Happy Turkey Day!

I'm Thankful for my Family!

And Choo-Choo Trains!

I loved hanging out with my Aunt Tracey

And Cousin Miranda

Hanging out with my "Pops" in my cozies

Luv you Great Grandpa (G-G)

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday in St. Louis with Josh's family. We enjoyed some football Thursday morning with friends, a wonderful dinner with at Grammy's house, a trip to the Transportation Museum (train heaven!) with Grammy, and play time with "Pops" and Kap'em. It was a jammed pack weekend of fun. Thanks to all for the yummy food and good company!

23 months: Mommy's Little Man

I cook!

I do laundry!

I play music....

All for my Mommy!

Look what I learned to do!

This is my favorite song to sing along to...

I ask for it every morning in the car with mommy.

Peek-a-boo!

-Brooks is now 23 months! Only one month to go before we no longer count in months ;) He is learning how to help me out by cooking, cleaning, and even entertaining me. Ha ha.

He did have fun baking cookies with me and always likes to throw the laundry into the dryer. He has been testing us again (wonder if I can blame it on teeth this time?). He is hitting and throwing things because he thinks it's funny. Time out really does not seem to work very well. He does understand what it is...but will do it again the next hour. Oh well....I know it is a phase. I just thought we were out of the phase already. I think he does it when he is bored or we are not showing him complete attention. It is very challenging. The reason why I say it may be teeth is because he has been waking at night crying. He needs rocked for a minute then goes back to sleep. What is up with that??? I am not used to getting up in the middle of the night. I also think it may be nightmares. He always talks about ghosts and these episodes happened shortly after Halloween. Some of my friends said it happened to their child at this age as well. Who knows....but it has to stop soon! Come on molars...pop on through and ghosts be gone!!

Happy Birthday "BruBru"

Brutus has taken over the empty guest room

Don't think you can squeeze through....

Sweet Brutus

Shotgun!

-Brutus turned 5 today! He is such a fun and loyal dog. He brings so much joy to our lives with his funny faces. We spent the day loving on him and even took the family for pictures in the park. It was a beautiful weekend and we took advantage of it.

-Aunt Tammy's Birthday was on 11/3 (Happy Birthday!) and we went out to eat Sunday to celebrate. Uncle Tyler even came back in town from IU (with his new girlfriend ;)). Hope we did not scare her away!

BOO!

-Painting and Carving Pumpkins

and practicing "trick or treat"....good try!

-Huh...a monster pumpkin and Elmo?

Hey Ya'll...I'm Farmer Brooks!

Lets go get some CANDY!!

I needed mom to help me the first few houses...but then I was a pro!

-Headed to next house with my barn animals

-Enjoying the evening with Mama, Dada and Grandma

-We had SO much fun on Halloween in our new home. It was the first time we had trick or treaters. Brooks loved handing out candy to all the kids and almost emptied us the first few visitors. He was actually sad to leave the house and try it himself. Once he understood that HE could GET candy....he was off to the races. He always asked, "one more?" and wanted to go into all the homes (especially the ones with kitty cats "yayas"). I thought he would get scared with all the crazy outfits...but he did great. Only if I could read his mind! He was probably wondering why the heck we were all dressed up asking for candy from everyone. Too fun! He was sad to come inside, but quickly recovered when more trick or treaters came knocking. Of course he has been wanting candy every night and we have had to limit it...but still allowing him to be a kid. Don't you remember how fun it was to go through all the candy? Those were the days and now we get to live them again through Brooks's eyes.

-We carved the pumpkins the night before Halloween. I made an Elmo "La-la" pumpkin (for Brooks) and Josh made a scary faced pumpkin. Not too bad! Brooks had a blast painting the pumpkin....we may have a Picasso on our hands...ha ha.

Training him early...

Having fun at the Butler Bulldog Beauty Contest

They had BALLOONS there!

I got this football and helmet there too!

(too bad they didn't give the Colts some luck!)

I'm learning early how to be a Cardinal's fan

(with the help of "Pops" of course!)

-This past weekend was packed with fun and family time. Josh's dad, "Pops", came in town to see the new house with his bully, Kap'em. It was also Butler's homecoming where we go to the Bulldog Beauty Contest each year. Brooks thought it was cool to see so many bullies in one place...but had more fun running around and finding balloons.

-We spent Saturday night watching the Cardinals in the World Series. Brooks is getting trained early on how to cheer on the Cardinals. Anytime he sees redbirds on a bat, he says "Go cardinals" in the best way he knows how. He had a blast with "Pops" and was sad to see him go.

22 months and Happy Birthday Papa McCarroll!

Happy Birthday Papa!!

-Brooks is now 22 months old (sigh)....almost the big 2! He still makes us laugh everyday and melts our hearts with his sweet side. He is so polite and always says, "tank tou mama" or "tank tou dada"...etc. He is also taking after me (good or bad) by cleaning up after himself. For example....I took off his pants to change his diaper the other night. Since it was close to bedtime I left them on the floor. He (without being asked) got up, picked them up, walked over to the laundry room and put them on the floor. He also picked up a used paper towel (I had not yet thrown away) and marched over to the trash to throw away. He also knows exactly where his toys go and puts them away (majority of time). Ok...Ok...so maybe a little OCD like his mom when it comes to putting things in their place, but I LOVE it! hehehehe

-He is really enjoying school and seems to be doing well there. He gets excited when driving there in the morning and always asks for his "uh, oh, oh" song (aka "Put a Ring on it" by Beyonce). He is learning his colors (most things are yellow) and numbers (most are two). He is recognizing when we are close to home (he says "bru bru, seesee" for Brutus and Sweet Pea) and says "mamaw, papa" when going to my parents home. He surprised me the other day when we went to the grocery store (he did not know we were headed there) and said "balloon?" when we turned into the shopping area. He always gets a free Kroger balloon when going to the store.

-The past 22 months have been so much fun and I just want to freeze this time. Wonder what he'll do next.....

Another Week of Fun

Wednesday:

Watching Uncle Ty Ty's IU soccer game

with Cousin Cassidy against Butler

Thursday:

Lining up at school to go outside to....

A pumpkin patch!

(Hey..I wanted that one)

Friday:

Hanging out with Dada at the Children's Museum

Now THIS is a train table!

I got to crawl thru tunnels...

Play in the sand...

Splash around in the water...

And drive an Indy race car

(RIP Dan Wheldon...our thoughts

are with his family)

-Brooks had a week filled with fun! I took Brooks to Butler on Wednesday night to watch his Uncle TyTy's IU soccer team. He had more fun running around and chasing after the (older) girls. My best friends' daughters were there to keep him entertained. Of course his Cousin Cassidy always makes him smile.

-Thursday Brooks went to the pumpkin patch at school (it was really just outside the church) and parents were invited to join in on the fun. It was my first time getting to see Brooks interact with his friends and teachers. I was SO impressed that all the kids held onto the rope and followed the teachers so well! In the video you can hear Brooks saying "Hi mama". It took him a few glances to realize....Mama was at school!!!

-Since Josh was unable to make the pumpkin patch...he decided to take Friday off work...YEAH! We had some family fun at the Children's Museum. There was so much to do and Brooks really enjoyed himself. He saw trains, rode a carousel, played in the sand/water, planted flowers, crawled through tunnels, saw dinosaurs, walked through a mirror maze, gaze at ceiling of colored glass....to name a few!

-Saturday was a day to hang out and play.....then Sunday we had a birthday dinner to celebrate PaPa McCarroll's birthday a little early.

-On a side note.....Happy 3rd Birthday for Kap'em ("Pops" Blackmore's bulldog). See you soon!

Whew! What a fun week it was! As well as a weekend of work for me.....

Before

After: Done with wood work!!!

Now for painting of walls and baseboards/window trim/pillars!

(only 2 months later...ugh!)

Pumpkins and.....Rainbows??

Check out this shot from our backyard.

I got to see my first rainbow.

Look closely and you can see a second rainbow!

Think I will find a pot of gold behind my swing set?

Sitting "pretty"

Always giving mama a hard time

(I was actually a little nervous on the hayride)

What about this pumpkin?

Maybe this one is more my size

We got 3 nice BIG pumpkins totaling 71 lbs!!

-We took advantage of this beautiful fall day and headed to the pumpkin patch! Brooks was really excited to pick out a pumpkin....that was until he realized he had to take a hayride to the patch. It is so funny...he is ALL about tractors, but when encountering a big, loud tractor that he was actually going to RIDE behind....he got scared. He was not too sure about the hayride. But, with some reassurance and other kids to distract him.....he did great. We found 3 "perfect" pumpkins. Josh always looks for the biggest and roundest pumpkin and I always look for the more unique shaped or stemmed pumpkin. I am all about the stems for some reason. ---Brooks also got to see Cousin Cassidy play soccer later in the day. He really enjoyed running around, kicking the ball, and cheering on Cassidy. He even got to hear a real LOUD choo-choo train passing right by the fields. After getting over some nervousness, he was super excited to hear it pass by another 4 times! What a day.....pumpkins, soccer, tractors and trains...oh my!

-On a side note...the first posted picture was taken last Sunday from our back porch. The double rainbow is so beautiful and looks like it ends just on the other side of the neighbor's yard. Some things are just so breath-taking no matter how many times you see it.

Sweet Music

Practicing my piano ;)

WOW....Look what I found in my playroom

when coming home on Monday

A PIANO from Grammy Videmschek

Thank You!!

-Grammy sent Brooks this cool piano the other day. It only took a minute and he was pounding away. Music to my ears....hee hee. Not quite, but I think it is a great idea for Brooks to have another interests rather than tractors and balls. It is fun to randomly hear him in his playroom making music. Thanks for thinking of him!!!

GO CARDINALS!

I got his COOL fire truck from "Pops"

(I don't think you are really supposed to ride it)

I love hanging out with Great Grandpa

Grammy even stopped by to see me again!

I never sit still when taking pictures with mama

Headed to my first Cards game with dada and "Pops"

Where's Fredbird?

Thanks "Pops" for the awesome seats....

only if I actually sat in it!

Blackmore Crew

Trying to say "GO Cardinals" in prep for the big game

(we were hanging out at Great GPa's house for dinner)

-Last weekend was long in waiting for Josh and "Pops" Blackmore.....they got to take Brooks to his first Cardinals Baseball game!!! I of course tagged along to help chase after the wild man. He really thought the stadium was cool and liked looking for "Fred bird" (cardinals mascot). He liked looking for him so much, that he only wanted to roam the halls. He did not actually watch the game, but really enjoyed running up and down the ramps. The game started right when he would be going down for a nap...so he crashed at the 5th inning and we left early. I know Josh can't wait until Brooks is a little older so he can take him to more games. We enjoyed our weekend away in St. Louis with "Pops". He got to visit with Great Grandpa, eat good food, and play hard all weekend long. "Pops" spoiled Brooks as usual with cool firetruck and new Cardinals gear....he has such wonderful Grandparents. We feel blessed. Thanks for a wonderful weekend!!