Brooklyn 1 Month?!

Dear Brooklyn,

You are my sweet little bundle of joy.  I adore you and cannot believe you are 1 month old already.  I have a knot in my stomach and tears forming in my eyes when I think about how soon I have to leave you and return to work.  You are such a blessing to our family.  You fit perfectly!  The love I feel for you is indescribable and I am sure that you won't understand it until you have children of your own.  We were blessed with another easy going baby as you really only cry when you are hungry.  You are referred to as little miss, sweetness, and of course Lincoln calls you "baby Brooklyn."  He adores you too.  He likes to watch when you get your diaper changed and asks about you when you guys have been apart.  He enjoys your "company" in the back of the car :-)  When you hit the 1 month mark you started to resemble your brother at 1 month!  Love you to pieces baby girl!

Love,

Mom

 

Snow Storm 2012

Well, I am finally back!  The snow that I was so excited about caused our power to go out for the first time since we have lived here.  We have lost power for a few min, but nothing long term until last week...  I use to love it when the power went out.  As a kid it meant we all played monopoly by candlelight.  How my attitude towards no power has changed now that I have two little crumb snatchers!  Oh, and a house with no way to be heated with out power.  Lincoln didn't quite understand why I couldn't "fix" the movie he was watching.  He also was convinced that all the lights were broken and must need batteries :-)  It was pretty cute.  My mom came to rescue us from the cold, but from the time she left her house to get us and by the time we headed back the road was blocked due to a fallen tree.  We attempted to go around numerous ways, but the roads everywhere were disastrous!  We finally ended up in Tumwater where we got lunch and she then drove me back home. 

The house got cold pretty fast with no heat and the three of us snuggled up on the couch and took a nap while we waited for daddy to get home from work.  We then packed up and headed to my parents house.  They had lost their power a day and a half before us, but they have a generator and a wood stove.  Bunking with them was fun and we were able to bring the dogs along with us which was awesome.  Lincoln of course had a blast being at grandma and grandpa's house with almost all of his favorite people.  By Friday we were going loony...  Obviously there was no Internet and the cell service was horrid and practically nonexistent.  I felt like I was in an old movie as my mom and I were crouched over the radio trying to get news from the "outside."  Lincoln and I even went so far as to karaoke to the radio.  It was pretty funny seeing Lincoln sing and dance with a flashlight microphone.  My mom was able to get a video.  I will try to post it soon. 

Friday evening when Josh got off work we packed up our stuff and headed north to Kelly and Danette's house.  They were one of the 15% of Olympia that still had power.  I though surely we would be there maybe one night and our power would be back on...  Haha!  Three nights we stayed there and we still had no power!  We kept pretty busy as it was poker weekend and Kelly and Danette were having a party on Sunday afternoon.  Lincoln got to play with the Caldwell girls during poker night.   I was hoping that Kaura might be able to teach him a thing or two about potty training, but no such luck...    

Living out of a few bags was getting old fast!  I was going out of my mind!  Kelly and Danette were awesome and got quality bonding time with the kids.  Lincoln of course was on cloud nine, but I wanted to be home with my family bonding with my little girly before having to return to work.  I was also worried about all the breast milk I had stored up in my freezer...  Monday morning Josh called me from work and said that according to Puget Sound Energy we now had power!  I was sooo excited!  I called my grandpa and asked him to check on the house and verify that we in fact did have power and we did not.  BOOO!!!  Monday night I packed up the kids and we headed back down to my parents house as they had gotten their power back that afternoon.  Part of the frustration was that the store at the end of my road had their power restored Saturday as did the street in front of us, behind us and all down 183rd?!  It made no sense that we were the only street in our area without power??  Finally Tuesday afternoon I got the message from my neighbor that we had power!  YEAH!!!  I picked up take out and packed up in an elated rush.  I sang happily all the way home, "Our house is a very, very, very fine house..."  I LOVE my home and am so appreciative of electricity!!  Power went out Thursday around 10:00 a.m. and came back on Tuesday around 2:00 p.m.  At least we qualified for the $50 rebate from PSE (hahaha!)



  

Jamie's First Birthday...

Today we celebrated a tremendous accomplishment from an amazing woman.  Jamie (Wilson) Bloom celebrated one year of sobriety!  It was so touching to see a family come together to not only celebrate, but show their continued support of a fellow family member.  Everyone of course enjoyed delicious food, the chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting to be specific (it is a staple in the Brannin/Cummins party menu.)  Everyone visited.  Everyone doted on little miss Brooklyn.  Everyone made a wish for Jamie.  This was the highlight of the afternoon.  This was what it was all about.  The whole family took turns making wishes for the year ahead of Jamie in the new life that she has battled for.  It is to help her keep in the forefront of her mind everything she has to look forward to and everything she has worked so hard for in the last year.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house, well shop...  

My wish for Jamie in the coming year is that she will be blessed with many family memories just like this one that we celebrated with her today. 

~ Victoria

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Well, we finally got the first real snow of the winter season.  The first sign of it was a bit of a tease. It snowed, melted, snowed, then melted.  I hadn't purchased snow pants or gloves for Lincoln because I figured if I did, we would get no snow and he would never wear them.  Naturally, the snow did come and he had no pants...  Luckily he was perfectly content to wear his wind breaker pants with fleece jammies underneath.  I was most concerned that his fingers would be freezing because the only gloves I had for him were not water proof.  He however could have cared less.  He loved playing in the snow with the dogs and did not want to come back inside. 

Then we got the news reports that the big storm was coming early Wednesday morning.  I was so excited!!  Tuesday night I was a bit worried that they were wrong and that Rochester was not going to get very much snow at all because nothing was happening.  I was delighted when I awoke at 2:00 a.m. to feed Brooklyn and found a beautiful wonderland had transformed out yard.  We got 13 inches!  I don't ever recall getting that much in our area!  Josh stayed home from work, we bundled the kids up and headed out to make a snow man.  We had tried a few days before, but the snow was too dry.  With all of the freezing rain the snow was great for snow balls and a snowman.  Josh did the hard part and I got to decorate  :-)   

The dogs were cracking me up as they tried to navigate their way through the snow.  They looked like deer frolicking through the white abyss.  Morgan like it for about 15 minutes then wanted to be inside.  Thor however loved running through it and exploring.  He desperately tried to get Morgan excited enough to play with him, but it didn't work too well after those first 15 minutes!