Brooke's Baptism

Here is Brooke at 17 Weeks Old.
Last weekend was Brooke's baptism. We were delighted to have Jen's sister Kathleen and Scott's brother Brad as the godparents.

The next day, she went downtown to cheer on the Bears with her good friend Hailey. Unfortunately the Bears lost in overtime.

Later in the week, we roadtripped to Madison (phew, Brooke slept the whole way!) to see Taylor, her big brother Eli and parents Sarah and Michael.

We then ventured even further north to see Erin, Greg and their three boys. (phew, more successful sleeping in the car) Here Jack is playing with Brooke. Or is he flirting???

New Skills!

Here is Brooke at 16 Weeks Old.
While spending a couple weeks around the Chicago area, Brooke got to see and sleep (and cry...bedtime has been tough lately) downtown. Here she is having some playtime in the condo. Later in the day we ooo'd and aww'd the animals at the LP Zoo with her good friend Charlie (and Mom Erin).
One day this past week she rolled over twice (once to each side). Unfortunately we haven't see any attempts of this again. She's been regularly grabbing her feet now too.

Cheering on ND!

Here is Brooke at 15 Weeks Old.
Last weekend Brooke cheered on Notre Dame in their season opener. Here she's wearing her ND onesie sent to her by Jen's Dad. Unfortunately, she hasn't quite perfected sitting up, so as Mom went to take the shot...whoaaa, there's goes Brooke taking a head dive on the couch.
Here is she is in the safety of Dad's lap.

Celebrating Labor Day with a Peanut Boil

Here is Brooke at 14 Weeks Old. Last Saturday we kicked off Fall with Iowa football! Brooke and her dad had a lot of fun watching the Hawkeyes beat up on Maine. (Maine? Really? They have a football team?)
Yea! Touchdown!
On Sunday, we celebrated Labor Day weekend at Ken and Barb's house, where they hosted a Peanut Boil party. This is the box below that the peanuts came in. There were 4 boxes, for 4 bushells of green peanuts. It's the Caviar of the Country, didn't you know?
The boiling started about 10:30am, and didn't finish until about 1am. Yep, that's 12+ hours of peanuts and salt goodness, with a few beers, burgers and hot dogs thrown in too.

Each batch of peanuts takes about 3 hours, boiling in water and salt. He bought 10-12 containers of Morton salt! After the peanuts are boiled they're scooped out, cooled slightly, then bagged into ziploc gallon bags for everyone to take home. There were at least 40 bags filled by the end!
In other developments, much to Dad's dismay, Brooke discovered her thumbs this week (and how tasty they are for sucking). I think there are springs attached to her arms, because you pull the thumb out (try to replace it with a pacifier), and 2 minutes later, the thumb is back in there. Mom can't say much as she was a thumb sucker... Unfortunately it wasn't until later in the week that I remembered this shirt in her dresser. She should've worn it on Sunday for the peanut boil!