Festival of Trees

Grandma Brooks treated us to a fun day at Boise's Festival of Trees. Clara loved to look at the trees, she loved watching the dancers performing, and she loved looking at the fire truck. I got some cute pictures of her sitting in the vintage fire truck.

After we viewed all the trees, we headed to the back room to visit the man in red. Clara had a hard time being patient, she was so excited to see him. Everything changed the moment we walked in the room where Santa sat. The tears and clingyness started! It was amusing to watch the fear in Clara's eyes! (Aren't I the worst mom ever?).

Our plan is to try to visit Santa again tomorrow. We'll see if the second time with a posse of cousins will make the experience a little bit easier!

Happy Thanksgiving.

This year, we spent Thanksgiving at the Waldon house.  Dinner time arrived, and the two big babies were asleep.  So we ate without them!  It was a little awful of us, but SO peaceful!  As you can see, we enjoyed ourselves!

 Then the kids woke up, and didn't want to eat right away.  So we headed outside in the cold to snap a few pics to document the day.  Here are the bigs amazed at the swirling water in the hot tub.

 Right before this, Clara was running through the house and hit the corner of her left eye on a wooden chest.  It was a little swollen, red, and watery.  Poor girl!  But that didn't stop her from insisting on being outside with cousin Ben.

 The light was right for a few shots in front of the mountains.

 This is such a great picture, except for me.  I should have cropped it!

 So great!

 The Brooks Family.  November 22, 2012

 And here are a few outtakes from our shoot.  Kinda funny!

 And then we decided to pull a baby swap!  Of course, Clara was much happier in the arms of Uncle Wheezy!

I hope you and yours had a wonderful day of Thanks!  Bring on the Christmas decorations!!!

Little sicky.

Boy, it's been quite a fall for us! Clara had flu-like symptoms for about a month off and on before I finally took her to the doctor and asked to do a stool sample. You don't need to hear the details (except that I wasn't even the one to collect the poo, thanks Gma and Pop Brooks!), but in the end, we learned Clara had ROTAVIRUS! Disgusting, and scary, and torturous, etc. We were worried about dehydration in the midst of it all before we knew it was the big R. and took her to the Er. Thankfully she was only mildly dehydrated then. She had even been vaccinated for Rotavirus. It was such a bummer.

Now Clara has a cold, and just today started getting goopy eyes, so we're back to the Dr. in the morn. Sick season is so much worse when you have a toddler that touches everything!

But enough complaining... this week is my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. And although Clara is a little under the weather, I am so thankful for our family's health, our warm home, a plentiful harvest and food to eat, and our friends and family. Our problems are so trivial, and we are so blessed! So I'll be spending this week hugging those I love and enjoying their company! Happy thanksgiving!!!

Happy Halloween.

We had a wonderful Halloween.  This year was Clara's 2nd Halloween, but it was the first year she got into the festivities.

 

Our neighborhood has a ton of people who put up inflatable decorations in their yards from October through January.  In my opinion, they are a little over the top and I'd never own one myself, but toddlers LOVE huge, inflatable decorations! 

Across the street and a few houses down from us had a big pumpkin with two huge ghosts that take turns popping out of the pumpkin.  Clara loved it!  She talked about the "punkin" and the "goats" a lot. 

 

Clara also got into the spirit of feeling scared.  She talked about being scared and scary things a lot!  I don't know how this started, but it was at times funny, and at times a little unnerving because I worry she is actually starting to be afraid of things.  At night, sometimes she comes running into the room that we're in saying, "I scared!" or "scary!", and talking about the dark a lot.  Is this the age when kids start to do this?  Or is she taking after her Auntie Em and becoming a fan of scary things?

 

For Halloween this year, Clara dressed up as a dinosaur.  At first, she wasn't a fan of having the costume on!  But she warmed up to is as soon as she realized she could roar like a maniac and do a dino dance! 

 

On Halloween night, we had both sets of grandparents over for dinner and fun!  We took Clara trick or treating to a few neighbors houses.  She wasn't so sure about that.  She liked walking around the neighborhood at night and seeing other people out and about and hearing excited kids, but as soon as we got to a doorstep, she wanted up in our arms.  I have a feeling that next year, when she realizes that candy is involved, she'll be a little more willing to stand at the doors of neighbors and bravely say, "Trick or treat!". 

 

Here's the little dino.

 

Here she is with Auntie Em (who isn't dressed up as a nurse for Halloween, she was just on her way to work at St. Als).

Here is Clara with her "pink, pumpkin purse".  Once she realized we were calling it her purse, she was thrilled to carry it around the house!

An excited little trick-or-treater!

And here's the after shot...lips stained from her favorite candy of the night, peanut M & M's. 

We haven't given Clara straight up candy before...she's had sweet treats, but not candy, so we were curious to see what the effects would be.  She got a major sugar high, and had trouble going to sleep, but nothing too serious ensued!

Happy Halloween 2012!

carving pumpkins 2012.

We bought a few pumpkins at the grocery store this year.  I planted some pumpkins in the garden, but they are still a little bit green.  I think I planted them a little too late!  Anyway, we bought a few to put out on the front porch, and on Halloween, decided it would be fun for Daddy and Clara to carve one while I fixed dinner. 

At first, Clara was very sad.  She kept telling Daddy, "No!" as he drew the face on before carving.  We thought things would really get dramatic when the cutting began, but to our surprise, she became super excited once she saw the pumpkin goo!  She wasn't too keen on touching it herself, but she was a big fan of watching her Daddy make a face!

You can tell by these pics that she got more excited as the carving progressed.  And I think we can officially say that the first pumpkin carving experience went very well!  Way to go Kurtis!

 She honestly couldn't contain herself!  This one cracks me up!

 This is her "I'm taking care of my baby" face.  She loved her pumpkin!

It was a great way to jump start our All Hallows Eve festivities!