brookie girl!

our sweet, rambunctious, loud, fun-loving, laughing, smiley, tenacious brookie ~

...keeping us REALLY REALLY BUSY!

pictures

i feel like i've been slacking on taking pictures lateley - and i really have! i think i'm going overboard now though, but i wanted to take some cute pictures of the kids to send with valentines. i never got around to the whole christmas card thing, so i'm hoping to get something done in time for valentines. anyway, here's what i ended up with. these funny kiddos are precious and adorable, but when it comes to taking their pictures... hmmm... how to phrase it...? you get the point. :) i love them so much and want to remember every minute i have with them. they make me so happy! family truly is the greatest blessing anyone could ever have!

a couple of these pictures are a little different than anything i would usually do - i'm feeling a lack of "artisticness" in my life, so i gave a few attempts at "more artsy" in an attempt to expand my photography horizons. i'm not sure what i think yet, but i do love the material! :) thanks cute kiddos for letting me practice on you!

p.s. if i don't get valentines sent out, WE DO LOVE YOU! happy valentines wonderful family and friends!

xoxo

i couldn't decide which of these three i liked best. brookie has the cutest expressions - i can't decide which is my favorite. :)

as close as a brother and sister can be (literally) it took me forever to get them to sit together w/o crawling away. :) these little kiddos really do love each other. :) it makes me so happy to see it every day!

another "closeness" picture

my favorite "close" picture - coleman's favorite too. he says "i falled over, mom."

quick - run away - mom's got the camera :)

not so "close" but together nonetheless :)

coleman - the only way to get him to smile for the camera in a certain location was to pick this tree. he is facinated by the bark. :)

backs of heads are probably not the most interesting, but i thing she's pretty cute from all sides :)

every kids dream - eating the wood chips, grass and leaves...

curious about all the organic everything on the ground. this is brookie's first outside crawling experience. she got really dirty, but i think she had a fun time. :) there's so much to see and experience (taste) for this little scientist/explorer

yep - she's eating more grass

another 2-yr-old pose :)

cole's doing our stairs alone now - they're kinda bruital stairs, so he's been really careful (after having a few near death experiences trying to navigate them previously...) he's growing up so fast!!

peeking back to make sure mom and brookie are coming

best buds - besides dad, buzz is cole's best bud lateley :)

he has to have two of them :)

more buzz

i've gotta go get dinner ready for the missionaries - i'll post the rest of my attempted artsy pictures later. :)

Keepin' Busy on a Saturday

1.30.10

Today Ty had to study, so he went to school. We all look forward to weekends as a break from the norm and we were all sad we weren't going to get to spend the day with Dad. Both Coleman and Brooklyn LOVE spending weekends with their daddy. He's so much fun! I was bummed too, so Trish (whose husband was also studying for a Monday test) and I took the kiddos and went out to Victoria Gardens to play and pass the time.

We saw the fish at Bass Pro Shop (which Coleman calls Cabellas :) ) and ran around there looking at the fun animals and EVERYTHING else. They were feeding the fish, so that was facinating for the little guys. Even Brookie seemed to like seeing the fish (big ugly catfish...) Cole was facinated by the sharks hanging from the ceiling in the fishing section too. What a cool place! I spent a minute looking at the climbing wall, wishing I was climbing (I do think about climbing sometimes, Ty :)). - - - crazy side note: Ty told me yesterday that the weather in Joshua Tree is almost back to good climbing weather that won't freeze our children :) - - - Winter here sure is short!

Coleman and Wesley watching the fishies eat - worms and little fish - hope they're not scarred for life...

Not so sure? - for the record, they both acted like they loved it while they were watching. I think they're more unhappy about having to wait there to have their picture taken...

After Bass Pro Shop we wandered over to the mall to eat a picnic lunch. We sat down near a playground to eat. What a good idea to have a playground at a mall! We ate quick and Cole played on the toys. There were tons of kids there and he seemed to have a blast being with them. My little boy is growing up. He was romping around with the big kids and I didn't even have to help him. He climbed all over the toys and explored with everyone! What a crazy day! I think I might miss helping him down the slide soon!

A very patient little sister - I think she might have Grandma Neff's genes for people watching. She seemed to really enjoy watching all the kids running around. :)

After the playground we were on our way back to the car when I caved. We've been out to the mall there several times and Cole loves the fountain. For one reason or another we've never let him play in the water. I realized that this might be our last trip to that mall, so in January, I let my kid run naked in freezing cold water. The air temperature was cool, but not freezing, but I still can't believe he played for as long as he did. Wesley joined him and the two of them had a riot! Brookie and I watched from the sidelines and laughed at these two crazies! Cole was a lot braver than he was when we went to the Gateway fountain while we were home in SL for the summer. He jumped right in and couldn't get enough. There was no coaxing involved. He just jumped right in! People stopped to watch them and couldn't believe they weren't acting cold. I guess were having too much fun to care!

We had a fun and busy day, but we were all thrilled to see Dad when we got home!! We hope you can come with us next time!

ToFinity-a-B'yond, Come-in-Peace, Buzz Lightyear To-aRescue!!

Coleman got two Buzz Lightyears for Christmas and they're his almost constant companions. Life for Cole is filled with adventure and he LOVES to pretend he's Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger! For a long time he told us that he couldn't fly - "I can't fly, Dad (or Mom), I can't fly.) He said that over and over, but now he's learned to fall with style like the Buzz in Toy Story. He climbs up on the arm of our couch and jumps off exclaiming "To-finity B'yond!" He's always flying his Buzzes around and has to have them wherever we go. He also has to have Woody, Buzz Lightyear's best friend. (He's still loving that Woody doll Leanne and Addie! Thanks so much!!) When he's not pretending to be Buzz, he pretends to be "Sheriff Coleman." He frequently tells us there's a snake in his boots. :)

We think he's a pretty cute space ranger and/or Sheriff! :) He sure keeps life exciting!