Double Brooke

Double your pleasure, double your fun, with double Brooke, double Brooke, watch out here they come!
Brooke has been having a great summer playing with her best friend whom is named Brooke also!

Brooke also gets a chance to play with some other girls in our neighborhood since we have a few right in our neighborhood that are her age.

Brooke is a leader, she is kind and she puts her conscious first. When Brooke was playing with Brooke a few days ago, I had arrived  to pick up my Brooke at the Thames house, and her Mom told me that when they went outside to play in the sprinkler,  my Brooke told them that she didn't wear two piece swimming suits because she likes to be modest. She said they gave her an old dance outfit they had because all of her Brooke's swimming suits are bikinis.

Brooke later told me that she didn't know what to do at first when they were offering to her only bikinis to wear. She said she said a prayer in her heart about what she should do and she felt like she wanted to be modest. I was so proud of Brooke to not be worried about what her friend would think of her asking for a one piece suit. Brooke is very modest about everything, which is wonderful. She doesn't even change in front of her Dad anymore ;)

For Will's future wife

                               Good old fashioned black mail pics are always a good thing to have on hand ;)

JUST KIDDING.... Will isn't one of those boys who looks like he could be a girl with a little lip gloss.

                                           He is all boy, and such a cute little boy he is.......
                               
                                        

                                    
               

Fourth of July with Major

 Every year on the Fourth of July Major and his family come in town and stay with a childhood friend of his Lynn Dupree, whom has also been a friend of Kevin's since Major introduced them in college. Lynn wouldn't let me take any pics of her this time...

 Brooke and Will loved going on Scott's boat. The funny thing is that Brooke has been fearing our upcoming family cruise with the Turano's. Everyday she had been saying, " I don't want to go on a boat. " When I ask why she just says she doesn't want it to sink. So Brooke had her chance to over come her fear. I was shocked that Kevin got to her go on the tube with him on the lake. I guess I under estimated her. I should have known...Brooke hates to pass up something that looks like a fun time....

 Brooke loved driving the boat! Scott really let her steer and we were making some very sharp turns! It was kind of scary how much she loved being in control and driving like a crazy person. I will probably remember seeing the wild eyes and excitement in her face while driving that boat, when it's time for drivers ed.

 We didn't have a life jacket for Will so Kevin a responsible Dad put one on himself and buckled it thru Will's clothes. Will , the dare devil he is would just jump straight in the lake if we let him....

                                         Mally and Brooke always have a great time together!

                                          And this is where she overcomes her fear of lake water

  We got back from the lake and enjoyed hot yummy burgers that Major had cooking for us while we were gone...

                         There is no time for the old "waiting two hours after you eat.... to swim " rule

            The first time I went to a party with Major I was very worried about how red his face got. He told me he had high blood pressure and forgot to take his medicine. I really thought something was wrong with his health, but now I know his face just gets this red. That's why he's called, " Big red. "

Magical Garbage Truck

 Ever since Brooke could walk, every year Grandma Pack buys Brooke a pair of tall black boots. It is about that time of year for the Semi Annual Sale at Nordstroms, and Grandma and Grandpa picked up Brooke to go choose her black boots and do a little school shopping.

As Will and I waved goodbye to them on the front porch I thought it was a perfect time to inspect the ground for bugs with Will. Since summer started we haven't had the one on one time to talk just him and I. we found some rocks to throw, found some sticks to break and then the magical garbage truck came along.
Well to Will it seemed as if his Mom was trying to teach him that the garbage truck was magic.

With Brooke it seemed like we had a daily routine of trash time watching out the window. Life is more busy so I haven't done that as much with Will.

I was telling Will , " Watch how the garbage has a claw that grabs the trash can and out dumps the trash into the truck. I explained even further and said a third time, " Will the garbage man is taking your dirty diapers away, the dirty diapers go into that garbage truck. "

Will suddenly stood in silence as if he was thinking very hard and he looked confused.

 As he took his pointer finger and pointed at his little hiney, Will said clearly.....

 " My diaper is right here."

I quickly knew why he looked so confused! Why was "Ma" as he calls me, trying to tell him the garbage truck snatched his diaper off him when he could still feel the icky pasty feeling on his tush?

He was just telling me how it is....His diaper was infact poopy and he was sure the garbage truck didn't take his dirty diaper off him....

Will is using full on sentences starting a few weeks ago. It's so fun to hear what is going on in that little head of his.

He says everyday, " Ma lets go catch a ghost!" and he grabs my finger and pulls me around the house.
He says, " Daddy I wanna go to swimming pool."
I love hearing him yell, " Here it comes! Ready set go! I see it, sky airplane!!!"
He says, " Where is Brooke Ma?" or" Where did Daddy go? "
I like hearing him say, " Ma, I want candle cake." or , " You want some Brooke? Here you go Brooke."
He loves bugs and calls spiders, spider man. He says, " Ma look it's spider man, oh no, yuck, sick! "

Will's bday party play pics

"Candle Cake" for Will's Birthday Party

 It's funny how pregnant Mothers can sense things about the babies they are carrying. When I was trying to decide what I was going to decorate Will's nursery like...I thought... since our family has such a fun time visiting every drive thru animal park we know of, and we love to go to pet stores.... I thought I for sure, I wanted to do an animal theme. It was perfect...Kevin has a collection of about 60 plastic toy animals that he used when he was a cartoonist. They were in a box in the attic. I imagined getting them out of storage and putting them on shelves around the room to match the theme. When I went to get the bedding at the store, I had a very hard time letting go of the animal theme. I had a perfect color scheme planned and a cherry crib I alreadyhad bought from a garage sale waiting for this bedding I had seen online....I suddenly knew this animal theme just wasn't Will. I really could feel that what I was looking at in the store, was Will's personality. I even brought Kevin to the store to look at it, and he wanted a totally new fish bedding that he saw. But after I saw it, I just felt Will was a transportation theme. Cars, boats, airplanes, and helicopters. I know now that I really was having intuition over Will as silly as it seems. Will is a car , and airplane kind of boy. That's all he plays with. When I hand him the plastic toy animals now he can tell me what kind of animal it is, and then he tosses it to the side to grab something with a motor.

When Will recently started liking something other than cars and planes that completely describes him.... I decided to use it for the theme of his two-year old birthday party. Curious George is a new favorite TV time for Will. He is just like Curious George too! All the climbing, breaking things, causing commotion, and he loves bananas.

I looked online for a few days for some candy bananas to put on the cake I was envisioning in my mind. I had to research all the ingredients to make sure he wouldn't have an allergic reaction. Then I figured out a way to make him feel like he was eating the same cake as us all, by making the top of his cake with coconut ice cream, his special ores, and a frosting not made with milk, eggs, or nuts. I made the bottom of the cake with all of our favorite, Oreo ice cream, and regular ores.

The night before the party Will ate lots of the banana candy. He ended up having an allergic reaction and only he and I only got a few hours of sleep. I will tell you my Will is tough, and  great sport, who wont miss out on a fun time, and as he would call it, "candle cake ." He even sang along with us as we sang one of his favorite songs " Happy Birthday. "

It was a really good time for all of us. We did miss Grandma and Grandpa Pack though, since they were in Puerto Rico visiting my FBI agent brother and his family.

We are always thankful the Turano's come in town for each of the kids birthdays, and it is always so kind and helpful all the things they do for us around the house while they are visiting. We are very lucky to have great parents.

We are thankful to have such a smart, fun, happy, sweet two-year old Will now too!!!!

                              Grandpa Turano thought he'd rather cut my back, than a piece of cake

                                                         Emily, Will, Holly and Ammon

                                                      Will, Emily, Kristina and Beckham

        Will, Beckham, and Ammon are all about the same age with in a few months difference. These are his regular play date buds....