Christmas 09

We went to Germantown, Tn to celebrate Christmas with my family. All of Isabella's gifts have "bells" on them and Brooks' have "candy canes". Thats how they can tell their gifts apart.

Brooks and Daddy having a moment. Brooks wanting to eat one of his fake candy canes.
The family on Christmas morning. Isabella slept in her bow which is why she has one in her hair so early.
Opening her camera from Grandaddy.

So it's amazing how things have changed over the years. My mom always takes a picture of us coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. When I was little, the pictures were of me with a big smile and almost running down the stairs. As I got older, there was a smile, but my eyes were closed because the morning had come a little too early. Now...
Here is Brooks coming down Christmas morning. My picture (which is not shown) is me carrying Brooks down because he wouldn't go any farther than he is in the pic.
Bella was happy to get down stairs, but the best is Ben (not shown). His picture is him carrying a wet diaper down the stairs. Oh the joys of parenthood!!!!
Sneaky Pete and Sneaky Suzy with Grandaddy. It's a game that they play and the kids love it!
Bella and Brooks with Grandmommy. Mom had the awesome PJ's made for all the girls. They had our first initial on the shirt and the letter matched our pants.
Kristopher and Sara. They will be married on May 7th in Saeside, FL.
This was Ben trying to get Isabella off to bed. As you can see, it's not what she had in mind. She through a nice little fit!
Brooks on his new bike.
Bella on her new motorized bike.
My sweet little snow children saying "cheese". I'm trying to teach Brooks how to show his teeth.

November: Thanksgiving with my parents!

Our sweet little Pilgrim and Indian. My parents were able to come in and spend Thanksgiving with us. It is always so fun getting to spend time with them.
We went to the park to play. Brooks has become a little dare devil! He has no problem going down the slide head first!
Grandaddy pushed the kids in the swing forever! We got some really good pictures.

November: ChristGiving

We went to Branson, MO for a week to have Thanksgiving/Christmas with the Carothers. The pics that follow are some of the fun things we did while we were there.

Norah Kate (NO Kate is what Isabella would call her) the cutest little panda I have ever seen!
We went to see Christmas lights. We let the older kids get in the back with Ron and Margie so they could see the lights better.
Ben was our driver. There was another light display that Isabella really wanted to go to but it $40 per person or something crazy like that. But if you hear her tell the story now she says I wanted to see the purple light tower but it was expensive. Like 40 thousand dollars! :)
Brooks and Mommy in the front seat.
Jonathan made these awesome wood figures to represent the Nativity Story. We had a lot of fun painting them.
Uncle David and Brooks watching Cars for the 10th time. Aiden eating a popsicle. Yes, it was cold there!
The kids painting the angels for the Nativity.
The car ride to Branson. TIGHT FIT!

OCTOBER

I really have been trying to update this blog forever, but the pictures always took so long to download. I seriously thought about just deleting the whole account. Here is what happened with BKIB in October.

Ben Went to Chile. He had a wonderful time. He went with some really great people. From L to R: Keith, Ben, Beth and Beth. There was another man Keith, but he came a day later.
We celebrated Halloween. Isabella was a Beautiful Giant Pumpkin. My mom bought her a Tinker Bell outfit, but it was too cold.
Brooks was a Sweet Chunky Monkey. Shown above with the Man in the Yellow Hat. Brooks did not love him the way Curious George does!
Ben had his 34th Birthday! The kids got him framed pictures of themselves for his office.
I totally could have picked a better picture of Brooks. However, Ben looked HOT in all the pics I took of him that night!

November to come!

Reunions and Blowouts!

What's new with BKIB? Ben is leaving for Chile in October. He has a great team put together of about six people and he is really looking forward to it. Work is good. I think he is really getting into the swing of things because we see him a little earlier in the evening then when he first started. We went to the Guatemala Reunion in Tyler, TX and he had a great time catching up with aunts and uncles. We were trying to explain to Isabella that she was going to be meeting a lot of aunts and uncles, but she couldn't understand why we were going to visit "ants"! We brought our camera but the only picture that I took was this one of Brooks having a staring contest with his cup!

Kristen has been very busy. I can't imagine what it will be like when Isabella and Brooks are old enough to be in extra curricular activities. I already feel like all I do is run from school to dance to the church. ESL started last week and it is a lot of fun. They have asked me to run the new class and though I was a little surprised, I gladly excepted! The ladies are so sweet, and they really want to learn English. I am trying to finish the last few things for Isabella's "Imagination Movers" birthday party tomorrow. I can't believe she will be three on Sunday! These pictures are of the family at the Tyler zoo.
Isabella will be THREE on Sunday. Time has really flown by! She is quickly losing her baby features and becoming a beautiful little girl. We went in for her 3 year old check up last Friday and she is exactly 3 feet tall. That puts her in the 25% for height, she is 50% for weight and thankfully that have stopped measuring her head! She still loves school, dance and choir and has learned all of the songs fast.
Brooks went to the doctor for his 15 month check up and was about 2 1/2 feet tall which is 75% for height, he is 75% in weight and his head went from 75% to 99%! He has that CAROTHERS head! It's funny, before Brooks came along, we thought Isabella was our strong willed child! BOY were we WRONG! Brooks does not pay us one bit of attention when we are telling him NO. He gets something in his head and he is going to do it no matter what you say! We are going to have to find out what really  gets his attention as far as punishment goes. We are trying to be patient!
That's all for now!
Funny Story: The kids and I went to lunch with some friends a couple of weeks ago and Brooks had a major BLOWOUT! I didn't have any of his stuff with me so I had to borrow. None of the moms that had boys there had an extra set of clothes, so we borrowed one of Meredith's outfits. We started calling Brook, Mooks for the rest of the afternoon. I needed to run into Target for a second and on the way our a lady driving by stuck her head out to comment on Isabella's outfit. When I turned around to thank her, she saw Brooks in my arms. She said "Woo that's a BIG girl!" Poor Mooks! :)

I can't believe I'm doing this!

So... Ben has been telling me that I should start a blog for our family for a while now. Why I am choosing to do it (now) when our life is so crazy busy I don't know! But, this is what's new with BKIB: BEN is the purchasing manager at the IP mill in Mansfield. He has had this job for a few months now and is really starting to get the hang of it. This new position should put us here in Shreveport for a couple of more years. Ben ran his first triathlon sprint last month. He did not like the swimming part of the race, but finished in the time he wanted to. The family is so proud of him! KRISTEN is teaching two year old Sunday school on Sunday mornings. I really feel like even at the age of two, these precious gifts from God can learn scripture, bible stories and songs. All they need is someone to teach them! On Wednesday nights, I teach three year old choir. I have high expectations but I know this will be a great year. The songs are easy and so sweet. On Thursdays, starting on the 10th, I will be teaching beginner ESL. I am taking a bigger role this year and I am looking forward to it. I am on the steering team this year in MOPS (mothers of preschoolers). We meet two Mondays a month. ISABELLA is growing up so fast! She will be three on the 27th and we are having an Imagination Movers party for her. She has three year old preschool on Tuesday's and Thursday's. She calls it "the white school" because the building that she goes to school in is white. It's only been one week, but she loves it. On Tuesdays, she also goes to ballet. She looks so sweet in her all pink ballerina uniform. She is almost old enough to be in the three year old choir on Wednesday nights at the church. She gets to go early because I know her teacher really well! It's me :). She has started cutting out her naps which is hard on me, but that just means she goes to bed earlier at night. BROOKS is a climber! He likes to climb on or in anything. I pull him of the kitchen table multiple times a day. It rally scares me because I know he is going to hurt himself one day, but he is a boy! It is fun to see the differences between him and Isabella at his age. He has the most beautiful dark red curls and big brown eyes. He gets all the women talking about him when we are out in public. He doesn't smile or laugh a lot but when he does, it is so genuine. My favorite is when I am able to catch it on camera. The pictures to the left are of Brooks in Isabella's shoe drawer, Isabella on the first day of preschool. Her shirt says "preschool rocks" and has her name on it, Isabella in her ballet uniform and the last one is of the family after Ben's triathlon.