Apple Pie....Mmmm....Delicious

This past Tuesday a guy from our ward at church taught the Relief Society how to make his awesome apple pie all from scratch. It turned out absolutely delicious although we had to wait until the next day until we could dive into the pie that I had made.

We also got to make our way to the park this last week. It was Brooke's first time going and I think she really enjoyed herself. She absolutely loved the swing which is surprising because she sometimes doesn't like to be thrown up in the air. She was a little iffy about the slide but still managed to have a smile on her face after going down.
Friday night Troy took me out on a date. We tried out a new place called Nono's Cafe. Think southern/New Orleans comfort food. It was delicious and we left there stuffed to the brim. Afterwards we went and saw Transformers on IMAX. I was a little worried that watching a movie on such a big screen would make me sick but it didn't and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Troy would say that it was a good popcorn movie. Our friends, Justing and Kristin, came and watched Brooke. They found our camera and decided to take some snapshots of Brooke. The funny thing is I feel like all the pictures that are taken in the highchair Brooke has the same head tilt. Here are just a few to show.

Saturday Brooke and I finally got Troy to the pool. Troy and Brooke had a blast in the deep end. Troy even tried to teach Brooke how to blow bubbles but Brooke would just laugh at him. Lastly, we think Brooke shares the same affinity for boxes as Lexie does.

Will it ever be summer?

So, despite what the solar position, school kids, and people wearing white say, it does not feel like Summer here in Colorado. Is it nice outside, yes. Is it warm in the morning, yes. Is it hot at noontime, sometimes. Does it rain nearly every afternoon and sometimes in the evenings, nearly every day. I swear at sometime I will be able to go swimming with Brooke one of these weekends.

Instead, this is how we keep ourselves busy. We visit with neighbors. Here is Brooke with Louis, who lives behind us. When they are together, it is hard to tell who enjoys it more, Brooke or Louis.

Brooke is a lot sillier at night. I don't know if it is just being at the end of the day, or the fact that I am home from work. Either way, we both enjoy a lot of laughs together.

The other night I made a tunnel with the ottoman and with the couch pillows. She enjoyed running away from me and attacking/crawling over Tracie.

Here is what Brooke does during the day when she is "quietly playing by herself". I think she has learned a few things from Lexie!

Camera work is not the greatest. Don't hurt your neck.

This Little Piggy Went to the Market...

Call me desperate but I did it. I managed to get two little piggies in Brooke's hair. Funny thing is all her hair is on top with a little in the back but I managed to get the elastics on fairly tight.

We had a busy week starting with Troy and I going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert at Red Rocks. It was a bit of a hike to get to the amphitheater but the view was worth it. We even got to see nature's fireworks show in the distance.

Monday and Tuesday I babysat a friend's little 2 month old. I am so glad that pretty much all they do is eat and sleep. Heather, I don't know how you do it with twins! Thursday Troy and I got to celebrate his passing another exam. Do you know what that means? He only has one more left to take and then he is DONE!!!!!!! I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished in these last almost 5 years. In total there are 10 exams and he's taken 2 a year for the past 5 years. We are excited for him to be done although I'll be sad that he no longer gets study days. I also got to go out that evening with some friends to see The Proposal. I enjoyed the movie and even found myself chuckling afterwards.Saturday was a fun day. We went out to dim sum with our neighbors. I even tried snails for the first time. It was too bad although I don't think I would ever order it on my own. Troy and I played the Wii in the afternoon then had some of our neighbors over in the evening. Originally we were going to have a cul-de-sac BBQ but starting around 5ish we got a torrential downpour that didn't stop until after 8. Luckily the rain stopped in time for us to catch the firework show that our development put on.

Now for a quick, funny story:

Brooke and I went to the library early in the week. I usually get a couple books for Troy and I and then some board books for Brooke. Well, I found this book that I thought would be fun for Troy and Brooke to read together. I showed it to Troy and he quickly starts skimming the book. I thought he had read it before as a kid but it was until I started looking at the pictures then the title that it all made sense. Needless to say, we returned the book immediately. I swear I thought the book was about a kid and his dad and his grandpa.

Bonus:

Splash and Crash

Monday was a first in Brooke's life. She want to the pool for the first time! According to Tracie she was a little timid at first, but soon realized that it was just like taking a bath. Pretty soon she was laughing and splashing.

With her friend Lizzie.

As you can tell, she hasn't moved spots at all, unlike her cousin Sierra, who likes to crawl into ever deeper water without hesitation!

She did take a few trips with Mommy into the big pool, gripping ever tighter to Mom the deeper they went! I think the purple lips means it is time to go home!!

On Friday I treated Tracie to a night in Beaver Creek. Sparked by a suggestion from Stacie that she watch Brooke for the night, I figured Tracie could do for a night away. Friday we checked in, ate dinner at a delicious Asian Fusion restaurant, and relaxed for the evening.

After a lazy morning and breakfast, we took the lift up to take a hike. Beautiful views the whole way up.

On the lift ride up we saw the 18 hole disc golf course. Too bad Will wasn't here.

After a short hike by the lift, we grabbed a bite to eat and the restaurant on top of the lift. Unsatisfied by the short hike, we decided to hike all the way back down the mountain. The hike as 4 miles, nearly all downhill (2000 vertical feet), and took us an hour and a half. Tracie and I were both feeling it this morning!

All in all it was a fun escape, but we sure did miss our little girl!

We got back home in time to head to the ward picnic. Brooke was happy to see us again, or maybe she was just happy to be outside and eating! It was a nice cap to a relaxing couple of days.

Where Has the Time Gone???

Today Brooke turned 11 months. I cannot believe that we're one month shy of her being a year. Crazy I tell ya. Can we please slow down the clock just a titch? Anywho, thought I'd fill all those that are interested in the goings-on of a 11 month old.

-As seen from the previous post, loves to make messes-Will beg for food.

-Wishes she could walk but scaling along furniture will have to do for now.

-Can empty a basket of toys, clothes, trash, etc. in 2.5 seconds flat

-Loves helping out with household chores. Especially the dishwasher.

-Loves to hunt for "treasures."

-Has great foresight. Will say uh-oh before she drops something. Haven't been able to catch this on video but believe me, it's super cute.

-Loves playing peek-a-boo with anyone. In this case, with any thing.

All in all, these have been a fantastic 11 months. Can't wait to see what 12 months will bring us.

What to Do When Mommy and Daddy Aren't Looking

While I was in the shower and Troy was at his morning meeting for church Brooke decided to do this

And while I was getting dressed she did this

Brooke has also become out little Houdini. She has somehow figured how to open our screen door. We have never seen her do it but when we finally notice she's usually already out the door and on the deck. Luckily Lexie has decided not to follow suit. I think she's just waiting to see if Brooke will get in trouble. I've tried to get her escape on video but alas after several attempts I got absolutely nothing. Except for a picture of her out on the deck enjoying her newfound freedom. Hopefully this isn't a foreshadow of her teenage years.

In other news our garden are starting to produce some produce. We have one green pepper and a few tomatoes. Our snow peas are looking pretty good as well as our cantelope and zucchini. Our green beans have seen better years but I guess this is to be expected since our seeds are 2 years old. Our strawberries are done supplying us with strawberries. Either that or the robins have been having a field day eating all of them.

Here's a pic of a pretty columbine that's in our new flowerbed.

I finally finished a project that I've been working on FOREVER. Ifound the instructions to making a tote bag off of a JoAnn's Fabric's newsletter and thought it would be fun to make a pool bag. The instructions noted that this project was for someone that had some sewing experience and it would take approximately 3 hours to make. My friend, Stacie, so graciously agreed to help me make this bag and after many, many (definitely more than 3 hours, maybe 9) hours of cutting, pinning, and sewing, here is the final product. Thanks Stacie for all your help!!!!!!!! We also got to visit Aaron, Robyn, and Taylor. It had been a good month since we last saw them and little Taylor has chubbed up. Robyn even made the comment that she thinks little Taylor's thighs are bigger than Brooke's. I just told her it's because Brooke can exercise now. Brooke had fun with Taylor's toys. We're working on teaching her how to share but luckily Taylor didn't mind.

I kind of miss the days where I could feed Brooke and she would hold still the whole time. It's been a great week and an even better day today seeing as it's Father's Day. Brooke and I made Troy some breakfast and got him some fun presents including a new Rand McNally Atlas, BBQ scrubber, a pair of Crocs for Brooke that Troy is really excited to see her in, and a little screwdriver set. Happy Father's Day Troy. Thanks for being so great.

All Work and Some Play

So, between study days, business trips, and vacation days, this was my first full week at work since early February! Needless to say, it was a productive week. I accidentally deleted the few pictures we took this week, so in order to make it a little less boring, I'm going to a bullet format.

So here are the highlights of the week.

• Weather: Nothing says late spring/ early summer in Colorado quite like crazy weather. Hail storms, thunderstorms and rain here in Castle Rock. Funnel clouds and tornadoes relatively close.
• Strawberries: We picked a lot, we ate a lot, more to come.
• Brooke's mobility: She has started to 'cruise', meaning she is pulling herself up and moving around couches, coffee tables, etc. She is also comfortable moving up and down the stairs, and likes to sneak up to the landing when Mom isn't looking.
• Flower bed: We finished the second one on the other side of the deck.
• Chinese food: We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Denver to satisfy Tracie's week long craving for Chinese ever since she flipped through a noodle recipe book that she checked out from the library.
• Visitors: Dave and Bri stopped by on Saturday on their way to Kentucky for ortho school. Their stay was short, but eventful. Without too much gory details, let's just say that the evening included someone peeing on the deck, dumping Lexie's food into her water, and some projectile vomiting! Despite all that, it was fun having them stop by, and we'll see them again in a couple of years!

All Play and Some Work

We were blessed this past weekend to have Troy's mom and little bros come and visit. They arrived Wednesday and we were all ready to put them to work. Just kidding. We waiting until Thursday. :) Thursday morning we headed off to downtown Denver to take a tour of the U.S. Mint. This is the second time I've gone in 4 months and I think I may take a break for a while although this time we got to see some of the machines doing stuff. That afternoon the boys helped put in the other flower garden. We may have had to "borrow" some dirt from an empty lot but there was plenty for the taking. The plants are in and we just need to get some mulch and we'll be good. One project done in the yard...now to the next one.
Brooke loved having her uncles and Grandma around. She always had to be were the action was.Wishing she could go outside and throw the football too.
Staring at some bunnies with Uncle Brett.Friday Troy, Taylor, and I went to see Angels and Demons. Troy and I had read the book 4 years ago and there was little that I remembered but we all enjoyed the movie. We finished off the day with making some smores over our new firepit. Saturday we put the boys to work again and put in our garden. No pictures of this one since I was helping too! We planted snow peas, green beans, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cantelope, and pumpkin. We learned from last year so instead of planting 3 mounds with 5 zucchini seeds each we planted 2 mounds with 3 seeds. I'm already excited to harvest but I'll have to wait until probably the end of the July before we get anything. Hopefully next year I'll be able to start some seeds indoors so we'll be able to harvest earlier. Saturday afternoon my cousin, Jonathan, and his mom, Auntie Houng came to visit. Jonathan will be going to the pharmacy school at UC-Denver so they came to check out the area and look for apartments. They also came back Sunday for a BBQ and to watch the Lakers vs. Magic game. Jonathan was really happy with the outcome of the game. I think everyone else wanted to see a different ending. Today Brooke and I had to say goodbye to Troy's mom and little bros. It's been a little quiet and boring around the house but we're looking forward to August when the whole Ware family will be back together again. Thanks for a great weekend everyone!!!!!!!