Be-A-Utiful DAY!!!

I had a meal to deliver in Lacey this evening and Josh has been super busy at work so I decided that we would drop off our meal and swing downtown to surprise Daddy with dinner and a visit :-)  It was beautiful, relaxing and the kids had fun.  

Brooklyn 7 Months

My baby girl is 7 months old and this past month has thus far held the most milestones!  We are mobile now!!!  She began crawling and pulling herself up to a stand...  It has been fun watching her intently stare at Lincoln as he plays, you can read her inner monologue by the expressions on her face.  She had a few weeks of half-way crawling and she was pretty frustrated, but once she got it there was no stopping her.  One of her favorite things to investigate is the dogs, luckily they don't flinch as she is pulling on and closely examining their nails and ears :-)  Simultaneously as she mastered crawling, she also nailed the whole "pulling myself up to a stand" routine.  This would be perfectly fine except bedtime now has a new twist.  She would much rather be standing in her crib watching her brother play and listen to his ranting when he is suppose to be sleeping...  This could get interesting real quick!  

This past month Brooklyn also began eating solids (not baby food solids, but adult food solids.)  So far she has had toast, cheerios, eggs, blueberries, raspberries, rice, waffles, a popsicle, and kix.  By the way she LOVES her food!  

Brooklyn's 6 month well-check appointment isn't until August 1 so I don't know how she compares to the rest of the babies out there.  I will for sure keep you posted.  I do know that she weighs 17 pounds ( I was fortunate enough to weigh her before she became mobile.)


Things I have learned about my daughter this month:

• She is very serious most of the time
• She smiles the most for her brother
• She loves the tag to her pink blanket with orange polka-dots.  One only needs to brush it across her face when she is tired and she basically falls asleep.
• One of her favorite "toys" is any plastic card...  
• She loves the bath tub
• She still only has two teeth???
• She is very content  

A Tribute to a Great Man

Life is such a fragile thing that we tend to take for granted as we run around living our busy little lives worrying and stressing over the mundane instead of enjoying what really matters, relationships with real people, relationships with our family and friends.  Often it isn't until tragedy strikes that we stop, take a breath, come up for air and remember how blessed we are to be surrounded by the ones we love.  We recently lost a good one, Dan Pickens.  Many who read this will not even have a memory to go with the name, it will be just another name without a face to reference, but for a handful of people it is the name of a wonderful human being that touched many lives.  He is a great man who will be missed dearly ~ husband, father, brother, grandparent, great grandparent, friend.  

The family decided to have celebration of life for Dan so a date was picked, the word was spread and one by one people confirmed that they would be getting together in Tenino.  Some family that hadn't seen one another for over 30 years were reunited!  Our little corner of the world in Tenino turned into a regular Best Western for a few days as people were playing musical beds and attempting to comfortably accommodate all the family that flew in to celebrate Dan.  It was so much fun to relax, catch up, and visit with cousins, aunts, great uncles that we hadn't seen in years, some we even met for the first time.  Kids were running around everywhere getting acquainted, we broke bread and of course had to take a ridiculous amount of pictures to commemorate this special time we had together.  Dan was well loved by many.  Thank you for bringing us all together again, we love and will miss you dearly Dan :-)   

Please, if you knew Dan and have a fun memory to share with his family and friends comment below so we can send this to his family as a blessing as we remember him.