Van Cleave Family Meal

After church on Sunday we went down to Jared's parents for a delicious Thanksgiving meal. I think I gained five pounds this weekend with all the good cooking we had! During the meal, we went around the table to share one thing we were thankful for...we have so much to be thankful for living in America. We enjoyed spending time together in their new addition and Brenna & Easton had fun playing together too.

On our way home we drove through the Jolly Holiday Lights in Des Moines with Caleb, Maranda, and Easton in their new van. The kids loved looking at all the Christmas lights and Easton had fun driving with his daddy!

Fun Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Ryan & Dana's house, my brother & sister-in-law's, in Eden Prairie, MN. They made a traditional Thanksgiving meal and the turkey turned out awesome, along with the rest of the meal. Besides the Thanksgiving meal, some of the highlights were going to a few thrift stores, playing poker, going on a walk around a lake near their house, eating yummy food, Brenna learning to sign "more" (Thanks, Dad!), and last but not least spending time with my family. See Ryan & Dana's blog for more details.

Thanks, Ryan & Dana, for hosting our family Thanksgiving. You have a beautiful home and we had a wonderful time.

Highlights from the Weekend!

Relaxing Friday night. Watched What Not to Wear. It was a really good one!

Sleeping in a little :) It's a little hard with a one year old, but she slept a little longer than normal.

Attending a baby shower for Nate & Natalie. They adopted a beautiful little girl, Elyse.

Church on Sat. night. I love the Saturday night option. It's a little bit more laid back atmosphere and Sunday feels like a day off....I guess now that I'm a stay at home mom everyday kind of feels like a day off :) I guess one difference is Jared is home, which is a huge plus!

Our good friends, Mike & Heather, came over after church for supper and a movie.

Attended another baby shower for my good friend Nealy. She's having a baby girl in January. I'm so excited for her! I love showers, so it was fun to have two in one weekend!

I saved the best for last. My mom called me on Sunday morning and said she was coming up to stay with us for the night. Her boss was planning on going to a conference in Ames on Monday and couldn't come at the last minute, so she asked my mom if she wanted to take her place. My mom didn't even hesitate. She was so excited....and I was too. So after the shower she was already here at the house playing with Brenna. It was so fun to have her here, even though it was for a short amount of time.

What was one of your highlights from the weekend?

I'll end the post with some pictures of Brenna.

Brenna's Taking Steps!

Brenna started taking steps on Monday!

It's been hard to capture it on video. This is the best so far.

What Not to Wear

These are the hosts from the show “What Not to Wear” on TLC….a show full of fashion transformations. My 2nd cousin, Michelle, is going to be on the show tomorrow night (Friday 8pm central time/ replay at 10pm)! I don’t know her that well and haven’t seen her for years, but I’m excited to watch it since it’s someone I know. Below is the summary I found on the website.

Michelle is a thrift-store junkie with an obsession with scarves. She loves a bargain - if it costs more than $10, she' not interested! Her friends worry that Michelle is distracting suitors with her crazy façade, so they've called Stacy and Clinton!

I'm kind of a thrift store junkie and sometimes it's hard for me to spend more than $10 too :) Maybe I will learn a little something.

If you watch it, let me know what you think.

Look mom, I can stand up on my own!

Can you tell we're proud parents? :) It's been so fun to watch Brenna learn new things...which seems to be a lot lately. When we ask her where the light is, she looks up. I signed the word "please" a few times last week and now she's doing it regularly....she's still struggling to sign "more". She can point to her head, ears, eyes and mouth when we ask her. And the best is today she stood up on her own in the middle of the room! Yeah Brenna!

Our Cute Little Lion

Family Fun at Ledges State Park

Welcome to the Family Beatrix Sparrow!

Jared's sister, Lydia, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last week, Beatrix Sparrow. She was 7lbs and 19 inches long. This is Brenna's first girl cousin!!!

Welcome to the family, Bea! We can't wait to see you!

Congratulations, Matt & Lydia! We love all four of you!

BRENNA IS ONE!!!

Our baby girl is one year old! I can't believe how fast her first year of life went. She has been such a joy and blessing to Jared & I this past year. This top picture was taken the day after she was born.

Jared made her a birthday pancake to start out her birthday. She loved it.
We had a party for her later that night with a few friends. I made cupcakes...some with chocholate frosting and some with vanilla. I gave her a chocholate one and she didn't like it. She kept trying to give it to Jared for him to eat. It was pretty cute. She didn't like that her hands were messy from the frosting either. This is about as messy as she got.

Later that night our friend Aaron gave her a lick of the vanilla frosting and she liked that a lot better! :)

My family and Jared's family came on Saturday to celebrate Brenna's birthday. We had a wonderful time with them. Brenna loved all the attention and hanging out with her cousin Easton. She really enjoyed sitting in a little lawn chair my grandma got her.

Brenna received a lot of really nice gifts from friends and family....a toy piggy bank, push toy, clothes, grocery cart, winter coat, baby doll, phone, and a few other things. Suprisingly, she enjoyed looking at the cards too. Thanks for all of you who made Brenna's first birthday so special, by coming to help us celebrate or sending cards.




This is a poster I put together of different pictures of Brenna throughout the year. Surprisingly enough, I got my creative juices running, which probably happens once a year :) It was fun to look through all her pictures and see how she'd grown and changed each month. It was hard to pick a select few though.

Flower Child

Brenna and I enjoyed some time in our back yard last week. I was able to get some cute shots of her in the flower bed. I have to take pictures of her when she's preoccupied, otherwise she's too interested in the camera and comes right up to it and wants to check it out.

Road Trip to Madison

Last weekend Brenna & I took a road trip to Madison, WI to visit my cousin Rachael and her family. She has 3 year old twin girls and a 7 month old girl. So we had lots of girl time!!! Brenna loved watching, playing, and trying to talk like the big 3 year olds. When we got home, Jared said "I think she's talking more". It's more like jibbery baby talk. Is jibbery a word? Probably not. Oh well.....I like to make up words :) Right, Jared? Anyway, it's really cute. Maybe I can catch it on video sometime.

Rachael & I had so much fun talking and spending time together. Even though we don't get to see each other much, we can just pick up where we left off. I love that. Thanks for the great weekend, Rachael!