Special Visitors

Brenna's grandma & grandpa Bohlen came to visit last Wednesday on their way up to Minnesota. They are some of Brenna's greatest fans. They check the blog daily to see if there are any new pictures of Brenna. My mom said she watched the crawling video on the blog over 20 times :) Anyway...we had a lot of fun together. They made it in time to watch Brenna's last swimming lesson. After the lesson we ate awesome inside out burgers that Jared made. Thursday morning we went on a long walk together and then had a great play time on the floor. We had a lot of fun with my parents and can't wait until thier next visit (hint, hint).

For the cooks who are interested in the inside out burgers:
Make two thin patties. Put whatever you'd like in the middle of the patties and then pinch around the edges so the stuffing doesn't fall out . Jared put sauted mushrooms & onions, motzerella cheese, & seasonings. Then grill them like a normal burger. They are yummy!

Brenna and grandpa cuddling Thursday morning.

A picture my mom took on our walk. She takes the best flower pictures!

I'm Gonna Get You

Jared's mom, Patty, came to visit one day last week. Brenna had a lot of fun playing with her grandma all day. She loved it when Patty was chasing her (see video).

Saturday at the Park

I love parks. I love having picnics in parks. I love walking in parks. I love playing boccie in parks. Did I mention that I love parks? :) So Jared, Brenna & I decided to take a picnic lunch to Moore Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon. We had a great time and the weather was great. Brenna enjoyed playing on a blanket while Jared and I ate our sub sandwiches, which seems to be our standard Saturday lunch. (Side note: We use day old bread from Jimmy John's and it's cheap and tastes great. It's less than $0.50 per loaf and makes at least 3 sandwiches...if anyone is interested.) Brenna enjoyed the swings too. One new thing she likes to do is reach up and touch the leaves on trees. She gets so excited when she actually touches one. After the swings, we enjoyed a walk together. It was a fun afternoon!

Brenna is Crawling!

Brenna turns 9 months on Wednesday and she is getting very mobile!!! About two weeks ago she started to go from the "laying down belly position" to sitting up on her own. A couple times this week when I got her up from her nap, she was standing in her crib with a big smile on her face. And to top off the week, she started crawling. She hasn't perfected it yet, but she's getting close. It's amazing what babies learn in such a short amount of time. Our baby girl is growing up so fast!!! We are trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Below is a video of her crawling and a few other cute pictures.

Brenna in a jumper. She loves it!

Brenna's 1st Swimming Lesson

Brenna had her first swim lesson yesterday. It was more like a playtime in the pool with a bunch of other babies and their parents.....I'm not exactly sure what they will teach a 9 month old :) Either way, it was a lot of fun and Brenna did great. She even let me hold her on her belly in the water (see picture below). I think she enjoyed watching the people more than swimming. Brenna's friend Audrey is in the swimming class as well (Tim & Christy McCollough's daughter), which is fun. We have the lessons two times a week for the month of July. I'll write another post when we are done with the lessons and share all the things Brenna learned. :)

Thank you Christy for taking the pictures!

Ozarks for the 4th

We celebrated the 4th of July at the Lake of the Ozarks with our friends Dylan & Jen and Heath & Shaylyn. We had a great time boating, hanging out at the pool, talking, grilling out, eating at Outback (one of my faves) and watching fire works. Josiah, Heath & Shaylyn's 2 year old, made up his own word for firework....."wawa". After every firework he'd point and say, "Big wawa!" It was so cute. Besides being a little crabby on the car ride, Brenna was a trooper and seemed to enjoy the boat rides and the different scenery. She got in the pool for the first time and seemed to enjoy it......she had her perplexed look on most of the time.

Brenna taking a snooze on the boat with her daddy.

Playdate with Ella

Melissa and Ella came to Ames last week to hang out. We had a great time together and enjoyed a picnic at the Iowa State Campus. Ella is about the same age as Brenna, so it was fun to see them interact with each other.

Visit from our Floridian's

Jared's sister Lydia, brother-in-law Matt, and nephew Micah came to Iowa from West Palm Beach, FL for a week and a half to visit. We had a wonderful time with them. Some of the highlights were having a family meal at Caleb & Maranda's to celebrate Matt finishing his Masters degree, going to the Des Moines zoo, celebrating Lydia's birthday with an awesome steak dinner and yummy strawberry cake, watching The Office and So You Think You Can Dance together, and celebrating Father's Day (the first for Jared & Caleb) at Johnny's Italian Steak House (which I would recommend to anyone living in the DM area). There were a lot of great memories made. We had so much fun with them while they were here and we are looking forward to the next time we get to see them. Maybe we will make another trip to FL this winter.
Lydia, Matt, & Micah, we love you guys and miss you already!!!


Lydia's birthday celebration!

Jared's nephew, Micah, playing w/bubble sword.

Brenna with cousins Easton & Micah.

Brenna with Aunt Anna and Grandma & Grandpa VC.

Caleb (Jared's brother), Easton & Maranda.

Happy Father's Day, Jared!

Jared is such a wonderful daddy to Brenna. She loves him so much already. Some of their favorite things to do together are playing on the floor, making goofy noises, playing peek-a-boo, and riding on daddy's shoulders. As soon as Jared walks in the room, there is a huge smile on Brenna's face. I am so thankful for a husband who spends time with our baby. He not only plays with her, he helps out a ton. Thank you, Jared, for being such a great daddy to our beautiful baby girl. You are already a great example to her of what our heavenly Father is like. I love you!

Clothes Swap

Last night I participated in a Clothing Swap. It was a lot of fun! This is how it works. Everyone who participates cleans out their closets and picks 10-15 items they don't want anymore. It could be shirts, dresses, jackets, pants, purses, shoes, belts, hats, jewelery, etc. You drop them off at the hostess house a few days before the event so she can sort through and organize them by size/type/etc. When you arrive at the swap, you rummage through the clothes and try on anything you want, but then you have to put them back so other people can try them on. To make it fair, everyone draws a number and then you take turns and pick one item each round. After 4 or 5 rounds it's a free for all. I drew #3 last night, so I fared pretty well :) My first pick was a pair of dark jean trousers from Express. They are really cute, but of course I have to get them hemmed!!! I had a ton of fun since it included some of my favorite things.....people, clothes, food, and good deals. :)