Moo...Moo...Brylee is Two!

On Saturday, we celebrated Brylee's 2nd Birthday with a cow-themed birthday party with family and friends. Brylee still loves farm animals, and the cow is one of her favorites. She enthusiastically says "Moooo" very loudly when you ask her what a cow says. Since she was a cow for Halloween, we decided to stick with the cow-theme for her birthday.

 

I made these cute invitations with a Groupon I had, and we themed everything around pink, orange, and cows!

 We started the morning with birthday donuts, and I slightly regretted that decision after I realized she was probably only going to eat sweets all day long! But she loved it!

 I basically used all paper for decorations (wrapping paper, paper streamers, construction paper banner), and some tin and wooden buckets I already had around the house. We added some cow-print and pink balloons and tissue paper flowers for an extra pop.

 

The Party Table

 We had 3 types of cookies, including cake-batter, chocolate chip, and white chocolate-cranberry cookies, in cute cookie jars. I am happy to say that the two new recipes I used were delicious!

 I made a cookie-cake for her birthday cake and added cow-print icing! The icing turned out to be her favorite part!

 And we made cow-girl chili for the grown-ups who were at her party

 The present mantle

 Party favors

 We passed out bags of cookies in cow-tins along with some cow-hats we got from Chick-fil-a

 The birthday girl welcomed her guests, and we have been working really hard saying "I'm two" while holding up two fingers. She's mastered saying it, but hasn't quite gotten the finger motion down!

 Sweet girls enjoying playing with balloons! They were patiently waiting to go see the "surprise" outside

 As hard as we tried to get a baby calf to appear at her cow-party, we could not come up with one. But as it turns out, having a baby goat at your party is even better! Our wonderful brother-in-law brought his 3-month-old goat to hang out in our backyard for the kids (and parents) to enjoy! This was the sweetest goat ever, and let all the kids touch and pet her while she enjoyed eating or nibbling on hay bales. A few party guests were a bit frightened by the goat, and after all the kids got a chance to pet her, they quickly enjoyed running around the backyard playing chase and kicking balls and halfway forgot about the goat. It was definitely a fun addition to have at her party!

 After a while we came back inside and sang happy birthday to the birthday girl, who got a cookie as a "snack" before she dove into her cookie cake!

 Daddy helped blow out one candle, but Brylee was able to blow out the other candle all by herself!

 She was very enthusiastic about opening her presents, and went from gift to gift pulling out tissue paper, looking at the gift, then telling her friends "thank you" as I pointed out who got the present for her!

 Her two 'bigger' gifts included a tricycle from her Nanny and Papa and a wagon from us.

 We took the wagon to the backyard, and Brylee was not too pleased that the goat jumped right in! I think she was more worried about her baby she just put in the wagon than the wagon itself.

 One of the funniest things of the weekend was the relationship between this goat and our dog. After a few "get-to-know-me" moments, these two became great friends and chased each other around the yard!

 We had such a great day, and want to thank everyone who helped us celebrate Brylee's birthday! Now we head to my family's house to celebrate Thanksgiving and Brylee's actual birthday next Friday! I can't believe I have a two year old!

Look at Me

On Monday Bryan and I had our third ultrasound to check the growth of our sweet angel.

 

31 weeks and 1 day

Measuring at 4lb 4oz, in the 74%

Estimated weight when born: 8lb 8oz

 

We were scheduled for a regular sonogram, and absolutely LOVE our sonographer at the doctor's office. She switched the monitor over to 4D for a few minutes, and we got to see these sweet features on our baby girl!

Top Picture: She's facing the camera and you can see her sweet closed eyes, nose, and open-mouth lips.

Bottom Picture: Her profile where you can see her ear, arm with hand covering her mouth.

We had a good doctor's appointment and I feel really good about our "birth plan." They have us scheduled for a planned C-section on Jan 2, 2013, which is 4 days prior to my 40 week due date.

 

Brylee had to be induced 3 days after my due date, so neither the doctor's or I am expecting to go into labor early. However, if we do go into labor early, I'm still anticipating a C-section based on the safety for me and the baby, unless God is making it very clear that surgery seems unnecessary (example: I get to the hospital two weeks early, my water already broke, and I'm dilated to 8+ cm). In that case, the doctors and Bryan agree that we could try to deliver without the need for surgery and it would be safe for me and Lynlie.

 

Either way, we were thankful and overjoyed that we got to see our beautiful, healthy baby girl (who is still a girl :).  And although going into labor at 32 weeks would not be ideal, I feel better knowing that our 4lb 4oz baby is big and healthy and would have a great chance of surviving out of the womb at this point. Praise God for healthy babies!

 

 

 



Showering Lynlie Kayte

On Saturday, my very sweet friends from our class at church hosted a brunch baby shower for our sweet Lynlie Kayte. When we were pregnant with Brylee, our church hosted a large baby shower, and we were overwhelmed with gifts to help us prepare for Brylee. Thankfully, we have almost everything we need to welcome baby Lynlie, but it was so nice to get several extra goodies to make this baby feel like she's not just getting "hand-me-downs."

I value these ladies so much, and their friendship is very important to me and my family. We absolutely love being a part of a church that has such a strong group of young families, and it is fun going from a group young married couples to a group of families with young kids. 

Halloween Fun

Last year was technically Brylee's first Halloween, and boy was she a cute owl! But this year was the first Halloween in which we participated in the Halloween festivities, and she was the cutest little cow on the block!

 

Thursday night before Halloween, downtown Wylie hosted "Boo on Ballard," which is a fun event for businesses in downtown Wylie to host booths and hand out candy to cute tick-or-treaters. Bryan always passes out candy in front of his office, so we hung out with Daddy & did a little trick-or-treating of our own.

I wore this "Pumpkin Smuggler" shirt when I was pregnant with Brylee, and it appropriately fit well now that I'm pregnant again.

On Sunday evening, our church hosted "Trunk or Treat," filled with little games, candy, popcorn, and a hayride. Bryan & I dressed to coordinate as our cute little cow's farmers.

By Halloween evening, Brylee was getting the idea that when she dressed up in her cow costume, she got candy, so she willingly obliged. She couldn't even get off our front step without opening her first piece of candy. We only went up & down our street, and stopped at maybe 8-10 houses. Brylee had fun ringing the doorbell, but did not understand why we weren't going inside the houses. She also was ready to hand over the piece of candy she was currently eating to open the piece she just received. By the time we got home, we had a basket full of twice-licked lollypops!

We didn't want to mess up our evening routine, so we got home early enough to get ready for bed & play. I think Brylee enjoyed helping hand out candy more than she did walking up & down the street! And we were the party poopers who turned off the front porch light at 8:30 sharp as soon as Brylee was in bed! Sorry to the kids who were too old to be out trick-or-treating anyways!

 

Happy Halloween from our sweet little Moo-Cow!

ACU Homecoming

Last weekend we headed to Abilene to celebrate ACU Homecoming and spend time with Bryan's family. It is always convenient to go to Abilene during homecoming weekend - we get the best of both worlds of seeing friends and celebrating ACU and seeing family.

 

Friday Bryan played in the ACU Homecoming golf tournament, so Brylee and I joined Bryan's mom and walked around ACU, visited Papa in the Ag dept, and spent time around the campus center.

Friday night we headed to the Homecoming Carnival and had a blast playing games and feeding the animals! Brylee wasn't so sure about Willie the Wildcat

 

Saturday morning we headed to the Homecoming Parade! We had a lot of fun, and Brylee was pretty mesmerized by the parade!

 

We were all exhausted by the time the weekend was over! Bryan and I went to the football game while Brylee napped, and we enjoyed family time Saturday night and Sunday at church.

ACU will always hold a very special place in our hearts!