Guitar Heros!

Friday night we all rocked out playing guitar hero while most of the girls did some crafts.  It was so much fun that we had to have a sign up sheet that filled up 2 pages front and back to make sure everyone got a chance to play.  

Bowling Badgers

The Friday after Christmas, all of the boys went over to the Kelty's house and played some mud football and baseball.  It brought back some great memories of summers growing up where the most difficult thing was deciding, "What am I going to have fun doing today?"  Even Joe and Rob Kelty were there.  It was great!

We then headed over to the bowling alley where my parents had once again rented out for a few hours.  Desirae stayed home with Ian and took a much needed nap while Brooklyn and I had a blast.  I bowled on the same lane as my Dad.  I didn't realize how good of a bowler my Dad is?!  I found out that he used to bowl every Saturday on one of the bases that he grew up on.  Who knew?  I don't remember exactly what I bowled...I believe it was around 180, but the more important thing is I had the highest score of the day....and yes, we're all competitive.  Brooklyn also had a great time with some of her younger cousins bowling with the bumpers on.  Thanks, Rebecca for helping all of the little ones with their first bowling experience.

Christmas Day!

The long awaited day had finally come.  Needless to say it was a bit crazy, but I think everyone was pretty happy with what they received...Mom and Dad were very generous.  (Thanks Mom and Dad for Guitar Hero!  I'm still rocking out!)  Brooklyn got new monkey pajamas, a tutu, and fairy wings in addition to many other gifts.  She was also more than happy to help Ian open his gifts.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve David and Jana organized the recreation of the Nativity.  They did an excellent job.  Desirae and I assisted with Desirae on the piano and me on wardrobe duty.  Uncle David video taped the entire show as it unfolded.

Later that night, Tracy, Jana, and I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to fit everyone in the same room with all of the gifts.  I think that it worked out pretty well. 

Mustache Contest

Tuesday night after the skating rink fun, my brothers and I finalized the sculpting of our mustaches for the contest.  The bottom picture is of my beard before the final product pictured previously.  We never really had an official vote so I'll leave it up to each of you to decide who had the best mustache.  I just laugh each time I see these photos...I think we all look hilarious.

Catching UP!

For the past three months, I've been bugging Desirae to update our blog.  For some reason she's been slacking....maybe it has something to do with having two kids....Anyhow, I thought that I would take it upon myself to fill in some of the blanks that are missing in our blog!  It's been a long time since I've done it and I can't seem to be able to rearrange the photos in this first blog so ignore the fact that the first photo has to do with the end of this particular post.

Where to begin....well, lets start with the beginning of December.  The first weekend of December we headed up to good ol' Covina to participate in the McKendrick Christmas tradition of gingerbread house making (picture with her cousins Caden and Caleb is at the bottom of this post).  Brooklyn had a great time as she attempted to create a fancy house decorated with candy.  Only problem was that she ate half of the candy that was supposed to go on the house!  That same weekend we delivered all of the presents that we were going to exchange with the McKendrick family because we were going to Louisiana this year for Christmas.

Mark and I had the fantastic idea of driving together to Louisiana with the kids and flying our wives out so on December 19th (Friday) I loaded up our wagon and we headed out to Maricopa, AZ.  We arrived just after midnight and got a couple of hours of sleep before waking up and getting on the road at 4:30am.  Mark drove the lion's share of the trip out since I wasn't feeling a little under the weather.  I actually ended up getting an ear infection and not being able to hear out of my ear for half the week!  What's that all about?  I haven't had one of those since I was 10!  Despite some miss guided navigation on my part, Alyssa (my brother's oldest daughter) asking how much longer until we get there every 20 minutes, and the head phones to the DVD player being misplaced after each and every movie, we made it to DeRidder around 2am the next morning.  (I'm blaming the bad navigation part on my illness...)  If you really want some more juicy details of the christmas adventure, I suggest checking out Mark and Tracy's blog.  

Prior to going to Louisiana, I organized a conference call and set up a calender on google so that everyone would have an idea of when people were arriving and what was going on.  There were a total of 20 adults and 16 children staying at my parents house and our next door neighbor's house (the Kwoks happened to be in China for a couple of weeks on vacation).  

On Sunday, we all got up and went to church.  Since my parents ward is now the size of a branch, TJ and Eric were asked to give talks which were both excellent.  Brooklyn got enjoy nursery with Sister May who just so happened to be my nursery leader way back when.  

On Tuesday, we all headed out to Skate City!  Mom rented the entire skating rink out for a few hours.  Desirae told me that Brooklyn was tired and maybe we should leave her home to take a nap.  I insisted that we all go and be a part of the family activity.  Brooklyn and I put on some skates and made it around about twice before she asked me to pick her up.  

So I picked her up and went around the rink a few more times before she totally fell asleep on my shoulder.  Thus, the picture at the top which shows where I set her down on a picnic bench to sleep....yes, Desirae was right.

A Handy Helper

This post is dedicated to my little helper, who is just as often my little destroyer...Before the baby came, Brooklyn and I discussed the many ways life would change.  She was told that she would need to help out a little more.  So far, she's done well with that.  Except for when she's totally disobedient and tells me "no" or "I not happy," mimicking, probably, things that I say to her.  So a couple of new "chores" that we have been experimenting with include matching the clean socks (see above) and helping me load and unload the dishwasher.  She already gets her own place setting out for meals because it's stored on a low shelf that she can reach.  Of course, it's always MUCH easier and QUICKER if I (the mom) do these things myself, but it is teaching her to help out and be responsible, nonetheless.  (I never believed my mother when she told me these things growing up about us kids doing the chores, now I totally get it!)  As a side note, I also discovered that Stephen is MUCH quicker at doing all the housework than I am - he is so efficient!  Dang!  It's really difficult for me to NOT want him to help out because he is SO good at it!  I am really, much slower than he is and my excuse is that I am more distracted with the kids at home but also more thorough.  Last night I wandered around the mall for about an hour with both kids and he basically was able to clean the house from top to bottom (except for the inside of the toilets, he reported) pretty impressively.  He only had the head start of getting the dusting done beforehand.  Then again, I will credit myself that the house is usually pretty organized and kept up on a daily basis so that the deep cleaning shouldn't be too difficult.  ANYWAY... this post is supposed to be about the cutie below!
So here she is proudly displaying her mastery of a couple file folder games that I made her.  They are such a cute idea that I got from my friend Lori.  Of course Lori has the complete collection that she has single-handedly assembled, while I have only made about 6 games.  Oh well!  I'll get there someday - maybe!
These games are color matching games.  Her favorite game is not yet laminated, but it has a bunch of different bodies that are to be matched with coordinating heads and hats.  The different characters include a grandma, Santa Clause, a baseball player, a king, etc.  Brooklyn just calls it "the grandma game." 
For those of you who have been around her lately, you know she is quite the chatter box.  In fact, a huge difference we noticed in our home when she stayed with my mom for a few days was how QUIET it was!  It's hard to remember what life was like without this cute little squeaky voice dialoging, singing, and parroting nonstop!  So just for fun, I decided the other day to note a few of her most repeated, or just funny lines that we will call "Brooklynisms."  Let's see how many of them you have already heard her say (if you live close).  For those family members who live far, you will probably hear some of these when we get together at Christmas time in D-town!
Brooklynisms:

1)  Is that troof?

2)How's work, Stephen?

3)  Save it for Saturday. (later)

   (The other option here, is: if it's a food item, we'll put it in a baggie and save it for later)  (Example, one tiny gummy candy gets saved in a gallon-sized ziplock bag, all without mom's help.)

4)  Raaar!  (This one was adopted from her friend Rylie.)

5) How about...

6) Look, I stick my tongue out, like Mommy.  Yes, when eat tortilla. (This is referring to a photo of me holding up a tortilla that I made when I was in Mexico.  Apparently it made an impression on her!)

7) See you later, alligator.  After a while, crocodile.  (how original)

8)  You wish you had curly hair, momma, like me? (yes.) I wish I had straight hair, like you.

9)  It tastes like candy! (This referring to a variety of foods, from salmon to waffles or even minestrone soup.)

10) When I get bigger and bigger, I get married in the temple . . . to a boy.  (What else do you get to do when you grow bigger?) Wear big apron.  (On another occasion, she mentioned getting holes in her ears like Mommy.)

11) I too vizzy (tired).  (I figured out that it meant tired because we were running to the bathroom at the library park and it was a long distance.  She was out of breath and started walking.)

12) We eat out of you.  (to Dad, meaning "we will eat dinner without you")

13) WHY? (about everything)

14) Stop looking in the mirror, Dad.  (When he was looking at the mirror contemplating different mustache styles.)

15) It flew away in the wind. (whenever something is missing.)

16)Bretsist (Breakfast)

17) Mom, your list!  (She was sitting on the piano bench with me and looked up towards the loft.  There she noticed a long, narrow sheet of paper sticking off of the shelf.  She knew it had to be one of mom's many lists!  She also calls receipts lists.  I'm totally a list person and this word is already part of her vocabulary - scary!)

18) Turn it!  (This she says when she wants the volume up on the radio.)