My Favorite Things 2012

Sound familiar? Well if you were ever one of Oprah's one bajillion fans you will recognize this - but actually I am totes copying my sissy Lauren. (If she is cool enough to copy Oprah, I'm at least cool enough to copy her. Right? Hope so cause I'm doing it!)  She used to do this yearly on her blog and it's unfortunate that she's too law school-y for blogging now. When Lauren used to blog I would often make up a "favorite things" list in my mind and I'm so pleased that this year I can actually make a real one! Holla.

Brookie B's Favorite Things of 2012

1. Name a show on the Food Network - I've seen it. Oh think you can be tricky and name a show from 15 years ago? I was watching the Food Network then too (yes I was in elementary school). Remember "Pressure Cooker" and "Emril Live?" I do. My most current obsession on the Food Network is The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drommond is fabulous. She lives in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma and absolutely loves her family, her dogs and cooking. I'm a sups picky eater but I actually want to eat everything she makes. Plus she isn't super pretentious like Ina Garden with a home in the Hamptons and she doesn't have her boobs hanging out and use a dumb Italian accent when pronouncing mozzarella like Giada. She is simple and relatable. My bestie sent me her cookbook for my birthday and it's my favorite. I think everyone should own it.

 
Seriously, how cute is she?

2. Let me start by saying, I am not a crafty person. Randomly I'll be in a crafty mood but it usually ends in disappointment when my craft looks nothing like I was expecting. However, thanks to pinterest and blog stalking I have become one crafty lady this Christmas season. But lets be clear, I only do crafts that ANYONE could do. I mean one of my crafts included gluing glitter onto clothes pins to hang my Christmas cards (told you they were easy). Anywee, crafting, as of right now, is my favorite.

 

3. I think it is universally known that manicures are the best. I actually don't know a woman who does not like getting a manicure. (Pedicures are also heavenly and maybe my hubby gets them - don't tell him I told you) But now I only want to get a manicure if I am going to get gel nails. If you do not know, gel nails are basically between regular nail polish and acrylic nails. In other words; perfection. I could go on and on because gel nails are my favorite.

Still unsure? Ask her, she's a believer. 

4. I have said it before and I will say it again, I have a scarf problem. I have a whole drawer in my dresser just for my scarf collection, which drives Gar crazy. I am positive that if I had made a "Favorite Things" list for the past four years scarves would have always been on it. They're the perfect accessory; it's like a necklace and it keeps your warm! Scarves will probably always be my favorite.

 
Rockin' a scarf three years ago on the honeymoon and in SF this summer.

5. Smelling bad stinks. If you're stinky then you should start wearing Marc Jacob's Daisy perfume, unless you're a male. I've been wearing it for a few years now and I still love it. Plus wearing anything designer makes me feel fabulous. Perfume that makes me feel fabulous? Favorite.

6. Well it just wouldn't be right if I didn't steal at least one of Oprah's favorites as my own. Her list did include a Tempurpedic mattress and I wish I could say it was my favorite but unfortunately I've never laid on one. But anyone is allowed to change that! But Oprah's list included this Deux Lux sparkle tote and I am obsessed. I love big bags and this fits that criteria. Plus I love sparkles! It is my new favorite and I want one!

7. Okay so this is a weird one for me, usually sunglasses are not my favorite. Actually I always like sunglasses I just hate my problem with sunglasses, it's called I loose every pair! I'm pretty positive I have never had a pair of sunglasses for longer than a month. I have been very aware of my problem so I've never spent more than $20 on them, BUT Coach has these new "Casey" sunglasses and they are my favorite. I even like them enough to not loose them!

  

Hopefully Santa brings me a pair...

8. If you like movies like Mean Girls, Baby Mama, or the show Glee then we should be best friends. Also if you if have that sense of humor then you MUST see Pitch Perfect. (It's fine I saw it three times) It has soooo funny plus there's awesome music. The first time I saw it I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. It is easily my favorite movie of the year - by far. Good thing it comes out on DVD right before Christmas!

"You girls are awesome--ly horrible, I hate you, go kill yourselves. GIRL POWER!"

Alrighty there it is, my first ever favorites list! Please copy me and make your own favorites list - it would make me feel so cool. Plus then I could probably steal some of your favorites for myself. Also great news, my blog is finally up-to-date.

Halloweenie

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I HATE (and I really cannot stress that enough) anything scary. I know a lot of people like it because of the adrenaline rush they get, but that doesn't happen to me. What happens is I stay up all night, have crazy anxiety, cry and then hate myself. It's a really fun combo. For example, one Halloween I thought it would be "fun" to watch the movie Carrie with Lauren and our bestie Ashley. I felt sick through the whole movie and that night (and several after) I slept with Lauren. I still cannot think about that movie without getting a little freaked out. I mean Sissy Spacek is creepy looking already but add in her crazy fundamentalist Mother who calls boobs "dirty pillows," pig's blood, telekinesis (and not the good kind like in Matilda), a young John Travolta and it's horrifying. Another Halloween mistake I made was going to a haunted house with Lauren and Garrett back when we were dating. At the time I thought I was tough and in college so I could handle it, unlike the last Haunted House I attempted (as in I never went inside) back in middle school. Well I was wrong. Very wrong. After the second room I was shaking, crying, and felt like all the blood had rushed out of my body. I ended up going through the rest of the house with my head in Garrett's chest and Lauren held a stranger's hand (true story). It really does not matter how many times I tell myself it's fake I am just a big weenie.

At the same time I do love, love, looooove lots of things that come with Halloween time. There's the leaves changing colors, pumpkin patches, costume shopping, cute decorations, Reese's pumpkins and I can start to wear my scarves again! (I have a scarf problem) For our first Halloween with Baby Jack I made sure to go all out. I picked out his costume in July and planned Halloween activities that would last us for days.  Jack was the cutest monster ever and my favorites were us carving pumpkins, Boo at the Zoo and trunk-or-treating.

Look at that baby!

Last year I bought our pumpkins at the grocery store because I figured a pumpkin patch would be pretty pointless with a little baby. This year I was really excited to go to a pumpkin patch and let Jackie boy pick out his very own pumpkin. I had been reading him books about Halloween and pumpkin patches so he knew exactly what to do. After finding the perfect pumpkin we checked out the animals, went on a hayride and played in the corn kernel box (which by the way, is genius).

   

The night before Halloween we had a little family pumpkin carving party. It was a doozy. Jack was actually able to participate this year and he kept cracking us up. He was totes grossed out by the crap inside the pumpkins and would freak whenever it touched him. (I may or may not do the same thing and now I'm realizing it might have been a learned behavior...) Anywee, he was absolutely thrilled with the end result. After we put the pumpkins outside Jack kept knocking on the door (from the inside, we didn't lock him out there with the pumpkins) and we would have to go open it so he could admire them.

   

Jack's costume this year, believe it or not, topped last year's (in my opinion). I had a much harder time picking out his costume because he's kind of a weird age - he isn't really a baby anymore but he isn't old enough to tell me what he wants to dress up as. Long story short, we already had a Texas Rangers jersey and hat. Then when we were in Texas a fabulous friend with several Little League playing boys gave me an old pair of baseball pants, socks and belt. I did have to take-in the pants, which was super fun without a sewing machine I might add. Anyways, it was totes worth it. He was so cute.

The weekend before Halloween we hit up the Riverwoods with the sibs for a the little Halloween festival. There were tons of people with there with kids in adorable costumes, a petting zoo, carriage rides, trick-or-treating and pumpkin bowling.

   

Actual Halloween was sups awesome. We had a full day - story time at the library, speech therapy party, trunk-or-treating and then regular trick-or-treating. Jack wore his costume from sun up until sun down, he knew he wouldn't get candy without it. He was in heaven.

   

The night ended with us sitting in our tiny hallway eating candy. It was way past Jack's bedtime and he had already had more candy then he needed, but we just couldn't say no. He would pick up piece of candy, show us and then nod his head up and down while smiling, basically he was letting us know it was okay for him to have another piece. 

 

We love Halloweenie!

State Fairs

Yup you read that correctly, there is supposed to be an 's' at the end of fairs. Jealous? Well basically if you have met me you probably have heard of my love for everything carnival - deep fried food, candy apples, cotton candy, cheap entertainment, and lots of crazy people to watch. But seriously, who doesn't love that crap?

I grew up in Connecticut and there wasn't a state fair; there was a super state fair called The Big E. The Big E is basically a state fair for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island all in one, yah know 'cause they're the mini states. My parents took us every year on Yom Kippur and I believe that is where my love of all things carny originated. ("Once a carny always a carny" [name that movie!]) No but I actually have really vivid memories from The Big E - riding on an elephant with my sibs, eating mini cinnamon donuts while watching the Border Collie dog show, a clown putting his head in a horse's butt, and the giraffe (but only Lauren and Jennifer will get that part. It's much too inappropriate for the blog but I will say that it has damaged me for life). Anywee, when Fair time comes around I can just smell the fried weenies and dough in the air. I look forward to the Fair for weeks and this year we got to go to the Utah State Fair and the Texas State Fair.

First up was the Utah State Fair. Jack and I drove up to the fair grounds with my sister Hannah and her roommate Gracie. Jack was really looking forward to seeing the animals so we made sure to do that first. Also the barns smelled like death so the sooner that was over the better. Right outside the barns was a pony ride which Jack insisted he wanted to do. Well once it was time to actually get on the horse Jack quickly changed his mind and entered into a wrestling match with me. I won. But I mean, I had already paid and I knew I wasn't getting those five dollars back! But Jack did have fun (after the pure terror wore off) and we could tell that he was pleased with himself when it was over.

   

It's fine, I was obviously way more excited than Jack.

After walking around and looking at the weird people everywhere we came across the "Utah State Fair Science Room," which was awesome. Jack ran around the room from activity to activity - his favorite were the drums but he also made sure to beat Hannah in a game of chess and play inside a bubble.

   
Who knew science at the State Fair would be so fun?

After walking through all the rooms of prize winning produce, quilts, eggs, and butter sculptures (seriously) we went straight for the food. I don't even want to talk about what we ate but we did find some locally grown watermelon for Jack, which he looooved.

 

These pictures are just my favorite.

 
The fair was awesome, as per ush, and we will totes be back next year. 

About a month-ish later, we hit up the Texas State Fair. After my ten days with the girls Garrett flew to Texas since it was his fall break. Originally his trip was planned around us going to the Texas Rangers playoff game, which if you've never met Garrett that was like his dream coming true (after going to a Rangers World Series game of course), but unfortunately it didn't happen. For those who do not know, the Rangers were basically a shoe-in for the playoffs and then they blew it. Big time. It's a sore subject and I don't want to talk about it. But since we were totes bummed about the baseball game I made sure we went to the Fair to cheer us up. Plus Jennifer got us free tickets from work. Holla!

We got to see Big Tex before he caught on fire. True story.

My most favorite thing at the Fair was this mini farm, it was seriously so adorable. Like I was obsessed with it. Like I'm getting re-obsessed with it just thinking about it. The whole idea behind it was to give kids a chance to take a mini tour of a farm and to see all the work that goes on. (Although lesbehonest, Jack doesn't think that deep) It started out Jack getting an apron and a pail with a baggie of dried corn kernels. Next we walked through an "orchard" and Jack grabbed a plastic peach from one of the trees and put it in his pail. Then there were the different barns with cows, chickens, and sheep. Once Jack gave the animals some of the corn kernels he was given an elementary school style milk carton, a few plastic eggs (which he tried to crack open on the side of his pail because he's awesome), and a bunch of wool. Next was the garden and after he planted a seed he was supposed to chose his favorite vegetable and add it to the pail, but Jack just took one of each. Last was the "Farmer's Market" where there were baskets for each item and once Jack put everything away he was given a "dollar" to spend at the General Store - where he could choose from a bag of pretzels, granola bars and chips. Jack chose chips. Duh.

  
Seriously it was so adorbs.

Like I've mentioned before, Garrett is weirdly good at carnival games. I honestly think that's the main reason why he wanted to go to the fair. Usually Garrett's favorite games are anything that includes a basketball, but at the Texas State Fair they had a 9-ball pool game and Garrett was thrilled. Yup you guessed it, another random thing Garrett is really good at is pool. (Maybe when we were dating he played in the "Utah State Pool Tournament." It's fine.) Well G beat the game at the Fair four times in a row. Jack was totes thrilled with all the stuffed animals we pilled in his stroller... too bad they all got thrown away. Also let's not talk about how much money we spent on games.

 
Jack's fav of the stuffed animals.

The Texas State Fair was perfect for Jack this year because it is full of animals. After watching the Dog Trick Show we went to the children's barn where you can feed all the animals - which included normal farm animals, a giraffe, zebras, capybara (yes like in Amazon Trail), an albino buffalo and the hugest effing pig I've ever seen.

 
This is also how I felt after we had lunch.

The Fair was really great but totally overwhelming for Jack. He fell asleep not long after lunch and Garrett and I got kinda bored. We felt too old to ride the rides with all the high school kids (the day we went every high school's FFA was there) and we weren't interested in all the shops selling infomercial crap. We of course made sure to go see Big Tex and then headed home. I love me some state fairs. 

Until next fall!