Last day in Chicago

Today is our last day in Chicago, we leave early tomorrow.
We have just had a wonderful time. I'm so grateful we had this time away. I enjoyed my time with my little girl (who is getting soo big) so very much. What a blessing to have so much time with just me and Brynn, without having any other responsibilities needing to get done. I'll remember this time with her for a long time. She's just such a sweetheart, we spent lot's of time bonding this past week. =) She also is in love with Aunt Jeannine and Uncle Duane now too. She crawls over to them and reaches up all the time, just to give hugs and kisses (and sometimes she gets snacks from them too...)
Thank you, Aunt Nene and Uncle D, for your amazing hospitality. You are so so very kind to let us come and stay. We just love having time with you guys, and are so grateful to God for you. Thanks for letting us invite ourselves. =) We love you!!!

Here are some more pics, I've had a little fun with the camera up here. It's just such a beautiful backyard, I'm hoping to choose one of these for her 10 month picture. =) I have plenty to choose from!

goofy girl!

so pretty...

Only the doggie can make her smile! =)

kisses for Annie, what a good doggie

My little farm girl..

I'm tired of this mommy, I want to play!

Here we have some of the things we've been up to!

Crawling under the picnic table on the porch, one of her favorite pastimes...

Spent the day at the Arboretum (sure I spelled that wrong) with my Cousin Joel, Tawana and Ruben (this is Ruben with his gramma in the picture... so sweet)

I love this picture...

touching the flowers,
Aunt Nene taught Brynn to touch all the plants and trees...
She picked up on it right away!

Deep in thought...

Home again playing outside

Yay! Finally a big smile!!!

Rice and Beans for dinner... Her favorite.
My litte Puertorican girl! =)
She fed herself, as I'm sure you can see... ha


Tonight we are heading into the city to Wrigley Field!! We're going to see a cubs game! Yay! Daddy is excited, and we are too. =)
Can't wait to see everybody at home...

Hey Everyone! We are still having a wonderful time, just wanted to post some pictures from our past few days... On Thursday we enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home... I took Brynn outside and did a little photo shoot. She's a beauty, but a serious one... =) Here are a few of my favorites.

Here are some new tricks:

Clapping

SO BIG!!!


Just hanging out...

Bubble time

"This little piggy" with Uncle D.

She loves to play with Annie

And, she loves to try to sneak up the stairs without mommy seeing...
She's a quick one!

Then on Friday we went to the ZOO!!

Brynn's first trip to the zoo..

Got to see the Girraffe's, Brynn was so cute seeing all the animals.

Looking at the Elephants with Mommy

and the Polar Bear...

SO cute petting the goats!

Check out that big ear right in my face! =)

So tired from having so much fun at the zoo

Hanging out with uncle D. again...

Then we ended our day with a campfire!
Lots of firsts for Brynn yesterday!

Today is another nice "stay home" day... Aunt Jeannine and I went to a French Market this morning, and Brynn and I are getting ready to go play outside some more.. Maybe try some different pictures, I'm hoping I can get some smiling outside pictures this time. She was so serious the other day!
Can't wait for tomorrow night, Daddy comes!!!

We are enjoying our time in Chicago!
Brynn has decided while we're here to start doing all kinds of new things!
She has started clapping, and doing her "so big" sign...
She's a little show off, always doing all her tricks in row, kisses, hugs, clapping and so big.. She's hilarious.. I'll try to get some good video, it's just that I know as soon as I pull out the camera, she won't do a thing. =)

Here we are enjoying Aunt Jeannine's beautiful green backyard! Usually we come when it's white! I love northern grass...

Yesterday we went to see my cousin Deb, and her son Seth. Uncle Duane made Seth a train table from scratch! Isn't it amazing! Seth loves it, and loved helping put it together too!

We'll say "look how great Brynn and Seth played together! They were great buddies!" That's the goal of this picture... we'll leave the truth up to your imagination! ha =)

Brynn enjoying Aunt Nene's bath this morning.
What a goofball!

We are having fun, we miss everyone at home, especially Daddy~ can't wait for you to join us this weekend Babe!
We'll try to continue posting as we're here!

Well, Brynn and I made it safe and sound to Chicago last night. We came up here so that Daddy could work real hard (nights/overtime) and we'll stay out of his way. Plus, he's blessing us by allowing us to come and enjoy time with my Aunt Jeannine and Uncle Duane. It's so great to be here, I love coming here.
We had a good flight up, I ended up getting to sit in Business Class with an empty seat beside me. I was a little nervous flying with a 9 month old by myself, so it was wonderful having all that extra room. Brynn is just a "little" busy at this age, and was quite squirmy, but she did great, considering she was stuck sitting on my lap for 2.5 hours. =)
We did have one little incident... It was my first Mommy panicking moment. I don't like them. I know there will be more, but I like to imagine there won't be. We had just gotten on the plane, and hadn't even left the gate yet. Brynn was eating snacks and I had an ice water, she loves to drink out of my cups, so she was having some of my water and then when the water was gone, she was playing in the ice. At some point she had gotten a piece of ice and put it in her mouth, without me completely realizing what was going on. Before I knew it, I guess she swallowed it, and I thought, oh no, that's painful... (you know when you swallow too big of a piece of ice and it hurts??) Well, then she was making this awful face and then started to choke.. then continued to choke... I'm thinking "you're ok... You're ok..." I started hitting her back as her face kept getting red, she's still choking... Then she starts gagging, and some bloody mucus starts coming up. I start thinking, "ummmm ok," then I'm still like, "you're ok, the ice will melt..." But she kept choking, so all of the sudden I realized she wasn't ok, and wasn't breathing. So I jumped up and yelled, "I need Help! She's choking and I don't know what to do!" all these people ran over to me and were helping me, as she's still throwing up bloody mucus.. just then she started crying, which tells me she's breathing... So the one guy who was helping, was telling me, "she's ok, the ice probably just melted enough to go down..." And then she cried for a little bit and I nursed her and she was fine. Then I hid in my corner and cried too... =) Thank you God. It was so scary. I'm so grateful that God is in control and He is sovereign, that I don't have to fear, knowing that Brynn's life is in His hands. All of our day's are numbered, and Brynn is not mine, she is the Lord's. He's blessed me with the job of taking care of and raising her to the best of my ability.
So, that was my fun moment. =) Thank you God for protecting my baby girl... Thank you for hearing my prayers day after day... You are so good.

My sweet little 9 month old...

I really cannot believe I'm saying that! How can she be nine months already? Time is flying like it never has... As I understand, it just keeps going faster.. So, we are nine months, going on ten. We've been enjoying every day, every moment.. She's continuously doing something new... She is a pro at waving bye-bye, she's just started kissing (at her own leisure...) and now she's started giving me hugs (my FAVORITE!). She's starting to copy us, saying da-da and ma-ma (not sure if that's on purpose yet) and she's finally dancing! She dances with her head (bobbing back and forth). She kisses the babies in her books (more than she kisses me!) and she's just started hugging and kissing her Piglet and Tigger... I just love this stage, just as I've loved every stage. I hope it stays that way! Here are some pictures of what we've been up to the past few weeks.

She loves to help mommy with the laundry!

that's one helpful looking face...

thank you Brynn!

She also loves to crawl under the chairs

sometimes she gets stuck

but she always figures it out!

Every kid has to have this picture taken right?

"No way mommy! I'm not doing anything wrong!
just look how cute I am!"

She is so great at playing piano!
she can barely reach it, notice the tippy toes...

We got to spend a morning with Crystal, Joshua, Caleb and Tyler,
they had so much fun together!

cutey pie

Gotta love it!!!