a bad mom when this kind of stuff happens, but there is no way to keep him contained and still get a shower in. Anyone have any good suggestions?

Paul's Wedding and Reception!

One wedding down and one to go! What a crazy week it was with Christmas then two weddings! Isaiah and Brooklyn did great considering the fact that we spent about a total of a day and a half (36 hours) in the car over the course of about 10 days! Our new portable TVs saved our lives on this trip! Totally worth the money! One funny thing that I have to add in real quick. On the trip Zaya was being a little bit of a stinker because he was tired. Well I asked him if he was going to behave and he said, "No I'm NOT bein' HAVE!"  Well I really had to try not to laugh because it was pretty funny. Now he sometimes will say "I am being have mom!" Oh the funny things kids say! We did have a great time though and were really glad that we were able to make it out for both of my siblings weddings. Paul and Kylie got married on Friday the 30th in the Salt Lake Temple. The sealing was awesome and it was really neat to have my Uncle Paul be able to seal them. It just added a nice special touch. Since our  FIVE year anniversary happened to fall in between the two weddings we decided rather than try and squeeze it in, we would wait to celebrate it after we return home to California.

Me enjoying the chance to hold the bride's bouquet! 

Coming out of the Salt Lake Temple

So cute!

Love this one!

So happy and cute together

Still can't believe my little brother is married!

Me with my cousin Maurina

Bride and Groom with the Parents

Paul with his siblings (except Pete who is on his mission and Mary who was so kindly babysitting all of our kids at the hotel so we could be there!) Thanks again Mare!

So happy for them and excited because it was such a warm day considering that it was the end of December in  Salt Lake! Not even any snow! Can you believe it?

And another of the cute couple

Sweet Mary watching all her nieces and nephews and a few others so we could be there for the special day.

Izky holding Brooky who had fallen asleep on her lap! So precious.

Aunt Coyote making sure she gets her share of this baby while she had the chance. :)

Her she is again with her hand in her mouth. 

The reception in Sandy Utah

Had a cute little love bird theme

Paul getting a hug from his nephew Zaya

Mommy enjoying a little dance with my Brooky

What do you think do we look alike? I still think she looks like her dad. 

The two beautiful girls in their beautiful dresses and Kylie's hilarious dad in the back! 

Paul singing to Kylie while Jen played for him. Don't remember the name of the song, but it was really good!

Here is everyone listening to the song. I was getting teary eyed so it must have been good!

Getting ready to cut the cake

Cutting the cake

Feeding each other cake :)

 After the reception was over our family, and my sister Jen and Mary all went to Temple Square and met up with Ben and Jamie and their kids and looked at the Christmas lights. Zaya also liked the horse and carriages that we saw and the bagpipe man.

Here we are piled in our car headed over to see the lights. Mary is clear in the back seat with the strollers! Looked so funny I had to get a pick!

 Temple Square Lights

Zaya having fun

Our family at temple square. Brooky is in the stroller.

My sisters Mary, Jen, Jamie and Me. (Jamie I count you as a sister.)

Here we are at our friends Kyle and Melanie Kropf's home. They were kind enough to let us stay with them on our way through Vegas. It was good seeing them again and we were so excited to find out that our other good friends (the Peruch family) were also in town as well! So good to see you all again!

L to R: Melanie, Kyle, Bryce, Isaiah, Casey, Rachel, Brooklyn, Rachael, Cosette, and Nathan

Happy New Year Everyone!

Be sure to click on older posts if you missed the ones of my sisters wedding and  the Christmas post. :)