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!

Trick or Treat

Again this year we went to Henderson to go Trick or Treating with Brooks' cousins, Lane and Katy.  Brooks didn't seem to have as much fun with it all this year as he did last year.  He has been really clingy to me lately and just whinier.  He acts like he is teething or something, but he has all of his teeth, so I'm not sure what the deal is! We had a little trouble getting Brooks to put on his costume this year.  He said for the last month that he wanted to be a lion again until about 2 days before Halloween, then he changed his mind and was completely against the lion.  Luckily my mom had a puppy costume that he agreed to wear.  It was a little small, but it still fit.  He was excited to look like Grandma Jost's dog Chilie.  Keely got to dress up as a cow thanks to a costume I borrowed from Cody.  She was so cute!

 She wasn't sure of her hat, but I thought it was pretty cute!

 Brooks wouldn't let me put his costume on before we left the house, so when we got to Ace, we had him put it on.  He was not impressed!

 We got him called down by getting to watch funny kitties with daddy.  And yes, Blake's hair is green!

 Brooks of course got to go to the bank and after that he was pretty happy because he got a special orange flavored tootsie roll.  Getting candy always makes things better! :)

 Here are Lane and Katy in their costumes...Brooks started crying when we tried to get him in the picture and just wanted mommy...so frustrating!

 We had a hard time trying to get a picture of Brooks and Keely...she kept looking at him, or Brooks would look away.

 This is the best one we got...

 Trick or Treating at Great Grandma Jost's

 Even Keely got some candy

 Running...Brooks was having fun at this point.  And yes, we were watching closely for any oncoming cars!

 He actually looks like a dog in this picture with his head down!

Luckily it was a really nice evening and even though we didn't trick or treat a whole lot, Brooks got more than enough candy!