Minnesota!

Sorry that I missed last week, but I had a decent excuse this time.  We were out in Minnesota visiting both family and Monica's mission, so we were a little busy!  Especially since Sunday was Madeleine's baptism, but more on that later.  First, we had to get there!

Well, and more first before that first is that we were home Monday-Wednesday living our normal lives.  Brooke has started to love doing things for herself when she can.  Sometimes at meals she gets really fussy unless we let her feed herself, which sometimes is fine, but sometimes we're eating pasta with sauce...

She also loves to drink out of cups.  We've finally found one that works pretty well for her.  We also got her a camelbak water bottle for kids, but that was this week, and I don't know if I took pictures of it, so lets not jump into the future yet.

Luckily for us the the plane was pretty empty so we were able to have a full row (we were on Southwest).  You have to hold children for takeoff and landing, but during the flight Brooke got her own seat.  She didn't really love being buckled in, but luckily she squirmed right out of it.

Being super into books also means she loves everything in a seat back pocket (because they are book-ish).  That was great!... until it also included the barf bag...

We happened to plan our trip during a very warm spell.  The temperatures were in the 30's or low 40's each day, and we avoided all snow storms.  We were still lucky enough to see an industrial grade street snow blower.  Yeah, not even just a plow, but an actual snow blower driving down the side of the street!

While visiting various mission places we also went by a Mexican Market that Monica used to go to on her mission.

Outside was Carlos Brown, and we had to go get a picture!  Like really, we forgot the first time we were there and left and when we remembered we turned around and drove back for a picture.  It was worth it!

Sunday was Madeleine's birthday!  Monica and I were all over the place.  We went to Sacrament meeting with my family, and then left right when it ended to make it to the St. Paul Spanish ward Sacrament meeting.  We stayed for a little to talk to people and everyone was happy to see Monica again.  Sadly, we couldn't stay long as we had to rush to the car and drive back for Madeleine's baptism.  The drive was such that we made it everywhere just in time!  Good thing it wasn't any farther!

After the baptism we went back to Spencer and Mackenzie's house for dinner and snagged a family photo!

We also wanted to get a picture of Brooke with her cousins, and Brooke loved the idea!

Monday we drove over to Rochester to visit people.  We wanted to keep Brooke in a different room over night so she wouldn't see us and try to get up or anything, so we set up shop in the bathroom!  There was another bathroom in the basement we were staying in so we just used that one after we put her down for bed.  Also, the people we were staying with didn't have a pack and play, so they borrowed one.  The people they borrowed it from served a mission in Mongolia!  So I wrote them a thank you note in Mongolian.

While we were out there Brooke found opportunities to play pianos, and loves it.  When we got home we put out our keyboard on the ground and she loves to go play it.  The keyboard has a sound effects mode with a dedicated button that she pushes a lot, but she doesn't like when it's in that mode.  I think it scares her.  Live and learn I suppose.  She also turns on the... drum beat mode, or whatever it's really called, and then she'll dance!

I just did a double check to see if I missed anything, and I forgot to mention that Brooke discovered doorstops.  Well... she's found ours, but we don't have the springy kind.

On Friday Brooke got sick.  You can tell she's sick in the following picture because she is cuddling with Monica and there is sunlight coming in the window.  Brooke only cuddles under two circumstances.  It is the middle of the night, or she is sick.  She also watched her first movie too.

She seemed much better on Saturday, so at least it was only a one day thing (but I think she gave it to me...).  On Saturday Monica wanted to try a pony tail.  Since Monica brushed her hair Brooke had to brush it too!  Also, the pony tail was short lived.

Brooke also likes to look out our windows.  She'll whine at the windows so we know to pull up the blinds.  She just started pulling the little curtain to the side for herself on the front window!

Wow, I feel like this was much longer than most of the entries have been of late.  I guess a lot happens when you leave town... or combine 2 weeks.  Well, I hope everyone is doing great!  Have a wonderful week.

Climbing the Stairs

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a superb week!  Things have been going great here.  Brooke has really started taking to the stairs.  To the point that we have to put up the gate most of the time when she's awake now or else we'll randomly find her half way up the stairs!  Our molding doesn't allow the gate to go all the way down, so sometimes she tries to get under the gate!

And speaking of stairs, she now will take her self up to bed!  That's also a reason we need the gate, if we talk about when she needs to take a nap, she just hears nap and tries to get up to her room!

She also loves to play with the pictures around her, and especially tries to touch animals like dogs and cats.

She's started to play with magnets on the fridge.  We'll probably have to get some good ones for her to play with soon.  She loves to pull them off, and then usually tries to hand them to someone.

She also really loves to drink out of Monica's water bottle.  As you can see she gets frustrated with it really easily.  She knows she should get water, so if she doesn't she'll get mad.  Just today I figured out how to get her little cup with a straw to flow water without having to suck so hard your lungs collapse, so now she even has a water bottle of her own that she loves!

In adult human news... we played with Brooke and... ate food...?  I don't think anything too exciting really happened.  Just the usual work and church and what not.  Well... I suppose that's all I have to report on for this week.  I hope everyone is doing fantastic, and I'll see ya here next week!

Standing Up

Hello everyone! I hope all are having a great week!  We sure are out here.  Brooke has started trying to stand and drinking out of Monica's water bottle.  I also had to head back to work, but that's not so bad.

I had Monday off, and we had gotten to the point where we basically had to find something to do whenever Brooke was awake.  With being sick we just spent far too much time at home at the start of the past week, so at the end we were always looking for places to go to entertain both Brooke and ourselves.  The same board book is only interesting for so many reads...  We decided to head out to Target cause... I don't know, it's surprisingly fun to just walk around Target. (we also needed some shelves) They've got a little of everything too so everyone can be entertained.  For example, Brooke found a little kitty toy that was on clearance because some other kid had opened the package some, and we even got it for her.  We also got super discount christmas lights.  They were 90% off, so I think we spent...$1 for 6 strands of lights.  Not too shabby.  Brooke also got to meet the Target dog-she was pretty unhappy when we made her let go of his ear.

This week Brooke has also started to take to standing.  She prefers standing on the couch, and I think mostly just likes falling over.  When she stands up if she stands too well (and doesn't just fall over backward) she'll sit down after a second or two to force the fall.  It's pretty fun to watch.

We also undecorated the tree.  It's been looking a bit sad... It even had water the whole time.  When we took it out of the base it had mold or something growing all over the bottom, so it hadn't been absorbing water very well for some time.  We'll have to try putting in a little bleach or something next year.  Also, being dried out it got a LOT of pine needles in a lot of places!

During the week this little beggar would come over while Monica and I were eating if she didn't eat at the same time.  Some meals she would eat her food really fast and finish before we even started.  Since she was refusing to take more food from us, we'd put her on the floor to go play.  As soon as we'd eat though, she'd be back for more!

And more!

One of my resolutions for this year was to design 2 new games.  I took a real jump start and I'm almost done with one.  It needs a few more modifications, but it's coming along nicely.  I'll post more about it when it's closer.

I think that's about it for this week.  Hopefully Brooke will be standing and walking soon!  We'll keep you posted!  Have a great week everyone!

Christmas and New Years!

Here's a wonderful picture of Brooke from Christmas morning!  She sure was happy to get some great new toys!  A lot has happened this past two weeks, so we'll just jump right in.

Well, two weeks ago was my last week of work before the Christmas break.  I worked 10 hour days so that I could take off Friday without using vacation so we could drive out to Utah.  Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate, so we ended up at home over the break instead.  We still had a good time, but it would have been nice to be out and see family.

Sometime recently Brooke has decided to make a sour face when she eats any ol' random thing.  I was fortunately able to capture it!

Well, since we were at home we decided to do some cleaning.  We went through everything we had in the basement and started throwing things away and setting aside things we thought people in the ward might want and putting it up on Facebook.  It didn't take as long as we thought to go through the stuff in the basement, but we needed a place to put things we wanted, so we ordered a shelf to hang from the garage ceiling.

Also, our advent calendar/christmas card holder slowly fell off of the wall.  I taped up the string, and here it is in the process of falling, it eventually was completely on the ground to Brooke's delight!

Brooke also loves to help with the dishes!

On Christmas Eve we made Santa pancakes!  Brooke would only eat the beard, but it's hard to blame her.  The part with whipped cream really did taste a lot better...

Christmas Eve was also the day I got sick, which is really lame.  If I get sick, it always seems to be on the weekend, so of course I had to be sick on Christmas as well.

Then came Christmas morning.  The first picture up top was also from Christmas.   Brooke woke Monica and I up around 6, and then went back to bed.  I convinced Monica to not go back to sleep but instead go see what Santa brought us!  When Brooke finally got up she checked out the contents of her stocking.

And played with her new snack holders.

And tried to immediately eat her orange.

And played with all her toys!

Church was great and filled with lots of music.  When we got home we called our families so they could see Brooke and we could open the presents we gave each other together.  One of the families in our ward invited us over in the event we weren't able to make it out to Utah, so we went over to their house for dinner.  It was SOO GOOD too!!  They also do a preschool at their house so there was no shortage of things for Brooke to do.  Everyone had a blast and we are very grateful they had us over!  Thanks Crystals!

Ah, this picture was taken several days too late.  One day we watched Elf and made paper snowflakes.  Here they are hung up in our house.

We also snagged a riveting Christmas photo!

Google put together this slideshow of the Christmas festivites for me!  I know many of those pictures are already above, but it's definitely a good watch.  And you get to see Brooke dance too!

Brooke got a little tape measurer for Christmas.  It took her a little to appreciate it, but she loved to play with it!  Well... until she whacked herself with it and we put it away.  She can have it back when she's older.

Brooke has also started to learn to crawl up and down the stairs.  She is pretty good at coming back down, but it still worries me a little.  She made it all the way up the stairs this week though!

On Tuesday I was finally starting to feel better so we took advantage and got out of the house!  We went over to the new library so Brooke could play and get some more books!  Here she is reading in her stroller on the way out!

Unfortunately me getting better coincided with Monica getting sick.  And sickness is worse for her because she can't take most cold medicines (due to nursing Brooke).  She's finally starting to feel better today, but Brooke got sick on Friday, so then I had to try to take care of everyone!  And I'm still not sure I'm 100% better yet...  It made for a little bit of a lame week off to have everyone be sick at some point or another.  Especially when you consider that it would have been a week at home anyway because I was sick!!  Fortunately we're all looking to be on the mend, and Brooke was sick the shortest of us all thanks to a Priesthood blessing.  She couldn't fall asleep one night because she was so congested, and she was just sooooo sad and crying, so I gave her a blessing and she went to bed right after and seemed a lot better yesterday and today she seems mostly fine.  She's coughing occasionally today, but she's recovering very fast!  It was a wonderful blessing.

Our garage storage shelf came and I put it up.  We haven't gotten everything stored up on it yet, but it will be nice when we're done because our cluttered "storage" spaces (such as all of the basement) will be cleaned up and much more organized.

While Brooke was sick we had to wipe her nose frequently.  One time the tissue ripped and got stuck to her face!  It was very cute.

For New Years we decided to have Fondue, and we think we'll make it a tradition.  We got a fondue pot for our wedding and we hadn't used it yet, but after going to the melting pot we knew we had to!  Also, we didn't have space for it in the kitchen till our house cleaning over haul!  But now we do and it's out and ready to be used.  It turns out fondue is much easier than we had expected.  Here was our dinner.

And here is our dessert!

And here we are ready to indulge!

We had a great night, but I didn't quite make it till midnight.  I fell asleep on the couch, and Monica stayed up!!  That is the opposite of every other night of our lives!  Monica tried to get me up at 11:51 so I had a few minutes to prep, but I just went back to sleep.  She woke me up at 11:59:30, and I was able to stay awake for the next 30 seconds until the new year!  PHEW! It was hard.

Church moved to 9 today, which really won't be hard to get there on time, but it was a little hard to get up this morning after staying up late.

Well, I think that's the condensed version of the things that happened here for the last two weeks.  Thanks all for stopping by and catching up.  Have a great week!