Sports

We decided it was time to get Jackson involved in some structured sports. Our YMCA does an Itty Bitty program where they do a few different sports over eight weeks for younger kids. Jackson has loved it so far and has learned a little about golf, football, soccer and t-ball. It is starting to get too hot to be outside, so he also gets to swim one week. Hopefully  he can decide on one or two sports to keep up with. Overall it's been a good program, but it seems the program is new, so some kinks need to be worked out.

Spring Break-Prescott

We had two weeks off for Spring Break, which was great since Bobby is working in Chicago during the week, so Mikelle and the kids went up to Prescott. They got a few days with Barry's family, and a few days with just Trenton, Kira and Tessa. It was nice for the kids to have playmates, but not the chaos of a whole other family.
We had lots of activities to do, and lots of great food. Grandma made these super yummy chicken burritos, which Brooklyn loved. Loves all food, especially if it comes off of someone else's plate. Stole mommy's burrito and ate most of it! She loves guacamole, eats it plain. Totally takes after her mommy. 

While in Prescott, we got some snow, not enough to matter, but Jackson loved it for a minute then wanted to go inside. We were bummed when it snowed hard core just days after we left. Almost made a trip back just for the day!

Jackson couldn't get enough of the ATV's. Papa just let them ride and ride, but when it was time to get off, Jackson couldn't handle it. Poor boy was running low on sleep for 2 weeks, being spoiled by grandma and papa, and just couldn't take being told no. Biggest fit ever, but at least it wasn't in public! 

We had so much fun at the zoo. It's small, but the animals are so close and there are fun toys to play on. The kids especially loved the insect house, once Tessa was assured all the bugs where in their cages!

We got to watch them feed the bear. It was awesome. He especially loved this ball covered in peanut butter and fruit. Just licked away at it. Look how close we were!

Resting after all the walking around the zoo.

Strutting her stuff for the onlookers, the animals were getting too much attention! Tia bought this dress for Brooklyn, and she loves it! Swishes when she walks, too cute!! Everyone told her so. She was flirting with a little boy and everything.  She may actually be a girly-girl! We are so not prepared for this!

Grandma saw these St. Patrick's Day outfits, and had to have them. The dress was to die for, and Jackson liked the shirt which is so him, so you can't go wrong! Brooklyn added the socks and shoes, but at least the shoes match her hair bow! (And no, we didn't let her out like this)! 

Update

Jackson and Brooklyn love to ride in the bike trailer. Brooklyn loves her helmet, which is opposite of what we thought would happen, but I guess if you start them young...The problem with it is that it is already getting too hot to be outside for too long, so the kids are sad when it is a short ride.

Brooklyn is still putting everything in her mouth, but  at least this is close to food! 

We are working on her bubble blowing, but mostly the wand goes in the mouth. She understands she is supposed to blow, but not that you leave it out of the mouth to blow! 

Our handsome 4 year old. Tries to be a big boy, but still loves his baths, and he mostly plays nice with his sister while in the tub.

Brooklyn loves water in general. We are excited to start swimming again, but we think Jackson is still afraid of the water. It may be a long two weeks of swimming lessons.

Jackson has taken on the bigger bike though. He really didn't want to let go of his big wheels, but is now so excited about his Mater bike. We think the training wheels will stay on for awhile though, he still leans a lot to the left. Brooklyn is hoping we let her ride a bike soon. Always trying to get onto the big wheels, but she's still a little short!

Brooklyn hits 15 months!

Our princess is also getting too big for her own good. At her 15 month check up, she was  only 15 pounds, 75%, so slowing down a bit, and 32 inches, 90%. Bobby hopes she keeps growing and gets his height. Here she has a hot dog she stole from Alec. We are learning not to leave food where she can see or reach it, because it will disappear!

Poor girl though is just like her mom. When she is tired, she gets slap happy. It is so funny because she will just walk around laughing. She is teething, so a little grumpy currently, but still mostly a happy baby. This picture was taken while playing with mom. Mom would close the sliding glass door while Brooklyn was outside and Mom was inside, and when she would open it again, Brooklyn would get this supper surprised/happy look. It was hilarious, and she played it for a good 10 minutes. Oh the joys of childhood.

Papa

This picture gets its very own post. Look carefully and see if you recognize this man, and if you do, what is different?  That's right! Mikelle's dad shaved off his mustache!! Mikelle's parents got called to work in the temple, so naturally, the facial hair had to go.  It is taking some getting used to, since he has had it as long as his kids can remember, but we like it and they are loving the temple calling. Oh, and speaking of callings, our family just got a lot busier. Bobby got called to Ward Clerk today, and Mikelle got called to second counselor in the primary. Big changes are coming our way!! 

Jackson's 4!!

So, our little boy isn't so little anymore. He turned 4 January 24th. We're not sure we like 4, he is more whiny and doesn't like to follow directions, but we are trying to work on it! At his 4 year well check,  he was 36 lbs., 50% and 40.5 inches, 50%.  So, growing steadily. This is the first year we did a friend party, and we think it went well. There are a few things we would have changed, like we never sang happy birthday and we didn't get a good group picture. There was just too much going on, and it was forgotten. But the kids were good and seemed entertained, and the decorations were great!! Mikelle made this banner with the help of her mom and Kristin. 

Mickey was the theme, and Jackson was so excited for his Mickey party. Mickey Mouse even called him on his actual birthday. It was so cute to see how excited Jackson was. We are hopping to take the kids to Disney Land this summer to make it even more special. And we are planning a Minnie party for Brooklyn one of these years, so we can use a lot of the stuff over again!!

We were able to find fun Mickey Mouse bowls for the food and a fun frame with a picture of Jackson wearing Kristin's Mickey ears. We tried to keep it simple, so we just frosted cupcakes and put Oreos on top that looked like Mickey heads. Papa Halterman did a great job!! Mikelle's parents and Kristin were able to come help with the party, and we were so thankful!

For the main course, you can't go wrong with pizza. We had a lot of different ideas about  how to make the pizzas, but in the interest of time we decided to keep it easy and just make Mickey heads out of pepperoni, and deal with square heads not circle. 

The party started with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we waited for all to arrive. Then the kids colored  Mickey pictures, we had a scavenger hunt where the kids found Mickey ears, Mickey shaped Rice Krispies Treats and Mickey cups. Then we had lunch, played outside, ate cupcakes, opened presents, then destroyed the toy room!

Brooklyn couldn't miss one minute. We tried to get her to nap while we were setting up, but no luck! That girl knows what she wants, and usually gets it! Kristin came all dresses up! We can always count on her to liven things up a bit!!

Tessa also came dressed up. How cute is she?! These two are the best of friends. They always want to get together and play, and thankfully they have had lots of play time while Aunt Kendra watches Jackson and Brooklyn while Mikelle does some more physical therapy. Thanks Aunt Kendra!! You're the best.

And of course, we had to try and get a shot of Brooklyn with ears too. She wasn't too thrilled to be wearing them, but at least it's a decent shot. Jackson is already planning for his party next year, monsters!!

Post Christmas

After Christmas we were able to go to Prescott for a little bit. We finally checked out the zoo. It is small, but lots of good animals to see up close.

There are also a lot of toys to play on, which were Jackson's favorite (although in this one he looks like he's trying to strike his sister)!

We took one morning and hiked  the Peavine Trail. Brooklyn was so excited not to be in the stroller the whole time!

And Jackson just kept walking. Our children love to be outside. We were lucky it was so warm up there and we weren't in the snow everyday, although some snow would have been nice!

Jackson shared Lightning McQueen with Brooklyn, and helped her ride it. As long as someone did the button for her, she held on and had a blast. Jackson is such a great big brother, most of the time!! He loves to help his sister.

And of course, a trip to the park was a must. This slide is kind of steep, and a little scary. It took us a few minutes, and a trip down with Tia to get Jackson to feel comfortable on this slide, but then we couldn't keep him off of it.

The is our little monkey. Climbing all over the place, and sadly, trying to chew on the floor. Poor girl has teeth coming in like there's no tomorrow. She just had 3 break through in the last few weeks, and has 5 more trying to. 

She is also our fearless child. The slide we had to coax Jackson down., she climbed up, and went down backwards. She loves to slide and swing. We went out to the mall a few times to let the kids play, and she just acted like a big kid. Up and down the slide, mostly backwards on her tummy, but a few times face first. She tried to do that back at the house on the stairs as well! She's going to have a lot of falls in the next few years!!

The one thing we didn't do, and Brooklyn was really upset about, we didn't play any golf! She would try and carry these clubs and bag around the house. Up and down the stairs was really problematic. It was so funny because she wouldn't just carry one, and they are almost as big as she is! We think Bobby trained her and was trying to tell us something!!

Christmas

Santa brought this amazing apron to Bobby! Now there are no excuses for not helping in the kitchen! 

Brooklyn did okay with presents, but mostly just wondered around playing with toys. Mostly the old ones, but a few of the new.

Jackson was too funny. He got exactly what he wanted, which was Spencer, a train from Thomas, but spent most of the time playing with Brooklyn's gifts. He loved her tea set, and made us all yummy drinks! But this year was fun since it was the first year he really got into Santa. We wrote him a letter, and he even drew him a picture we left out with the cookies and milk. 

This picture doesn't show it too well, but these three had Christmas mo-hocks.  Bobby came home one night and decided him and Jax needed them since Bobby was off work for 2 weeks. And what little hair Brooklyn has just naturally spiked for us. So cute. We got lots of comments at church!

We had Christmas dinner with Barry's family. Mikelle's parents and sister, Kristin also joined us.  We even had Mikelle's Grandmother, Grandad and Uncle Rob for a little while. It was a lot of fun, and the sweetest part, was Jackson putting a bow on his head and running around telling everyone he was the best present ever!

Tessa got a fun game for Christmas, and of course after she let Jackson see how it worked, he wanted a turn and so did Trenton. We worked a lot on sharing Christmas night!

Pre-Christmas

To get ready for Christmas, we spent a lot of time in the car looking at Christmas lights. This was Jackson's favorite thing to do. One evening, we went into Scottsdale to the train park to ride the train through the lights. It was crazy crowded, but so worth the wait. There were so many lights and other fun things to do. Mostly Mikelle waited in line while the kids and Bobby did all the fun things!!

Here are Jackson's awesome antlers he made at our ward Christmas party. This year they did a brunch, and everyone came in jammies. It was a great idea and went really well. The one down side was that a little girl got sick in the middle of it, and guess who was sick all the next week? We hate the "choke-up" bug around here. (That's what Jackson calls it).

Grandma Halterman gave Jackson his own gingerbread house to decorate. He loved it. Mikelle helped, but just by putting the frosting where he wanted it. He was very creative, even made a little garden in front, I'm sure just for his Papa!

We took the kids to see Santa, and of course Jackson did great, and Brooklyn freaked out!  But we took them to Arizona Mills, where they had this cool sand castle for Santa's Village. It was real sand. Santa even sat on a sand chair. Too cool, especially for AZ.

This was Christmas Eve day. We went for a hike up South Mountain. The kids loved it, although Brooklyn would have preferred to walk. It was a little steep and rocky though for that. It was a gorgeous day. Unseasonable warm here in Phoenix, that means unseasonably cool for the summer, right?!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we actually hosted our first Thanksgiving! Over all it turned out really well. My pie crusts, not so good, but edible and the pumpkin pie from scratch made up for it, I think! Bobby's dad and sister, Bridgette and her husband Nick, were able to come for about 4 days. It was great. 

Mostly we just hung out and watched a little football. A nice recharge time for everyone. We did go to the train park in Scottsdale one afternoon, but the camera was MIA, so no good pictures. But it was lots of fun and we plan to go back in the next few weeks to check out the light in the dark!

Jackson  loved all the extra attention and the different people to play with.  I'm not sure what he will do next week after a whole weeks of extra attention.