brookie talks

just thought i would share some of brooke's new words. she chats quite a lot these days. here are some of the many words that she says on a regular basis :)



and here is another one :)

post hanna

i just wanted to update those of you who don't live here.
we are all doing fine. except for the faint sound of hammering, you would not even know there was a tropical storm here less than 12 hours ago. the storm hit in the middle of the night with some good strong wind and rain. the children did keep us up a bit, so we were able to hear in come on land. we lost power for not even 5 minutes, but just enough time to make us reset all of the clocks.

ok well that is it. we had no damage, didn't (really) lose power, and are doing great.

i hope everyone else fared as well!

mall play

being that we may be stuck in the house, we decided to go to the mall to play this morning.




hopefully hanna will not be too much of a problem!

MHP take 1

these are the first round of pictures from millie. these were taken at gavin's (seth's son) first birthday party. these are not the ones that we did downtown... those will be along later.
just thought i would share! they are great! of course!

kind of scary huh??!!

there are a few more, but since they are SOO big, it takes forever to upload them. i may try more later :)


you can check out millie's other pictures at her blog or her website.

hanna ?

ok a little scary! i just saw this on the afternoon news... seems they have changed the path of the (appropriately named) hurricane hanna. let's say some prayers that this hanna (with one too many "n"s) comes no where near us!!

first day of preschool!!!

it is official, summer is over. hana started preschool today!!
this not being our first year of preschool, there were no fears or worries on my part. i know this is going to be another wonderful experience!
i think jack had it right when, last night, he said "hana, i think mommy is more excited about preschool than you are". well that is right!!
brooke and mommy get to have some time together. and most importantly, hana gets to paint and do other fun things at preschool. what a great deal for everyone! (can you tell that i am exited??!!)
in fact, brooke and i are meeting emily and noah at the library for some toddler story time!

yea preschool!!!

the preschool breakfast of champions

walking to the car with little sister in tow

AT preschool!

i have to add that when i went to pick up hana today, one of her teachers said "she was really good, kind of quiet" i laughed to myself and said "give her a few days :)"

a tale of two brookies

this picture is not related to the story... but it is just so you remember who brooke is :)

our latest battle with the sweet brooke is that she will point to something and scream "mommy mommy mommy" or "that that" until i give her the item of choice. we (by we i mean i) are trying to break this habit. so when she points to her milk and screams, i tell her that she can have it when she says "please or cup". (keep in mind that these are both words that she knows and will use when she wants to.) if she is feeling particularly stubborn 0she will put her rockstar fingers in her mouth and turn her head. sometimes she will even say "nunhuh". you would think after weeks of this same scene playing out repeatedly she would get the hint... not so much. just yesterday she finished her breakfast milk-free since she was too stubborn to ask. (on a side note- i said under my breath "man brooke you are stubborn" hana looked at me and said... she is NOT sunburned!)
now, if you are reading this and thinking "man she is only 17 months old can she really ask for what she wants?" the other night when jack was sharing his popsicle with the girls brookie was very quick with the "peeeese" "peeeese"

since i do tend to share the not so pleasant side of being a mom to two girls, i thought i would share a positive story as well. after picking up the girls from grow zone on sunday, i helped jack load up the girls to go home and i went back in to serve in grow zone for the 10:30 service (our regular sunday ritual). a man came up to me and said "you are brooke's mom, right?" (i was thinking... well that is one of my many names... yes) when i said yes, he just went on and on about how good she was and how much of a delight she is to have in church. being that i didn't hear this much with daughter number 1, i was a bit quiet and didn't know what to say. he kept going on and then said.. "you know this right?!" i did manage to say yes. but after thinking about it, i do know it. i am very thankful for my girls :) BOTH of them :)

Thank you Lord for my sweet daughters! (i will need to be reminded of this is about a week when they are driving me crazy!!)