Almost 26 months!

Brooke is a lot of fun! She loves to play and has really wanted me to play with her more lately. She is into dolls, princesses, playing chase, reading, little people, playing with Bernard, and coloring. She is talking very clearly and doing great with potty training again. I ultimately had to stop using pull ups, even we go out. She knows that she can pee without consequences in a pull up. We also started giving her MM's which helped with the potty training.

This last weekend we also changed her bedroom around, giving her the opportunity to grow into her room as a toddler instead of a baby. She has done great in her big girl bed and really loves it! Her first two naps were a little shorter than her normal naps, but she is now back on track. She is very busy and I am having the hardest time getting her to smile for pictures. The only time she ask for a picture and will smile is with Bernard.

Birthday Menu

I tried new recipes for Brooke's birthday and Kyle and the guest seemed to really enjoy the food. I thought I would post some recipes since everything I did turned out very nicely.

Menu:
Chicken Kebabs
Rice pilaf
Tzatziki sauce
Salad
Pita Bread

Dessert:
Chocolate cake with chocolate and buttercream frosting.

The original recipe can be found here, but I changed a few things based off what I had available and what I wanted to spend time doing.

This fed four adults and two toddlers with some leftovers.

6 chicken breast cut up in chunks marinated for at least an hour.

Souvlaki Marinade

12 tbsp fresh lemon juice

6 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 rounded tbsp smoked paprika
1 rounded tbsp of sweet paprika

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 cloves minced garlic

After marinading the chicken for an hour I diced up half of a red onion, one green pepper, and one red pepper.

You can skewer the chicken and grill them, but I didn't realize that I was all out of skewers and tried broiling the chicken. It turned out SO yummy. I broiled the chicken for 20 min (I think), tossing the veggies and chicken half way through. The broiler caramelizes the chicken and veggies similar to the grill, but because it is sitting in juice keeps everything really moist. I would adjust the time in the broiler based off the thickness of your chicken.

Place the chicken with the rice pilaf and tzatziki sauce on the side (can be found on the link above or buy it from your local grocery store.)

*My changes to the recipe include adding two more chicken breast, not pounding the chicken out, doubling the marinade recipe and instead of two tablespoons of smoked paprika, one smoked and the other sweet. I also broiled my chicken instead of grilling it on skewers.

My friend does this amazing thing for salad dressing that is fresh and keeps a salad from turning into another way to eat fat.

Salad:
Baby greens
Grape tomatoes
Red onion
Shredded carrots
Feta cheese
Persian cucumbers

Dressing:
Just put all the ingredients directly on top of the salad before serving

A good squeeze of lemon
Garlic salt
pepper

Then you can have fun with it by adding different herbs. For this salad I added fresh mint and dried oregano. Then experiment with vinegars as well. I used a good splash of red wine vinegar on top of the salad.

Toss thoroughly and enjoy!

As for dessert I used this recipe for both the chocolate cake and frosting. The only change I made was whole wheat flour. It actually tasted really good with whole wheat flour. The recipe for the vanilla buttercream turned out perfect and made a ton. I love being able to freeze homemade frosting for other occasions!

My baby is 2!

Having a two year old feels... weird. It is way weirder than having a one year old. I can't believe how fast time is going; each year has been faster and I need life to slow down. This birthday was extremely emotional for me. Brookelyn being two means she officially is a toddler! I know that she has been a toddler for awhile now, but the number is making a big difference in my head.

Brooke is such a blessing to our family. She is wild, sweet, cuddly, busy, dirty, and preppy all at the same time. She has just the right amount of girl and a little tomboy to keep it interesting. She is learning that she has the ability to make her own decisions and I am learning how to help her make the right ones. Being a parent is hard, but I am so glad that I have the Bible as my guide, a wonderful husband to lean on, Godly friends for support, and a gracious and forgiving child. Thank you Jesus for another wonderful year full of laughter, some tears, good health, and the Holy Spirit to help guide us through this process.

Here are some pictures from her birthday. We had a party in Fresno with family and friends and decided not to have anything in San Diego for her and just do our own thing. It worked out well since our friends came over dinner and they helped make the evening special for her.

I thought my Minnie Mouse cake turned out pretty good

Isn't that the cutest cake! My friend Sandee made it and it was delicious!

Daddy couldn't travel with us that weekend. We sure missed him!

Lists

I totally don't have time for this post, but I have basically been writing it in my head since lunch. Brooke is napping the rooms of the house that I can see are picked up; I deserve a little break to write, right? Do you ever put expectations on yourself that are unnecessary? I do all the time! I decided to write this post, because I need to know I am not crazy, would love some prayers, and want to share so that in turn you could encourage me.

I have family coming in town for the weekend. If it was my parents, in laws, or even my siblings, this would be no big deal. But it isn't. It is family we don't see often enough visiting my home. My house can't just be clean, it has to be organized and squeaky clean. Right now I don't know if it is all going to get done without a couple late nights involved, which I was trying to avoid to stay rested.

Let's go back a little bit to set the stage...

I had a fun, but exhausting weekend. I drove home from Fresno Sunday night and when I woke up on Monday I felt like I had been ran over by a semi. I decided to take it easy; just like that Monday is gone! Tuesday, I ran some errands organized and cleaned out half the kitchen cupboards, cleaned and organized Brooke's room, did two loads of laundry, and put away laundry. TUESDAY IS GONE! Today is Wednesday and I have cleaned out the storage closet and reorganized it. Cleaned above the fridge, ran more errands, more laundry, cleaned out the freezer, and cleaned out the computer area. I would like to clean my floors today, dust, and organize the extra room. I have Thursday and Friday left. Here is the rest of my list:

Clean out fridge
Clean bathrooms
Vacuum
Change sheets
Clean my room
Organize my closet
Sew a dress
Finish sewing my toss pillows
Finish another dress
Run one last errand
Finish all the laundry

Now that list doesn't seem to bad, but if you could see the extra bedroom right now, my closet, the bathrooms, and my bedroom- you would think I was crazy.

With that being said, I know that most of these things aren't necessary, but what better excuse to clean out and clean up then when family comes to visit. I am so excited that they are coming and I am determined to get it all done! These are all things I have been meaning to do for awhile and I love the pressure of a time limit to get it all done. The best part about all this fun stress is that I have been very diligent about reading my Bible every morning and afternoon. YEAH for me! Please pray that I do not let the stress of my own busy-ness keep me from getting rest. How about you guys, do you do crazy stuff like this?

With all that being said I am doing this with a happy and thankful heart! I am ecstatic that our family is visiting and I couldn't think of a better reason to be busy.

Singing to her baby

Playing with friends

We have been so blessed to be surrounded by amazing parents with wonderful children. Brooke loves playing with her friends and I love the fellowship I am receiving with their mommy's. As you can see they love her just as much she loves them. Thank you for showing my family God's love. We are truly blessed!

First Day at the Beach in 2011

Our first trip to the beach was on Sunday and we had so much fun!!! Brooke loved the beach and despite the cold water she couldn't get enough of it. She kept running back and forth into the water. The waves would knock her down so we had to hold her hand the whole time. Here are some pictures from our adventure!

Feeding Daddy!

She loved playing in the sand too!

Splashing in the water! She has no fear so we have to be right there next to her always. It was a lot of fun and we are so excited to take her there again this summer.

As you can see in the video, Kyle is freezing the minute he gets his feet wet, but Brooke just wants to keep going again. Crazy kid!

Counting to 10!

She misses the number 6 and other than 5 that is smooched together with 4 all the numbers are very audible. I love the little rhythm she decided to put in between some of the numbers.

Brooke Update

I can't believe that I haven't updated the blog in two months, but we have been very busy. Kyle is busy with work, grading speeches, and grading papers. He is currently busy getting ready for finals and trying to make a beautiful outside space for Brooke and I to hang out for the summer.

I have been busy writing my thesis and I am so excited to be done!

Brooke has officially entered the crazy toddler stage. She loves to just run around the house making crazy screaming sounds and fake laugh sounds. She is hilarious! She is talking up a storm and can repeat any word we ask her to say and is speaking in sentences. She can say her numbers up to 10 and we are practicing her colors. She can sing parts of the ABC song and loves to play in the water, even if it is cold- my little fish already. She loves to sing, read, Bernard, and coloring.

She loves play-doh and riding her bike too! Her hair is getting longer, finally, and I am having fun putting it in pony tails. She is so sweet and such a good girl. We love her so much and feel so blessed to have been picked by God to shepherd her to know and love Jesus.

She loves ice cream and asks for it everyday. She doesn't love green beans or watermelon. She doesn't like food too spicy and will spit it out and rub her tongue for a little while, kind of funny! She is really good at using her spoon and fork for most things, but there are some things that I still let her use her hands.

She is waking up anywhere between 5:30- 6:30 and it seems pretty early for me. We have tried putting her to bed later, but that doesn't work. In fact she woke up at 5am the morning after we put her down at 8:15am. Needless to say we are back to 7:30-7:45pm bedtime.

Tug of War

Last night Brookelyn started playing tug of war with Bernard. She would bring the toy over to him and they would tug for a little while. Then Bernard, being a good boy, would give in and let her have it and Brooke would just give it back to him too cute!

A Quiet New Year

Kyle and I spent New Years home of course with Brooke, although she still went to bed at her normal bed time hour. I made little snack foods for me and Kyle, we rented Inception, had hats, horns, purchased our yearly board game of Yahtzee- we had big plans. Well after the movie, which was intense, I was exhausted. I looked over at Kyle and said,"You will never guess what I am about to say." And what I said was...."I am tired and want to go to bed." His reply, "Thank goodness!" We were in bed at 11pm this year- not like me at all. Oh well!

Christmas

Relaxing with Grandpa

I think this was one of my favorite Christmas's as a family because this year we were able to see parts of both sides of the family; this year Grandma and Poppa Ferguson were with us in San Diego on Christmas morning and it was our first Christmas morning at our house.

Playing with cousins!

Christmas Eve morning!

We spent December 15th- 24th up in Fresno with my family. We had a great time! We got to see a lot of family and spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. Brooke had fun playing with Grandma in the morning, while Kyle and I got to sleep in! Thanks Grandma! Brooke had a great time playing with her cousins and opening presents on Christmas Eve morning. Because we weren't going to be there Christmas morning we had our Christmas morning on the 24th. Brooke loved opening her gifts more then the actual gift. She got Lego's, a Tickle me Elmo, all my old Disney stuff animals, a cute rolling backpack, books, and DVD's. Then we headed out to San Diego to pick up Poppa and Grandma. We were expecting heavy traffic, but it was smooth sailing the whole way. God is good!

She loves Legos

Tired girl after opening lots of presents.

Watching the Balloon Parade. She loved it!

We picked up Grandma and Poppa at the airport at 7pm and we let Brooke stay up past 9pm to hang out with them. Then we proceeded to get everything set up for Christmas day! She ended up having too many gifts to open up, I went dollar store crazy, and she didn't finishing opening them until the following day. Highlights of the day were, Minnie books from Poppa and Grandma, going on a ride in her new trike, playing tea party, and making us dinner. Poppa made us a delicious Prime Rib with his yummy cheesy potatoes. My friend Jen joined us and made us the most delicious peanut butter mousse pie ever!

Santa came!

She was so happy about to get in her trike.

The rest of the week was a blast. We went to the zoo, spent a day up in Julian, enjoyed the Holiday Bowl Balloon Parade, and Brooke was spoiled in every way by Poppa and Grandma. It was a precious week, with precious memories and we were so thrilled to have them with us. We love you Poppa and Grandma and wish we could see you more!!

Playing at the park!

Riding her Trike!


Not sure why she is saying please in this picture.

Walking with Poppa and Grandma in Julian. She wanted to walk the whole time.

Looking at the elephants.

The new elephant exhibit is amazing!

Playing with Grandma

Such a cutie!

There was music playing at Seaport Village and she stopped to dance. Grandma joined!