35 Months/11 Weeks Old

We are so close to having a 3-year old in the house, it's scary! Kami is constantly reminding everyone that after Santa Claus comes, she'll be three (or "free" as she says it, but according to my count, she's been anything but free...). We're also getting closer to Christmas and the marketing teams of all major toy brands are geniuses because Kami wants everything that she sees on TV. Nickelodeon has commercials for both kids and stay-at-home moms, so she'll see a video game commercial and say "I want that after Santa Claus comes!" (she says it about a million miles an hour) which is coincidentally the same thing she says when there's a Dyson commercial on. I had to remind her the other day that it didn't matter how cool the ball on the vacuum cleaner looked, Santa wasn't bringing her a shiny yellow Dyson. Sad girl. She's also figuring out associations, like Wendy has horses at her house, so every time she sees a horse, "A horse like at Wendy's house!" She also remembers that my mom's favorite color was red and stop signs are red, so any time we drive by one, "A red octagon stop sign Grandma's favorite!" Cute kid we've got on our hands!

Brooklyn continues to get bigger every day as babies do. Her hair also gets bigger every day and we are constantly getting stopped in public for people to pet my baby. Not sure how I feel about it, but I pet her hair all the time. She's talking to us more and more and smiling and starting to figure out her hands. The other day she was fascinated by my dad's beard and just stared and grabbed. She's a sweet girl and we're all interested to see what kind of personality she'll have. Will we have two spazzy girls or one spaz and one shy girl? We'll see!


Happy Thanksgiving! Brooklyn and Jonah just happened to wear the same outfit...seriously! It was a coincidence!

Brooklyn's cheeks are so heavy it's hard to keep her head up.

Kami likes to watch cartoons in our room at the foot of our bed.

I don't think Brooklyn liked Dada giving Kami all the attention.

Sweet sleepy girl.

Brooklyn loves to watch her big sister.

Another Kami self-portrait.

Sweet face.

There's a giant baby in my sink!

I asked Kami to look at me over her shoulder and she got it confused with her elbow.

"Sees (cheese) mama!"

Kami's picture of dada and baby sister.

Kami was watching "Dinosaur Train" one day and built one herself (while wearing her old Batman costume) and was so proud she needed a picture of herself.

Tummy time turned into nap time for Brooklyn.

Sweet Batman big sister giving a sleeping baby sister a kiss.

34.5 Months/9 Weeks

The start of November has been pretty uneventful. I went back to work (boo) and the girls have been going back to daycare. Kami enjoys being the big sister and protecting her baby sister from all her friends.

Brooklyn went in for her 2-month check-up and was a little under 13 1/2 lbs and 24" long, putting her in the 95th percentile for height and weight. Yup, we've got a big baby! She's also starting to smile and coo at us, which is pretty darn cute. She loves looking at Grandpa Dokken and giving him lots of smiles!

Kami and dada went on a bike ride to the lake and they both had a blast. Notice how Kami smiles the same in all the pictures...cheesy grin!

Kami's quite the bathtub artist!

Apparently beating your dad is funny.

Garrett helping Kami put her ice skates on for our annual McCall retreat with the teens.

All ready to go!

Luckily there were buckets at the ice rink, because this is how she spent most of the time on the rink:

Note to self: next year, get more buckets. My back was killing me afterwards!

Trying to catch a sweet smile.

Check out her awesome hair! People stop us all the time in stores to pet her. Not sure how I feel about that...

It's a flying Kami!

Trying on her Batman costume from last year's Halloween. It's a bit short...

Nice princess crown! Kami's on a real princess and pony kick right now...eww...

34 Months/7 Weeks Old

Happy Halloween! Life is settling down even more now that we are back at home and finally unpacked from living at my parents' house for about 2 weeks this month. I'm going to start back to work this next Thursday (I'm not really looking forward to it, but it's a necessary evil if I want to continue to pay my bills) and the girls will start daycare. We'll be taking them to the same lady that Kami's been going to for a while, but during my maternity leave, Kami only went to Denice's house about 3 or 4 times. We meant to have her go once a week during the entirety of my maternity leave, but that didn't happen, so we're hoping that things go smoothly when we drop her off on Thursday.

We had a ton of fun with Halloween this year. We went to my parents' house to go trick-or-treating. Kami dressed up as a Minnie Mouse princess (no idea where she came up with that one) and had been planning to do so for about 2 months, so we bought her a Minnie Mouse dress and ears and paired them with a tiara and wand. She did a great job telling people "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" and now has loads of candy in her Disney Princess bucket. She's really on a princess kick right now and has already decided that she wants a Barbie princess for her birthday. Not sure if mama and dada have decided on that yet...

Brooklyn continues to be a sweet girl. Anytime Kami talks to her, she quiets down and just stares at her big sister. She loves taking baths and has even started sleeping for about 6-7 hours at night. She even had a few 11:30 pm-9 am stretches which were fantastic! She's starting to give us a few smiles here and there and is beginning to coo at us. Her hair continues to stand straight up and the mohawk seems to be creeping forward, just like Kami's used to. We get stopped a lot in public for people to pet her. Someone at church asked if I thought she'd get tired of it, but she doesn't know that it's not normal yet, so I figure she thinks that's what people do to you when they see you, although it does mean I have to wash her hair more often so it doesn't get too greasy. What sweet girls we are blessed to have!

One day, Kami didn't take a nap during nap time, so around 6, she was upstairs watching a cartoon by herself and I realized it was really quiet, so I went upstairs and this is what I found.

Two sleepy girls.

Trying to see what Dada's doing.

Helping Dada make a Minnie Mouse.

Playing with clay.

Big, chocolatey grin.

Dressing up for Trunk-or-Treat at church.

I say "smile," and this is what she gives me. What a cheesy girl.

Brooklyn's sweet face. I think she's growing into her huge cheeks.

Kami's a big helper in the kitchen and loves to "stir, stir, stir!" She helped me make a fabulous "chock-it" cake for Grandpa and Aunt Patsy's birthday.

Being a silly girl in Dada's hat...

and falling asleep in it.

She loves her Batman "hack!" She says "k"s instead of "t"s at the end of words, so "hot" is "hock" and "hat" is "hack." And there's your lesson in how to speak "Kami." Also, "mee-moes" are mermaids and the "beemin" is the laptop. No idea how those two came about, but at least we know what she's saying.

Kami likes sitting in Brooklyn's Bumbo seat. I guess she can do that for now since Brooklyn doesn't use it yet. We'll see how things go when she does...and check out that hair!

Brooklyn's first Halloween as a skeleton baby.

Sweet sisters!

Dada and Kami in matching shoes.

Kami danced around for a while before going "sick-or-seeting." Another lesson in speaking Kami, she means "trick-or-treating."

33 1/2 Months/6 Weeks Old

Sorry for the delay of the post. This month has been crazy for our family. As most of you know, my mom passed away October 15th after battling ovarian cancer for the past 3 years. She went peacefully and surrounded by family, just as she wanted. Needless to say, the blog was moved to the back burner (is there a way-back burner?), so I'm finally updating it now.

Kami has adjusted to being a big sister with flying colors and loves her baby sister (that's what she calls her). She constantly talks to Brooklyn ("Don't cry baby sister. It's okay Book-in." "Baby sister hungy, make a bottle!" Yes, she leaves out the "r" in hungry.) and is helping me (throws away dirty diapers, puts clothes in the hamper, shakes the bottles). She's also very excited for Halloween (spoiler-she's going to be a Minnie Mouse Princess) and getting lots of candy.

Brooklyn is an easy baby. I have a feeling that she might be a more mellow child than Kami is (like that's so hard). She's our chunky monkey and still has tons of hair. She's a very sweet girl and we look forward to finding out what kind of personality she'll have.

We also added one more to our family. Po is an Australian shepherd, border collie mix (apparently those are called "Baussies"). We got him towards the beginning of October and he was 6-weeks old. He's a cute puppy who seems to be pretty smart. Kami loves having a dog again and I happy that he hasn't pooped in our house yet!

Brooklyn uses the swing much more than Kami ever did, so I'm finally getting my money's worth out of this thing.

A proud Uncle Nick and one of his favorite nieces.

Brooklyn on one of her many baby blankets.

Mmm...fingers are so good...

Sweet little face.

Kami and Po washing my windows. How nice of them...

This is one of their favorite games to play (Kami pulling his blanket all over the yard and Po chasing her).

Hmm...what's in here?

Dada, Kami, and Po enjoying a nice fall day.

Isn't he cute? We named him Po after "Kung Fu Panda" since he sort of looks like a panda bear.

"Follow me" says the girl with no pants. She was thrilled with the new puppy on the first day that we got him.

And then she started eating like a doggy...mama wasn't so thrilled about that...

Kami modeling her new tutu that her Aunt Jenn made for her.

Quite the getup for a girl running in the rain.

I drew a "bear-bear" on her magna-doodle and she said "I love my bear bear! I hug him!"

See how helpful Kami is? Garrett doesn't need to even do anything!

Kami's a budding artist. Check out her smiley face (in the brown) and the heart (in the green). I was pretty impressed!

Kami the Conqueror on top of Toilet Paper Mountain in Costco. What a ham.

Sweet girl with sweet braids.

Another impressive smiley face.

Kami's new Batman hat. She loves the "earrings" on the hat (the ties on the earflaps).