What a Difference a Year Makes!

                        Brody has changed as much as Brenley!

                          One more cupcake on her real birthday!

                          A little after-bath escape! She does love her Cozy Coupe.

Brenley's Birthday Party!

We had a great time celebrating Brenley's 1st Birthday on Saturday. She will turn 1 on Tuesday. Lots of family watched Brenley devour a whole cupcake all by herself. She loved the frosting but surprised us all by continuing to eat the cupcake after the frosting was gone. She got lots of great presents including toys, dolls, clothes, a new cell phone and a cozy coupe car! She is a very lucky girl to be so loved by family and friends. Her birthday week will be filled with daycare party on Tuesday, 1 year Dr appt. on Thursday and Children's Hospital check-up on Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mmmmm.....looks good.

Gathering to sing the blessing. It's a family tradition going back decades, and involves the sweaty hands part of the family standing together. Heidi is rocking the bump:)!

Didn't try to get a picture of the kids until the end of the day when they were pretty much over it. Brody would not take a picture with Brenley, so this is what we got. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Playing at Grandma's

Grandma got a new floor mat (watch for it, you will see it again!). Brody thought it made a great place to line up all of his vehicles and play.

First Steps

Brenley's been pretty steady on her feet for a couple of weeks now. She stands up anywhere and can stand for quite a while. It's just in the last couple of days that she has been starting to take her first steps though. I think it was just so fast for her to drop down and crawl. She has gotten as far as three steps today.

She also loves telephones and really puts almost anything to her ear to talk, including her socks today. While she will say mamama and dada, we are not sure if she is really saying them to mean us, but we are sure she says "hello" to her phones.

The Fun Begins...

The snow lovers in this family couldn't be happier! They just have their fingers crossed for lots of this for the next four or five months.

This is Brody's "thumbs-up" with Mommy's gloves on. He always thinks his own are too little!

Ryan and Brody's snowman.

New Friend

As soon as Brenley spotted Scout in Brody's room you knew she found her new best-friend. She picked him right up, and hasn't let go yet. She hugs him, snuggles him and even took him to bed with her. There is a girl version which will be going on her Birthday list because Brody informed her many times that Scout is his and she can only borrow it "for a little bit!"

Pumpkin Patch Pay-Off

 When it came time to cash in Brody's pumpkin money he had one request- a bike like Bubbie's (friend from daycare). So a toy story bike is what he got. It makes him very mad that he can't pedal it by himself yet but if we practice in the house enough over the winter he should have it down by spring! And he still has plenty of pumpkin money left to buy a few more new toys!

Trick or Treat!

We started trick or treating in New Ulm at 3 o'clock yesterday. We made three stops, then headed to Papa Jones' house. After that we took pizza to Taid's house. Brody didn't want to do any more trick or treating, but he had a blast handing out candy at Taid's. About the third time he went to the door there was a scary mask, so he was pretty cautious after that. He would announce how many scary masks there were each time - "1 cary mask, 2 not cary".

We stopped at Hudsy's Great Aunt Shari's house becuase Hudsy and Paxton were there watching football. Wanted to share the picture of some of Brody's pumpkins!