One year down and 6 and 1/2 months to go!!!

So...as stated above in the title, I am pregnant with tiny Toone #2. We are really excited! I am doing really well for the most part... back to eating my weight in food to survive, but not too much longer and I will be in the clear. My due date is March 18th. It is kinda crazy we will be four soon!!! Two kids, for some reason, seems so different than one....I guess we will find out sooner than later!!!! I know Brody will be a great big brother... Joey is, once again, convinced it is a little boy...I am not sure yet....We should know in mid October. :) fingers crossed!!!

As for other news... Brody is one!!!! He is such a cute little guy!!! He loves Elmo. I am pretty sure that is actually an understatement. He gets so excited when Elmo is on t.v. or when he looks at Elmo books or sees him in a store.... anything at all Elmo and he is easily distracted for hours. He says a lot of words.... Mamma and Dadda... Elmo, cow ,car, wheel, dog, water, bottle and flower (pronouced wow-wer) and one of his favorites is wow!!! He likes to find your nose.... He calls it a no... He learned to climb the stairs, but not how to get back down. He is not walking quite yet...but is so close. He will hold on to his blanket and I barely have the top of it and he walks, but the second I let go... I may get 2 steps...then he realizes and go to crawl. He's got one of those little trains that he can push all around the house. He takes it everywhere. He comes to where I am.. parks it.... then will play beside me. It is so funny!! He loves to roll cars and trucks all around. He likes to ride in his wagon and go to the park and swing.

We had an Elmo birthday party for him. He loved his Elmo balloon. He did pretty good smashing his cake. He didn't try and eat it much at all. He just liked to play in it. We tried to give him a few pieces and he would eat that, but didn't really do it on his own. My family came in town for the weekend for his birthday. It was fun to have them. We took Brody to the zoo on his actual birthday. He was a little scared at times and I don't think he could see too many of the animals. It was really hot that day, so I think a lot of them were in the shade. Joey put him on his shoulders and he loved it. He was not scared at all up there.

Well, that about sums up the last little bit. All else is great here. Hope you enjoy the new pictures.

Quick Update....

Here are some  recent pictures.... The Fray concert, Joey's birthday morning, 4th of July and Brody dressed up in some girls clothes (He had to borrow our friend Elise's pajamas one night-it is the picture in the bright green pajamas).... and a few more cute ones. Enjoy!!!

Crawling, our 1st pool trip, and some oldies but cuties!!!

Where to start... It is like we have a different baby!!!! So much has happened!!!

 Well the summer is our busiest time as most of you know....and it sure has not let us down.  Joey has been super busy, but things are going great!!! Brody is doing fantastic too!!! He is crawling now... well half crawl-half monkey walk.... ( just take a look at the video) It gets him from place to place...pretty quick too!!! He gets his little band off on June 29th and he will have a perfectly little round head.  We are really excited about that...I am worried that he is going to hit his head hard without it though...he has gotten used to the cushion I think :) He pulls up on anything he can and likes to walk along the couch or table. He is so full of personality and is such a happy little guy!! He laughs a  lot and loves Elmo...or "mo" as he says.  He says "momma" and "dadda" a lot and knows his name really well.  He holds up a ball and says "ba."  He says that with a lot of other things too, but I like to think he knows ball :) He weighs 22 pounds and is in 18 month clothes.  He is a big boy.  

We got to meet my family in Arizona for a week.  It was great!! Nice to get away.  Brody got to experience the pool for the first time.  The first day he was not quite sure what to think... He definitely knew he was not in a big bath tub, but he was ok.  Day two through the rest of the week he loved it.  By the end, he was splashing around and playing with the ball in the water.  

Well, that gives you a brief update of what we have been up to.  The first few pictures are new and then there are a few funny and cute older pictures that never got posted!! 

Finally.... a video of Brody laughing...

Sorry ahead of time for the long post.....I am not good at keeping this up on a regular basis....leaving a lot of updating to do and longer post.  Let's start with Brody... he is now 8 months old.  I can not even believe it... It has gone by entirely too fast.  I love the stage that he is in now though... He is so fun!! His personality just burst out of him when he hit 6 months.  He is wanting everything now.  I am no longer can eat with him in my lap... He has moved up to a high chair when we go out to eat.. the days of him sleeping in his seat are way gone.  :) He has found his voice... He talks all the time... He particularly likes to talk during sacrament. He stands on the pew looking backwards talking to whoever is behind us!! It is cute...but I do think he should be more reverent!! ;)  He is eating a lot and sleeping through the night from about 7pm to 7 am--gets up to eat and then back down for another hour.  It is nice.  He can sit up by himself and pull himself up.  He has not crawled yet... he more scoots himself around in a circle on his stomach... Much improvement from his previous backwards scoot he would do.... He got a little hemet... actually it is called a band... He has a flat spot on the left side of his head.  He will have to wear it 3 months if that...It has already helped.  We had an appointment this past Wednesday.  He has to wear it 23 hours a day... It now takes me some time to get used to when I take it off... :) When I say "mama" he looks at me and smiles really big and goes "dadadada" !!!! Not quite what I am going for... but I have come to terms that he looks just like Joey and will probably act just like Joey and will say "dada" (and mean it) first!!! 

In other news... We are doing awesome... just gearing up for another summer. Joey has been working really hard and this next summer is going to be great!!  We hired a secretary, which allows for Joey and I to be away from the office at the same time if we needed to be and allows for Brody to have a really great summer and enjoy outside.  We are really excited for that....We had one of Joey's mission companions come and visit.  We got to go to Myrtle Beach... Brody and I watched as the boys got in the 52 degree water.  Keep in mind it was barely 70 degrees outside and windy....Not your average day at the beach.  We had a lot of fun and it was nice to get away. We also met my family in Atlanta for the weekend.  It was really nice to see them and they loved to see Brody.  We went to the Aquarium.  It was actually really cool.  I think Brody was not sure what to do.....He did stare a lot.  I like to think he enjoyed it!!!  :)  

This past week was my 8 year anniversary since I joined the church.  I am grateful for this gospel and the happiness it brings into my life. I am grateful for my husband and son and for our family... the fact that we are an eternal family.  I am grateful for the change in me that happened  all because of that still small voice that let me know this gospel was true.  I will end on that note....for those of you that are still reading...  :) Here are a few pictures of us and Brody.....

Happy Baby

Post to come....but for now...here are a few new pictures of Brody!! He is a happy little guy!!!

The last month......and then some

Where to start...So...the last month.  Well I guess let's go back to mid December.  I ran my half marathon.  Quick funny story about that....I ran with 3 of my friends...all of which beat me....my time was 2 hours and 27 minutes. So, you have a chip on your shoe that clocks your official time... and when checking my official time online, I saw Lauren Toone-Monroe-26 Female 2nd Place overall.... WHAT... I definately was not 2nd... I was 4th out of all my friends.... Well turns out the race was a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon and my chip some how got mixed up with a girl who ran it in 1 hour and 27 minutes....Poor girl who worked so hard and got my time.....Oh well...Boston here I come... Apparently I was running  good 6 minute miles.  The reality was...I finished and was really glad that I did it!

So... Christmas comes next.  We spent the holidays in Mississippi with my family.  It was great to be home.  My mom got Brody a sweet--in the ridiculously funny sense of the word--santa outfit.  He pretty much slept through opening presents, but is loving all the cool stuff he got now.  We left MS on a Saturday and drove to Atlanta and then back to Charlotte... just to be home for about 12 hours before heading to the airport to fly to Salt Lake to spend the rest of the holidays with Joey's family.  His sister Storey, and her husband Ben, were sealed to their little boy Brooks they adopted this past June. Ben also gave Brooks a wonderful blessing.  Joey and I also got to go snowboarding on New Years Eve....so much fun!!! We both miss being away from the snow and getting to go boarding.  We flew back home on the 1st and got to rest a few days before the office opened back up.  Brody was such a trooper....He did well.  

Now as far as what has been going on recently.....Brody is now sitting up by himself...unless he gets excited and kicks his arms and legs and falls back.  He has been sleeping through the night for a week now....let's hope that continues :)  He also loves jumping in his little bouncy swing that he got for Christmas.  He weighs about 18 pounds.  We go to the doctor this next month and will have official stats!!! He is getting so fun...He laughs so much now.  Joey and I are doing great as well!! We found a town home and I can not wait to move.  We will post some pictures just as soon as we have some.  We will move in about a month.  We are just about 3 month away from our second summer, so Joey is working really hard to prepare for the summer.  We had our first snow today.  We woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow.... Everything shut down...literally...and everything is on a 2 hour delay for tomorrow...did I mention that about 90% of the snow has melted already??? :) Well that about sums up the last month and what we have been up to....