Brooke Turns Two

Brooke is two years old!

We had a brunch of fruit and cake to celebrate. She presided at the head of the table.

Brooke was so excited to blow out her candle and eat her cake. She did a great job.

Justin was a good sport about everything and even helped me wrap her presents. I like the comparison of these photos of the two of them after eating cake. Justin was politely engaged in the conversation. Brooke was just doing her own thing, finding ways to make things more interesting.

When it was time for presents, she carefully opened and played with each one.

She loves all things Cinderella. She loved this doll and likes to brush her hair. It was not intentional, but don't they look alike? They're even wearing the same colors!

Then she went around the room and gave birthday kisses,

hosted an impromptu tea party with the ladies,

and danced with mom.

Brooke is my little one. In fact, I often call her that. Not only is she my youngest, but she also has the petite frame of a little girl (whereas Justin is turning into a solid-bodied boy), and she has always been long and lean. The contrast of her physical smallness with the expanses of her energy, imagination, and determination is striking.

I love spending my days with her. She has such zest for life. She will rarely sit down for a quiet, reflective moment. She is a blur of movement. Several people have recently said that Brooke looks like me. I don't know. I think she is much prettier. And she has my mom's big bright eyes. But I like to think we look alike. Sometimes I even dress us alike!

Brooke loves her daddy and squeals delightedly, "Daddy home!" when he arrives. She thinks he is the greatest thing around. Brooke is a daredevil and has an uncanny ability to make every situation more dangerous for herself. Sometimes she will literally walk around the house with her eyes closed just to spice things up a bit.

Brooke is independent and assertive. She likes to feed and dress herself and even put on her own shoes. She doesn't want to hold hands when we're walking outside. Some of her common phrases are, "Brookie do it!" and "Shoo, shoo...go away!" The day before her birthday, she told me she wanted to try the potty, and she did it successfully on her first try. We hadn't even begun to do any training with her. She was so excited and proud of herself. All that independence can lead to some pretty serious tantrums, but the rest of the time she is so sweet and loving.

Brooke loves water. Always has. If she sees one of us in the shower, she'll desperately start trying to take off her clothes so she can hop in too. Her new rain boots are one of her favorite things. Sometimes she will just wear them around the house.

But she is happy to accessorize with just about anything. She loves to get all her gear on, hook a little purse to her doll's stroller, and then wheel it around and around the house. She also lately enjoys putting diapers on all her toys (dolls, trains, books, whatever).

Brooke loves to play games, to sing, and to dance. We love this girl so much. Don't grow too fast, little one.

Christmas Memories

It seemed like Christmas passed by so quickly this year. We love the Christmas season and how the world just seems to be a better place in December and how we feel completely at peace with eating our weight in Christmas cookies.

To put us in the spirit, we visited the Christmas lights at the LDS temple (where we were married!).

I also took the kids to see the lights at the National Zoo, and Justin tried ice skating for the first time. He did great!

My mom accompanied us to see the Christmas trains at the Botanic Gardens downtown.

Brooke talked me into buying this little Christmas carousel at CVS. Mark would disagree, but really, this is an essential holiday item.

I sewed an Advent calendar this year. It was a fun project (well, there were a few late nights working on it when I questioned just how fun it was). But I like how it turned out and the kids loved pulling out a felt ornament every day to put on the little tree.

Justin and I also enjoyed planting an amaryllis bulb together and watching it grow during December. He has helped water it and take care of it. He is a gentle soul.

Christmas Eve at my parents' house was so nice. Here are the little Joseph and Mary from our nativity reenactment.

And we opened a few special gifts, like these beautiful boots of Glendon's that Bobette gave to me. We have so enjoyed having Bobette visit out here!

Brooke got some tickles from Uncle Matt before it was time to hop into Christmas PJs.

Ta-da!

This year Justin only asked Santa for one thing: a watch. Santa delivered and Justin is in heaven with his new watch. He wears it nonstop and he is happy to explain its various functions and features to anyone who will listen. He has started setting his alarm for 7 am every morning, and he wakes up to it faithfully.

Seeing him with this watch on makes him look so much older to me.

The big presents from us were these Razor scooters. Both kids are still getting used to them and need more practice, but they were excited about it. Probably not as excited as they were about the $3 toy cell phones they got, but still pretty excited.

We hope you all had a merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a year full of smiles!

Going Private

Well, we've decided to make the blog private (i.e., invitation only). We'd love to continue to share it with friends and family, so please email us or leave a comment here if you'd like an invitation. Don't be shy! I promise we'll be flattered -- even if we haven't actually talked to you in years and you are still blog-stalking us. We love blog-stalkers, at least those we know. And we'll be absolutely crushed if you don't ask for an invitation.

See you in our soon-to-be private but still cool as ever blog! Happy New Year!

Welcome to Boyhood

Justin had his first trip to the emergency room on Friday afternoon. We had just come home from preschool and were taking coats off in the front hall. We often play this little game where I spin the kids around as I take their coats off. Justin's coat was half-way off so his arms were stuck behind his back, and he got dizzy and fell, hitting his chin on the hardwood floor and splitting it open. I will spare you the more gory details, but let's just say I was concerned enough to call 911. It was bleeding so much there was no way I could drive him to the hospital myself and have him stuck in the backseat. So Justin and I got a ride in an ambulance. Our good friend across the street came over and watched Brooke until my mom arrived.

Justin was so brave, even though he was hurting and it was all overwhelming. We had to wait at the ER for a bit, but we had our own room with TV and books to keep him occupied. He got four stitches right under the side of his chin. The nurses couldn't believe what a good patient he was, and he lay totally still during the procedure. Justin was very quiet and subdued in the ambulance and the whole time we were waiting at the ER, but once he got his stitches he perked right up and started telling me all about our adventure, and especially how great it was to ride in the ambulance. It has been the hot topic of conversation for him all weekend! He is doing just fine. I was so proud of him and what a brave little patient he was.

It's funny how life can seem busy and stressful one minute, and then something actually stressful and important comes up and changes everything in a flash. We are so grateful that he is ok and grateful for good doctors and hospitals.

Merry Merry

This month we've been enjoying everything about the holiday season--decorating the house, baking cookies, shopping for gifts, going to parties, and getting sick.

Brooke squeals excitedly whenever we see Christmas trees, lights, or Santa. Justin has been asking lots of questions about how chimneys work--I can see his little mind trying to piece together how Santa gets up and down them.


He performed Jingle Bells with the children at our church Christmas party. I love how hard he is working to sing the song and ring those bells!

Both kids scored some antlers at the party.

And both got to meet Santa. While we were waiting in line, Justin kept asking me every five seconds, "Can I still tell Santa I've been a good boy?" Then he would shove his sister or something (not in a mean way, but just out of over-excitement), and then anxiously ask me again. When he got to Santa, he froze up at first, but then remembered the one thing he wanted to ask him for: a running (i.e. digital) watch.

Brooke was a little less enamored with the experience.

Justin also did a terrific job performing Christmas songs with his preschool class. That is some very intent pretend-book-reading. After every song he took a deep and serious bow (this is something he apparently learned to do himself, and he was the only one). It was hilarious. I love this kid. He is four going on forty.


The kids were so excited to pick out a tree and decorate it. As we drove home with the tree tied to our car roof, Mark jokingly asked Justin to let him know if he heard the tree fall off. A few minutes later when I was trying to ask Justin something, he worriedly told me that he couldn't talk and listen for the tree at the same time. It was so cute. We hadn't realized he was sitting there carefully listening for the tree the whole time. And since we brought it home Justin has been helping take good care of it, and checking the water levels every day for us. Brooke enjoys pulling ornaments off the tree, and even ripping them up if she's able to. They are such different personalities, those two!

In the Fast Lane

For Mark's birthday we signed him up for a NASCAR driving experience. He got to drive a real race car and then ride along while a professional race car driver sped around the track.

The kids loved watching the race cars go around. We were standing down in the pit and the cars are very loud, so I brought protective ear muffs for the kids (we use them at home when Justin plays drums).

As if I wasn't nervous enough for Mark to race around in one of those cars, the place had gotten backed up and made us wait for over an hour after our reservation time. That meant it was almost totally dark by the time Mark climbed in. We asked the owner if it was still safe to drive and he said, "It's borderline." That didn't exactly calm my fears! This place was not great about sticking to reservation times--we had already come out once back in the summer (when it was actually his birthday), but they had messed up our reservation and after waiting for an hour the kids gave out and we had to leave. So we really weren't excited about having to come back a third time.



At least the wait gave us plenty of time for photos!

And Mark finally got behind the wheel, tore up the track, and made it back in one piece. The professional driver even did a doughnut for him during their ride. He looks pretty good in a race car, don't you think?