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.