Family Reunion

We just returned from yet another successful family reunion at the Fisher family cabin in Island Park. I would have to say that I probably get more excited about these reunions than Jonny does, and it's his family! Brooklyn had so much fun just crawling around in the dirt and playing in the sand with what seemed like the hundreds of children that were there. We had a blast and enjoyed being with everyone again.I only took pictures on one day and it was the day that there was a carnival for the kids with face painting, a fish pond, cookie decorating, and a pinata. Here are a couple of pictures of Brooklyn at the Carnival.


Here she is showing off her beautiful face painting done by Aunt Heather. She really did love it. She got a fish on one side of her face and a flower on the other.

This was Brooklyn trying to crack open the pinata. Or at least trying to hit it!



Here are some random pictures that I took a while ago of Brooklyn standing. I've wanted to post them for a while so here they are! Isn't she such a big girl? We take the couch cushion off and it's just about the right hight for her to stand. She loves to stand up and down like this while sitting on the couch and watching her favorite movie Elmo.

I Hate Tags!

I have put off doing my tag for a while now, but since I got the same tag twice, I suppose I will play along. I am sure you are on the edge of your seats dying to know eight MORE things about me! Here goes.....

Rules:1. Each player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves.2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules.3. At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

1. I am a very sleepy person. Jonny says I am a three year old trapped in an adult body. I rarely go a day without a nap and if I do I'm not happy about it. When camping, visiting family or friends, you can bet I'm the first one to call it a night.

2. I get sooooo car sick I don't even like going to Wal-Mart if I'm not driving. Reading in a car is out of the question along with turning around to give Brooklyn a sippy, or to pick up a toy she dropped. Those things alone can make me queasy for the next twenty minutes! Unfortunately for Jonny, on vacation he loves to drive all over the place sightseeing and exploring. My upset stomach puts an end to that fun real quick.

3.I love cereal. I eat it for Breakfast, lunch, and as a side with dinner. Though I love sweets, I don't like sweet cereal.

4. I Have yet to find "my thing". I have played most sports and still end up hiding in the back or sitting on the bench. I've attempted to sew countless blankets and skirts, but I end up swearing during most of it and it ends up crooked or un-usable. I have scrapbooked, made dozens of bows, and will hide both of these is anyone asks to look at them. I hate school and pass by the skin of my teeth. I've taken piano for years and can barely stumble through a song.(wow, I'm gonna need some help with my self-esteem when this is done!) Lucky for me though, I'm an under-achiever and like mentioned above, I'm much too sleepy to care!

5. I'm a neat freak. The only thing I don't underachieve at is keeping my house clean. I can't go to bed with a messy kitchen and I vacuum even it's clean just because I like the lines it makes in the carpet. I may be rubbing off on Brooklyn because she freaks if she makes a mess on the floor or her hands are messy or sticky.

6. It's no surprise, but I love staying home with my little girl. Though there are times I get a little bored and things get mundane, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I spend half the day thinking, "who gets to do this?" Especially when I get to nap with her, rock her, read her books, buy hamburgers and chicken nuggets and have picnic with just me and her at the park. It's awesome.

7. I still have the same best friends that I met in the 7th grade. Now who can say that! We still love to get together with all our husbands (those of us that are married) and it feels like old times. Too much like old times because our poor husbands can't get a word in and we laugh non-stop.

8. I'm too sleepy to think up an eight one. Any of my good buddies want to think up one for me?

I tag whoever wants to do it. I'm not even sure I have eight people to tag!

Hip Hip--Hippo Therapy!

It's a dumb name I know but Hippo therapy is a real thing and we have finally got our scaredy cat of a daughter to try it. You can Google Hippo therapy and find out tons on it, but I'll give you the shortened version of our new found hobby/therapy. Hippo therapy is basically riding a horse. "They" claim that horses walk very similar to humans, so if you put a child on a horse (there are all sorts of ways you have to do it), but if the child has mobility or strength issues, riding the horse will do wonders for them and actually give them the feeling that they are walking and strengthen all sorts of muscles. They also use this therapy for children with emotional or mental problems and it is supposed to calm them and help them in numerous other ways mentally and socially. Pretty cool right?

I'm kinda mad at myself though because all winter long I waited for it to be nice so we could start this therapy but stupid me forgot all about it earlier this summer because of all the other crazy stuff going on in our lives, and also Brooklyn is afraid of her goldfish (I'm serious), so what chance did we have of getting her on a horse? Well after weeks of trying, this past week she finally rode my parents good ol' horse Flicka (aka Ficka), several times in fact. She even got so relaxed that she sang and laughed while we rode. Now I hope the weather stays nice enough a little longer for us to keep up our daily horse rides and that I hope we will see these miracle benefits that should come from this therapy. Here are a couple pictures of our horsey rides.

If it wasn't for my mom's friend Gwen who goes dilegently every morning with her 18 year old son who is autistic, I wouldn't go either! Gwen chases down Flicka, gets her all harnessed, and then makes about 15 laps around the pasture by the time she takes her son and Me and Brooklyn. This is rare smile from Brooklyn while riding the horse!

Since we always go horse riding first thing in the morning, this was the first time Jonny got to experience the "joy" it is to ride around the pasture with our calm daughter!
For Family Home Evening we all decided to roast hot dogs and smores and ride the horses. I grew up with these horses and can probably count the times I have ridden them. I'm glad this therapy has benefited everyone being able to get together, and we actually remember that we have horses now!

Brooklyn puttin' on a brave face, but really wanting to scream her head off. She's pretty good if you make is seem like she's not on a horse at all. Having her sandwiched between four cousins really helps! I just love the fat little tummy poking out of her shirt. She had eaten about four smores by this point.

Normal At Last......

well as normal as things are around our house! For once I haven't had a list of things to post which in my eyes is a good thing. Things have definitely slowed down finally and we have been really enjoying the last half of summer. Brooklyn and I have fallen into a routine of going on a bike ride, then to the park for free lunch, then taking naps (including me), and usually followed by swimming at someones house and playing with cousins. Don't you love summer?

I dare say that I have never seen Brooklyn so happy. Don't get me wrong, the 'terrible twos' is a title that she rightfully deserves by the growing number of tantrums that just started surfacing a couple times a day! But never have I seen her able to explore and entertain herself. She has finally reached a level of independence that is a miracle to me. Somehow over night she has become my little helper and quite the jabber jaws. I laugh at her every day! I guess this all came as a surprise because I was sure that once she got those casts off it would take time for her to get strength in her legs back, but the opposite happened. She gained so much muscle from lugging those things around that she crawls better than ever and even stands (with her walker) occasionally. We videoed her standing for the first time which I'll try to post soon.
With weeks as fun as these it makes me wonder what we'll do to entertain ourselves come winter!

THE 4th, THE CASTS, THE SURGERY.........A VERY BUSY WEEK!

Before I start with my latest complaint (I seem to have a lot lately!), I will start by saying how dang cute Brooklyn was on the 4th. We felt like being crazy and headed to the fairgrounds for the fireworks. Those of you that don't know, Brooklyn has ALWAYS been terrified of a noise louder than a sneeze. Actually those used to terrify her too! When she was little I couldn't put away groceries around her because the sound of the bags made her hysterical. Clapping, vacuuming, doorbells, knocking, and laughing terrified her and she would sob uncontrollably. So to say the least, it was a huge step for us to attempt to sit directly below the fireworks. After the first firework went off her little fingers flew into her ears for the remainder of the show, but she loved it. She would take her hands off when she would get really excited to clap once then put them right back in her ears. It was so cute. And it's only taken us 2 "short" years to be able to take her somewhere with noise!

So she finally got those heavy casts taken off on Monday. I seriously couldn't sleep the night before because I was so excited. Brooklyn has loved it too and crawls faster than ever now just cause she finally can for the first time in almost 5 weeks! We made it a good day and went swimming with her cousins. Her legs are pretty beat up though from being in the casts and her toes drug out of them the majority of the time so we are constantly keeping a dozen bandaids on her legs and feet.....again. She also has developed a terrible rash on her legs since they have been taken off so I wonder if she touched something with latex, which she is allergic to.

Her eye surgery is on Thursday and I'm not very happy about it. The doctors are loosening her eye muscles because occassionaly her eyes are pulled the wrong direction ( I happen to find it very cute!!!). The good news is that they may loosen the muscles too much so her eyes will fly the other way so we will do surgery AGAIN to fix it. Cool huh? What's even cooler is after her surgery we can't get her eyes wet for another three weeks. How's that for timing??? When they told me that in the doctors office I seriously almost cried. Only three days after getting her casts off, water is once again forbidden. I'm a little frustrated and I have been throwing quite the pity party lately so if anyone would like to join me let me know!

Happy Birthday To Me!

For my Birthday(July 2) Jonny did a very un-Jonny like thing and planned a last minute trip to Jackson for just the two of us. The key word there is planned, because usually we drive around lost tyring to find hotels in the middle of the night wherever we go and spend the rest of the time trying to buy tickets to a place that is usually sold out. But not this time! It was so much fun! I called my mom Tuesday morning and asked her if she could watch her favorite grandchild for a couple days and of course she agreed. That is the beauty of living by my parents and Jonny's parents. We always have a babysitter! So we packed rather quickly and headed up to Jackson. Here is a quick re-cap of our little vacation.

* On Tuesday night we went to the Bar-J wranglers show. It was alot of fun, but it could have been a little funner had we not gotten there so late and had to sit in the very back crammed in with some people who did not smell so good. Let's just say I didn't eat much of my dinner while sitting elbow to elbow with those people!

* On Wednesday, my Birthday, we decided to take a hike first thing in the morning up to a beautiful lake. It only ended up being about four miles and was quite enjoyable not having to pack a two year old along! I would just like to point out that Jonny has been complaining since about being sore. I guess I am just in better shape than him :) That same day we also played mini-golf which I beat him by three points, while also getting the only hole-in-one of the whole game. Then we raced a couple of times down the Alpine slides. Jonny did beat me at that both times, but I figured he was feeling a little inferior at that point anyway! Then we had my Birthday dinner at our favorite and of course cheap restaurant Bubba's. Jonny somehow convinced the waitress and half the staff to come over and sing me happy birthday. I was quite embarrassed, but I got a free Banana Cream pie out of the deal so I forgave him rather quickly!
* Today we intended to go to the Temple on the way home but the Idaho Falls Temple was closed and we didn't want to drive all the way to Rexburg. We were also missing our little girl quite a bit so we rushed home to kiss her cute face! We didn't take many pictures but here are a few from our hike.


It took us about ten times before we actually got a picture of us and the lake in the same picture. It started getting a little funny how difficult it was!

Five More Days!!!

We are so excited that it is almost time for Brooklyns Casts to finally come off! They are so big and heavy that my back has been hurting from lugging her and her cement shoes around for the last four weeks and we have several scratches in our wood floor and we seem to be able to find exactly where she has been crawling by the chips left in our trim all around the house. Character marks right? Despite the headache they have been, the time has gone by rather quickly and we have still been able to enjoy some fun by the pool and Brooklyn hardly goes a day without hanging out with at least one of her many cousins that she adores! Here is a couple pictures of the fun Brookie has had the last couple weeks.....

Lots of kids have to put garbage sacks on their
legs when they swim........don't they? Brookie
didn't seem to mind as long as she had a Popsicle!

Jonny and I decided to take a leisurely walk with Brooklyn

on Sunday and this is who we ended up with. If you look close you

can see Brooklyn's legs propped up by the steering

wheel so her legs don't drag while we push her. Good thing

she is flexible!