Brooks

Man Brooks is just one cute little kid! He is gaining his independence, pushing his boundaries and doesn't take no for an answer. He has figured out that he can leave his room whenever he wants (I know, we are lucky that he just now figured that out) but he now wakes up whenever he wants and roams the hall or goes downstairs and plays. He will wake up as early as 630 AM, which is at least an hour and a half before he used to, and go play with his cars. Luckily, he doesn't know how to turn the TV on yet and usually is pretty quiet until I wake up but he does go in and wake Hallie up to play. Little stinker! Him waking up so early means he is very teary until he takes his nap in the afternoon. 

He continues to love cars and loves wearing his "bad guy" costume (aka Iron Man). I love listening to his raspy voice speak. He thinks he is as big as his sister and always asks to "play with friends," which are just Hallie's neighborhood friends. He is very comfortable at home and with people he knows but unless I'm right next to him at a park or someone else's house he is very shy and whiny. Due to covid, we don't get out very much though. He dresses himself everyday and almost always his shirt, underwear and pants are on backwards. His shoes are also on the wrong feet more often then not. I love his want to do it though! I truly don't care if his clothes are on backwards and it helps me out to not have to dress him. 

He took his socks off and said, "Hey mom. I have railroad tracks on my feet." Haha!

He loves wearing these orange shoes that are about 3 sizes too big. 

He has to sleep with two burp clothes and still likes to play with the tags of them for comfort. For the most part, he is very easy to put to bed and goes to sleep easily. 

His bike helmet has a little visor that is attached to it and Brooks likes to move his visor down to make a "motorcycle helmet." 

Hallie

Hallie has been loving the last few weeks of school. The first day felt long to her but after that she hasn't complained once. She doesn't mind wearing a mask to school either. Her favorite part is recess and doing the monkey bars at school. She got blisters on her hands like a week into school because she does the monkey bars so much. She has met and made so many new friends. She is picking up Spanish well (at least I think she is) and enjoys it too. She is just so smart. She just "gets" things without me having to explain too much. She misses going to Shelli's house on Wednesday but likes that her dad picks her up at school and they scooter home together. She eats a PB and honey sandwich for lunch everyday and never seems to get sick of it. She loves art and is coloring/creating something everyday, usually something for her friends or cousins. Her best friend continues to be our neighbor, Jack, and unfortunately I can't stand the kid. He is naughty and rude to Brooks. She is so helpful with Stockton and will do anything I ask her to do to help with him. She really is just good to her core. I love that I never have to worry about her making poor choices while at school or at a friends house. I love that she is my oldest and I love her to pieces!

She loves wearing my lipstick (that I never wear) and she is getting pretty good at applying it too. She's such a pretty girl!

With Russ in the bishopric, Sunday's are hectic for me. Getting all 3 kids ready plus myself is time consuming! We are always late to church! Hallie helps me by packing a snack bag and our church bag full of stuff for the kids to do during sacrament. This particular Sunday she (or maybe it was Brooks?) decided to pack some painters tape and a tape measure. I laughed when I saw it! Haha!

I always love stumbling upon some of Hallie's creations...especially when they say "I love you mom!"

A Hallie selfie. She's pretty proud of the tower she made. 

She loves planning things and making lists. I'm not sure what she was planning here but she is always up to something. I love watching her try to spell words she doesn't know how to: "Brekfist," "trke sandwich," "tomato sope."

Poop

Brooks finally pooped in the toilet!!!! I was putting the baby to bed and Brooks came in the room to tell me he went poop in the toilet. I was shocked!! I immediately stopped rocking Stockton to bed and went and checked. Sure enough he pooped in the toilet! I was so excited! We've been begging him for forever to go in the toilet and promised pretty much anything he wanted if he did so. So, now we have to pay up! He asked for new cars, a drink from Quench It, and muddy buddies. All his wishes came true!

The trucks he picked at the store!

Carrying his toy all by himself. He was so proud!

He pooped again in the toilet the next day and hasn't again since (I am writing this 2 months later). He actually holds his poop and won't poop even in a diaper! It is so frustrating!! He is terrified of going poop! So, his trucks have been taken away and when he poops in the toilet again he can get them back. Sadly, he isn't overly motivated to get the trucks back! 

Speech Therapy

Brooks has been excited to start school just like his big sister Hallie. He will have speech therapy at the elementary school once a week. His stutter has gotten SO much better over the summer! People have actually commented on how little they hear his stutter nowadays. Part of me wonders if he even needs speech therapy anymore. 

He packed his "cars backpack" and asked me to take a picture of him for his first day of school. This kid couldn't be any cuter even if he tried! 

As a side note...My first impression of his speech therapist wasn't great. She seemed like she had no idea what she was doing. I was questioning whether or not she was a speech therapist or just an early education teacher. We will give her some time but this first time seemed like a complete waste of time!

Nickle Family Staycation

Every year my mom plans a staycation with our family. We began the staycation with family pictures last night. Tonight my mom had all of the cousins over for a cousin sleepover. She had a craft for the kids and then they watched a movie with popcorn. 

I have had mixed emotions about my kids having sleepovers. Now that Hallie is getting older we need to make a decision on whether we will allow sleepovers or not. I have felt very strongly for awhile now that I don't want my kids to have sleepovers. I had an experience that happened during the night when I was living at home that has forever scarred me since. I think sleepovers provide opportunities for people to make bad choices and I don't want my kids to be victims of that. So, I explained to Hallie why I didn't want her to sleepover (she was the only cousin that didn't sleep over, besides the little ones) but that she could stay up as late as everyone else and then I'd take her back in the morning when everyone woke up. All she would miss is the sleeping part. She handled everything amazingly and wasn't upset at all that she missed the actual "sleepover" part. Phew! 

Brooks, as usual, was glued to my dad ("Stanley" as he calls him) and was as happy as can be with him!

On Saturday evening we all got together at my sister's house for dinner and games. We had sandwiches, placed spike ball and "double sol!" It was a fun night! 

Meredith and Grandma Wilde

Nickle Family Pictures

 Sometimes family pictures can be stressful but they are always worth doing!

Brooks did not want a thing to do with pictures unless he was being held by Grandpa. He LOVES his Grandpas!! Here he is, on Grandpa's knee, while taking the grandkid picture. Haha! It was the only way we could get him in the picture. 

Silly string pic!

1st Day of 1st Grade

I seriously can't believe my baby is in 1st grade!!! She is in ALL day school! I'm not sure I am ready for her to be away from me for 6.5 hours every day! I am going to miss her!! She got accepted into the dual immersion program at school learning Spanish. This means that half of her school day will be entirely in Spanish. I really think she will do awesome learning another language. She is incredibly smart and picks up things so easily. There really isn't anything she isn't good at. It will be helpful that Russ speaks Spanish as well. She is stoked to have lunch at school and have several recesses too. We met her teachers yesterday, Miss Davis and Maestra Garrido, and they seem great too. 

She was a little nervous going to school today. She was nervous she wouldn't know anyone in her class. She makes friends very easy so I knew she had nothing to worry about but I get being anxious about the unknown nonetheless.

Gosh she is so beautiful! I am so proud to be her mom!

It is optional to wear masks at school this year. I felt very strongly sending her in a mask and luckily she understood and doesn't seem to mind wearing a mask. She is in a school who is almost entirely unvaccinated to COVID-19 (due to age) and I want her to be protected the best we can. 

Happy Birthday Kylee!

Happy birthday to me! Today ended up being a really great day. I told Russ not to get a sitter for us to go on a date. Our sitter options are super limited. His parents don't really like to watch their grandkids and make us feel like we are pulling teeth to get them to do so so we try not to reach out to them ever. My mom is old and unsteady in her gait and can't really take care of a baby right now. That leaves us with Shelli, who already watches our kids every Wednesday for me to work, so I feel bad having her watch them any other time.

We started the morning with french toast from Kneaders and presents. I got a sweet note from Russ and some Airpods! The airpods are so nice! I use them all the time now!

We went to Taya's baptism after breakfast. Several of Russ' siblings found out that we weren't doing anything for my birthday and offered to watch the kids for us to go out, but we declined. To be honest, Stockton doesn't take a bottle still so he is difficult to leave and Russ is still greatly struggling with postpartum. He's just unhappy and grumpy at least half of the time. He doesn't feel like he needs help, although I wonder if that would help him feel happier. So, going on a date doesn't sound all that fun to celebrate right now. However, Lauren invited us over for a pool party at her house! We took her up on the offer and swam the night away with them. We had Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and my kids had a great time swimming.

Getting snuggles from one of my favorite snuggle buddies is all I need for a good birthday anyways!