Saudi Gras

Our compound had their 3rd Annual Saudi Gras Festival and as usual it was a fun time!  Thanks to my mom brining a bunch of Mardi Gras decorations over with her last year, we were prepared and able to dress up, decorate our strollers and scooters and off we went for the parade.  Our friends were there to celebrate with us and we all "Laissez les bons temp rouler!"  The kids thought it was hilarious to throw beads to people and got a kick out of them getting candy thrown to them!  

Ladybug Party

We celebrated Brooklyn's first birthday with a Ladybug party!  We decided to have her party at the house since it was just going to be our close friends and then had dinner afterwards.  We decorated everything in red, black, and white.  I used pictures from her 1 year photo shoot around the food table (pretty sure I went overboard with this, but who cares, right?!?) and made grilled cheese sandwiches with some fruit and chips and dip.  I saw on Pinterest the idea where you use plastic tablecloths and stream above the ceiling, so we did that with the extra tablecloths we had and it turned out cute!  Brooklyn came downstairs from her nap and saw the ceiling and couldn't stop staring at it!!  

I went back and forth for weeks about what I wanted to do with her cake and decided to push myself and try something new.  I could have gone with just polka dots everywhere, but loved the idea of a ladybug on top so that's what I did.  Each tier was a different flavor of cake and it was all edible.

I found Brooklyns outfit on Etsy and it was actually what prompted me to do a ladybug themed party.  I thought it was precious and had to get it!  She loved wearing her tutu and played with it throughout the party.  Her bow was rather large for her and she kept pulling it off, but oh well! We invited our close friends so Brooklyn got to play with Jake and Savannah.  Jack and Aden came too, along with Graham.  It was a fun time with all the kids running around.  Gavin, Tucker, and Peyton played together and were anxious to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, as well as eat cake and open presents!  

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Brooklyn knew what was going on.  She locked on to her cake and didn't take her eyes off of it.  She was excited to eat some cake!

 

Opening presents was some what of a challenge, but her big brothers were there to help mommy out!  I had to keep reminding them those were Brooklyns presents when they kept saying it was all girl stuff!  FInally, we have girl books in this house!!  I've waited years to have girly books!

Not to take away from anyone else's gifts they gave Brooklyn, but as always, Mi-Mic and Aunt Steph gave the favorite gift... a beach chair with matching umbrella for when Brooklyn's outside on our beach soaking up some sun!  She was beyond excited when we set it up and she insisted on sitting in the chair!!!  Too cute!  We got her some sunglasses so she's all set for some beach fun!!

 
It was a fun birthday party for Brooklyn.  We can't believe our little girl is already 1 years old!

Brooklyn's First Birthday

If I could describe Brooklyn in a few words they would be playful, fiesty, and curious.  At least, that describes her in this current phase of life.  She has been a really fun kid and doesn't miss a beat around here.  She loves playing with her brothers and chases them around often.  If they have something she wants she makes multiple attempts to get ahold of it.  She has no issues letting anyone know when there's something she wants or if she disapproves of having something taken away from her.  She is very loving and loves to cuddle.  Of all our kids she will put her head on your shoulder and just lay there-- LOVE!  

Brooklyn has been trying to walk for the past few weeks and is getting better and better everyday.  She hasn't taken off yet, except for the day we held an Oreo out for her.  She took 12 steps, willingly.   She has been an extremely quick learner about other things though.  She learned to wave bye bye, play peek a boo by covering her eyes, can sign 'out', 'more', and 'all done', and she's starting to point if we ask her where someone is.  Brooks and I swear she is even saying the words/sounds of out and bye bye.  She makes the sounds of mama and gaga (Gavin) pretty frequently, too.  She drinks out of sippy cups-- Hallelujah!  After two straight years of bottles, I got rid of them on her birthday!  She didn't mind at all and never cried once wanting a bottle.  We've battled with milk for the past two weeks because she's had several kinds of allergic reactions to whole milk and hypoallergenic milk.  We just put her back on soy formula to regulate her body and will try soy milk in a few weeks.  Both our boys had some forms of reactions to whole milk when they turned one also, so this isn't anything new for us.  I just really didn't want to give her soy milk if I didn't have to.  Oh well.  Our pediatricians have said soy milk is fine and it's better then nothing.  We were also told she could eventually grow out of the allergy, so we'll pray for that to happen!  

Brooklyn and I had a fun day together while the boys were at school.  We ran errands getting things ready for her birthday party and played around the house with all her toys.  Jake and Aunt Steph came over to give Brooklyn a present on her actual birthday, and it was a precious, precious dress!  Brooklyn got to skype with all her grandparents who were excited to wish her a Happy Birthday and who got to see her walk a little bit. After dinner, we celebrated with an ice cream cookie pie for dessert and sang Happy Birthday and let B blow out a candle.  She was so excited and into the whole song!!

The highlight of the night for Brooklyn was opening presents from us and other family members.  I held onto gifts that were mailed to her or that we brought back from the states so she could have some presents on her actual birthday.  She was beyond excited and loved every minute.  For our boys first birthday's we got them their own Pottery Barn chair, so for Brooklyn's first birthday, it was no different.  When we pulled the chair out for her, she walked up to it and jumped into it.  She knew it was her chair and sat in it like a big girl!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn.  We love you so much!  

Freezer Meals

A while back I started thinking that I would love to find ways to make the best use of my time in the kitchen and to help minimize my time cooking in the kitchen.  After doing some research online and searching through Pinterest, I kept seeing Freezer Meals over and over again.  I quickly discovered the notion of Freezer Meals with friends.  The concept is you get together with a group of friends, you all cook meals in bulk, and exchange them.   So, I contacted my 5 closest friends here, set up some guidelines, and we just had our first Freezer Meal Exchange and it has been awesome!  Here's what we did for us that works best in our situations.

We met once and discussed our plans.  We determined if anyone has food allergies or if there were any foods people couldn't stand or just wouldn't eat and we'd know not to cook those foods.  Since we've all been together the last few years, we tend to cook one another's recipes as is, so to minimize the chances of us having multiples of the same recipe, we made our meal plans for the next 5 months up front, and arranged them where we'd get a variety of foods each month!  It worked out great and caused us all to research and plan our recipes at one time, ensuring less work later.  This aspect is a huge benefit for us since some ingredients are hard to come by or aren't always available in grocery stores... you're sure to have plenty of time to stock up when needed.  

Here are our guidelines: 

- Create 6 freezable meals (including one for your own family) once a month

- Deliver your meals on the 3rd of every month (or as close to as possible based on individual schedules)

- Enclose food inside large ziploc freezer bags (flat) or in a cookable, disposable casserole dish (wrapped)

- Label meal on outside of bag along with any cooking or preparation instructions.  Email recipe or provide hard copy of recipe for future reference.

- Prepare enough food for a family of  4 people

One of our good friends who doesn't live on our compound is having a baby in April so we're going to fix an additional freezer meal that month and give to her and her husband to have once their baby girl arrives!  This could be a great outreach for you and some friends to do for a family in need, too!

Last month I made Chicken Cacciatore.  I cooked all my chicken in the crock pot for a few hours in the morning, cut up all the veggies, sauteed them, simmered the sauce, combined it all together, then bagged the food.  I was done within 3 hours!  

Baseball

At the end of January, Gavin started playing baseball through his school in their Friday league.  Thankfully, we picked him up a glove, bat, and cleats last summer before heading back over here so he's been prepared and ready for baseball for some time now.  He is LOVING playing and is pretty good, too.  

They practice on Fridays for about 20 minutes and then "play a game" against the only other 4-5 year old team.  There are no outs, each child gets to bat 2 times, and they are always allowed to run the bases.  If they hit the ball in the infield, they run to first and wait until the next batter hits, then they can run.  Parents stand around the bases to help direct the kids on when and where to run.  Might not be real baseball, but they are learning and having fun.  

The kids are cute. It took a few Fridays for the kids to learn the fundamentals, but after just 3 practices, they've got things down (for the most part).  Gavin has exceeded our expectations and has amazed us with his ability to play ball, be aware of what's going on, he rarely misses the ball when he bats (off a tee), and runs pretty fast to get the balls in the field.  Brooks has been helping out with Gavin's team and is out on the field with the kids.  He's taught the kids about batting, running the bases, and fielding ground balls.  We're grateful Brooks has had the opportunity to get Fridays off so he can be apart of this with Gavin.  It's also made our Fridays fun family days!  We all go out and cheer Gavin on.  Miles tries to play with the big kids and anxiously awaits for when the game is over and he gets to hit the ball and run the bases.  

We're loving that Gavin has finally gotten to be involved with a sport and are impressed with how much he loves it and how good he is.  Everyday he asks if it's Friday so he can play ball.  Brooks has been working with Gavin during the week in the backyard or taking him to the racket ball court to practice.  Each week it seems Gavin gets more comfortable with the sport and more into the game!  We're so proud of him!  

 

 

 

Photo Shoot

Months ago I came across the cutest picture I've ever seen of a little girl wearing a tutu and immediately decided I wanted Brooklyn to have one year photos taken of her so that I could get that same shot of her!!  I also really wanted pictures of Brooklyn smashing into a birthday cake.  So, I called my friend, Che, who took Brooklyn's newborn photos and she instantly agreed to do the shoot.  Between the two of us, we brainstormed ideas of various photos to take, background options, and different scenes and went with it.  

Brooks, me, and the kids all went to the Acord's house one morning and spent the day together.  Our husbands played with the kids, while Che and I were with Brooklyn.  Che did an amazing job getting the shots that I really, really wanted and was wonderful at making my vision come out!  Brooklyn did an awesome job and was happy and content throughout the photo shoot.  We gave her Cheerios to keep her staying in one spot, we used music instruments to get her to look certain directions, and got her to laugh and smile as much as we could.  I ordered a few outfits off of Etsy for the photos and made a smash cake for her.  Che picked up the fabric, made the backdrop, and created a little studio in one of their bedrooms with the flooring.  Everything came together wonderfully!  I couldn't be happier with the shots that we got and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them all!    My favorite part is how much of Brooklyn's personality you can see in all the photos!  I'm so grateful that I had one year photos taken of her and will cherish these forever!  

 

 

 

Brookyln LOVED eating cake for the first time.

 

* I ordered Brooklyn's tutu from this Etsy store and her diaper ruffles from this Etsy store.  I found ideas for the photo shoot on Pinterest by searching one year photo shoots.  There are tons of ideas!