My little girl is 15 months old today!!!!

Well, she was on Sunday when I started this post, it has taken me a few days to get around to finishing it! =) Here are Brylee's current favs -
1. Being pushed up and down our driveway in her little car (either that, or actually pushing the car herself... and she doesn't like anyone to touch it!  Even mommy...she'll push my hand away from holding the handle in the back!)


2. Shaking her head and saying the word "no" to everything.  Lol, you can ask her any question and the answer is always "no"... unless she is getting into something she is not supposed to, and you tell her no.  Then Brylee will shake her head "yes." 
3. We went to our first Little Gym class last week and she loved it, so we signed up to be in the little "birds" class until January!  They gave Brylee her first ribbon ever after our introductory class, I still need to take a picture of her with it =).  In the picture below, check out that grip strength.. haha

4. Smoothies from McDonald's (or anywhere really!)



5. Waving, smiling, or making facial expressions at anyone we pass at any store/restaurant (she definitely isn't a quiet baby when we go out to eat!)
6. Music... Brylee LOVES to dance!
7. Going up the stairs by herself and then me holding both hands and helping her down them

8. Playing with her tunnel in the playroom with Mommy... she tries to surprise me on what side she's coming out =)  In the pictures below, daddy got stuck inside the tunnel and Brylee is wondering how we're going to get him out!

9. Climbing things... her little chair, the slide backwards at the park...anything she can climb she loves!

And 10 - Cuddling at night with mommy or daddy

And of course, it goes without saying that ducky, giraffe, etc.. .are all number 1.  She can't take a nap or go down for bed, or ride in her stroller, or go anywhere basically without at least one of them!

Also, this past month is when Brylee really started walking.  I knew this was going to happen, she had taken steps at our house, but since our place is hardwood flooring, I thought Brylee would really take off after a week at my mom's.  My mom has nice, soft, carpeted surfaces, and sure enough it happened!  Brylee came home a good little walker after our Indiana trip!  In the picture below she is at Grandma Sue's walking =)

Other things Brylee does?  Well, now she is more a fan of blowing kisses than waving goodbye to people....also, I think this is so sweet.  But when her and I are playing together, sometimes she'll just quit in the middle of playtime, grab my face with both hands and give me a big kiss.  I LOVE this stage where she can show affection.
Also, after her nap, she'll lay her head on my shoulder and I'll go "awww" and she'll repeat me and go "awww." 
She also has started to notice I have hair and she doesn't have that much =).  She went through a "hairbow" rebellion this month, but since Sunday has LOVED wearing them again!  Sam and I let her sit in front of the mirror and we put her hairbow on and made such a huge deal about it.  Now she's been wearing a hairbow all the time, even during her naps!
And she still likes bath time, and loves some "Baby Can Read" videos.  She likes to sit in her "Brylee" chair and watch them.

We love having a 15 month old!

Depressing News about Sunscreen!

Well, just when you think you're following good advice by putting sunscreen on your child, here's some news you'll want to read.  The bad news:  Most of the sunscreen you own is probably toxic (Waterbabies, Neutrogena -- 2 brands that we had that both have the bad stuff in it).  The good news?  There are some brands that are safe and effective, you just have to read the labels and go out of your way to find them!   
Anyways, here's the link:
http://www.babble.com/kid/health-and-safety/sunscreen-safe-sunblock/

Brylee turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

As you can tell, May (with the move and everything) was such a busy month for us!  Obviously a huge milestone in our household was Brylee turning 1 (which is still hard to believe...the first year absolutely FLEW by!).  So, while we still lived in Louisville, I did a rubber ducky photo shoot and sent out Brylee's birthday party invitations a week before we moved to Knoxville (so about a month before Brylee's May 22 party!).  I think they turned out cute... here was the front of the invite.  Oh, and if you're wondering why we did a ducky themed party for Brylee, go to this post from March here: http://samandbrookecrass.blogspot.com/2010/03/rookie-mom-mistake-84.html

And then here was the back (of course I deleted our address off of it before posting it on the internet!) =)

The morning of the birthday party.... we had been sooo busy the last three weeks getting our house ready!  But the party gave us a good deadline to have things done by.  Here is Sam and Brylee making sure the bounce house we rented was ready to go!  As of that morning Brylee officially turned 1 (she arrived a week and 5 days before her due date)!

Yes, everything was "ducky" themed... which I couldn't find a ducky themed bounce house.  I did find a birthday cake one... but when you call two days before the birthday party, it was down to an elephant or BBQ pig.  Lol, so if you just look at the blue part of the elephant, and use your imagination, you can pretend it's a "ducky pond." =)

Brylee and her birthday cake....I finished this thing IN A HURRY!  Lol, it was going to be much bigger, but with all the unpacking and everything I just didn't have any time!  Oh, and look at Brylee's shirt I made (iron ons from Hobby Lobby...best store ever =) ).  I put a pink scarfs around the duck(s) in the cake, like the duck on her shirt had =)  Also, Brylee's ducky is in the picture... the whole reason for a ducky themed party.

1/2 hour before the party... first year birthday kisses from daddy! =)

Granny Paulette brought balloons for the tables

Ducky blowhorns and plain white duckies for the kids to decorate

Ducky treat bags

Duck Feed... aka cheetos and pretzels

The duck pond... aka the punch bowl with floating rubber duckies in it =)

Ducky streamers

B/c of her allergies, Brylee never really got to eat normal food... here she is LOVING a strawberry.

More strawberries... Yum yum

Our little family =)  I LOVE Bry's face in this picture

Here's a close up =)

Ready for cake!

Not so sure about this frosting thing...

Brylee was too full from strawberries so this is about as messy as it got

Kids bouncing in the bounce house

Brylee wanting Ryne to play, while he just wants his bottle

Time for the younger kids to get a turn in the bounce house

Molly ready to pounce on Whitney =)

lol, what a face

Decorating ducks

The Knies family

Even though she's 1... she's still my little baby =)  -- Worn out after her party!

Since we had the bounce house for the weekend... Sam, Brylee and I spent a lot of time playing in it =)

A Month of Unpacking - May 2010

Yes, this is pretty pathetic.  For the entire month of May (except for Brylee's birthday party which will receive its own post) this is ALL of the pictures I took!

But anyways, our first 3 weeks of May were BUSY BUSY BUSY trying to get everything put away (I believe we had over 245 boxes/large items!) in our house.  It was harder putting things away this time, then when we moved to Louisville, b/c in Louisville a bunch of our stuff went into storage.  Here we actually had to find a place for it!  In the picture above, Sammy is hooking up an early b-day present from me.

Brylee ready to go to Sam's softball game

Brylee playing on the swings at the park before Sam's game started

Sam setting up the fish tank.... we've had so many problems with this thing.  Unfortunately our tank has killed 50-60 fish... but we're giving it a try again!  Our last two fish that were left living, are now happily swimming in the Ohio River - we left them in Louisville.

And we didn't know this... but our new house came with ducks!!! =)  Brylee loves when they come into our yard and we feed them bread (although Brylee eats some of the bread too!)

The ducks are full and headed back out to the golf course... I see them swimming in various ponds when I go for my evening runs

Shopping at the outlets in Pigeon Forge over Memorial Day weekend... we bought Brylee sunglasses from Children's Place, and she went through a phase where she NEVER wanted to take them off =)