14 Months

Brooke turned 14 Months and has teased us with a few steps here and there, but always resorts back to her super fast crawling to get everywhere. I guess she spends so much time with Maddie that perhaps she thinks all four's is normal?!We're okay with either her crawling or walking, as she is so much fun to be around. Always smiling and laughing! Maddie must've walked in the room here as she happily distracted, laughing at the dog.

Lots of Painting

Much of settling into the new house means making our mark on the house. Literally. Translation: lots of painting. Pretty much the whole house could use a new coat of paint and we want to make it "home" with our own colors.

The Painting Station has been set-up in a spare bedroom, as we started with upstairs rooms.First up, Brooke's room. Melted Butter is back. (note through the windows it is dark out...because painting takes 3 continous hours, we must do it after the Munchkin's in bed, meaning we've had some later than normal nights)While the painting ensued, Brooke took up residence in the guest bedroom (as did Maddie during nap times).Ta Da! Here she is admiring her freshly painted, wallpapered, decorated room. And the border is back up too. When Brooke crawled in her room the day after the border went up, she sat pointing at her animal friends on the wallpaper border (daily we talk to the zebras, elephants, alligators, etc. that are on the border).

Deer, and Turkeys, and Snakes, Oh My!!!

Deer sightings are quite common in our new area. Weekly, Scott reports seeing a deer during his drive to and from work, and saw one the other day between our house and the neighbors. Luckily Maddie hasn't seen one yet -- what will happen then?! Twice in the past week I've also seen wild turkeys in our neighborhood. They're like 4 feet tall! Maddie saw them once, but I don't think she quite knew what it was...

And the snakes! Within a week of moving in, while chatting with the friendly neighbors, we learned that snakes are common in the area. Uh, snakes?!?!?! Yep!

A few days later, our neighbor reported she saw a 4 1/2 foot snake in her bushes. Then a couple more days later, the snake was in the tree right outside our kitchen window. Fearing Maddie might get in a tangle with it, or Brooke crawling in the grass would cross its path, Mom ran out with a yard rake and killed it. (that's me with my "mean snake-killing face")

The deceased snake...

Minneapolis - it's chilly up there!

Brooke, Dad and I made a trip up to Minneapolis for Zach & Dana's wedding (actually in St. Paul). We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the "Iowa" gang. Brooke was reasonably good on the flights (no screaming child...just a very very squirmy child). For mid-July, it was pretty chilly, but I guess what do you expect when you head towards Canada?!

While in Minneapolis we visited Brooke's Great Aunt Caryl and Great Grandma Mary.

Scott and Jen at the wedding.The happily married couple: Dana and Zach.

and with friends.

Happy 4th of July, and New Toys!

We've been busy here in the first part of July getting settled in the new house. However, we did have a nice 4th of July, cooking out in our new backyard and enjoying the neighborhood. Here's Brooke in her 4th of July outfit -- this is also her 13 Months Old picture.

Dad's been busy putting Brooke's toys together. First up was the traditional red Radio Flyer wagon.Brooke's been rolling around on the ground a lot, laughing and smiling. I guess it is a fun new skill she is perfecting.
Cracks me up! ;-) Lastly, after Dad did the wagon, he also put together her kitchen, which she got for Christmas (we waited to unbox it until we moved). She's been having a lot of fun with it!