Christmas Fun!

This is what we did for Christmas this year...

We built ourselves a giant gingerbread house... and then ate it. Yummy!  :P

 On Christmas Eve, we went to an awesome Festival of Lights display here in the Charleston area. We even got to get out of our cars to do a few fun Christmassy things... like roast marshmellows.

 Walk through a tunnel of lights.

 Ride a carousel.

 Get a closeup look at the really cool light displays.

Then it was Christmas and Santa had come and gone before we knew it!

This was how Santa left it.

Opening the first presents.

Brooklyn had already gone through Josh's stocking and most of her stocking, and was playing with her scooter and Josh's riding toy before we finally heard her and got out of bed.

One of Brooklyn's favorite presents - her very own camera (or as Brooklyn calls it, "cwamwa").

Brooklyn's loot.

 Joshua's loot - he looks pretty happy with all his presents.

My little Christmas presents! :) 

Hope you all had as very merry a Christmas as we did.

Matt's Birthday

I know this post is a little late, but we celebrated Matt's birthday a week before Christmas. Now that we have entered our "Thirty-somethings", our birthdays don't matter to us anymore, and we might go as far as wishing to not even notice them, but we still have a birthday bash (cake, presents, etc...) since we have children who appreciate them for us. :) Thanks, Brooklyn, for being excited about our birthdays for us. :)

Daddy's presents: he got chocolates, a back massaging chair mat, a calendar of pictures from Hubble's telescope, and a Rangers tie ;P.

Singing Happy Birthday and helping Daddy blow out the candles. You can barely hear Brooklyn singing over me, but she sang the whole Birthday song for him.

No More Paci!

Since last spring, we have slowly been weening Brooklyn of her pacis. She used to sleep with 5 pacis in her bed... ya know, so she was sure to find one at night if/when she woke up. Over time, she gave all but one to the "paci fairy" in return for a present/toy for each paci. We then started limiting her use of this last paci to just naps and nighttime. She constantly fought us for it during the day, though. I even cut a hole in it, but it did not phase her one bit. Finally, one day (last Saturday, December 11, 2010) her after her nap, Matt was attempting to take her paci from her to put away until nighttime. As usual, she ran away from him hoping to have a few more minutes with it. Frustrated, Matt blurted out, "if you throw your paci away in the trash right now, I will let you open one Christmas present." Brooklyn sat there staring at her paci for a few minutes obviously debating this and then walked over to the trash can and THREW HER LAST PACI IN THE TRASH! So, to keep up with his end of the bargain, Matt brought her a Christmas present to open. I could tell that, as Brooklyn waited for Daddy to wrap and come back with her present, she was feeling a little unsure about her decision, but as soon as he showed up with her little present, and she unwrapped it, she was sure she had made the right decision.

Every night, now, we have a "no more paci" tea party before bed. She wakes up with a super wet diaper every morning, but it is soooo worth not having that paci anymore. We, including her dentist, are so very proud of our little Brooklyn!

Thanksgiving in Alabama

We got to visit Matt's parents in Huntsville, AL for Thanksgiving this year. Matt's brother, Jason, and his family were also there for the holidays. Needless to say, we had a blast all together playing Wii long into the night, pushing kids in the wheelbarrow and eating the best food we've had in a long time. 

Josh sportin' his Texas Rangers pride.

Anywhere there is a piano, Brooklyn must play it.

This was one of Brooklyn's favorite things to do at Grandma's house - play tea party.

Another favorite thing to do was follow Jackson around and play whatever he was playing - in this case it was airplanes.

I liked this picture I caught of Abygail in motion.

Yet another favorite thing to do at Grandma's house - wrestle with Daddy and Uncle Jason with all the cousins.

Josh sportin' his Dallas Cowboys fanhood.

Now who taught him to do that???? Grandpa????

Fixin' Thanksgiving meal.

We were glad to see Angela and Geary.

Brooklyn following Jackson around some more.

Josh got to take his baths in Grandma's sink. :)

Playing with cousin Amber.

Whatever Jackson was doing, she wanted to do, too - especially if it included popsicles.

They all wanted popsicles.

Abygail, Jackson and Brooklyn singing, Once there was a snowman.

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come visit you for Thanksgiving and for being such amazing hosts to us all. Mom - your food ROCKS! So much that I need to lose an additional 5 more pounds, which I gained while there - so worth it, though. :)

Since we have been back, all three of my babies (Matt being baby #3) have had sinus & chest congestion with fevers. And, Brooklyn ended up with her very first ear infection (31 months was a good run). I must admit that I may have been the coulprit with the germs to begin with, as I was pretty sick the week before we left. Oh well. Now we are all just trying to get healthy again and stay healthy for all the Christmas activities coming up.

Splish Splash, Josh loves his bath

I love how Josh has taken a liking to water and bathtime. I can always count on bathtime to cheer him up when teething gets him down. He loves the water and splashing with his hands and feet. And don't you just love his bathtub? ;)

Singing Songs

Brooklyn has learned several songs and loves to sing all the time. She even makes up her own songs and tries to teach them to me. It's so much fun to see her develop her love of music and singing.

PS. Grandma, she is really excited to sing all her songs for you next week.


Singing ABC's:

Singing Row Your Boat:

Halloween

We all went trick or treating around our neighborhood together this year. It was too cute to miss. I kid you not, there were at least 100 kids walking around trick or treating. Joshy ended up falling asleep in Matt's arms (wish I had a pic of that to share - sorry), so they retired a little earlier than Brooklyn and I.

Words can't describe how cute our little ladybug was for Halloween, and these pictures don't do her justice. The video helps, though. :)  She got comments like these: "When you're that cute, you can have as much candy as you want", "She's so cute she doesn't have to say thankyou!" and my favorite, "You are so cute, I want to be your grandmother and just spoil you rotten."

 

The loot. The pumpkin got too heavy at the end... and so did her feet. I ended up carrying both two blocks back home, despite having brought the wagon.

At this house, the man who answered (I don't know if you can tell) was wearing a Jason mask and holding a knife. It didn't phase her one bit. She still said, "trick or treat" and "thank you"... if you can hear it.

Fall fun

We are so excited for Fall. The weather is awesome, and holidays are upon us. Halloween is gonna be even more fun this year since Brooklyn knows exactly what to do and is really excited to do it. In fact, I offered her a piece of candy today and she said, "Wait, I have to say 'trick or treat' first." She also picked out what she wanted to dress up as: a ladybug - and she loves telling everyone. She is ready! We also carved our first pumpkin with her this year. She doesn't like being dirty very much, so I assumed she wouldn't really want to help gut the pumpkin. But, I learned that she likes getting dirty, just not being dirty. :)



We also had a family outing last night to a local farm hosting a Fall Festival. They had all kinds of fun activities. There were small, medium and large corn mazes, and we went through all of them with the use of Brooklyn's newly developed trekking skills. She would mark the ground in the dirt with her finger as we walked so that we would know where we had been. She is the smartest little girl! Then, she would look at the map at each intersection and say, "Which way do we go? I know, this way. Come on!" and she would point and wave us to follow her. It was VERY cute. :)  There was also a cornbox, bouncy balls, farm animals, and other things that we didn't even get around to. We had a blast and will definitely be going back there next year. Even Josh enjoyed himself!

In the toddler haybale maze. She found her way through this rather easily... and a few times... and faster each time.

 

Marking where we had been in the big corn maze. She actually drew X's, too.

Saying, "C'mon, follow me!"

Playing in the cornbox.

 

On the bouncy ball - it was harder than it looked, but she figured it out (which was really fun to watch).

Joshua and Daddy having fun, too.

Go Rangers Go!

We are so very proud of our Texas Rangers! 

Brooklyn showing her antlers after watching a great play!

Luna Moths

The kids and I went to a park last week and on the back of the bench where we sat to eat lunch, we found these two beautiful moths (luna moths). I have never seen such beautiful bugs and just had to share. They just sat there like this the whole time we were there, and we were there for over 4 hours. I read later that when they mate, they will stay like this for a whole day if undisturbed.

Justice

First, let's recall what Brooklyn's first syllables were...


Now, here's Joshua's first syllables:

Is that justice or what?! I am so proud of my little boy!  :)

Latin Heritage

Brooklyn, Josh and I joined my neighbor and went to a Latin Heritage Festival at the park. It was really fun and the food was awesome, as Latin food always is. They had live Latin bands playing salsa music and more. And for the kiddos, they had a line of bounce-houses set up in the back. Now, whether that has anything to do with Latin Heritage or not, I dunno, but that is where we spent most of our time. Of course we did spend some time dancing to the music. I tried to teach Brooklyn some salsa style dancing, but she just doesn't know how to shake her hips yet (I wish I would have taken video of that, too). I hope to expose them to their own Latin heritage throughout their lives, and I guess this was a good start.  

Josh & Nathan

More from Josh and Nathan...

Boys will be boys

Like my previous post mentioned, my little sister is here from Raleigh visiting us for a few days with her son Nathan, who is the same age as Joshua. They have had so much fun playing together, and with Brooklyn. Their favorite things to do are laugh at Brooklyn and, like boys do, wrestling with each other. :)

It looks to me like Joshua started it. ;)

"King of the blanket"!   Boys will be boys.

Spoiled Rotten

Anty Shanty (my baby sister, Shantel) is visiting us and Brooklyn has loved every moment of it.  The day before she arrived, Brooklyn told me, "Anty Shanty is coming to Brooklyn's house. Anty Shanty loves Brooklyn." Well, she's right... Anty Shanty did come to Brooklyn's house to play, and she absolutely loves Brooklyn to the point of spoiling her.

Riding the carousel

Eating her ice cream cone (with sprinkles, of course).

Thanks Anty Shanty!!