Days at the Park

Celeste has been finishing up her degree and to do so has been enrolled in a class on Saturdays. So for the past several weeks, Saturdays have turned into a Daddy-Daughter day which always includes a trip to Brindi's favorite place, the Park. The park begins with her running from one playground component to the next until she has played on each one and then its her "babies" turn and she becomes the mom. You gotta love that creative imagination:) Gotta love the static from the slide. I love this picture! The climbing wall is her new favorite thing at the park. She is actually pretty good and can climb almost half way up before she falls and insists on me helping her all the way up. But she is pretty determined to try first herself.

She is getting pretty brave and does things that I know scares both Celeste and I.

Another great shot of the static:)

She also loves to pretend she is a cowgirl and has a pretty good "Ye Ha" when she rides.

Carving Pumpkins

We headed out this past weekend and picked up a few pumpkins to carve. Brindi needed to have her own pumpkin and insisted on carrying her pumpkin through out the store. Sad to say they were too big and heavy so she allowed us to help.

Brindi watching patiently as mom takes her knife to the pumpkin.

Last year Brindi was not a fan of grabbing the guts and taking them out. This year was not any different. She reached in once and quickly took her hand out. She was willing, however, to use the spoon to scrape the insides as long as she did not have to touch any of it.

If you notice, Brindi found a marker and instead of helping to carve she started to draw faces on the all the pumpkins.

This was about as close as she would get to them when they were lit with candles. Kind of a funny girl. Below are out master pieces. Sad to say with the humidity of STL they will be rotten before Halloween arrives:(

My BABY!!!!

As I have mentioned Brindi loves to "pretend" she has a baby where ever we go. Even if I bring one with us, she'd rather leave it in the car and just pretend she is carrying one. Well, she and I walked into Costco and she imediately puts her "baby" in a cart. I kept telling her we didn't need one because we were only taking something back and started walking to the return counter, but she would not budge, so I went to get her the cart. Well it was stuck to another cart so I grab a different one and started to walk away again telling her to come on. She starts screaming "no, no...my baby", so I go and pretend to grab her baby, but that apparently wasn't good enough because she had put "the baby" in the front seat so I go to the front and pretend to grab the baby again, still doesn't work. Anyway, by now I'm getting frustrated at her because she refuses to grab her baby and come. So I grab her and start to walk away with her screaming, kicking, and hitting. I glance at the lady at the enterance door,who is just staring at Brindi and don't even try to explain...I know thinking this child is insane! Right then a couple grabs the cart with her "baby" in it and the guy untangles it and sticks their kids in the back...this makes Brin lose it even more, so I brake down and ask the man if she can grab her baby out of the cart....he looks down and asks what baby and I then have to explain how it is a pretend baby. He just laughs and pretends to hand it to her...well apparently that was good enough because she stopped crying and puts her baby in the new cart, why it didn't work when I did the same thing is a mystery to me! All I have to say is Wow... I really don't know where she gets it.

Potty Training

Brindi has successfully learned when she needs to go potty and has been pretty good about not having accidents. Even though they still happen from time to time when she gets too involved with playing or being intensely involved in other activities. And then there are the accidents that are not really accidents. Its her way of rebelling and proving a point or trying to get what she wants. If this little girl does not get what she wants she quickly lets loose and pees where ever she is currently located.

The other day she decided she wanted to go to the park. Sad to say she was not getting her way this day because of other obligations but she obviously did not understand the other obligations so she threw a fit. Screaming, crying, and then comes the hitting. Still no reaction from the parents so what is next...peeing in the front room. But then to punish her by making her clean it up does not work because before we say anything she is already in the process of helping us clean it up. Plus it is so hard to be mad when she looks so innocent above the pool of pee.

She has also learned to use potty training as a way to get out of time out or for staying up late. As soon as we put her to bed or in time out the first thing she says is "need go pee." As a parent what are we suppose to do? We are trying to teach her to recognize when she needs to pee but we also have a suspicion that she is just using as a way to get out of her room. Of course we usually give in because...well what if she really does need to go to the potty! It seems to be a lose lose situation for us.

When we started potty training Brindi we would give her a treat for every time she went to the potty. She would get so excited and stand up and say "YAY Num Nums" all while clapping her hands. She would then give us high five and pound it and then request her num num. However, she then figured out the loop hole. That is learn to go a little and then hold the rest for a half hour. So now she goes to the potty but only goes a few drops or small pool and request her num num. Then 30 minutes later guess what, she is back on the potty with a few more drops and another request for num nums.

We sure love our daughter and it does gives us hope that she will be pretty smart because of these stories. She seems to find the loop holes and understands how to use them for her benefit:)

The Little Things of Brindi

Brindi has really began putting words together and I have learned she has quite the imagination and probably is a lot smarter than I give her credit...here are a few things she has been saying and doing this summer...

• Brindi's first prayer..."bess daddy,mommy...umm... pop-pop,grammy,pop-pop, grandma amen"
• Whenever I tell her something is all gone, her response is "mommy buy more... apple juice or mommy buy more diapers.
• Her favorite songs are Bingo, E I E I O, twinkle twinkle, popcorn and wheels on the bus.
• When it is time for bed she now has to give both of us a kiss on each cheek, a kiss on the lips, and a hug. Whenever she puts her babies to sleep I now have to do the routine too and the babies have to give kisses also
• Last Sunday, Joe and I had just sat down to eat dinner after church and we were calling for Brindi to come and eat. Well, I went to find her and there she was sitting on her potty pooping...Joe and I were floored, anyway, the next day I begged her to just wear underwear and not a diaper, but she cried and screamed. Well after changing her later, I managed to get her to not put a new diaper on and not 30 minutes later, she tells me she has to pee, so I take her up stairs and she pees, again I am surprised because she is so set on wearing a diaper and she hasn't seemed to be able to grasp the concept of peeing. Well after seeing that she knows when she needs to go, I hid all the diapers and it has seemed to do the trick she is now doing pretty well at going potty. Everytime she goes she gives us a high five and bumps fists...and of course she loves her "treats" and never forgets as she claps her hands and says "Yay num nums (yums)" after she goes.
• She loves her babies and does everything a mommy would do, she rocks them, sings to them, puts them to sleep and tries to feed them. We went to the park this week and we forgot her baby, but that didn't stop her from pretending she had one. Everywhere she went that make believe baby went too. It was so funny.
• While at the park, we of course had an accident :). Well I changed her and we ran home because I had to grab something and then we ran back to the park. This time there was a little girl who was playing by where Brindi had had her accident, so Brindi starts yelling "no, no, no, play I poopy, I poopy, yucky, no play"
• She loves to walk around the house calling her cows, she will beep her horn on her play keys and then go "moo cows, moo cows"
• She loves her temple picture from Grandma Lovell and always asks to go to the temple and tells me how gramma, pop-pop, mommy, daddy, pop-pop, and grammy go to the temple.
• She has learned to say skipures (scriptures)and loves her picture scriptures.
• She can't say the "sw" in swim or swing, both of them are "im",but they are her favorite things to do. I am about ready to hid her swimsuit because she wants to wear it everyday and it is becoming a battle.
• Whenever I lay down or say I don't feel good, she tells me "momma's baby hurt".

It's a...

...GIRL!

We are really excited and a little surprised to be having another little girl. This pregnancy has been pretty tough on Celeste, so we thought we were for sure having a boy considering Celeste didn't even know she was pregnant with Brindi because it was so easy. During the ultrasound we kept thinking to ourselves its going to show up any second but nothing ever did. We both thought it would be best to have another girl, a little sister to Brindi. So we are pretty excited about our new addition. Brindi is just excited about the baby. We don't think she understands the differences between a little brother or sister. Now its on to thinking about names. Any suggestions?

Hancock Campout

After the Petersen Campout we headed south to Arizona for a little Hancock get together. We headed up to the Cabin in Alpine for a little fun. Amber surprised us with t-shirts with the Hancock name, year, our name, and our number according to when we joined the Hancock family. Above is a picture of everyone that joined us in the mountains.
We loaded up the 4-wheeler for the trip and Brindi was again hard to get away from it. Between her and Taryn, I think one of them was always on the 4-wheeler. Gotta love those girls with adventure.
We also did some hiking during the trip. One hike we did get a little sidetracked and ended up spending some time fixing the road by filling in the pot holes with rocks. The little ones loved being able to help.

The area and family cabin is one of the favorite places for the Hancocks. It is absolutely beautiful in the mountains. Elk, wolves, pine trees, and green pasture abound. It was truly amazing being up there.

We also brought the horses to do a little riding. Celeste and I got to go on a pretty long ride up in the mountains by ourselves and everyone got a chance to ride a lot while we were there. Brindi even rode for a little bit. I think it will be a slow process warming up to horses for that girl.

We also had some tinfoil dinners, smores, banana boats, and other goodies. The two top right pictures are some of our favorites of our sad children. All the little ones seemed to play well with each other on the beds, under the tables and anywhere they could find a place to laugh.

Thanks to Bryant's love for the dog, Brindi decided she should like the dog also. However with the combination of Torque and Jag both being licking dogs, the first thing she would as grab his mouth so he could not lick her. Jag was a really good sport letting the kids do what they want to him.

Above is a combination of pictures including smelling trees (they actually smell like vanilla or chocolate and other smells, very weird). The girls visiting and my cute wife in the out house.

Our last adventure of the weekend was heading down to the lake on our way home to play in the water. Celeste's dad has two kayaks he brought. Brindi wanted to always be in the kayak but as soon as we backed away from the shore she wanted out. She is our little cautious girl. But what did you expect with her being Celeste and my kid? I had to keep distracting her with the ducks telling her we were going to get the ducks. It was the end of a great vacation.

Petersen Campout

We headed out west and our first stop was in Utah were we headed out to Oak City Canyon for the Petersen Campout. This is one of the funnest family get togethers we have each year. As you can see from above we spend a lot of time on the 4-wheelers and Brindi managed to swindle almost everyone into giving her a ride.
One day we hiked to the summit. There are some great views of both sides of the mountain including yuba dam. You can see how great of a hiker Brindi is as she trys to sleep on my head. She did make a good effort hiking with Robert and Kari. You can also see my sister Chelsea and John taking a leisurly stroll up the trail and of course my cute parents. At the top we got a family picture and the main picture is all the Lovells at the top of the summit.

These pictures are of our time in the tent. Brindi loved playing inside the tent and would keep telling Celeste and I to go away. I think it is because she kept looking and finding candy and gatorade that I was trying to hide in the tent. She is such a funny girl.
We also spent a lot time sitting around playing games and just visiting. We also had our annual night of singing around the camp fire.
The kids loved playing together. JaCee and Lexi were great watching and playing with Brindi. One of Brindi's favorite things was playing in the stream. It was hard to keep her out of it.

The two good looking folks above is the reason for all the madness that happens every year. It is always a highlight when we get to spend time with our Grandpa and Grandma Petersen. I love hearing my grandpas testimony every year and the love he has for his wife and all his posterity. The one picture is of the grandchildren in attendance and the other is of the great grandchildren.

Working Cattle

While in Leamington, we were able to work a few cattle which Celeste and I both love to do. Our little girl on the other hand did not as you can tell from the picture above. She was not a fan of the ear marking, ear tagging, shots, and especially the branding. Basically anything that made the calves bellow made her upset. Nonetheless, Celeste and I enjoyed ourselves.

Park and Recreation Month

July is the National Park and Recreation Month. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) has began a new initiative to promote leisure programs through social media. The initiative is to take pictures of our leisure pursuits to show others how we recreate and to find out how others recreate. The picture above is of us at the ball fields for our summer co-ed softball league. How do you recreate? Leave a comment and let us know.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July. We missed being around family this year but I think we made the most of it and found several fun things to do here in Missouri. We started off Saturday by heading down to Old St. Charles for the parade. We chose this one because we were told they throw candy. The pictures above are of Brindi as we strolled through the park. She loved wearing her shades and thought she was so cool. The parade started around 10:00 and we were towards the front which we figured would help with our candy effort. Brindi is still scared of loud noises so she didn't care much for the fire engines but once she saw the floats throwing candy she seemed to have forgotten all about the noise.
This is a play by play of the picture above. The middle pictures are of various floats. As you can see from the first two pictures we started out modestly with a little bit of candy. The third picture is of Brindi looking at me as she says "More dadda more." After gathering a good share of candy she decided to take a break. However, as she sat in her stroller she continued to give us orders as she pointed to candy on the road that she expected us to pick up for her. We guess she didn't think we were doing a good job so she decided to get out and get the candy herself as you can see in the first two bottom pictures. The last picture of her in the stroller shows how much candy she had gathered. She was quite proud of herself. The final picture shows the areas favorite thing to throw...can you guess what it was? It was like Mardi Gras all over...well without the flashing of course.

This is a cute video showing Brindi's patriotic spirit as she waves the American flag as the floats drive by.
In the afternoon we headed out to O'Fallon where we volunteered to help with the holiday festivities. We were assigned to the inflatables, which was perfect for Brindi. Brindi had a blast in all the bounce houses and slides as you can see from above. The inflatables were part of the Free section for the festivities.
Also part of the Free section of the festivities were crafts, which Brindi created a Miss USA crown; free slim; children games like hula hoop and sack races; and the black drawing paper that covered the entire baseball fence. Brindi's favorite thing to do was to watch the Ultimate Air Dog competition as dogs were judged on how far they could jump into a swimming pool. We had dogs from all over the Midwest from Wisconsin to Georgia and everywhere in between. After our shift we all were treated to a free meal and as you can see Brindi did not hesitate to dig into the free ice cream sandwiches. Afterwards we strolled through all the vendors and on our way out Brindi was able to swindle someone into giving her a free pair of green sunglasses.

O'Fallon is famous around here for bringing in big name artists for free concerts during Independence Day. This year they had scheduled Chuck Wicks and Darryl Worley for Saturday. We didn't stay late enough to hear Darryl Worley but as you can see from the video Brindi liked Chuck Wicks just fine.


On Sunday we tried to do a couple fireworks of our own but again Brindi did not like anything with loud noises. We couldn't even get her to hold a sparkler. Maybe next year. The only thing she did like were the black growing snake tablets. After Brindi went to sleep we headed out back and sat on the deck and watched the hundreds of little firework shows going on around our neighborhood. Missouri obviously does not have laws similar to Arizona or Utah. Everything combined it was a pretty amazing firework show we enjoyed.

Blogging Paradise Vs. The REAL World

Amber and I were talking yesterday about blogs and how EVERYDAY seems to be paradise in everyone else's world, except ours, I guess that's the great things about blogs, they make us focus on the good right? Well for the past two months this is truly what a typical day at our house looks like (well minus the potty training that started this week)!

5:30-6:30 TRY to drag myself out of bed to go running(Only happens when my friend Rachel is around) And think why in the heck do I even care...I'm going to gain 25 lbs either way...and no Joe, I promise your wife isn't getting wider by the day,your eyes must be watering from lack of sleep(Thanks to Brindi invading our bed every night.)

6:30-7:00- My two awesome/hansome, but sometimes CRAZY little boys show up, ages 4 and 6.

7:00-12:00ish....(Honestly who keeps track of time?)

• Today, we spent atleast 45 minutes arguing about who was bigger and fighting because both of them wanted to be the biggest, the argument then moved into "I'm running away just so you can't boss me around because you are younger than me". The arguement comes inside at this point and turns into..."don't touch my couch, don't touch my room" (Yes, I found out today that my front room is now claimed by a 6 year old, I guess that's why I've given up trying to keep it clean).
• This is all mingled with the random screams from Brindi because some one is touching one of her toys or she is trying to grab one of their toys...What can I say, my house knows how to share!(Through it all these are my responses, "Boys please take it outside or down stairs", "Don't jump on my nice couches", "Don't run on the carpet with those muddy feet", "If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all"...and the list goes on and on...and I'm realizing my worst nightmare has come true I am telling my kids everything my mom used to say that I SWORE I would never would...)
• Along with a load of laundry to wash Brindi's "accident" elmo/Abby underwear...after 2 or 3 lets go sit on the potty, nothing happens, we walk out the room, Brindi walks to the kitchen and all of a sudden she has a gallon of pee rushing down her legs...All I can say is at least she is poop trained right?(That's the blogging paradise syndrome coming out :), I will admit I can't be too upset since all our accidents have been mostly on the tile...
• I load the three kids(I know parents with 5-7 kids are thinking this girl doesn't have a clue...and you are completely right I don't....and I am happy in my apparent ignorance, can't you tell). We head down the street for a girls camp meeting, as I hear, "I'm not buckled up" and "Hey, you're going the wrong way" and I'm thinking, "man, I can't even get the kids in the car correctly and apparently I need directions from a 6 year old who can't even see out the window of the car". Anyway, we make it to the sister's house for the camp meeting...where my daughter cries pretty much the entire time we are there, all because I wouldn't give her any gum (thinking back...I'm wondering why in the heck I just didn't give it to her). This same angel of a child of mine proceeds to pee ALL over the wood floor, and yep you guess it, RIGHT after I got done taking her to go potty.
• We make it out the door to head home from the meeting, but not without walking out with someone elses keys and no cell phone. I get the boys loaded, but now after making herself at home, Brindi has decided she doesn't want to go, so the smart mother that I am tries to out think her. I get in the car with the boys, and start to drive away, but does my daughter care, oh no, she waves bye and walks towards the front do to go back in....I don't know why she can't just listen...but for Brindi it's always on her time table( And some how she still owns my heart)

I'm telling you the days just gets better and better...but I'll spare you the rest of the story, full of more accidents (one in the middle of daddy's softball game), Transfer fights, homework/class, and of course dinner leftovers(I'll admit it,I don't have dinner ready on the table as soon as Joe gets home...this is the real world, not blogging paradise remember). Well here is the moral of my story... I've come to the conclusion...No matter how much the other stuff (mentioned above) tries to sneak in and run my life, I don't think I could ever give up this crazy life our little family lives! So, I guess the paradise blogging syndrome is a good thing, because we really do have a great life, even if we're not constantly vacationing to exoctic places or trying to figure out how to spend millions! Well I hope you all had a good chuckle at our REAL life expense.

Brindi's Question

We are exctied to announce we are pregnant! We are 13 weeks along and will be expecting our newest member of the family the first week of January. So Brindi wants to know...what do you think, Girl or Boy? (Please excuse the dirty face, wild hair, and dirty shirt) She is quite hilarious when it comes to the baby. When we went in for the ultrasound she looked at the monitor and said "baby, baby" and was insistant on carrying one of the pictures around most of the day. Now when we ask her where the baby is, she points to my stomach and then points to hers and tells me she has a baby in her tummy too. It's amazing to Joe and I how she seems to naturally know how to take care of her babies, I can say she is a girl through and through in every aspect except wanting to keep clean/do her hair. I hope her desire to take care of babies translates into a easy transition of being the big sister!

Mind Games

Brindi is becoming too smart for her own good and is learning how to use past situations to her own advantage. For example, Brindi is in a climbing stage and steps and climbs on about anything. Occasionally in church she will step on my scriptures or lesson manual or the hymn book and we immediatly tell her no, sometimes scold her which sometimes results in us taking her out in the foyer depending on how she reacted to the scolding. Well today in church we were sitting and listening to the talks and we were getting close to the end of the meeting. Brindi, feeling its time to go, proceeds to pick up the hymn book place it on the ground and tries to step on the book. We quickly lift her to her seat, tell her no and place the book back. Brindi again gets off the seat, grabs the book, sets it on the ground, opens it and then very slowly while looking at me, as if to say "what are you going to do about it" proceeds to try and step on the book again. So I grab her and lift her to my lap and hold her. At this point she points to the door next to us and says "uh...outside." Now I do not know about you but I am convinced her whole purpose for stepping on the book was for us to punish her by taking her out in the foyer, which I think is what she wanted to do anyways. And so it begins. The mind games and psychology of raising our child, and were not even to the teenager years.

Fip Fops

Were not sure where she picked it up, but one day Brindi starting asking for Fif Fops. We didn't understand her for quite a while but we put two and two together when she kept trying to put on our flip flops. She didn't have a pair of her own but always wanted to wear some. She would prefer to wear ours instead of her own shoes. Below are the pictures of her hinting that she wanted a pair of her own.

This pair is actually Brindi's but she will not be in them until she is at least 3 or 4.

Again wearing her future flip flops.

Wearing Dad's flip flops.

Wearing Mom's flip flops.

When Grammy came out she understood Brindi's hints and quickly went out and bought Brindi her very own flip flops that fit now and not in the future.

What a cute little girl we have and she loves having her own flip flops. We can't remember the last time she wore regular shoes outside of church. Thanks Grammy!

Our Artist

Brindi always needs to be around one of us, so when she disappears and things go really quiet we know she is up to something. The picture to the left is her latest alone and quiet time activity. The canvas...our wall! Luckily Celeste saw this coming a long time ago and bought washable markers. Its a good thing my wife is on top of things.

Memorial Weekend

Over Memorial weekend, Celeste's parents and her little brother flew out to visit. It was going to be the last time we would see Brennon for two years. He is headed out on his mission in the middle of June and because of our schedule we are unable to make to if farewell so they came to us. They were also able to celebrate Brindi's birthday which is always nice to have family around for those type of events.

After Brindi's party, we headed to a bar-b-que for dinner are a friends house. They do this party every year and have a pool, basketball hoop, badmitton court, and then thier tractor lawnmower to pull the kids around. It was a fun get together. Later that night we headed to the Rascals ball game with the free tickets from Lindenwood. We left early but had a great time cheering, eating nachos, and playing the fan games that they do at these small market games.

Sunday we headed over to the St. Charles riverfront. St. Charles was the first capitol of Missouri back in the day. It is also the location where Lewis and Clark started their trek west. At this point of the trip Brindi had forgotten she had parents or just did not care to acknowledge us. It was all about "pop pop" (Grandpa).

Monday we headed up to Nauvoo for the day and did a temple session with Brennon. While in the temple, Sonja and Brindi went throughout the town and visited with the reenactors and got a personal brick. After the temple we grabbed lunch and of course some fudge and then walked around the town and visited the store and family grave site of the Smiths. It was great being able to visit such an important area in our Church's history.

You will have to tilt your head to watch the video, but it was taken when we were in Nauvoo. On Tuesday we headed to the Boone Home to do a little fishing and to walk around the Boonefield Village and throw a couple tomahawks. Celeste's family left later that day. It was a great little vacation and we loved having family visit.

Ever since they left, Brindi has been carrying around a picture of "pop pop" and insists on sleeping with it. Its been a little tough on her having no one but her mom and dad around. She is such a cute girl and loves her family a lot.