My little man is growing up...

(My new camera took this :)

I can hardly believe it but this week on the 15th Quinn will be one years old. I feel like if I just blink it was yesterday we were driving down our hill to the hospital to have him and knowing the whole time everything would be different next time we drove back up. What an amazing, wonderful year it has been! Our little boy brings us so much joy, daily laughter and awe. I cannot believe all that happens in a year and how they go from this tiny infant to this walking, babbling little toddler. We both have been trying hard to take in each moment from the quiet late night milk drunk smiles when he was a newborn to his laughter and determination as he gets older and decides he wants to do new things. His latest endeavor has been crawling up onto the coach and then getting this huge satisfied, mischievous grin at what he has done. Honestly just an amazing last year, incredible to think this June he will become a big brother and we will get to enjoy some of these moments again with his sister and enjoy new moments in watching Quinn and our growing family.

We loved Santa!

All of the cousins with Ga Ga and Grandpa Brecke

Quinns first tricycle from his Great Aunt Laura and Mike

The holidays back in MN were awesome, except both preggo Mama and Mr. Quinn got ugly colds that took almost two weeks to fully get rid of. We were all spoiled rotten with wonderful gifts and great memories. I laughed at how gift opening on my Brecke side of the family was completely done in about 5 minutes tops. This is what happens when you have five super excited nephews under age 8.  I got spoiled by getting a really nice Nikon D3300 DSLR camera. The picture quality this camera can take is amazing. I am also going to be taking a class to learn more about all the bells and whistles on it. Bren has been busy still getting in a lot of ski days, he got an epic season pass this year for Christmas and has enjoyed how much that has let him get out. Life is wonderfully good right now and we hope the same for all of our family and friends in 2015.

Love,
Bren, Alyssa, Q and Baby K

Guess what, big news! We are having a.....

He's going to be a big brother!

Little girl! Yooohooo, I have been so excited to finally share this exciting news on our blog! After all the issues we had with infertility and getting pregnant with Quinn, here is the old blog post if you would like to read it:http://lovelyandwhite.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-background-story-and-some-big-news.html We didn't know what kind of journey we would be going on to possibly have another baby. We decided because of the amount of time it took with Quinn and also wanting hopefully any other kids we have to be close in age to start sooner then later. We still had to have lots of help with injections (my PCOS was described as some of the most severe my doctor has ever seen even post pregnancy) but fortunately this time the very first round took!
We wanted to wait to make it social media official until we knew the sex. Today we went and had the ultrasound and found out that we are having a little girl. We are absolutely over the moon with this and very surprised. On my side of the family there are six other little boys including Quinn, this is the first girl. I love my growing family and really would have been happy either way but I am so excited for all the pink, tutus, princesses and barbies!

Someone loves their fat cat Bjorn

Quinn with his Buddiy Kaylor on the first night he walked

The other really exciting news was Quinn started officially walking. He turned 11 months old on Monday and he had taken a step here and there but not actual walking. When we were over at our friends Sara and Zane's house, he finally did it. We are so bummed because they are moving to Colorado. Their house was emptied out and with all the space we all watched as he took a solid seven steps towards me. It was a night of happy tears he walked and sad tears too saying goodbye.

It has been a great December so far, I have really felt like we have enjoyed the season. Bren and I went to see the Nutcracker two weekends ago and last weekend we saw the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert. We are excited for Quinn's first Christmas and all that 2015 holds.
Baby girl White's due date is June 15th, 2015

Love,
Brendan, Alyssa, Quinn and Baby Girl

Wonderful Weekend

What a nice long weekend we had to celebrate Thanksgiving and welcome in Advent/Christmas. This year was a little different for us because the Mays have moved so we had our own first thanksgiving here at our house with Charlie and Julia. Both Bren and myself enjoy the tradition of getting up and getting exercise before the big eating day. I ran a self made turkey day 5k around my neighborhood and Bren managed to get some road biking in. We had exceptionally nice weather with it around 50-60 degrees all weekend. I got all of my timing right and made my first Turkey. I followed a barefoot contessa recipe and was thrilled with the results. I am convinced Ina Garten does not have a single bad recipe, literally everything I make from her always turns out amazing. Charlie and Julia came over in the afternoon and we had an early yummy dinner. I was just thrilled all the food turned out yummy.

All of my shopping was done prior to thanksgiving this year and I have found I really enjoy the holiday season if I am not stressed and can just take it all in. We continued our "black friday" tradition of staying in and decorating the house. I used to love "black friday" when it was actually 6am on Friday but since it has started to creep on to Thanksgiving I refuse to participate. Having worked retail I think it is gross that stores are open and much less people actually visit them on a day when people (everyone) should be enjoying time with their families and loved ones. Honestly if your a true shopper get online the sales are always better and your not denying anyone time away. Or get a seasonal job in retail and work one holiday and you will understand why I take issue with this. We managed to get all of the decorations up and have a nice dinner with our little guy too. I cannot believe he will be one in January.

We really had a good weekend and now are looking forward to the quick month of December, in no time a MN Christmas will be here and we will also be enjoying Quinn's first Christmas. We can't wait!

Love,

Alyssa, Bren and Q

Some pictures from this fall

Celebrations

Wow what an overwhelming and crazy month. By the end of this weekend it will mark the third weekend in a row that Quinn and I have not slept at home and also mark his 16th flight in his just nine months of life. No one can say we don't make an effort to get out with this baby. The month started great when we had some friends over for a fall party. It was kind of hilarious because literally almost everyone had a kid or baby with them. Different stages of life, first everyone gets married then they all start having kids. I like it, lots of celebrations this month. We celebrated two weddings this month one a few weeks back our friend Sara and also one this weekend in Florida Brendan's cousin Andrews wedding tomorrow. We also celebrated my amazing Grandma Irene and her passing. At 102 it was a celebration of a life lived overflowing with grace and enthusiasm. Quinn and I flew home and got to meet and see lots of the Brecke clan. We celebrated his first Halloween today by dressing as puff the magic dragon for the puff wedding rehearsal dinner. He has been a trooper through all this traveling and sleeping in different time zones. The little guy is so close to walking and in turn keeps getting bumps and bruises from his attempts at balancing. Sure do love him and all of our wonderful family. In a way it feels a little like Christmas came early this year for all the time we have gotten to spend with our amazing loved ones. Can't wait for Christmas either, I will try to do a post before turkey day!

Love, 

Bren, Alyssa, Quinn 

Saturday Morning

I am currently snuggled up in bed with a fat  cat curled next to me and rain drizzling outside.  Still missing that puppy a lot too. Despite a head cold and gloomy weather , I have been laying in bed this morning feeling so happy. My handsome husband woke up with little boy this morning and I can hear them playing, giggling and Daddy reading him books. Is this for real?  He really is such a great Dad and a wonderful husband.  Despite September being a hard month I feel like we are finally turning a corner into October.  I love fall all the Halloween decorations, apple or pumpkin spice everything and making some of my favorite comfort foods.
Little monkey is growing up fast, he has two teeth. Teething is not fun it is usually accompanied by fussiness, no appetite and yucky diapers. He is also pulling himself up on everything and really exploring. Might need to finally baby proof the doors and drawers this weekend. They just came in to snuggle me, I need to go :)
Love
Bren, Lyss, Q

Ode to Oscar

I still feel like writing this whole entry feels very surreal. What a month it has been, a really terrible month actually. I usually try to always put a positive spin and view on everything but sometimes I just think you need to embrace the idea that its not always roses and sunshine. Just short of two weeks ago we lost a member of our family. Our sweet, forever puppy Oscar.

Oscar was actually Bren’s birthday gift for his 20 or 21^st Birthday, we still debate this point. What an adorable puppy we brought home that day, all wrinkles, soft, wet nose and huge paws. We did the “anti-runt” theory and bought the dog with the biggest paws thinking he would be healthy and not deal with the usual Olde English Bulldog health issues. He had a tough upbringing with Bjorn the wrestling cat, those two would wrestle and always romp around the house with each other. Half the time it felt like having kids and saying to the other one quit picking on your brother. They would also work together ala’ Garfield and Ode style to scheme to get the Cat to push food off the counter only to have Oscar break through the packaging to get to the goodies.

Oscar was such a personality. If you had met our dog I can pretty much guarantee you never forgot him. Between all of his wrinkles and personality we were always convinced he was a Pinocchio puppy. He really didn’t know he was a dog, he always thought he was a little boy. When our little boy Quinn came into this world Oscar just seemed to think he got lucky with a little brother he loved. He wanted to play and be apart of anything Quinn was doing. When I was home on maternity leave, I would put Quinn on a blanket to play and I would do the same with Oscar.

Oscar had a great life, he was such a big part of both Brendan and I’s twenties. He had lived with us in Washington, Michigan, Minnesota and Utah. We met life long best friends through him and at times he was our only friend when we moved to new places. Losing him was a little like closing a chapter in our lives. You could always count on him to wag his little gas cap tail when you got home, and nuzzle into your ear and neck if he got the chance. He truly was a wonder puppy living with epilepsy for over seven years and even one time eating rat poison and not getting sick.

Saying goodbye was terrible but peaceful in the same sense. I know he knew he was so loved and he loved us. I truly believe someday he will be there and the first to greet us when we go to heaven. Dogs are something special, love your animal a little more tonight and don’t take for granted all the unconditional love they always return to you.

Love,

Alyssa, Bren, Quinn and Bjorn Kitty