brooks christmas

We celebrated Christmas with Dennis and Laura the weekend before Christmas, because they were heading to Virginia to see Amber, Dallas and Becky. The girls really enjoyed opening their presents and playing with Grandpa and Sunshine. Plus we had really good food, Salmon and Cheesecake....mmmm....

Daddy, Reagan and Sunshine trying to open her new microphone.

Did I mention that Kennedy loves paper, so naturally she loved the wrapping paper.

Reagan got a new Harmonica, which Daddy also enjoys!

Grandpa and Reagan reading - her absolute favorite pasttime.

Kennedy trying to eat the bus. She didn't seem to notice that it was way too big!

christmas cookies

While Rick was in Chicago, we had Molly, Austin and Kalli come over to make Christmas cookies with us. The kids had a good time decorating the cookies and the floor, but enjoyed eating the sprinkles even more!

They got a few more sprinkles on the plate than on the actual cookies!

check back

Sorry, no pics with this update. I realized I hadn't gotten on the internet in weeks, and found that we had a signal this morning. I don't feel like taking the time to find my camera and load pictures right now though, because the connection is slow. We will officially be getting the internet friday though (I know we are way behind the times), so check back then for pictures. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year! See you next year!

have you been

NAUGHTY

OR

NICE?

virginia

We went to Virginia to visit Uncle Dallas and Aunt Amber in October. We had tons of fun. We went to a safari park (I forgot my camera, so no pics of that). Basically you get buckets of food and drive through the park with the windows down and feed the animals. But the animals are huge, and they try to steal your buckets. Reagan really liked seeing all of the animals up close, even when they were wiping their snot on the windows. One of the huge camels took Amber's bucket, which was hilarious and scary. One of the animals took Dallas' too, but he got out and took his bucket back! We also went to VMI to watch a parade, went to the library, played at the park, went for a scenic walk, ate lots of good food, played games, and made up words like Cabooski. Thanks for the fun time!

Uncle Dallas and Kennedy at the parade

Aunt Amber and Reagan at the parade

Amber and Reagan reading

Reagan and Dallas playing at the park

Kennedy and Dallas cuddling

The parade at VMI

family home evening

On Monday nights we have Family Home Evening, where we have a little spiritual message and do something fun as a family. We recently heard someone say that we should read the scriptures with our kids even when they are little, just keep it short to keep their attention. So we decided to start writing out one verse each week in a large font for Reagan to read. She really liked reading it, so I decided to catch it on film. In case you can't hear her very well, here is what she is reading:

Mosiah 2:17

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

the girls

I don't feel like taking the time to unload pics off my camera, so here's a blurb about my two gals.

Kennedy turned six months last week! She has been sitting up on her own for a while now, which is much more fun for her. She watches Reagan all the time and laughs at her a lot. She shoves everything in her mouth, and I do mean everything. Her favorites are paper and plastic. She enjoys baby food, except for peas. She smiles all the time, and gets lots of strangers to stop and talk to us. She is really good at turning herself in a circle when on her tummy, and sometimes moves backwards. She is as cute as can be, and such a joy!

Reagan is almost 26 months now. We broke her of her binky the day after we got home from virginia. It took her about a week to start sleeping normal again, but life is great now! She sometimes says, "Want Reagan's binky!" but then she quickly says, "Reagan's binky is all gone, she threw it in the trash." She has a good memory. Some of her newest (not all that new, but I haven't posted them before) tricks include jumping on one foot, doing a somersault, she knows the alphabet in spanish, and she can hold up her fingers while counting 1 through 5. She is still reading everything. Yesterday I had the weather channel on and she read "Lansing, Howell, and Jackson." Yeah, weird I know. The other day when she was praying she said she was grateful for her enzymes. I never even thought of that! I learn so much from her, she is a wonderful child!

Thats about all the time I've got, so hopefully there will be pictures with my next post!