A Little Bit of Everything

No new videos or pictures to post. Just some rambling thoughts that have been going through my head the past few days.

This semester of school has been crazy. As a teacher of 3 different subjects and about 120 total students, the office decided it would be fun to mix it up a bit and make it so I flip flop back and forth between subjects all day long instead of grouping my classes together. I am constatly shuffling through worksheets and powerpoint slides to quickly set up for the next class. This makes it really fun when I get worksheets and lesson plans confused and have to ask my students "what class is this again?" I also showed that video in my previous post about Savannah. I linked it with a writing assignment. I think it went well. The middle school years can sometimes be the hardest and my hope is that my students took something away from that video and will extend friendship to those who need it most.

I've been called to be the weeblos assistant, which so far hasn't been too bad. But now I have a dreading feeling that I'm going to be called to be the actual leader. The current leader has been doing it for 7 years and has been giving me these cryptic hints indicating she might be released. Then yesterday I got a crash course on recording all the boys badges. Why would an assistant need to know that?! I only pray they call Blake in to do it with me. I have no idea how the scouting program works and if I'm being completely honest, I really am not at all interested in the scouting program. I kind of see this going in the same direction as when I was asked to teach 6th grade PE: me sitting on the bleachers while the kids played a game. "Mrs. Millecam, so and so just fouled me!" Me: "Oh really, I didn't see it. Keep playing!"

I am trying something new this month too. I was reflecting on my marriage and thinking how after 7 1/2 years I feel like there are a lot of things that I take for granted. I've gotten comfortable in my marriage instead of making efforts to improve it. So starting today (February 1) I am going to make a conscious effort to show more appreciation for Blake. Each day I'm going to remember to tell him thank you for something he did (like doing the dishes, taking care of Brooke etc...) and just letting him know I love him. I know this sound silly, but I sometimes I forget to say thank you for the small things or I forget to to call just to tell him I love him and not about something I forgot at the grocery store. I took an institute class where we read an article entitled "Change yourself--change your marriage" The jist of it said that so many people focus on the things they want to change about their spouse instead of looking inward. So I'm going to take this advice to heart (many years later) and see how it goes. I'm excited to see what changes take place. With Blake and I both being so busy, I feel like this will help keep the focus on us, our marriage, and our family and not let those outside sources of stress influence us as much.

And I can't end a blog post without mentioning some things that Brooke is up to:
*She wakes up in the morning and we can hear her singing in her crib. Then when she hears us also up and moving around she goes 'Hello?...Hellllooowww?" and then "Mommy? Daddy?" It makes me smile everyday.
*She loves the movie "Finding Nemo" and will say "Nemo. I want watch Nemo." And she will actually sit through most of it.
*Last night she wanted to dress up in her fairy wings, put her socks on her hands and dance around in the basement.
*On Saturday I was vacuuming and left Brooke at the kitchen table with a coloring book. When I finished I came back into the kitchen to find Brooke was nowhere to be seen but the cuboard with the cleaning supplies was open. I did some searching and saw that Brooke's bedroom door was closed. I opened it and Brooke immediatly runs over to me says 'here go!" and hands me a bottle of febreeze (luckily that is all that it was!) that she had been spraying all over her room. Naughty girl, she knew she was in trouble!

Just Dance!

Brooke got a new (well, new to her) toy from her cousin E. It's a Disney Princess music player. It's a new twist on the old toy music players with those plastic records (remember those?) Now, instead of a record player, it looks like a mini portable CD player, but still has those plastic records you put in to make it play. Brooke loves it and she loves to boogie all around the house. I've realized that my house doesn't give off very good light in the evening. I had all 3 lights turned on in the kitchen and it is still dark in the video!(to us, the lighting is fine). I wonder if it's because we use those new lightbulbs that use less energy.

Here are some other cute tidbits about Brooke right now:

* she is getting so good at saying please "peese" and thank you "kank you"

*she loves the book "The Wonderful Sounds Mr. Brown Can Do" in fact, we read it so much that she knows all of the sounds for each page. It's cute to watch her open the book all by herself and just doing the sound effects.

*She's been doing tons better on not screaming when she is frustrated. For months we've been telling her "Don't scream, use your words and say 'help me!' " So now she will run up to us and say "help! I need help! Peese!"

And this has nothing to do with Brooke, but just an awesome youtube video that was sent to me. I hope it plays (let me know if it doesn't). In October Herriman HS nominated a girl with cerebal palsy as homecoming queen, and she got asked to go to the dance. It's a really touching video and shows what a difference you make by just extending a helping hand and being a good friend to someone who is different than you are.

ROAR!

We have been spoiled lately. Two weekends in a row cousins have come out to visit and play. This weekend was Danielle's family and on Saturday we took all the kids to the Dinosaur Museum. Brooke knows exactly what a dinosaur says "ROAR!"
Brooke and cousin K. (who is only 4 1/2 mo. younger than B. had a good time running all over the place)
Brooke liked being able to touch things
And she loved this exhibit that had a stream running through it. She kept wanting to go back and look at the waterDigging for dinosaur bonesBrooke was so funny about this tunnel. She kept thinking she was too tall to stand up in it, so would get down and crawl through it.Following cousin E. around
Not even 5 minutes after we got to the museum Brooke ran up these concrete steps and slipped and fell. She bonked her head right into one of the steps, leaving a nasty goose egg and bruise. I tried to get a picture of it on Sunday morning, but it doesn't really show it very well.Then, I told Brooke that it was time to get her coat on for church and she pulled the ol' "I'm sleeping" routine!I love H. who watches Brooke for me. She does so many fun crafts with the kids. One day all the kids made these signs. Brooke got to help roll out the shapes for her name, put it in the oven to bake, and then did all the painting and glitter too!

A Conversation with Brooke

The holiday weekend was lots of fun; espeically when cousins come to play! Frosting sugar cookies

Playing "toh doh" with cousin A. Look at that grin! I loved talking books with Steph! She has great taste and I always get lots of good ideas from her!
Sharing a quiet moment with Pinch:Last night Brooke was helping me unload the dishwasher and we had this conversation:
B: I want to watch a moodee (movie)
Me: no. after we finish cleaning up you're going to have a bath
B: a tubby?
Me: yes a tubby
B: bubbles? (she got tinkerbell bath bubbles from her cousin for Christmas)
Me: yep, we can put bubbles in the bath
Then before I even knew it there was a pile of clothes on the kitchen floor and naked bum running up the stairs. What a silly girl!


Brooke has also learned to be quite the schemer. After a fun-filled day with grams and pinch, I came to take Brooke home and she did not want to go. Instead she ran over and laid down on the floor and pretended to be asleep almost like "see? I'm asleep and you can't take me" I couldn't help but laugh. She is so smart. I don't know where she learned that.


On the potty front, we are making progress! Brooke now wears pull ups all day. She is good about going potty and even takes the inititive to sometimes tell us she needs to go. Usually after she announces she needs to go potty she will immediately pull her pants and pull up down and then hobble to the toilet. It's pretty cute. What is NOT cute is twice now I've gone in after
Brooke's nap to find poop on the floor. Brooke has realized she doesn't like it when she poops her diaper and will throw it out onto the floor, leaving poopy handprints all over her crib and bedding. That has been just lovely to clean up. But I am still optimistic that wearing big girl underwear is just around the corner for us!

The story of a Blanket & a Happy Girl who Poked her Hand

We watched "Sleeping Beauty" on Monday night and Brooke was so concerned about Aurora. All through the movie Brooke kept asking "What happin?" and I would do my best to try and explain it in two year terms: "She's sad. That lady is mean to her. She poked her finger. She's asleep. Oh look! She's awake now." It was so cute because the first thing she said when she woke up Tuesday morning was "Girl...she happy. She poke-it...her hand" And Brooke has been talking about it ever since. Also, we finally got Brooke to sit still long enough to show off for the camera a little bit. Of course it had to be in the tub (no escape). First, she does animal noises and her scary roar, then she gets distracted and tries to drink the bathwater, and finally she sings "Popcorn Popping" with Blake and I. It's pretty cute. Notice her headband? She had to wear it while taking a bath.

Now to the blanket. Blake really wanted us to make our own blanket for our bed. He dreams about this soft flannel quilt he had in high school and wanted another one. I was against it because making a blanket is more expensive than just buying one. Plus we couldn't ever decide on material. Blake wanted the blanket to go on top of our other ones, and I only did if I could choose the material. We compromised finally by agreeing that Blake could choose the material, but our white comforter would still go on top.

Our sewing skills are limited, so we tied it. And here is the finished productI do have to admit, that it is pretty soft and warm!

Finally, my friend Sandy put links to these things on her blog and I thought they were pretty awesome so I am sharing them too. They are cards you can print out (just like a 4x6 picture) and then put into little books for your kids to look at during church (I just put the cards into the cheapest photo albums I could find. Wal-mart has some for $1). I love them! Even though Brooke can't read, she still loves to look at the pictures, and someday she can read and learn about them. There are almost 70 pictures to print, and Walgreens is doing a special: buy 25 prints, get 25 prints free using the code Double25 until January 15. You should be able to click on the picture and it will take you to the website where you can download (for free!) the different books they have.

Here are the different themes you can print:

We Believe

Book of Mormom Stories

Prophets and Apostles
Articles of Faith
Primary Theme Cards for 2011

How We Rang in the New Year

New Year's Eve was really fun this year. We went to Blake's bro's house to celebrate (something that has become a fun family tradition) and Brooke was in heaven with all of her cousins. I mentioned before that Blake had to work, so it was just B. and I. I wasn't sure how NYE would go, but Brooke stayed up until 11 p.m.! I couldn't believe it since she is such a scheduled kid. I thought for sure by 8 she'd be having a meltdown, but I think all the cousin-fun kept her occupied.

Some of the highlights:

*Cousin gift exchange and white elephant exchange for the adults

*telling lots of stories (with embellishments, of course)

*eating lots of yummy food (Blake was sad he missed Steph's famous artichoke dip)

*Brooke getting to play dress up with the bigger cousins:

*Playing with cousin Karson

*But the best part was the Talent Show:

Usually at family get-togethers all the nieces and nephews put on some kind of "performance". Usually it quickly planned and no one really knows what is going on. It's still cute, but was nothing compared to this year. Some of the older cousins put together a well planned performance complete with candy-canes given to all the guests and a printed program (this was all with no adult help) I loved that the program said the girls in white were "beautiful, angel dancers" Some cousins played piano & viola, while others sang Christmas Carols. And of course, the angel dancers danced.

There was an unexpected 3rd angel dancer. Brooke started copying all the ballet moves and dances right along with the older girls. I still need to get the video of the performance from my sis-in-law.

The next day was swimming and sledding. I'm sure my family will love that I posted this pic of all of us in our swimsuits, but it's the only picture of all of us together but no worries, we all look good! ;)

We finished off the trip with a slumber party at the hotel:Cousins J.,A., K., and B with grams

Happy 2011

2 years and full of it!

We had a really fun New Year's this year. Brooke and I (Blake had to work) went up to Logan to Blake's brother's house for his annual New Year's Eve party. We all look forward to it every year. Brooke was actually old enough to play with the cousins and they all loved trying to make her laugh and since most of the cousins are girls, she had lots of little mommies keeping an eye out for her! Saturday night we hung out at the hotel with Steph's kids so Steph and Kurt could enjoy a night out together. It was a big slumber pary!

This is the only photo I took with my camera: cousin K. and Brooke relaxing watching a movie. I need to get the rest of the photos from NYE and post those later :)

Brooke had her 2 year old check up today and here are her stats:

Height: 32.5 (80th percentile) Weight: 24.13 (25th percentile)

Brooke has been in these percentiles since she was 6 months old! And if you go by the old addage that if you double the height at age 2 to predict full height, Brooke will be around 5.8, almost 5.9! And I don't doubt that's possible knowing how tall Blake is.

Brooke has been so funny lately. She is so full of it! She loves Blake's parents and when we go to leave she will run up to grams (her "honey") and will snuggle with her. When I try to take her, she will say "Go away, go away!" And whenever I drop Brooke off to be tended by his parents she run up to them and ask to be held, then say to Blake and I "bye-bye...see you!" Brooke is also talking so well! Although, some of her words are probably only decipherable to Blake and I. Some of her new words:

yed-dow- love you

Toh-Doh- play doh

Cody- color

pay-play

nik-milk

cookie- could mean a cookie or a cracker--most of the time we give her a cracker :)

silly-grwl- silly girl

pretty- means jewelry and dresses

choc- chocolate milk

moodee- movie

She can also talk in complete sentences and will say things like "Where did it go?" or "What happened?"

She is also starting to learn the words to songs. We sing and she will sing along with us, it's the cutest thing!

She can take her shoes and coat off all by herself

Can dry her own hands and face off on a towel

When I spilled a drop of milk on my jeans, she ran and got the dish towel and wiped it up for me without even me asking her to.

Brooke is still our fun-loving girl! She loved playing peek-a-boo with this box

And finally, Blake was excited to start his new year off by shooting some coyotes--3 in fact. I think Brooke was a little traumatized by seeing this "puppy" all frozen and bloody. Better get used to it, kid!