Brooke Crawling!!

She's doing it! Started last night and is perfecting it this morning! Way to go Brooke!

Our 2nd Thanksgiving

Man, has it been a crazy week! Zach, Emily and their kids drove from Colorado to be here for a nice long visit. It was the first time I met Zach after being part of the Brennan family for over 2 years! I still have yet to meet Tamara's husband, Jeremy. Maybe in the next few years we could make that happen. Haha. Anyways, there was always something going on this past week and Brooke loved playing with toys and watching all her cousins run around. AND! She has started crawling! She just just started today, so we'll upload some videos tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned for that!

For Thanksgiving day, we had a full house! Us, John, Marilyn, Mark, Tammy, Ambria, Saige, Rylan, Nathan, Sarah, Isabella, Keira, Zach, Emily, Mason, Kennedy and Christian! SO MANY! We all pitched in and took part of the dinner to make. I made my grandma's cauliflower and a pumpkin chocolate swirled cheesecake. Marilyn also asked me to make wreath (a pastry my Mom only makes for special occasions like Christmas) to eat that morning for breakfast. So, I kept busy in the kitchen Wednesday evening.

Emily and I were the not so lucky ones who caught some sort of virus that gave us sore throats, runny noses, nasal drip and fevers! Totally crappy! We get time off of work and have a little of vacation and we get sick! Anyways, the worst day for us was yesterday. By the end of the night, I hardly had a voice and it hurt to speak. This morning I woke up with no voice and a runny nose and some coughing. I feel much better than yesterday, but still have a ways to go. I really hope Brooke is getting all the antibodies she needs from nursing so she doesn't get this awful illness.

So below are some of the photos we snapped these past few days. We had lots of fun with our family and nieces and nephews! Mason in particular took a liking right away to Brooke! It was great! He always volunteered to hold her, feed her cheerios, and play with her! Thanks, Mason!

Cute Christian, striking a pose!

Brooke had a fun few days!

Kennedy, Brooke and Mason on Thanksgiving morning.

Wreath! So tasty!

Little miss Keira (she's 6 weeks younger than Brooke)

They played nicely with each other.

Portland with the Gatewoods!!

Yesterday, we got to go to Portland to meet up with some old neighbors of ours, Steve and Emily Gatewood. They just recently had a sweet baby girl that we got to meet too! It was so much fun to eat dinner and catch up with them! These are some of our favorite people and we always have a great time together. AND, I forgot to take pictures while we were at dinner (lame) so I stole this one from their blog. Isn't baby Hannah so cute? A mini Steve!

We also went to the outlet mall in Troutdale to get some ideas for Christmas gifts. This picture was taken at the GAP of Brooke in an interesting hat. I don't think she knew what to think, hence the blank look on her face!

Brooke is crawling...sort of...

This is a pretty cute video that shows off a few of Brooke's skills. She gets so close to crawling! Hopefully she'll be crawling around soon!

Also, Brooke has a third tooth! Its on the top, but its not one of her front two teeth. Is that normal or just plain weird? Once that tooth comes all the way in, she's going to look like a little dracula. Haha!

My poor sick baby!

Since last Friday, Brooke has been sick with the stomach flu--ie lots of vomitting and diarrhea. Never before have we done so much laundry, not even when she was a newborn! And, she has been so incredibly cranky! Needless to say, its been a challenging few days, but I think she is starting to get better because we're just down to managing the diarrhea (thank the good lord!). I'm sick of being thrown up on. Looking forward to healthier days ahead!

Happy Anniversary Lauren!!

The past few days I've been looking at pictures of Lauren and I, and of course Brooke too; and I've been remembering our first two years together:

We had only been married for a few days when we returned to our new apartment and married life began. Every morning I would go to my favorite job (said with the most sarcasm you can possibly imagine) while leaving Lauren asleep, come home for lunch prepared by Lauren, go back to work, then come home to dinner, then go to some night classes and finally return home exhausted and ready for more food and sleep. Yes, things were simpler before having a child, something that was discovered the day she was born. Besides school and work, I could be found doing things around the house, like

putting the bed frame together,

which we could finally afford after about 6 months of marriage, and doing the laundry.

Lauren enjoyed pass times such as cooking, baking,

watching TV, waiting for her Work Visa, working, and of course taking rides in the laundry basket.

Soon enough, Brooke came along. She is totally awesome (As most of you know)! We have so many fun pictures of her. She can bring smiles to our faces no matter what time of the day or night it is, or how badly our day has been going previously. She also amazes me at how

happy...

sad...

tired...

and mad she can be. All of which, by the way, have been expressed in a matter of minutes from each other.

Right now Lauren and Brooke are asleep. Sometime later this morning Lauren will wake up and be surprised by this blog post (Mission accomplished). It is our anniversary today and I want her to know that I love her very much. She is extremely special and irreplaceable to me. I have seen her love expressed to me thousands of times and I appreciate every single one of those expressions. She is a wonderful, smiling, laughing, encouraging, and considerate wife and mother. Thank you Lauren.

Love, Gordon

Day at the pool!

The other night, we went to the pool with Kent, Lindsey and their girls and man, was it fun! Brooke was unsure about it when we first got in, but she seemed to warm up to grabbing toys and splashing by the end of our hour and a half 'swim'. Its definite progress, I'd say.

Brooke is 9 months!

My sweet baby went from this:

To this:

Time flies! Wow....can't believe she's 9 months old! And, I can't believe how much she's grown and how smart she is! What a cute little Brookie Baby!

No More Sugar!

So, lately I've been feeling like I can't control anything in my life. This is true for some things, but for working out and eating properly, I can totally control those! I just need to not forget and remind myself that I am in control all the time- I just need to choose a little better. I've been trying to figure out why I eat bad foods and I have come to a revelation: I'm BORED! I have nothing better to do, so I eat! Now, its not like I have nothing to do, I just choose to be lazy some days and those are the days where I eat whatever I want. So, in an attempt to gain a little more sanity, I am going to try and wean myself off of sugar. Now, I'm sure you all are thinking I'm crazy, which is fine because I once thought that too. BUT, I thought it was crazy to run a half marathon and I already did that. I guess I fall under the crazy category. Oh well.

Back to this no sugar thing: I've been reading a book called Sugar Shock which is all about why white sugar is bad for you and how to get it out of your life. I don't agree with everything the author discusses, but she makes some pretty valid points and gives great sugar weaning tips. A lot of it I knew already, but its giving me the motivation to eat healthy foods for nutritional value. AND, its helping me become more aware of what I am putting into my body. I'm also trying to not drink any soda or consume any foods that contain ingredients that I don't recognize (like preservatives and chemicals). I'm not going cold turkey-and I still plan on having treats every now and again, just with some self control. Just something I'm trying in attempt to feel healthier! Who's with me?

(Speaking of treats, I made some Pumpkin Cheesecake swirled Brownies the other day and the recipe can be on my food blog! Click HERE!)

Crawling? Who needs it!

Brooke doesn't like the whole crawling thing, so she's moved onto standing and walking. She hates being put into the crawling position, but could stand for hours! We had her standing and walking for at least 20 minutes and she loved it! Anyways, scroll down for a video!

Gordon travels to Idaho

This past weekend, Gordon went to Idaho to take a few Portuguese tests and he got to meet our new niece Olivia and of course hung out with Shayna, Tony, Zoe and Keegan. I was slightly jealous. Oh, and he got to hang out with our neighbors and sleep in our oh so comfortable bed. These are some of the only photos he took...there was a video, but it was taking too long to download.

Miss Olivia, sporting a very cute and very true onesie!

Our neighbors have a sweet little girl, too! Cute little Lyla!