Family Photos

A few weeks ago, Mark and Tammy took our family photos. Most of them didn't turn out for being too bright and/or blurry, but I found a select few that I could edit and keep. {Brooke is hard to keep still AND happy!} So here they are. I've decided that my family is adorable. The end.

Halloween

Brooke was a princess for Halloween this year.

We have been practicing the week before hand, knocking on doors in the house and saying "trick or treat!"

Brooke LOVES Halloween. It was a great experience for her! After the first few stops we made, she was saying 'trick or treat' like a pro! 

We just went to the businesses downtown for the 5-7 trick or treating before it got too dark or late. Mike's ice cream was giving out free scoops, so Brooke was pretty excited about that. We got her a scoop half way through. She sort of lost focus, but once that ice cream got finished, she was back to her old ways. She was thrilled with her Pumpkin Bucket--which lights up, by the way. {We couldn't find the one we used last year, so this was the very last one Walmart had in their store!}

Once we got home, she wanted to eat all her candy, but we saved it and actually still have some!

She still is talking about wanting to dress up and go trick or treating, but is having a hard time grasping the 'only once a year' concept!

My Brooke

This girl has been a ray of sunshine ever since she joined our family nearly 3 years ago. As you can tell by these photos, she has a really happy and funny personality. She loves making people laugh, telling "jokes" and making funny faces.
She is completely smitten with her Daddy. Whenever he's been gone and she hears the door slam, she goes running down the hall while screaming "It's my Daaaaaaad!"
She definitely loves me too! I got home from my run this morning and she came over, hugged my leg and said " Hi Mom. I love you Mom."
Brooke loves her 'pink baby' and 'sister baby'. Can't go to sleep without pink baby.
Beams with pride when she knows she has done something right. We've taught her how to pull the blankets up over her when she's cold at night. When we tuck her in, we let her pull the blankets over her. Once she has completed the task, she looks at us with a huge smile on her face because she knows we are going to praise her for it.
Brooke is very easily startled or scared. She hates loud noises, hates when we tell her "no" {but she usually is scared by us telling her hastily, not the fact that we said no} hates when we laugh loudly. She has a very tender heart and will typically cry after one of these things happens.
She's getting better at being prepared to expect the loud noises when she sees Grandma about to use the blender or me using the hair dryer. She tells everyone in her vicinity to 'plug your ears'. One time, I was blow drying my hair upstairs with the door open and Brooke yelled up at me to "Close the door! Too loud!"
She gets frustrated when trying to learn something new and wants to give up or have us do it for her. Once she gets it down though, she is as proud as can be.
She still is dying to take ballet and dance classes.
Picky about some foods, but most of the time we can bribe her with candy or say something like "But Brooke, these are special yummy squiggly noodles that you love!"
She nods her head a lot more now to respond instead of using verbal cues.

We LOVE Brooke.

Labor Day 2011

I should blog about our vacation to the coast since it's almost October.....

We had a blast, as usual! This is the 3rd year we've gone to the coast with Gordon's Family and the Taylor's {close family friends the Brennan's grew up with}. We got a huge vacation rental in Lincoln City and it was so nice to get away. I unfortunately got really sick on Friday and was feeling awful the rest of the weekend. Brooke was a little under the weather too and started waking up at night. Gordon has been immune to it all, thankfully! A part of me thinks he's a carrier! Ha!

Anyways, we had a great time 'getting away from it all'.

Hair Cut

I'm such a bad blogger. I'm a good one when it comes to my food blog, but that's about it.

I'm slowly getting better...at least I'm trying to get better.

Anyways,

a few weeks ago, out Brooke got her 1st hair cut! She was getting to the point where she wouldn't let me brush it thus creating rats nests that would probably have to be cut out {because she wouldn't let me near her with a brush in my hand!}

I miss her long hair, but I think she looks so much older now!

Oh yeah! On our way home...

we saw a high speed chase! Gordon being the man that he is got me to record the whole thing! Here are the two videos we took.





Yesterday, we found the article about the whole thing. You can read all that HERE.

Surprising Chelsea...mwahahaha!

This last week, we secretly traveled to Idaho and Utah to surprise my little sister! Chelsea is starting at BYU and we are thrilled for her! We told her we weren't going to be able to come up and visit, but that was sort of a big fat lie!

We left last Tuesday, stayed with some friends in La Grande, OR that night and then made it to Rexburg the next night. We quietly snuck into the laundry room at Shayna's place, texted her to let her know we were there and Shayna got her to walk in.

I was smart enough to remember to record the whole thing! Hehehe....I'm evil! But, it's for posterity's sake!



So, we played in Rexburg Wed, Thurs, and part of Friday. Then we drove to Utah to meet up with some family friends for one of Gordon's friends birthday parties. Thankfully we stayed with them the night and then met up with Chelsea, Shayna and her family to help get her situated in her new apartment Saturday morning. We seriously did such a good job, if I do say so myself. We took her grocery shopping, got her a bank account, picked out all her text books....and then took her to 7 peaks, like any good sisters would do! I had never been there before, but they have got some killer awesome water slides there!

Brooke was a little hesitant about the whole thing, but once she warmed up, she was going down the baby water slides all by herself! And, they were long for baby slides! 30 feet long, maybe?! Of course we'd catch her at the end! It was great! They also had a wave pool which Brooke liked before she got swept off her feet and got a mouth full of water.

And, surprise surprise, we were able to take Brooke on the BIG water slides! Gordon took her down on his lap while I went down another one. We met at the bottom and Brooke LOVED it! She wanted to do it again and again, but we had to go meet up with a family from Gordon's mission.

We dried off, dropped Chelsea off and then drove to Salt Lake to meet at Cafe Rio. I forget the family's name, but they were lovely and SO nice! No kidding Gordon loved them! And, it's always nice to get a little Cafe Rio in while visiting Utah.

That night, we went over to have some fun with our old neighbors, Rob and Erin...and their sweet little girl, Lyla. Brooke loves all the little friends she has. They had a blast Sunday morning playing together before we had to head for home. We always have fun with Rob & Erin and wish we could be neighbors forever! Seriously, they are the best!

After a long day of traveling, we made it home! We all were ready to sleep in our own beds. Thankfully, we made it home safely and in good time!

My Princess

Lately, Brooke has been on a princess kick. She's seen a lot of Disney movies lately and now is a princess and most of the time refuses to wear pants. She only wants to wear a "princess dress" or a "cute skirt".

Her latest thing she requires of us is for Daddy to be the 'beast', her to be the 'princess' and Mommy to sing. So I have to sing the beauty and the beast song while they dance/re-enact the dancing scene in the library. You know the one!

I'm waiting for this princess thing to die down, but it really hasn't.

Last week, my Mom sent Brooke some clothes and there was a purple jumper/dress from Oshkosh in there. Brooke was pretty excited to see it and immediately wanted to try on her "pwincess dwess" from "gamma ernhuffer". She was thrilled to say the least.

A few photos from the past few weeks of this princess phase:

Camping!

At the beginning of the month, Gordon Brooke and I went with some friends camping. Holy smokes, was it fun! This was the first time we've been camping as a married couple and obviously Brooke's first time camping.

A few days prior, we set up the tent and slept outside to test it out to see how Brooke would do. Yeah, she LOVED it. This girl would live outdoors if we let her! Everyday after that, she talked all the time about camping and even in her prayers would say "tank dee for da tent...tank dee for camping".

We had amazing weather! It wasn't even close to raining!

One of the families brought a boat for us to go waterskiing and tubing and another family brought a bunch of paddle boards and kayaks. What fun we had!

We all were assigned breakfasts or dinners to make for everyone to make things easier. I cooked a dinner with one of my friends, Tia. We did pulled pork in crockpots the day prior so we just had to reheat them in her trailer! Easiest and tastiest meal ever. We had that on rolls with coleslaw, watermelon and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Not your typical camping meal! It was sure tasty. Actually, all the families made awesome meals! We ate well!

The last night we were there, we wanted to stay up late, make s'mores and play games, but the wind was so loud, it was blowing paper out of the fire and blowing everything off the picnic tables. Oh well. So we went to bed early that night. Hopefully, we will make this a ritual! It was such a great time! I LOVE camping!

One of these days, we'll have to travel back to Ottawa so we can go to Algonquin Park! Now THAT is the place to go.

{these photos aren't in order, so don't be expecting them to be...}


Photo taken from my phone....us practicing sleeping in the tent a few days prior. Have I mentioned my daughter is a ham?

The second day we were there, we had to take a nap! We all were exhausted! Please note my {painful} sunburn!

The car, all packed and ready to go!

Setting up at our site!

When we checked in, the guy gave Brooke a frisbee. She liked to chew on it...not so much throw it...

This is Cooper, one of Brooke's friends who she plans on marrying...in the temple. She tells me this at least 3 times a week.

Another friend of Brooke's!

This is Isabelle, or Isa as we call her. Brooke first planned on marrying Isa first before I said "you can't marry Isa in the temple!" so she switched her answer to Cooper.

On the boat

This was the little table the three little girls ate at. It was a genius idea for Machel to bring this for them! {Machel is Isa's Mom...and also the nursery leader at church.}