I heart her!

Alice in Fallapalooza-land

We have had a great couple of weeks, busy, but so fun! We have been to 3 pumpkin patches, VCS' Country Fair, Halloween Parties, and Tim's brother Todd came to visit! So for Halloween this year we went to our church for their annual Fallapalooza, which is like a big carnival. Tim was was working the youth side with paint ball and bounce houses so Todd, Brooke and I walked around, played games, and got candy...I am not even going to try to lie...the candy was totally for me! It was such a fun night!

my little Alice

Brooke and Uncle Todd being silly

going on a hay ride

Brooke and her friend Abi giving each other a hug

Brooke and George...she loved his glasses!

The Queen of Hearts, Alice, and the Mad Hatter

Our Family

Daddy and Brooke

Mommy and Brookie

The picture on the left was Brooke last year on Halloween as a ballerina at 6 weeks old. Now she is a big girl walking all over the place. I love being this little girl's mommy!

crazy love

So, I am in a girls small group that meets on Tuesday nights. We have been meeting for the past 5 weeks. We were reading a book by an author from the Woman of Faith Conferences (who will remain nameless) and as it turns out, none of us where that excited about it once we got to reading it...and it only took us 4 weeks to speak up about it. I think the chapter about picnics and dogs sent us over the edge.

I know for me, being a part of a small group is an important part of my spiritual growth, as I tend to be a somewhat lazy person by nature. I need accountability and people to encourage me to grow. That is one of the reasons that I am so thankful for such a godly husband, who strives to be more like Christ each and every day. So our small group decided that we should switch books and go for something a little less "picnic and dogs" and a little more real. So we are starting Francis Chan's Crazy Love tonight. I just finished reading the intro/preface and I can't wait to get into the first chapter. In the preface this part really stood out to me,

"The core problem isn't the fact that we're lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into thier lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He's great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant, but he never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. he commands everything from His followers."

I am praying that this book will challange me and shape me into the woman that God wants me to be: a fervent follower of Christ, a wife, passionate about wholeheartedly, serving the Lord

and a mother with an unquenchable hunger to seek after God.

Kids Gone Wild!

So, we have a new favorite place! There is a place called Kids Gone Wild right around the corner from our house. It is basically a big warehouse with 5-6 bounce houses and a climbing/play area for younger kids. Tim and I have baby proofed our house as much as we can, but there is only so much you can do. We wanted to find a place where she can explore and play with whatever without being told "no". Tim found this place online (which is funny since it is around the corner from our house...) and we have been 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Brooke LOVES it! She has so much fun and is so tired out when we leave she always takes a long nap. Yesterday we went with some friends and had so much fun!

She LOVES the slides!

So much fun!

so much energy

where's Brookie?

Brooke with her friends Drew and Makayla

going through the tunnel with Abi following right behind

The girls: Abi, Brooke. Drew, and Makayla

Brooke thinks she is a big girl!

She LOVES the big slide!

The crew: Abi, baby Micah, Brooke, Drew, Gabe, and Makayla

Brooke's 1st B-Day Party!

We celebrated Brooke's birthday on October 3rd with some of her friends. We had a ladybug themed party, which seems fitting since we have always called Brooke our little "Brookie Bug." I channeled my creative side (which is extremely limited) and tried to "DIY" as much as I could. We went to Stonegate Park and had a fun lunch and play time. We had a great time! (Brooke always has a great time when there are food and boys around...I wonder where she got that from...) :) There are a ton of pictures, but I just love all the pictures from her party!

I made her invitations

ladybugs!

caterpillar sandwiches

Happy Birthday Brookie

cupcakes

ladybug army

my baby is 1!

Brooke walkin' with Grammy and Papa

Brookie and Auntie LeLe

us with Brooke's friend Kate and her mom Mary

Brooke and Mrs. Marie

Mitchell and Brooke (boy #1)

The Browns and the Galvins

us with Michele

John & Deej with Brooke

she can't walk on her own yet, but she thinks she can already run!

sweet face

my little ballerina on her toes

Brookie and Shane (boy #2)

Brooke and Uncle Mikey

Bren & Berto (boy #3)

mommy and the baby

Kate, Madie, and Brooke

flying with daddy

family picture

what a big girl!

Yay!

Brooke is 1!

Happy Birthday Brooke
Brooke turned 1 on September 23! It's hard to believe it has been a whole year. I went to look back at my blog to see what I wrote about the day she was born....and it wasn't much. I now remember that I was going to go back and tell her "birth story" and never got around to posting it.

Well, a year later here it is...

(if you don't want to read it, you can skip down to cute cake pictures below!)

I was due September 22 (which is my birthday) and wouldn't you know it, at 3:20am on the 22nd, I had my first contraction. One of my fears about labor, and I had more than a few, was that I would not know whether I was having "false labor" or real labor. Well as soon as I had my first contraction, I knew. I waited to wake Tim up until 5am and we both tried to sleep a little bit more, but we were too excited! At 6am we decided to take a walk and we were making sure to time the contractions. We came back and just had a relaxing morning.

(this was 3 days before...as swollen as can be!)

My contractions weren't that bad so we had breakfast, I took a shower and got ready, I finished packing the last minute stuff for the hospital and by 12pm I was getting anxious. We took another walk to try to speed up the process and then by 2pm they started getting more intense. I was excited, nervous, and anxious to get to the hospital. I remember thinking that this was taking longer than I expected. We called the hospital (which was a 45 minute drive) and they told us to wait until my contractions were a little closer together before we came in... So we waited until 5:15pm, which I specifically remember because the Chargers were playing Monday night football and kickoff was 5:15...of course. That drive to the hospital could not have gone any slower. My contractions were definitely in full swing by this point and I could feel every little bump and rocks that were on the road. I remember looking over at the speedometer and telling Tim that he was going to have to go faster than what he was going because I was in pain. We finally got to the hospital and I forgot about my pain for a minute because I was so excited to be parking in the "labor parking"! We finally made it inside and found out that I was 3-4cm dialated 90% effaced and at -1 station. So they admitted me and gave me some water and juice and moved me to my room by 7pm.

Tim and I had decided that we wanted to attempt to give birth naturally so we told our nurse when we got into the room that I did not want an epidural. At this point my contractions were really painful and I tried taking a warm shower and wanted to walk, but had a tough time just walking from my bed to the shower and back. When I got back to my bed they told me that my contractions were under "duress" which means that my contractions would peak and then only go back down a quarter of the way or half way at the most...all that to mean that I never got a break from the pain...it was just bad pain then REALLY bad pain. So at 11pm I asked the nurse to check me again and I was only 6cm...so I asked for an epidural. In my mind all I could think was I only went 2-3 cm in the most painful 4 hours of my life?!? There is no way I am going to make it...bring on the epidural!

after the epidural! :)

They gave me the test dose and no joke by the time they were done, I was a different person. I was able to relax and talk to Tim for the first time in 4 hours. When they finished the epidural they checked me again and I had gone from 6cm to 9cm in 30 minutes! So we rested for a little while and at 2am I started pushing and she was in my arms at 2:49am. She was perfect, she didn't scream, just just let out a little noise to let us know she was ok. She was 8lbs. 3 oz. and 19in. long. Perfect.

The time that we had together after they measured her and washed her up, just the 3 of us, was the most precious time I have ever had in my life. It is a feeling an experience that is indescribable. I thought, "how could it get better than this..." I never wanted that time to end...but it did and somehow 1 year later I am still thinking, "how could it get any better than this..."

We are going to have a birthday party with friends in a week, but we decided to spend Brooke's actual birthday, just the 3 of us. Here is what we did...

Brooke's favorite breakfast...pancakes!

eating like a big girl

eating one more with daddy

some play time

hanging out with daddy

lunchtime!

Brooke's first time at spaghetti

loving it!

Time for Daddy's favorite food...PIZZA!

Happy Birthday my little Brookie

So funny...she freaked out!

not havin it

oh, wait... she likes it!

REALLY liked it!

she definitely needed a bath after that!

Tim had to teach at youth that night so we went and all Brooke wanted was the mic...I wonder where she gets that from?

I actually think she just wanted to eat it

The next day we went over to my parent's to celebrate with my family. Auntie Courtney was able to come home from Biola!

opening presents from Grammy and Papa

She got a little piano from Auntie Lele (with the promise of piano lessons later!)

I think she is ready for them now Auntie Lele

She loves her bear from Auntie Courtney

Brookie workin' her new baby uggs

Brooke got a rocking horse, which is what my parents got me for my 1st birthday!

Spaghetti take 2

The birthday girls!

I am so thankful that God gave Brooke to us and for this wonderful year!

Update & WICKED (take 2)

So it has been a while since I have posted anything...our camera has been acting up and I have not been able to download any pictures...but I borrowed a camera while ours is being fixed and here is what we have been up to...

In September 8th, we were given tickets to see the Giants play the Padres

The cutest little Padre fan

daddy kisses
We had GREAT seats and Brooke even watched some of the game

Then she fell asleep...that is her under the blanket

On September 11th, Brooke and I went down to Biola to surprise Auntie Courtney and Cady

We had lunch at Northwood's Inn....SO good!

We were also able to go to Chris and Amy's baby shower in Riverside. It was great to be able to celebrate with them and catch up with some great friends from CBU.

This is one of my favoite pictures! Hayley took this and so many other GREAT ones at the shower. To see more of the Hofschroer shower on Hayley's blog click here.



For my birthday on Tuesday Tim took me out to sushi in San Francisco, then surprised me with tickets to go see WICKED!


Now if you read my blog I am sure you saw that we went to see WICKED when we were in

San Deigo. I think almost anyone that has seen it will tell you that you can never see it too many times! We had great seats...12 rows back, direct center!

I LOVE date nights...especially because my husband is SO amazing!


I will post again really soon...this cute little butt just turned 1!