Baby

A couple weeks ago I started thinking it was about time to get Bekah a doll. The next day, she started walking around the house with her stuffed snow-man saying "beebee" and rocking it. I didn't really know she knew what to do with a baby, hopefully it's just instinct and she will be a super helper with all my other kids. So we headed to D.I. to buy a "beebee" doll. I was hoping for more of a traditional doll but they were pretty trashed and mostly naked. I saw one that was a character from the tv show "Arthur" but wasn't interested in it so I kept looking. Garrett tapped my shoulder, so I turned around and saw Bekah snuggling that doll. It was clean and in good shape, and she obviously loved it. So we got it. After putting her through the wash, I looked her over and saw that she's one of those dolls that help kids practice zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. So she's pretty cool. Bekah loves to pick her up and kiss her. Lately we've started putting blankets on her and saying, "night-night" which Bekah loves! She's so sweet to that little doll.

We found a burp cloth and a hat she wore last summer. Also, a tutu. :)

What a good mom she'll be!

Bekah

Sometimes my baby gets too tired to eat. Isn't that adorable?

Dynelle gave her a dress for her birthday. These next pictures are her opening the package and then being very excited to be in the dress. She loves the dress!

She loves, loves, LOVES blankets! We end up with about 6 blankets spread out around the house each day.
And each blanket gets an amazing amount of love from her.

She sat there on Garrett's legs feeling like a big girl for about 5 minutes. It's amazing the amount of
self-control a toddler can have when it's something she's interested in!

This week she learned how to go "boneless" as I call it. She will start walking a different way than I want her to so I grab her hand and she suddenly flops limply on the ground. I have to tug on her hand to make sure she doesn't hit her head on anything. 

Rebekah has been laving a language explosion for about 3 months now. My parents came and stayed with us for a week and my Mom decided to try to keep track of all the new words Rebekah attempted while she was there. We lost track after 5 days and 15 words. Seriously, she loves talking! She imitated her first two-word-phrase: "Bye Daddy" and said one spontaneously: "Hi Buppa". She was so cute with my parents. My poor mom was here for 8 days and spent tons of time on the floor reading to Bekah, playing with her, talking to her, but Bekah wouldn't say "Nana" and she took forever to decide to smooch her. My dad, on the other hand, terrified her at first. She didn't want to go near him but by the end of the second evening she decided he was pretty cool and wen to him and gave him a smooch. As she walked away grinning, she decided that wasn't enough so she went back to him for another!

We had a really fun week with my parents. We took them hiking, swimming at Bear Lake, we played lots of games, and we watched the amazing firework show that Logan city provided on the 4th of July. It was so fun to have them here with us!

Girls Weekend in Vegas

Sweet Dynelle and her awesome husband opened up their house to the women in the family in May so that we could all get together and have the time of our lives with no thought of anyone but ourselves. The goal was to relax, pamper, spoil, and get closer. Goal accomplished! We headed out from Camille's house all packed in Sherrie's van and had such a good time that we almost didn't want to come home! Dynelle has some awesome connections and was able to get her friend to come over and give us each a massage. Holy cow, that was awesome! We did facials, fingernails, ate delicious food, played games, and watched chick movies. We also went out and got professional pedicures. Pretty cool. The highlight of the trip was that Dynelle helped us get discounted tickets to The Phantom of the Opera in the Venetian. I had chills through most of the show and was just in awe of how well they did at putting so much into every single scene. I had never been to a professional live show before and I was not let down.

I only have three pictures of the weekend, but I promise, it was probably the best weekend of my year so far. My sweet husband took care of my baby for 4 days, as did all the other husbands, and we were able to get some much needed R&R and bonding time.

Our stash of stuff after a long day of shopping.
This does not include the large lamp that Camille bought. :)

Our pretty toes after our fancy pedicures.

May 2012

In May we celebrated Riley's, Brett's, and Jess's graduations. It was a great time and we loved seeing so much of family.

For Memorial Day we went to Vernal. As we were packing, Bekah discovered that pajama's are about as cuddly as blankets.

And Garrett helped Bekah discover the monkey suit. She wasn't too sure she liked it, but she didn't cry.

Bekah slept most of the way to Vernal and was ready to discover the car and pretty boa at Grandma Brinkerhoff's. When she wears something she thinks is pretty she strokes it and says "Ooooh!" Anyone around her is then expected to echo her "ooooh" and tell her how pretty it looks.

In the morning, Garrett, Camille, and Sherrie got up early to go explore the dinosaur tracks at Red Fleet.

Sunday we decorated the graves in Tridell with the McKees and went to a delicious dinner with them where Rebekah showed off her then new skill of walking.

Monday we went for a small hike to the Sinks and then Sherrie, Lon, Camille, her kids, and my family headed up to White Rocks to cook hobo dinners and enjoy the day on a mountain. Garrett, Bekah, and I stayed the night. It was our first camping trip of the year!

Allie with my family. Bekah felt like such a big girl on her stump

Rebekah June at 13 months 

Brinkerhoff Reunion

On Tuesday night Garrett got off work early so we could head out to Vernal for almost a week! What fun! We got to Sherrie's house after everyone was in bed and when Dynelle woke up (on her birthday!) we were in the living room to be the first to sing "Happy Birthday". Yeah, we are the best! We had a great day partying it up Brinkerhoff style: lots of good food, lots of laughs, giving Dynelle all the love she deserves, and letting the kids play in the sun with the kiddie pool and the dog (but the dog was not in the pool, that would be gross). That evening we dropped Bekah off at my parents house and went to the temple with Kirk, Dynelle, and Camille. Sherrie is working at the temple now and has been learning to do inititory and it was so amazing to feel the spirit there in the temple and to have my sweet mother-in-law reminding me of all the blessings promised there. It was just what I needed! Afterward, we went to Wingers and poor Dynelle got embarrassed when the waitresses came to sing to her but I stopped feeling bad for her when they handed her a plate of delicious ice-cream.

Thursday we all woke up and cake and ice-cream for breakfast (awesome!) and then we all packed up our cars and headed for the mountains! The kids loved playing with the pine-cones, sticks, and dirt and at the end of the night we all had to use at least 4 wet-wipes to clean each kid up for bed.

Friday we headed to Flaming Gorge and spent the day relaxing on our pontoons. Seriously, super fun. Garrett brought a stereo and we listened to the Pontoon song about fifty times. Bekah acted sleepy all day so I just sat in the shade cuddling her, unfortunately it was because she was the first of many to become sick. We thought she was just sea-sick till poor Camille was up all night with two of her girls being sick on Saturday night. Sunday I wasn't feeling too great and Camille's other girl came down with it. That was not the highlight of the trip. But swimming and exploring in the pontoons was amazing.

Saturday we spent some time relaxing and then Garrett, Cody, Kirk and Brett got supplies from Sherrie (that she worked very hard on) and came up with a way for the grandkids to become pirates. They yelled at the kids, made them do push-ups whenever they felt the kids deserved to, hid pirate treasure and led the kids on an adventure that kept everyone entertained for at least an hour. What good uncles they have! Crystal's two-year-old even got down to attempt a push-up after seeing so many of her brothers and cousins doing them!! That night we had a special not-so-surprising birthday party for Lon's 60th birthday this year. His sister and her daughter came with her family and we played games and told Lon how much we all love him.

Sunday we cleaned up and went back to Sherrie's house. I stayed in bed for the next 6 hours but felt better after that and we stayed up late playing game and talking.

Monday we ate a delicious breakfast and headed back to Logan where we immediately set up the kiddie pool that Dynelle lent to us. It is pretty nice. All 3 of us can fit in it comfortably and Bekah loves playing in the "watee".

Overall, we had a wonderful week with the Brinkerhoffs. It was so good to see everyone and I'm already excited to get everyone together again next year!

"Go!"

I forgot to mention one very important part of the birthday. Lydia was being held by Grandpa Sullivan and was not too happy about it, so not happy about it that she took her first steps in order to get away from him! (This is not to say that my Dad's grandpa skills are lacking, she is just easily frightened by men.) It was a wonderful moment, one that I'm so glad I got to be part of since I see so little of my niece. Well that got us thinking, if Lydia can do it, is Rebekah ready? So we tried, and that girl took her first steps minutes after Lydia! These girls are going to be best friends, reaching every milestone together, having joint birthday parties, and everything else a girl could want in a cousin with such a small age gap as 6 days! I'm so lucky to have been able to share something so wonderful as pregnancy with my sister. We are 6 years apart so it has been really good for our relationship to be able to talk about our babies together and to finally understand the other's situation a little better. It's like we're on the same level now, and I'm loving the friendship we are forming.


Anyway, walking baby. So tonight, less than a month later, she's still been taking only about 3 steps on her own, but she does enjoy her little walker-toy-thing. Not sure what they're called, but Bekah calls it "go", so that's what I call it! Tonight we went over to Chelsey and Cody's new apartment (which is so beautiful and amazing! I'm so happy for them!) and we all got Bekah excited and had her walking back and forth till she sat down and cried from exhaustion. But before that, we had fun. And man was she walking! I don't know how many steps she took without assistance, but it was tons! I am so proud of how smart and healthy my little girl is, but it's a tiny bit hard to look at her and see that she's leaving baby-hood and entering toddlerhood.

Birthday for the Baby

We had an awesome time celebrating Rebekah's first birthday. I hung up a birthday banner on Monday and sang every version of birthday tidings I know at least 3 times each, each day. That equals at least 12 times of us pointing to the banner while I sang and Bekah bounced to the beat. Yeah, I'm a good birthday singer. Friday afternoon my sister Heather came up with her husband and two kids, then my parents showed up and the party really started. We went to dinner then came back to have some dessert and open presents. The Logan Family was present (Brett, Jess, Cody, and Chelsey) which made for a cozy living room and tons of fun.

Brett being hilarious, as usual.

Wrapping paper was a big hit!

So was the ball from Heather

And the horse from Chelsey and Cody. Look at her ride!

Sweet Lydia who is six days older than Rebekah and has lots and lots of curly hair.
She enjoyed the wrapping paper, too.

Did I mention the horse was a favorite? She says "Nay" all the time and kisses him.

And she calls the ball "Maaal" and likes to "k" (kick) it.

We stripped the girls down so they could enjoy some birthday cupcakes

I have a video of the girls enjoying their cupcakes but I can't get it to load, so I'll put it on Facebook and just tell about it here. Basically, Rebekah thought the icing was awesome and got it all over her face and hands. Lydia had already eaten a large dinner and some of her mom's cupcake, so she was not interested in her own cupcake at all. In fact. Heather tried feeding some icing to her but it was rejected very emphatically! So Bekah demolished Lydia's cupcake as well!

She decided to come climb on me after her feast.

Then both girls got put in the bath. And James later joined them!