We're going to the Zoo,zoo,zoo How about you,you,you

My title for this blog comes from a cute little kids CD that Brookelyn loves listening to in the car. One of her favorite songs is one that goes like this, "Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow the zoo tomorrow...We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you." You can hear her little voice voice singing along and it brings a smile to our face. Last weekend we decided to make her dream come true and take her to the San Diego zoo. She was ecstatic! All the way to the zoo she had to listen to her song and sing along. Mommy and Daddy went a little coo-coo listening to the song but the excitement in her voice made it worth it. She kept asking us about the "Ee-Ee" (monkeys) , elephants and panda bears ( I cant even spell how she says it)

I didn't get a good picture with her next to the monkeys. She went crazy seeing all the monkeys everywhere! There was a huge orangatang cage with glass and one of the baby orangatangs was smushing his face up to the glass. Brooke ran over and was face to face with an Ee-Ee! There were way to many people croweded around her to get a picture. It would have been so cute. After a few minutes the baby went and crawled in his mommy's lap and you could hear Brooke's little voice, " OOOOOooooo Tuuuutte!! him go mommy!" 

Birds would jump the fence and walk along the path and Brooke took it upon her self to chase them down and try to kiss them!

She was thrilled to see otters!! Her favorite show right now is Little Bear and on the show are two otters. 

I was thrilled to finally get to see a panda bear!!! I read a book once when I was little about the pandas at the San Diego zoo and was determined to someday go see them.  Aaron made my dream come true and it was breath taking to see a live one so close! There were no babies this time which is my second dream, but maybe someday. Brooke made the connection that she had a stuffed panda bear and this was a real one. She is now attached to her panda bear (It was actually mine when I was little) and will not do anything without that panda by her side.

I love this picture of her lil behind :) She was amazed at how big they were!! If course my little monkey couldn't just stand there and watch, she had to climb the fence and see how high she could go. She would have crawled all the way over if I had let her. In the hallway pictured above there was an elephant movie playing. To the right all the people lined up to watch the movie but little Brookie plopped herself down right in the middle of the walkway. 

She loved crawling on top of all the big fake animals. 

I think the petting zoo was her all time favorite. She ran right up to the goats and sheep and just petted away! I should have warned her about "raisins". As I was adjusting the camera I heard a mom screaming, "DON't TOUCH THAT!!" I look up and realize she was talking to my child, ran over and shook the poop out of Brooke's hand. The mom felt horrible for yelling but I was grateful because who knows what she was planning on doing with her handful of "raisins".  I shudder at the thought. We immediately ran to the sink and washed her hands all the while she was telling everyone who passed by, " I tuh poo!" 

Brayden was my content little baby. He just chilled in his seat and stared at his surroundings. He loves to sit up and his new trick is to grab onto the seat in front of him, pull himself toward Brooke and pull her hair until she turns around and gives him attention.

I love zoos but going to them with a two year old makes the experience that much more exciting! Aaron is not a fan of zoos but he is Mr. Wonderful and braved it out and pretended to enjoy himself :) 

Long overdue...

As you have noticed, I am not a blogger!! I thought it would be fun but as you can tell from my lack of blogs, it does not suite me well. I have the desire to put our life in words for memory sake and the sake of distant family & friends but I always think of a million things I would rather be doing than blogging. I can't promise getting better so you will have to be content with my once every couples months updates and be surprised if I do decide to write one more often :)
Now that we have that cleared up let me refresh you on the last couples months...
Aaron finished up his first semester of classes and was very excited to have his first real Christmas break. I had to make all the preparations to host my very first Christmas. Cleaning my very disorganized and messy house was a daunting task but with the help of Aaron we managed to get it done. Sadly it didn't last due to our little family hurricane we refer to as Brookelyn so when we greeted our guests they had to graciously step over toys, clothes, moldy sippy cups and cheerios ground into the carpet. I was embarrassed because I had a high standard to follow.. My mother! She was such a good host and I remember the house being SPOTLESS and all the food was prepared ahead of time. When guests arrived they were greeted with snacks and coffee  and they were able to sit in a CLEAN living room withs floor that still had the scent of Pine-Sol lingering on them. When it was meal time the table would be beautifully set with matching table cloths,napkins dishes and center pieces. All the food prep would be done and we would enjoy a nice warm meal. Well maybe except her.. I think she had her share of cold meals which she graciously ate without complaint. Having all these memories, I was determined to do the same and show her I was just like her. To my disappointment.. I am not! As you know from the state of my house that was one strike. Strike two- I used paper plates, cups and napkins for our Christmas dinner (And because I didn't plan ahead, half were Christmas and the other half were Mickey Mouse because the stores were all sold out of Christmas stuff due to my shopping on Christmas Eve at 9pm) Strike 3- your feet stuck to my floor.. I could go on but lets just sum it up to say my strike list kept going as the weekend progressed! It was a hard realization at first knowing that I am not like my mom when I really want to be but I decided to shrug it off and enjoy their company while it lasted.  I loved the noise and chaos because it meant we were all together enjoying what it means to be a family.  I did keep the tradition and make pumpkin bread and lots of Christmas goodies ahead of time. (The cookies were gone in the first two days)
Brooke helped me out making the cookies.

Brookelyn LOVED having everyone here! She instantly clung to Beka and the two ran around playing and destroying the house.

Cuddle time was very necessary for everyone...

Going through my pictures I realized I didn't take very many photos! I was so caught up with everything I forgot to get pictures of everyone together! Oh well...

Brookelyn loved opening presents! It was fun to see the excitement on her face and the realization that these toys were for her!

I didn't even take pictures of the two kids together on Christmas!!! sigh..Maybe my mom has some on her camera.

I have more to tell but the kids are calling my name! Brooke wants to go to the park and Brayden is just screaming because no one is paying attention to him.