Getting Bigger: Climbing and Cuteness

Another week, more pictures. This last week...nothing too exciting! I am now in my 2nd trimester. Yipee...here is to 14 weeks. I can't wait until I am out of the fat phase and actually look a little pregnant and not just bloated! I can feel the little bean a little bit every once in a while. That is kind of fun...the little bean freaks out a little when I sneeze...maybe because I sneeze at least 7 times in a row. Ha!

I am not the only one who is getting bigger! Brooke is learning a whole lot of new tricks lately. She can now climb on chairs, the Luv Sac, our fireplace (which gives me a heart attack every time I catch her up there!) and onto the couch. YIKES...we now have a little monkey, now she just needs to learn how to get off of these new surfaces, so I don't freak out when she manages to climb up on them! She is also still on the blabbering stint. Her words so far. Yea, Yeah, Yes, No, Go, Aurora (which is the name of all princesses), E-I-E-I-O (which goes along with "Old MacDonald), Mama, Dada, and she mimics just about everything else. She is a little parrot. She holds full on conversations with herself, with us and any person who will listen!

Some cute pictures of the munchkins and suckers! Tori likes to play Peek-A-Boo with Brooke while she is in her highchair. It is really funny and I got it on video...maybe one day I will upload it!

Here is Brooke's step by step demonstration of getting on a chair. Then she goes and stands on it! YIKES...can you say heart palpitations! She is having a blast though...do you see that smile?! Oh and the last pictures she is whipping up a little soup. My favorite is that she will take the spoon out and slurp off of it!

As for more cuteness...here she is...Tori is a lot of fun. She is so funny and loves to get into all kinds of mischief. The top left picture is of Tori giving herself a spit bath! Lovely. The bottom middle is Tori teaching Brooke how to climb on the fireplace. I love the "What...am I doing something wrong?" look. The bottom left is Tori trying to be taller than her dad. She gets up there and freezes. She is not so much a fan of heights. We brought the Luv Sac into the Living Room again for a little bit. Tori LOVES to cuddle and watch shows on it. Her favorites right now are the "Little Einsteins". She also seems to be growing out of afternoon naps...NOOOOOoooo! Anyway, until next week!

Ducks, A Doctor's Visit, Dum Dums, Dressing Up & Daddy

I was tired of being in this house! YIKES! Our weather has totally been crazy lately. We had this fun storm a few days ago that in a matter of 10 minutes we had so much hail that it covered the ground and it came complete with thunder and lightning. Tori thought the hail looked like white chocolate chips...I thought they looked like big diipin' dots. The next minute it was sunny and all of the hail had melted. Then it started snowing! There have been 3 nights (including yesterday) where the snow covered the ground in the morning, but by afternoon most of it melted!

We had to get out...and in a heat wave of 48* we went out to feed the ducks. Tori was beyond excited and it was fun to see Brooke with the ducks. She wasn't very old the last time that we went, and didn't really care all that much, but this time she was totally into it! We brought tons of bread and we were there for a good 30 minutes.

Brooke liked to chase the ducks...the poor things thought she had food, but every time I gave her food to give to the ducks she would eat it and then run after them! He he he! tori likes to get up close and personal with the Canada Geese. But she also chased the ducks around too. This time I let her hold her own bag of bread. She thought she was pretty cool. she really wanted the swans to come out and play, but they were just too comfortable in that water.

Of course, there always has to be one goose that is a nuisance. The goose that faced off with both Tori and Brooke (pictured above with Tori) bit Brooke 3 times. Mind you, she had layers of clothes to actually feel the bite, but she even got goosed in the butt! Ha ha ha! Tori was very sad that we had to leave, but I think that we will be visiting the ducks a lot in hopes to see some ducklings in the future!

Brookie had a doctor's visit to weigh in and such. She is 32 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile) and 22 lbs, 11oz (50th percentile). So in other words she is a skinny giant. But the cutest giant I know! Of course we had to get Dum Dums at the doctor's office. That is how I bribe Tori to get back in the car! These pictures are a little blurry. If I take pictures with the flash I wash my poor Brookie out, but without the flash every little movement makes for some blur...oh well, she is dang cute with blue all over her lips!

Dressing up! Definitely couture! tori LOVES to play dress up and one day I took out the camera. She is a princess in all of these pictures (I was informed) and princesses sing, and dance. Tori is adorable!

CUTEST pictures ever! I LOVE my family!

Funky Hair and Family Rock Band

HaPpY VAleNtinEs DaY!

Brookie's hair is getting longer. You can't tell by just looking at it because it is so dang curly, but I decided to try out pigtails and it worked! So CUTE! Look at those curly q's! You may be thinking, why did Kendra pick the picture with Brooke carrying the kitchen sink? Well, I just think that it is a little hilarious that Brooke carries around the kitchen sink like it is a purse. She puts everything into the kitchen sink and totes it around the house.

Meet the Dinger Family Rock Band aka The Ringers! When Tori was little she loved to dance to Rock Band and Jason and I played it all of the time. Well, we pulled it out one night to introduce the newest member of the band to the group. Brooke thought it was a little strange at first, but then got into the music and got her groove on! Tori was so excited because she graduated to a BIG guitar. I think that we will have to get her one of those card board ones. We also let her beat on the drums while Jason and I grooved on the guitars. You can tell by the pictures she is a true ROCKER!

Brooke definitely liked the drums the best. She hopped on the chair and struck up a beat. She also played a few tunes on the Backyardigans guitar, but I think her favorite was dancing. As for our peanut gallery: Cami was comfortable. All in all The Ringers had a good run that night. I think that we will pull it out again soon!

Baby Ryah Comes to Visit (Oh, Adam & Tiffany Too)

Ryah Tate Dunn and her first visit to Meridian. She is 4 months old now and way bigger than we saw her in October! She even has blond hair...and I am sure those eyes are going to stay blue. She is dang CUTE and a very chill little baby. We had several photo sessions, and I think I took about 60 pictures of her...and I got one of Tiffany and one of Adam...they both were not looking at the camera! Ha ha ha!
Ryah and I had several talks about the bean within. I told her to tell me if it is just another best friend or if it is her soul mate. If I am carrying a little boy bean, I promised her that we would finalize a contract of future nuptials within minutes of his arrival! Who wouldn't want to be a part of a Dunn Dinger family?!

Adam & Tiffany came to visit us for a long weekend! We were so excited there are not even words to describe! We played games galore, talked an absurd amount and stayed up way to late! Did I get one picture to document our fun. NOPE. Oh well. We also stuffed ourselves with various scrumptious delights. It was pure HEAVEN in a 5 day period. We played Pandemic (a board game) at least a 1/2 a dozen times trying to beat the dang game. Finally after manipulating roles, we finally won. But I am still wondering if it can be done without manipulation.

Baby Ryah was definitely a hit on this trip (well, with at least 3 of the 4 Dingers... Brooke just wanted to steal her binky and poke her. She wasn't all that interested) and Tori LOVED baby Ryah. It was adorable! Tori was all over her. She would say, "Oh, Baby Ryah is so CUTE!" every time she entered the room. Of course this adoration did not at all mask the fact that her favorite human (ADAM) came for a visit. She was stuck to him like glue. Tori loves Adam and Tiffany a lot! When they left, there were crocodile tears.

I think that Ryah loves her mommy. I LOVE this picture! (oh and this is the only picture that I got of Tiff, or at least her head).

Of course one of our food ventures was Community Oven Pizza. YUMMY! After stuffing our face with pizza, the girls played outside with Daddy and Adam. I love that big picture of Tori, but it is blurry. Oh, and there is our little tree hugger.

Jason and Adam played their fair share of "Bad Guys" aka Lego Star Wars. So they brought out our gaming chairs. The girls loved them, especially Brooke. Here are some cute pictures of the little munchkin. I think that we are going to have to retire this dress soon, because it is getting close to being more of a shirt! Ha ha ha! Look at those curls!

We of course ventured outside for a few minutes with Daddy. Brooke explored in the grass and Tori found lots of rocks to join her rock family on the side of the house.
I didn't get any pictures of our Super Game Bowl Day. We really aren't that interested in the Super Bowl, so we just made all of the snack foods and played our version of the Super Bowl...Pandemic, Boggle and Blockus. FUN!
All amazing things must come to an end, and the Dunns had to go back home. Noooooooooo! Well, hopefully we will be traveling down there to see them again. WE MISS YOU ALREADY!

These pictures were taken today. Tori actually allowed Brooke in the laundry basket with her. Tori is slowly allowing Brooke to play with her more and more. It is so fun. Tori loves to pretend talk to Brooke. It is quite a hilarious conversation. Brooke news: she has all 4 molars coming in at the same time. YIKES. She isn't too cranky about it, but it sure looks like it would hurt. Glad I don't remember that stuff. Once again...how am I making a blog at 4 in the afternoon. The girls are happily playing together! AMAZING!

Finally February!

I am not such a fan of January! It is the LONGEST and WORST month of the year. It is always COLD and MISERABLE! (These pictures were all taken in January...so the only good thing in January: 2 of the cutest kids ever!)
So HURRAY for FEBRUARY! Glad January is another year away!

Playing with Daddy! I LOVE the big picture of the Brookie Monster! You can see all of her dimples. If you look really close, her hair is out of the pigtails that she was in during the day and she has scrazy "Beast" hair (meaning they look like horns!). Brooke just gets cuter and cuter everyday. She talks (babbles) like a maniac. She is always talking to someone or something and tries to parrot what you say!

Tori LOVES being in boxes. We have a diaper box that remains folded on the side of the couch waiting for her adventures. She likes to hide in it, pretend that it is a castle, read, play with her dolls and, of course, color! She refused to get out of her dress on Sunday. She even napped in the thing! She is obsessed with everything Disney Princess. Knows all of the princesses by name and can sing all of their songs. It is quite adorable!

I couldn't take it anymore! The sun (although it is too far away) was beckoning me to go outside, so I put the girls in multiple coats and we went to play outside in the 30* weather. Mind you, we only lasted 30 minutes, but it was worth getting out of the house! Brooke LOVED the ball and the swing. She also tried out the slide and liked that too, but was to swift to get a picture.

Tori was all smiles and I even let her swing, even though clearly she is too big! She even gave her tricycle a try...she still gets really frustrated with it. She will learn! A little into the cold, she demanded that she wear my hat because she was so cold!

Family Home Evening. While the kids eat their FHE treat, we had a lesson on the Iron Rod. It was fun. Tori sang "I am a Child of God" (she knows 2 verses...her Nursery teacher says that she is the only one that sings and knows all of the words to every song...she really can hold a tune!) and then we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". This is one of Tori's all time favorite books...this is actually our second copy because the first copy got mangled after a year and a half of use. I LOVE the pictures of Jason reading to the girls!
How am I making a blog at 4 in the afternoon you may ask? the girls actually play by themselves sometimes! Oh, and I also just put in "The Little Mermaid". DISNEY, I LOVE YOU!

January in Oregon

***WARNING*** This blog may contain an abundant amount of pictures...should I have made 2 blogs...probably, but I just don't have the time! In fact, my sister already did a blog about the funeral and edited all of the pictures for it, so if you want to see her blog click here. I will journal a little about the funeral a bit, but you can get the full scoop from Lora's blog. She is an amazing writer.
The reason that we went to Oregon in January was for Seth's funeral. There were about 400 pictures to sift through and edit from 3 different cameras, so that is why it has taken me so long! Anyway, it was a bitter sweet reunion. It was amazing to see how many people have been touched by Seth's life and it was overwhelming (in an great way) to feel all of the support of our family and friends. We saw family that we had not seen for a long time. the night before Seth's funeral we spent with our Aunt Rosie (aka Kosie) and her two daughters, our favorite cousins: Kristy and Katy. When we get together it is a lot of laughter and rambunctiousness aka FUN! It was WONDERFUL! We also had some scrumptious pizza too! (We basically ate out once a day in Oregon! No wonder I gained so much weight! YIKES!) 3 "F" words to sum our trip FOOD, FAMILY & FRIENDS!

Our best friends came all the way from Utah to come and give their support and keep us company. It was great to be with them to. We always have a good time. Well, as for the funeral, it went well and the spirit was so strong. After Lora and I made all of the flower arrangements for the funeral and visiting with relatives, we finally put the finishing touches on the Eulogy. Lora is my editor and she sure can make things sound great! It took me a few minutes to compose myself at the beginning, but I made it through!

Most of the time we were at home we hung out at the house entertaining friends and relatives. It was good to be with them. Brooke, of course, loved all of the attention! She was all smiles!

We allowed Brooke to participate in the overindulgence of food delights. She had all kinds of treats, including an oreo and her first black licorice!

Livy and Tori were best friends almost the whole time we were there. A LARGE improvement from our summer vacation! They watched every Princess movie, played games with each other, jumped on various surfaces, ran around the house playing tag, and filled Grandma Frann and Grandpa Lee's hug-o-meter to the brim! Livy was a great little babysitter too! She loves baby Brookie! There was a lot of snuggling to be had all around!

Grandma Frann bought all of the girls the cutest little matching outfit. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed when we went out. We took some pictures at the temple. Here is little Miss Brookie's photo shoot. These were taken with my camera. Is she not the CUTEST?

Here is a montage of everyone. Of course, Lora was not in one picture...I didn't even notice until it was too late. These were also taken with my camera. We tried to get a picture of all of the girls together in their little outfits, but no such luck. We got some good pics though!

Here is Tori's photo shoot. she loves Grandpa Lee and never really left his side at the temple. I know that the bottom picture is a little weird, but if you blow up the picture you can really see the rainbow of color in Tori's eyes. It is awesome!

The rest of the pictures were taken by Lora. She even got a half way decent one of me. Ok, there were a 1/2 a dozen, but I didn't want to include all of them...I mean, I am not that conceited!

Isn't Livy ADORABLE?! After the temple we took the kids to lunch at Olive Garden. My parents had a whole bunch of gift certificates and free kids meals, that the meal only ended up being $8.10! Lora tried her hardest to get Tori to smile...but we ended up with a whole bunch of fun action pictures. I love the picture of my dad reading to the girls while they jumped on their bed. They both shared a queen air mattress in Seth's old room. It will soon be turned into a kids play room.

These pictures are GREAT! I really hope that Tori and Livy become really good friends! I LOVE the picture of the girls behind the bench...only their pink shoes showing!
Well it was great to be with my mom and dad. It was sad to leave them, because I know that they will need a lot of support. I am so glad that I can leave them because they have a great support group there with so many friends to love them while I am away. We miss you Grandma Frann and Grandpa Lee!