Mama's Girl

Brooke started soccer this past Saturday. I was so excited for her to start this. Soccer was by far my favorite (and best) sport to play and some of my favorite childhood and high school memories are related to soccer.

It was so much fun/funny to watch. It's probably a good thing that we're starting Brooke this early if she has any shot at playing in the future. I wish I'd gotten a video of it, but maybe one of the funniest parts of the morning was when "Coach Bill" had the kids run backwards. Everyone got it, except my sweet little girl who just puffed out her chest and ran forward, having no idea that she wasn't doing what the other kids were doing. Bless her heart.

Luke and Lexi were in town so they got to watch and play a little, too.

 

We have been working on passing and trapping at home and she did pretty well with that, although she needed multiple reminders not to use her hands.

If Saturday was any indication, she's going to be very similar to me when it comes to athletic endeavors - not the most natural, not quite possessive of a killer competitive instinct, but happy to be part of the team. Before the "game", each kid got a chance to "shoot" the ball. Matt says we really need to work on her celebration technique. Enjoy.

Lexi's Here!

If asked, Brooke would probably tell you that the highlight of her month thus far was having Lexi and Luke (and Uncle Tim and Aunt Krissi) come to visit last weekend. Their visits always take too long to get here and are over far too quickly. There were lots of games, sweets, and Princesses, and not a lot of sleep. Of course it was a great time.

Lexi was persistent about playing with Brooke's playdough. Which means that Brooke was reminded that we have playdough. That she now wants to play with all the time. Dang it.

Miles now recognizes the cousins and is almost as excited to see Luke as Luke is to see "BABY MILES!"

Tim and Krissi watched the kids for us while we went out with friends on Saturday night (we're not rude hosts - we'd had the night planned for months).

We finished the weekend with going out to breakfast. These two are going to be trouble in no time.

And these two already are. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

February Thus Far

 

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been staying busy, but not really with anything in particular. School twice a week, church playgroup every other week, my Bible study once a week, and lots of play dates keep us on the go. Speaking of on the go, someone finally decided he was ready to crawl. He's still army crawling, but he's quick at it and is pretty inquisitive. In the grand scheme, he's not that crazy, but compared to how Brooke was, he's a wild man. I almost always change him on the floor now and have to use all of my limbs for it to be effective.

He's still at six teeth, but the drooling and chewing has picked up, so I'm thinking we may see some more soon. He also seems to be growing. He's eating and drinking a ton more and is growing out of his 9 month stuff. Overall, Brooke is still great with him.

 He's still a thumb sucker. He loves waving to people and kind of makes a "hi/bye" sound. He's also making an "Oz" sound when pointing to Ozzie. He's still good at sleeping, too. The other day, he took a 3-hour afternoon nap!

We were able to celebrate Brooke and Miles' buddy, Kellen's, birthday last weekend. There were about 10 adults behind the camera of this shot acting like dummies to get the kids to smile/not cry.

 

Brooke still likes to help clean. Here she is cleaning the front windows again. Notice the sponge and brush on the ground next to her. Say what you will (Matt) about my craziness rubbing off on her. I'll take it.

 Brooke seemed to enjoy Valentine's Day this year.  She got a little bag of goodies from us. She actually caught me putting one of her gifts in the cart and I had to employ my first direct Mommy lie and say it was for someone else. When she pulled it out of the bag, she said, "You tricked me!" I'll try not to make a habit of that.

He was happy it was Valentine's Day, too. For some reason, the flowers that Matt ordered for me were never delivered...

Here she is painting her Valentine's gift from Grammie Deb and Grandpa.

And just like last year, Matt took Brooke out on a date on Valentine's Day. She choose Chuck E. Cheese's again (yep, after being terrified of the mouse a couple of weeks before - Matt said she did okay this time). The picture from last year versus this year pretty accurately captures how her personality has evolved over the past year.

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Back on the Horse

Okay, back on the blogging horse. It's been a pretty busy last few weeks and in that time I've not been good about taking pictures. And as indicated in the above shot, the ones that I've taken aren't the best. Sorry about that.

Matt and his dad went on a golf trip the first weekend of February, so I took the kids down to St. Louis to see my family. My dad was off the Monday after the Super Bowl (because that really should be a holiday, right?), so it was nice to get some extra time with him.

We basically spent the visit eating and hanging out at my parents' house. The kids loved it, as usual.

Before we left Monday, we had planned to go to Chuck E. Cheese's with Krissi and the kids, but both of her kids had the stomach bug (that Miles and I had the week before), so we just went with Grandma and Papa T. It had been about a year since we'd been and Brooke was very apprehensive about Chuck coming down from the stage, so she didn't have as much fun as I'd expected her to.

She had no interest in the games, but enjoyed most of the rides. Miles LOVED the rides that he got to go on.

And while we were in St. Louis, this happened.

Matt's dad got his first hole-in-one! And Matt was there to see it, which was extra-special because Matt's dad was there for Matt's (dare I say, first?) hole-in-one.

It was a fun weekend all around!