Poor Sick Brookesby

 Hello all!  It's been another grand week here except for Brooke getting sick.  But at least she hasn't been sick all week, and even when sick she's been happy a lot of the time.  Just look at that post run smile!
 

 One day after work I met Monica and Brooke over at the park.  Brooke loves going on the swings and can stay there for hours.  She's also learning how to pull her legs out of things. This time it was a swing, but Monica told me they went for a walk one day and Brooke pulled both of her legs out of the stroller and reclined back with them up on the tray in front of her!

 We watched one of the neighbors kids one night and while they were here I got out Hungry Hungry Hippos (Turns out that's probably our only game for young children... We'll have to work on that) and we had a blast.  Brooke saw us playing and crawled over to join in!

 Brooke has also started to sleep with her bum in the air. It's so cute!

And lastly she got sick.  I believe Monica first noticed her fever on Friday.  We called the doctors office on Saturday and as we talked with them they asked if we came in for our follow up appointment with Brooke's ear infection.  I guess you're supposed to go back once the baby is done taking the medicine so they can check that the infection is really gone.  No one told use that, so we had not, so they told us we should come in.  We went in and fortunately Brooke's ears are good!  So she caught something else unrelated.  Between her being sick and a middle of the day football game not much else happened this weekend.

This week I also started going back to basketball.  My toe nail is starting to grow back, but not all the way in, and my jammed thumb doesn't hurt any more.  It was a lot of fun to be back!

On Friday we went to the dollar store to look for Halloween decorations.  We found some good stuff, but we haven't gotten it all out and up yet, but once we do I'm sure I'll have some great pictures!!

I think that's about it for this week.  Hope everyone is doing superb!

Super Random Hodge-Podge of Stuff

This week a Gander Mountain opened up by our house, so we went over for the grand opening weekend.  For those not familiar (I wasn't) it's a camping/hunting/general outdoors type store.  They had free antler and fish hats at the door.  We thought Brooke would prefer the antlers, and she did!

 This week we also headed to Target for a board game sale (they didn't have anything good in the store...) and our Target has some of the large red balls painted as pokeballs.  If you're confused just look at the picture.  I'd heard about this, but I didn't realize our Target had done it.  I'm not really sure why... but there it is!

 Also, here's a sunrise while we were heading out to run one morning.  We're getting to the time of year where we leave for running at sunrise, which is great!  But sadly it means that soon we'll leave for running in the dark.  I'm not exactly sure what our game plan is.  Maybe we'll have to get some headlights for the jogging stroller...

 We got all ready for game day... but we don't really need to talk about THAT!  I heard rumor that Mangum would be starting in the next game... I hope that's more than rumor.  I have been very underwhelmed with Hill this year, so that would be a welcome change.

 For Sunday brunch we made hot chocolate pancakes.  Spoiler, they were very chocolatey pancakes, and they were good, but they were not HOT chocolatey.  I'm not really sure you can make a solid taste/seem like liquid hot chocolate, which seems obvious, but it was still a little sad.  Great breakfast none the less, though I think we'd throw chocolate chips in the batter next time.

 Monica bought a basil plant the other day at the store cause it was cheap, and theoretically provides unlimited basil!  Well we brought it home and it immediately died.  We're trying to give it more TLC and get it in the sun and water it.  Monica set it on the floor to catch the last rays of sun tonight, just to look over a minute later and see it was in the stripe of shadow from the middle of the doors!

Hopefully the plant will make a come back. I did suggest planting it in our garden which has re-weeded quite nicely since I cleaned it out.  Things that shouldn't exist seem to grow plenty well out there!

Brooke loves scooting around the house, and she's starting to target farther away things to crawl to.  As such, she must fling everything between her and her destination out of the way!  This can be seen here.  It is really funny to watch her as she moves around because you never know if something is the target, or the next item to fling!

I think that's all for this week.  I hope everyone out there is doing well!  Have a great week.

Never go for two!!

Well hello! And welcome back!  Things were a little more eventful this past week what with Monday being a holiday and the football season starting up in full force.  Of course no matter where we go Brooke is always there too!  And chewing on a lamb ear at times even!

 This week we went into the seldom used bathroom (Brooke's bathroom) and I was washing my hands and noticed a plant growing out of the drain.  Now I'm not going to name names, but I suspect that someone (Lani) has some seeds on their hands when they washed them!  I left it for now because I'm interested to see how much it will grow.  I haven't checked it in a few days, but hopefully it's going strong.  We're so green in our house!

 On Monday we went for a walk over to the new park.  On the way we saw the materials for another house delivered.  I took a picture because I think it's quite interesting and I've never shown it before.  They pre-build all the walls somewhere, and then they write on them where they go and deliver them in a big pile.  I suppose it's a lot faster to build the same house in a single location and then ship the walls out all over the country.  No wonder why these houses are going from foundation to built in almost a week!

 We got to the park and I took Brooke on the swings.  She absolutely loves swings!  She does like the baby swings that she can sit in on her own the most though. Monica says that when she takes her to the park Brooke will frequently sit in the swing for an hour.

 One morning when we got to the park for our morning run there was fog all over.  The park is a little dipped down from the neighborhood, and the fog was filling up the park to the brim!

The big BYU v. Utah rivalry was this Saturday.  It was a game that came right down to the wire with BYU scoring with just a few seconds left.  We had the option to tie the game, or go for two and win it.  Let me say that in all of BYU's games I can remember I recall exactly 0 games in which we were down by 1 and went for a 2 point conversion and won the game.  I can, however, remember at least 2 games in which we were down one, and lost because we went for the two point conversion... Sigh.  The worst part was that a guy in our ward said he'd bring me a box of Horizon Organic Cheese Cow Head crackers if BYU won!  I don't think Sitake realized the stakes when he made that call!

 But on the bright side, this week Monica finished up our new pantry! And here it is!

 Here's the view with some of the doors open.  There's a divider in the top so it's 2 separate compartments.

 And here's a close up of the back of the doors.  The top two have mesh in them because we're going to keep potatoes and onions in them, and those need to be open to the air.  The bottom ones we put in custom cut glass.  And if you've never cut glass before, let me tell ya!  They're definitely not specific enough, and the direction you pull the blade matters. I cut the first piece the wrong way and shattered it.  Then I cut the second one just right, and when I picked it up to put it in the door I picked it up by the corner and the corner snapped out...  So it only took 4 planes of glass to make our 2 doors.  But we did them!

We also put a wall strap on the back and connected it to the wall so Brooke can't tip it over!  We brought it in today (we were waiting for the paint to dry a full 24 hours) and Monica started to fill it up!  See ya Walmart book shelf (it's now Monica's shoe shelf). (I-Monica, just want to give a quick shout out to Alex for making this amazing pantry cupboard because I was so specific of exactly how I wanted it and he made it PERFECTLY!!)

 Also of special note, Brooke loves hangers.  Like, sit on the bed and gnaw on them love.  That's how she occupied her morning while mom and dad got ready for church!

That's all for this week!  Hope everyone is doing great!

P.S. Brooke Crawling

The Littlest Cougar

Well, to start off, on Monday blah blah, zippity zap, etc.  There's not really much to say about this week, so let's jump into the weekend!  Yesterday started BYU's football season, so of course we all dressed accordingly!  Good thing I got Brooke BYU clothes when I went out for the career fair nearly a year ago!  It was a great game, and thank goodness we won!  Also, Monica fell asleep, just so you know. (But I woke up in time for the end!!)

 Also, Brooke's new favorite toy is her snot sucker thing.  We've never actually used it for snot sucking, the hospital gave it to us when she was born.  Monica said she's more in a phase of anything she's not typically allowed to have is the greatest toy ever.  So since it's not a baby toy she loves it!  I think it's also a good combo of soft but firm for chewing on.

Yesterday was a busy day out in the garage.  We're finally getting close on our pantry cabinet thing!  We picked up a router while we were at Home Depot so we could cut out a notch to put glass in behind the door.  I also have a another project I'm hoping to start on once this is done that will need a router all over the place.

 Once all the doors were made and the glass slots cut it was time to put it all together!  Finished!

 And then immediately after finishing I took all the doors back off and all the hardware off of them so we could paint it.  But that's Monica's job.  We primed the whole thing last night, and we're hoping to finish the painting by the end of the day tomorrow so Luna (The Silver Corolla) can come back in the garage, and so we can use it!

Well, I think that's all of the news from out here.  Hope everyone else is doing great!  Have a wonderful week!