Happy 2nd birthday to Brooke

Today my little Brookie turned 2.  I can't believe she's growing up so fast.  Here are a few things about her:
-she can talk in long enough phrases that we can understand mostly all of what she says.  Her grammar is even correct most of the time.
-she climbs into our SUV by herself and then into her car seat too.  Brooke gets mad if I try to help her into the car or her carseat.  If she could just buckle herself up that would be great!
-At pre-school she goes potty on the toilet and stays dry all day.  When she gets home though, she forgets all about the potty. :(  I try at home, but I guess her teachers are magic because she cries when I make her sit on the potty so I have a hard time doing it.
-Brooke only uses a binky at bedtime.  For naps at school she goes to sleep without one.  They just never offered it to her so I guess she doesn't think they have one for her, which they do, but I'm okay that she doesn't use it as long as she sleeps!
-Brooke loves to play with Whitney and tries to do everything like her.  They play with their dolls or with their kitchen all the time.  They laugh and give eachother hugs and kisses too.

Today at Pre-school we had a little birthday party for Brooke.  I brought Dora cupcakes to share with her class.  Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes and there were lots of messy pink faces afterwards. 

We all sang to her and then she blew out one of her candles and then I think got embarrassed because I couldn't get her to blow out the other one. 

Brooke got totally messy, which was expected, of course. 

Her teacher had a birthday today too so I just had to get a picture of them together.

On Friday night I'm planning a party at our home where we'll cook out hamburgers, eat cake and then open presents with cousins and family.

Thanksgiving Lunch at Kid's Kountry

We had a huge Thanksgiving feast at the Daycare where I work and the girls go to pre-school.  I bought precooked turkeys, which was definitely the way to go.  The rest of the dinner was the traditional corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, etc.  The kids ate all together in the eating area by the kitchen, so it was a little crammed, but well worth it because they all had so much fun.  All the kids made a hat to be an Indian or a pilgrim. 

Whitney and Brooke were the cutest little pilgrims I've ever seen, but I'm biased of course! 

The little cousins that live in town were there that day, so it made it extra fun for Whitney and Brooke because they enjoy their cousins so much! 

Pumpkin Patch

In mid-October our cousins from Utah came to town for a visit. While they were here, we did all sorts of fun things together. The pumpkin patch was definitely a favorite! A local family here in Las Cruces sets up a fall amusement park each year where you pay a bundle to get into, but there are a bunch of outdoor fall activities for kids and adults so we could have been there all day.  

This is the group of cousins that went to the farm.  There are still 5 cousins missing.  What a group!!!!

At least we all got a picture together even if everyone wasn't looking at the camera :o)

Brookie and Mommy

Whitney was so proud that she picked her own pumpkin all by herself!  With a little help, she was even able to pull it off the vine.

Lunch break.  Brooke already finished her corn dog and her fruit snack. Whitney eats a little slower then everyone else, so she's still working on it.  Aren't they the cutest?!  Everytime I look at these two little girls I am just so thankful to have them healthy, safe, and most of all loved!

This is the girls in the corn box, much like a sand box just with corn instead of sand.

Whitney being silly.

The girls peaking out of the corn box just before we called it a day and went to Grandma's for naps!

Happy Halloween 2011!

This year Whitney had the hardest time deciding what she wanted to be. First a witch, then a princess, a ghost and then a lady bug, then a cupcake, a pumpkin and finally a cat. So when she finally decided to be a cat, I decided Brooke would be a mouse.  I thought they both looked so cute, and Whitney got into being a mean kitty with an attitude and all. 

This is our house all decorated for Halloween.  We weren't home to give out candy so I took down most of the decor this afternoon so it wouldn't get trashed by mad trick-or-treaters because we didn't have candy :(  I heard our neighborhood was the hot spot in town to trick or treat but I never imagined it would be as busy as it was.

We went Trick-or-treating at my Grandmother's house first.  Our neighborhood was so packed with trick-or-treaters that people were waiting in line to get candy at houses, cars were parked all along the side of the streets and tons of people were walking in the streets.  It was crazy, so we decided to go to my Grandmother's neighborhood instead.  There weren't as many houses to go to, but the girls still got tons of candy and were happy at the end of the night.  The door bell rang as soon as we walked in the door, so we hid from the trick-or-treaters who were still out headed up-stairs in our bedroom with the door closed

Miss Whitney Kitty showing off all her candy!

Brooke trying to smile with her mouth full of candy.

Daddy with his girls just before getting them ready to go to bed after a fun filled day.  We now have a huge bowl of candy on top of our fridge that will take us a very long time to eat!

Fall Festival

At church we had a huge fall festival. My sister-n-law Joyce delegated and planned the whole thing. She really put a lot of work into it and it was well worth it because it was so fun. There were tons of people there too. Lots of booths were set up with games to play were you could win a prize.

After the cake walk.  There were over 100 different cup cakes to choose from so it took them a while to look through them all to get the one they wanted.

Whitney was so happy to meet Cinderella! 

This was a really good Snow White!  I think this was Whitney's favorite part of the whole night.

Decorating cookies. 

Getting ready to go trunk-or-treating, which is definitely the way to do trick-or-treating.  Every 5-6 steps you get candy instead of walking from house to house.

This is our family Fall Festival picture taken in front of the back drop that I set up.  I thought it was super cute, but not many people used it for a photo-op.  Brig didn't dress-up, but I just had to wear my "signature pregnant" skeleton costume so that our baby boy could be dressed-up too.

Face painted by Dorothy, one of Whits favorite movie characters.

Bowling for candy.  Look at the stance!