Brooklynn is our little ham. She is constantly making us smile and laugh. Her trademark is her smile - which never seems to leave her face! I love her personality - she is very rambunctious and active. She has a very strong will and loves trying new things. Sometimes that is difficult to contend with!! On the flip side she is a little mommy. She loves nurturing others and is very gentle. She will often rub your back when she gives you a hug, and at times she will just sit and rub the side of a my face as a mother would do to a baby. Her most recent quote to tell people is, "I'm so proud of you" whenever they do something well. She is an encourager and is growing up to be a compassionate little girl. I am so excited to see her with this baby. She is so excited about it getting here. As sweet and cute as she is, sometimes looks can be deceiving!! Brooklynn is our "ring-leader" when it comes to getting into things. Brooklynn LOVES making messes and creating things out of stuff that probably shouldn't be played with. I can actually hear her tell Dylan to do the things she isn't able to do. Dylan will say, "Brookie, you're going to get in trouble", and will back away for a while. But usually he ends up joining in. While it is frustrating to clean up their creations, I do love that she enjoys seeing how things work. Here is the latest creation by Dylan and Brooke.
As I entered their room I found her squeezing a thing of powder all in the air as both of them ran under it. Quite a mess to clean up - a job for the steam cleaner! I told them I needed to take a few pictures to show daddy what they did and they actually posed for it. As annoyingly comical as this was, they got punished for making such a huge mess!
I must end by saying that Brooklynn has grown leaps and bounds over the last few months. She was in therapy for a foot deformity and for a sensory-motor disorder. After just a few months of therapy she is thriving. Her feet now face forward and she no longer screams when being handled. She doesn't trip herself when she runs and enjoys running constantly now. She also loves riding her scooter which has helped her feet turn out as well. Now its hard to keep up with her! I'm so happy she's doing so well and even more thankful she doesn't have to go through therapy anymore! God truly does answer prayer!
May was the busiest month we've had in a long time! I cannot believe everything we crammed into one month. But it was one of the most memorable months to date. The first few weeks were spent preparing for graduation - Ben and I completed a tribute video to my father that we presented to him at our party, my mom, Tina, Brooke and I had an awesome girls night out in which we took Brooke to her first movie, and I completed my final school assignments. My mom got us tickets to go to a Sky Sox game and we had the hot tub for the night! It was such a fun time. It ended up being cold that night but we still managed to enjoy ourselves. Since I'm pregnant I couldn't get in for very long. The doctor said only a few minutes if the temperature was 100 degrees or below. Luckily it was right at 100 so I warmed up for a few minutes! We also got to enjoy the first fireworks show of this baseball season. It was a wonderful family night.
The following weekend was huge! I graduated from Nazarene Bible College...finally! Friday we had a cookout and music at the school followed by a rehearsal for the weekends events. Saturday started early with Convocation - we were given a charge by the school for our ministry ahead. The graduates each take a turn holding a torch as we pledge our lives in service to the Lord. Following Convocation we enjoyed our graduation party. Once again my mom did such an incredible job hosting our party. We had such good food, music, tributes, and wonderful fellowship with 100 of our friends and family. Saturday night we went to an alumni banquet in which we were inducted into the NBC Alumni Association. We finished out the weekend by receiving our diplomas in an amazing ceremony on Sunday afternoon. My dad gave our diplomas to both Ben and I. It was such a special time for all of us! We all went out to eat on Sunday night and crashed! I am so excited to be done but I still have a 10 week internship ahead of me. I am anxious to have that completed so I can move forward to the next phase of my life!
Since its been a couple of months since I've posted anything I will take a look back over and post whatever I missed. Easter was a blast for us this year. The kids dyed Easter eggs and put stickers of Jesus as well as some Christian symbols on them. It was neat to have them be more involved this year. We spent Easter Sunday with my side of the family since we weren't sure if it would be our last Easter all together or not. It was a wonderful day of food and fun and a great way to spend our last family get together in my parents house. My parents moved out of their house at the end of April, which was pretty rough on all of us. But God has been so good to them and is restoring the difficult time they have been through. The day after my parents moved Ben and I (and our spouses) attended an all-day senior event that celebrates the end of our time at Nazarene Bible College. We had breakfast and lunch at the Broadmoor, where we also listened to a few of the faculty members speak about our time after graduation and what lies ahead for us. It was followed by a meal and music at the Flyin' W Ranch - a facility run for cowboys here in town. It's a great family place for eating and doing the cowboy thing! We had a blast! April was a busy month...but so fun!
Okay, it's been SO long since I've updated this blog! I am now in my second trimester which is so hard to believe! I can't believe how fast the first one went...but I'm not complaining by any means. I had morning sickness for a solid 4 weeks but it has gone away over the last few weeks, and luckily it never got too bad! My second OB appointment was in April. We got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. It was neat to see the baby but at that point it didn't look much like a baby. This is the ultra sound picture from that appointment. I had my third OB appointment almost 2 weeks ago. The baby's heartbeat was 164 BPM which is right where it should be. I barely gained any weight my first trimester for which I am extremely thankful! My craving has mostly been fruit - all fast food tastes disgusting to me, and if I eat anything heavy I can only eat a very small portion. I have felt little tiny "pokes" on the inside of my belly over the last week. It just feels like something is flicking the inside of my stomach. I asked my doctor if its possible to feel the baby this early and he said yes, especially considering it's my 3rd pregnancy. My next appointment is June 18th. I'm already looking forward to hearing its little heartbeat again! My belly is really starting to poke out as you can see! I'm finally starting to feel like there's something in there and I don't just have the flu! 
