Gobble, Gobble

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Justin and Kristin. Tracie was in charge of making the apple pie, and she did a fabulous job. She hires out by the pie, and I hire out for my hair-tying-back skills!
We made good use of the apple peeler/corer, and it turned out delicious.



So did the rest of the food, and it was nice to not have to be concerned about weather and travel on this Thanksgiving. It was a relaxing holiday weekend, and we even had time to sneak in a little Black Friday shopping.

Brooke did great during the meal, despite being the only kid there. She ate olives and played with Remi, who has gotten more used to Brooke since the first time they met (and vice versa).

On Friday, Brooke put on her hat and mittens to protect against the chill while we put the lights up outside. We made quick work, though it wore Brooke out since she was falling asleep in her high chair during lunch.

Saturday we had Jen, Gavin, and Declan over for chili and the BYU-Utah game. You may recall (not likely) that they were last down for the BYU-Oklahoma game. The outcome and the food were just as good this time around, and Brooke enjoyed having a playmate during the game. Turns out we are quite the potent combination for a BYU victory!

On the football theme, I took Tracie on a long deserved date last weekend. We had dinner at the Old Stone Church here in town, after ironically fighting traffic due to the starlighting festival. Then we headed to the local movie theater to watch the Blindside. It was very good, with a very good story, and a must see for everyone, in my opinion.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!!!

Who Loves a Ham?!

We do!!!! Since Brooke hit her 15 month mark I figured I'd update y'all on what she's been up to.

She is a walking machine. Once she realized that she could walk she never turned back. She is all over the place. Her favorite places to be are the laundry room playing in Lexie's water bowl or in our bathroom turning the water on and getting her arms soaking wet. Hmm. I'm thinking I'm seeing a little trend here.

(Most current of her playing in the water. It's 5 months old. Sad, I know)

She's talking more...kind of. She can say thank you, bye bye, mama, dada, hi, no (her favorite word), and she can count one, two, three.

She's quite the dancer too. Although only one part of her body really moves when she hears music.

Brooke is very sociable and has not met a person that she does not like. She'll wave hello to a passerby in the parking lot. She'll walk in front of the room during Sunday School and proceed to walk down the aisle saying hello to people. She'll even want to be held by strangers if I let her.

(Not a stranger...she's my cousin, Susan, and her and Brooke hung out all evening when we were out in CA.)

She's very independent and will let it be known when she wants to do something by herself.

She loves goofing around with Troy and it seems that Troy can always get the good hearty laughs out of her.

She loves to draw with a pen and color with markers. Good thing Kristin introduced us to Crayola Wonder marks. (lifesaver)

Just in the past 3 months, Brooke has totally changed from a baby to a little toddler. I can't believe how fast it's gone and how quickly she has grown.

Brand spankin' new6 months oldHappy 1 year 15 months

Home at last

We love to visit friends and family, see new places, and have people come to Colorado, and it seems like in the past few months, we've done a lot of it. Despite the enjoyment of travel, sometimes it is nice to just be at home and relax, which we get to do until the end of the year. To reinforce this point, we were blessed with 8-10 inches of snow last night and this morning, which makes staying home and cuddling up as a family even better.

I spent this past week in Chicago and Columbia, South Carolina traveling for work, and then came home on Thursday to an empty house, since Tracie spent the week in Utah. I'm grateful that we have great parents, and siblings who are willing to open their homes to Tracie and Brooke, especially when I am traveling. It means a lot to them, and a lot more to me.

Before Tracie left, Brooke had her 15 month appointment on Tuesday. Here are the stats (percentiles): Head: 18 3/4" (90-95%), Height: 31 1/4" (75%), Weight: 21 lbs 5.5 oz. (25-50%)

Here are some pictures from the trip. Brooke playing with playdough at Will and Kristin's. Getting a piano lesson from Grandma. And a picture with Grandma, Grandpa, Jason and Sierra.

On Saturday's, Brooke and I spend some quality time together that usually involves BYU football. She doesn't always have the attention span for the whole game, but she enjoys wearing the attire!

Ooh...This Is Halloween

It feels like the end of October quickly crept up on us. As you can tell from our previous post, Denver got dumped on for a good 3 days. I think by the end of the storm we got close to 2 ft. of snow. All bundled up but can't play in the snow since we don't have snow boots yet. I'm sure there will be many more opportunities to come in the near future.But never you worry, Saturday and Sunday were in the upper 50s so there was also a lot of melting. The forecast for the end of the week even has us in the upper 60s so I would venture to say that the snow will be gone by week's end.
Troy's family came this past weekend to celebrate Troy's b-day and Halloween. The came in Thursday night and luckily the roads were pretty decent for them. Friday morning, the boys played out in the snow for a good couple of hours. The gals much preferred to stay warm so we stayed inside. Although I'm sure Brooke would have had a lot of fun sledding in our backyard. That night, Troy's parents and us went to see Wicked and it was wickedly entertaining. We had dinner beforehand at the Rialto Cafe then enjoyed the musical from our balcony seats. It was fantastic and I would definitely go see it again.
Saturday was a very busy day. We did a bit of shopping in the morning and Troy's little bros lucked out by getting new phones and being added onto our plans. (And they said that they had done all there was to do in CO). That afternoon we finally got around to carving our pumpkin. We originally had 2 but one of them was a little squishy from the crazy weather that we decided to leave it on the porch. I think our pumpkin turned out pretty good but unfortunately no pics were taken of it. :( Boo. The night before, our friends, the Steeles, took Brooke to our ward's trunk-or-treat and it was a great warm-up for Halloween night. Brooke was all set to go and knew what to expect. She didn't even let go of her bucket at all while we were out. Here she is checking out her loot. I would say we definitely fared well in the candy department. All in all, it was a fun and sugar filled weekend.

The Evolution of Sledding

The anticipation....

The desire...

The execution.

Animals

On Tuesday, Tracie, Brooke and a few friends got a leg up on the snow and headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. The highlight of the trip was feeding the giraffes with their Gene Simmonsesque lickers!

According to Tracie, Brooke enjoyed looking and pointing at all of the animals. It definitely won't be the last time we go, but we may wait until spring!
On Wednesday night, Tracie used Brooke as a 'model' for her Activity Day girls. Can you guess what she is trying to be? Suffice it to say, it didn't stay on for very long!

Saturday we met up with our friends Stephanie and Taylor Dix and went to the Pumpkin Fest at the Grange. Brooke enjoyed the hay ride with the horses. and the free toothbrush that she got.

Concluding our weekend, Jonathan came over again, and as is always the case, Brooke was in heaven. She enjoyed the special attention, the piggyback rides, and the one, two three!!!!

On Saturday, we also were able to attend the sealing of a couple in our ward. She has been a member most of her life, and he is a convert of one year. It was really great to be a part of it, especially when the kids came in at the end. My allergies were really kicking in!!

Not much happened this past week. Troy went to Chicago to do a training leaving Brooke and I to entertain ourselves for a few days. Luckily this is the last trip until the second week of November. Troy's actually been traveling for the past 4 weeks-Dallas, California, Nebraska, then Chicago. I'd like to think the California trip was the best one. Anywho, here are some of the things Brooke and I did to keep ourselves busy.
Learned how to wriggle out of my onesie Ran away from mom before she could get my pants back on

Played at the park Threw a tantrum when the camera was taken away

When Troy came home, Brooke was ready to play.

We also made 13 dozen Halloween sugar cookies. Frosted a third of them and saved the rest for later. We also ate some too.

Lastly, since Brooke has learned to walk, she is getting herself into all sorts of mischief.

Don't know if I posted this before. It's our only video of her walking. Sad, I know.