Bring on the SNOW!

One of my first times playing in the snow!  Last year there was hardly any.

I loved to go sledding!  I can't wait to go skiing sometime with mom and dad!

  

Merry X-mas and Happy Birthday Mommy!

Baby Oliver is my buddy now!  Pretty soon he will be beating up on me!

I got my first tricycle for X-mas and love pedaling it around the house.

Grandma got me this cool Hummer.  Why does Oliver look so scared?

Christmas Morning 2012 

I thought Santa was really cool this year.  I told him I would leave him cookies.  

-Merry Christmas 2012!  We had a wonderful X-mas at home this year.  Brooks was so excited to wake up with his Christmas Cozies (Pjs) on and hurry downstairs to see what Santa left.  He really enjoyed his "elf on the shelf" this year and named it "Hot Diggity Dog".  He was really excited to play in the snow this year.  We really have not had many opportunities to play in the snow due to the crazy weather. He loved it, but I think he loved getting  HOT COCO afterwards the best.  We hope to get him on some skies soon!  Maybe next year!

Birthday Time!

CHEESE!  Happy Birthday to ME!

I had a great time at my birthday party.  I got to play games, ride bumper cars, bowl, jump in
bounce houses, and climb on jungle gym equipment with my family.

I wanted a HOT WHEEL party!

Grammy and PaPaw came in town too!

Grandma came over on my real birthday to give me this cute towel.  I love it!

-Brooks is now 3 years old!  I can't believe it.  He is just so much fun, smart, witty and has a great love for life.  He is so funny and likes to entertain.  He is really into trains, hot wheels, ninja turtles, and sports.  He also likes to draw and is getting pretty creative with naming the art work ;) He still loves his books and is working on learning his letters.  He is most interested in B-R-O-O-K-S.  Wonder why?  He loves to help Mommy decorate the home for the holiday seasons.  He is a huge helper around the house (will that last forever?!). His 3 year checkup went well.   I think he was still in 90th for height (39 in) and around the 70th for weight (32 lbs).  It's been awhile since the checkup and I'm playing catchup again with these posts!  Story of my life.  I'm so proud of the little man he is becoming!

Catching up

I have been going to the Library more often with Mommy.  I keep seeing this cute girl each time.

I like to run with mommy instead of riding in the stroller.

Singing Happy Birthday to Brutus while in the tub.  He's 6 years old now!

I voted with Mommy!

Playing at the park in November!

Check out this HUGE slide.  I'm not scared!

Strike a pose!

Learning how to bowl for my first time.

Chilling after a round of bowling.

Gobble Gobble!

Thanks Grandma for my Nativity!

Striking a pose with my Mommy.

On my way to the Tree Farm.

I found one over here guys!

Good job Daddy cutting it down!

Hey...wait up!

The "perfect" Christmas Tree.

Playing with "Pops" 63 year old Lionel Train set.  It's Christmas everyday!

-I have not had much of a chance to blog lately so I decided to add lots of pictures with captions to catch up.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents house.  My mom always cooks the best food.  Her stuffing can't be beat!  "Pops" Blackmore came into town despite being in lots of pain. He is waiting to have a hip replacement.  We had so much fun hunting down our "perfect" Christmas tree together.  We ended up getting a 10 foot tree!!!  It is so pretty in the house.  Brooks is in heaven playing with the Lionel train set.  I can not even imagine how much fun Christmas will be this year!

-Brooks has had fun going to the Library, jumping at SkyZone and playing at the park on our days off. He still attends a Mother's Day out 2 half days a week.  He is really enjoying himself and learning so much!  Probably the biggest change with Brooks is that he wears Big Boy Pants all the time now!! Even to bed and naptime!!  I can not tell you how proud we are of him.  It is something you work on (for past year on and off)...but he just woke up and decided to be done with diapers (well...for the most part).  He is still very timid about doing #2 in the potty.  So he asks for diaper to poop, then puts underwear back on.  Oh well...it's an awesome start!  He gets upset if we even mention diapers.  He says, "I big boy now".  Wow...where has my little stinker gone?  My heart is a little sad and a lot happy;)

Happy Halloween Everybody!

I am so excited to carve our pumpkins!

I picked a WITCH for mommy to make

Daddy picked a SCARY MONSTER one!

Choo-Choo All Aboard!!

Brooks's Choo-Choo Express

My Cousin Oliver was a blue Dragon! I think he's pretty cool now that he is moving around!

Hey...Get back here!!!

I couldn't wait to go trick or treating

Enough pix already!!!

I had this down house one!

Daddy and I went back out for round 2

I had so much fun!  Now I can't wait to eat this CANDY!!!

-Brooks really had a blast trick or treating this year.  I don't even think he realized how COLD it was!  He was so excited to get dressed up and walk the neighborhood.  Halloween morning he woke up and asked if it was time to go trick or treating.  He just could not understand why he needed to wait until the evening time.  Aunt Tammy, Cousin Oliver, Grandma McCarroll and Daddy were all there to join in.  Brooks came back in after about an hour and was so upset when I said we were done.  He folded his arms and said, "I am NOT done trick or treating!!!".  Who are we to say no?  It was Halloween of course and this kid has been asking everyday if it was Halloween today.  So Josh went back out for round two.  We had fun eating pizza and CANDY for dessert.  What fun times!  I really LOVE this time of year and to see all the joy in his eyes is priceless!  Happy Halloween to all!  BOO

The Secret

This is some of the stuff we have been up to lately

My reclaimed wood island!!

-I have been so busy this summer trying to re-do our kitchen.  Here are just a few sneak peeks into the transformation.  I will post more about the kitchen makeover in a week or so.  I'm ALMOST DONE.  Yes...you can see from the picture that I painted the cabinets an off-white/creamish color.  What a difference.  I'll share soon.  Josh was a huge help with this reclaimed wood island and changing out outlets.  It is so nice to have a handy husband!

-I do need to tell the sweetest story though.  This morning Brooks came downstairs and saw some cabinet doors on the kitchen table drying.  He was a big help cleaning it up so we could have breakfast at the table.  While I was getting the food ready, Brooks was standing by the table just looking around the kitchen and family room.  Then he simply said, "The house is so pretty.....Momma, The house is so pretty".  Can you even imagine my reaction?  My heart smiled and I gave him the biggest hug and kiss.  All my hard work was appreciated.  Isn't that what we all want in life?  To feel appreciated and validated?  Well, my 2 year old son has already figured out the secret.  Let's pray he keeps that honesty, sincerity and sweetness throughout his life.  Thank you God for my little man.

My buddies

-This past weekend was very special for me.  It was my first time joining the Buddy Walk activities.  Josh, Brooks and I went down town to help support the Down Syndrome Foundation.  Many of the kids on my caseload have Down syndrome and are very near and dear to my heart.  It was super crowded, so we did not get to do everything we wanted...but it made me feel so good to support my families and these amazing kids.  Brooks just enjoyed running around and of course the huge balloons!

Pumpkins galore!

I love pumpkin time!

Waiting for the tractor to get back

I was so excited to take a hayride!

Check out all these pumpkins!  I was looking for a little one, Daddy needed a big one and Mommy wanted to find a medium one.

I found it!

Ugh...it's heavy and stuck!

Can I get some help here?

-The last weekend of September we took advantage of the beautiful weather and visited Spencer Farms.  It is a simple family farm with great pumpkins and mums.  Brooks enjoys the free hayride, Josh enjoys the HUGE pumpkins and I enjoy the beautiful (but cheap) mums.

Heading to my school hayride with my partner in crime, Rome.  Please don't pay attention to my hat.  My teacher put it on me and she didn't know how it was supposed to fit.  Oh well!

This is my friend Ada.  We all took a hayride around the church's 80 acres!

I was keeping an eye out for those pumpkins

Here they are!  I found one!

Grandma was there too!

Along with my Mommy!

  

-Brooks had his school hayride and pumpkin patch on Thursday.  He was excited to hang out with his friends as well as Grandma and me.  Unfortunately, Josh is super busy with work and could not make it.  We had fun taking a long hayride and then picking out a pumpkin.  He would pick one out and say, "Is this a good one?'.  He really seems to like this time of year.  He is excited, instead of scared, this year about Halloween.  He is really interested in the ghosts, witches, and monsters.  He likes them from afar and likes to talk about them.  One of his favorite things to do with me is go on a walk.  He takes a bag and picks up all the pretty leaves.  He is sure to pick out the pretty ones so we can then decorate the house with them.  It's kind of sweet and I'm sure the bugs like the new home too ;)