Grammy's Birthday

We celebrated Grammy's birthday in Arizona last week. Brooke was excited to help her blow out the candles. Leslie brought some yummy cupcakes from Sprinkles to celebrate.

Hanging with Uncle Josh and Aunt Steph

We were so fortunate to see Josh and Steph three times during our Arizona visit. They came over to my mom's house for dinner and basketball watching on our first Saturday in town. Then we saw them the next day for a spring training baseball game at the new Salt River Ballpark. It was such a nice day to be outside. On Tuesday night, we celebrated Josh's birthday early at Joe's barbeque. My mom brought a few cupcakes from Sprinkles to share. It was a great time. Steph taught Brooke to make a bubble blowing sound with her lips. She kept trying to do it all night. Her face would puff up and turn red. We laughed so hard at the restaurant watching her.
We are sad to live so far from them but glad to see them a bunch on this trip. We are hoping they can come visit us in Pittsburgh when Josh is back east doing orthopedic rotations.

Brooke skyping with her daddy

We are so glad to have skpe to see and talk to Keith while we are in Arizona. This is the longest that he has ever been away from Brooke. Here are a couple pictures of her skyping with Keith last week. She gets so excited to hear his voice.

Arizona friends and family/ St. Patrick's Day

Brooke and I flew to Phoenix on Wednesday March 16th. My mom met us at the airport and took us right to see my Aunt and Uncle. This was their first time to meet Brooke. She loved playing with all the toys at their house and eating in a new high chair.
On Thursday, Brooke and I had lunch with two of my best friends from youth group. Heather lives right down the street from my mom and offered to host at her house. It was really nice for all the babies to play together while we chatted and ate lunch. Heather is expecting her second baby this summer. Meghan's baby Asher is 6 week younger than Brooke. They live in Memphis, TN. It had been 4 years since all three of us were together. We had tons of fun catching up!!
Thursday night, we went with Grammy to meet some of her old friends at Flemmings. They had such yummy food on their happy hour special. We split some great Calamari and spinach ravioli. And of course we had to drink a green beverage! Brooke loved sitting in her high chair on the patio. She seems to "make friends" everywhere we go!

Brooke is 9 Months

Our sweet little Brooke Marie is already 9 months old. I took her to the Dr. for a checkup last week. She now weighs 16 lbs and 10 oz. She is only in the 14% for her weight but the Dr. said that was just fine. She is 27 and 1/2 inches long, which puts her in the 40% for height.
Here are some fun things about Brooke at 9 months:
*She still has two little teeth
*She smiles at everyone and will go to everyone, no separation anxiety yet.
*She loves to eat. She is now eating peas with no tummy problems. She also tried prunes this month.
*She is crawling non-stop. She is super intersted in cords, remotes, the dog bowls and computers. We have to watch her very carefully now.
*She is wearing size 3 dipers and 9 month clothes.
*She loves to play with zipppers or jewelry if you are holding her.
*She likes to touch people's faces
*She "sings" when there is music on.
*She loves a loud environment. The barking dogs, talking on phone, TV, toys that play music, etc are super entertaining to her.
*She lights up when her daddy comes home from work. Such a cute face!
*She only pulls up in her crib.
*She likes to go after the dogs. She wants to pull their tails and let Jackson lick her hand.
*Her favorite toy is a plastic spooon.

Trip to Florida

Last week Brooke and I met Keith in Ft. Lauderdale Florida for a long weekend. All the 2nd and 3rd year podiatry residents were there for a conference all week. Lindsey and I decided we would fly in on Thursday with the kids and stay for the weekend. We had a great time in the sunny, warm Florida weather. It was so nice to push the strollers outside along the beach. We were excited to attend the West Penn Party on Thursday night and see all the residents, attendings and former residents. Everyone was really nice and Brooke loved meeting all the new people. On Saturday we went to the beach with all the other West Penn residents. There were a lot of birds outside around the restuarant. I was definitely freaking out at the pigeons walking under the tables. Hopefully I didn't give Lindsey a fear of birds too. The guys played volleyball while the girls layed out and played with the babies. Brooke wasn't quite sure of the sand. She would play for a little bit and then cry for me to hold her. She took a lot of naps on me in the sun. I was so silly to forget sunscreen on my shins and feet. After a full day outside I was completely burnt. Good thing we were close to Walgreens. Keith walked there and bought a can of dermoplast for me. On Sunday we took a water taxi around all the fancy houses and shops. We ate lunch on the water and had a very relaxing time. Brooke did her first and hopefully last Spring Break flashing. She kept lifting her dress at all the people riding by in the boats. Our hotel also had a nice pool and hot tub. We took Brooke in the hot tub for the first time. She loved it! We enjoyed our little vacation in Florida so much. It was kind of sad to come back to the snow in Pittsburgh.

Brooke is officially crawling..look out!

San Diego and Coronado Trip

We left San Francisco on Monday morning and flew to San Diego. We got in just around lunch time; so we looked up a Rubio's for fish taco's. Rubio's are all over Arizona and it is not a big deal to eat there; but in Pittsburgh we have zero places that serve fish tacos. Lunch was so great!! After lunch we drove to my cousin Dave and his wife Pearl's house. They were so nice to host us for a couple days. We had a great time hanging out with their two kiddos; Zach and Christian. Dave took us on a beautiful scenic tour of the San Diego coast. They live very close to Torrey Pines beach, so we took a hike there with Brooke one afternoon. She wore her little sunglasses from Grammy for the first time. She actually kept them on. Keith took some nice pictures of the beach and of the hangliders. We would really like to hanglide sometime soon. We said goodbye to Dave and Pearl on Wednesday and headed to Coronado Island. I used to come to Coronado Island in the summers in high school and college. It hadn't changed a bit since my last visit. We stayed at a wonderful hotel just off the beach. It was nice to walk everywhere. We took on a stroll along the beach and looked at all the nice houses. Then we had a fantastic dinner at an authentic Mexican food restaurant. (more fish tacos, woo hoo!) I was so bummed to be feeling sick after dinner. I had a fever and bad cough. Brooke and I stayed in the hotel for the night and Keith went out with the camera to take pictures of the sunset. The next morning I was feeling a little bit better; so put Brooke in her swim suit and took her in the Ocean. She loved the sand, but not the cold water. Keith got some great pictures of her on the beach towel. Keith used his last upgrades as American Airlines Gold Member to bump us to first class for the way home. Brooke did great again on the flight. We were so blessed to go on this trip. Keith and I really enjoyed ourselves and had a chance to relax away from pagers, e-mails and snow.

Trip to San Francisco

Our little family was so excited to take a trip to California last week. We started our trip by flying from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. I was a little nervous for the 4 hr and 2 minute flight;but Brooke did awesome. She did not cry at all!! She played, slept, ate, and "flirted" with anyone who would look her direction. When we finally arrived in San Fran; Keith's friend Chris and his wife Laura were there to pick us up. We headed straight to Napa for a bit of wine tasting. Chris and Laura knew so much about the Napa vineyards. I learned a lot about the wines from Napa during our car ride out there. We visited two vineyards in Napa. The first one did a tasting where they put three of the same wines in different years together. You were supposed to put the wines in order. Only one girl in our tasting group could pick out the correct order. It was a lot of fun and such beautiful country.
On Sunday we walked all around San Francisco. We went through Chinatown and it was all decked out for the Chinese new year. We walked through the old ferry building which was full of specialty food shops. We put Brooke in the baby Bjorn carrier. She was so excited to see everyone and everything. She definitely enjoyed being outside. When she was tired, she just leaned forward in the carrier and took a nap. It was perfect. We also walked down by Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. We could look out and see Alcatraz too. We ended the day with dinner at a fantastic French restaurant. Brooke slept through the whole dinner. It was almost like we were on a double date. We really enjoyed spending time with Chris and Laura too. They were great hosts! On Monday morning we flew from San Francisco to San Diego.....our trip continues.....