January crafts

Here are the crafts from Brooke's class at school for January

Everyone is sick

It was a rough time at the end of January in our house. Brooke got a "blemish" on her cheek that turned out to be quite an issue. It swelled up and bruised before we finally decided to try and pop it. Luckily we waited to pop it when she was in the bath tub. There was so much pressure built up underneath that blood sprayed out. Then the whole thing dried up like a big raisin on her face. I ended up taking her to the doctor just to be safe and they put her on antibiotics; just in case it was an infection of some kind. On top of all that, Keith and I both got sick. He had some kind of a virus that really hit him hard. He missed 4 days of work and spent most of that time in bed with a fever and chills. I had a cold that turned into a sinus infection and ear infection. I couldn't remember when I've had an ear infection before. It made me feel so much sympathy for all those kids that get them frequently. Luckily my OB called in some Amoxicillin and I started feeling better within a week. We are very thankful that Brooke did not catch either of our sicknesses. She still has a bruise that is fading on her face from that spot, poor thing. The picture on this post is Brooke trying to copy the baby in the Pamper's ad. She saw it in my magazine and thought it was so funny.

Trip to Austin

Keith, Brooke and I flew to Austin the second week of January. We had a jam-packed schedule for the 4 days we were there. Brooke was her typical traveling self; saying hi to everyone and not sleeping at all on the plane. We got in super late on Friday night and went straight to Wayne and Jill's house. We got up early the next morning and met our Realtor and the home builder rep at some of the model homes. It was really nice to go through homes with the same floor plan as ours. We spent the rest of the weekend with Keith's parents, Mark & and Shevawn and Wayne & Jill's family. It was so nice to see everyone and watch the kids play together. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the adults during our trip. We headed back to Wayne and Jill's house in Georgetown on Sunday night. It was sad to say goodbye to Mark and Shevawn. We love spending time with their family and the cousins are already having tons of fun together. Brooke and Lauren are practically the same size. Brooke kept asking for Claire after they left, so cute and so sad. They will be closer soon. On Monday morning we started the day by touring schools for Brooke. We found a great school that is less than 2 miles from our new house. The director was very passionate and educated about the Primrose brand of preschools. We quickly got Brooke on their waiting list for this summer. Next, we headed to the design center to pick out everything from back splash to brick color for the house. The process actually went very smoothly. Keith and I agreed on most everything. We had also done a bit of research at Home Depot ahead of time. I am very pleased with the choices we made for the inside fixtures/floors/etc. It is hard to say how I feel about the stone and brick on the outside. It is not my area of expertise and they tell you that stone color varies in each batch. Let's hope it turns out nice. We finished the house part of the day by walking the lot for our future home. I was excited to see that we could save a couple of the mature oak trees in the front yard. We were so thankful that Keith's mom Twyla watched Brooke for us all day. It would have been quite challenging to pick out all the house stuff with her running around. Monday night we celebrated Keith's dad's birthday at the Salt Lick. I know that I am pregnant and my hunger is already a little out of whack, but that food was amazing. I ate way more than I should and every bite was awesome. Happy Birthday Big Mark!! We wrapped up our trip on Tuesday by picking out a few more house things in the design center and then heading to the airport. We had a little bit of flight issues; our Austin to Dallas flight got canceled. Luckily Keith was able to get us on a flight from Austin to Chicago and then Chicago to Pittsburgh. We finally arrived home around 1 AM. Brooke did not sleep even 5 minutes during all that traveling. We were glad to be home but very excited about our upcoming move in June. It will be exciting to see the pictures each week of the progress on the house. We can't wait to be back in Texas and close to family; 4 months and counting!

Brooke's crafts from school

I can't say enough how much I love Brooke's pre-school. Here are the little crafts they made with her from December.

reading with Grammy

My mom got Brooke this super cute hat for Christmas and a lot of great books. I love to watch them read together. Thanks mom for always giving her books. She loves to read.

Church on New Year's Day

We were excited to celebrate the first day of the new year by going to church with our family. We love our sweet little church and it was nice to still have my mom in town visiting. Here are a few pictures of Brooke, my mom and I before church. Doesn't Brooke look cute in her party dress!