Let's play catch up...

Surprise! I'm actually updating our blog. These pictures are from a while ago... I meant to post them, I just never got around to actually sitting down to upload them. And, since it has been so long since I last posted, I have obviously forgotten how to upload pictures in the right order. These pictures are sort of backwards and out of order.

Watch out! Our little Brookie Bear has learned how to crawl.

I took Brooke swimming for her first time. She loved it!

After an afternoon playing with Aunt Kimmy, Brooke was too tired to stay awake for dinner.

Jena went to the dentist for her very first time. I know, I'm awful. She's almost 5! But, since she will be starting kindergarten in the fall, I figured I had better take her. Luckily, she had gone on a field trip to a pediatric dentist close by our house, so I decided to take her there since she was already familiar with the place. She was so good! She loved that she got to watch a movie and wear sunglasses so the light wasn't in her eyes. And the best part.....no cavities! Wahoo!! Way to go Jena!

Dreyson still loves to play dress up. He now has his own box of boy dress ups (ya know, a pirate, superman, race car driver, cowboy, etc.) thanks to Grandma, and somehow I still find him in Jena's dress ups most of the time. Notice how he put the dress on by himself.

In February, my father in law took all the sons and grandsons to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Dreyson loved it! He still talks about when he and Dad got to go to the basketball game and how there were "no girls allowed!" He thought it was pretty fun to go and spend time with just Dad.

He even got his basketball signed by Special K

Since all the grandsons got to go to the basketball game, my mother in law took all the granddaughters to do something fun as well. Jena and I got to go with her cousin Mary and her mom to Disney On Ice.

This was right up their alley. They both love the princesses and loved seeing all the characters.

Kevin and I took the kids ice skating for Kevin's birthday. It was so much fun. I was impressed at how well they could do it, even though they are still so little. Whoever thought up these "walker" type things for the kids to hold onto while on the ice, is a genius! It was awesome because they could hold on to them and skate by themselves. It made the kids feel like they were so big and could do it by themselves, rather than having to hold on to Kevin or me.

Chaos!

February 15th started just like any other day. We got up, got breakfast, and got Jena off to school. I cleaned up the house a bit because my mother-in-law was coming over to get her hair done. (Have I told you yet that my salon is done? Take a look... I LOVE IT!) ...While I was doing my mother-in-law's hair, my cute little Drey comes down the stairs to tell me, "Mom, there's water dripping on the table." I thought that maybe he had gotten a drink by himself and had spilled it. So, I ran upstairs quick to see what kind of damage he had done. He was right! There was water dripping on my table that was coming from the light above my table. No, not just dripping....pouring! There was a huge puddle of water on my table and it was starting to go on my floor. You see, earlier, while my mother-in-law's hair was processing, I ran upstairs and started a load of laundry. I went back downstairs to finish her hair, and I guess my washer decided to break and flood my house. Our laundry room is on our top floor, just above our kitchen and family room. So, the water had soaked through the carpet and the floor upstairs and was coming through the ceiling on our main floor. It was a mess! I ran upstairs to shut off my washer, that was still running. (It probably ran for a half an hour trying to fill up the tub with water, but never could because there was a hole in the bottom of my washer.) My kids rooms were soaked. My hall way was soaked. My hallway bathroom was flooded as well. Water was everywhere! Thankfully, my mother-in-law was here. I didn't have a clue what to do. I think I was kind of in shock . I just stood there and looked at all the water, trying to think of how we were going to clean up this mess, and she got right down to work and started moping up water. We used every single towel in my house trying to soak up water.



The results: Carpet was pulled up in all 3 of my kids bedrooms, (only halfway in Brooke's, so her room was still usable) carpet pulled up down my hallway, and carpet pulled up in my family room on the main floor. All the pad was torn up and thrown away. Then we got this:

3 lovely big holes in our ceiling where the water had come through...

This is where the light was above my kitchen table

This all resulted in the rest of my house looking like this...

And this.....we threw Jena's mattress on the floor and our kiddos slept in our bedroom for 2+ weeks. All 5 of us were in our room for a few nights, until everything dried out and I could put Brooke in her own room again.

I about went crazy here. I had to go stay at my parent's house for a few days because I couldn't stand staying at my house. We had 10 of those giant fans going 24 hours a day for at least 4 days. You couldn't even have a normal conversation because it was so loud. My kid's couldn't go anywhere in our house really except for my bedroom because all the carpet was up and we had those carpet tacks everywhere. All of their toys were just thrown into a big mess because we cleaned their rooms out in a hurry, so we couldn't even get much out to play with. Being stuck in one bedroom all day long with 3 kids and nothing to do but watch cartoons is no fun!

Things have finally started to come back together. We were able to reuse our carpet, we only needed a new pad. They have patched and repainted the holes in our ceiling. We got our living area all back to normal and we are starting to get things put back in to the kids bedrooms.
Add on a baby with RSV, an ear infection, and no sleep for a few days and I think you can say we have had complete chaos for over 2 weeks!

Already?

Where has the time gone? How can my baby be 6 months already?!! Brooke is such a sweet baby. She is almost always happy and rarely cries. She is sitting up by herself now and is loving eating solid foods. She is by far my smallest baby. I took her to the Dr. today and she only weighs 11 lbs 6 oz. She isn't even on the charts anymore for percentile, and is only in the 10% for her height. We love her to pieces and think she is as cute as ever!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2010

Well, seeing as Thanksgiving is next week, I thought I had better get my Halloween pictures on here. We had a great Halloween. The kids were so cute and absolutely loved trick-or-treating.

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween.

I couldn't stop laughing at Dreyson. He would stick his hands in and pull out some of the "guts" and then gag. It was hilarious!

They both wanted scary faces on their pumpkins

Here they are all dressed up....of course, we had a BYU theme going.

We've got a thumb sucker on our hands. Neither of my other kids were ever interested in sucking their thumbs (probably because they were so attached to their binkys) but Brooke loves to suck her thumb. Jena absolutely loves her little sister! She can't get enough of her. She would hold her forever if I let her.

This is Jena's "Chicken Little" move. (Have you seen that movie?) It still cracks me up every time I see her do it.

Cool shades dude!

Brooke is getting so big! Can you believe she will be 3 months next week??

The last few months...

All right, I know....I've been a slacker. I have had no desire to sit down and post anything since I had Brooke. I'm going to blame it on having 3 kids and being totally overwhelmed and exhausted all the time. So, this is our last few months in pictures... (In no particular order)

We had our "Miss Brookie Bear." (as Dreyson calls her) She surprised us all when she had hardly any hair compared to her siblings.

Kevin has been working so hard all summer to finish our basement. We are so close to being done! This will be my salon.

This is our family room

The kiddos came to visit

First family picture




First Sunday to church and all dressed up





We love our sister!

My mom loves to come and help give the baby their first bath. Of course, my camera ran out of battery and this was the only picture I got.

I had to get some more bath pictures when I got more batteries, but my mom didn't come down that day. So Jena was my photographer while I bathed Brooke. I found about 10 pictures like this on my camera.

I thought Jena did pretty good on this one

Did you know Fun Dips were so messy?? Neither did I.

Brooke loves her swing....just look at her face.

We've had plenty of movie dates with our "friends"

Too cute!

Playing in mom's shoes

Jena and Drey (I think mostly Jena) planted these sunflowers at my parents house. They were finally as tall as she was.

Brooke's blessing day

Just the girls

Jena started her 2nd year of preschool

We took the kids miniature golfing. It was so much fun!

I especially loved watching Drey try to hit the ball.

Showing my smiles

Snoozing away. Brooke is such a good baby. She rarely needs me to put her to sleep. She falls asleep on her own most of the time.

They do this every time Brooke is laying on the floor

Drey likes to play dress up while Jena is at school

Snoozing some more

We rode Trax up to the Circus

My mom took all the grandkids to see the circus (minus Melissa. She was sick. We missed you!)

Loving that swing