Brooklyn

She goes by Brookie, Brookielyn, Brookly, Brookaboo (Weston's favortie), and Brookadee. I have to have nicknames for my kids and she has a ton! She is eight months old now and such a delight to us. She is getting a little bit more vocal about how she likes things and what she wants. If any of us leave her sight she screams, we walk back in she's as happy as can be. If she drops a toy she wants it back right now! Weston is pretty quick to give into what she wants. We finally moved her up into her room and out of ours just about two weeks ago and she is finally sleeping through the night. Well, by my standards anyway, which mean a full 11 hours. She is happy, sweet, gives hugs and kisses, and we just adore her. Weston is always telling her how much he loves her and how cute she is. He'll say "you're such a cutie baby, Mommy she is SO cute isn't she" "You are so precious to me, Brookieboo" It's pretty sweet. He does not like it though when he puts his toys in her mouth. "Mommy she's going to get it all wet, and yucky!"

At six months she was 14 pounds 2 ounces and at seven months was 14 pounds 3 ounces. She got pretty sick during that month with RSV, pneumonia, and a double ear infection. So she ended up losing some weight but I was surprised to see she didn't gain more than that. It's so funny though because she is definitely a chubby chubster and I love her big cheeks and her rolls on her little thighs.

My Westie

I can't believe that he is coming up on 4 years old. Okay so he still has a little over four months to go but it will be here soon. Probably about the time of my next post! ha ha

He has done a wonderful job of being big brother. No one can make Brooklyn laugh like he can. I think it's been a little hard on him adjusting but he is always so sweet to her. He is constantly saying Mommy isn't she SOOOO cute? The other day I told him he is SOOOO cute too and he said no Mommy I'm a boy. Then I said well you are SOOOO handsome and he was okay with that!

A few things about Weston at 3 1/2

Favorite Color- Red. Lately everything he has been coloring has been all red.

Favorite place to eat- Pei Wei and Hasta La Pasta or as he says Pasta, Pasta

Favorite Food- Spaghetti and pizza

Favorite thing to do - play outside and ride his bike

He loves to play baseball and play with friends. When asked at school during Thanksgiving what he was most thankful for he said his good buddy Caleb. He even told a worker at the YMCA that he and Caleb were brothers! Weston is funny and has a great belly laugh. He loves to color and can color for hours on end. He makes up songs about things we are doing and loves to tell stories. He has a great memory and asks lots of questions.

Here is a conversation of ours when I was dropping him off at school and we see a friend of his.

Weston: Mommy God didn't make Reba

Me: Well of course he did Weston

Weston: No, she told me that her Mommy did

Me: hmmm. . .

James Dobson's book "The Strong Willed Child" was definitely written for him. I think later on in life this will benefit him but it makes parenting him difficult at times. He is persistent, smart and likes things in order. Of course he always knows what to say to make me laugh or change the subject. During a battle of ours one day I told him he was making me very angry and he said "I don't make you angry I make you happy!" Well what do you say to that??

We were playing with blocks the other day and he wanted to make a parking garage for his cars. We lined up blocks and stacked up blocks and I decided to make the block go at an angle just for something different. Weston looks over at it and says "Mom it doesn't go like that it needs to be like this." He promptly moved it back like it's "supposed" to go. He is a lot like his Daddy!

He played soccer for the first time in the Fall and had a lot of fun. Jeremy was one of the coaches along with our friend Tommy and another guy. After the first game Jeremy and I were a little worried that he was to young and we shouldn't have started him yet. We went back and forth with we can't let him quit but should we continue? It was that bad! There were 11 boys on his team and about 9 of them cried the whole game, wouldn't play, and said they wanted to go home, my boy included. He also didn't understand that there was only ONE ball. After the game he said those boys weren't sharing that ball with me. Thankfully there is a Houston soccer team and we found the game on TV. We watched it with Weston and told him we just wanted him to have fun and that there is just going to be one ball and that's how you play. After a few more practices the second game went so much better! He had a great time, made some good friends and scored some goals. We played with two of our friends and made it a tradition to practice, play and eat pizza!

A Super Hero and One Cute Flower

Brooklyn's Parent Child Committment

We had Brooklyn's Baby Dedication at Second Baptist. There must have been 70 babies and their families there. Weston's was big too but not anywhere that size. It's great to see so many families committing to raise their children in the church and to love Jesus. It was a great weekend Nana and Dado came to watch, Granna and Papa drove in from Midland, and Collin was in town visiting Meagan so they came too! Meme and Acie were also in town staying with Mom and Dad so they even got to be here!

Isn't her dress beautiful?! Mom found it before Hunter was born hoping that someday a granddaughter could wear it to her dedication. When three boys in a row where born we figured that it might have to be a great granddaughter! Finally Brooklyn came along and it looked so pretty on her!

Our Little Pumpkin

Here is Brooklyn at four months. She weighs 12 pounds 4 ounces and is sleeping most of the night. She is so happy and all around a wonderful baby. I can hardly remember life without her.

Sheila had the idea on Hunter's first Halloween to put him in a real pumpkin. We have done it with all the kids and it always turns out so cute! Here are some other cute pics from Ocotber.

the water didn't look that green when we took the picture!

Just a little update

I have tons to post about but at least wanted to get up a few pictures of my kiddos! A fast summary (I will come back and add to it later). Brooklyn is happy and smiling all the time, ahw is going to be three months tomorrow, why does time go by faster with the second one? Weston is going to be Batman for Halloween, he tells everyone we see he has a Batman costume, he asks at least 10 times a day when can he go trick or treating and wear his Batman costume (it's going to be a loooong month) Mops started up again, the playgroup started up again, we started bible study at church, Brooklyn's baby dedication is the end of next month, she had a bible presentation last week, Weston has started playing soccer, Jeremy is one of the coaches and things at our house are crazy and it's going great!

Brooklyn at Two Months

At two months Brooklyn weighs 9 pounds and 3 ounces

Three Weeks Old

The last three and half weeks have flown by. Brooklyn has her days and nights confused but it hasn't been to bad. For some reason in our bed with me holding her she falls right to sleep but put her in her bed and she automatically wakes up. Hmmm. . .

I will however stand by my belief that you can't spoil a baby under three months. Ask me where I stand on this after a few more nights of little sleep! The good thing is that she is not up all night screaming and is pretty or should I say VERY content with someone holding her. Usually there is someone around that wants that job. At one point in the middle of the night Jeremy gets up and says she might be getting a little spoiled! What's funny about this is that he walks over to her crib, picks her up and sits in the chair with her until she falls asleep.

I do love this newborn time. She is just so tiny and precious it's hard to put her down.

I love this picture because she rarely has her eyes open. She looks much bigger than she is in the pic and Mom doesn't think it really looks like her but it's still pretty cute. I also just love it when babies yawn I was so glad to catch this.

We were getting in the car the other night after going out to eat and put Weston in first then Brooklyn. Weston looks over at her and said "i don't like her and want her to go back to the hospital." I told him since we kept him we would probably keep her too. The one thing about Weston is that he loves to get a reaction out of people and see what you are going to do about it. We choose to ignore a lot of this. We start driving down the street and he says "Mommy I like her" I asked him if he still wanted her to go back and he said no. I am glad he decided to like her again.

Brooklyn (Bookwyn as Weston says) Rebekah

She's here!! Brooklyn arrived June 27, 2007 at 2:16 pm. We were all a little off on our weight guesstimates. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces and came out with a full head of hair! We were told at our 3D sonogram and at the 36 week sonogram that she would completely bald. To quote the sonographer "she doesn't even have peach fuzz" They were wrong!
When we left the hospital Brooklyn dropped down to 6 pounds 3 ounces but by her two week appointment was 7.1! She definitely has eating figured out.
The last few weeks have been a little crazy and we are figuring out our new normal. Thankfully we have had lots of help and company.
Weston has done fantastic and we are thrilled at how much he loves his sister. When she was about a week old we were getting ready for bed and Weston said "Mommy thank you for my baby sister" It did take him a few weeks to realize that I was his Mommy and her Mommy. I put Brooklyn in her bed and said "Mommy will be right back" Weston looked at me and said
"You're not her Mommy" I think he's figured out now that I can be his Mommy and Brooklyn's Mommy. It's hard to believe that we have only had Brooklyn for three weeks it seems like she's always been here.

My big belly!

The countdown is definitely on! Brooklyn comes this Wednesday, June 27! We can't wait to meet her. Weston is excited (hopefully that will last) and most of the family is coming down. We are going to finish up last minute details this weekend and then just wait around until Wednesday for her. My c-section is scheduled for 1:00 pm so I will get to the hospital around 11:00 and then all is set.

Jeremy and I are trying to guess her weight at the 36 week sonogram she was 6 pounds 1 ounce which is exactly what Weston was when he was born at 37 weeks. Jeremy thinks she'll be 7 pounds 6 ounces and I say about 7 pounds 12 ounces. But guess we'll have to wait until Wednesday to know for sure. My belly is definitely bigger this time around but I have also gone two weeks longer than I did with Weston. All in all this has been a great pregnancy. Well at least once I got passed the first four months. Everything has been easy breezy since then. I always measure exactly where I am supposed to and haven't been miserable by any means. I am definitely ready for her to come out though! I have not been excited about another c-section but judging from my last appointment I think it's the only way to get her out. I have ZERO progress and no other real signs that she is on her way. She hasn't dropped, I wish she would just a little I haven't had a deep breath in about four weeks! YAY SHE'S COMING WEDNESDAY!!

Here I am on my 29th birthday 29 weeks pregnant.

and this is me last week at 37 weeks.

Baseball, this is serious stuff!

At least it is when you're three! Weston LOVES baseball, he loves to watch it, play it, and talk about it. His teacher at school told me that when he woke up from his nap he had baseball on the brain and talked about it until I came to pick him up. He really likes all sports but baseball is the favorite, for right now anyway.

Fishin'

In our neighborhood there are several "lakes" that you can fish in. Mom, Dad, and I took Weston one night when Jeremy was out of town and he thought it was okay. Now he loves it! We didn't have any bait laying around so Dad said we could just use corn. I feel like a girl should be able to bait her own hook and I can definitely do it if we use corn! All I had was Mexi Corn but the fish must have loved it because we caught five! You can also throw the corn in the water and watch huge minnows attack it. Actually Dado, Nana, and Weston caught five, I caught zero because for some reason I don't have the fisherman knack. I think what scared Weston at first was that he thought the fish were going to bite him. He would look at the water and say I don't want that fish to bite me! Once he figured out they bite the hook and not people he felt a little better about it. Now he talks about fishing all the time and how he is going to eat a big catfish but only the tail and the head. Don't know where that came from!

This just cracks me up!

One Friday night we didn't have much going on so decided to drive down to the Lake. When we told Weston we were going this is what he grabbed. His suitcase, goggles, and a baseball cap. Apparently this is proper lake attire.

See Diego

April and May are big celebration months for us. We have Weston's birthday, my birthday, our anniversary and Jeremy's birthday. I will say most of the weight I have put on with this pregnancy happened during those two months. Not one to ever shy away from cake and especially not while pregnant I ate LOTS of cake and dessert and ice cream and the list could keep going, during April and May. . . Anyway to celebrate we took a vacation to San Diego! We went to Legoland, the San Diego Zoo, a Padres game, and made it several of the local beaches. We were a little shocked at how cold it was but part of that may be that we are from Texas, Houston for that matter. It didn't stop Jeremy and Weston from walking in the ocean and getting in the pool! On the way to the airport Weston kept saying we are going to See Diego! We are going to See Diego! We would say you're right San Diego! When he started mentioning Dora we figured out that Weston thought we were actually going to see Dora and Diego his favorite cartoon characters. Jeremy and I looked at each other and said he might be in for a big letdown! Thankfully he thought the shuttle from the airport to the rental car place was pretty cool so he forgot all about Diego and Baby Jaguar! In fact I would say that shuttle ride was one of his highlights! Then to make it even better we had to rent a minivan which Weston thought was super cool. Much to Jeremy's dismay it was the only car they had available. Jeremy argued with the rental car girl and said we didn't rent a minivan we rented a full size CAR! I didn't think it was to big of a deal and at least we would have more room. But it was a little hard on Jeremy's ego to drive through San Diego in a minivan, which I thought was quite funny! The whole trip Weston talked about our new minivan and that it was cool!

Franklin

Whenever we asked Weston what his baby sister's name was he would say it's Franklin. Brooklyn - Franklin kind of the same I guess but not really. Jeremy thought it was funny and would say Weston where is Franklin? Then Weston would point to my belly. The whole family laughed and said we could call her Frankie. Ummm I don't think so. Thankfully he's gotten over the whole my baby sister's name is Franklin and he now calls her Brooklyn.

It's been about 4 months since my last post and lots has happened! I would say that I'll be better about blogging but I've said that before and I'm never one to set unattainable goals for myself. :)
We had a 3D/4D sonogram when I was 30 weeks. It was so amazing! She wouldn't let us get confirmation that she is in fact still a girl but it was so precious. When the sonographer would tap my belly to get her to move she would frown like it was really irritating her. We also saw big dimples just like Jeremy and Weston's and it looks like she might be a thumb sucker.



She looks like a girl, right?

It's a . . .

GIRL!!!

We think she 's pretty cute! Her name is Brooklyn Rebekah. Brooke D'Lynn Nichols was one of my best friends that passed away almost five years ago. I can't think of a better person to name my baby girl after. She will have some pretty big shoes to fill. My prayer is that Brooklyn will have the same passion and love of life and family that Brooke did.
We are doing Rebekah after my Mom and my middle name. We thought about having her middle name be Faith since we have really had to rely a lot on faith throughout this pregnancy. But I have pretty much decided that she needs to be named after Mom too. I have always liked that Rebekah was a part of my name and I think Brooklyn will too.
I can't wait to meet Brooklyn. Only 20 or more weeks!!
We told Weston tonight while he was playing with play dough his response to "Weston you are going to have a baby sister" was "Yeah, I'm making a baseball" He's not quite as impressed just yet. The funny thing is he has been talking about his baby sister long before we knew what she was.

Our big news. . .

With thankful hearts we get to announce that we are having another baby! Due the 4th of July! One of the reasons I have been so behind on my blogging is because I had hyperemesis. It's a condition where the normal morning sickness is greatly elevated and lasts all day. Thankfully there are all sorts of medications and they helped immensely. I had a pump that went into my thigh and pumped anti nausea medicine into me continuously. I had to wear it for about two months and finally got to take it out yesterday! I am doing much better and it's all well worth it. We also had quite a scare in the beginning of the pregnancy. My HCG levels were not doubling like they should have and after much blood work and a change in doctors this baby is doing fantastic! We are so thankful. By God's amazing grace this baby hung on and we learned that the only thing to get us through was faith. Sometimes we just have to be reminded of that.

Jeremy should definitely win Dad and Husband of the year. He did an amazing job taking care of us. There were a couple of times where he went to work at 4:30 in the morning so he could come home during the day. He cleaned, he cooked, took care of Weston and was an amazing support. Jeremy we LOVE you!
I felt a little guilty since Weston can now turn on the TV get a DVD out put it in and turn on the DVD player. But in the last two months he has learned most of the letters and the sounds they make. So at least he was learning something. He also started speaking some spanish after watching Dora and Diego for the millionth time.