New purchase

I gave in....since I had to drive a van when I was 16, I always told Jeff I would NEVER buy a van. I hated driving one when I was younger. I loved the highlander. I loved how it drove. I loved that it was the first car we bought. But...it was sooo tight in the back for the kids. Jeff and I looked at cars forever. I thought for sure we were going to buy a Traverse, and then we went and test drove some cars for one of our date nights. We had the Traverse and a van right next to each other. There was soooo much more room in the van, and I just couldn't get over that fact. The whole point of the new car was for space..

We found one about an hour away with everything that we wanted. So a couple weekends ago, we drove down with all 3 kids to test drive thinking if we liked it and got a good deal we would buy it. They were probably scared when we pulled up with all 3 of our kids, but we did buy it :) The kids were waaaay better than I thought they would be, and it took only about 3 hours. 

The kids love the van. They love the sliding doors and the tv in it. I finally have some heated seats :) I can't believe I am driving a van now, but it is kind of nice with the 3 kids. I will miss my highlander though.

The Girls

The girls are having lots of fun together lately. They love to play with their dolls together.

And their other toys.

The girls.

The girls with their daddy :)

And my favorite...Can you find Alyssa??? She is our little book worm. She always falls asleep reading and normally the book is on her face. I was finally brave enough to take a picture of it.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. We started it off with the trunk or treat at church the Friday before Halloween. Dallin was a firefighter again, Alyssa was a monkey (same costume Dallin wore a couple years ago), and Brooke was a duck (borrowed from a cousin). Sometimes it is just so hard to a decent picture of them all smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. 

 

 

Then for FHE we carved our pumpkins. Alyssa painted hers again, and the rest of us carved them. Brooke "helped" mommy with hers. 

Dallin's pumpkin

In order...Jeff, Dallin and Steph

On Wednesday morning the girls and I went to Dallin's school to watch him in the parade. I thought he was so cute. The girls were a little cold though. 

 

 

On Wednesday night the kids went trick or treating with their cousins in the neighborhood. They went strong from 6-8, the hours allowed. They were a little slow because Alyssa and her cousin the same age had to get in and out of the wagon for each house AND shut the door each time. Oh well, they got plenty of candy.

 

Brooke stayed home with me and passed out candy. She would grab a piece of candy each time I opened the door. She would get so happy, just for me to take it away...

6 months!

Our little Brooke is 6 months old now! She is growing up too fast for me for the most part. I only can't wait until she starts sleeping through the night. I think I mention in almost every post how tired I am...sorry! She still doesn't sleep much more than about 2 hours at a time. The crying method does not work. She would go forever if we let her. Then she gets so mad us and holds a grudge like no other. That should be fun when she is a teenager :) 

But I will miss her as my baby. She is our most cuddly one, and I still love that. She still LOVES to be hold, but now that she can sit up (YAY!) she plays much better and is a more pleasant baby. Brooke loves her siblings so much, and they still love her just as much. The first thing Dallin and Alyssa do when they wake up is look for Brooke. She almost always has smiles for them. She also loves her daddy and mommy! She is starting to giggle a lot more, but I haven't been able to catch it on camera. I think Dallin and Alyssa make her laugh the hardest! She loves playing with her toys and is starting to love the jumperoo. She doesn't like her baby swing very much, but she loves to swing outside on the playset. 

Since I haven't posted for awhile about her, these pictures are from the last 2 months. Our pretty little girl all ready for church. 

Wearing Dallin's sunglasses

Sitting up when she first started! She started sitting up a couple days after she turned 5 months old, and she is so proud of herself.

Brooke and Dallin

Since she can finally sit up, we switched her to her new bath. She loves it! She loves getting to splash as much as she wants.

She loves to be outside. She can be so crabby, and then we walk outside and she is as happy as can be. I don't think she really likes the cold though. 

We started her on solids at 5 months too. She has had oatmeal, prunes, sweet potatoes, peaches, squash, and rice. The only thing she will eat is rice. The others she hates. She also likes ice cream :) She still isn't very good at swallowing, but she is getting better. I still have hope she will at least be a little better than Alyssa when it comes to eating solids.

She does smile A LOT! Everyone always comments about how much she smiles.

She likes to be a big girl in the cart at the stores.

Brooke and Alyssa love to "help" me fold laundry :)

She finally rolled over from her tummy to her back yesterday. She only did it twice, and now can't figure it out again. She is not very close to rolling from her back to her tummy, but she HATES being on her stomach so she doesn't try very hard.

She had her 6 month check up yesterday. She was 14.1 lbs (14%), 25 " (22%) long, and her head is 15.75" (almost 2%). She is not very big, but she is growing along the same curve. The doctor said she looked healthy and great. She got 3 shots and cried for about 30 seconds. Much tougher than the times before :) 

We love our Brooke so much!

THis and That

It's been awhile since I last posted. It got to where I didn't really want to post because there had been too much, and I didn't know where to start. So I decided to just show some highlights from the last little bit. Dallin is still loving school. Alyssa misses him A LOT! I miss him a lot! But we are still having fun and enjoying the last of the nice weather :)We really haven't done much of anything lately. The kids just take up a lot of our time.

We have spent HOURS and HOURS outside playing. We go for lots of walks and just enjoy being outside. All 3 kids love to swing :) 

 

 We got a smoking deal on a new bike trailer thanks to my sister-in-law. It is one of the Chariots!! We are pretty excited. Next year I bet we go on a lot once Brooke is a little older. 

 

All 3 love playing with their daddy!

Alyssa is also becoming a daddy's girl! It is pretty cute :)

 

Before church one day.

 

The kids color ALL the time too. Alyssa has always liked to color, but now Dallin is obsessed with it. He loves practicing his writing, and I love seeing all of his artwork. He is getting much better :)  

 

One day Dallin came home from school really tired. Brooke was very tired too, and they fell asleep cuddling on the couch. I was sitting right next to them so didn't have to worry about her falling off. 

We finally got all of us some John Deere shirts. Every time Alyssa wears hers, she wants everyone to match :)

 

Minneapolis

This last weekend we took a little mini trip up to Minneapolis with Jeff's sister and her family. We stayed at a hotel across the street from the Mall of America. We had joined rooms, which was very nice for the adults to hang out after kids were in bed.We all had a lot of fun, and hopefully we can go back soon :)

We got there Thursday night and took the kids swimming. Alyssa loves the water now. She would jump in and have Jeff help her swim across the pool over and over again. Dallin could reach and is getting better at swimming, so he was having fun. On Friday we went to the Mall of America. Jeff's sister and I thought we would get a little shopping in, but it was too hard once the kids saw the rides...I did buy some candy at See's candy and some legos at the lego store. The kids enjoyed the lego store.

Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe. Now I can say I have been there, and I have no desire to do it again real soon. Dallin and Brooke loved it there. We sat in the monkey section, and Dallin LOVED it when there was a Thunderstorm. Alyssa HATED it. She was scared and didn't like the thunderstorms.

We hit one more store before finally giving into the kids and getting unlimited ride passes. I knew Dallin would have a blast, but Alyssa actually rode several rides. She would not ride the carousal, but she did ride her first roller coaster and LOVED it!!  Dallin rode all the roller coasters he was tall enough for. He is so much fun to ride with because he laughs the whole time. We rode on the rides for about 4 hours, and the kids could have gone a lot longer...the adults needed food :)

 

 

We paid $2 for Jeff and Dallin to go on the HUGE slide! We thought they could only ride once, but it was unlimited while you were still in the slide area. They did it about 15 times in a row, and I think they were all tired of going up all the stairs over and over again!!!

Brooke was awesome! She sat in the stroller for most of the time. She enjoyed looking all around.

On Saturday we went to the free zoo, which was the perfect size. The kids loved it! 

 

 

 

 After the zoo we went to Ikea. Then we went swimming. The kids LOVED it. We took Brooke into the water for the first time. She stayed in the pool for about an hour, and liked it. After I took her out, she put her on my shoulder and was out cold. The swimming was exhausting! She is just so cute!