Tall Friends for a Growing Girl

Somehow along the short road of Lynlee's existence in this world giraffes have become her theme animal. Don't ask me how it happened because we just discovered this for ourselves! The other day Chris and I were playing with Lynlee with some of her toys and Chris pointed out that she has a lot of giraffes. They just keep popping up everywhere with this little girl! Personally we think it's cute, a bit more original than all the teddy bears that covered my shelves when I was young.
I've been on the hunt for a good floor mat with dangling toys for her for a few days now. She's to the point where if you hold a toy up in front of her she'll just stare at it for the longest time and then try reaching for it. If the reach is successful and she gets a good hold on it she attempts to drag it to her mouth (it's really cute to watch her determination). While I love that she's now to this stage in life, my arm doesn't necessarily agree since it has to do all the work - this is what led me to my hunt. While searching ksl yesterday I came across the perfect one! A little jungle themed floor mat with a big giraffe holding up part of the cross-bar section that holds the toys. In honor of our little girl's animal theme that has started we snatched it up for just $9. Score! The whole family has been enjoying it over the past day since we've had it so I think it was a particularly wise investment.

Lynlee testing it out for the first time

Daddy making sure it's entertaining enough for her. "It is" he declared :p

Zack investigating all this business including Zoe (who was still hiding underneath).

They hung out together for a bit this morning. Cute :)

And here are a few more pictures of Lynlee and her other various giraffe friends.

Whenever I hold this one up to her she always tries to eat it!

Toy Store Experience

Last night was Lynlee's first experience in a toy store. Blickenstaff's is literally just down the street from where we live so we all took a nice little family walk down there last night. If you haven't been there, you should go! They have all sorts of games and toys, and I'm not talking like your local Toys R Us selection of toys. I'm talkin' old wooden toys and games you haven't heard of in years, candy from the early 1900s, unique gadgets that could entertain for hours (Chris found a whistle thing that sounds like a duck quacking and carried it all around the store with him like he was 5 years old) - the list goes on and on! Every time we go there I see at least 20 things that I would want to get for myself - and I'm a grown up! (But really a big kid at heart :)
I feel like the youngest generations have lost something in today's society. It's all about the interactive electronic era and while it is exciting and entertaining I feel that there's something to be said for sitting down with some plastic animals and playing zoo or spreading out the overwhelming number of pieces for your puzzle and getting lost for a while in putting the picture together.

Not that she really knew what was going on, but there were a few toys that Lynlee found interest in (she's only 3 1/2 months old) such as the finger puppets and normal hand puppets, a very hungry caterpillar toy with lots to crinkle and pull,  a giant giraffe (she just loved right up to that thing!) and a little kid-sized armchair.

She looks more like she's trying to escape in this picture but a few moments earlier she was just having a ball!

The Bross family had a blast in the toy store :) Like I said, if you've never been you should go! Even if only to walk down memory lane and discover a new kind of fun outside the ever-growing bombardment of the video game/constant tv watching era.
www.blickenstaffs.com

Miscellaneous Kind of Morning

Lynlee is talking up a storm this morning; it makes me so happy! I've been feeling pretty sick since last night (I think with the flu or something) and she is making taking care of her today incredibly easy. Since we're just hanging out today I've been looking through pictures and thought I'd just put a myriad of them up for your enjoyment. :)

On May 7 Chris and I will have been married for 2 years! Chris was
bummed our milk jug had the wrong date so he fixed it :)

She's starting to discover the kitties. She stares so intently whenever one of them lies down near her.

Getting ready to head out for our daily walk.

Love that red hair! I hope it stays this color.

She sure loves Jim!

This is from when we first got Zack - he was so small then!

Easter

This is her great great grandma :)

The angel Moroni on the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with the Moon behind.

Chris takes really nice pictures I think :)

She fell asleep with her tongue sticking out haha

Taken by Chris

One Million Minutes and a Giggle

Some of you may remember a few posts ago that I said that Chris and I celebrate everything. This statement was taken to a whole new height for me this last weekend.

All month Chris has been telling me that he has a surprise for me that would come at the end of the month. He wouldn't even give me a hint of what it was (this is quite the accomplishment for my dear husband - he is terrible at keeping secrets!). Finally, on Monday of last week he told me I had only to wait until Friday for the anticipated surprise. Friday came agonizingly slow for me but I made it! That afternoon when he got home from work he handed me a piece of paper all decorated that said "Let's Celebrate A Very Important Event! See if you can decipher the clues that will follow."
My first thought was "Awww!" and my second "Oh crap, what did I forget?" I never forget anniversaries of things and I could not for the life of me think of what was so special about March 30th. Chris quickly calmed these fears and told me I didn't forget anything, that this was something we've never celebrated before. What a sweetie for not letting me continue in this panicked state.
After that we got into the car and he handed me several little squares of paper each with a time (4pm, 7:45pm, etc), a really big number (997,000 for example), and some scrambled letters (rimared). I glanced through them and unscrambled all the letters to ultimately find this message: "On April 1st 2012 at 1:10am we will have been married for 1,000,000 minutes!"
We celebrated this momentous occasion by first going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple where we were married almost 2 years ago (It was wonderful to go to the temple again! It had been far too long since we'd gone). After that we had a picnic complete with an authentic wicker picnic basket - very cool. Since it was already after dark and kind of chilly outside by the time we got done at the temple, we had our picnic at Chris' grandma's house up in her room (a.k.a. a beautiful seaside cliff ;) The breeze blowing was warm and smelled of the sea and the grassy knoll we were set upon. We had to trek back down the hill to our car for forgotten essential picnic items but we managed ok. We also discovered a new species! It looked like a racoon but at the same time like Chris' cat Cassy, so we named this new discovery the Cracoon (I particularly enjoyed Chris' pirate voice thereafter sporadically calling out "Release the Cracoon!"). It was so nice to just relax and laugh and enjoy each other's company. And eat good food. We mustn't forget that part ;)
We are cheesy people who do silly things but we wouldn't have it any other way. :)

On another exciting note, Lynlee giggled for the first time yesterday! It was SO cute!! I've been trying to get her to laugh for a while and she's come pretty close but so far only had gotten out really long, one-noted coos. Yesterday after I finished changing her diaper I started to play with her like I do only this time I tried tickling the base of her neck per the mention of it by my bestie Erica. The result, THE cutest little laugh I've ever heard! I couldn't believe it! Was it real or did I just imagine it because I so want her to start laughing at the silliest of things that Mommy does? I tried it again; insta-giggle! I quickly called for Chris. Tickle tickle; giggle! Smiles and all :D
Buuut of course when we got out the camera she wouldn't do it again right then so that's why I'm not sharing a video of it at this time. It will come shortly, I promise :)

Lynlee's Blessing

We had the wonderful opportunity on Sunday for Chris to bless our precious baby girl. It was especially neat because we were able to do it at Chris's home ward in Salt Lake where he grew up and a lot of the members of our families were able to make it :) I love sharing special occasions with family; no matter who it's for when we all get together it's just crazy fun and there is always someone who comes that I haven't seen in far too long and it feels so good to catch up.

Lynlee in her blessing dress - She's so adorable!

I had a lot of different feelings and emotions flood through me that day:
Love, anxiety (they asked Chris and I to give talks and public speaking has never been my forte), joy, peace, humility, astonishment (this was my baby being blessed!?), love, gratitude, patience, hope, excitement, awe, love. In case it wasn't obvious, love is definitely the most prominent feeling I had with me all day long. Not only was I surrounded by the best family and friends that I had grown up with, I now have my own little family to continue growing with, to nurture and care for, to have fun with and to cry with, to stand by through all of eternity. I am in awe of a husband who stands stalwart and faithful in the gospel, who lets his heart melt every time his little girl smiles a toothless grin at him, who tells me everyday that I am beautiful and expresses his amazement that out of everyone I chose him to spend forever with (although I think he's got this part backwards - I can't believe he chose me!).
My favorite part is the part about forever. I know that it wouldn't be possible without Jesus Christ. I am exceptionally grateful for Him and that He paved the way to make it possible not just for my little growing family but for any and every family to be united eternally. :)

I just love this one

This is 4 generations of females here - Lynlee, me, my mom, and her mom. Woohoo!

Doctor Day

So first of all, I love that Lynlee's doctor's last name is Le Bras. I'm not sure if you're supposed to put the 's' sound on the end of it or not, but we do and it makes it fun when people ask who her pediatrician is.
"It's Dr. Le Bras."
"Wait, isn't your last name Bross?"
"Yep! And his is Le Bras."
Makes us giggle in a good sort of way :)

Lynlee was exactly 2 months (already/only!?) on Tuesday and she also got her shots that day. It was sad because she was in such a good mood and then bam! pain out of nowhere. But she only cried for a few second afterwards and then spent the rest of the day at home all snuggled up with Mom. She's so great :)

She got little Crayola Crayon band-aids. The fact that they weren't boring old band-aids helped with the pain I'm sure ;)

She weighed in at 8 lb 1/4 oz. We've got a lot of work to do because her doc wants her to gain about 4 pounds in the next 2 months! Eat up little one!

Informal Mini Anniversary

Chris and I were married on 7 May 2010.
best. day. ever!

Every month on the 7th for the first year of our marriage we would have a mini anniversary of sorts to celebrate. Nothing huge, just an extra special date night. (we celebrate EVERYTHING. that's just how we roll :)
Once we hit the one year mark we decided not to celebrate as big on the 7th of every month anymore (except for the year anniversaries of course), but we'd definitely still keep the special day in mind when it rolled around approximately every 30-31 days. And we have. Every 7th the first thing we do when we wake up is smile real big and exclaim "happy 7th!" amidst our morning hugs, stretches, yawns, and kisses.
Last night, "for no particular reason, but hey guess what tomorrow is" he said with a sly little smile, Chris brought home some beautiful flowers for me. They smell beautiful and light up our little living room almost as much as I'm sure my face lit up when he surprised me with them. I LOVE getting flowers. And even if he did bring home flowers "just because" I adore him for it, but I'm just saying, we both know what day today is so I'm going to go ahead and enjoy them in the spirit of this informal mini anniversary.




P.S. I just wanted to throw up an example here of something small we celebrated. This is a picture of Lynlee turning exactly one week old! 10:55 pm on 27 January. She's in the little yellow bundle you see in the crib. We can hardly believe that she's almost 2 months old now!