Two Years

Brooklyn just turned 2.

What the heck?

Wasn't she just born?

For her birthday we decided to hang out and go to a bounce house, she loves to bounce. 

We usually do breakfast in bed on birthdays in our household, but I just don't think that's a good idea when you are two, so we had a birthday picnic, while watching Curious George. I think she liked it better.

Don't mind naked Mowgli over there.

We played all morning, opened up a few presents and took naps. Yes I'm a mean mom, I made her take a nap on her birthday. But I knew we would be out late partying and I wanted her to be the happiest. So if you think about it, I'm actually a very nice Mom, OK?

After she woke up, we gathered up our stuff, and the Johnson's, and headed south to Olathe, KS. Since we were going that direction, I called up the Oman's to see if they wanted to meet us there. And of course they did. 

The place was amazing. Amazingly ghetto! I could have just sat there and watched people all night long. There were some interesting characters to say the least. But it was OK, because when there is floating plastic to be climbed on and jungle Jims to explore, kids don't really know the meaning of ghetto. 

Here were some of the party goers

And I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of the people there, it really was a treat!

After the bounce house, we went to Oklahoma Joe's with the Oman's. 

We got our BBQ on.

And our present opening on.

But we didn't get our cake eating on because when we got home, it was way too late...

...and then the next day, Travis worked the whole day so we had to wait...

... but the 2nd day after her birthday, we managed to fit the cake eating and singing in.

These pics of the cake were on her birthday

This was two days later

Brooklyn had been practicing her birthday candle blowing out for weeks, so we really couldn't forgo this part of the birthday, even though the cake was sweating. She did great!

She was a very happy birthday girl

Brooklyn, you seriously light up the room.

You could be Shirley Temple's twin sister

You have the type of personality where people are just attracted to you and want to be around you.

You are snugly and warm and soft and fleshy

You love your sister and you love when her friends come over to play

But sometimes you and your sister fight, and you "paw" her

Its really hard for me to punish you, I either want to laugh or hug you when you are naughty

You wear your emotions on your sleeve and are extreme in all of your emotions. You can be very excitable, very happy, very sad, very mad within 15 minutes

You are very obsessed with washing your hands. Serious, you will stop what you are doing and say, "mama, wash hands." I'm proud to say you have not gotten the flu this season

You are very into dolls right now, and you and Avery pretend every day. You love Baby Bleu, Baby Patty and Baby Rita

You are very into picking your nose, which I think you learned from your older sister

You are obsessed with jumping. You are always doing it. So much that you got a mini trampoline for Christmas

Along with jumping, you are always bouncing. Whenever I hold you, you bounce, and people think I am bouncing you, but you are doing all the work. Also, when you are eating in your high chair, your legs are always bouncing out of the bottom, so much that I can't fill your water too high in your cup or it will spill

You love to color and paint, and about 4 months ago you would do it for long stretches of time, but now you just scribble something and you are done, so I kind of think your attention span is fading? You love to draw circles

You are the biggest mess maker ever! You are way into lotions and creams and soaps; so where is your favorite room in the house? The bathroom. If I can't find you, you are usually in the bathroom concocting some potions. You are obsessed with makeup and I had to buy you some of your own because you were ruining mine

You know all of your colors and shapes; including octagon, which is one of my favorite words that come out of your mouth, "ogagon."

You are working on your letters, but for some reason aren't as interested in those yet

You speak in solid sentences and are starting to get sassy. The other day you said, "Mama, go away, we want to play." You also said "mama, I have to tell you something," and then you mumbled a bunch of stuff

You have gone pee pee 3 times in the toilet, but still don't seem too interested to start potty training

You watch Avery go on the potty and try to wipe her afterwords all of the time

Your favorite food is quinoa and rice, you would eat that stuff all day long

You love your Daddy, but you are still a total Mama's girl

You are a very inconsistent sleeper. Sometimes you wake up at 4 or 5 and just need us to snuggle with you, and sometimes you will sleep till 8. And other times you will wake up at 6 am ready to go.

You love music. Already, in the car, if I listen to even 2 seconds of talk radio you say, "mama, music please." And if I have to turn the music down to answer my phone, you get mad and say, "music loud please."

You might be our dancer, you are always rockin' to the beat

You are the sweetest, sassiest, cuddliest, cutest 2 year old and we don't know what we would do without you! You add so much color and fun to the family

We love you Brooklyn, maybe don't eat as many veggies though, that way you won't grow as fast!

Nauvoo

You remember Amy, my crazy running partner?

Well, she finally got hitched to Hyrum Prince in the Nauvoo temple.

Nauvoo is about 4 1/2 hours away. It didn't really work out with Trav's schedule to go, so I decided to just go without husband and kids. 

My friend, Jen, thought the idea of getting away for 24 hours was genius, so she came with me.

What a party crasher.

This party crasher ended up being the photographer/bouquet maker for the wedding so they didn't frown upon her crashing.

The wedding was so much fun. There were maybe 25 people max involved. 

The night we got there, we hung out at a bed and breakfast and played games with everyone.

Then Jen and I stayed up till 3 am making the bridal bouquet and a couple other ones for people in the wedding party.

I have never done that before, because I'm NOT domestic, but it was kind of fun and they worked out.

Then we woke up early in the morning to help with hair and make up. Again, Jen delivered, she is a hair school graduate. I think she was more valuable than I was for the wedding!

The temple was beautiful and the bride and groom were radiant!

The weather was FUHREEZING though and I totally forgot my coat, so I thought I was going to die a couple of times.

It was fun though, the whole party drove around Nauvoo taking wedding pictures while looking at the sites.

Jen had never seen the Mississippi before, so we of course had to go and touch it.

Then we headed over to the bed and breakfast and had a buffet style Mexican feast! Then Amy and Hyrum brought out there wedding cake, which was a cake made out of cake balls. They proceeded to throw the cake balls in each other's mouths. They are awesome. Then, Amy made the whole party her favorite dessert, mint chocolate chip milk shakes. They were wonderful.

I loved this small wedding! Totally Amy's style.

After the wedding festivities, we drove up to Carthage jail to see where Joseph Smith was martyred.

Then we stood around taking pictures at the site where he was killed, which was kind of awkward, because were we supposed to smile? I don't know, but that place is a neat place to visit. Church history is very humbling for me to learn about. I just don't know if I would be willing to do what those people did, I was whining for the 2 hours I didn't have my coat during the pictures. Amazing!

This little jaunt out of town was exactly what I needed. Jen and I had lots of good talks and laughs! We were both refreshed when we got home, but maybe we should have slept more?

Thanks to our husbands for taking on the load! 

Nauvoo temple

The lovely bride and groom

JK here they are

The Mississip, I look like a giant next to Jen

The Jail

That is the bullet hole that killed Hyrum Smith

good times!

The Shizzle

2013 so far...

Travi got an owie. Lets just chalk another painful, expensive surgery up to church basketball. We have had a couple in our ward this year. Maybe these old men should stay away from a carpeted gym? 

Look at the difference

Poor guy. I feel so bad for him. I am trying my best to take care of him, but its really hard when you have two needy kids on top of that and no family to help. Don't get me wrong, we have had lots of great services from our friends, but its not the same as pawning the kids off on a Grandma. (I am not trying to make any Grandpa's or ma's feel guilty in that last statement, I promise!) I told him the other day that I am giving him about 60% of my help. I'm not staying on top of his icing, or meds like I would want to and I've only put antibacterial ointment on his stitches like twice. He is such a trooper. Honestly, I thought he would have been a lot more wussy! Thanks for being so tough Trav, I wouldn't wish ACL replacement surgery on my worst enemy! Did you know Trav has some dead guys ACL in his knee now? Its kind of creepy, not stump creepy, but in that same family.

Another new development in the Charles household

This girl sleeps in a big girl bed now. For the past month or so, she would climb out of her crib after she woke up, so I figured it would probably be safer for her to be in a bed. It was more of a transition than I thought. She is no Avery. Avery still thinks she is in a crib to this day. She never comes out of her bed in the morning without calling for me, or sneaks out at night. Brooklyn, on the other hand has a child lock on her knob. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but every time I would put her to bed, she would be downstairs 10 seconds later. She is also a smart one, she undid the child lock in about 15 seconds, twice, so I had to get duct tape and tape the child lock on the door knob. She did bust out of that one once, but I think she was lucky, because she hasn't since. We are working out the small kinks, and maybe the timing wasn't the best with Trav's surgery, but all in all, I think we have made it past the hardest part with the transition. 

And I just had to put a picture of Avery up, she is seriously so big these days! She just started gymnastics, but that will be a post of its own.

Yeah, not too much to report besides that. January and February just kind of suck in my book! There is sickness everywhere, its freezing, and we are a little bit cooped up, so we have been having lots of friends over!

I love how Brooklyn is the tag along little sister, that's exactly how I was! 

Since it is January, I guess that is the time to reflect and decide what you want to do with yourself in 2013. I wasn't really going to make any set goals or resolutions, but after being overwhelmed with taking care of everyone, I decided I needed something to shoot for. So I took myself out on a date last Saturday to Starbucks and sat there in the corner with my pen and paper and of course Ipad while listening to the teeny boppers hanging out. 

For some reason, I am have all this passion to grow, not just as a mom, but as an individual. I feel like since I have entered motherhood, I have grown exponentially in the perspective and nurturing department, but not so much in the intellectual department. So I decided to pursue just that. I made a bunch of goals. I am going to start a book every month. I am going to watch one documentary per week. I am going to read one article a day on anything. I am going to do some sort of craft every month. I am going to read "Jesus the Christ" and some other little goals. It felt good to have something concrete to seek after.

So I don't really know what this post is about. Its jumbly.  I've been in a deep thinking mode lately and maybe I just wanted to get some things out there? Life is interesting, all the phases you go through. The natural man kind of sucks, because I have all this passion and yearning inside of me, but usually when I have some free time, I just want to sleep or watch garbage on TV (did you know Kim Kardasian is pregnant with Kanye's baby?). Every day will be a battle, but I really am going to enlighten myself with the world.... I hope :)

PS if you have any great ideas on books or documentaries, comment!!! Don't just be a stocker OK.

THE END

Celebrations

It came and went and we survived.

It was very quiet. We stayed here in Missouri, and it kind of seemed that everyone else left. 

Before the big day, we of course, did all the fun traditions we do every year. You know... 

The Santa sightings

The gingerbread house making

 The Christmas date

The train station

Trying to get these 2 to both look at a camera and smile is near impossible

Mainly because of the almost 2 year old

back to topic

The Christmas light drive to Lees Summit

Which is normally so much fun, but DO NOT go on a weekend!!! We waited in line for almost 3 hours in the car, for 10 minutes of lights, albeit awesome, but 3 hours in a car is NOT even worth seeing Channing Tatum without a shirt on, with my kids, and I was grumpy, just ask Travis.

And yes, I pulled a Britney in this picture, I just had no choice... plus we were going negative 8 miles per hour

I really enjoyed all the clips and short videos we were able to watch on Christ's birth, there are really great ones out there. Thank you to youtube and mormon.org.  Also, did you see the CeeLo one? I may or  may not have teared up a bit. I loved the spirit it brought, and honestly, I think those moments were my favorite Christmas moments. Yes Allie, that is when I "caught it." Brooklyn, every night, would say "I need Jejus movie."

Christmas Eve was here before we knew it and we hosted the Hastings, minus Jim, plus Brandi's sister's Emily and Callie and we had the Hendricks as well.

It was fun, but I cannot wait to get a bigger place. We literally had the adult table in the living room and the kids table in the hall. SQUISHY!

And to go along with the white trash theme, look how my kids were dressed

awesomeness.

St. Nick stopped by on his way out and the kids were ecstatic

I don't think Santa fooled Avery. She kept saying, "that man isn't Santa." It was real awkward!

And then of course, Christmas morning.

Kids didn't wake up till 8

and we had to have a breakfast intermission at about 10

I'm glad Santa brought us all our favorite cereals, and yes, that is what we had for Christmas breakfast. Best idea ever!

It was quiet, lasted all morning and was nice. I think that this year was the most I missed being away from family during Christmas.

But these two made it magical

And we had a wonderful Christmas dinner at the Veagle's.

This is a classic picture, cooking and mothering in a tiny little kitchen. I will miss those darn town homes!

Here is the rest of the evening

 

 

 

 

Christmas was great, but I'm kind of glad it is over. I'm EXHAUSTED and fat!

And lastly, on to the new year.

We started the evening at the Cato's. We had bacon burgers and the most wonderful buffalo chicken dip, plus a lot of other crap.

Its a wonder that we were able to demonstrate our sick dance moves on the Kinect.

maybe its a good thing I only had my phone camera with me. We definitely married white men.

This little girl was in Heaven with all the princess dresses.

After the Cato's we headed over to the Hastings to finish off the night. That's right, we party hop.

I think I consumed 4000 calories that night, I hadn't planned on going on a diet for the new year, but am quickly reconsidering.

It was a party. And we went home at 12:01 am and crashed.

Hope you all had some great memories this past week, this was our last Missouri Christmas. Weird.