She's Two!

I can't believe our baby is two years old!  I am little behind but I decided to write a little update about Brylee!  Two, five, and seven are the only numbers she knows so we were excited that she would be able to tell people how old she is, since she knows two.  If you ask her how old she is, she says: "I two."  Its pretty cute! At least she can answer her age (we'll keep working on the other numbers)!

My sister came and took some beautiful pictures of Brylee!  And on her birthday we had a Frozen celebration! She had fun with all of her friends!

Some fun Brylee facts:

Favorite Color: YELLOW! (yellow is in all caps because Brylee does not just say yellow, she shouts  YELLOW whenever she sees something yellow. She especially loves yellow buses!)

Favorite Shape: Star (I know its kinda odd to have a favorite shape but Brylee knows all her shapes and is kind of obsessed with stars.  She always points them out no matter where we are, even if someone happens to be wearing stars :)

Favorite Toys: She loves her baby doll. One day she will be such a good big sister! She also loves stuffed animals.  One of her favorites is Minnie Mouse, who Brylee calls "Hot Dog." She also loves trains and cars.

Favorite Songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hello song (From Storytime), Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Let it Go, Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, And Happy by Pharell Williams!

Silly Things She Does: Brylee loves to play with mom and dad. She always says "hand, hand" and leads us away to play.  Or she'll say "sit, sit", this means we get to sit and watch her play. And there is no laying down on the job; if we try to lay down she will say "up, up", and grab us by the shirt to pull us up.Whenever she gets an owie she makes mom or dad kiss it better. She is also pretty picky when it comes to her parents singing; if she doesn't like she tells us to stop.  When Daddy sings in his opera voice or Mommy tries to rap the Itsy Bitsy Spider Brylee will say "no, stop." Its really been hurting her parents self esteem.

Best Friend: Her best friend Owen moved away this fall, which was very sad for Brylee.  Her new best friend is Kaitlyn Haibach, a six year old.  These two are inseparable at church.  Sam and I would get out of class and realized Brylee was already out of nursery.  We soon discover that Kaitlyn was picking her up from nursery! Kaitlyn has enough energy to match Brylee so they are a pretty good pair!

Activities: She loves to color, craft and paint! We make a craft every week at story time.  Brylee's is always the most creative because she is the only kid at story time that refuses to let mom help, and does it all by herself. She also loves to dress up: puts and mom's high heels, Elsa dress and crown, you name it! We go through several outfit changes during the day! And of course she loves anything outside, playing at the park, jumping in leaf piles, and splashing in the rain.

Personality: This little girl sure is passionate.  If she is mad she more mad than any other toddler, but if she'd happy she is happier than any other tot.  She is full of fire and spunk.  Brylee is little Miss Independent, she wants to do everything herself.  There isn't a shy bone in her body, she is very much an extrovert.  She just loves having people over, she gets so excited. 

Daddy's Girl: Brylee is best buds with Mom all day long.  They do everything together, but as soon as she hears to door she goes running "Daddy, dadddy! When daddy comes home she is so excited and wants to spend every second with him.

Ball of Energy:  People who dont know Brylee that well remark after meeting her: "Is she always this busy?" Yes, we nicknamed her the energizer bunny, she can go all day long.  She is so full of life and just wants to share her joy with the world.

Favorite Book: Pride and Predjudice (baby version), and her Curious George puppet book.

She's Getting so Big:  At her two year checkup Brylee was 25.6 pounds, and 2'10" tall!

The past two years have been amazing with our little girl!  She is so full of joy.  She makes us laugh everyday with her antics.  I think back on the day she was born, and the overwhelming instantaneous love we felt for her.  For the first time in my life I think I really understood how God loves us.  Everyday she inspires me to be a better person.  She is our joy!

Summer Fun

Whew...I can't believe this is the last day of August! This summer has gone by way to fast, and I definitely have not kept up with the blog.  We have had such a fun summer, I'm sure I won't remember everything!

In June Brylee and I flew home to visit family and attend my friend Alyssa's wedding.  My sister Sarah cam with us and we had so much fun.  Bry loved visiting my dad's farm.  She got to feed the goats and chickens, and ride Gus, the donkey. Her favorite was probably Weasel the dog.  She loved Weasel but the feeling definitely wasn't mutual.  Weasel would be comfortably laying down when Bry would shriek with excitement and run over to her.  Then Weasel would move to the other side of the house, and brylee would follow.  They just kept doing circles over and over (apparently Brylee never got the hint).

After my dads we went to Utah for the wedding!  Brylee got to see her Shinkle grandparents and cousins, briefly.  And after that we headed to Montana.  Brylee and Jackson had so much fun together.  They put on a magic show.  As much as Jackson tried he could not get Brylee to say ta-da at the right time:  "No Brylee, you have to wait until after I pull out the rabbit!"

Brylee had so much fun with all her cousins, some days I really wish we lived closer so we could play with them more.

Brylee's first visit to Sharkys!

In August Sam's parents came to visit, and we had a blast showing them around.  Brylee loved having them visit, and was not ready for them to leave.  While they were here we went to NYC.  We also spent a day in Philly touring the history sites, played in Atlantic city, and toured a mansion in our area.

Sam and I celebrated our fourth anniversary while we were in NYC!  Les an Nan played with Bry in central park, while we rented a rowboat and went out on the central park lake.  I loved it, it was so much fun!

 We walked the Brooklyn bridge, then ate at the most amazing pizza place under the bridge.

Boat ride in central park!

Staten Island ferry.

 Brylee loved snuggling with grandma and grandpa. She also loved wearing her cape (actually it was a hooded bath towel).

Brylee wanted her baby doll to snuggle Grandma too.

Brylee 18 months

Brylee is 18 months old! (A week ago).

Favorite Toys: Doll stroller,  markers, Baby Doll, mixing spoon and bowl, lamb

Sometimes she thinks the stroller is for her instead of her doll!

Favorite Activities: Playing at the park, coloring, dancing, blowing bubbles, singing songs with actions, playing ring around the roses, drawing with chalk, going down slides, reading books.

Scared of: Bubble baths (We thought it would be fun to give her a bubble bath...we were WRONG.    She scream bloody murder, and has never clung more tightly to us.  She was weary of the bath for a few days afterwards.) She is also scared of walking on sand barefoot. It just makes me laugh because she is so fearless with most things.  If you take her to a playground there isn't anything she won't attempt.  She'll go down big slide climb the rock walls but she won't take a bubble bath!

Best Friend: Owen Clune, she adores him.  All day long she talks about Owen, and if I tell her we can't see him she will start crying.  Owen was also her first kiss. (And hopefully last kiss until she's 25)!

Personality: Wow this is something this girl is not lacking.  She is extremely outgoing and loves people.  I'm pretty sure she would go home with a complete stranger.  She is a favorite with the 
4-8 year olds at our church.  She loves playing with them.  One 8 year old, Erica, just loves Brylee.  If I ever can't find Brylee I just look for Erica.  In fact the other day we went to pick Brylee up from nursery, only to find out Erica had already picked her up :).

Attitude: Even while I was pregnant with Brylee I knew she was going to have a lot of attitude.  She is little Miss Independent, I mean even more independent then your average toddler.  She is adamant that I let her do things herself.  Brylee is the youngest in nursery, but don't let that fool you she can definitely hold her own.  If any kid dares to take a toy away from her she will get it back.

Language:  She now has a very large vocabulary, and is learning new words like crazy.  At this point I can't really keep track of all the words she is learning. She loves singing "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and can say all the body parts.  We're working on manners she knows please and thank you.

Favorite Foods: "Nanas" as she likes to call them or bananas.  She loves fruit, will at least try all veggies.  She loves beans and applesauce, mixed together.  Yogurt is another favorite and is frequently mixed in with her other foods like noodles.

Helpfulness: Brylee is VERY helpful, she loves to help me clean. She is also the designated pacifier putter inner in our ward.  She loves to give babies their pacifiers.  The other day we were at a picnic and a couple of the toddlers were all sitting at a table eating.  One little girl kept taking out her binky so she could eat.  Brylee would run over grab the pacifier and put it back in her mouth.  I think she would have done this all night if we would have let her.

Oh my goodness Brylee sure is fun!  She is a busy little bee and keeps us on our toes! We stay busy during the day doing lots of playing.  We are so lucky to have a park right across the street from us, and we are there everyday.  I am so lucky  I get to stay home with this little sweetheart, we sure do have fun together.  I love watching her grow and learn, what an amazing process.  I love watching all the new things she is learning, but I can't believe how fast time is going.  I can't believe my baby is already a year and a half! We love you Brylee Skeie!

NYC

New York City is the closest temple to us, so Sam and I decided to take a day trip to the city. We went to the temple in the morning, had a picnic in Central Park, then explored the city.

The temple in NYC is kind of interesting, its just another sky scraper until you notice the angel Moroni on top.  We got off the subway walked about a block looking for the temple, then noticed we had been right next to it when we got off the subway.

 This little girl had a blast playing in Central Park.  She made lots of new friends, and became a little obsessed with kites, we just might have to get her one.

We stopped at a famous bakery, that had a ridiculously long line, so Sam could get this scrumptious cookie.  He said it was definitely worth it...Best cookie?!

We finally got this little girl to take a nap. 

 It was fun to see all the Easter decorations up at Rockefeller Plaza

 We stopped by to see Grand Central Terminal (or Grand Central Station as I like to call it).

 This little corner of the terminal was fun.  The room acoustics make it so if you whisper into one corner you can hear on the other side.  We had fun playing with that.

I was so glad Sam had the subway system figured out, I would have been lost on my own!

Brylee had so much fun in the city, she just loves all the people and the busyness.  She definitely has a high threshhold for stimulation, she never gets overwhelmed by lots of people.  She was surprisingly content to stay in her stroller most of the time.  Brylee is not shy, she loves going up to strangers and meeting people.  It was cute as we were walking down the busy NYC streets, both of her hands were waving and she just kept saying hi, hi, hi, so many new people to meet!  Asian tourists especially love her, they were just laughing over her antics and thought she was the cutest thing.  

Brylee is such an amazing example to me.  We all could learn a few lessons from little kids.  On the ferry home she met a little boy from France.  It was the cutest thing they were instant best friends.  They speak different languages but had so much fun playing together.  He just adored her and would copy everything they did.  At one point she started crawling on the floor, which I instantly stopped because...gross! The little boy was too funny. He started pointing his finger at me and speaking French really fast.  I am pretty sure he was telling me off for getting after Brylee.  I just love how kids don't care about differences, and can be friends with anyone.  This is just a short clip of them playing, we missed the really cute part, but you get the point.

Washington DC

Wow, I am extremely behind in blogging.  We've gone on a couple day trips...like a month or two ago and I'm finally blogging about it.  Sam had never been to DC so over his spring break we did a two day trip there.  It takes us about three hours to get there from out place.  While we were there we wanted to see the DC temple.  It is gorgeous.  As you are driving along the freeway suddenly the temple appears above you.  All lit up it looks like a castle.

The first day we visited the National Zoo, and Arlington Cemetary.  Brylee loved the zoo.  Sam and I loved the baby tigers and baby panda.  I think Brylee's favorite were the gorillas.  They were right next to the glass so she got a very good view of them.  It was cute, she kept saying hi to them.

Brylee is not a big fan of the stroller. she is a busy girl and would much rather be running than riding in a stroller.  This was the only way I could get her to stay on the stroller!

On the second day we visited all the memorials, the White House, Capital, and few of the museums.  We loved DC.  When I visited in high school it was my favorite city.  I told Sam that it is probably the only big city I could actually live in.  I love it, everything is free, and its so clean and white.

Selfie at the White House.

Changing of the guard at theTomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This is how Brylee prefers to be carried on Sam's shoulders. Silly girl loves being upside down!

Posing next to the WWII Memorial.  My Gramps served in the Navy during the war.

Korean War memorial, somehow we missed the Vietnam Memorial.

It was a fun trip.  I'm so glad we have the chance to live out here and experience the rich history.  I couldn't live in the East forever, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity to live out here for a couple years and have so many experiences we otherwise wouldn't have.