play group

I feel so grateful that I have been able to make great friends in our ward!  We generally got together every week during the summer to swim, but my friend Jen put together an official play group for this Fall.  She planned outings for every Wednesday, and its been great having this to look forward to every week.  One week she planned to go to the Ft Worth Zoo.  I had already taken Brooke a few weeks prior (when the train outing was a bust), but for half price admission, I figured it was worth a trip back :)  Plus, it's always fun to go with friends.

Brooke has become quite attached to Mattie, who is 4.  She kept tabs on her all afternoon, and kept asking, "Where is my Mattie?"  Thankfully, Mattie loves Brooke too, so it's a mutual friendship :)

These boys are too adorable for works.  Brooks is only 6 weeks older than Brooke, and Harvey is a few months younger.  They are both the sweetest little guys ever, and Brooke has especially taken to Harvey!  This water feature was awesome on a hot Texas day.  The zoo also has a splash pad, but I didn't remember Brooke's swimsuit, so I just let her get soaked in her clothes.

Other play group dates have included: park days, toddler time at Chick-fil-a, pumpkin patch/petting zoo, and Legoland. I am sure we will have more fun seasonal activities in the next few months!  It is finally starting to cool down here in Texas.

september iphone gems

Since I am several months behind on blogging, these pictures feel ancient!  We spent a lot of time outside in September, despite the heat that Texas summers bring.  No matter the time of day, it is always hot during the summer months. This didn't stop Brooke from taking her wagon for a walk. 

Yes, she is in her pajamas, so I figured we might as well play in the sprinklers since she needed to change her clothes for the day anyways, haha.

I kept spraying her with the hose, and she started saying "it's raining pouring".  That led to her wanting my umbrella for the "rain".  The simple pleasures of being a kid :)

We took several trips to the pet store, which is still one of Brooke's favorite things to do.  On this particular occasion, she had her binoculars with her, which helped her really get a good look at those fish.

We took "aqua baby", which was one of my childhood dolls, to the park to experience the slide.

We met up with Kevin's uncle Roy and family one evening for dinner, and the girls had fun feeding the Koi fish in the pond. Roy's daughter Kaitlyn now lives in Oklahoma, so we met at a half-way point for dinner.

I braided Brooke's hair for the first time into two little braids, and I think she felt pretty cute. I cannot believe how quickly she is growing up though.  I love having a little girl and I love her girly tendencies (i.e.: needing a purse for church).

This Sunday evening bike ride was perfection.  I felt kinda silly riding a bike with my big pregnant belly, but it was such a nice evening to be out enjoying the sunset and feeding the ducks.

Auntie Mel Mel bought Brooke some Minnie sunglasses, which Brooke LOVES.  It must have been a pretty bright day because she needed TWO pairs of sunglasses.  This picture cracks me up because it looks like she is shielding her face from the paparazzi.  Maybe that's how she feels, haha!

We went with our play group to Lego Land, which was a complete disappointment in my opinion.  Brooke's favorite thing about the whole place was the karaoke stage, haha!  She was too little for the play place and for the lego cars.  I was pretty irritated that they wouldn't let her ride the cars because not a single person was in that area...and she is as tall as most 4 year olds (which was the requirement).  But I did get some pretty cute videos of her singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to her audience.

That evening, we had our ward beach bash at Joe Pool Lake, which Kevin was in charge of.  It was a pretty low-key evening with hot dogs, chips, sides, and desserts.  We didn't have any boats this year, so the kids just played on the shore and in the lake.

I let Brooke splash in the water, and when she got out, I realized that I hadn't put a swim diaper on her!  Her diaper was beyond heavy and totally falling off, thus the exposed bum crack. I had to take a picture though because I was laughing my head off.

We went shopping one morning and Brooke was totally into these "boys" at Gap.  She held their hands and wanted me to take a picture :)

This is what it looks like when your little girl wants to help you bake.  She likes to measure out the dry ingredients, which equals a huge mess.  But not as messy as when she wants to crack the eggs :)

And she discovered a love of corn on the cob.  She ate two ears, and was requesting more!

My girl is pretty silly sometimes, and is always doing goofy poses and such at the park.  Maybe I need to put her in gymnastics or something.

And her all time favorite thing might be riding the carousel.  Several malls in the area have carousels, and we get a monthly Ad-pages that has a coupon for a free ride at the Parks in Arlington.  Each carousel ride is $2, so the coupon is awesome!  Brooke always talks about buying tickets though, so when I informed her that we had a coupon, she was not happy.  She wanted a ticket, not a coupon, haha.  I need to teach her about saving money and being a smart consumer.

And there we are again at the pet store.  This time she insisted on holding that pet carrier as we wandered through the store.  The month seemed busy, and I remember that I was just trying to savor the last few months of one-on-one time with my girl.  She really has such a fun personality and I cherish the adorable conversations I have with her every day. She truly makes my heart so so happy.

cousin day

It really feels like this was FOREVER ago, but back in the end of September, we had a cousin play date.  Kinley had been wanting Brooke to come play at HER house...so we drove up  to Flower Mound in the morning.  After playing for a few hours, we decided to head to Culvers for lunch, followed by a trip to Grapevine Mills Mall to ride the carousel.  Ever since Brooke rode the carousel at the zoo, she asks to ride a carousel quite frequently.  Needless to say, the girls were pretty excited about the whole outing. 

The girls were cracking me up at Culvers.  They were dancing around together and giving lots of hugs :)

Grandma bought lots of tickets, so we rode the carousel a few times, which was great since Brooke was rather indecisive about which horse she wanted to ride!

I love that we live by cousins so that we can enjoy these fun play dates together.  If only little Ellie lived closer!

friday night lights

As school started, Kevin began talking about High School football games.  He wanted to go check out the school where our children will attend.  We took a little drive one Sunday afternoon, and were both impressed with the facilities Mansfield ISD had to offer.  The football games are played at this cool stadium just down the street from our house.  Kevin found the game schedule online, and we made a Friday Night date of it :)

I really thought that Brooke was be super disinterested, but she sat right next to her Daddy and watched the game intently.  She kept saying cute things like, "He running fast", or "They in a big pile", haha.  She was mostly impressed with the marching bands though.  Kevin enjoyed watching the people trip up the stairs right by our seats (the stairs went from large steps to small, and hardly anybody noticed), and I enjoyed the people watching.  It was the homecoming game, so all the girls had their giant mums, which is a tradition I don't really understand!

Overall, it was a fun night, but not something I plan to make a regular event of.  Especially when we had to pay $7 a ticket.  Thankfully, they didn't make us pay for Brooke, because I might have wanted to go home, haha.

Toddler Bed

My little girl is growing up!!  I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea :(  Kevin has been very anxious to convert Brooke's crib into a toddler bed, but I have been resistant.  She was sleeping so well at night (10-12 hours a night), which I didn't want to mess with.  I was worried that she would have a hard time adjusting to a toddler bed, and with a new baby coming, I desperately needed her to maintain her awesome sleeping habits since I will be up many times a night with a newborn.  

Then I started worrying that if by chance I had a C-section, I wouldn't be able to lift Brooke in and out of her crib.  This would definitely be a problem, so I decided that maybe it was time to make the change.   Then at least we had a few months to get her back on track before her baby's brother's arrival. 

So, when we arrived home from the lake on Labor Day (September 7th), we started the conversion process!  I headed to Target to get some safety knobs for Brooke's doors since we didn't want her trying to go down the stairs during the night by herself.  We also couldn't put her in her sleep sack anymore (safety concerns if she crawled out of her bed), which also made me anxious.  My girl loved her sleep sack and it was all part of the bedtime routine.  

Kevin made the bed conversion while I was at Target, but he waited to put the mattress back on until I got home.  It was so cute to see how excited Brooke was about her new bed.  I have a darling video of her talking about "my new toddler bed", haha. This was her last picture in the crib...

And her first picture in the toddler bed...

She gave Daddy a big hug when I told her to tell Daddy thanks :)  I am happy to report that the whole transition was seamless.  I was amazed!  We did the whole bedtime routine the same as normal (except the sleep sack), and when she woke up in the morning, she simply sat up in her bed and said, "Mama, I'm here!".  As soon as I opened her bedroom door, she crawled out of her bed and gave me a big hug. I wasn't sure how nap time would go, but again, it was seamless.  She never tried to get out of her bed, but instead just waited for me to come and get her.  Its pretty great and I know that I am insanely lucky.

Funny things to note: Two days ago, I bought Brooke a microphone from Costco that she has termed "my favorite toy",  We put it in her toy basket on her bookshelf Monday night, and Kevin commented that he thought she would get up and bring it to her bed...but she didn't.  But first thing Tuesday morning, she ran quickly to her bookshelf, took her "favorite toy" back to her bed, and waited for me to come upstairs :)  Then Tuesday afternoon, she put her new baby pumpkin on her bookshelf before nap time.  A few minutes into nap time, she got out of bed to get her pumpkin and a book, and went quickly back to her bed.  I did have to go upstairs after 45 minutes because she was having a hard time falling asleep, but she is still doing great in her bed.

The next transition will be to a full bed because she is almost too tall for her toddler bed, haha. Not sure when that will be...but Kevin is already talking about how great it will be so he can take naps with Brooke.

Labor Day Celebrating

We haven't had many boat days this summer, which has been pretty disappointing for Kevin! The boat was in need of repairs and due to the marina's high water levels, the repair guys couldn't even get to the boat.  Fortunately, the water receded enough for the repairs to be done, and the boat was ready for Labor Day.  These cute girls were pretty excited :) Melanie bought Kinley some new sunglasses that morning, and Kinley wanted to get some for Brooke as well.  She is a thoughtful little girl and is always looking out for her cousin. 

It was a super hot day, so we were all ready to take a dip in the lake. The girls only wanted to sit on the swim step and splash, but I don't blame them because I am not a fan of floating in the lake water either.  I am not keen on not knowing what is lurking nearby, haha.

Car Shopping

First off, let me say that I really hate car shopping!  We really imagined that the Honda would be adequate with two kids, but when we actually started thinking about the logistics of it, we realized that Brooke's car seat wouldn't fit well behind the driver seat (her legs would be basically pinned between her chair and the driver's chair), and the infant car seat wouldn't fit behind the driver's seat either.  Which meant that we needed to consider a new vehicle.  Although I have never wanted to drive a mini-van, it seemed like a pretty good option with small kids.  It would allow Brooke to be more independent in getting in and out of the car, which would make things easier on me with a new baby.  Kevin was REALLY not excited about a minivan, so he came up with several other car buying plans for our family.  We went back and forth between buying a new or a used car, and spent lots of time searching online.  We went on several outings to look at the cars, and Miss Brooke was really a champ through the whole experience.  

This particular day we had spent like 3.5 hours at the dealership, making Brooke miss her nap time (hence the pacifier).  We were wrapping up, but I was super irritated because the sales guy had really wasted our time with false promises.  Brooke was eating M & M's, bent down to pick one up from the floor, stood up quickly and smacked her head on the wooden desk.  She hit her little head so hard, and was crying a lot.  I picked her up, and told Kevin that I was leaving, haha.  I took Brooke straight to the car and he quickly joined me.

In the end, we ended up with a used 2008 Nissan Armada, and I am happy to say that the whole process was worth it because I love this car.  It is bigger than we originally planned, but based on the price and the quality of the vehicle, we felt like we scored. Having a large SUV made me worried at first, but thanks to the back-up camera and parking sensors, it really is a breeze to drive.  Brooke's favorite feature is the DVD player.  Pretty sure I have listened to The Little Mermaid 15 times in the last month, haha.

The day after we bought the Armada, Brooke and I headed to the car wash. Brooke thought it was pretty great to be close to the window since she has always been in the middle seat in our Honda.  Since the Armada also drives like a truck, you can hear when I accelerate.  Every time I would push on the gas, Brooke would say "Slow down Mama", or "Be careful Mama".  It was pretty hilarious, and lasted for a week or more until she became used to the car noises.

Now we need to fill this big car with babies :)

pool babe

Brooke looks like such a diva in this picture, but I absolutely love it :)  We had such a fun summer being pool bums!  We went to the pool almost every day, which was perfect with this Texas heat.  We had regular pool dates with friends in the ward and with "the Arlington gang".  Sometimes Brooke and I just went by ourselves, which was also pretty great.  When it was just my girl and I, I was able to give her all of my attention and even attempted to teach her a few things.  I am hoping that next summer we can get her in formal swim lessons.