.Christmas Is About Sledding.

This little girl, given the choice, would have gone sledding first thing Christmas Morning

...instead of opening presents.

.I Just Can't Take It Anymore!"

After a nice fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Achilles, Brookie clearly missed one thing...

I was setting up her brand new Dora Doll House set with her and she stands up and walks over to the couch. As she sits down she says...

"I just can't take it anymore! I NEED to watch TV!"

.I Am A Princess Robot.

.Computer Games.

Brookie enjoys playing computer games. I let her play on sites like PBS.org and NickJr.com

She honestly learns quite a bit from the games she plays. A while back she was trying to figure out how to rhyme. She did pretty good for playing ONE game that teaches rhyming.

Tonight, Aaron was playing his computer games before I put the girls to bed. Brookie was sitting on the couch with me and Aaron stood up from his game and said "I keep dying, I think I am done."

Brookie's reply..."Dad, you can play my games. They're not hard."

Gosh I love this kid.

.Who Likes Driving Anyways??.

Earlier tonight, Brookie and I were coming home from running some errands. We were stopped at a corner waiting to turn right when an ambulance and police car came up behind us and rounded the corner. They parked right next to the sidewalk immediately after making a right hand turn. There was an older gentlemen, probably in his 40's or 50's, sitting on the ground with about 3 or 4 people standing around him that had clearly just gotten out of their SUV that was parked right next to him. Brookie asked me what was wrong with him. I told her it could be anything and that maybe he had a heart attack. Honestly, I think her idea was much better...this is what she said to me immediately following my response...

"Maybe he just doesn't want to drive anymore."

Ha ha I love that kid! The answer is usually a lot simpler than we think.

."Hi Mr. Goat!".

I guess goats don't handle being teased very well...

.When I Was A Baby.

Yet again, Brookie let her imagination run a little wild today.

We were driving back from picking Brooklyn up from her Dad's house in Orem and just as we were getting on the freeway a "Brookie is a big girl" conversation was started. I truly do not remember a single thing of what was said due to a side comment she threw in out of nowhere...

"When I was a baby, I was goin' ALLLL crazy and POOPIN' in my DIAPER!!" Aaron literally stopped mid-sentence and we both just laughed and laughed 'til we couldn't laugh any more.

I truly can not explain my child or her creative mind, but I sure love it!

.Minnie Mouse Voice.

I have been told by just about everyone that knows Brookie that they can't help but laugh at her high pitched voice. Of course, it can also be quite piercing when she is throwing a tantrum and can travel farther than the average voice.

My response is almost always the same...

"You think it's high pitched now? You should have heard it when she was 2!"

This video was taken about 2 weeks after her 2nd birthday.




...yes, she get's it from her Mommy.

."Why Did They Do That?!".

This morning Brookie & I enjoyed a lazy morning watching her shows on the couch. A show about Volcanoes came on after one of her shows ended. It seemed fairly interesting, so we sat and watched it for a bit. They started talking about Mount St. Helens and showed how it was starting to bubble in an area where the gases were rising to the surface...meaning it would ultimately erupt at some point.

From a child's point of view, this meant absolutely nothing to Brooklyn until they did a little demonstration. The expert took a can of soda and shook it up as he explained how there are gases in the can and they are rising to the surface. To show the eruption, he quickly opened the can letting the soda explode everywhere.



This was Brooklyn's response...

(Expert open's can and soda explodes all over)
Brooklyn: *Immediately looks up at me with a very upset look on her face* "Why did they do that?!"

Mommy: *A smirk quickly crosses my face before I reply sarcastically* "What's wrong? Did you want the soda?"

Brooklyn: *An embarrassed look takes over her face and she quickly turns back to look at the TV*

She is so much fun to tease. Yet another trait she gets from her Mama.

.To the Moon & Back!.

Tuesday I took the girls to Discovery Gateway & Clark Planetarium in Downtown SLC. I have a 6 month pass to Discovery Gateway that I haven't used since May and Clark Planetarium is free...what better way to spend the day then not having to spend any money! :)

Discovery Gateway was a mad house. I didn't even think about it being probably the last week of summer for all the kids going back to school. Plus, I heard they were having some sort of "Free Day". So you can imagine most of my time was spent trying not to lose Lily.


One of the only pictures I was able to take

We then moved on to the Planetarium which was practically empty!! It was SO nice!


The first thing you see when you walk in is the "Sphere". Brookie immediately pointed out that this planet had an eye on it!

The girls ran along freely looking at different things and I didn't have to stress over them getting lost. Lily ran a bit too freely when she slipped under the safety rail under the planets just as I started to point out Mercury to Brookie.


I somehow tricked her into coming close enough to me so I could grab her somewhere around Neptune


Brookie's best impression of a Rocket Ship

The girls favorite part of the entire Planetarium...

The Moon...

As soon as Brookie stepped on the Moon she started saying it was cold and pretend shivering...she even had the little boy behind her doing the pretend shiver while he got his picture taken.

She LOVED the rocks...after this picture the Moon turned into her obstacle course.

Lily "conquering" the rock.

"Brr!! Mom it's cold! I need my coat!"


...and Mars

Just as I snapped this picture Brookie yelled out "Oh no! We left Lily on the Moon!"...guess what Lily was doing on the Moon??"

She conquered this rock as well.

Right after this picture she walked down the slope making sure she DIDN'T avoid the rocks...she just wanted to make it interesting.

.Trim Turned Accidental Haircut.

Every couple of months I take about an inch off of Brookie's hair to help it grow faster and more evenly. If you have ever seen a picture of her even just a month after I give her a cut or trim...you can tell it has grown.

So today, I was just going to take off an inch. Due to the many distractions I was facing I think I didn't realize that I had actually started out by taking off 2 inches instead of 1. Honestly though...it looks SO adorable on her and I love it! Plus, it will grow back...quickly I am sure.

.Special Message for Uncle Kyler.

Brookie is leaving tonight to go visit with her Dad for 2 weeks in Orem. We will all miss her dearly...but there is one person in particular that I think she is going to miss the most (via Skype anyways). Here is her video she made for Uncle Kyler since he wasn't on Skype for her to talk to.

.Shoes?!.

Last night, Brooklyn was half woken up out of what I assume was quite the strange dream. Lily was screaming louder than normal when she woke us all up around 3AM.

Brooklyn screamed out something that was very hard to make out, except for the last word, which was shoes. I gave Lily her bottle and went over to Brooklyn's bed to ask her what she had said. Her response sure surprised me...

"I wanna eat shoes!!" she said in a very demanding voice.

All I could do was giggle softly, give her a hug and kiss her on the forehead before going back to bed to laugh about it to myself.

That was the last thing she said for the rest of the night.

.Playdoh Snakes.

This was the morning after Brookie's 2nd Birthday Party. My favorite part of the video is what she does with the snake's head at the end.

.Excuse Me!.

Aaron, Brookie & I were all having breakfast together one morning back when Brookie was a little over a year and a half. As Aaron got up from the table he let out a burp. Brookie decided she wanted to imitate it. This is her version of Daddy's burp.

.The Planets.

Brookie has been getting really good at her planets. She used to have them all down by the nicknames that Aaron gave them...but with a lack of practice she has forgotten some of them when you associate them with their nicknames. She still knows all of their names with a bit of a hint on some. She has Earth, Neptune & Pluto down just by looking at them. She gets a bit camera shy and makes me give her a hint on Neptune.