Quotes

I collect quotes. I find some quotes to provide me with some sort of support and encouragement when things (life) are down as well as reminders about how things (life) can be good, positive and flourishing. Some of my favorite people's quotes are from Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. They both embody strength, faith, courage and wit. Here's some of my favorites:

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" - Eleanor Roosevelt

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life" - Winston Churchill

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people" - Eleanor Roosevelt

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" - Winston Churchill

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art" - Eleanor Roosevelt

Running in the Sprinkler

Here is a short video of Allison running through the sprinkler that Pepaw bought her. She loved it so much that she asked to take it to school to share with her friends!
In the background is me, staring at our garden. Surprisingly enough, our garden is doing super! We had a rough start with all the rain, but things are plentiful now. Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash and carrots! Phew! The cucumbers are by far the most plentiful. I am going to try my hand at making pickles and I am going to do some canning this week of tomatoes.

Sprinkler Fun from Katie Booker on Vimeo.

Here comes trouble!

The two of them will be trouble together, but I just love their belly laughs! This is from early summer, maybe around Mother's Day. Remember I said I'm way behind!

Allison and Jessica in the Jeep from Katie Booker on Vimeo.

Pepaw comes for a visit

Back in early July, say my birthday!, my father in law came for a visit. What a gift! He arrived at Steve and Misti's first, but everyone was shuffled out of there because our niece, Jessica, was recovering from having her tonsils out. I was lucky enough to have a patient bring in an ice cream cake and gifts for me for my birthday. I wouldn't share it with anyone at work because I knew we were having everyone over for dinner. It was a big hit!
That night, Jen and the boys spent the night with us. Allison was tickled to go to the basement and wake up Andrew and John. Who are definitely NOT morning folks!
We then headed to Natalie's softball game after Allison's gymnastics class that morning. We were quite impressed with Natalie's softball ability. We got to see her do some fielding, bat and even run the bases. Allison since has decided that she was to play baseball and wear a pink helmet just like Natalie.


Next we were off to Steve and Misti's for some yummy dessert. This is also when I tried to make mint brownies. Oh, they were good. It was a Real Simple recipe and very oh I can't resist simple :). The kids were a little hit or miss with them, but the adults ate their fair share.




PePaw then came to our house to spend the remainder of his visit. We took a trip to Target and he bought Allison a sprinkler and a scary doll. The doll is a scary crawling one that makes this high pitched whiny noise. Not fun, but she loved it. Later that Sunday afternoon, we hooked up Allison's sprinkler and let her play in it. She loved it! And was able to recruit Mommy, Daddy and Pepaw to join in on the fun. We also went to the Reston zoo for the first time, will blog about that fun later!


We love visits with our Pepaw!

Lucas' FIRST visit to the Farm

I thought my days of "firsts" were over for awhile, but Allison and I played an intergral part in Lucas' first trip to Frying Pan Farm Park this morning! His mom Meredith and I went to middle school and high school together and thanks to Facebook have been able to reconnect and reflect on memories, bad hair stylin' and boy drama. Oh, my future scares me with a little girl!



We did our usual routine, hit the farmers market, then the playground and finally to see the animals. Lucas was a trooper thorough it all, not a peep. We showed him the pigs, horses and goats. There was one goat that seemed to like Allison, she would pet his head and touch his neck. Leaps and bounds from when we would first go and she was terrified. When we were in the car coming home, she told me that the goat told her what her his name was...."duckling". Seems to work.
Allison was quick to tell Lucas all the sounds that the animals make. Except for the goat. What exactly does a goat say? In the Booker house, it's "goat, goat". To other mom's at the farm, it was "baa", "mmaaa" and someone even said when they talk it sounds like they are saying "heeeelllllppp". Who knew it would start such conversation.



After the animals we headed back to the playground. Lucas drifted off to sleep, he was so tired after learning all of the animal sounds. Allison showed some independence on the playground and didn't need me at every turn. That was great because it allowed Meredith and I some time to chat. Always nice to look back at fond memories and we were so happy to get together and share in one of Lucas' "firsts"!

Mocha Mondays

So this summer I have been indulging in the iced Mochas from McDonalds. Truly only because they are free!! They were the perfect size--just 7 oz of pure coffee bliss!! Well, this morning my love affair came to a screeching hault since their campaign ended. What was the cutest most thoughtful thing, was that I told Allison that they didn't have Mommy's coffee anymore and that we were going home--((I don't usually eat McD's, unless it's their cookies....which are yummy!)) So, we left. Nothing was really said about it, except that she was going to call Daddy and find out why Old McDonalds stopped having Mommy's coffee. But that's not the sweet part.....once we got home, she asked to go to her playroom, the basement, alone to do something for Mommy. I said sure and said a quiet prayer! :) Next thing I know, she is upstairs with her coffee pot saying that she made me some coffee and that I would love it. I did, pretend and all and it truly was the best mocha ever--even calorie free! :)

Beach Vacation

Okay so at this point, I'm about a month behind with my blogging. Geez, what crud does do a girl! Every year we typically go to the beach with my family from PA. Since my Aunt was married earlier this year, we opted out of going as a family. Around late May, I mentioned to Brent that it would be nice to get away for July 4th. We talked and looked at our budget and his Hilton points and quickly realized that we could spend 5 days at the beach, oceanfront with an efficiency for free! We would of course cash in his points, but the boy travels so much, it wouldn't matter! We quickly scrambled to make our reservations!
We left the Wednesday before the 4th. Gigi came up the night before to watch Allison so I could go into work and treat a couple of patients before I left town. My patients have issues when I'm out of the office! It's hilarious. Gigi worked her magic because Allison slept most of the trip up there, about 2 1/2 hours. Awesome!
We arrived around dinner time so we decided to do our vacation right and go out to eat! (Who wants to cook after driving!) We were VERY surprised with the fact that we could just walk into a restaurant without reservations or a wait! Allison tested our patience at dinner, but all in all she was awesome and it was a good meal! Then we planned our dinners for the week and set out for the grocery store. We then (finally) got checked into the hotel and got organized.
It was such an awesome set up with a little one. We were able to put Alli in the pull out sofa bed with her rails and then down the short hall was our beds. In the short hall was the kitchen. It was stocked with all the necessary supplies. So nice. I had brought a lot of things but it was nice to have to use them.
The next morning we set out to the pool. The Hilton had two pools one for kids and the other was an adult pool. Brent and I never made it to the adult pool! Which was fine, we had a lot of fun with Allison in the kids pool. She definitely takes after her mom and dad and LOVES the pool! She had no fear of the water slides and even practiced using her arms and kicking her feet. Later that day we went to the ocean. Wasn't the best time of day being that it was high tide! Not ideal for a little one but we were able to jump over the waves and play in the sand.
The next day we thought we would switch our beach/pool plans and head to the beach first. We also made plans to meet up with Tracy and Mike. Allison loves to hang out with Kaia and it would be nice to hang out with some familiar faces at the beach. We treaked down the beach and met up with them for the morning. The girls enjoyed spending time together with their Daddy's and it was fun to see Kaden playing in the sand and sun.
Usually Allison goes to bed around 7:30, we considered keeping her up for the fireworks but we honestly didn't feel like treking down the boardwalk with a less then thrilled toddler in tow. So, we skipped the fireworks for her this year and our plan was to sit on the balcony and drink margaritas. Key word being plan. I feel asleep laying with Allison and poor Brent ended up on the balcony solo with a pitcher of margaritas. I strolled out, cup in hand around ten looking for a party and he was ready for bed! Too funny!
Our last day we headed up the boardwalk to see the sights ((gotta love some of the people who travel to Ocean City!)) and play some arcade games with Allison. She did REALLY well on the ring toss and the duck races. So now we are the proud owners of an inflatable Dora and plush polar bear.
We greatly enjoyed spending some quality time together as a family. Check out the photos from our vacation on the photo album!