Annual Pie Night

We had been debating whether or not to do Pie night since we are leaving town and we usually do it the night before Thanksgiving. But on Wednesday, we decided to go for it! So we planned it for Monday night and it was a hit! We had almost 40 people and nearly 20 pies..Needless to say, no one went home with an empty stomach! My mom and I may have gotten a little out of control..We made 10 pies between the 2 of us, but we were on a roll and just couldn't stop. We had fun visiting and celebrating the season of Thanksgiving with lots of friends and delicious pies!

Love doing fun things my mom! We're a good team. The only thing that would make us better would be Alyssa..and we are going to see her tomorrow!

Brynlee snoozed with our cute neighbor and Brooke had the time of her life with her friend Jessica. A good time was had by all!

"Princess on Disney Ice"

We had been hyping Brooke up for Disney Princesses on Ice for awhile and she didn't let us down! I got to tag along while Grandpa and Grandma took Brooke to the show and it was so fun! I think we spent more time watching her face than we did watching the show. She had so much fun at what she calls "Princess on Disney Ice" and was thrilled that Minnie and Mickey were there! That was like a dream come true for this girl who is slightly OBSESSED with them. She wasn't a fan of Tiana (the Frog Princess..she's never seen it), but she loved Cinderella and Rapunzel! Grandma and Brooke had movie night each night the week before to watch the princess movies. When a song came on that she remembered from the movies, she would get the biggest smile on her face and say, "I know this song! It's my favorite!"..she said this like every time :) It was a fun night, complete with milkshakes afterwards and a late bedtime (although that's pretty common around here!) We will definitely have to go again!

Fun with Grandma..Tea Party and Santa

The girls are lucky to have such a great babysitter when I work. My mom was watching the girls on Saturday and my mom made an impulse decision, after having a tea party with Brooke, to take the girls to the mall to see Santa fly in on a helicopter. She made a mad dash to get the girls ready and they got there in time! She went with my sis-in-law, Ashley, and her four kids. Although Brooklyn was afraid of Santa (despite our many efforts to prepare her for sitting on his lap but she got closer to him than she would have if her cousins weren't there with her. 

Tea Party with Grammy. Wish there was one of Grandma and her together but someone had to take the picture I suppose. They had hot chocolate and toast. Brooke is now obsessed with tea parties. So fun!

Santa came out of the helicopter and of course Brooke cried.  But overall she had fun and is lucky to have such a fun grandma! Brynlee enjoyed it by sleeping the entire time!

"I Voted"

In the {now} infamous state of Washington, we don't actually get an "I Voted" sticker. Everyone votes by absentee ballot, which is actually quite lame and a bit anti-climactic. Since the voting was in and of itself not super exciting (especially knowing nothing we wanted was going to go our way anyways in WA), we decided to have a fun Election themed dinner. Oh how we love our themed dinner parties around here!

So we wore our red, white and blue while we prepared our patriotic dinner and listened to Fox News reporting on the election results. The dinner was a success! Unfortunately, the more serious issues we were hoping for were not, which did put a bit of a damper on our dinner/dessert. Darn it. But we will move forward and hope and pray for the best.

Infants are so much easier to take pictures of!! Toddlers=Impossible! But we tried several times as you can see..At least you can tell we have American Pride!

 If you look closely at our Election Ballot you will see my most favorite detail of the dinner :)

 Brynlee joined us at the dinner table..She looks like she's longing for the days when she can actually eat with us

Don't let this picture fool you..Brooke is our little {almost} vegetarian. She pretty much only eats highly processed meats such as hot dogs and lunch meats..ya know, the kind that are really good for you..ha!)

This cake is so fun!! We are going to have to make it again with different colors for different holidays.

Our little strawberry lover just like her grandma! She downed this in no time!

Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun Halloween festivities around here! Dinner in a pumpkin, carving pumpkins, Trunk or Treating, Trick or Treating at the high school, Jack-o-lantern pizza and Trick or treating Halloween night. Halloween is so much more fun with kids!!

 The most adorable sunflower and Minnie Mouse

 Grandma and the girlies

 Our traditional Halloween night jack-o-lantern pizza

 Nerdy grampy and Brooke

Potty Training

Brooke has been showing signs of readiness for a couple months, but I kept putting off potty training due to a sense of dread evoked upon me by talking to many other moms. I said I would do it, then didn't, and so on. Finally last Monday (a week ago), I decided to just get it over with. The weather was crappy, we didn't have anything important to do, so we went for it! 

I read that it could be done in 3 days so I figured even if it totally sucked, it would only be for 3 days. The first day she went through almost all the 15 pair of underwear we had, I cleaned up several accidents (mostly on the wood floor thankfully), and asked her "Do you need to go potty?" until I was blue in the face. It wasn't too bad. 2nd day was great! I think she had one accident. But still, I was taking her frequently, she wasn't telling me when she needed to go. Wednesday was okay..a few accidents and I was going a bit stir crazy being inside for 3 days, and I was just grumpy (the opposite of the patience needed for potty training). Thursday we ventured out to lunch with some friends from the ward. This is when I realized why automatic flush toilets are no bueno! It flushed while Brooke was on it, and so she pretty much refused to go after that. So at the end of lunch, it all came out and it was time to go home :). That night we went to a BYU vs. Gonzaga volleyball game and she did great, no accidents. So pretty much, it really did take 3 days. She hasn't had any problems since I think Friday, and she tells us when she needs to go, and all that dread that I've had for so long is over! (At least this time around...) We are still doing diapers at night because I'm not willing to give up more sleep than already necessary with a newborn, but she has woken up dry from her 1.5-2 hour naps everyday but the very first day.

 

I wanted to document that it wasn't as bad as I had built it up to be. Although I realize she is very smart and it probably won't be this easy next time. As in, I have had tons of help from my parents, and from Curt with his sweet internship hours, which was a HUGE blessing! Thanks mom and dad for all the trips to the potty! We think she is adorable in underwear and is even more grown up :( I want her to stay just like she is forever! (Even with her attitude and bossypants :)

Brynlee's Blessing

Sweet Brynlee Ann was blessed by her daddy, along with Grandpa Murphey and Papa Barnes on Sunday, October 14th. It was a beautiful blessing, and Curt stayed composed through her screaming during the entire thing (darn feeding timing just didn't work out!). Nana made her blessing dress and it could not have been any more gorgeous! LOVE it. We were able to celebrate the special day with grandma and grandpa Murphey, Nana and Papa Barnes, Alyssa, Cooper, Sadie and Parker, Ashley, Kylee and Chase and my aunts, Barbara and Sue. We went up to dinner at the Richardson's house afterwards. Barb, Ernie and Sue made a delicious dinner and it was so nice of them to do that so the day was much less stressful!

Brynlee was blessed with many wonderful things. Health and strength, to be a righteous example to others, to be a peacemaker and that she will choose righteousness and be married in the temple someday. She will lift others, be a strength and an example of virtue, and live a worthy life and return to Heavenly Father someday. We are grateful to have this beautiful daughter of Heavenly Father in our family and are blessed by her sweet disposition and content manner each day!

My monthly update

Since my last post was technically written in September, we'll call this my monthly update! And it has been quite the fun month, so far!

Curt is loving his internship with the Central Valley School District, and I LOVE his hours! He is only gone from 8-3:30..sweet! I had to go back to work the middle of September, but since it is only every Friday and Saturday, it's a pretty good set-up, and pays the bills :-)

Brooklyn is our entertainment, as always. She is 2 1/2 and acts like it :) She is spunky, sweet, knows what she wants, and is addicted to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (like seriously, she might need therapy for her addiction!) She talks ALL THE TIME and is very smart. She loves to read. The other night Curt went downstairs and Brooke was looking at a book and she said to Curt, "Look daddy, I reading a book," while she said the words she memorized. She has an amazing memory and knows if we skip a page or miss words in the books we read fairly regularly. She loves songs and I love hearing her sing! She loves singing the "Clean-up song" and is actually pretty good at cleaning up while singing it. She can sing lots of songs and it is so sweet! She loves taking her clothes off (must to my dismay :). She is a little girly girl, loves getting her nails painted and her hair done, and has to have flowers in her hair. If I tell her we are going to do something in the morning when I'm putting her to bed at night, she holds me to it! Can't pull a fast one on her. She has so much energy and is fun-loving. I want her to stay like this forever! She is the best big sister, and continues to amaze me with how much she loves Brynlee. She gets me diapers for her, puts her binky in and loves to make her smile. She loves when "Brynee talking to me," and cannot wait until she is big enough to play with her. We love our little Brookie!

Brynlee is as sweet as can be! She has been a wonderful addition to our family. She has been an awesome napper since day one (taking several 2 hour naps a day), and falls asleep on her own after being down only a couple minutes. She was really good at nights for awhile at around 6 weeks old, sleeping at least a 6 hour stretch every night. But she has regressed a bit and now eats at usually twice during the night. Not the best, not the worst. She has always gone right back to sleep after eating and that makes the nights totally do-able, since we are only up for about 15 minutes with each feeding. She pretty much only eats 6-8 times a day and  She is so happy and content, loves to smile and giggle and brightens the day! She has crazy hair that is difficult to tame, continues to have a clogged tear duct with a goopy eye (that we hope goes away soon), and loves bath time! She loves to look around, and has beautiful big eyes. The verdict is still out on if they will be blue or brown, but my guess is they will be brown like her sisters, and Curt is holding out for blue. She is gaining weight and growing up too fast! This is such a fun age with her. She loves her binky and loves sucking on her hands. We just got the Bumbo out yesterday and she seems to love sitting up like a big girl looking around. She still sleeps in a pack n' play right next to our bed and I actually have come to love having her right next to me. At first she kept me up a lot with her moans and groans, but either I have learned to sleep through it or she sleeps more quietly. She only cries when she needs to burp, needs swaddled to take a nap, or is hungry. She loves being swaddled..it's the best invention ever! We love our sweet Bryn and couldn't have asked for a sweeter little baby! 

The month of October has been fun so far! My sister and her kids came to visit to kill some time before they move into their new home the beginning of November. I might be a little jealous that they own a beautiful home, but mostly I'm really happy for them and can't wait to see it! We had so much fun having all the cousins together, and we had a long to-do list that we checked off. We picked apples at Greenbluff, painted pumpkins, made caramel apples, played at McDonald's and visited grandpa at work, made candy haunted houses, rode the carousel downtown, made my grandma's potato donuts, played dress-up, lots of walks to the park and wagon rides, made and decorated sugar cookies, went ghosting, had baths with grandpa, lots of books, TV, movies and toys, toys, toys! We were busy busy with them and loved having them! Can't wait to see them at their new house for Thanksgiving. 

Summer was...

a crazy fun time for our family! Can't believe it's over. It was quite a whirlwind with lots of fun memories! Aside from the small adventure of adding sweet little Brynlee into our family (who by the way isn't so little anymore..3 months old and over 13 pounds!), we have had lots of fun times and made some great family memories! Since Brynlee was born, we have spent time with my whole entire family for the first time in 4 years, gone to Montana twice (once I took the girls without Curt), bought a van, gone to Seattle, sent Uncle Tate off on his mission, gone to Utah and to a resort in Idaho. Quite the travelers we have been. Lucky for us, we have the world's 2 greatest passengers! Our girls did amazing on every trip we have taken and we are SOO grateful!

About 10 days after Brynlee was born, we had all 16 people in my fam together at my house. The house was full and crazy and so much fun! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the greatest shape physically (being that having a baby the "natural" way tended to be a little more rough than I had anticipated), but it was still lots of fun being together. We had our "1st annual Murphey Family Sprint Triathlon." Sam was the only girl in our family that participated (maybe next year for me :), but it was fun to cheer everyone on and they all finished! Sam also planned an adorable baby shower for Brynlee. It was such a fun time with so many friends/family and delish food. We hung out, played games, ate lots and loved catching up with everyone.

Two short trips to Montana which included lots of 4-wheeler riding (while Brookie LOVED!), walks, enjoying the beautiful views and spending time with more family. Brooke has been talking about "antenna" (Montana) all the time since and begs us frequently to "go to Antenna to ride the four-wheeler ride."

Bought a 2002 Honda Odyssey van with 85,000 miles. It was a lucky find! And lucky that my bro-in-law Spencer was willing to check it out for us, seeing as it was in Utah :) Somehow, we finally were able to commit to buying one (since we have been looking for months and months), and it has been fantastic! Brooke's favorite feature, which she tells everyone when our new car is mentioned, is the dvd player. Needless to say it has been well used with all our traveling.. We are loving the space and the automatic doors. We feel like we are living high class. It doesn't take much to make us happy :) 

A quick trip to Seattle to watch a Mariner's game before Troy left back for school. Went over on Tuesday night, spent the night in a hotel, went to Pike's Place Market the next morning, then to the game, then home! It was fast and furious and fun! And the Mariner's actually won, a rare thing these days.

Our biggest trip was to Utah. We were gone for about 12 days at the end of August. We went down for Curt's brother's wedding, and decided to make a vacation out of it by staying the next week. The wedding was great, Brooke and her cousin were the most adorable flower girls, and it was fun seeing Curt's side of the family. We spent the next week in Park City (at least the nights), and did something fun everyday! We went to the Zoo which the kids loved, I met up with a nursing school friend and had fun chatting with her, went to Temple Square, City Creek mall, went to BYU, Park City outlet mall, and the BYU football game. We were on-the-go the whole week and we wore the kids out with no naps. We loved spending time with the James' and we are thrilled about their move to Utah so we can see them way more often!

And now we are back to reality (and actually have been for almost a month, with Curt going back to school the end of September)! Which happens to also be fun (usually anyways). We love our girls and feel so blessed everyday! 

Brynlee's Birth Story (Long Overdue!)

I have been meaning to post this for about 2 months (Wow, time flies!) but haven't gotten around to it till now! It's way too long and graphic

I had been having Braxton hicks contractions for several weeks, but since it wasn’t painful, just an uncomfortable tightening. Occasionally I would have some cramping in my back, like how it felt when I was in labor with Brooklyn, so I was hoping when I went to the Dr. on July 5^th that I would have progressed a little bit. He didn’t check me at the appt so I didn’t really know where I stood at that point. 

I worked the 10^th and 11^th, and then Wednesday night (the 11^th) went up to Lucy’s to watch So You Think You can Dance. I thought I kinda felt a weird sensation of fluid, but didn’t think much of it because I knew it wasn’t my water breaking. When I got home and went to the bathroom, there was some blood I figured I lost my mucus plug. The night went on mostly as normal, although I wondered if something might be up with the weird discharge. I took my heparin shot as normal at 11pm, thinking if anything were going on, it would be longer than 12 hours before it would be anything really serious. Curt and I were about to go to bed, I had brushed my teeth and had my PJ’s on, and then I realized that although we had talked about getting Slurpee’s since it was 7/11, we hadn’t done it. So at about 11:15, I popped up, went upstairs and told everyone we needed to go to Zip Trip and get Icee’s (that was the best we could do without a 7/11). In the process, I started having what felt like some contractions. There were in my back and were painful, but tolerable. Sam downloaded an App on her I-phone and we started tracking the contractions. They were 5-7 minutes apart while we went to get Icee’s and for a while afterwards, lasting about 45 seconds.

 I didn’t want to call the hospital prematurely, so I waited a while but they weren’t going away. After almost an hour, I called and the nurse told me to take a long, warm bath and drink a big glass of ice water and then time the contractions for 30 minutes afterwards and give her a call back, and if we didn’t call her back, she would assume they went away and we went to bed. The contractions continued in the bath. Afterwards, we timed them for about 20 minutes before calling and letting the nurse know they were 2-3 minutes apart lasting 45-50 seconds. She told us to come in. Even though we had talked about packing a hospital bag for weeks, I only had a few things put together so Curt ran through the house putting all the stuff we still needed together and Curt, my mom and I headed out the door at about 1am.

We got to the hospital about 1:30am. They checked me, I was dilated to 3.5-4 cm and almost fully effaced and they admitted me in active labor. They hooked up the monitors, put in an IV and Curt helped me focus on breathing through contractions. We asked about an epidural, but because I had had the heparin at 11pm, the anesthesiologist wouldn’t even consider doing an epidural for 12 hours after that, which would have been 11am. So, I figured that for at most the next 10 hours would be very painful and I would have to get through it pretty much medication free. At about 3am, the nurse offered me some IV fentanyl. The contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart and lasting about 60 seconds so I decided to have some to at least take a little edge off. 

I had been awake since 5:30am the day before since I had worked and I was exhausted (actually we all were!). The meds may have helped a little. I had them check me again a bit later and I was 6 cm dilated. I was hoping it was further since I was in so much pain, but just kept trying to breathe and get through the contractions one at a time. At 3:30am they gave me a dose of ampicillin, since I was group B strep positive. It is all a bit of a blur in here but around 5am, I was having so much pain. The contractions were so terrible. My mom said I was transitioning and I hoped that meant I was very close to having a baby. Brynlee’s heart rate dropped at this point (as it had a few other times and they would come in and reposition me), and the nurse was trying to get me to lay on my side, but both of my hips had a sudden terrible burning feeling. I couldn’t really stay on my side because of the pain and I said to Curt, “I can’t do this.” Obviously I didn’t really have much choice at this point. I thought I was getting the urge to push, but then I’m not sure if I was just trying to push hoping to get it over with faster. My water broke on it’s own at some point and would leak out with each contraction. At about 5:30, they checked me and I was almost fully dilated and was fully effaced and they said I could start pushing. The nurse, Ashley, that was coaching me during pushing was awesome. I pushed for 3 cycles during each contraction for about 20-25 minutes (skipping a couple contractions because I needed a break). They told me they could see Brynlee’s head with each pushing, but then it would go back up after I stopped pushing. That was frustrating, but also gave me the motivation to push harder to keep her from going back in. The doctor came in at about 5:50am and I pushed a few more times and even though it was super painful, I knew we were so close.

 I gave it everything I had and out came little Brynlee Ann at 6:03 am. We heard her cry soon after she was out and they put her on my chest to clean her up. The first thing we all noticed was how much dark hair she had! Someone asked “Has anyone check to make sure she is  a girl?” Curt lifted up the blanket and said, “Looks like a girl to me!” She weighed 7 lbz 7 oz and was 20 inches long. The doctor took over 30 minutes stitching me up which wasn’t a very fun process (3rd degree tear=No fun!), but Brynlee stayed in the room the whole time getting weighed, measured, etc so I tried to focus on her, even though it was hard. I was so worn out after everything that I could barely stay awake. I felt like I was in a total haze and after he took pictures of her and held her, Curt fell asleep. She laid on me for a while and it felt surreal.

 It all happened so fast I am still in awe at how our lives forever changed in such a short period of time. We are so blessed to have Brynlee Ann! She came out with a good set of lungs and used them frequently her first day of life outside the womb. But afterwards, she mostly just whimpered when she was being bothered. She slept most of the time in the hospital and didn’t eat as much as she should, so her bilirubin levels went up and she had to have it checked the day after getting out of the hospital. The first night, we were both so tired and I want to let Curt get some good sleep so I undressed Bryn down to her diaper and laid her directly and on chest (like the lactation nurse had told me to do for safety so I wouldn’t drop her when sleeping), and her and I slept like this for about 2 and a half hours. I don’t even think she made more than a peep. She is so sweet and snuggly and is such a special blessing in our lives! Brooklyn got to meet her the afternoon she was born. She wasn’t really sure what to think at first, but was very sweet with her. Brynlee also got to meet Sam and Trent, Troy, Tate, Grandpa, Nana, Madi, Papa and Lucy in the hospital. We are loving life with baby Brynlee and think she is just the sweetest, cutest little thing!

Meet the Miss..

Brynlee Ann Barnes was born on Thursday, 7/12/12 at 6:03 a.m. weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long. The birth story will be coming soon...as soon as I can stay awake and focused long enough to write it down :) I delivered naturally (although not really by choice) and luckily, it was fast. Brynlee has been such a sweet baby! We are so blessed to have her in our family, and Brooke has been an awesome big sister so far! So far we have survived the first almost week as a family of four.

Brooklyn's 2 year pics

I may have been a few months late in getting her pics done, but they turned out so dang cute! Since she is 2, I hoped she would cooperate for a few, but I wasn't expecting her to be the little model that she was. However the photographer put her hands/feet, she was like frozen in place and smiled so sweetly. She did so good having her pictures taken, and I loved every picture, so even though it was more than I wanted to spend, I just had to have the CD. Which is actually nice since I can post pictures without scanning them. Here is our little 2 year old princess!

Things I want to Remember: 

• This girl is obsessed with nursery. She mentions nursery at least daily. If we sing a song that she has sung in nursery she says, "sing it in nurshy." And she always talks about her friends from nursery, "Emmy, Hunter, Ty ty, Ivy, Knox"...it's so cute! I don't think she's actually that interactive in nursery, but she sure things she is a social girly! The other day when I was getting her out of her crib from her nap, I asked her what she dreamed about and she said, "I dream bout nurshy." I love that she loves it so much because the first couple months were a little rough of an adjustment. My mom is the new nursery leader so hopefully Brooke isn't too needy for her. Only time will tell!
• She is a crazy book lover. If her room is a mess, it's because of books. I will tell her to get 2 or 3 books before nap/bed and she is always trying to sneak a few extras (which how can you say no..) She fills in the blanks on so many books and will sit still forever being read to. It's great snuggle time so I will never complain! She loves going to the library and checking out new books and I love seeing her excitement for books and reading.
• She knows all her letters, the sounds they make, can count to 10 pretty well, knows her shapes (the basic ones), and colors. (Colors took a little while but she has them down!) I swear the girl remembers way more than I even imagined and watching her learn is amazing!
• She pooped in the toilet twice this week! She is starting to be a little interested in potty training (more the #2 side of it), so we got her a princess potty seat (the one that goes on top of the regular seat) and she loves to sit on it and looks like such a big girl. I would have loved to have her potty trained before a new baby, but it just didn't work out that way. I have a feeling in the next couple months, we'll be spending lots of quality time together in the bathroom!
• She still looooves music! Curt put in Primary CD's in the car the other day (he's nicer than me..the kid voices kinda drive me crazy), but she begs for "prophet" every time we get in the car. So we have been listening to lots of Primary songs and she has started singing along in an adorable high pitched voice. She loves songs with actions and her latest frequent request is "listen heart" (If I Listen With My Heart), which we sing before every nap and bedtime. 
• She started out this spring hating grass, curling up her toes if she stepped on it, but mostly trying to avoid it. But we have gotten over that and she will run and play like a normal child (yay!). A few weeks ago she had been playing in the grass and got some in the bathtub that night. She freaked out, crying and shaking, and wanted out of the bath immediately. And then the next two nights (even though there was no grass), she all but refused to take a bath. We still washed her, but it was forced and she did not enjoy it. Thankfully it only lasted a couple days then she was back to her normal self loving her baths. I often wonder what goes through kids minds...wish I knew! If she is that afraid of a few pieces of grass in the water, it could be a loooong summer!
• She loves to swim. We just got passes to the YMCA and she's been swimming a few times and loves it! (Another improvement over a year or so ago). She gets a little crazy dunking her head and has swallowed her fair share of water, but she still loves it! We love going down the slide and playing with her monkey inflatable. 
• The other day after I put her down for nap, I heard her crying a scared cry saying, "bubblebee." I went in her room, and sure enough, there was a bee buzzing in her curtains and she was laying exactly how I had tucked her, totally covered up, too scared to even move apparently. I had a heck of a time killing the bee, but I did it and all was well! She things flies are bumblebees and freaks out when they are in the house. Darn the bad luck I was going to teach her to kill flies/bees/spiders so I didn't have to. Looks like that plan may not work..at least not for a while!
• She loves all the attention she gets living with family. She is quite spoiled and quite manipulative to get what she wants (she knows if she asks grandma or grandpa, she'll get it so she just bypasses us). Kids learn that young. She loves having Uncle Troy home from his mission and will miss Uncle Tate so much when he leaves next month.