Brooklynn's Centerpiece

Reading about Ella's beautiful centerpiece reminded me of one of Brooklynn's many encounters with flowers over the summer.

Steps 1 - 5 of creating the perfect centerpiece are pretty much the same.
Here is Brooklynn's version of Step 6:

You know you're getting old when . . .

I saw this cute little Santa in a catalog yesterday and my first thought was . . . "That's gotta hurt his back."

Pictures

Thanks to Marci for taking some great photos of our family! I needed some pictures for the photo book I was making for Ian. Despite our battle with fire ants (and John getting peed on), we had a fun time! Here are some of my favorites:

Off Key

Tonight John opted to clean up the kitchen while I got Brooklynn ready and in bed. So after family prayer I sang Brooklynn a song (she chose the "Papa" song [Hush Little Baby]) and then I told her I would sing one more and asked which song she wanted. She just looked up at me and said, "Mommy, go way!" I was a little surprised but got up, went out, shut the door and waited for her to get upset that I left. She never did.
Further verification why I should never sing in the ward choir.

My List

I got this from my buddy Lyn (who got it from somewhere else) and thought it was a fun idea.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a Meteor Shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a Mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a Lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

My points of clarification (items I didn't count): I've run in a marathon but not the whole marathon, I've been laid-off from a job but not fired, I've helped kill and prepare animals for eating but not the same animal.

I did count #80 (published a book)--I've published several magazines and I figure that's close enough.

Halloween Fun

I think Halloween is a strange holiday. When else do you have an unspoken agreement with random strangers for them to give you something for nothing?
Brooker was a cute little cowgirl for Halloween this year and Ian was a cute baby (no costume required).

At the library. The picture below is to show her cute braids.

We had the Careys and Bonds over for a pre-trick-or-treat Chinese food feast.

Cowgirl Brooklynn, Princess Anna, and Pirate William. The cutest little trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood.

Brooklynn was the official "Trick-or-Treat" spokeswoman. My favorite part of each door approach is when the kids tried to just walk in to each house. Brooklynn thought it was great that people were giving her candy but it took a few houses before she realized I really was just holding her candy for her and not stealing it. I think I was the first one ready to call it a night (the pace with 3 toddlers was SOOOO slow, even with Anna's wagon!). The kids probably could have kept going for another hour.

The event was a big success--there were only a couple scary houses, only one nightmare that night, and we still have a little bit of candy left over!

Creepy Crawly

So, just to be clear: if you are a bug, you are scary and yucky.

If you are a slug, you are interesting and we want to . . . pet you. . . ?

(which she did)

Positive Feedback

Brooklynn must realize that I am one of those people that needs positive reinforcement. Today she went into her playroom and started playing while the light was off. After I turned it on, she said "Good job, Mommy! Good job, turning light on!" Ah, I knew all my hard work hadn't been wasted. I'd take that over a raise any day!

Later, she got out her puppets and started singing Old McDonald's Farm. Her earlier renditions were better but you get the idea.

Aunt Betsy's Visit

While John and I have been married FOREVER, I didn't get to know his sister Betsy well until we all ended up living in New York at the same time. We miss Betsy now that we are in Houston but are so happy that she has decided to visit us every year for Brooklynn's birthday.
Here are some highlights (or at least the highlights I had my camera for).
Who knew Betsy turned blond and grew out her hair? (apparently John did but he forgot to tell me). I didn't recognize her at first at the airport. Betsy met Ian and we had a great "welcome to Houston" lunch at Pappasitos.
Betsy guarding our stuff (including Ian) at L'auberge du Lac. We made a quick trip to Lake Charles. It took forever for us to check in but they upgraded us to a suite and our room was FABULOUS! I didn't even mind being left behind with the kids while John and Betsy hit the casino. The next day the kids and I went swimming and then while John got us to the "paid for our trip" point, Betsy and I went to Target for some last minute birthday shopping.

At the butterfly museum for Brooklynn's birthday. Who know Betsy was afraid of butterflies? Um . . . weird.

John and Betsy's dad joined us Friday night. We had a rousing game of Settlers that night which included one of those 'laugh till you cry' moments (John H won--dang beginners' luck!).

Our last day was spent at Sea World--one of our most favorite places.

I think Betsy would have preferred to pose with the mermen.

The next day, Betsy flew off to Hawaii.

We had a fun and busy week but I think my favorite part was the few hours we just sat around reading. I was reading Betsy's Shopaholic series and she was finally reading Twilight.

We got to see her again for a couple hours on her way back to Philadelphia the next week (yeah--Pappasitos again!). We already can't wait until next year!

PS--another favorite Betsy moment was when she told me "It isn't okay to wear a jean jacket with jeans". Which I wasn't even doing or planning on doing, by the way. Because Betsy knows how style-impaired I am, she needs to drop these little fashion tips every now and again.

Two years old and feeling fab!

We celebrated Brooklynn's birthday in early October. It was a fun and busy day. We started out at the Little Gym and then went to the Butterfly Museum. That night we invited some of Brooklynn's friends over for pizza and cake (we figured she'd enjoy the night more if she had some friends to play with). Aunt Bets (John's sister) flew out from Philly for the week and once again helped me pull together a cake at the last minute. By the end of the day, Brooklynn definitely knew that it was her day and kept saying "Happy Day!" I think it helped that her Dora balloon was singing Happy Birthday to her nearly non-stop (its still going strong if you were wondering).
We are so grateful for our wonderful, beautiful little Brooklynn!

Brooklynn was in Dora heaven--in addition to her other gifts, she got a singing Dora balloon, singing Dora jacket, singing Dora card, Dora backpack, and Dora pop-up book with flashlight.

Brooklynn taste-testing her cake. I think Aunt Bets is going to ban her annual trip to visit us if I don't plan my cake making better. This last minute creation had us both completely stressed. I couldn't have done it without you Bets!

Practicing walking in her new princess shoes

Enjoying pizza with a few friends. Clockwise from left: Addie, Anna, Ella, William, Ian, Matty, Katie, and Brooklynn

Burning off those calories

Fortunately, after two attempts, Matty stepped in to help blow out the candle

Our Hurricane Adventures

I know that Hurricane Ike is now old news but I'm going to post pictures anyway. I figure if I ever want to do a book like Marci did, I'll want these things included.

We set the kids up in our closet. In fact, Ian's port-a-crib is still there (I like having him in there but I don't think it is John's favorite arrangement). I was worried Brooklynn would wake up in the middle of the night and freak out but she slept fine until morning (we started her out in her crib and then moved her once she fell asleep). My biggest impression of the hurricane was that it was LOUD! I had to keep getting up and checking our windows because I was sure they had blown in. The wind was relentless and the rain was pounding at swirling intervals. I went outside a few times in the middle of the night but didn't dare go further than the porch. John finally left our room at about 5 am to find somewhere else to sleep because it was just too noisy on that side of the house. The next day we were completely surprised to find that we had very little damage. Our cable was out but we never really lost power. A small tree in the back had blown over but it was easy to upright and re secure. Across the street and most of the rest of the neighborhood was without power for about a week and a half. There was a constant hum of generators in the neighborhood and people running long extension cords across the street. This is a picture from our neighborhood park. I tried to take the kids on a bike ride through there (after the Cherrys joined us) but couldn't get through--Matty and I worked on clearing the path while the other kids played.

We quickly ran out of things to do at home--the house and yard were clean, we had no cable, and we were anxious to see what was going on--so we decided to go see how others fared. Downed trees, traffic signals, and fences were the biggest problems around us with some people who had portions of their roof blown away. We checked in on a few friends and ward members. I mentioned to the Mercer's that I was craving chocolate (all the businesses of course were still closed) and they donated brownie mix to the cause. Thanks to that brownie mix, Brooklynn and I had our first cooking experience together:
(Don't worry, I did clean her with soap and water as well!)
The Cherry's were also without power in Spring (their area was harder hit). They tried braving it as long as they could but when night came they headed out our way and we were happy to have the company (their power was out until Wednesday). This brought our pet total to 6 and our people total to 9. I felt like I was back home again! Boni, Shelly, and Skyler joined us Sunday night before making their way to a new job in San Antonio.
At night, my job was to entertain the kids while Jana made dinner. I know I got the better end of that trade! Below you can see Katie, Brooklynn, and Matty, with little Ally in the middle.
John joined the fun, too. Here you see him making dog food for the little dog he made. (John was off of work until Tuesday when his office rented temporary space in a hotel while they waited for power in their building. Phil didn't have to check in at work until Wednesday--the same day that John flew to Canada for business.)

Matty was in charge of Family Home Evening. He did a great job reading his favorite scripture story to us!

We also tried to go to Sea World while the Cherry's were with us but found out after we had already loaded everyone and everything in the van that it was closed that day (good thing we got the Internet through our cell phone or we would have driven three hours there for nothing!).

There were a couple of random/weird things that happened (I'm convinced) as a result of the hurricane. A plant of mine died the next day, Jana's bananas turned the strangest color I have ever seen in my life (although I hear they tasted normal--I was too afraid to try them), and Brooklynn's old bouncy seat (that Ian now uses) that hadn't played music in 9 months, though we tried everything to fix it, suddenly started working. Eerie, huh.

Hunker Down

Its was sunny and beautiful here in Katy (Fort Bend County--just west of Houston) this morning when John and I went out to take down the trampoline and move everything from the backyard into the garage. It is cloudy now, and a little breezy. If it weren't for the TV, broadcasting non-stop about Ike since yesterday, you might not even know what was coming based on the weather. However, the kids and I went to the grocery store Wednesday night and were there nearly two hours. It was worse than Thanksgiving! There were 3 shopping carts available when I got there. Thank heavens they had cookie samples or we would have had a meltdown. Yesterday I went to fill up gas cans for our newly acquired generator and drove to four gas stations before I could find anyone with gas. We still have a couple of things on our to do list. We're planning a sleepover in our bedroom tonight with Brooklynn, Ian, Gunner, Remy, Asia, and Harley (we figure our bathroom and closet are the most protected place) so we need to move some of he kids stuff in there and John thinks it would be a good idea to board up our living room window (his Grandma's piano is in that room and it would be horrible if anything happened to it). I'm making a pre-hurricane dinner (yep, I'm cooking!) to use up the chicken before the power goes out tonight.

John and I both feel a little guilty for thinking it--but so long as nobody gets hurt and there isn't too much damage, this is kind of exciting!

In honor of our coming storm, I thought I'd post some rainy day pictures so you can see what the rain is like in Houston even without a hurricane!

That's right--we do have a generator now. So when it is 90 degrees and the power is out those in the area are welcome to come hang out with us (especially if you have a window unit!)