Happy 4th of July!

We had a great time this past Fourth of July. Brett, Brenna, and I went to Abacoa's festival and met up with our playgroup pals before heading back home to our neighborhood block party. I had hoped Brenna would stay up late and watch the fireworks but by 7:30pm she was out. Luckily our monitor reached far enough for Brett and I to hang outside with the neighbors while she slept inside. We were literally SHOCKED that she slept through all the noise of the fireworks. She must have just been exhausted from the heat of the day because normally she'll wake up when there is a bad thunderstorm or something but nope, she slept through the hours and hours of fireworks...some of which were shot off 20 feet from her window.







We had a Fourth-themed playdate this week and Brenna must have been giving off some pheromones or something because everyone wanted to love on her all day. First it was Ella Kate who hugged her so tight, we pretty much had to pry her off of her.



Then it was little Aiden who leaned in for the smooch! I witnessed her first kiss. Here he is going for it!


And he didn't settle for just one! He wanted to kiss her all day long. She is clearly over it!!



And here is Brenna, Marina, and Audrey playing together.


At 10 months, Brenna has both top teeth through now and is making much better progress with crawling forward. She still isnt' the best at it yet, but she can get from one place to another no problem.

Teeth, Anniversary, Father's Day, Da-Da, and Clapping

Hi everyone,

Brenna is almost 10 months old. She has 2 bottom teeth that she's had for a couple months now and she just cut her top right tooth this week. Pretty soon I think it will be in sight. She's been a little fussy with the tooth but not bad. Definitely not as bad as when she was cutting both bottom teeth at the same time.

Since my last post, Brett and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We went to dinner at Too Bizarre and then to the movies. It was a nice date night while his parents babysat Brenna. The following day, all the boys (Brett, my dad, Brett's dad and Jeff) went fishing for Father's Day while Brenna, Mom, Joann, and I went shopping.

The following day, we celebrated Father's Day just the 3 of us. Brett is such a good dad and husband. We are so lucky! We spent the day just running errands and spending quality time together.

Brenna has been saying Da-Da all the time lately. It's so cute. So now her vocabulary consists of Ga-Ga and Da-Da and she sings along with the ABC song (not the actual letters, more of the sounds and tone of the song). She also can clap her hands and make a monkey face and noise. She's so funny. She has the best giggle as seen below :-)

June Pics

Here are some of my favorite pics from the month so far.


This is the swing we installed on the back patio. She loves it!

And these pics were taken right at 9 months at Picture People...

May Wrap-Up (Brenna at 9 months)

May has come and gone and many exciting things have taken place since my last blog post.

Brenna is 9 months old now and she has been sleeping through the night (7pm-7am) for the past month!!! It's been wonderful!!! What a long tiring road to get here. It's sooo fabulous getting a full night sleep again.

She has been scooting backwards all across the room for several weeks. This week, she has started to get on her knees more so I think it won't be long before we see some forward motion.

For Mother's Day weekend this year, we took a trip to Atlanta to visit the Mussons. We were especially looking forward to seeing our new nephew Alex Parker. What a cutie! We had a lovely weekend. We had a picnic in Piedmont Park while Mandy played tennis and Brenna loved playing with Nick, who always kept her entertained.


Brenna's First Plane Ride


Cousins!


Nick and Brenna in the tub


Pretty Girl!








The Best Kisses in the World!


Brenna is having a hair moment!


Mandy and Alex


While in Atlanta, we got to see Mark and Jill's new home in Alpharetta. They were kind enought to let us stay over with them one night and they took a road trip with us the following day to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN so that Brett could visit with his zipline client. It was a long somewhat stressful drive through the mountains trying to entertain both Brenna and Molly. Subsequently, Jill and I ended up coming down with something and didn't feel too well the next few days after that. We did have a good time in Dollywood though and I'm glad the Lubers went with us.


Brenna and Molly on our way!


Welcome to Dollywood!

Sleeping Beauty

Let the record show that at 8 months, Brenna is finally sleeping through the night! It's not a fluke either! We've had 4 nights in a row of 12-13 hours of uninterupted sleep at night! What an angel baby!!!



Lately, her daily schedule kinda goes like this (FYI, sorry to bore any of you with the details but since I'm totally slacking on a physical baby book, I'm making this blog my digital baby book that I will eventually print out and I want to be able to remember the milestones).

7:30am Wake Up / Bottle (8 oz)
10am Breakfast (1/2 jar of stage 2)
11am: Nap (30 mins - hour)
1pm Lunch (full jar of stage 2 fruit)
3:30pm Bottle (8 oz)
5:45pm Dinner (1 jar - 1 1/2 jars of stage 2 veggies and fruits)
6:00pm Bath
6:45pm Bottle (8oz)
7pm Bedtime

Sweet Dreams!