Friday, June 24, 2011

Let the Party Begin!

After a fun day at the beach and a nice long nap...it was time for the real party to begin. Chad thought it would be fun to go eat at this pizza place he remembered from his childhood called "Pan-Joe's Pizza". Brooks got to watch the guys make the pizza and then he gobbled it all up in between Scoops and Daddy. Yummy!


Laneybug hung out with Birdie...maybe next year she can have a piece of pizza, too! But for now, the mushy carrots and sippy cup will have to do.

Remember when we were kids and our mom would buy the cake mold and actually make a birthday cake? I can remember all my birthdays based on the cakes that I had. This...is one of those cakes. Birdie found a car cake mold and spent hours (literally) decorating it to look like Lightning McQueen. She used the star tip to decorate the car with all that frosting. It was so amazing and Brooks just loved it! It was such a classic cake!


I think Brooks' favorite part was having us all sing him "Happy Birthday." Yeah, Brooks!

After we sang "Happy Birthday" we let our food settle and opened some presents. Mostly "Cars" stuff of course. He just loved it all!

And...it wouldn't be a birthday if you didn't get to eat the cake. Not only was it adorable, it was also delicious. Brooks wanted to eat the tire.
I'm 110% sure that he loved it!

Beach Birthday

Instead of having a big, over-the-top birthday party for Brooks, we decided to just take him to the beach (that way we can save money for Laney's first birthday party...hee, hee.) He had a GREAT time!
Brooks headed down to the water with Chad...he could hardly wait.

Birdie had a great time playing with the kids in the sand and in the water.

Team Hoff on the beach!

Chad buried Brooks and he thought it was hilarious.

Mom and Dad with the birthday boy.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

My Boy

Dear Brooks,

Three years ago I was sitting in a hospital bed (after a long 4 week stay)and I fell completely in love with a sweet baby boy - you. Every since that day you've been my little buddy. We've traveled together, hiked together, laughed together, cried together, and so much more. This past year has been such a great year watching you grow up into a big boy and a big brother. There is so much that I love about you that I don't want to forget:

You always want a kiss good-night. You enjoy watching movies and like to quote things from the movies you love (Bambi, Nemo, Cars, Toy Story 3). You like to eat. When we make brownies or cake you like to lick the bowl just as much as I do. You love your sister and I know that you will always be there to protect her. You are a good swimmer. At night time, before bed, you run around like a crazy man (clothes are optional). I love your grumpy face. You never want to look at the camera when I take your picture. Your a nurturing little boy - you're always finding baby dolls or stuffed animals to take care of. You have a "pet" turtle that you named Raisin and a baby doll named Leisey. You like to play outside. You have a short attention span when it comes to organized activities. You are stubborn and strong-willed. Wrestling with Daddy is one of your favorite nightly activities. Kansas is your buddy. You can throw tantrums like no other (high-pitched screaming is usually involved). You like to sing. You prefer milk over water, unless you get to drink out of Mommy's water cup. You sleep like a champ with your two blankies and Roxy doggie by your side. You talk in bed before you fall asleep. You like to watch sports and route for The Rangers. You are a happy camper 95% of the time. You are a good traveler on a plane or in the car - I never even get out the DVD player. You love your family. You give random hugs that I just LOVE. You only have one volume when you speak, and its loud. When you introduce yourself to people you say, "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Brooksy Hoffman." When you toot you almost always say "Excuse me". You run fast like Lightning McQueen (not really, but you try). You like to touch my face sweetly when I tuck you in to bed. You know how to get your "HORNS UP" like a true Longhorn fan. You pray sweetly every night and you always remember to pray for "Mommy, and Daddy, and Laney and Kansas."

You are such a sweet boy and you make me smile every day. I asked you the other night if you would stay my sweet little boy forever and you said yes. I'm not going to let you forget that. Brooks, I love you more than ice cream and pizza and baseball and swimming.

Love,
Mommy


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

8 Months Old




There were no doctors appointments this month, so we'll have to wait until next month to get some stats on the little peanut. I'm thinking she weighs about 15 lbs, she's wearing 3-6 month clothes and sometimes 6 month Carters clothes and under all that she's wearing size 2 diapers. But, there is such much more to report than just stats. My little girl is growing so fast (like most babies) and I'm trying to treasure every minute of all her little "firsts". I feel like she is doing so much these days that I can hardly keep up.

Favorite Foods: carrots, green beans, peaches, peas, applesauce, zucchini, bananas, pumpkin, wagon wheels, and those baby puff things. Here's a picture of some of my homemade baby food that I've been working on:
Not-so-Favorite Foods: sweet potatoes and mangoes (she'll eat mangoes if I add them to other foods but she's not a fan of them by themselves - me neither)

A couple of "Firsts":
* Taking a bath in the big tub. It's so nice being able to put both kids in the bath together. They both love bath time.

* Eating with her fingers. She's not the expert that Brooks was, but she likes to try. Brooks was full on finger foods by the time he was 9 months old. Laney, however, enjoys the full-fist approach to shoving things into her mouth. It's not as effective as the finger pincher method that her brother did. But like I said, she enjoys trying. She is getting better at picking up those baby puff things and she is really good at chomping on those wagon wheels. She has also found a love for watermelon. That's a fun teething toy for Laney.

* First plane ride. It's wasn't all that bad traveling with both kids by myself. (I'll blog about that later.)

* Drinking from a sippy cup. She enjoys the nubby sippy cups, which is the complete opposite of Brooks since all he drank out of were the hard-tipped sippy cups. Anyone want some hard-tipped sippy cups because I have tons!

* Sitting up like a pro. She can sit up as long as she wants before she goes to a crawling position. And when she gets tired crawling she can prop herself back into a sitting position.
* Crawling. She's been army crawling for about a month, but she just recently started crawling on her hands and knees more consistently. She still gets tired and then reverts back to the army crawl. Brooks likes to have her follow him around the living room like a puppy dog.

* Speaking of crawling and puppy dogs, that leads me to how Laney has been crawling into trouble lately. She crawls straight for the dog bowl. There have been two times that I was too late and there was water all over the floor. One time I caught her playing with the dog food right before she put a piece in her mouth. Gross.
* Waving. We've been practicing all month. She doesn't always get her little fingers going, sometimes she just waves her arms like crazy instead. It's adorable.
* Teeth?! I think they are down there based on her grumpy attitude and the fact that she's chomping down on EVERYTHING. Maybe next month.

A couple of things I want to remember about this age:
* She enjoys chewing on her toes.
* She's a shoes and feet kind of gal. She is completely drawn to both of these things.
* Anything that is not supposed to be a toy (plugs, wire, dog bowl, dog food, shoes, magazines) is her favorite thing to play with...always...wherever we are.
* She doesn't really laugh a lot. She smiles ALL the time, but she's not a giggly girl.
* The only real person that can always make her laugh is her brother.
* Delaney completely adores Brooks and Brooks completely adores Delaney. I hope this love/friendship/bond between them never ends.
* When she crawls, she digs her toes into the carpet.
* She is a drama queen. She has learned how to throw herself a little fit when she doesn't get her way. Great.
* She is a mommy's girl. She cries when I leave the room, which is both annoying and sweet.
* She's good at going with the flow. She naps on the go if she has to and is pretty chill most of the time.
* She knows when it's nap time. When I give her her paci and her blankies she just slams her head into my chest and falls asleep before I get to the second verse of her song.
* She sleeps on her tummy with her bum in the air (still). And like I said before, it's the cutest thing in the world.
* She's a talker...and a very loud talker. She's starting to put new sounds together like dadadadadad and mamamamama and bababababa and ahahablaflahge. I love the sound of her voice.


Laneybug -

Monday, June 20, 2011

Gardening...well, kind of.

My mom came down back in April and helped us plant an adorable little garden. We used some old bricks to section it off in the back corner of our yard. We bought some lettuce seeds and spinach seeds along with a pepper plant, a cherry tomato plant, 3 large tomato plants, and a zucchini plant. I was so excited when the garden began to flourish immediately. Of course, that was back before the drought. My zucchini plant had tons of yellow flowers but now the plant looks like it's dead. I do have some lettuce growing and possibly some spinach. The problem with the spinach is that I'm not sure if it's spinach growing or just weeds. I guess I have to wait and see. (I keep watering it just in case.) The cherry tomato plant is doing the best. Brooks and I went out last week and picked a couple of tomatoes.
He loves looking at the garden and watching it grow. It's a fun project that we can do together and hopefully we'll get more vegetables despite the drought.

Brooks played a big part in getting the garden started back in April.


My little helper. Look at how much the garden has grown!

He was so excited to show off his tomatoes that he picked.

We used the tomatoes in our salad for lunch.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lady in Red

This red shirt is a hand-me-down from Laney's cousin Megan (who happens to be 5 now). I absolutely LOVE it. I think red could be her color.



I added some adorable ruffled jean shorts to the red shirt and we went out to eat with Birdie.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Getting Creative in the Kitchen

It all started with the neighborhood block party. I wanted to make cupcakes, so I thought I would go all out and make these cupcakes...

I made red (kind of looks more pink than red, though) fondant icing. That alone made me feel like Buddy from "Cake Boss". I cut some stripes for the flag and I used a cookie cutter to cut some stars for the other cupcakes. I mainly did this because I was lazy and it was easier to cut out one star and drape it over then putting on the blueberries and stripes. I think they turned out pretty cute and very yummy. I saw lots of kids grabbing for my cupcakes so I think they were a hit.
Then, when I was looking for a yummy stuffed peppers recipe, I found this one...

...and I gave it a try...

Brooks' response was literally, "Ahhh...it's so cute!" He was very excited to eat it. I thought it was kind of a fun way to encourage Brooks to try some colorful peppers. He ate almost the whole thing!

I guess all this fun cooking inspired Brooks to be creative in the kitchen as well. He said he was making a house.


Now, there's nothing really "creative" about these next pictures, but I didn't want to leave Laney out. She tried some puffs the other day for the first time. She doesn't have the natural "pinchers" that Brooks had, but she enjoys trying to get these little puffs into her mouth.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Get ready for some serious cuteness!










I told you...serious cuteness!