Brock's birthday celebration

Since Brock's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, we enjoyed a leisurely morning at home.  The big kids woke up early and sneaked downstairs.   We waited until we heard Brock waking up through the baby monitor before running up to his room and singing Happy Birthday.  He loved the attention!
 
Addie picked out a green Volkswagen Beetle to give to Brock this year
 
and Doak found a cool green train.  Brock loved both gifts and played so happily with them!
 
Keri had early morning football practice since they had a playoff game 2 days after Thanksgiving.  But he got home around 10:30 and we kept on celebrating!  I love this picture of these two boys!
 
Brock has really been into trains and cars lately.  Truth be told, there are more than enough cars already in our collection and we have a train table and train tracks too.

So we just got Brock a little Melissa and Doug train set.  He's had fun playing with it.

I knew Brock wouldn't eat cake, so I made sugar cookies for his birthday.  You can't tell but it's a letter B.  He loved blowing out his candle and he ate one bite of his cookie before moving on to play some more!
Later in the day Cookie and Papa arrived to celebrate with us. 



After our Thanksgiving meal, they got out their present for Brock-a cozy coupe!  They have one at their house that he LOVES and he was thrilled to get his own.  We learned about 30 minutes into the process of putting it together that we should have done that when he was asleep.  He was so anxious to sit in his car that Dad and Keri had to take frequent breaks from working so Brock could sit in the incomplete car!


We had a great day celebrating our big 2 year old!  Happy 2nd birthday to our sweet Brock!

Brock is 2!

Sweet Brock you are TWO!  What a precious joy you are to our family!  Here's a few things I want to remember about you at this age.

You have the deepest, loudest voice and you love to talk!  You will repeat things over and over, like "motorcycle, vroom vroom" or "Lightning Queen win the race".  Your vocabulary has exploded over the past month and it's so fun to hear what you have to say!



You are a handsome little boy!  Your hazel eyes and dark hair remind me of your Daddy and I love that you look a little bit different from Addie and Doak.



You're a skinny little thing!  You started off life on the small side and have never had an ounce of fat on you.  After watching your tiny appetite shrink even more, I took you to the pediatrician last week to make sure you were still at a healthy weight.  You fooled me because you've gained weight and moved up on the growth chart since 18 months.  I guess you don't need much food to keep your body moving and growing!



You love milk.  That's always a winner.  You aren't a huge fan of eating, but most of the time you like fruit, applesauce, yogurt, nuts, raisins, seeds, crackers, carrots, eggs, chicken nuggets, bacon, breakfast food, and smoothies.



You have very good manners.  You always say please and 'fank you' and most of the time you say each person's name as you thank them.  You also say excuse me and no thank you.





You love to play cars.  It's so fun to see how lots of the things you like are the same things Doak loved 3 years ago. You also love trains and you've just discovered Thomas the Train, who you call 'Pomas'. 

We love you Brock and can't imagine life without you!  Happy 2nd birthday!

 

Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween we had a football player (again!), a Ninja from Ninjago, and Domino the cat.

 

Addie chose to be a cat at her Storybook Parade and she also wanted to wear the same thing for Halloween.  For our night of trick or treating she added a black cat mask. 

 

Doak is obsessed with Ninjago!  Luckily we had a dress up that would pass as a ninja, and we ordered some foam nunchucks online to complete the look.  Can you tell he likes it?

 

Since sweet Brock isn't quite old enough the voice his opinion about costumes yet, and since he LOVES all things football we decided to go with that for his costume again this year.  The vintage helmet and pads are decor from the boys' room and the pants and shirt are what he wears to the Mustang games.  No cost costume=score one for mommy!




A local shopping center held trick or treating starting at 5pm so I took the kids there before Keri got home from work.  It was much less intimidating to have all 3 kids on a sidewalk than going through a neighborhood. 



After a quick Sonic car picnic we met Keri at our friends Lorissa and Mark's house.  The daddies took the kids around the neighborhood while Lorissa and I stayed at the house to pass out candy and visit.  Halloween will never be my favorite holiday, but I do love seeing the kids get so excited, dressing them up, and spending time with our family and friends!

 

fall photo shoot

I rarely get out my real camera these days. But when I pulled it out on Halloween afternoon there seemed to be perfect lighting and cooperative, cute, happy kids. Remind me to get my camera out more often!

Brock at 18 months

Brock is such a happy little guy! In the past three months he seems to have transitioned from baby to toddler.

He started walking full time right around 16 months. He recently started running and it's so cute!

Brock handled the move to Houston really well. He sleeps well in his own room and naps everyday for 2-3 hours. Brock has been a great sleeper for us, but a lot of that was thanks to his love for his pacifier. At 18 months Keri and I decided that the pacifier had to go. In a moment of extreme courage I gathered up all the pacifiers and threw them deep into the trash without looking back. Brock handled it much better than we feared! Now at naptime and bedtime we put him to bed with his blankie, Scout puppy, and a few board books. He happily looks at books, turns on his quiet music by pressing Scout's foot, and goes right to sleep!

Brock's eating habits vary from day to day. The one constant is that the boy loves his milk! It's the first thing he asks for in the morning and most days he lets me hold him and rock him while he drinks. I love that sweet snuggle time! As far as food goes he consistently eats fruit, yogurt, applesauce, almond slices, crackers, chicken, rice, cheese, popsicles, granola bars, raisins, dried fruit, scrambled eggs, homemade muffins and bread. He's not a huge fan of meat or many veggies. He just discovered juice and every once in a while I will let him have some, watered down.

Brock is a great communicator! He knows what he wants and it's very easy for me to understand him most of the time.

Words:
Mommy
Daddy
Addie
Bubba or Bubby
Dog
Up
Down
Ice
Quack
Meow
Woof
Moo
Go
Apple
Ball
Bubble
Big Bird
Elmo (ee-wo)
Bye


He uses sign language a lot!

Signs:
Airplane
Out
Car
Bicycle
Flower
Water
Hot
Milk
Cheese
Juice
More
Please
Mommy
Daddy
Sleep
ball
Bubble
Play
All done

Brock has the sweetest personality. He is a people person and loves to smile at everyone and have people notice him. He gives kisses to his family and loves to be around his sister and brother and other kids, too.

Brock loves to look at books. Sometimes he will climb the stairs to his room and sit and look at his books for 30 minutes at a time. This is also his favorite thing to do after bath time. He loves to be outside at the park or in the backyard. Brock likes to play ball and with cars too. I see so many similarities between all three kids and can't wait to see the little guy Brock will develop into!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Good morning sunshines!

Saturday mornings are always happy with these two!

Coffee lover part 2

He's just like his sister!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Brock is 14 months old

(alternately titled "T-R-O-U-B-L-E")

Our little boy is 14 months old. He is so sweet and precious, but he also can get into some trouble. Here's photographic evidence of Brock's favorite things.



This boy loves the trash can. It's the perfect height to pull up on and it's full of fun and interesting things. Sometimes we have to put the trash in the garage because he just loves it SO much!



Another favorite place to play is the kid's cabinet. He loves to pull out plates, cups, bowls and use plates as looking devices, shout into bowls to hear an echo, and try to drink out of every cup.



I have to give the boy some credit because he is such a hard worker. He's not afraid to actually get inside the cabinet to make sure that he gets every.piece.out. to throw on the floor.



The other favorite spot to find the boy in mischief is the bathroom. Playing in toilet water is his preferred activity, but when the lid is shut, he will go for toilet paper instead. (We have to keep all the bathroom doors shut at all times, because Brock has some sixth sense and knows anytime the door is open!)



In the last 2 weeks B-man has become a climber. Sitting on the train table is cool.



One thing that's actually not so funny is Brock's love of throwing food on the floor. If he's done eating he just starts throwing food all around the room. Kylie is the happy recipient of much of his leftover but that has its consequences. This particular day her back was covered with rice.



This is Brock's 'stinker' face. He squinches up his nose and closes his eyes and he's just about the most adorable thing ever.



Little boy loves playing with any kind of ball.



And bath time is his best loved time of the day.

In the past month, Brock has been totally weaned. The last few nursing sessions were a little sad for me....nursing my last baby for the last time. But I'm doing fine now, enjoying having my body back plus a little more freedom and Brock has a new love for a sippy cup of cow's milk.

Also this month Brock got tubes in his ears. He seems to feel much better and I'm so thankful for our ENT-the surgery couldn't have gone any smoother.

Brock still travels the house on all fours although I'm starting to work with him on walking a bit more lately. (A and D walked around 13 months)

Brock loves to jabber and talk about Mommy, Daddy, car, cracker, night-night, dog, and he's learning some animal noises. He loves cars, ball, and books.

Chocolate chip love

Brock is the newest lover of Cookie's famous chocolate chip cookies! Here's the delicious recipe in case you want to try them out.

Debby's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup crisco
2 eggs

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups Quaker Old Fashioned Oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag Ghiradelli 60% cacoa bittersweet chocolate chips


In a mixing bowl, cream together sugars and crisco. Add eggs and continue to blend until creamed. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. (I stir the dry ingredients together with a spoon but Mom still sifts the dry ingredients with a sifter). Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until combined. Add in oats and vanilla and stir with a spoon. Then add in chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.

Eat a few bites of dough then scoop soup spoon size cookie dough balls onto baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and try not to burn your lips when you taste them while still hot!

Brock's first real hair cut

Keri and I decided that Brock's combover was getting a little too long! So the first day that Addie and Doak were back at school I took Brock for a professional trim.


I really wasn't sure how he would handle it, but it true Brockstar fashion, he took it all in stride! He happily sat in the little race car chair and never fussed one bit. (He may need to give his big brother a few pointers!)



All of the sudden our baby looks so big!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone