What daddy's won't do for their little girls....

 

Yes, that is a princess tattoo on that hairy man arm....  The best part is he forgot to wash it off when he went back to work last week and got a few questions about it from clients.  I think he secretly loved telling them it was a princess tattoo.  Yup, that little girl has him wrapped around her little finger:)

 

Big Girl Bed

Well, we finally did it - we made the switch to the big girl bed!!

After much deliberating on what to do with beds, we decided to switch her crib/convertible bed to the baby's room and order her a new toddler bed.  She was SO very excited to get a big girl bed and we made the mistake of telling her we were going to get it before we actually got it.  We went shopping for it on the 15th but ended up ordering it on A.mazon so it didn't come until Tuesday, June 18th.  In the mean time she KEPT asking where her big girl bed was.  When it came, she was so excited we decided to put it together that night after work so she could sleep in it right away....

Here she is helping daddy put it together.  I am always amazed at Daddy's patience with her when she "helps" out with things like this.  He just loves having her help and even if she is getting into everything and making it take twice as long, he is so sweet and patient with her.  I think the kisses she keeps giving him throughout the project help:)

By 8:45 we were ready to go and she was SO excited!

 

We figured it might be a struggle to get her to stay in there so we went through the big girl bed rules first:

1.  Stay in bed and don't get up!

2.  Keep quiet

3.  Close your eyes

4.  Go to sleep

 

She is always sure to add at the end -- and when you wake up you get to pick a treasure!!

 

The first few nights were quite a struggle to keep her in there - the second night she was standing in our doorway every 2 hours... but after really being consistent in putting her back in everytime she got up and resorting to putting her back into the crib when she just wouldn't stay in her bed, she did finally catch on!

Here she is after a ROUGH nap - she kept getting up and finally I took her mattress and put it back in her crib so she couldnt' get out.  She SCREAMED at the top of her lungs for 1/2 hour straight.  Broke this poor mama's heart but she did finally fall asleep and by the next night she knew if she got up she'd end up back in her crib.

 

The first few nights the stall tactics were in full force - one more drink of water, one more song, we fogot to pray, I have to go potty, you name it.  It finally ended with "I'm scared!" and she really wouldn't stop crying.  So, now one of us lays in her grey chair every night until she falls asleep and then sneaks out of the room once she is sleeping.  It isn't ideal, BUT once she is asleep we all get a full night's sleep and she doesn't come out of her bed at all.  At some point we'll have to get her used to falling asleep without us in her room, but for now we really just needed to get her better rested and we can deal with that battle later:)  Ha!

 

 

 

 

Blessing of Embryo Adoption

I don't normally link up to other blog posts, but I am a big fan of Kelly's Korner (http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/) and linked up to her Show Us Your Life topic today - Infertility.  For those of you coming here from her website, welcome!  My name is Laura and I created this blog to share not so much of our infertility story, but the story of how God blessed us through that infertility with the amazing gift of embryo adoption.  You will see several "popular posts" off to the right that are some of my more heartfelt posts about how God led us to embryo adoption.  The most relevant one to this is probably the "Why Embryo Adoption?" post from earlier this year.   Please feel free to check them out and comment on this post if you have any questions at all!!  I am quite passionate about embryo adoption and spreading awareness of it and I'd love to answer all of your questions:) 

Thanks for stopping in!!

Sweet girl

She still likes to sleep with that hand up by her face:)

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to take the time today to give Daddy the shout out he is due.....

 

I know everyone says they are the luckiest today for having such a great daddy, but I'm pretty sure this guy takes the cake:) 

 

 

Thank you for snuggling with me before church this morning even if it did make us a little late for church...

 

 

Thank you for sharing your love of BrewerGame with me, even if they aren't so good this year...

 

Thank you for teaching me how to swing a bat.....

 

 

And for giving me a turn:)

 

 

Thank you for letting me pick what we would do on your special day and always putting me first

 

I had so much fun at the beach with you today

 

Hanging out with you in the shade..

 

 

I love how you are always holding me..

 

 

Spending time with me in the sun

 

And letting me bury your toes in the sand

 

 

Thank you for singing songs to me in church

 

And holding me when I'm sleepy

 

 

Thank you for always putting me first the minute you walk through the door, even after a long day at work.  You are the best daddy a girl could ask for! 

 

 

I can't wait until little brother gets to meet you, too!  Happy Father's Day Daddy!!

 

Love, Makenna

 

 

 

 

Makenna's 3rd birthday bash

Ok, I have to be honest, I LOVE planning birthday parties... maybe it is the years of not getting invited to them because I didn't have kids of my own or the excitement on Makenna's face when she sees all the decorations or maybe just a little bit too much time on Pinterest:)  This year was really fun to plan because it was a unique theme - Brewer/Princess..... Noone else but Daddy's little girl would make such a request.  I was very happy with how everything turned out!  We had a lot of fun with family and friends and of course didn't have nearly enough time to visit with everyone. 

 

The birthday girl had lots of fun, though I must admit she was a little out of sorts at her party - she was unusually shy and not her normal cheerful self.  Brad and I blame the lack of sleep from attempting to share her room with her cousins the night before....ha!  She was very excited at the idea of it but had a hard time falling asleep and then was up at midnight screaming she wanted to come in our bed.  We don't normally let her, but we didn't want her to wake up everyone else so we all had a pretty restless night of sleep with a 3 year old hogging our bed:) 

 

We woke up EARLY Saturday morning and had LOTS of fun with her cousins before they had to head home.  Thankfully she took a good nap in the afternoon and woke up just as her party was about to start! 

 

The invites...

 

Cake, nametag & party favor table

 

For the boys...

For the girls..

I have to laugh at this one.... Great Grandma (aka Cookie Beek) was doing laps around the house to stretch out and she just happened to be walking by as I was taking this so I told her to wave.  Love!

 

Princess Punch

Ryan Braun's Kettle Corn

Ariel's fishy friends

The decorative table - the brewer logo with her initials and princess crown are normally in her room above the crib.  The rest of this stuff was taken from all over our house to decorate:)

I snagged the "Brewer Princess" poem and picture frame that was hanging in Daddy's office at work, too:)

The fireplace decorations

Great Great Grandma's famous sugar cookie recipe - not a party without these!

Chip's chips

The birthday girl, watching for her first guest to arrive!!

The racing sausages even showed up!

Playing in the sandbox with Avery

Love these 2 little sweeties!

This lasted about 5 seconds....glad I was able to snag a quick picture

Love how tight Lexi is hugging Makenna in this one.  They are such sweet friends!

Lexi and Makenna are BOTH gonna have new little brothers this fall!!!

Love this smiley one.... I couldn't decided what to dress her in with the Brewer Princess theme.  I wanted to find a cute girly Brewer tank top but couldn't find one in her size anywhere.  I ended up getting a steal on a tutu leotard at TJMaxx and found this little Brewer shirt at Justice - a few sized too big, but it is a crop top so it looks like it fits.  She LOVED the tutu!

Makenna with her friend Jianna from school - Jianna was out of sorts, too - I don't know if she just wasn't used to seeing Makenna out of school or what but she refused to look at the camera for a pic

And on to dinner....  Papa "Ueke's" Pizza

Hot Dog & Brats (as in the racing sausages) hot dogs & brats

Love how excited she gets when she is the center of attention and everyone is singing happy birthday to her!

I'm pretty sure the wind blew out the candles, but she kept blowing anyway

Happy birthday Kenna girl!!  Mama & Daddy love you SOO much!

mmm mmm

Love the look on her face as she destroys the cake

Did someone say time for presents!!

She opened up presents like she was on a mission...I was a little disappointed since she is usually more excited and more gracious when she gets gifts, but I think she was so excited about what might be in the next gift bag that she just tossed each thing by the side as she got to the next one

.

Her chubby thighs were SO adorably cute in this tutu

 

Her favorite gift - Uncle Derek's Mulan (aka "Bulan") dolly

 

Thanks everyone who came!  Thanks everyone that helped us get ready & clean up - Mom & Dad's especially!!

 

It was so good to see everyone!  We are feeling so very blessed to have so many great family & friends!!

 

And Happy 3rd birthday baby girl!!