Happy Birthday Brynlee!

Our baby is 1! I can't even believe it! She is so stinkin cute and so much fun. We went to her doctor's appointment Monday and she weighed 17 lbs 12 oz and was 29 inches long. She is still little, but at least she's still on the chart. We just had a little party for her with Jordan and I. She got a ball and a doll from mom and dad and some clothes and a book from Gramy and Grandpa. She is so cute with her baby doll. She wasn't too sure about the cake, but I think she was too full from dinner to truly enjoy it. I don't think she liked the feeling of sticky frosting on her hands. Here are a few pictures from her birthday:

She is walking very well now and learning more words. She absolutely loves being outside and most especially dogs. She does the actions to "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," "Little Bunny Foo Foo," and a few other nursery rhymes. I'll have to post video of it later. It is adorable to watch. She even folds her arms for prayers. She loves playing with other little ones, especially Libby and Jayden. She is so wonderful! I feel so lucky to be her mom!

One of Brynlee's new favorite things is the broom. She loves to sweep! I wish she loved the vacuum. She is scared to death of it! Everything else here is about the same. Jordan is doing well in school and enjoying clinic. I'm loving being home most of the week with Brynlee.

Wedding

I do realize that there are a ton of pictures here and half way through trying to post them here, I just decided to do them on Facebook which was ridiculously easy compared to this, but I was persistent, so they are both places. Gerrit and Rebecca's wedding was beautiful! I am so grateful I could go. Jordan didn't go so he is missing in the pictures. I didn't take many pictures myself since my hands were full most of the time so thanks Dad for the pictures! I am excited to see the pictures their photographers took! This temple is so incredible! I love it!

Brynlee, Gramy, Aliyah, and Andrea

My siblings and siblings-in-law

My cute brothers :)

All the Winkel men

Bryn and Grandpa

Bryn's classic camera face

Rebecca's flower girls

We also got to go to Sea World the next day which was way fun, but way hot. Brynlee seemed to enjoy herself for the most part.

This picture was taken when she was sad because she wanted to push the stroller instead of be pushed in the stroller, but as soon as the camera was pointed at her, she quickly put on a smile for the picture and then would go back to being sad until it was pointed at her again.

This is the family picture we took this last weekend. It maybe, but hopefully won't be the last time we're all together before Mark leaves on his mission.

August

Here are some rather random pictures from our comings and goings in August. We've loved the cooler summer this year with not so much humidity!

We got to go to the hot air balloon festival in Indianola, IA and saw the night time show. It was pretty cool. Brynlee seemed to enjoy it as well. Forgive the fuzzy picture of us...best I could do.

Brynlee and her best friend Libby are about the cutest thing you've ever seen together! We got the girls together to swim. They wrinkled like raisins and Sam and I enjoyed the warm weather!

This is Brynlee in her new shirt from her new Aunt Rebecca who brought it back from Scotland. She looks so stinkin cute and grown up in it. Thanks Rebecca!

This last week Brynlee and I got to go to the Iowa State Fair with one of my coworkers and her daughter Jayden. It was so fun! Her husband was showing his pigs so we got a lot of up close and personal time with them. Brynlee was nervous at first but ended up petting and pulling on some pig ears. The calf was adorable too. Brynlee is continuing to be so much fun. She is dancing and getting pretty close to walking. I think she would be closer if she didn't prefer running over walking. We don't mind. I am not ready for her to grow up too fast!

Toothy Grin and Other Brynlee Updates

So I am caught up on our trip to Utah and Nauvoo...I just need to give a quick update on our Boo. Brynlee is so hillarious these days. She is quite the chatter box. She has been for a while, but the last two days have been crazy. She has hardly shut her mouth if she is awake. She isn't walking on her own except for two or three steps, but does good if you hold on to one of her hands. She still loves to push her little cart around. I had issues with her wanting to push the cart at Walmart yesterday. I had to pry her little hands off of it when it was time to check out. She also would rather push her stroller than be pushed in it. She also popped a tooth out when we were in Utah and hasn't popped up with any more since, so she still has just one cute tooth. It is dangerous though! I had a fruit snack in the diaper bag that she got to. It looks like a mouse has been chewing into it and she did eventually make it to a fruit snack. I'm sure it came with some plastic. Delicious!

Aren't her new pajama's so cute! They looked so huge on the hanger I didn't figure they would fit for a while, but they didn't fit half bad!


Can you see the tooth?!

Bath time is still the best time!

She has definitely become expert in making her opinion known! She is so cute and fun, we can't help but love her!

Nauvoo

Last weekend we got to go to Nauvoo with some of our friends, the Thuns and Shaws. We had a really good time! I'm glad we could take advantage of living so close. It is really a neat place to visit. Sometimes I forget all the sacrifices the early saints made. It is so incredible to me! We got to see the pageant and tour some of town. We also had an overdue visit to the temple which was awesome.

We stayed the night in a house that the Shaws and Thuns found that worked out really great. The Thuns' daughter Libby and Brynlee are so cute together.

She looks awful innocent doesn't she....

We're still trying to teach Brynlee to play nice! They really are fun together though. They hold hands and hug even though they occasionally use the other as a punching bag or poke each others eyes out.

Trip to Utah

Finally, here are some pictures from our trip to Utah. Of course, I didn't take nearly as many as I should have! Brynlee did suprisingly well in our car ride of about 40 hours round trip. I, on the other hand, didn't find much joy in the journey. It was worth it though to get to see family we don't see very often. It was so nice we had a half way point in Colorado so we got to see Grampa, Grammy, Luke, and Natalie for a little while as well. Here are a few of the things we did in Utah:

We got to see all of Jordan's brothers and sisters and of course parents while we were there. It was so nice of Nathan and Lena to come down from Montana while we were there. Brynlee also got to see Great Grandma Durfey again and met Great Grandpa and Grandma Day for the first time. I am kicking myself now for not getting some pictures! Brynlee loved hanging out with all her cousins! We're missing a few in these pictures! It was fun to see how much all of them are growning up! We also got to cuddle Haws and Mason Wade our two stinkin cute new nephews.



We also got to play in the water! Brynlee and I skipped out on the slip-n-slide, but we did enjoy going swimming with Aunt Rachelle in her big pool! I wish I had pictures of that. Brynlee loved it!

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was so beautiful! I was really glad we got to go. It is kind of cool that it is the first city to have two temples in the world.

We went to cousin Caden's baseball game as well. He and his team are awesome! They took first at state and were able to go on to Regions. Way to go Caden! We also really enjoyed getting to see the mountains. I miss them so much in Iowa! It sounds like we might get to spend a little more time there next summer depending on where Jordan's clinical rotations send us. We look forward to it!