The wall

The landscaper came out today and finished the wall. We will wait a few more weeks to get the sod and we won't landscape until next year but I wanted to post a few pictures. We think it turned out very nice.

Here is the view as you come out of the patio door onto the patio. If you walk straight you can go down the steps to the lower graded section.

 Here is a view from the side of the patio.  We will eventually landscape the section between the patio and the wall. I also think a nice stepping stone is needed from the patio to that first step.

 Here are a few views from the back...

 And a closer view of the length of the wall.

I'll add more pics once it gets sodded in a few weeks. I'm also taking suggestions on what would be best to plant in the landscaped area between the patio and the wall next year ;o)

Transition time

Well we decided it was time to go from this:

 to this:

We got Kenley's bed this weekend on Saturday and decided given the height we would try to transition to just the matress only (although we may add the box springs soon but won't do the frame until later.)
After getting everything moved around and set up, we showed Kenley and she was excited.

I went into the first night with high hopes and bedtime started off very well with some storytime...

and I left the room with Kenley laying in bed reading a book and looking so cute but the fairy tale ending ended there because less than 10 minutes later there was nothing but screaming and tears...Kenley mainly had one word, and that word is NOPE.  Now my approach on the first night was probably a little off (but hey I'm learning too, right?). Once she started crying I had tried to lay in there with her and "sleep." I decided I was going to give her an hour. In that time she took every book off of her shelf and brought them to bed and then took every book off the bed (Note to self: remove books on night 2). Then she threw each pillow and stuffed animal off the bed calmly saying NOPE as each one was tossed to the floor. She then put each of them on the bookcase in place of the books. After that she continually tried to get me up saying "Mommy come" and she would lead me to the door and want out. I made another error and actually opened the door at one point where she wandered into the baby's room and saw the crib. She didn't want in it but she wanted to rock in the glider. HMMMM... After an hour when the time was approaching 9pm I decided I'd had enough and she had to get some sleep so I broke down and put the pack n play up in her room, stuck her in it, and closed the door. She cried it out for 10-15 minutes and then slept until morning.

Naptime Sunday went about the same. I gave her an hour and again I made the mistake of trying to be in there. After that, to the pack n play, a brief cry and a 2 hour nap.

Okay, Clay and I restrategized during naptime and decided tough love may be the best. Last night (night 2) we removed all books (except 1), did our story time and regular bedtime routine and then I raced out of the room and closed the door being chased by an already crying 1 year old. OUCH! We were going to give her an hour (I felt worse and worse as the minutes ticked and we quickly approached the 30 min mark). I told Clay half of the guilt comes that she is just in there yelling "Mommy...Mommy...Mommy." It's just hard to not run and give her a hug. However after about 35 minutes or so, all was quiet. When we headed up to bed we opened the door and found her asleep on the floor by the closet. Clay tried to go in and put her to bed and of course she woke up and crawled right back out but she quickly fell back asleep on the comforter I had laid on the floor by the bed. Again she slept until morning....

Now it's night 3 and while I know this is hard on both of us, I'm sure Kenley will survive and I just need to be tough and do the same thing. Follow our bedtime routine, say goodnight, and then leave the room and let her cry it out. Eventually I'm sure she will get the hang of it. Keep your fingers crossed it doesn't take too long and stay tuned for updates.

24 weeks and counting

Yesterday was the 24 week mark. Things are going well and growing well ;o) I don't go to the dr again until 26 weeks so my belly pics and my dr visits don't line up right now. They will soon though since I'll go to the dr every 2 weeks. According to Babycenter, little Baby B should be just over 1 lb and about 1 ft long which is about the length of an ear of corn. My uterus should be about the size of a soccer ball and my belly is definitely showing that! I have the glucose screening coming up soon and prob a nice shot of rhogam. My hips are starting to hurt at night again from sleeping on my sides and the weight they carry in the day so I prob should do some of the hip exercises I learned last time in Fit Mommy. Nothing too out of the ordinary this round which is always good to report.

Here are my updated belly shots. (Sorry about the glare on the tv) You can see Kenley likes to be involved ;o)

Keeping up with the Kardashians Brockmans

I'm not even sure where to start this post.  I've meant to sit and write several times but the nights just escape me and the days are super busy. Here are some of the things you missed in the last few weeks or just other random updates from the Brockman camp.

Kenley was sick a few weeks ago and it made for some long days and longer nights. Luckily we recruited Grandma and Grandpa Brockman to babysit and after a shot of steroids from the doctor, she was slowly on the road to recovery. We were also cutting all 4 of our eye teeth at the same time which just added to the drama but we are doing much better now and super glad to have our happy girl back.

Last week is a blur so I'll just have to skip that ;o)

This past weekend, our friends Lissa and Nathan stopped by on Friday for a visit and to tour the Hotel Brockman. It was so nice to see them and I can't wait for them to move to town so we can see them more often. Kenley warmed up to them quickly and our short visit went too fast.

Oh they also started digging for our retaining wall on Friday. My yard now looks like this:

They are supposed to finish the wall today or tomorrow so I'll post more pics. They were able to flatten the back part nicely but I'm still having trouble picturing it all. We did talk and the landscaper is going to wait for a bit on our sod which will be super nice considering the 90+degree temps we have been having and the fact that a $500 water bill scares me. I'd rather spend $500 on other stuff besides watering my new sod in the July heat. I can just continue to play on the patio or go to the park if I want grass.

We also hung up the stuff in Kenley's room, so I'm happy to post some pics of her wonderful room. It was the one room I never got posted because she was asleep when I took the first set of pics and then I wanted to get her stuff hung. I put her comforter out on the crib so you can see the bedding she will have for her big girl bed (which we are getting by the end of the month and will start that transition soon. YIKES!)
Here is the view from the door.....

 The wall with her closet and bookcase...

 The view from the other side of the room ...

 A close up on the super cute (matching) message/photo/ribbon board I got on eBay...

 SO there you have it. Kenley's big girl purple room is all done. I'm gonna print her some more pictures for her board and eventually fill up the bookcase with stuff but for now, we are super happy with it. I think it will be so cute with her big bed and when we get the bedding all put in place.

My parents also came up this past weekend and brought a load from their storage shed. We have all of our baby stuff back now so we will have plenty of time to get it all together. We had a nice lunch on the grill and some homemade french fries! YUM!!! We will have to work on getting all the stuff they brought in from the garage so that eventually maybe Clay can park in there but we are still working on it.

Yesterday my Aunt Rachel came for the week. My sitter is off so Rachel is going to fill in.  I am sure Kenley and Rachel will have a hoot this week. Hopefully they won't be stuck inside 100% of the time with the heat but if they are, I'm sure they will make the best of it. 

Yesterday we did escape the heat for a bit after our nap and played in the kiddie pool. I took some super cute pics so I just wanted to share a few as I wrap this up. I'll try to post more this week but our lives have settled down quite nicely since moving.  We are getting used to the open space and slowly unpacking the last random boxes.  (Anyways, here are the pics!)

Hope everyone else has a great week and manages to stay cool in all this heat.

Fire it up!

Clay's new toy arrived on Saturday and I think he was really excited. While Kenley and I napped on Saturday, he put it together. 

Yep, that's right! He got a new grill. He has needed a new grill for quite some time. The old one was beatup, worn out, super small, and on it's last leg for sure. I wanted to picture it on her but it's almost embarrassing how old and beat up it was. Often times it was too small to make what we wanted, so when we got the new house I told him that I wanted him to get a new grill. It's like a belated Father's Day present in a way. 

We wanted to give it an inaguaral run on Sat night but he couldn't get the gas cap off. (We got a natural gas grill so we won't ever run out of steam while cooking.)  So Sunday morning Lee came over to help him get it ready to hook up and Sunday we FIRED IT UP for some Steak and veggies ;o) YUM!!

I'm super excited for the new grill too and ready to grill up a storm this summer. Time to find some new recipes!!



This girl...

This girl has recently shown an interest in the potty and will stand up after her bath and say "pee pee." She has an interest in watching me use the bathroom and will tell the pee pee "bye bye" as I flush the toilet.  She has sat on the toilet (the real one with me holding her in a hover) a few times and tonight showed a big interest in the new potty we got for her.  Well, this girl, she peed in the potty for the first time tonight and I missed it, but when I got in there and Clay told me, she had the biggest smile on her face (and so did I as I clapped and praised her). This girl, may be on the road to potty training early but I'm not gonna push it. Just see what interest she has at night after baths and maybe go from there. This girl, steals my heart more every day ;o)

18 months

Kenley turned 18 months old on Wed. I like to translate that into 1 1/2 ;o) Today we had her dr appt and it went well. She weighs 22lbs 12.5 oz and is 33.5 inches long. Tall and skinny just like her daddy!! Still in 25th percentile for weight but 90th for height.  We got one shot and a finger prick. Both seemed to be okay but it was funny watching her with a bandaid on her finger afterwards. She wouldn't bend or move her hand at all.  She was very interested in Dr. Kane's computer. We didn't really have any questions. I try to go with the flow as much as I can when it comes to Kenley and all in all I think she is doing okay. The dr did discuss trying to move her to a big girl bed sooner rather than later given the need for the crib this fall and having a few months to adjust before the new baby arrives.  We think we are going to try that at the end of this month sometime. We don't go back until our 2 year check up in Dec pending we remain healthy. All in all a short and easy visit.