Brooklyn turns 2!

It finally happened! Our baby turned 2! Where did the time go? She has slowed down in her growth, only 26.5 lbs., 50%, and 331/2 inches, 50%. The doctor said she's on track to be about 5'7". Overall she is a good little girl. She is a little bit of a drama queen though, and she loves to climb all over everything! She loves to draw and she is a mama's girl, but so cute and loving. She just melts your heart, most of the time!

She loves Elmo, so naturally we had an Elmo party with the family. Grandma and her were twinkies! We just played at the park with her cousins, then had some dinner and presents.

We had fun decorating and making anything look like Sesame Street Characters that we could. We got a few ideas off Pinterest, and then added some of our own. Brooklyn loved it all, as did Alec. The fruit and veggie trays were the best!

And the plates and cups were a bit hit!

Brooklyn liked the Elmo cupcakes, but mostly just the frosting and ate the ice cream mostly with her hand!

Really, how can you not love that face?!

Tia and Mikelle's parents helped out a lot. We are so thankful for them. It was a great day with great company and hats!

Halloween

I know this surprises everyone, but for Halloween we dressed up as superheroes! Jackson wanted to be Hulk Smash, so of course we all needed to match. Bobby decided we would go as The Avengers! Jackson loved his costume, and looked so handsome in it.

Bobby was a little hesitant at first to let Mikelle make Brooklyn a girl Captain America, because there is no such thing, but in the end he decided it would be okay! Mikelle, Kristin and their mom made the costume, and she was stinkin' adorable! She loved trick-or-treating, and got a lot of candy.

Bobby was of course Thor and Mikelle was Black Widow. It was a great year, and we have already started planning for next year! (It helps when you find costumes on sale for 75% off)! And we have to thank Kendra for the pictures. There were issues with our camera, and we didn't get any good shots, but luckily Kendra got a few!

Halloween Fun

We love Halloween around here, and since we can only wear halloween clothes for a month, we wear the same clothes a lot! Brooklyn loves her meow-meow shirt.

And Jackson of course loves his skull shirts.

Mikelle made this tutu for Brooklyn. It was her first attempt, so she learned a lot, but it turned out really cute, and Brooklyn chose it anytime we gave her the option.

Mikelle's mom made this dress for Brooklyn. It is so cute, but of course everytime we tried to get a cute picture, we got to see Brooklyn's backside! The front looks the same as the back, so you get the idea.

We took the kids to Dewitt Stables for a little Fall fun. The kids loved it. We started with horse rides, although we had to coax Brooklyn a little. Once she saw Jackson doing it, then of course she had to do it!

 

We had fun with games, train rides, a hay maze (which Jackson rocked), fun with pictures, a hay ride, a petting zoo and

lassoing! Both kids tried, but it was quite hard to lasso anything. Brooklyn got pretty good at catching herself though!

The kids each picked a little pumpkin out, and that may have been the best part for Jackson. Had to choose almost everyone until he found just the right one!

Later Bobby helped Jackson carve our big pumpkin. Jackson drew the face and Bobby cut it. He still hates the insides, but each year he's getting a little more involved in carning it! He did want to roast the pumpkin seeds to eat, so that was our fitst time ever making those. They turned out great!

Not Halloween

Brooklyn has been getting into dress-up. It is so cute, but also a little funny. She has three dresses, and she wears them all at the same time! She also has a few crowns and some mickey ears, they all must go on together too! It is so funny.We also go to the store like this, often! Who needs Halloween to dress-up? Jackson tells her she looks fat, which with three dresses... but we still tell him that's not okay! Poor girl may already be getting a complex, even though we love  her chunky cheeks, that sadly she is slowly loosing.

And of course, Jackson couldn't be left out. Too bad his Thor costume is getting to small. He still loves to wear it and play superhero, so technicaly he's not playing dress-up. That makes Bobby feel better!

T Ball

Jackson has been playing tball these past few months. It has been interesting, but over all he has enjoyed it. He is getting better and excited for when he can hit without the tee. (You may notice his eye is a little black, that is not from tball! We finally had to take him in to get his chalazion surgically removed. The doctor said it was HUGE. We could only see the tip of if and Jacskon seems to be doing much better).

Look how handsome he is!

We love this picture, all action...

Then this is really how we spends most of his time in the field! He is getting better at standing, but that may be because it is finally cooling down too. We had two Saturdays on a row, where he had double headers and it was still in the high 90's! You can see why he was sooo tired! He is also getting more time in the infield, so that helps!

Best Big Brother

Grandma Halterman got the kids these shirts.

Jackson was over the moon about it! He always wants to wear them at the same time.

Jackson has started wanting to help Brooklyn on the computer! It is so cute, but sometimes he does what he wants to do and that makes her sad, but mostly he asks her what she wants to do, then he does it. We love Starfall at our house. Paying for More Starfall is worth it too! We use it almost everyday!

What we do...

This is Brooklyn's prefered method of eating. Rub it all over her arms...

then lick it off!



As the weather slowly cools down here, the kids have decided it's time to get on the trampolione again. It was still at least 100 outside. They were so hot and sweaty, not to mention black. This is the first time our trampoline has started turning everything black. Why is that? Needless to say, they needed another bath.

 

Why it takes our children so long to eat meals.

But honestly, how can you not love these faces?!

Jackson loves to "bird watch" with his binoculars from school!

This is a little behind, but here is Jackson's first day of preschool! He is doing his second year again with Miss Janna at Happy Meadows Preschool, and he is loving it. He had a little bit of a rough start with the changes she made since last year, but is doing better now and tells me he doesn't want to go to kindergarten, he wants to stay with Mrs. Janna! We all love Miss Janna. She is so great with him.

And of course, Brooklyn couldn't be left out, but thankfully she's not in school yet!

San Diego

This year it was decided we needed to have a Halterman family trip. We decided San Diego was the perfect place to do it, and we had so much fun! Mikelle's mom and dad did all the work. They found a great beach house to rent where everyone, but them and Kristin stayed. 17 people in one house was a lot, but it worked out great. Mostly we were out and about, but occasionally we needed a little time to relax. The kids loved watching a movie one afternoon, just all curled up on the couch together.

There was a great backyard with grass and a toy room with awesome toys. When we were home, mostly the kids played outside. Here Alec is catching Brooklyn at the bottom of the slide. Such a gentlemen!

And who wouldn't love this teeter totter? Even Aunt Suzi waited in like for a turn!

Brooklyn found the dress-up clothes, and once that happened, it was hard to keep her in her clothes! But, can you blame her, look at how cute she is!

We went just a few days after Mikelle's birthday, so we were able to celebrate it with everyone. The pinata was a huge success. All the grandkids got to hit it with two different bats, but they didn't do too much damage.

Jackson did the most amount of damage. We are so proud, and signing him up for T-ball in the Fall!

Mikelle got to come in at the end and finish it off.

Then Kristin had ordered a cake from Little Italy, which was to die for! A blood orange ricatta, yum.

Poor Papa always gets stuck with the tough job or reading bedtime stories. Too bad none of the grankids enjoy it!

Of course we didn't miss the beach. The kids had a blast, cold water and all.

Brooklyn's favorite part was destroying Mikelle's sand castle.

And Jackson couldn't be left out!

We took a day and went to Sea World. It was so much fun. Everyone but Amber (who is pregnant) enjoyed the rides.

The animals were all a hit, but we were lucky enough to come across the workers moving some flamingos, and got to stand right next to them. That was especially cool because all Jackson wanted to see was flamingos!

We caught lots of shows, Jackson especially loved Elmo in 3D.

Legoland was our last stop, and it was so fun! Brooklyn was a little too young. She wasn't able to ride many rides, but there were a lot of areas for younger kids to play, so she and Mikelle would play while Bobby and Jackson rode rides.

Jackson saw this game at Sea World, but was too short to do it, but not at Legoland. He was so bummed when he didn't win a prize, but he got so close, even the worker was surprised.

And the boys posing with Boba Fet, who's name Jackson can pronounce with no problem, but can't pronounce yellow! You can see what we spend out time teaching him! Legos have become a big thing in our house, but who likes them more, Jackson or Bobby!