While Brooks is away...Chloe will play! She loves that she got to play with ALL the Zhu-Zhu pets while Brother was at his Oma and Opa's house. It was adorable watching her "guard" them with her life, just in case her Brother came home.

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Gobble, Gobble.

Sharing tender moments with Brooks is the best. It's hard to get him to hold still these days and he prefers to play hockey rather than cuddle.

When Brooks decides to hold still in my arms my world stands still. He's all that matters and I remember how blessed I am to have a baby (not so baby anymore) boy.

Our baby girl isn't really a baby anymore. Sad. Not sad enough to have another one, though! Well, we would have another one IF Greg could be the one to be pregnant. Might be selfish but let's get real here...being pregnant is my least favorite thing EVER! God gave us two great end results though, so I'll stop complaining right now.

Chloe helped her Daddy shovel last week. What a sweetie. We contemplated letting her wear Brooks' old snowsuit this winter, but now that I see the pink I am glad we changed our minds. Blue and black just wouldn't have been right.

Chloe is in a phase right now that is less than desirable at times. She doesn't enjoy anyone other than her Mommy and Daddy touching her, holding her, picking her up or even saying "hi" to her. It makes for frustrating times, but also melts our hearts when she charges full speed ahead into our arms because she ONLY wants us. We do look forward to this time passing, though.

This picture looks JUST LIKE ME when I was little. It must be the piggies or maybe it's the cottage cheese all over her face. Whatever it is, it is amazing how much she looks like her Mommy. Now I don't think I can say how cute she is because that might sound bad, but I can't resist. She is SO CUTE! I L..O..V..E...having a girl. It's so fun.

Brooks had a HUGE surprise at the last UMD hockey game. His Opa set up a special experience and found a way for him to ride ON THE ZAMBONI! We didn't tell Brooks until right before because we knew the excitement would end up ruining the rest of the game for him.

When we told him (right before he got to ride), his face lit up like we've never seen before, his entire body shook and he squealed with enthusiasm. It was so precious. He grabbed Opa's hand and couldn't get to ice level quick enough.

Brooks loves his Opa and we think the feeling is mutual.

Brooks got the crowd going. He started by waving with one hand, then he started to wave with two hands, then he decided it would be a great idea to blow the crowd kisses. We could hear some of the UMD band members saying, "Look at that little boy! Oh, did you see that? He's so cute." He was so sweet up there on that huge machine.

Since the game he has worn his UMD jersey every day and every night. He wears pajama pants to bed and pairs them with his UMD jersey. When he wakes up, he takes off his jersey for a bath, but it is back on before he starts his day.

He announced to us last night, "I want to wear this jersey every day."

Really Brooks? We hadn't noticed!

To be perfectly honest we don't really want to be hockey parents. We don't enjoy being cold (unless we are skiing) and have LOTS of other stuff we'd enjoy filling our weekends with. We want to give Brooks freedom to decide who he is and what he wants to do, but we might steer him towards basketball or running when he gets older.

Although, as we thought about that we realized that a little boy might not be as excited to have his Daddy say to him, "Guess what? We bought you a brand new pair of running shoes!"

Oh, well...We still have lots of time.

Tonight Ti-Ti brought over some clearance Halloween costumes for Brooks. She bought him a SuperHero costume and a Spiderman costume. She accidentally got the wrong size Spiderman costume, which was a blessing in disguise. As Brooks got changed into his SuperHero (I think the guy is from the Incredibles) costume, Chloe waddled over to her Ti-Ti and started to tug on her shirt. She didn't want to be left out. She wanted desperately to have Ti-Ti get her dressed into a costume as well.

It worked out just perfect that Ti-Ti brought the wrong size for Brooks because I then got to experience Chloe is her cutest moments to date. Check this out. She could win a contest. Spiderman with Pink Pearls.

It may not be Halloween anymore, but we love that "Buzz" still makes his daily appearance. Based on the last three days, we may have to pry these wings off of our little man. I don't think they will allow him to be "Buzz" at school tomorrow, so we better start convincing him now that going to school as "Brooks" is a good idea.