Feb-March

It's only been a couple of weeks since our last blog entry but we have been busy having LOTS of fun! We've been playing, traveling, eating, and like I said having lots of fun! Brooks continues to grow and change each day. His vocabulary is exploding and he absorbs everything around him! We now have to be VERY careful what we say...his little ears work very well and he repeats like a parrot! He is quite the copy cat too...the picture above is him trying to text on his play phone. I have NO idea where he got that from! He learns new motor skills each week and it is so much fun watching him develop into a little boy. Mark has been working with him on his baseball swing and he can actually swing the bat and hit a ball that you throw at him! Crazy! He is also pretty good at shooting his basketball in the goal. He loves to slam dunk it but this past week he will actually stand back and throw the ball!
He loves to explore around the house especially when I am busy cooking in the kitchen or cleaning. Here he found the pots and pans and he is making good use of them as a "holder" for his sippy cup. He would tip it back drink straight from the pot! What a ham!

Ny and I have been really good about staying active since having Brooks and Ella...we are determined to work out most days of the week even if it mean that we use our kids as weights! Poor Ny was trying to do crunches but Brooks and Ella had other ideas.

Have you ever tried doing "Supermans" with a 30 pound toddler on your back...it's not as easy as it looks!

After all that hard work we thougth we deserved a day off and so we took the kiddies to Disney for the morning. We rode Small World and they were mesmerized! But they really loved the street parade with all the floats, dancers and music. It was so much fun to see them both get so excited about all the characters!

Watching the parade with a bird's eye view!

You can't really see them in this shot but they are both out there in the middle of the street dance party shaking their "groove thang"! They loved all the fun music and dancing!

Back at the end of last month Mead Gardens hosted their annual "duck races". This is a super family friendly event where you can purchase a "duck" and have it participate in the big race. Now these are not real ducks but rubber ducks! It was so much fun and such a beautiful day to have the kids outside! Here is a picture of the corporate sponsor giant ducks that have their own speical race. They are all pretty fancy!

And they are off! Can you see all the hunderds of little rubber duckies that are racing in the creek? It was too cute!

And here is the finish line with the "race officials" in their john boat ready to declare the winners!

First, second and third place are plucked out of the water with this big fishing net...so official!

Here is Chris (Ella's daddy) getting his workout in by just lifting these two...he has 30 pounds on each hip!

Brooks and William playing with sticks...ahhhh...boys!

Who knew that Ella was such a great tree climber!

Here is Brooks showing Ella that he can climb trees too!

Andrew and his daddy Chris were too busy walking all around! Just a few days after this Andrew took off and was walking on his own!

Look at these two little buddies...now that's a cute photo opt!

At the end of last month I took a HUGE leap of faith and took off being a mommy for a week! I hopped on a plane and flew out to Las Vegas to see Becky and Troy! It was SO great to get away for a few days and even better to spend some good QT with Bec before her wedding next month! This was my first trip to LV and it will definitely not be my last! We had so much fun seeing all the sights, dining out, shopping, going to the spa, hiking, and seeing shows! We packed a lot into 6 days but it was worth it! This is a shot taken from the Foundation Room on top of Mandalay Bay. That is the casino where Troy's House of Blues is located and it was very cool to visit!

The next few pictures are from our hiking trip out at Red Rock. It was spectacular and definitely one of the biggest highlights of my trip. Here we are getting ready to start of day of hiking!

It's very desert like out there...cacti and all!

I was feeling especailly stong the day of our hike as you can tell from the next two pictures of me holding up ginormous boulders all by myself!

Not only am I holding up a boulder in this picture but Balinda is sitting on top of this one!

Here we are hiking up to Ice Box Falls...it is only open during certain times of the year due to flooding and snow.

And here we are at the falls...this pictures was taken behind the water fall...beautiful!

This is the night we went and saw Viva Elvis...it is a Cirque show set to all Elvis music...it was AWESOME! Vegas has so much to offer and I was only there for a few days...I can't wait to go back and do more next time!

Well I have to be honest and say that I was very happy to come home and see both of my boys. I missed them both VERY much! I think Brooks grew into a toddler while I was away! He looked so different and grown up when I got back! My mom and Mark took very good care of him and I don't even think he missed me much after the first couple of days!

But it was back to mommy-hood and reality but that was ok by me! Each week we try to get together with the other stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood and let the kids play. Here is Brooks, Evelyn, and William playing in our back livingroom...we would have gone outside but we had another blast a freezing weather come through and we were all stuck inside again!

Here Brooks is sharing his comfy chair with his BIG elephant...he love that crazy thing!

Here are Brooks and Ella last week after church. Ella went with Brooks to Sunday School and it was VERY helpful with his nursery anxirty issues. Thanks Ella for being such a good friend to Brooks!

The weather FINALLY warmed up beautifully this past week and we were able to get outside and enjoy the backyard again! Brooks loves to play ball, slide, ride his bike and tractor, and just play in the dirt. He is all boy that is for sure!

That is a face full of excitement!

Check out that electric hair! It was standing straight up!

Here we are taking Brooks to storytime at Pottery Barn Kids. He loved coloring and the stories were fun too. He LOVED all the toys there are to play with there too.

Brooks is VERY into puzzles these days too. He has a stack of wooden puzzles that are all different themes ranging from dinosaurs, animals, trucks, and trains. He will carry them all over the house and play with all the pieces. Here he is playing with the cars/trucks puzzle in the kitchen.

He is VERY into truck and tractors. I can honestly say he is obsessed! He will motorize all his trucks when he plays and he can spot a truck from a mile away! It is crazy!

I took this picture of him in the car while we were sitting at a red light. He saw a flat bed truck in front of us with a forklift attached to the back of the truck bed. You would have thought he would have died and gone to heaven. He got SO excited and I actually caught it on camera. Too funny!

Eating is one of B's favorite things. He loves to try new foods and he is really into feeding himself everything! We ordered Pei Wei last weekend and he went to town on the noodles, mushrooms, beef and even the broccoli! He is definitely an adventrous eater!

He also loves his fruits and veggies. I gave him a whole apple to work on last night while I cooked dinner and he went to town! The funny thing is he would eat all the meat of the apple and spit of the skin...I can't blame him I don't like the skin either!


We go next week for his 18 month well check and I am curious to see how much he has grown the past few months. I think he has definitely grown taller but it wouldn't surprise me if he has lost a little weight. He is thinner in the middle and is starting to look more like a toddler than a baby. I can't believe he will be a year and a half next week!!!! Time is flying but we are SO enjoying every minute!