80 Degrees!

That's right, folks! It was close to 80 degrees in Denver today. We totally took advantage of the warm weather and went to the park. I wore jeans, a tank, and sandals - and I was actually hot! It's fun on those warm days when you can be outside enjoying the warm sun, and still see snow in the background. Brooks had fun swinging and hanging out on the blanket, and Kansas had fun chasing his ball and eating pinecones.

Honesty

Honesty is something that is very important to me. In my classroom, I make sure that the kids always tell the truth. Sometimes it's hard for them to tell the truth because they know that they might get in trouble. But they know about integrity, and they do a pretty good job telling the truth. Well, this morning I got a little bit more truth than I bargained for. Let me paint the picture for you. Today I wore a brown skirt with a white button-up shirt and my mustard yellow ballet shoes. I had one little girl come up to me and say, "Mrs. Hoffman, you look funny in those shoes!" And the little girl next to her added, "Yeah - (haha) and they don't even match!" Talk about a good start to my day. The kids just say what they're thinking. The other kindergarten teacher has been teaching there longer than I've been alive (seriously), and she told me that one day she bent over and a little kindergarten said, "Oh my Gosh! That is the biggest butt I've ever seen!" She said she went on a diet the very next day.
Sometimes honesty is not what you want to hear.

A Snowy Day

In the morning, the first thing I do is look at my window. We live on church property, and there is a time and temp sign outside that I always like to look at. On Monday morning, I looked outside and saw a blizzard. It was 25 degrees and snowing like crazy. I watch the weather a lot so usually I know when we're expecting snow. The weathermen seemed just as blind sighted as I did. There was already a couple of inches on the ground before I left for work. The drive was treacherous (good thing I only live a mile away). It was done snowing by lunch time. Chad has been sick lately, so I got out and shoveled the walkway. I put Brooks in the Baby Bjorn and got to work. I felt like a pioneer woman out there with the shovel in my hands, and my baby strapped to my chest. We also took some time to play in the snow, and Brooks made his first snow angel.

New Hat

That's pretty much it! Not much to say - just check out Brooks' new hat. I love it!

Just Practicing

So - in a short amount of time, Brooks has become an expert at sitting up, and is now getting into the crawl position. He loves being on his knees, but has a hard time getting there by himself. We usually put him on his tummy with his knees on the floor. Then he rocks back and forth. He gets a big smile on his face like he's done something amazing. BUT - he does actually get up on all fours. He gets himself in a push-up position with his butt up in the air (no pictures yet). It's hilarious! It's exactly how his daddy crawled. It won' be long...

Yummy

When I was little, my mom used to give me a big dill pickle to suck on. She said that I would gnaw on the thing for hours. Well, to this day I still love big dill pickles. I was eating one the other night and I gave Brooks a little taste to see what he'd do. I was anticipating a crazy face, but instead he loved it. It was hard for him to hold by himself, and when he'd drop it he'd get really mad. But he just sucked on it as long as I'd let him. It was so cute.

Christmas...Round Two

On Christmas Day we flew down to Corpus Christi to be with Chad's family. Brooks was such a trooper on the flight, considering that he was up for about 6 hours straight. We got up on the 26th and had our second round of Christmas. Brooks opened lots of presents with his cousin Brodie, took a nap, and then woke up and opened more presents. We spent a week down there - and had tons of fun. Brooks got so much attention from everyone, but especially Brodie. Brodie is his 2 1/2 year-old cousin, and he is absolutely in love with "Baby Brooks". He would hug and kiss him all the time, share toys, and try to console him when he was sad.

It was so warm down in Corpus that we also got in the hot tub a couple of times. Brooks has finally grown into his swim suit, and he looked adorable. He loved the water. He learned how to splash and he couldn't/wouldn't stop. The good thing is that since birth we have been dumping water over his head so he is totally comfortable with water in his eyes. We hope he'll grow up to be a swimmer like his daddy and Aunt Jill and Aunt Joy (the Hoffman's are like fish).



The week was filled with lots of "firsts":
First trip to Corpus.

First time to meet great-grandparents.

First bath in a big tub.

First experience playing with grass.

First time on a swing.

First time down the slide.

First time for four generations of Hoffmans to get together.

It doesn't get much better than that!