Happy Brooklyn

Brooklyn is such a happy baby. We were at the mall the other day and as we are walking through the halls, Brooklyn was sitting in her stroller watching all the people go by. When anybody walked passed her, she would wave her little hand and say, "H-i-i!" And it's not just the mall- the grocery store, church, play groups... She is the most social baby I have ever seen. No stranger anxiety here! She really makes every one who comes in contact with her feel special.

Some of my friends have asked, "Is she always this happy?" And my answer is... YES! And here are some pictures to show how happy she is. (Most of these are just after naps.)

My Little "Helper"

I love watching Brooklyn grow and learn how to do new things. She is becoming more of a "little girl" and less of a "baby" every day. She is so good to help me around the house.


She cooks,



does the dishes,



picks up her toys,



and cleans! She is such a good "helper."


So, what do Tyler and I do while Brooklyn takes care of things around the house?



We do puzzles! We've been working on this one all week!

Halloween Fun

I've been told that holidays get to be a lot more fun when there are kids involed. This year we have found that to be true. We dressed Brooklyn up as "Our little Pumpkin" and had a blast at all of our Halloween Parties!



First we went to the Halloween Party at our Church. It was the first time Brooklyn had seen other kids dressed up and I think she was facinated by how different everyone looked!



Then we went Trick-or-Treating at Tyler's school. It was so fun to see all the kids lined up as they walked down the administration office getting candy. Brooklyn's favorite was the little box of Nerds. (They make noise when you shake them.)



Next was the Halloween Party at our apartment complex. We went had dinner, roasted marshmallows and went on a haunted hay-ride. The party was so fun!



After all those parties we were to tuckered out to go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night. We stayed at home with our traditional chili and had a good time with some friends.

Brooklyn loved her costume so much! She kept wanting to put her Pumpkin pants on and wouldn't let me put on her PJ pants! And first thing this morning, she tried to put the whole outfit on again by herself.

We hope everyone else had as fun as we did on HALLOWEEN!

Grandma and Grandpa Gibson Come to Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Gibson came to visit this last week. I'd say that Brooklyn was SPOILED, but that wouldn't even begin to describe the fun she had! I guess you could say that Tyler and I were a bit spoiled too. :0) We LOVE visits from family!

Our little social butterfly HATES to miss a party! Brooklyn spent the first night in the same room as Grandma and Grandpa. Needless to say, Grandpa didn't get much sleep that first night!



Grandma and Grandpa's air mattress bed was a perfect trampoline!

Brooklyn slept in Mom and Dad's room after that first night! She knows we are party poopers and actually went to sleep.

We took a little road trip to Kirksville, Missouri to see Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Brendon. When Steph had told me that they lived in the middle of nowhere, I didn't realize how middle of nowhere it actually was! We drove through miles and miles of country and through twisty, turvy, up and down, roller coaster highways to get to their house.

Brooklyn was a real trooper. Throughout all the twists and turns and ups and downs she sat in her car seat in the back saying, "Wooo!"



(She also learned to say, "Cheese!" when the camera gets pulled out and she makes this funny face!)

The 10 hour drive was well worth it! We got there just in time for Brendon's birthday! We had a yummy Birthday dinner, fun games of Spades and my new favorite, Ticket to Ride, and lots of catching up and bonding.

Brooklyn loved playing on the stairs

Grandpa was trying to catch up on email, but just wasn't able to take his attention away from Brooklyn... or was it Brooklyn demanding attention from Grandpa? I can't remember.

Then we had a long 10 hour drive back to Michigan.

Fortunately, we got to play with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple more days before they headed back to Utah. Unfortunately, most of that time was messing with car problems that we were having. But it was still SO fun to have some time with them!

Bye everyone! Thanks for the fun trip! We miss you already and can't wait to see you all at Christmas!!

Power Outage

Last week our power was out for 5 hours. I missed the brunt of it because I was at a church activity. Tyler and Brooklyn had a fun time at home bathing in the dark with flash lights. My boy scout even pulled out his grill to warm up Brooklyn's bottle for her! What a good Dad! After I got home he grilled up some chicken for us. I got marshmallows out to roast, but the gas had run out by then!

It really made me think if we would really be ready if a natural disaster struck. I used to think we'd do pretty good, but after this little outage... I think we'd be in BIG trouble if we didn't have electricity!

Since we've been back

Ok, so I'm not very good at updating the blog. But here are some things we've done since we've been back in Michigan (almost a month now!)

Tyler has started school again. He seems to be liking it. He says his classes are a little tougher this semester than they were last year. His schedule is quite a bit different now. Two nights a week he has class until 7:15pm. Both Brooklyn and I are anxious for him to be home on those nights. But, he has Fridays off! Wahoo!! Too bad he has to study :0(

We took Brooklyn swimming for the first time! She was a little timid at first because the water was a little cold. But once we showed her she could splash, she didn't want to get out!

Brooklyn and I have been going on walks with some of our friends. It started with two of us and now we have 5! It's fun to talk to our friends in the morning and get a little bit of exercise in while we do it!

I went to the Farmer's Market for the first time. It took forever to get a parking spot, but once I finally did, it was really cool to see all the local vendors and all the stuff they had. I bought some sweet peaches, perfect apples, deep red tomatoes, corn, and green beans. I was really impressed with the quality of produce.

Brooklyn had a "Fisher-Price Play Date" last week. A friend in the ward entered a contest and won all these Fisher Price toys that we got to go play with! She had a blast.

And... Tyler had a Birthday! We weren't able to do much because he was feeling kinda sick. We were able to get the important things in though: presents, cake, and ice cream. He got a BBQ grill set (spatula, tongs, brush, and other BBQ gadgets) and a meat thermometer.

Finally... an update

We've been super busy this summer and for all of you who have just been dying to see what we've been up to ;0) here you go!

On the way out to Denver we stopped at Winter Quarters in Omaha




Shortly after we got to Denver Grandma and Grandpa Gibson came out to see their grandbaby and said, "Mindy and Tyler are just a bonus." (Or something to that effect!)




Tyler took care of Brooklyn at night while I went to work.



Usually, when I got home from work in the morning, I would stay up with Brooklyn until she went down for a nap. People have asked how I stayed awake. Well... let's just say, I loved my Cherry Pepsi and Dr. Pepper!

Our friends babysat once a week for half the summer. Brooklyn loved playing with Lydia.

Tyler got to go to a Rockies game and watch it from a suite!





We got to go out to Utah for the Forth of July and have a big family party with my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grandma



Brooklyn liked the fireworks... as long as she was watching from inside the house!

After our Fourth of July Party we headed out to Bear Lake for a Woodworth family reunion. Unfortunatly we forgot our camera and don't have any pictures of that outing, but we had a blast! Brooklyn and I played out on the beach with the cousins and Grandma & Grandpa. Tyler spent most of his time out on the lake on the wave runners.

Four Generations Pictures



Tyler and I didn't have a lot of time to see what Denver had to offer. My family came out to see us again and we were able to go to the Denver Zoo. Brooklyn was more interested in all the kids that were walking around than the animals, but we still had fun. As you can see, she was spoiled and never sat in the stroller the whole time we were there!


Tyler also went to an amusement park with my brother and sister. They had fun, but didn't get me any pictures!



Brooklyn had her first Birthday right before we left. She wouldn't get all into her cake like most kids do. She was being very dainty and wouldn't eat it until I gave her a spoon!



She got lots of new toys to play with. (We were hoping they would occupy her for the road trip back to Michigan!) Take a look at the middle picture. She got a pair of car keys and was just amazed when she found out they came out of the box! She sat there with that face the whole time I was getting them out.



Grandma and Grandpa Woodworth came out to say good-by and to help us get all packed up and out the door. I am SO glad they did. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you. THANK YOU!!



That is our summer in a nutshell. We were glad to be closer to family and happy to see them as much as we did, but we are happy to be back in Michigan- back to our apartment with all of our stuff.