Arizona: The Beginning

Well, yesterday our little family of three joined with my grandparents to head off to Chicago's Midway Airport. We left the house at about 10 am and arrived at the airport around 12:30 Chicago time. We found a parking lot across from the airport, which was a short walk, but not made easy due to the 3 inches of snow that had freshly fallen that morning. Senior citizens + toddler + luggage + snow = bad combination! Luckily we all survived the walk, albeit with a little complaining, and made it safely to the counter to check-in. And that's where our "fun" adventure stopped. Our flight ended up leaving an hour late due to the weather. It was just a short flight to St. Louis, but Brynlee decided she had had enough for the day and was "that child" on the flight. Due to the delayed flight, we arrived in St. Louis with 10 minutes to spare before our connecting flight left. Needless to say, I was freaking out! Luckily our gate for the next flight was about 10 feet from where we arrived so we were safe. And then Brynlee continued demonstrating her hatred for flying on the 3 hour flight to Phoenix :( We all made it safely to Phoenix after shedding a few tears along the way (both by Brynlee and her mama) and finally got to see my sister, Tia Bria! It was one of the worst days of my life, but so worth it to finally get to visit my sister and be in the warm(er) Phoenix outdoors. We were exhausted but looking so forward to a fun day on Wednesday :)

Showing just how "fun" the airport can be!

Best Weekend Ever!

This past weekend Brandon and I went to Chicago to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Brandon had planned the entire weekend's events and all I knew going into the weekend was that we were going to Chicago and staying overnight.

Saturday morning we dropped Brynlee off at her Mimi and Papa's and then we were on our way! I was dying to know what Brandon had up his sleeve and he threw me a bone about 10 minutes into our trip and let us know we were meeting our good friends, the Goles, for lunch in Highland Park. I was ecstatic! We got to know the Goles when we lived in Gurnee and hadn't seen them in quite a while. I didn't take any pictures of our lunch at Fuddruckers, but we had a blast and it was great to catch up with them and a fantastic start to our weekend away.

We spent a little time in the suburbs before we headed downtown. Brandon wanted to go to Navy Pier, but it was a long hike from our hotel so we decided to just hang out on Michigan Avenue. We did some shopping at Water Tower and then hustled back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Brandon let me know that we were going to the Signature Room at the John Hancock. What a surprise! We enjoyed a fabulous, but way too expensive dinner, with awesome views of the city. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget.

We intended to head home pretty early on Sunday but wanted to pick up a few things downtown before we left. We picked up a gift for Brynlee at TJMaxx and then Brandon stood in line for 30 minutes waiting on Garrett's popcorn for his parents. We ate lunch at P.F. Changs (my favorite!) and then finally started our journey back to Indiana.

We were excited to see our little pumpkin again, even though I don't think she missed us one bit :) Definitely a great time spent with my honey and hopefully we can make this a somewhat-regular occurrence!

Brynlee is 11 Months Old!

You are one short month away from your 1st birthday, baby girl! Here's what you've been up to in the last month:

-You have taken to an earlier bedtime (about 7:30) and still sleep until we wake you up at 6 am on weekdays. You usually sleep in a little later on the weekends (about 6:45).

-You are wearing a size 4 diaper.

-Since you got your first official sickness that required prescription medicine, we were able to get you weighed last week. You tipped the scales at a whopping 19 pounds even!

-You are still wearing 6-9 month or 12 month clothes. I have a feeling you may be able to fit in these sizes for quite a while :)

-You are officially weaned from your nighttime bottle as of last Friday and have done great! You're now down to just 3 bottles a day (at mealtimes) and eat snacks along with water in between meals.

-We have our fingers crossed (and toes!) that hair will be one of your Christmas gifts. Anybody know of some "Miracle Grow" for babies?!

-You have 6 teeth (2 on bottom and 4 on top) and we are finally able to start seeing the 4 on top every once in a while.

-You rarely crawl anymore. You're not exactly "running" yet, but if you know you've done something bad, you can definitely move a little faster than just your average "walk."

-Words that you can repeat if you're in the mood to humor us: Daddy, Turner, uh oh, good job, yum, hi

-You have recently become somewhat of a drama queen and are prone to temper tantrums. If something doesn't go your way, it is not uncommon for you to let your body go limp and fall to the ground. You are also a big fan of arching your back when things aren't going well for you :)

-Things you love: dancing to your musical toys, bouncing up and down and all over the couch, opening all the cabinets (especially in the bathroom) and carrying around our mouthwash, unrolling the toilet paper, emptying Turner's water bowl, standing at the door and waiting for Turner to come in from outside, crawling underneath people's legs

Our precious 11-month-old

Enjoying her new winter hat

Dancing along with her favorite Christmas toys

Let the countdown begin....One month until the big 0-1!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The tree is decorated (and has managed to

maintain all ornaments thus far!)

The wreaths are hung (thanks, Mom!)

All outside lights are finally up

And Brynlee's donned her holiday attire

Bring on Christmas!