Nice Weather

These pictures are a few weeks old, but I just ran across them today and remembered I wanted to post them on the blog! One morning a few weeks ago Keely would not take a morning nap no matter how much I tried! So finally about 11:15 I decided a stroller ride was the only option left! Luckily it was a pretty nice day, so I got coats on both kids and we went off on a walk.  Keely fell asleep pretty early in the walk, so I decided to take Brooks to the park so he could run around.  He was the only kid there since it was a weekday, and he had a ton of fun.

 He's pointing that he wants to go down the slide

 Super cute...and Keely slept the whole time!

Thanksgiving Cookies

I know I'm a little late on posting these, but before Thanksgiving, we got together with Lane and Katy and decorated Thanksgiving sugar cookies.  We are not sure we will have the time to do Christmas cookies together, so we just did them early this year!
Brooks helped me roll out the cookies and cut them out the day before.  He was so focused! I think his shirt was just as messy with flour as mine was by the end of it all!

 Mom came to help us get them frosted

 Katy mostly ate the frosting and sprinkles!

 Brooks did such a good job with the sprinkles, and loved the turkey shapes the best! And you can see Keely in the background of this picture...she just isn't quite old enough to join in the fun..maybe next year!

 Brooks really loved eating the chocolate sprinkles, but still wouldn't try an actual cookie

 Lane was proud of his....

 I took the time to make a few of them with different frostings and piping

 They looked better in my head, but they weren't too bad!

 Brooks was pretty proud of the finished products!

Christmas!

First of all, I wanted to vent to everyone the fact that I accidentally deleted all my pictures on all of the old blog posts I've done.  I am still mad about it! I hope that I can go through them and at least re-post some of the pictures, but it will take some time! Anyway, until then, you can just enjoy new blog post pictures!

Now that it is finally December, we can officially say without criticism that it is Christmas time! So I will now post some of my Christmas pictures I have been holding off on posting.  In one of Brooks' Christmas Veggie Tales videos, they promote Operation Christmas Child in the previews.  Brooks has always loved watching that segment for some reason, so I really wanted to pack a shoe box with him this year to send to a little boy his own age.  I hadn't looked into the closest drop off place in our area and sort of forgot about it until my mom mentioned their church was doing shoe boxes.  Great! Brooks got to go to the store a pick out things a little boy might like.  He was so cute and picking out all sorts of little things saying, "this might be fun", or "little boy might like this one".  I really do think he understood the whole concept that the toys were for someone else because he never once wanted to play with them himself or cry when packed them away. 
Brooks I think had the most fun picking out the candy to send to the little boy.  He kept putting more and more in a pile saying "He might like this one, he might like this one".  I had to sort it out and pick just the suckers and other candy that wouldn't melt, but it was fun for him!

 He picked out a dinosaur for him! :)

 And of course a football!

 and a little stuffed reindeer for him...I know he looks sad in this picture, but he was just showing me what the little boy might do with the reindeer, hug him!

It was a fun experience for him, and I hope he really did understand the act of giving to a little boy who didn't have as many things as he does.

And in the spirit of Christmas, he are some pictures of us decorating the tree this year.  Always a fun time!

 Brooks loved looking at all the ornaments again this year

 His favorites were the snoopy and woodstock one he got last year and one of my old ones that has penguins making hot cocoa with hershey's syrup

 Putting up the tiny manger scene that was Blake's when he was little

 I gave them a couple of early Christmas gifts that they could enjoy during the Christmas season.

 Brooks acting excited to get a box of lights....it was actually his Christmas jammies in a Christmas light box, but at least he knows how to be 'happy' about any gift! ha! :)

 They also got some Veggie Tales Christmas videos...Keely liked those (at least to chew on!)

 We then watched one of the Veggie Tales videos....Brooks loved it of course....

Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we knew we would be staying close to home so Blake could open the store at 6:00am on Black Friday and because it was my side of the family's turn for Thanksgiving.  To help make it more of a holiday, we spent Wednesday night at my parents so we could be there for the whole day on Thursday.  It was nice to relax (a little) the evening before Thanksgiving and not have to get up quite so early on Thursday to drive over there.  Blake had to close the store that night, so he didn't get to my parents' house till about 9 or 9:30, but it was still fun to play a few rounds of phase 10 with everyone before we went to bed. (having kids around just doesn't allow for much game playing anymore, and I really miss it!)  Before Blake got there, I decided Brooks might have a lot of fun with Jr Monopoly, because he loves playing games with dice, and loves the Curious George episode where he plays a board game.

 Bret and Laura were good about being patient with Brooks who liked to roll the dice for everyone and move 'ticket booths' all over the place.  I think maybe Laura ended up winning!

 On Thursday Lane and Katy had fun with Bret and Laura.  Brooks just sat on Daddy and watched them do this ball throwing game...he said he was tired.

 Cooking in the kitchen, this was where mom was most of the time.  All the food was really good and we had a fun time!

And Brooks helping with the food...He loves to be in the kitchen!

Mom and Dad

Playing in the Leaves

While I do like living in a mostly shaded yard bordered by trees, it turns into a pretty big mess of leaves in the fall! Blake bought a leaf blower when we were in Iowa because we had a few big trees, and he uses it even more with this yard! Brooks got a little red rake from Ace and had a blast helping Daddy with the leaves!

 He loved it when Blake got under the leaves and jumped out at him!

Brooks is under this pile somewhere!

 One, Two, Three....GO!!!!

 Even Keely got to play in the leaves some...and of course tried to put one in her mouth like she does with just about everything these days!

 Blake cleaned up that pile of leaves, and then the next week, there were just as many! So Brooks got to jump in another pile.

 The starting position...

Fun fall play for a 2 year old!

6 Month Update

Our little Keely Jane is now 6 months old! I can't believe how fast it has really gone with her! It seems like we just brought her back from the hospital like 2 months ago, but yet it's hard to remember life without her around! 

Keely loves to smile.  She is such a happy baby! She loves to laugh and smile at (most) anyone who will pay attention to her! She is especially all smiles for her Daddy when he comes home from work. 

 Keely also learned to roll over from her back to her tummy probably a couple months ago already.  However, she just figured out how to roll back to her back from her tummy last night! She used to just lay on the floor on her tummy and scream until someone would help her.  She likes being on her tummy, but just not for too long! (This is completely opposite of Brooks. He never rolled from his back to his tummy until he was old enough to crawl, but he rolled from his tummy to his back probably around 3 months!)

 She looks so mad at me in this picture for taking yet another picture!

Keely also loves to be outside.  We have had a great fall so far, and she has enjoyed it along with the rest of us! She likes to watch Brooks run around with Cheyenne, and she gets super excited if Cheyenne comes close to her.  I think we'll have 2 kids who love their dog! 

Keely also loves her exersaucer at this age.  It has been so great for me to have a place to put her where she is confined and can be eye level with Brooks.  He actually does a great job 'watching' her for me while I shower real quick or start some laundry downstairs.  He'll hand her toys and talk to her or sing to her to keep her entertained.  She loves it! 

Keely absolutely adores her big brother.  If she is crying or fussing, Brooks can always put a smile back on her face.  Brooks loves making her laugh too.  However, his favorite comment to her is, "Keely, you're too little!" when she tries to grab some of his toys or food he's eating.  While he is correct, I'm thinking this is going to be a struggle to convince him later on that she is old enough to play certain toys with him and do the same things he does! He's probably going to want to keep her too little forever!  He does get annoyed with her in the mornings or when he wakes up from his nap and she keeps looking at him and smiling.  Brooks is kind of slow to wake up sometimes and doesn't like that she is so happy right away! If he's in a particularly bad mood he'll tell Keely to "stop looking at Brooks, Keely"  and whine at me or her about it! Yesterday in the car Brooks was crying because I didn't give him his iPod to play and Keely was smiling at him.  Brooks didn't like that and said, "Keely don't look at Brooks when he's crying".  So funny! (yes, he talks in 3rd person alot!)

She's always interested in the electronic games Brooks has...

 And loves Veggie Tales (or any cartoon for that matter!)

 She has also been sitting up on her own pretty well for about a month or so now.  I still keep the boppy pillow behind her most of the time though because she will just flop backwards when chewing on a toy without controlling her body at all! I know that keeping a pillow behind her is just teaching her it's ok to fall backwards and not catch herself because it's padded, but it's a lot easier on me right now than watching her constantly when she is sitting! She will also fall forward and get stuck going after a toy, but she is getting better at trying to push herself back up!
We have started Keely on rice cereal for supper. She has not done as well with it as Brooks did, so I'm struggling to keep with it! (It doesn't make it any easier when I have to handle both kids eating, and myself during meals...I usually end up eating a cold plate of food! oh well, it'll get easier someday...maybe!)

 It has helped that she can sit in her high chair during meals and at least be able to be up with us instead of on the floor or on my lap!

  For nighttime, Keely has been doing much better than she did a month or so ago when she was getting up 3-4 times a night! She now gets up maybe once a night and just to eat a little bit and then falls back asleep.  Her normal wakeup time is anywhere between 3:30 and 5, and then wakes up for the day between 7 & 8 depending on if and when she was up in the middle of the night.  I have begun weaning her from nursing, and it is going pretty well so far.  However, I'm still trying to figure out how much formula she really needs so she doesn't spit up from over eating or want to eat every 2 hours from not eating enough! She also now sleeps on her side for naps and at night, so I think that has helped her sleep better too.  We still have her mattress propped up with a towel on one side from when she had a bad cold, so she is still on a slight slant to sleep, but seems to do just fine so we haven't changed it back! In this picture she fell asleep as I was putting her sleep sack on her before bed...she was super tired that night!

Overall, Keely has been a much easier going, happier baby, then her bigger brother.  She does have more difficulties with the rice cereal eating and delayed rolling over skills, but nothing to really complain about! At least she is mostly all smiles and can be cheered up pretty easily with a little attention!