Leibrock Q1 Update

So it's been quite awhile since I posted on the blog and there is just waaay too much to catch-up on over these past few months to do individual posts, so instead I'm going to do a Q1 family update. Blame it on the day job, but we break-down lots of things in terms of quarter in the business world so why not carry that into my home life, right? :)

Well right after the holidays, we were already looking forward to my big Bday party at the end of the month (see re-cap of that in a separate post). We really had a blast and before we knew it we were into Valentine's Day and Mattie's Bday.

Then somewhere in there, I blank on the exact timing, but think that it was around Feb. 15 or so, we bought a new house! We had been looking online for the past couple of year's and then decided to check out some open houses one weekend and boom, a week later, we had found our new house! Our parents all thought we were a little nuts to do this so quickly but when you're looking in a 2-mile radius of a fire station, you have limited choices so when you see something you like, you jump on it. We just closed on the house last week (April 10) and we move in this Friday (April 18). Pics to come once we get it all set-up. We are so excited!

And a few days after we had our offer accepted, we got our current house ready to list. That process consistent of sorting through every closet, drawer, etc. to purge, purge, purge! My goal was keep 1/3 and give-away/trash the other 2/3. I tried to be ruthless and I think it paid off. It's amazing how freeing it is to live with less STUFF. It's a battle that's worth fighting.

Once we listed, we got 5 different showings booked for the first week and actually sold our house within the first 24 hours and bonus, it was for 5K over our asking price. Talk about an ideal God moment! If anyone has ever lived with a house on the market, it's not fun. Especially with little ones. However, we are so thankful that we only had to live in that state for a very short period of time.

The house buying process was actually a really fun exercise in self control for Mattie and I as we started out practical, dabbled in the extreme (building our own beautiful custom home) and ended up somewhere in the middle. We really had to ask ourselves what we truly needed vs. what we wanted (or what a bank would loan us) and it felt really freeing (and grown-up!) to make a wise choice for our family. Our new house is wonderful and big by many standards, but honestly we tried to choose a bit less than what was ideal just to force ourselves to be comfortable with that, make do with less stuff, etc. It's amazing how our culture seems to push us towards bigger, better, newer, fancier, etc. and it's nice to go against that, even a little bit from time to time.

So after we closed on the house, I had a gigantic project at work that I was leading and that consumed the remainder of February and March. The Annual Report website launched on March 30 and then we went right into an adenoidectomy for Brinley later that week. More to come on that though in a little bit.

And speaking of Brinley, oh my, she has become such a wonderful, beautiful, spunky, fiesty and unbelievably smart little girl. It's so hard to describe all of the changes that she's gone through over the past few months, but it's like someone flipped a switch and our baby is no longer a baby. I was just commenting last night to Matt that it's amazing how fast the one word "mamas," "dadas," "wa-was" and "paci's" have turned into full blown little sentences and opinions. She speaks in mini-sentences, tells us about stuff and answers questions now vs. just parroting stuff back. There still is a bunch of parroting as Matt found out last week when he jokingly told me to "shove it" and Brinley repeated "shove it!" No good. :)

She's also gotten very opinionated and one of her favorite phrases is "I do it." She wants to do everything herself and is fiercely independent. She's very protective of dada as well and when I enter the room and she's with dada she glares at me and says "mine." On the same line, when her and dada are downstairs and I come down, she often points and says "go, upstairs, mama." We tell her not to be mean but it is pretty cute though. She did this to the doctor as well and told him to "go, door." I think we are in for a handful with this one!

Other milestones that I wrote down over the past few months include: singing Frosy the "no-man" with mama at 20 months, her first full sentence "dada, paci a me" at 21 months and saying "dada funny" at dinner at 21 months. She also understands absolutely everything and when we ask her to go and grab something for us she knows exactly what we are talking about. She is also an amazing helper and like to help feed Riley, load the dishwasher and really just help mama and dada with whatever they are doing. She's incredibly sweet as well and will always give you hugs and kisses when you're sad. Kiss owies or boo boos on mama and daddy and say "luv u" at night when we tuck her in. Her hugs and cuddles are the best thing ever and we just can't get enough snuggle time.

I honestly feel like a bad parent admitting this, but she really loves watching TV and movies and we've indulged her a bit more than we'd like preparing for the move. We are selective on what we let her watch, but Sofia the First and Frozen are two of her favorite things in the world. She actually follows the shows now and will giggle at the funny parts, talk about what's going on onscreen and make adorable little comments. We just watch her as she's watching the shows. However, both Matt and I can sing every word to every song in Frozen and we both pray that they will come out with a sequel soon so we can be spared having to endure Elsa, Anna and Olaf one. more. time.

Truthfully though I love watching Disney movies with her, and having fun girlie princess time. Matt has recently moved to second shift and Brinley and I have adopted a "girls night" tradition on Friday nights. It's really awesome and we absolutely adore our spirited little girl.

Oh and just tonight she learned how to count to three for the first time. Previously she's been stuck at two so this was huge! It's awesome watching her learn new things and see how proud she is of herself.

Overall, it's been a crazy Q1 2015 for the Leibrock family but we wouldn't trade a moment of it! We are so blessed and loving our little family.

And to make this officially the longest blog post ever, I'm going to insert a million pictures:

New Year's day, playing dress-up with Daddy

Pretty bracelets

Daddy got to wear a crown and earrings too :)

Yup, she fell asleep during lunch

It was super cute and kind of funny cause she got really ticked when we woke her up to put her in her crib

New kitchen, table and chairs for Christmas

Grace's Christmas present to us was some free babysitting so Matt and I went on a date night to Target. It was awesome!

Her new cis cis bed-set and pillow!

Playdate with her friend Levi. He gave her a kiss when we were leaving too, so cute!!!

Chipotle date when Matt was working late and Mommy was too tired to deal with kitchen clean-up. True story.

Fell asleep reading to herself in the chair

Daycare picture from Ms. Mandi's

Such a good helper!

Playing with Harley. This girl loves puppies!

Date night at the Wild game

Cuddling with Daddy

Oh no, it's tax time again!!!

There favorite thing to do

My two loves

Sick day watching Tangled with mama

Poor baby

I don't see this view much anymore. I take it when I can get it!

Candy card that Brinley and I made for Daddy's Bday

At Great-Grandma B's Bday

Sick again!

Coat half on, walking around with a stick in Mommy's shoes

Horsy ride at the park

Eating her lunch at the table like a big girl

Indoor park with Ms. Mandi

And something for mama! I signed-up for Stitch Fix and am loving it.

My first stich fix shirt!

Dress up! She's frowning because she wanted to see the camera

"I see, I see"

There's some of that toddler attitude!

Helping me grocery shop, this was adorable if not a ton of work trying to wrangle her!

She insisted on putting everything in the cart

Fun with cars at the new daycare, Ms. Raquel's

Lemons are sour

Dance party!

Playing make-up with the girls

Visiting Daddy's fire station

Mama gets a pedi with Nana!

My attempt at trying to capture Brinley snuggling with Nana

Cooking/tasting all of the food with Nana

These two were so cute!

Mama, I'm on the potty! (And no, she's not potty trained yet)

Still loves the swing (even though you can't tell by this pic)

My Annual Report project was featured on a billboard in Times Square!

Visiting Max and Mary!

She left Nana a present in her purse

Painting fun at Ms. Raquel's!