Trip to the Museum

Hello all!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  We had a lot of fun out here.  Saturday morning after my run Brooke joined me for a good stretch!  She's really been into exercising as of late.

Last Sunday was a super blood wolf moon, in case you missed it.  It was the only total lunar eclipse of the year, and was visible to basically the whole western hemisphere.  Fortunately for us, totality started at 9:42, with the moon centered in the Earth's shadow at 10:12.  I knew the moon looked red sometimes, but I didn't realize it was during a lunar eclipse, so I"m glad I didn't miss it!  This was taken with my phone camera, so it's a pretty good picture for what we were working with!

On Monday Winry managed to get the cap off of a marker, and Monica didn't notice in spite of Winry using her as a canvas!  Good thing this all happened before I went to work or the whole house would have been blue when I got home!

However, good thing I had work so I didn't get in the middle of this food fight!  This was Brooke's first time having an avocado mask, and she had a lot of fun!

This past week we went out to finish cleaning up Christmas lights (cause Christmas just ended, right?), and Brooke started hopping down the stairs!  This might not seem like a big deal, but this is possibly the most adventuresome thing Brooke's ever done in her life all on her own!

Also, Winry loves to climb up the stairs!  So the gate is a new staple at our house (you'll see why in a few pictures).  Anyway, at bed time we sent everyone up the stairs, and Brooke got about half way up and then stopped because she was scared Jelly would jump out at her at the top, so we sent Winry up first!

Also, Winry has started to say uh-oh!  That's the whole story...

Brooke was really good this past week when everyone went shopping, so she got to pick something from the dollar section at Target, and she got a paint your own hedgehog puzzle!  This was just the first coat of paint, the second was a full coat, with plenty of color mixing.

King Soopers by our house has a horse you can ride at the front of the store, and supplies pennies to get it running.  Brooke rode it while it was on for the first time!  Finally, gentle rocking isn't too much to happen!  See, jumping off a stair really is a big deal!

Also, here are the gate crashers!

Friday night for date night Monica and I went ice skating!  First time in many years, but it was a lot of fun and nice to find out I haven't lost all ability to grace the ice.

And after, we went to a place called Milk It to get rolled ice cream.  It's not really that different than any other build your own ice cream place, but it is a more fun presentation!

Saturday was such a day!  In the morning I woke up and ran 10 miles, and then stretched out with Brooke.  Then everyone got ready to go to the museum.  Brooke was having a snack, and Winry swooped in, so Brooke had to eat them over her head!

We headed out for the museum and everyone had a great time there!  We got a family pass for Christmas, and we're definitely going to have to use that a lot!!  It's been a long time since I've been to a museum and it was fun to get to see a lot of cool things.  Also, I feel like museums have changed a lot since I last went and things were much more interactive.  The first thing we did was go to an interactive children's play area where Brooke dug up some dino bones!!

We ate lunch there and tried to let Winry down to explore as much as possible.  While Winry was down crawling around she'd start meowing... so now we're not sure if she thinks she's a cat... There could be worse things!  We stayed as late as we could, but eventually Winry needed a nap so it was time to head home.  We figured Winry would sleep in the car, but at first she was just grumpy!!  She did eventually sleep, and woke right as we were getting home, so not a terribly long nap.

After we got everything situated, we headed to Costco for samples.  Yes, just for samples.  I wish I had taken a picture of all of Brooke's samples sitting in front of her cooling!  She had like... 6 waiting.  There were a lot of samples, and they were all good.  Anyway, on the way home we stopped at King Soopers to get a few things we needed, so Monica just ran in to get everything and forgot her wallet!  So then we all came in to join her at the check out!

While Monica was making dinner I took the kids to the park and enjoyed sliding.  Winry got real cold because she doesn't believe in having her hands covered, but we made it home just as dinner finished up!

After dinner Winry found Jelly and wanted to play!.. but Jelly didn't...

Everyone was very tired and the kids went right to bed.  Monica and I then proceeded to be exhausted and go comatose on the couch.  Even Jelly was tired from all our adventuring!

and, well, we're still on the couch...  The end.

OK, not really, but that's all I've got for this week!  Have a wonderful week ahead.

Candy Land Queen!

Hello all!  I hope everyone had a fantastic week.  We did wonderfully this week.  We've had a lot of fun, especially Brooke with her all new Candy Land!  I think this week was pretty dominated by Candy Land and dancing.  Winry has become quite the dancing pro (2 videos there)!  I love having such wonderful and fun girls!  Never a dull moment, even when I could really use one... ;)

The girls really love bath time, and Winry definitely likes the water more than Brooke did when she was little.  Like, Winry REALLY likes water!  Yeah, she kept dunking her face into her bath water!  She only choked once, and we tried to keep that as her last time too.

Winry sure is growing up a lot too!  I know she turned 1 last week, so I should be realizing that, but... I don't.  This past week we left the pantry open and Winry grabbed out a snack holder and just started chowing down on wheat thins!  What a sneak!  Her hand's even still stuck in there.

Monica took the girls grocery shopping and they got to sit together driving the car for the first time!  They both really loved it, until snack time.  Winry couldn't eat her banana on her own, so she had to come sit up by Monica and get helped, but for a while Brooke had a co-pilot!

That night when I was getting Winry ready for bed she started to clap her feet together!  After that it was story time!  We've started reading a story with Winry and Brooke before Winry goes to bed.  Winry is really starting to love stories!

Brooke and Winry continue to drive around on the car together.  I think Winry did fall off on a sharp turn once this last week, but for the most part it's all good fun.  That said, when I looked at the pictures I had Winry looks to be having a blast, but Brooke seems... I guess I'll say cautious.

On Friday I was working from home in the afternoon because it was snowing quite a lot and I wanted to not be in traffic, and while I was working Jelly crammed herself into Monica's clothes pile.  You might have to look close to find her!

Today Jelly decided to take a nap on the marker tray for Brooke's white board!  What a crazy cat.  She'll just sleep anywhere she can fit herself.

Going through Monica's pictures I found this real cute one of Winry.  I honestly have no clue what's going on, or what she's eating, but I still liked it!  Maybe Monica will add more details. (Brooke was eating an apple and decided to give Winry a couple slices. She'd never had apple slices before, but she did really well with them and loved them!)

This past week we also went swimming, but sadly forgot our waterproof camera, so we didn't get any pictures.  Everyone had a great time, though they were working on the slide a bunch and Brooke really wanted to go on it.  Also, right as we were getting ready to leave the lifeguards came by and said "everyone out, poop in the pool."  Rough day...

Come Follow Me is going really great for us, and I feel like Brooke is doing really well with it.  Today we had our recap lesson with her and she did awesome.  She remembered some stuff from primary today, and had great answers when we were asking her questions.  I'm so grateful for this new program.  It is definitely helping our family learn and study better than we did in the past!

I think that's all I've got for this week.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Winry's First Birthday

Happy Birthday Winry!  Can you believe it's already been a year since we had this little girl!?!  And what a great year it's been!  She's been such a joy to our family, and it's been great to see her and Brooke grow closer as they've grown up.  Tonight at bedtime Brooke gave Winry a hug goodnight, and Winry just freaked out with happiness!  She loves her big sister so much, and Brooke loves her too!  I'm also grateful that Brooke takes such great care of her, and watches her for us.  It's kind of nice when Brooke shouts across the room about Winry doing something she's not supposed to... :)  Anyway, happy birthday Winry, we love you SOOO much!!

But, that's not where our week begins.  On Monday Monica took the girls to the zoo, and everyone had a fantastic time!  They happened to be there in time for Llama feeding!  Brooke had a great time!  Also, Brooke wore her Llamicorn (llama unicorn) shirt she got for Christmas, so she wanted the llamas to see!

On Monday night for family fun night we had dinner at the Costco food court and went bowling at Boondocks (which is right next door).  Winry had a bunch of fun touching the bowling balls, luckily no smashed fingers!

And Brooke had a blast bowling!  This wasn't her first time, but she didn't remember going before.

She did really great, and there was even some worry at the start of the game that she might beat us!!  Most importantly she had a blast!

We also got a little money on a card for the arcade for after.  You have to walk through the arcade to get to the bowling alley, and Brooke was really interested when we were heading in.  We played a Luigi game together where you suck up ghosts in your vacuum.  Winry sat on my lap and showed me the ropes.  Everyone had a great time, but we probably stayed a little too long judging by the reaction when it was time to go home...

Tuesday was preschool, and it was at our house again.  During the lesson they watched a video, and the kids started dancing so Monica had to get a video!

We got an easel from a neighbor across the street and gave it to Brooke for Christmas.  She really likes it, and she's even started to draw people and things on it!  Here she is with her very first (at least as far as I know) picture of people!  She drew our whole family!

Friday was Winry's birthday, and she woke up to balloons!  She loves balloons and was very excited to get to play with them!  Also, I love that look at the start of the video and kind of wish it was a picture instead...  she's just so happy and cute!!

Brooke continued her drawing talents on Friday with the mural of our family, along with clouds and flowers above our heads.  Brooke even told Monica who everyone was so she could label us!  Jelly, you're looking very bipedal!

For Winry's birthday dinner we went to Noodles and Company and got her mac n cheese.  Here are Brooke and I enjoying our food.

And Monica with the birthday girl herself!  It was a great dinner, and everyone very much enjoyed it.  The only downside is that Winry loves to feed herself, so it would have been nice if that had been a little more possible.

When we got home from dinner we opened presents, and got a little side tracked in the process!  But at least Brooke and Winry were having fun.  Also, I think Brooke might have been more excited for Winry's presents than Winry was.  I think there's going to be a lot of reminding Brooke whose things these are over the next several days weeks months years!

After presents, it was time for Winry to get her cake!  The cake had been in the fridge to keep the icing looking like nice flowers, and we forgot to take it out so it was a little hard for her to get into.  I helped her get her first chunk off!It did soften up, but that's still about all the damage she did...  she even kicked it a bunch!  Also, sometime around this point I got a highlight video from the day.

Toward the end, Jelly saw the whole mess as an opportunity, and started to sneak in the back.  She only got a little cake before we hauled her away.

And here's some family pictures once Winry was all cleaned up again.

The next day the only possible thing to be done was to have Brooke push Winry around on her new car!  Brooke kept asking for this, and I was a bit nervous, but Winry actually does an awesome job staying put, and Brooke is very careful to no go too fast and to turn slowly!  Winry's actually fallen off twice, but she does a good job of keeping it safe!

We got pummeled with snow on Friday and into Saturday, so we had to go out and play in it!  Winry got to wear Brooke's new hat because it doesn't stretch much, so it doesn't fit Brooke very well, and when I put it on her she just looked SOO cute!

First order of business was to sled circles around the back yard.  Brooke was holding Winry while we went.  Unfortunately the snow was pretty dense (good packing snow) so the sled didn't sink in much as the girls went.  The real issue here is that my footsteps sunk deep, so as the sled went along it rolled back and forth to the sides.  This quickly meant the sled tipped over, and Brooke rolled out on top of Winry into the snow.  I ran to pull Winry's face out of the snow and of course a bunch of snow shot off my foot into her face too!  Poor little girl!  She was very unhappy and I don't blame her!  I got the snow off and warmed her back up and she was okay staying out there with us for a little.  I made her a seat in the snow, and Brooke and I started work on a snowman.  As soon as it was done Brooke decided it was time to go in, so this adventure was pretty short lived.  That said, I think that's my most Olaf looking head yet!

Ever since Christmas, Brooke has really been into wrapping presents!  If she's got something large enough (typically blankets) she starts throwing toys in and wrapping them up for someone.  Today they were presents for Minnie Mouse.

Today after church, it was time to get serious about waffle blocks and build the big castle on the box!  Brooke and I played the architects and builders, and Winry played Godzilla and pulled it apart time after time!  Still, we finally got it done!

And tonight at bedtime I found out that Winry can play the xylophone!  Guess she wants to be a percussionist just like me!

Well, I think that's everything I've got for this week.  Hope everyone is doing fantastic!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!  Sorry I missed last week.  The goal was to get a post out by the 31st so that it would be in there for last year... and I remembered on the 1st.  At that point I just put it off till now cause whatever!  I wanted to get my Christmas post in by the end of the year so that when I printed the blog book for 2018 I'd have Christmas in it... but now maybe we'll have 2 Christmases in 2019's book, how special!!

Anyway, here I am with the kiddos right before bed on Christmas Eve!  Brooke was very excited, and Winry didn't know what was happening!  All according to plan.

Christmas morning was a blast!  Here's Brooke going through the contents of her stocking wearing her new Doc McStuffins outfit!  She was so excited and had a wonderful time opening presents.

Here's Winry with her new baby doll!  The pacifier sticks on with a magnet, and she really likes to pull it off and try to put it in her own mouth.  Alternatively she will also pull it off and then try to give it back.  She really likes that game nowadays.  Also, here's Winry carefully examining her stocking contents.

Winry really liked the unwrapping part.  Mostly she liked gift bags, and more than that she liked pulling all the sparkly tissue paper out of Monica's present!  PARTY!!!

One nice thing about having both of our families live so close together is that we can get to Christmas at both houses!  After we wrapped things up  (or should I say unwrapped things up!) at my parents house we headed down to Monica's parent's house where things got a little crazy...

We sadly weren't very good picture takers this year so I don't really have much else to show...

While at Monica's parents house we also had a Christmas concert thing.  It's a Blood family tradition and many people sang or played songs, did dances, and there was even a nativity enactment.  The highlight?  Brooke and Audrey sang Jingle Bells together!

That night after bed we introduced Monica's family to the magic of Elf Yourself, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you're in for a real treat!  Here's the one we made of our family.  Good times.

Also, while at Gram and Pop's house I tried to move Brooke's new shopping cart out of the way while everyone was there, so I tucked it behind the couch.  Well, it wasn't hidden from Winry!  I love this picture because she looks so guilty and "you caught me!" in it!  Good thing those snacks are plastic!

On Thursday night (27th) we had a baby shower for Monica's sister, Melanie.  Part of the decorations were balloons of course, we're not heathens.  Brooke and Audrey had a lot of fun playing with them, tossing them into the air and trying to catch them, then subsequently trying to pick them up.  Balloons can be quite tricky to pick up!

Here is at least the table all ready to go.

On Friday we headed over to Megan and Alan's house to go sledding with them on a hill near their house.  Brooke and Winry loved it!  They even went together!  Everyone had an awesome time, and the hill was perfect size for little kids.  Long enough for a good sled ride, but short enough it wasn't daunting to climb to the top.  I remember as a kid sledding on the hills next to the golf course, and it was a lot of working hauling a sled back up to the top.  The worst part was that you had to climb the hill to get back home, so after putting in all the work to get to the top you'd think "... ah, just one more go"...  Anyway...

When we got back to the house we played a little air hockey, and Brooke thought it looked fun and wanted a turn too.

A little later was a BYU basketball game, during which Brooke rode on pop's rocking horse from when he was a kid, and Winry danced to the squeaks.

After a close game where BYU intimidated and severely challenged Miss St (none of that actually happened... :( ) it was waffle block time.  Waffle blocks were probably the hero toy of the trip for Brooke.  She really loved them, and Winry loved to climb into their bin!

Saturday we headed back up to my parents house for our last night of vacation.  It worked out nicely because my parents live just 15 minutes from the airport, so it saved us some trouble on Sunday morning.  While we were there Brooke found a dancing cactus that someone got for Christmas and gave it a run for it's money!

Somehow this didn't get mentioned or in a picture, but Winry was sick much of the time we were out in Utah.  We're not 100% sure she was really sick, and that it wasn't just teething things, but she threw up 2 different nights 3 total times.  No one else ever had or got a stomach thing though... (Note from Monica: THIS IS UNREAL!! I HAVE LITERALLY HAD THE STOMACH FLU ALL WEEK! THE EXACT SAME THING WINRY HAD! AND MY MOM HAS TOO! No idea how he forgot that!!) Anyway, because of this Winry 1) slept terribly, meaning Monica and I slept terribly as well and 2) didn't go to church, so I took Brooke to sacrament meeting.  After church we came home and changed and got ready to fly back home.  As we were getting into our car to head to the airport Monica saw the view and wanted to take a picture, and I wanted to get in said picture, so I did.  You're welcome Monica!!

We ended up at the airport earlier than needed, which really isn't a bad thing.  We ended up just going once my parents went to church as there wasn't much else to do.  Winry took advantage of our waiting time by falling asleep 5 minutes before we got on the plane.  Can you sleep through boarding a plane?  Neither can Winry... :)

However, our plane had screens in the back of every seat, so I turned on Goldie and Bear for Winry and watched something else with Monica.  Winry sure loved getting to watch a show, and she also loved to play with the TV.

Brooke watched Doc McStuffins on the flight home, which was heaven!  She even sang along to the songs!!  Thank you Doc McStuffins for making the flight so easy!!

Winry, however, was not captivated by TV and kept doing this to our headphone cord...

We all made it home safely though, even our ears!  So, I don't remember if I talked about this on the flight out, but we had 2 car seats, 2 checked bags, 3 carry on bags, 3 personal items, and 2 kids to carry!  And that's not even mentioning blankets and jackets which were too warm to be warn indoors!  Needless to say it was tough getting through the airport, at least until we got our bags checked.

Anyway, so after we landed and got all our bags there was no way we were going to take the shuttle all together to get to the car, so I took the checked bags and sped off to the shuttle and the car, and came back to pick everyone else up.  This worked pretty well, except that shortly after I left Brooke had to go to the bathroom, and Monica was capable of shuffling stuff to curb side to get in the car, but not deftly navigating the airport with it all.  After Brooke assured Monica that she wouldn't be able to make it, Monica laid one of Winry's extra diapers on the ground, walled Brooke into privacy with bags and stuff, and had her go there.  It was a raging success!  Good quick thinking Monica.  We all made it home with dry pants!

And speaking of home, here's Brooke carrying around Princess Bear in her new animal carrier!

When we got back there was snow here, so we took advantage on New Years Eve and Brooke and I went sledding at a nearby park while Monica and Winry went to the grocery store.  The park actually had some really good hills for Brooke once we did some hunting around.  I got a couple videos, one time Brooke got stuck on the top of the hill for a while, and the other she went head first!

Also, since this is the park, we had to play on the playground and go down the slides a bunch.  The slides were super fast due to the snow and slippery clothing, so I had to stop Brooke at the bottom each time so she didn't fall off.  We even went down the racing slides together, and I had my arm around Brooke and picked her up off the sled as we got to the bottom.  Good thing too, I barely stuck the landing.

As it was nearing time to go, Brooke wanted to have a snowball fight!  She had me make her a small pile of snowballs, then I went a little ways off and she'd run over and throw one at me, then go back for another one!  We had a great time!

Monica and I "stayed up" on New Years Eve.  I think the last time I saw on my watch was 11:10...  But before that we had fondue for dinner.  It's our tradition!

We also played Stuffed Fables, which is a new game I got for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun, and I think it might be Monica's new favorite game....not really.

Our new years started off with our lawn reindeer probably getting a cold.  Can you see that icicle hanging off his nose?!  Poor guy!  Not to worry, it's soon time to come into the stable for most of the year!

Brooke and I started the year off right playing Feed the Kitty!  She's grown up so much since last time we played it.  We even played the real rules, and she LOVED it soo much!!

With the new year it was time to move the Christmas tree from the garage floor to the garbage can!  And yes, they took our garbage like this!

Monica was out with the kids doing some grocery shopping, and Brooke just HAD to go to the bathroom.  Luckily the bathrooms in King Soopers have a kids seat, more luckily Winry loves them!  P.S. Brooke didn't got to the bathroom.

Winry got a new car seat for her birthday and seems to have liked it to far! Her birthday is actually this Friday, but we gave it to her a little early)

Doc Mc-Brooke-ins got sleepy and needed her unicorn blanket.  Ahh! cuddly and warm.

Winry continues to be an excellent dancer!  Look at her go!  Also, she can climb up the first stair!  But just the first stair...

On Saturday Katie and David came over.  They brought us lunch and we played games together and just had a great time.  While here, David showed Brooke the book he's working on writing.  Everyone really liked the book, and I'm excited to see the pictures once he's done illustrating it!

Today was Brooke's first day of Primary!  She had a great time and told us all about it after church.  She also really likes her new teachers!!

After church, we went on a walk and then to the park.  Brooke and Winry had a wonderful time.  Here's Brooke climbing through the tunnel.

And Winry following after!!

When we got home we called Gram because she called while we were on our walk to talk to Brooke about her first day in primary.  While we were talking, Jelly came by and Winry started meowing at her!  She loves to meow at Jelly, and I've never been able to catch her, until today!!  The first one is really hard to hear.  It's around 3-4 seconds in, and it's really loud then, but she says meow again a little later.

Church today was fantastic, and I really like the new Come Follow Me manual.  I feel like scripture study was really great this past week, and I loved having a more involved family study.  I also really liked Sunday School and how prepared everyone was!  The blessings of this new curriculum are very apparent!  I'm so excited to see how things go this next year!