Three.

I remember all the waiting and the anticipation and the "please come out already!" I remember the anxiety that crept in when they said it was finally time to start pushing. I remember how excited I was when I found out she was a "she". I remember how big she looked yet how light she felt when I finally got to hold her. I remember being overwhelmed by the sudden pressure I felt to make the right decisions and take care of her in the right way. More than anything, I remember the pride I felt when I introduced her to our family as our daughter, Brooke Mary Reeder.

Three. We can't even believe it. Our hilarious, sassy, stubborn, adorable firstborn is three years old today. These 3 years have been magical. Exhausting, but magical :)

Happy birthday, lady. As you always say, you're my best girl ever.

Brooke's Birthday Interview: Year 3
1. What is your favorite animal? A hippo, like Hallie (from Doc McStuffins.)
2. What is your favorite food? Broccoli, cereal, &, um, yogurt.
3. What is your favorite show? One of the princess shows. Can you guess what it is? Belle! Because she's on my boots. (She was wearing her princess snow boots at the time. When prompted for an actual TV show, she chose Fresh Beat Band.)
4. What is your favorite color? Pink & purple.
5. Who is your best friend? Claire & Molly.
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles.
7. What is your favorite restaurant? Skyline, DaRosa's, & barbecue sauce.
8. What is your favorite book? Frosty. (The song was playing.) And Princess books & Dora & Strawberry Shortcake.
9. What is your favorite song? Frosty! And Fresh Beat Band! And Princess!
10. What is your favorite toy? My guitar that Abby & Max gave me. And I like to play with my best buddy Joe.
11. What is your favorite snack? Animal crackers.
12. What do you like to sleep with at night? My best buddy Belle, Honey Bunny, Bunny, & Seahorse.
13. What kind of birthday party are you going to have? A Pinkalicious party!

Blessed.

Happy kids, blessed parents, successful holiday :)

Hope your Christmas was as magical as ours this year!

José.

Joe, at 15.5 months:

- knows & can point out lots of body parts. Current list: ears, nose, head, teeth, mouth, eyes, belly, legs, feet, & hands.
- can do "shhhh!"
- uses a fork and spoon pretty well. He can eat an entire bowl of yogurt/applesauce with surprising accuracy. He loves to have utensils at meals, even though 1/2 the time he holds it with one hand and eats with the other.
- has been using a few 2-word phrases for a while, namely things like "Thank you, ____!" or "Bye ____!"
- has mastered the following sounds: cow, cat, dog, horse, goat, lion, duck, car, train, & Santa.
- talks all the time. He's adding new words to his vocabulary daily. His favorite & most used words: no, pappy, cracker, & "nack" (snack)
- has 12 teeth, thanks to the recent addition of 4 new ones. Those darn molars have been "coming in" for months and they finally broke through this month!
- favorite toys: balls (any size, color, sport, doesn't matter - he loves them all!,) Legos, beads, bowl & spoon, cars
- is wearing (mostly) size 18M clothes and size 6 shoes. Not nearly as big as his sister was at his age.
- loves to put shoes on, but ALWAYS kicks off the right shoe within 6 seconds of being in his carseat or a high chair. No matter how tight the shoe is on his foot, he manages to get it off.
- is a major monkey! He can climb up onto the couch by himself, which is actually quite helpful. Not so helpful is when he climbs up onto kitchen chairs (ours are bar-height) or onto the kiddie table in the playroom (I've caught him standing on it multiple times.)
- is very much a mama's boy, and it seems to be getting worse. Daddy is having an increasingly harder time soothing him, especially if Joe knows I'm nearby or in the middle of the night. He also seems to be doing a lot more crying lately, though that is likely due to his teeth & the stomach bug he's had for about 2 weeks now.
- would live his life holding someone's hand/finger at all times if he could. If he is even the least bit tired or sad, holding (and playing with) someone's hand is what calms him. It is the most bizarre thing. His hand of choice is certainly mine, but will latch on to the hand of whoever is holding him. We've recently made 4 10-hour car trips, & I spent a significant amount of time each trip leaning into the back seat so Joe could hold my hand when he was sad. As cute and endearing as it sounds, it's getting really old really fast. And he doesn't just hold your hand/finger; he plays with it. He likes to scratch the pad of your finger with his nail or squeeze the cartilage by your thumb. So random, I know (and sometimes painful.)

October fun.

You guys, let's discuss the last few months, shall we? They flippin' flew by. I mean, it's mid-December and I swear Brooke's first day of preschool was, like, 2 days ago. We must have been busy, because I had no time to sit down & blog about it. But I hardly remember what we did that made it so busy and brief.

I know we celebrated the you-know-what out of Halloween. Because, well, that's what you do when you have kids; you celebrate stuff. Thankfully, I've got pictures to prove that we did something. And I took a lot of them, so prepare yourselves for a photographic smorgasbord of October fun. And go.

First up: the pumpkin patch. We made our photo-op trip to Iron's Fruit Farm to get our pumpkins towards the beginning of the month. We rode the hay ride out to the field, chose our pumpkins, ate some yummy apple cider donuts - you know, all the activities that just scream Fall. (p.s. I'm obsessed with the pics of them sitting on the pumpkins!)

Next was the Halloweenfest at the Rec Center. This adorable event is one of my favorites, as it is 100% catered to the munchkins. Lots of snacks, kiddie games, s'mores, a hay maze, a bonfire - lots of ways to hype up kids and fill them with sugar right before bedtime. (We skipped the hay ride because horses smell it was too cold.) The kids had a blast hanging out with their grandparents and taking part in all of the activities, all the while avoiding all the things that scare them (which is a growing list these days, but this night included scary costumes, giant stuffed chipmunks, and - apparently - sitting on hay.)

Of course it wouldn't be Halloween without grossing out our children with the insides of a pumpkin. (i.e. pumpkin carving.)

Halloween day was filled with lots of festive fun, including orange milk & ghost pancakes, making chocolate sugar cookies with my favorite baking assistant, & ballet in a Halloween tutu (cutest thing of my life.) 

Just days before, the sun was hot and we were in short sleeve shirts. On Halloween? Freezing. Of course. So we bundled up our adorable little fireman & princess and headed out to just a half dozen houses in the neighborhood. Brooke totally got the idea this year, saying "Trick or Treat" and taking the appropriate amount of candy. Joe very kindly said his version of "thank you" as he grabbed as much as his chubby little hand could hold.

Next up? November. Stay tuned :)

Free time.

So many things to tell you. So many memories that haven't been documented properly. So little time to fit it all in.

Free time. That's the one thing I always need & never seem to have. It's in that time that I get to sit here and tell all of you about the insanity happening around me. But it's been scarce lately, as I've been shuffling preschool, trips to the pediatrician, ballet, getting ready for a craft show, Christmas shopping, getting ready for vacation...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I'm writing this from here:

Ok, well not actually from the beach. My laptop would get sandy. But we are on vacation. And, for the record, I am 100% in love with vacation. Mostly because the little free time I do have can be filled with whatever the hell I want. So this may work in your favor, because filling you all in on my cute kiddos is high on my "whatever the hell I want" list.

Trick or Treat.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Love, Snow White & Fire Chief Joe

Pumpkin Carving

Because last year's pumpkin carving video was such a hit, I thought you all might like a glimpse into Pumpkin Carving 2012. Once again, our prissy little girl was very apprehensive about the whole thing. Once we talked her into using the big spoon, she was pretty adamant on getting every single seed out of that giant (and I do mean giant) pumpkin. Then she made several drawings of what she thought the pumpkin should look like; she wanted a "happy face jack-o-lantern". In the end, she was quite pleased with the finished products :)

Joe was napping when we started this whole project, so he woke up to the mayhem of seeds and pumpkin flesh flying everywhere. I was sure he would dive right in when given the chance to clean out a pumpkin, but he was just as prissy as his sister! He adores spoons, though, so he was thrilled to "mix" his pumpkin.

Once it got dark out, we lit the pumpkins and let the kids stand in awe of our creations.

They look like "happy" pumpkins to me :)