Feeling "Wicked"

Jordan and I finally got our 5 year anniversary date a couple of weeks ago. My good friend from when I was in high school and his wife, Clay and Natalie, came from KC to see Wicked with us. My camera has been out of juice so forgive me that there aren't many pictures to this post. Bummer. I absolutely loved Wicked! I would see it again any day.(I believe that this is an official Wicked logo (Though it might be surprising, I didn't create it!)....I couldn't find a copyright to it, but just in case see http://www.wickedthemusical.com/)

Jordan was released from his calling in Cub Scouts this last week. He enjoyed this calling and is a little disappointed based on the timing of his release (there was a "small" amount of drama prior), but I think that it will be a great relief to him. He is still staying very busy with school and has found out his basic schedule for his clerkships (4th year clinical rotations) for next year. He will be in Minnesota for two months, Michigan for a month, Washington for a month, and Utah for four months. He will likely have at least one extra month in Utah and hopefully one in Colorado, though they have not been set up yet. We are excited for school to be done, but aren't looking forward to trying to sell our house or being apart while Jordan travels.

My life has been the same. Brynlee, work, and YW. Brynlee, of course, is just getting more fun. Just can't help loving her to pieces.

I do love the babies at work and my YW too. The YW just had their YW in Excellence two weeks ago which was so fun. Their theme was "Project Walk Tall," a fashion show displaying what they have learned over the last few months about modesty/fashion, body language, hair, etc. Here's a cute pic of most of my girls from the night....
We hope all is well with the rest of you. We just bought plane tickets for our December vacations tonight! We look forward to seeing some of you soon!

Fall and Fishes

I have to say, I just love fall. I am not super duper looking forward to another Iowa winter, but fall is so nice here. It has gotten much cooler, but no snow like some of you. We are enjoying the fall colors, football season, warm fall treats, and our snuggle bug...

It is so much fun teaching Bryn new things. I haven't been able to get her to make any animal noises, but she can be a fish and scrunches her nose like a bunny. I need to get some other videos on here still, but it is so much work from my camera. I'm still trying to get all the bugs worked out.

Bryn looks too cute in the outfits Gramy sent. (Thanks Mom!) Thanks Melissa for the one you sent too, I need to take a picture of her in it. It's adorable!One of Brynlee's best phrases is "where is he?" or "where it go?" When she plays with Libby and she walks away or she can't find a toy she was playing with, she pulls this expression, and usually both hands go into the palm up mode. I wish it was a better picture of it.

Brynlee's hair is getting a little longer and trying to decide whether or not to be curly. We decided to go for the fountain look the other day.

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.