expert window washer

Brooke loved "helping" ( and I use this term loosely) Yia Yia clean the windows at her house.

taking Jack a bath

Brooke loves to help out anyway that she can with Jack, especially at bath time. She will ask me to get her stool-step so she can help me take Jack a bath. She is really becoming a great big sister.

"helping" poppy

Brooke has finally become brave enough to ride on the lawnmower, or tractor, as she calls it. She would ride with Poppy to the fire pile, sit on the bench until he was finished, then ride in the wagon back to go "help" pick up sticks. Poppy's little helper followed him all over the whole time we were there. She kept telling us that the hurricane knocked down all the trees. For her all of this craziness was just a vacation away from home.

Staying ay Aunt Gina's

One of the many places we stayed while we had no power. We were trying to get things back to normalby going to the park in Gina's neighborhood.

The aftermath of Hurricane Ike

Lucky for us we didn't have any major damage. Brooke loved to help clean up.

The lion's not scary

Nothing like getting a drink of water from the mouth if a lion.

Which one is the monkey?

In all the times we have been to the zoo, I have never heard a monkey make this much noise. Brooke and Ben loved copying him.

Jack's first trip to the zoo!

Although he slept thru most of it, Jack made his first debut to the zoo.

First love in bloom

Aren't they cute holding hands! Brooke told me that she was going to marry Ben and have lots of babies. I hope he doesn't break her heart.

Can you tell...

who is who? It makes it a little easier with the purple blanket.

First Day of School

Brooke had a much harder time with school this year because her and Ben have been split up. She screamed and screamed when I dropped her off, but I knew that it wouldn't last long. When I picked her up, her new teacher, Ms. Carolyn, said that she did great once she stopped crying. She said that they talked about how they weren't going to cry next week. So, let's keep our fingers crossed.