And who says he can’t hack it?

After just one round with daddy’s facial clippers, I’d say Beau did a pretty sufficient job of hackin’ off most of his hair.

 

So much so, that I had to shave the rest of it off.

And that has just been one small portion of my day.

Play-date

Today, Beau had a little friend over. Some of you might recognize him from my friend Stacey’s blog, “My Life as a Military Wife” 

Stacey and Chase were in town under some rather sad circumstances. One of Stacey’s dearest friends passed away unexpectedly last weekend and the funeral was today.

Rather than hauling this cutie-patootie to a funeral, I was happy to keep him. After all, he and Beau are only a few months apart in age and boy, did they have a blast.

Not only did they entertain each other, but they kept me pretty entertained as well. Chase called Beau “O”,  and Beau called Chase “Case”…..it was pretty darn cute! (You can soooo tell that my kid is the one on the left – he really hates my camera!)

Chase, next time you are in town, you be sure to get your mommy to bring you back over to play.

Top and bottom half issues

Last week we started potty-training Beau. At first, it was like pulling teeth to get the boy to even want to wear underwear. It didn’t matter that every time he had a stinky diaper, he would bring you a diaper and wipes and lay down on the floor so that you could change him. It didn’t matter that he could use the toilette – he simply did not want to be bothered with taking the time to go and sit while he did his thing.

But only after a few accidents, I am happy to say he is potty-trained at the ripe young age of  2-years-and-not-quite-5-months old. Woo-hoo! Way to go Beau!!

As for his issues with the top half, we had to go back to the ENT yesterday to have one of his tubes in his ear redone. The poor thing just can’s seem to get over all of these ear infections.

Dance party 09

Good vs. evil

I think from the following photo you can tell which of my boys made Santa’s nice list and which one made his naughty list.

Yes, Jack loves Santa and can’t wait for him to leave a “monster truck that looks like a shark and floats” under the Christmas tree this year.

Jack has always been enthralled with planes, trains and automobiles.

Beau likes them too (if they are big enough for him to run over stuff) but I’m pretty sure he’d rather have a gun. Not really a comforting thought for a mother.

It’s a good thing he is so stinkin’ cute, because if he wasn’t he’d be in a whole lot of trouble. Maybe that’s the problem….

Fun in the sun

This should be my last post on our trip to Florida and then maybe I can get to some more recent happenings.

Again, I said the trip wasn’t too relaxing; but, that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy a little bit of sun and fun.

Even though it was November, Jack couldn’t resist getting into the ocean.

Beau was a little more skeptical.

He would have rather just stayed on dry land, playing in the sand

or with grandma.

But with a little bit of help from his loving big brother, he finally made it out into the ocean.

Halloween Etiquette Checklist

1. Dress up in whatever costume your mama bought you without complaining  – no matter how goofy you think you might look.

2. Walk calmly to the front door of any given house – without barreling over other children…

…oh, and if you can’t walk by yourself, then you probably aren’t old enough to be Trick or Treating in the first place.

3.  Hold out your bag and politely say trick or treat.

4. Thank the person who just gave you candy – without adding an amendment such as “Thank you, but I don’t like raisins.”

5. Don’t throw a fit when you don’t get the same thing as the person next to you.

And last but certainly not least…

6.  I realize you have taken a lot of photos this evening, but if someone who just gave you candy thinks you’re cute and would like to take your photo, don’t refuse them that joy, just as they did not refuse you that candy.

Two and a half out of six isn’t bad! Could use a little improvement for next year though.

This message has been brought to you courtesy of the Brookshire boys.

Spooky or sweet?

Terrific twos

I’m using a little reverse psychology with that blog title…I’m thinking that if I entitle this post that way, rather than “The Terrible Twos” maybe I can will the “terrific” part into being, because as you can see.... (yes, that is a box of dish detergent and the next photo is of Beau after he snuck a couple of Oreo cookies) we’re already off to a rough start.

So, as if you couldn’t tell (by the above photos or even by my lack of blog posting lately), life around the Brookshire household has been chaos. We have celebrated two birthdays in the past week – mine (I celebrated the second anniversary of my 29th birthday – long live 29!!) and Beau’s.Poor Beau is obviously my second child. One can tell by the low key birthday I just threw him. Usually I send out cute invitations, this time it was a tacky Facebook invite and phone calls. Normally, I would buy balloons and a piñata, this time I stuck with the idea that swimming and playing outside was enough entertainment for everyone.

Maybe one day Beau will be mad at me for not throwing him a bigger party but for now, he doesn’t even remember what happened an hour ago.

A little behind

I have been completely overwhelmed lately, so please forgive me for not only neglecting my blog but for not getting by to visit yours as well. Maybe one of these days I will get my head screwed on straight and get a routine worked out.

Anyway, life, as usual, has been rather hectic. In addition to photographing eight lovely children and celebrating Beau’s 2nd birthday (post to come later) over the weekend, we also had our small town fair. What that means for me – sitting around for one whole day accepting entries for the photography contest, 3 nights of fair fun, a parade in which my kids dress up and walk, or rather ride in their case, down Main Street,(On a side note: the boys went as Brookshire Plumbing Jr., complete with toilette,  because both their dad and Papa are plumbers; and in a small town, everyone is aware of that fact. The boys placed 3rd!) 

and little games designated for all of the kiddos. (Jack won 1st place in the sack race and he was so excited, especially since he won tickets to use at the fair!)

“Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it.”

Keeping up with just one of these two yahoos on a daily basis is a chore in and of itself. But take them to an outdoor park, together, and it’s an all new ball game. Talk about short attention spans…Beau and his cousin Owen went from swinging, to sliding and pretending (apparently Beau is pretending to be Miss America in this next photo),and then on to eating     and of course running.  And then they repeated all of those steps over again…all within a matter of 30 seconds.

The end of a great summer

We may not have gone on vacation this summer but we had a great time discovering things close to home.

A while back, one of my friends from high school drove up from Texas with her husband and two boys and while the hubbies were away, the girls and kiddos went to play.

We spent the day catching up on each others lives over the past ten years all the while chasing four rambunctious boys around the Science Museum Oklahoma. If you live in Oklahoma and have not yet been to the Science Museum, pack up your things and go now! It was a blast and perfect for all ages.

Also this summer, we ventured out to Jenks, Oklahoma (which is on the other side of the state) to visit the Oklahoma Aquarium. Despite our lovely state being land locked, the aquarium was quite impressive. Beau loved getting to stick his hands in the water to pet Sting Rays and Starfish …Jack, not so much. He was just thrilled about his new shark necklace.

Ahhhhh, accessories…a boy after my own heart.

Anyway, since Jenks is a pretty good haul across the state, we decided to make the most out of our trip back home by stopping at a relatively new and unique filling station called Pops.

It is located on old Route 66 and houses any and every type of soda you could ever imagine or want.

Being the cultured person that I am, I decided to try a local root beer. Unfortunately, it tasted like….well, let’s just say it wasn’t very good. So Josh bought me a different kind.

Gotta love that man’s sense of humor…or not.

Even  Beau, who you’d think would be too young to partake in such a thing,  enjoyed stopping at the new Oklahoma landmark.