Zoo

Back in the beginning of May I took Brynlee to the Portland Zoo with my cousins Katie & Kristi, and her boys Logan and Owen. 

I think she had fun! 

I know I did. 

(Brynlee & Owen) 

(With the flamingos right after her nap)

(Brynlee liked the big fishes)

Next time we will go with her daddy and when she's older and gets more excited seeing the animals :)

a whirlwind of activity

A lot has happened in the month since we took our trip to the Hickory.

Most of life has been just the day to day experiences in a family with a little one, but some major events have happened as well. Here is a short overview of the Harston household going-ons in the past month through pictures:

Little miss Brynlee learned how to give mommy "the look" because I was trying to get pictures of her sitting up

She loves her jungle gym!

We got to watch daddy play tennis for the first time this season! :) 

This is wonderful because it means sunshine and warmth!

Little miss Brynlee got promoted to the shopping cart seat! 

As you can see, she thinks it's no big deal. 

She has that hand out like she's saying "What's the big deal mom?! I'm just sittin' in a cart!"

Someday she will understand mommy's excitement...

While doing one of my Saladmaster dinners, we decided to eat the dinner with the family since we knew them, and Brynlee decided to steal some chicken off my plate to eat! 

(That ends the month of March. The rest of the photographs are from April)

Brynlee started off the month by getting a rash on her back and front - only on the torso area... :(

...But that didn't stop us from taking epic photos while watching daddy play tennis!

We went to the swing set for the first time and had a lot of fun :)

Brynlee also learned how to drive! 

Just kidding, but she enjoyed pretending to drive while we sat in the car one day. 

Isn't that just the cutest face?!

We discovered that Brynlee has enough hair that it sticks up after taking a bath!

Happy Easter from Brynlee Marie! :)

Well, Brynlee was pretty excited to go on an airplane again! 

We're practicing our standing skills at the airport

At this point, it's time for me to interject and mention that at the beginning of April, my grandpa Joe had some strokes and went to the hospital. Well, on April 20th, 2014, Easter Sunday, he passed away at his home with almost all the family around him. 

This, therefore is why we made another trip to Washington.

I'll write another time about grandpa. 

Brynlee spent some quality time with grandma & grandpa while mom and dad went on a date.

She had an absolute blast!

She's also spent some quality time with Uncle Brad - he tried reading to her but she kept turning the pages too fast!

We've officially started Brynlee on solid foods using baby-led weaning. 

She loves: chicken, pretty much any meat we've given her, asparagus, oranges, and bananas. 

These pictures are pretty stinkin' cute! 

She had bananas and decided to try and clean up after herself! 

Oh! And I forgot to mention, on Friday, April 25th, Brynlee's first tooth make it's way through the skin on her bottom gums! It's the bottom right tooth (when looking at her mouth) tehehe :)

Family Outing

Thursday night we went out to eat at The Hickory here in Rexburg. 

They're so yummy - you should definitely try it sometime if you get the chance.

Well I ordered a delicious salad before our food and Brynlee was very interested in it.

So, since we're going to do Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) with her we decided to let her play with a piece of lettuce. 

She was so fun to watch!

Especially since she would look at it in her hands, feel it, then shove it in her mouth and sort of chomp, then drop it. hehehe

BLW is a method of introducing your child to foods where they go straight to solid foods that we eat every day - no baby food jars!

There are some interesting benefits and we're excited to see Brynlee learn about food this way.

Click the link above to learn more about it! :)

Here's the video we took of her learning experience! 

Enjoy!

Oh, and Brynlee had her first playdate yesterday!

We had fun :)

(Brynlee, 4 months - Allison, 2 months - Alex, 3 months)

sitting in the sunshine

Today the temperature reached 60 degrees here in Rexburg!

That is a great thing after a long, cold winter. 

It makes us very happy. 

Plus, now miss Brynlee and I can go outside more often and enjoy the weather - instead of being cooped up inside all day. 

That makes both of us happy :)

Since the weather was so beautiful out, the little miss and I went outside. 

She sat up all on her own for the longest amount of time yet - 2 to 3 minutes!

Such a proud momma :D

I can hardly believe she's already 4 1/2 months old!

 

(after sitting for so long little miss here decided to lean forward, then pushed herself to her tummy)

(sitting around with a new friend - our neighbors)

Can't get enough of this everyday love

The last night before we left Washington my mother and father spent some time with Brynlee.

She loves them so much! 

Little miss also got to experience the plane driving to the end of the landing strip.

She had fun watching the wheels splash in puddles.

Before takeoff though, she was passed out again.

ha. haha. hahaha.

love this girl!

And tonight, she had fun moving my bowl around a little while her mommy ate dinner.

When I gave her a noodle to hold, she grabbed it, and then proceeded to drop it because it felt weird!

Guess she's not ready to try it yet. 

Couple more months :)

Off to grandma's house we go!

Last Saturday little miss Brynlee experienced her first plane ride!

Thankfully it was a short trip.

The Mr and I were very blessed that she fell asleep right before takeoff, then was up for a little during the flight, and fell asleep again before landing. 

Brynlee was not happy after waking though!

We think her ears were hurting her :(

Good thing we had tylonol to help her while those ears adjusted!

While here Brynlee has been bery popular!

As my mother relates it: Brynlee is the rockstar while Greg and I are just the backup singers. 

This week Brynlee has also accomplished some more milestones! 

Must be all that love she's getting from everyone here ;)

She found her feet!

Let me tell you, those little buggers are interesting!

The next milestone was one the Mr and I have been waiting for! 

Little miss decided to giggle! 

She hasn't done so again really, but hey - we got one giggle out of her! 

Hopefully soon it'll be more frequent. 

Her newest thing is to blow raspberries!!! 

Cutest raspberry ever! 

No contest. :)

This little miss also met some horses! She was just so excited about them! 

Also, we now have a four generation photograph on my mother's side! 

And miss Brynlee with great grandma Zumstein:

the 12th "little lady"

Remember how a couple Sundays ago was the Superbowl?

Remember how the Seattle Seahawks destroyed the Denver Broncos?

Well, my father is a huge, and I mean HUGE fan of the Seahawks. 

We used to have season tickets to all of the home games and he would always take me to the game that was closest to my birthday (Dec 20th for all those who don't know ;) )

One time we went on Christmas Eve!

The cheerleaders had santa hats on - see!

the sea gals ;)

What makes the Seahawks even cooler is their dedication to their fans. 

They have an honorary flag they even fly on the south (??) end of the stadium that has the number 12 on it for the "12th man". 

For all those who don't know what that means: there are 11 guys on the field from each team, and the Seahawks have dubbed their fans as the "12th man" because they are a part of the team too! 

Not to mention the noise level of the fans definitely means they play a part in helping the Seahawks win games :)

So the 12th man is pretty much a huge thing when it comes to Seahawks football.

They even have this sweet plaque on the wall with life-sized helmets from every high school football team in the state! 

that circled spot right there that the arrow's pointing to... that's LaCenter's football helmet, where I graduated from school

But back to my dad being a die-hard Seahawks fan. 

I'm sad I couldn't watch the Superbowl with him because I'm sure it was quite entertaining to watch my father - he's quite animated during the games (yelling at the tv, hitting his fist on the computer desk, cheering and clapping, etc). 

He told me after the game that he thought his blood pressure was finally going down.

Could you imagine if it was a close game?! 

He'd have been going crazy. haha. 

Anyway.

Well since my father is such a fan, and since he loves his little granddaughter so much, he decided she needed to have her Seahawks' fan gear. 

It was time she become a "12th little lady"

I mean, she did watch a whole 5 minutes of the Superbowl, and was extremely into it! 

Even throwing her hands in the air after a great play!

Now, the next time the Seahawks play she will be in the proper attire to watch her granddaddy's team kick butt. 

plenty of growing room 

Brynlee Marie loves to stand! 

happy girl 

Oh, and she also got to dress up (on screen) as a pirate while talking to grandma & grandpa Harston tonight. 

I'd say she makes a stinkin' cute pirate as well :)

Thank you Google Hangouts for entertaining us during our video chat!