BBQ at the Flemings

This past weekend we had friends and family over to our house for a BBQ. We had a great time seeing everyone and Brooke had a fabulous time being held by everyone-star of the party of course! Here are some pictures from the day!

Brooke and Katie Haywood

Brooke and Shannan Swiney-finally a picture of these two!

Brooke was totally fascinated with Brad-her new best friend! She is already taking after him by taking her shirt off!!

Just another day with the Flemings...& Kallers!!

I decided that today's post is going to be a picture day! There were too many cute pictures from yesterday's day with Aunt Amy not to share. I think that the kids had a lot of fun and luckily (for Amy) they were WAY better then they were last week (see that post below!) So, scroll down and enjoy :)

Jack has a bit of an obsessions with Monsters-specifically Monsters, Inc. As the Kallers were on their way out yesterday, Jack decided that he wanted to become an Monster-one based in Columbia, MO. He let us know that he was a nice monster, though, so we were not scared.

Jack also decided that it was time to go back in the box. For those of you that received a Christmas Card from the Kaller Family in 2006, that was Jack's 'classic' pose. When I left for work yesterday, I knew that Jack had found our cooler-little did I know that he would become obsessed with it and want to spend his entire day inside-looks fun right??

Yes, that's right folks-Brooke is standing up all by herself!! This was a good 10 second stand and two pictures were able to be taken for proof!! She is going to be walking in the next two months-I am absolutely sure of it...I was a nine month walker you know..no pressure :)

Lily standing up all by herself!! This was also a good 10 second stand! Lily, though, likes to put her arms in the air when she is kneeling or standing as if to say, "WHATS UP!!! DO YOU SEE ME STANDING!!! I AM PHENOMENAL!!" I love Lily...her personality is so hysterical! I feel for Amy & especially Joe-they are totally going to have their hands full with this one :)

The gals! We haven't taken a girls picture in awhile so we took the opportunity while we can still quasi keep them in place. No clue what is up with Lily-she is so funny when we try to take a group picture! And yes, Brooke likes to play in just her diaper...she has a cold and is messy and this is just easier ok??!! I have a feeling that she will kill me when she is older-'seriously mom...diapered baby pictures...online!!' Oh well :)

9 Months In & 9 Months Out

Brooke at 1 month

It's Official! Brooke has been 'out' longer then she was 'in!' This may seem trivial to some, but to me I feel it is quite a big deal! Those 9 months that I was pregnant with Brooke seemed to drrraaaggg by. I don't even feel like I really got to enjoy being pregnant because I was so busy counting the days to not be pregnant. I didn't even take many pictures-a handful at best-of myself while pregnant for fear of how terrible I would look. What a mistake :( I am working on making a scrapbook for Brooke right now for her first birthday and I have few pictures to prove to my daughter that I did in fact carry her for 9 whole months! It is one of those things that I have made a mental note of to change with our next child-I am going to be all about those prego pics! On the contrary, these past 9 months with Brooke have seemed to FLY by! She is getting so big so fast and each day with her has become more and more fun. Am I getting to lovey dovey?? Well, that's ok-She's fab!

Brooke at 9 months

This weekend was my sister Tracie 22nd Birthday. Soon she will be heading back to Dayton and we will all be sad to see her go :( By the time she comes back to visit Brooke will already be the big 1!! So crazy! We were happy to have her with us for the entire summer and we are sure that she is ready to get away from us and back to the fun of college and Tims.

So, onto the craziness that is my life. Maggie and Tracie spent the night on Saturday. Maggie was nice enough to babysit Brooke while Tracie and I went to Napoli to watch Gary play and celebrate her birthday. A good time was had by all (some more then others...) and we picked up some mcdonalds on the way home. Why??? Because we are random. After we got home and everyone was going to bed, I forgot to remind Maggie (as I always do) that the alarm is set and not to open up any doors. Well, Bella was at the door barking (as usual) to go outside. Maggie decided to be nice and let her out-don't worry, 3:00 a.m. and the alarm at the Flemings is BLARING!! This would not have been that big of a deal-Gary turned off the alarm quickly, but the alarm monitoring company was calling us, we couldn't find the house phone, my phone rang but I didn't hear it, etc., etc. So, eventually Gary had to call the alarm company from Maggie's phone only to find out that we couldn't remember the "secret word" we should have gone with 'big boy..' Eventually we provided them with enough personal information that they didn't send the police over and leave us with a huge fine for a false alarm call....I let Gary sleep in this morning...

On a final note, I went out to dinner tonight with my sisters, sister-in-law Lindsay and my LYLAS (yes, I did just bring that back) Lynn. It was a fun get-together and Thanks to my sister Amy for setting it all up. So-guess who was one of our waitressess?? HEY GIRL HEY!! Yea, serioulsy, after Tila she is working at our Cheesecake! It was PHENOMINAL!! Maggie was the one to spot this realality show celeb...we totally wanted a picture, but we were too star struck (I hope you sense the sarcasm there...) Good times.

Have you ever had one of those days??

Have ever just had one of those days?? Well, today I totally did. My sister Amy was over at the house watching the kiddos as she does every Wednesday and she was not having an easy time. Luckily (this time) it was not my child being the trouble maker, but it led her to shear exhaustion and frustration by the time I got home.

Here is what I came home to (at no fault of the babysitter may I add).
1. Bella (our dog) having puked all over the house. I guess I shouldn't be letting her clean up after Brooke's uneaten meals. The house literally smelt like poop and cheese-good combo huh?
2. Having seen all of the vomit in the house, I also notice that Bella has decided to pee on the throw rug in our living room-either that or one of the kiddos peed on the carpet. Either way, there was pee and it was nasty :)
3. Jack had decided that in a fit of anger he would take out our screen door leading to the deck.
4. Our TV stand missing pieces after Brooke and Lily decided to gnaw on the furniture like beavers...

So, here is what I do to fix all of the above situations.
1. Clean of said vomit with cleaning solution and carpet cleaner-followed by the vacumming of the carpet
2. Take large carpet and put it into laundry machine-why not right??
3. Mop the wood floors throughout the entire house because at this point, lets be honest, they had to have pee or puke on them somewhere!
4. Leave the screen door for Gary and work on touching up the furniture tomorrow-somethings have to be left for another day!

What Gary came home to.
1. Incredibly clean floors and a bleach smelling house.
2. One lamp disfigured after me having taken it out while mopping.
3. One laundry machine filled to the brim with hot, dirty (insert poop and vomit filth) water not able to finish its cycle or even turn on since incredibly smart Kelly had put the dirty rags and 8x10 (or bigger-I'm not sure) carpet into the laundry machine.
4. Broken screen door and beat up furniture.

*Let me just say...Gary was PUMPED to be home!!*

Luckily for me, my husband is a genious and a 'man of all trades.' After taking a look at the lamp, he fixed it instantly. One look at the screen door and it too was back in working order. Round three of fixing the laundry machine and I no longer had to call the Maytag Man. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to get rid of the 200 pound wet carpet sitting in the sink in the basement....thoughts??

Oh and did I mention that my computer screen will no longer stay up on it's own?? I have to prop it up against something to use it...I am waiting for Jack to call and tell me why that is...

We are still going to wait on that furniture touch up until tomorrow.....

In other news...Bella hasn't thrown up all night!! Always try to be an optimist!

How Bella used to be-attacking Brooke's food, begging for scraps as if we don't feed her. No longer. Oh, and Brooke totally can wear her hair in a ponytail now! I Love It!

Rocking out the high, side pony-oh too hot...

Discovering Bella's food-revenge is sweet. Don't worry, this is the closest that she got-this time :)

Lake Springfield 2008

The tradition continued this weekend of our annual trip to Lake Springfield for a fun filled weekend of sun, boating and a beverage or two. Gary and I had not been able to make it last year to Springfield due to me being huge a prego, so we were very pumped to make it back this year. I headed down on Friday with Julie-thanks for driving me!-and Gary joined the group on Saturday. We had a great time and are already looking forward to next summer. Thanks so, so much to Mr. & Mrs. Ulaszek and Marci (of course) for hosting us again this year-you truly are the best!

Ruggeri and Julie enjoying the music of Gary Fleming 'live'

Shannan, Bethany and Pegs

Gary's #1 fan-Bethany

A couple of memories from this year

Bayside Tigers Tribute-Did that seriously happen!!! :)
"if you want to view paradise...." Ruggeri-that one was for you!

Cannot wait to see all of you again soon!!!

pictures!!

So, Brooke and mom had a very, very busy weekend. Gary went out of town to attend his friend Dan's bachelor party in Memphis (why is it that guys always think that they need to go out of town for a bachelor party-over a weekend-and girls get one night in the local STL?? Just wondering...). We kept busy by visiting many family members and having Aunt TaTa (that's Tracie to the rest of you) spend the weekend with us. I will let the pictures do most of the talking-since there are a TON! You all know me-I never go out in public without my camera :)

Visiting with Toma (Great Grandma) and Topa (Great Grandpa) They were so, so excited to see me!! I think that I'm their favorite..just kidding Kaller, Frisella, Hardest and Krieger Kids :) That's right my Grandparents already have 6 Great Grandchildren-pretty cool huh??!!

Having the time of my life at St. Louis Bread Company! Grandpa Johnson, mom and Aunt TaTa and I went there after Toma & Topas house. I LOVE sitting in the high chair and being a 'big girl.' Mom tried to get a picture of Grandpa and Tracie, but they were not game. I mean, who would think that it was embarrassing to take pictures at Bread Co?? Not the Flemings!!

Just a quick visit to the store where we found an inappropriately large Elmo doll. Brooke has no clue who Elmo is yet, but apparently loved him! Tracie tried to get me to buy it, but there is no way I would spend $15.00 on a HUGE Elmo doll-he drives me crazy anyways! Yes, and I was taking pictures inside Gordmans...

Brooke's latest fascination-mom's topsiders. She loves all shoes, but her favorites are the topsiders-Thanks Lauries Shoes!! Do you think that they come in size 2 infants??

LOVING her bath!! Don't you wish that you still got that excited to take a bath and be naked?? On second thought, maybe you still do...

Ok, so my other grandma-Buchheit side-told me that I needed to cut Brooke's hair because it was getting really long in the front. She said that if I cut it all off, it would grow in think and beautiful. Well, I could not bring myself to cut it all off, but I thought that I could give her a trim so that it was not in her eyes. I trimmed it up and Gary was horrified that I made his daughter look like Jim Carey's character in Dumb & Dumber and/or Moe from the 3 stooges!! I don't know if it is THAT bad, but if you do attempt to cover her bald spot (the entire left side of her head-we are improving though folks-she has quit pulling her hair!) then there is a Moe-ness to her! If I part it naturally, it isn't that bad...Gary has told me to put the scissors away indefinitely..!

New drug of choice..Puffys and Cheerios!! The kids cannot get enough! Brooke is totally addicted and obsessed. Is she even sees these gifts from above she will refuse to eat whatever is offered until she gets some of the sweet goodness of puffs :) Here is a classic picture of Lily & Brooke duking it out for the cheerios. They honestly each will grab 20 at a time for fear that the other will get to get to them first. Lily had already taken her shirt off and was ready for the fight!!

OK-so maybe I didn't end up letting the pictures do all of the talking, but when have you known me to not put my two cents in?? All in all it was a great weekend but we really missed Dad/Gary and were very, very excited to have him home on Sunday.

Thanks to Grandpa and GiGi for letting Brooke come over on Saturday while I had to work and to Aunt TaTa for spending the weekend with me and Brooke b/c I hate to stay home alone-it was better then MANGO!!!

Up and Up and on the Move

She is mobile-totally mobile...my sister Maggie came over to watch Brooke while Gary and I went to the Cardinals game with our friends Ande and Lindsey last week and when we got home she let us know that it was so sad when Brooke was standing up in her crib crying to get out...WHAT??? She had totally NEVER done that before! Brooke had started to sit up in her bed and fuss when she wanted to get out but never before had she stood up in bed. Maggie has this affect on her nieces and nephew. They always try out new things when she is around-standing up in bed, crawling, saying first words...I'm sure more will come ! ! !
Brooke is also constantly moving now. No longer can I get some laundry done around the house while she sits and plays with her toys next to me. One second she is in one place the next time I look she is trying to take apart the computer. She is pulling herself up on everything and cruising along the walls, furniture and anything else she can get her hands on!!! This is only the beginning of how busy she is going to be keeping us. I myself crawled when I was only 9 months old-now, I don't think that she is going to up on start walking on me this month, however, I think that it is going to be pretty soon-totally by the one year mark (can you believe that is only 3 months away!! Crazy how time flies!)

Maybe I need to fold some laundry huh???