Brinley turns ONE!

Brinley turned one on December 13, 2009. We celebrated by having all of our family who live in the Tri-Cities over for cake, ice cream, and presents. I can't believe my baby girl is a year old (well... now 13 months old!) She is so small, which I think really adds to my disbelief. At her one-year check-up she was 27 3/4" tall (10th percentile) and 17 1/2 lbs (3rd percentile). Needless to say, she is still rear-facing in the car... but we are hoping to change that by her 14th month mark. I think Brinley is anxious to look out of the front window instead of the rear because she has been eating TONS. She's right about at 19 lbs now!

Brinley's birthday was on a Sunday, so she got to wear this special birthday dress that Grandma Thurgood gave her. Isn't she beautiful?

We continued the tradition we started on Levi's first birthday putting balloons in their room while their sleeping and hanging streamers in their door. Brinley loved it!

Here is Brinley's birthday cake. I always try to make their cake resemble something they really like. With Levi, that has always been easy: balls. Brinley was a little harder, but as I thought about it I realized, Duh! Brinley absolutely loves books. They are her favorite! So I made her a Pile-of-Books cake!

Brinley with Aunt Arina. Nice self-portrait.

Mommy and her sweet baby girl. I love you Brinley!!!

Opening gifts. Brinley did a rather decent job of opening her gifts for a one-year old. We decided that it was great practice for Christmas! The hardest thing was keeping the over-eager brother and cousins away.

Aunt Lauren reading Brinley her new books.

Time for cake and ice cream!

(p.s. Yes, we purposely sing that poorly!)

Brinley has this thing about using utensils upside down. She often eats using the handle to get the food into her mouth. Although she's not doing this nearly as often anymore, sometimes I still catch doing it backwards. So silly... Okay, as I am typing this, Brinley is eating soup. I just turned and she has started using her spoon backwards. :-D

A little glimpse of the party:

November

Alright.... I am determined to be caught up by then end of January. That gives me one week. Hopefully I can distract Levi away from the computer for long enough... The good news is, in addition to be horrible about blogging, I have also been negligent in my picture taking. Not good for my family history, but good for catching up.

November, if I remember right, was a nice month. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for the first time ever. My whole family minus Amber and her family came as well as Sam's parents and 5 of the 7 single siblings. Oh, plus Reuben's roommate Matt. I was smart enough to delegate out almost everything, but I did make tons of desserts and the rolls. The rolls turned out most excellent. I somehow managed to mess up several pies (How does one mess up a chocolate pudding pie you may ask? Talent, pure talent.), but in the end it was all okay. Being so busy hosting, I didn't take any pictures. Oops!

Brinley loves books, being outside, and her brother. When Levi is napping, Brinley gets so antsy. She'll often push the door open and go squeal at him or try to wake him. Boy, am I glad Levi is such a deep sleeper!

The beginning of November I tried a new adventure: making juice. Sam and his dad were doing sprinkler blowouts, and one house had tons of grapes. After some confusion, and assuring the wife that I was a neighbor and that we had met over the phone, I picked 18 gallons of grapes. My friend, Laurie, loaned me her steamer and Sam and I spent an evening learning the fine art of making grape juice. After getting the hang of it, the process is really quite simple. And the juice is delicious!!!! (P.S. The grapes were so heavy, my colander was broken all to pieces. Now I have a nice, heavy metal one!)

The last day of November, we trimmed our tree. Levi and Brinley were big helps and then we carried on our tradition of having donuts and chocolate milk. This year we added egg nog as well. I can't believe how much my family (me excluded) LOVES egg nog.