I'm the Queen!

Here are a few glimpses of Brookie over the last month or so.  She is growing, growing, growing! (surprise)  And is now comfortably wearing 6-9 month clothes at age 4 months.  

 Pismo Beach during Thanksgiving.  This looks like an evening shot, but each morning while we were camping, Lee or I, or both, would get up early with Brooke and go walking in the morning hours while the others slept.

 Napping in a warm and cozy back bed in the trailer at Thanksgiving.

 Hanging out with her 2nd favorite person, watching the turkey fry.

 Sitting with Daddy.

 Really excited to wait AGAIN to pick up Carissa.

 Having a laugh in the ladies room at Macys whilst shopping .

Just being adorable at home in the kitchen.

Home Depot Christmas

Our Christmas tree search is a far cry from the outings through people's forested property of my childhood, or at least a trip to real Christmas tree farm where the trees were still growing, where we'd search and search and search and finally cut a tree, only to bring it home and find that it had some huge gaping hole in at least 75% of it.  I've romanticized those memories in my adulthood, but the truth is:  you just can't beat a Home Depot tree.   The chain linked-off section of the parking lot smells like a tree lot, the trees are really quite full, and the price??  You can't beat it!  PLus no one ends up covered in mud, and rarely does it end in a huge family fight.  So Home Depot is where we get all our trees, no matter that there is an element of "ghetto" to our outing, which this year included a giant painted mural of Santa, Mrs. Clause, the elves and even a couple of reindeer doing "Gangnam Style".  (If you are unfamiliar with that- youtube it)

 And thank you Grandpa for the use of your truck which made our entire outing the fastest it's ever been!

 Our plan this year was to pick up the first tree we saw, which is exactly what we did!  Truth be told, we did unbundle one other tree so that Grayson could use Lee's knife, but we bought the very first tree we picked up.  In and out in 10 minutes!

 A brief moment of brotherly love.

We had a festive evening of tree trimming, Christmas music and excitement as we ushered in the Christmas season!

Thanksgiving...A Little Belated

I volunteered to be the room mom for Grayson's kinder class.  Why, you ask?  Because no one else would do it!  It's actually been fun thus far.  Now that Brooke is a little more active, we'll see how it goes.  I was excited to plan a Thanksgiving feast for the class.  Once again, I hardly took any pictures, but I managed to get one of the simple fare we provided:  rolls, turkey, carrots, dip, apples, corn muffins, cookies, cupcakes, and my popcorn turkey!

 I spent hours cutting out little decorative pieces on the Cricut for the placemats you see pictured below.  I borrowed a cartridge from my scrapbook Queen friend with a Thanksgiving motif and put together little Indians, turkeys, the Mayflower, etc.  Then I copied one of Derek's old kinder poems and had the teacher put it all together as a laminated placemat.

 Then we made Indian (or Native American, to be PC) , vests and I came in one day to help the kids paint symbols on them  They each put together a headband, as well.

 As you can see, almost none of the kids wanted to dress up as Pilgrims for the feast ( I mean, would you, if you had such a sweet butcher paper vest to wear??), which is too bad considering I stayed up late at night laboriously cutting, folding and stapling Pilgrim hats, bonnets, collars, and aprons.  But not to worry- the kids had a wonderful time, and that is what I was hoping for!

 My favorite part of the feast was this turkey, however.  Two kids got to take the "drumsticks" home.  It was great fun for all, and now it's on to our Gingerbread Man party in a few days!

Kid Strata

At first they tried tried this standing.  Silly kids.

We All Become Our Mothers

This post is in no way meant to offend my dear mother, the greatest of all mothers, ever.  That said, I must admit that there were times during my youth when I felt that some of mom's traits were...not the way I would EVER do things.  I went so far as to dedicate a journal entry to "Things I Will NEVER Do When I am a Mom".  Needless to say, almost 12 years into motherhood, I've done all of them.  And of course, high on the list was my vow to always keep an immaculate house, devoid of laundry piled high, dirty dishes in the sink, half-done projects laying around, etc.  I think I did a fairly decent job for a while.  Then, I had a fourth child.  All my proclamations of cleanliness have flown out the window.  It's a great day if I get showered and dressed in something other than yoga pants.  

The other night, whilst making dinner, shuttling one kid home from piano and off to soccer, a husband off to bishopric duties, trying to get homework done for the boys, finishing up some volunteer work for Grayson's class, and thinking that since it was finally less than 85 degrees that it might be nice to make rolls with dinner, I had a look around and was shocked to realize that yes, my kitchen isn't that far off from that of my mom's in the mid- 1980's.  So I guess I've come full circle- and proud to do so!

 Of course you don't see into the laundry room, where dirty clothes were threatening to cross into kitchen territory.

 I must admit, though, that the rolls and cinnamon rolls were pretty much perfection.

In case you're wondering, I actually got the place cleaned up before 9pm...so that I could trash it again by 7 am the next morning, of course!

But thank you, Mom for teaching me that just because my house looks like a hurricane tore through sometimes, that it isn't what matters in the end.

Faces of Brooke

I think this little girl is changing everyday.  She's losing her newborn look and turning into a chubby little smiley baby.  We think she's pretty cute, especially with hair bows made by Auntie Susie!

Unfortunately, this is what we do the most: lots and lots of time in the  car.  4 times a week we wait for about 25 minutes for Carissa to get out of school after we pick up Grayson. Luckily, Brooke is happy to hang out as long as she doesn't have sit in her seat!

Brooke Bradford's Baby Blessing

We celebrated two special little lives joining the family this past weekend:  first, Kyle was sealed to Susie and Tyler on Saturday, then everyone was kind enough to stick around for Brooke's blessing on Sunday.  Miraculously, we were all ready on time, even, which is no small feat considering there were 16 people staying in our little house!  Here we are headed into church.  Lee had already been there for 3 hours by the time we arrived, but I had my helpers to carry all my stuff in. 

 Little Miss Cute in her special blessing outfit, handmade by Grandma Shanna almost 12 years ago for Carissa.

 Scott, Jerehmiah, Lee, Tyler and Kirk completed the blessing circle for Brooke.  How lucky to have such good men to bless her!

We missed Erin, but I was so fortunate to have my amazing Ali and Susie with me.  This was Ali's 3rd trip to LA in just a few months, a city she insists she "hates", but I'm beginning to wonder if maybe she is harboring a secret crush on the southland...

                                                Grandma Pam was here, too!

 The beautifully delicate, handcrafted works of art, painstakingly made by Susie of dusty pink satin, especially for Brooke Lucile on her blessing day.  They completed the outfit perfectly!

After the blessing we headed home for a big lunch and hours of hanging out, cousins playing and more eating.  Thank you to all who came and supported us and to those who were with us in spirit!

The Greatest Gift

Besides finally getting that baby sister she's always wanted, Carissa got the other greatest gift that a baby sibling can bring:  a ticket out of sacrament meeting.

Thank you, mother's lounge, for your comfy rocking chairs and cold A/C.  Carissa and I plan to spend many hours in here in the near future.

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

Of all the Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah has to be our favorite.  We look forward to our 3 day weekend every September so we can head to the beach for the best weather of the year:  warm ocean, bright sun, and no wind!  And because most people still have to work, there is no traffic and easy parking!  This year we opted for Topanga Point off the PCH.  It's a smaller beach, but the surf was big enough for the kids, the water was clean, and the swimming was fantastic.

 Brooke seemed to enjoy her first beach outing.

 Grayson loved frolicking in the waves.

 Derek caught quite a few, and even lost a tooth when his board slammed him in the face.

 Always happy at the beach!

 This was right before a massive wave hit the board just right and snapped it in half!

 Doing what she does best.

All wiped out after so much sand and surf.  Next week:  Yom Kippur!