Big Girl!!

We have been giving Brynn table food for awhile now, slowly introducing new things to her. She has had carrots, peaches, strawberries, pineapple, apples, bananas, green beans, yogurt, pancakes, french fries, and the list goes on and on. She loves it.. but not the problem is she doesn't want us feeding her anything anymore. She only wants things she can pick up and feed herself. She hasn't used any utensils yet so I am having a hard time coming up with enough vegetables for her to eat that are small and soft enough that she can chew with her gums basically because she only has 1 and 1/2 teeth. Any suggestions? I thought maybe some of you moms out there that read this could help me out.
Thanks!!

Surprise!!

Sunday my sister called and said they had frequent flyer miles that were going to expire at the end of this month if they didn't use them so her and little Lincoln flew home yesterday. I have to admit I was super excited for my parents but also sad because I have to work this week and usually when they are home I try to arrange my schedule to be off the majority of the time they are here. They did come up to see me today and took Brynn back with them so that she could hang out with her cousin since they don't get to see each other very often. There is only a year difference between them and although Lincoln is alot bigger than her he plays so well with her. She was chasing him up the stairs while they were here. That is her new thing, she loves climbing the stairs. Needless to say we don't have a baby gate yet so we have to keep an eye on her all the time. That is one of our projects for this weekend. It hadn't been a problem til this past weekend when she discovered she could do it and now that is all she wants to do.. it is nice because it does wear her out so she takes good naps during the day now.

We went for her 9 month check up today. She is 18 lbs 14 ounces and 27 1/2 inches long. She is 50th percentile for weight and 25th for height.. she keeps decreasing in that department but I guess what do we expect with Josh and I as her parents. It was nice because no shots this time around... but her year appt will be a rough one.

Say Cheese!!

We took Brynn to get her 9 month pictures today. She did pretty good. It is hard to get her to sit and pose for a picture, she would much rather be on the move but we managed to get a few good ones. I wanted to share a few of them.

Indy, Here I come!

I ran 13 miles this morning.. I did it! I was so proud of myself. I did not feel great when it was done.. I did feel a huge sense of accomplishment but physically I was hurting. I had ran 11 miles about a month ago but had not run any long distance since then so I knew going into it that it was going to be rough. I felt great at the start, better than I usually do. It was such a beautiful day and I thought this is going to a great run. The hills didn't bother me like they usually do and I felt like I was in the zone.. and then mile 10 it hit me. It started with my knee just throbbing and then I started cramping. I was so upset because I didn't know what I was going to do.. I had to finish. I walked for a little bit and then just told myself I had worked too hard to just give up.. so I made myself run the rest of the way. I finished in 2 hours and 21 minutes which is better than my goal for the mini and that was with walking almost a mile total distance so I think I could do pretty good race day. Now we start tapering down so that we don't exert ourselves too much over the next couple of weeks and have fresh legs for the mini. I am looking forward to it.. I think just so it is over with more than anything but still looking forward to it.

Josh went up to Purdue today for the Spring game. Brynn and I have just been hanging out. My sister got her this Fisher Price Learning House for Christmas and we just put it together a few weeks ago and she loves it. It has alot of bells and whistles and it seems like daily she figures out what another button will do. It is fun to watch her. She rings the doorbell at least 50 times a day and then I always say "come on in" and she laughs.. so we have been doing that for about an hour now.

Nine months old!

Brynn is 9 months old today.. she is taking her nap right now and I keep catching myself staring at her wondering where the time has gone. I can't believe my little baby is growing up so fast. I see why people want another one so soon after the 1st because they grow up way too fast and become independent and you almost feel like they don't need you anymore. I know I am getting way ahead of myself but it is true. Josh and I have been talking more about when we will be ready for our next, he tells me lets make it through Brynn's 1st birthday and then we can talk more seriously about it. So I guess no big announcements from us any time soon!!

I went home Sunday after getting off work.. I was excited because the Easter bunny did find me at CVS. On old coworker came in to see me at work on Sunday and brought me some Easter treats. Just what I needed but I ate them nonetheless. I got to Loogootee about eight that night and was able to visit with Phillip and Amber for a few minutes before they headed home. It is so cute to see my brothers with Brynn, they just fall all over her. She is one lucky little girl to have such great aunt and uncles on both sides of the family. I know she doesn't know it now but one day she will know how blessed she is.

Monday was my dad's birthday. He is 62 now.. I can't believe it, aging gracefully of course. We just ate lunch at Los Bravos, the weather was too nasty to really do anything else. Then I met Amber at their house after she got out of school. It is so pretty.. it sits up on top a big hill and just looks amazing. I can't wait to see the finished product. They are moving right along and hopefully will be able to move in some time in June.

Josh was glad to see Brynn when we got back last night. He hadn't seen her since Friday. She was glad to see him too.. she gave him some kisses and they played with her new ball. I was glad he could entertain her so I could start on her laundry from the weekend. It is amazing how much laundry kids have.

Today we had music class.. we only have 1 left for the semester. I think Brynn has really enjoyed it. I am ready for it to be over until the fall. I have enjoyed taking her and have met some really nice moms but with the weather getting nicer I am just ready to be outside with her on my days off.

We had another lady come today for the landscaping.. I am excited to see what they sketch out for us. We will see one Friday morning and then the other one early next week.. I hope they are what we are looking for and the right price as well. Wish us luck!!

Easter at Nana's!

Happy Easter!

I have to admit I am a little sad typing this post. Brynn is spending the weekend with my mom and dad! It is her 1st Easter and we have to work so we don't even get to take her to church. We did put her in her Easter dress this morning so we could take some pictures of her. Growing up in my household we always took a family picture Easter morning before we went to mass. Out of us 4 kids at least one of us was always mad about something in the picture which would show by our facial expression, but nonetheless, every year dad would set the tripod up and set the timer on the camera and we would get the Smith family Easter picture. I wish I had some of those pictures to post, now those would be a sight to see. We did give Brynn her Easter basket from us this morning. She enjoyed going through it, she liked the ball we got her the best. It was 1 dollar at CVS so I am glad she doesn't have expensive taste.

Josh and I are really trying to get things going with our landscaping. We are meeting with a couple different designers over the next couple of weeks to get some ideas and estimates. We keep contemplating doing it ourselves but our time together as a family is so limited that we don't know if we want to take more time together away from Brynn to do it ourself or not! I am guessing depending on what the estimates are is what will scare us into doing it ourselves or not.

Brynn will be nine months on Tuesday! She is trying to start and talk more.. she says "dada", "nana", sometimes "mama" and now she is trying to say "ball" and "uh-oh". She is developing quite the personality and unfortunately has quite the little temper. I hate it but it is true. She waves her little arm when she gets mad and has started throwing fits when we put her in the carset.. I am hoping it is short phase she is going through. It makes me nervous because I had a Taro card reading back in February and she told me I would have my hands full with this child, I think it is already starting. Honestly for the most part she is a very sweet little girl.. she loves her mommy and daddy. I think she can already tell daddy is the soft one. Josh has told me since the beginning that I am going to have to be the disciplinarian.. he can't tell her no~ I understand though because that is how it was with my dad too!! I still use that to my advantage at age 30!!

I have to go for now, I can't get the spell check to work so don't judge me if every other word is spelled wrong!

Proud wife!

We ran a five mile race today.. Sarah and I ran together and ran it at a ten minute mile pace so I was pretty proud of ourselves for that. I know to some people that may seem like we are crawling but to us that is our Olympic speed. The race was called the Swamp Stomp and it was at the park across the street from where we live.. it was pretty fun to run on the trails thru the woods. I was scared I was going to get hurt though because there was gravel and big tree roots all over the place, plus it has rained so much the leaves were all slick.

I am so proud of Josh though, he finished 2nd in his age group and 8th overall, it is sad but he finished over 14 minutes faster than Sarah and I did.. he got a trophy and it was so cute because when we got home he gave it to Brynn. He is such a good dad!!

April Showers!!

I can't believe it is April.. Brynn will turn nine months soon, where has the time gone since last July when she was born. I swear every day I look at her at the end of the day and think she has gotten bigger. It is just so much fun watching her try new things every day. We have been feeding her more and more table food and she does so good feeding herself, not so much with a spoon or fork, but with her hands. She is an absolute mess afterwards but that is alright, I think it bothers daddy way more than mommy. He always makes a comment about how he is a much neater feeder than I am.

Last weekend we went to Cincinnati to see Jason and Kelli. It was a good time. We got there Saturday afternoon and immediately went to IKEA, Josh and I always want to go there to get things for the house. I love that place, it has alot of contemporary stuff for pretty cheap so you can do fun stuff to the house for not that much money. Then that night we ate wings, which we all always seem to do when we are together. I think the cutest thing of the weekend is how much Brynn loved Biscuit, that is their Boston Terrier, it was so cute. He would come right at her and lick her face and it didn't phase her a bit. She would be in her chair eating and be looking around at the floor for him. It was so cute. I told Josh we might have to get her a puppy for her birthday.. I don' t think he was sold on the idea. Sunday, Bob, Linda, Jana, Jeff, Bailey and Brady all came over to their house and we had our Easter celebration since the majority of us are in the health care field and work on Easter. It was nice to have all of us together, it doesn't happen too often, maybe just a few times a year.

This week was a crazy week at work.. always is at the 1st of the month. I left things in shambles last night when I left there so I couldn't sleep worrying about it. Josh didn't go in to work til 2 today so I went back into work this morning to try and help them get things caught up. I looked pretty scary because our power went out at 3 am this morning due to the storms so I couldn't take a shower because it was still dark out and I had no blow dryer to use. I probably did more harm than good by scaring customers away with the way that I looked.

I am looking forward to the weekend. We are running a 5 mile race tomorrow.. hopefully the weather will cooperate. Other than that not much planned.. we are getting ready to try and do some landscaping so we might start getting things together for that.

I need to post pictures of Brynn soon.. I haven't posted any in a long while. I will try and do that over the next couple of weeks.