Merry Christmas To All!

We had a very Merry Christmas and had such a great time with all of our families and hope you all did too! We had a very busy weekend as usual, but it was full of fun. Brielle had a blast this year and was really into opening her gifts. She got some really neat things that we can't wait to play with when we get home. Thanks to everyone for making this yet another great Christmas!

My new favorite picture of my two favorite people!!

Our holiday started off on Christmas Eve morning with Papa & Mema Dunbar and families. Brielle got a new baby doll and all kinds of cool stuff for her baby!

Our family picture which actually turned out pretty good considering there are 7 kids!

Daddy's friend Luke Amstutz made Brielle this rocking horse...she loves it!!
Daddy and Brielle opening presents

Baby Grace..she is such a doll baby! Brielle had so much fun with her and showed us what a great big sister she is going to be :)

Christmas Day we spent the day with Papa & Grandma Brower, Austin, Aunt Brooke, and Uncle Cameron

Brielle and her babies, she is such a little mother

Opening gifts is such hard work that she needed to take a break and relax

Grandma had her train and village set up which was a big hit

She loves her baby bottles

Our last Christmas gathering was on the 26th with Papa & Gma Stauffer and families. BB got a bunch more awesome gifts...puzzles, books, a book bag, drawing easel, and much more :)

Our family picture turned out nice and as you can see we have a new addition to the family...Baby Brooklin Noel

Daddy and Beebs playing doctor

Brooklin is so tiny and precious. She is only 10 days old here

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night :)

Breaking News From BIG Sister...

There you have it!! We are keeping the name secret until Christmas :)

The arrow points to the BROWER POWER!

Brielle's New Cousin...

Brooklin Noel Holle was born Wednesday December 16th at 6:31 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. Brookin and Aunt Jaime are both doing great and they get to go home to Daddy and BIG sister Gracie tonight. She is beautiful and absolutely precious. Look at all that hair!! Congrats to Aunt Jaime and Uncle Jeremy...we can't wait to see them at Christmas:)

1 Year...

One year ago today our little girl had surgery at the age of 15 months. A day we will never forget, yet a day we don't like to think about. We are so glad it is in our past and that it was a total success! Her surgery was very minor compared to what a lot of parents have to go through with their children, but for us it was HUGE to hand our baby over to be put to sleep and cut open. It was a very emotionally draining day. Here we are a year later and everything is going great with Brielle's urinary tract system. She is still on an antibiotic (its been 14 months now) and has to have another renal ultrasound in April. We are so thankful God has protected and healed our girl!

Baby update: We were to the OB dr about 3 weeks ago and everything is going perfectly for me and our new little bundle. We go back to the dr next Friday Dec. 18th for our ultrasound to find out what our little baby is!! We will be keeping it a secret until Christmas..thank goodness it's only a week!

Daddy and Brielle right before surgery (and Papa D in the background)

SO Much To Be THANKFUL For!

We have so much to be Thankful for every year with all of our wonderful family and friends. This year Jake and I are not only thankful for all of you special people, each other, and Brielle, we are also so thankful for the new addition to our family come May! We have been so blessed and are so thankful :) This was yet again a busy Thanksgiving so here is our breakdown of family gatherings. We started out on Thanksgiving Day with Grandpa and Grandma Brower. We had a great meal (Grandma Brower always makes a feast) and great family time!

Brielle with her Gma & Papa Brower

playing the piano with Grandma...she had a blast!

taking a break from making beautiful music to give Daddy a kiss

Next up was Thanksgiving with Grandma & Papa Stauffer at Uncle Jeremy & Aunt Jaime's house. We had another great meal and ate too much!

Brielle & Grandma

curling Dora's hair....Gracie had a lot of really neat stuff to play with :)

we tried to get a picture of the grand kids with Gma & Papa

Last stop Papa & Mema Dunbar's. They figured we were all tired of turkey so they made a great steak dinner that was sooo good! Brielle had so much fun playing with her cousins.

Papa and his princess

Brielle loves Baby Grace...she is going to be a great BIG sister!

giving Nico kisses :)

The Girls

Thanks to all of our wonderful families for a Thanksgiving to remember!!

Night Night Daddy

Brielle loves nighttime with her Daddy. She always wants Mama to put her to bed, but she has her special routine with her Daddy.

They like to snuggle and read a book

then on our way upstairs she gives Daddy a kiss through the rails...
SMOOCH!!!!

I love you Daddy!

Brielle Has BIG News.....

You heard correct...I am pregnant! I am just starting my second trimester and feeling great. This pregnancy has been just as awesome as my first pregnancy. Brielle seems to be very excited about the baby in Mommy's tummy. She will kiss my belly and say "hi baby" and she sings to it too! We will be finding out if we are having another daughter or a son soon! Our little bundle of joy is due in May. We are very excited about adding to our family and look forward to sharing our journey with you.

Best Friends!

Our good friends Eric & Steph came down this past week with their daughter Addison. Brielle and Addi had so much fun together. They are at such a fun age and played so well with each other! I was able to catch a couple of cute pics...

Hiding...do they look ornery or what?

They absolutely DESTROYED the playroom, but had a lot of fun doing it!
Brielle watching Addi drink from her bunny cup that she was so nice to share
Both girls serious about the cartoon :)
Thanks Addi for coming to my house to play...I can't wait to see you again!

Happy Halloween Says the Kitten!

Brielle was a kitten this year for Halloween and what a cute kitten she was! We went out trick or treating for about an hour and she really liked it, but when we got home we had about an hour left to hand out candy and she LOVED that. Every time the doorbell rang she would make a mad dash to the door and candy basket! She enjoyed wearing her costume and finally took it off to go to bed :) We had a fun evening and hope you all did too!

Brielle the kitten

She got to drive her Escalade for the 1st time and did a pretty good job. She has the gas part down, but now we need to work on the steering part :)
Following Daddy

Posing with our pumpkins
Daddy and his girl getting some candy!
Cute Kitten
Brielle doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but found a new love last night...kit kat bar!

Go Lakers!

My Daddy is a huge Lakers fan and they open their season tonight and we are looking forward to watching them play. My Daddy and I snuggling before I went to bed because I couldn't stay up for the 10:30 tip off!

I love you so much Daddy!
GO LAKERS!

Homemade Applesauce!

We spent our Saturday at Uncle Tim and Aunt Kimra's house in South Bend making homemade applesauce. It was a fun, but long day! Here are some pictures from our busy Saturday....

Apples...this wasn't even all of them!

Daddy and his girl before he left for the Notre Dame game
Watching cartoons with cousin Jack

Cousin Will taking Brielle for a ride in his yellow bug...she LOVED it!

In the playroom coloring on the chalkboard

Aunt Shanni, Mema, and Aunt Kimmy hard at work :)

Watching Jack play Pac-Man...she could have done this all day!

Aunt Shanni and little cutie pie Gracie

Our 20 quarts of yummy applesauce...I think we made 200 quarts yesterday!!

Thanks Leman's for hosting :)