A Whole, Whole, Whole Lotta Stuff!

*Warning, this will be quite a long post. I haven't had much time to post anything in the last two weeks, or so, and we've been lots of places!!! If you can make it all the way to the end you'll see pictures from around our house, July 4th, the zoo, and our week at Camp Deer Run!

I think it's funny when kids get stuck on "something" for a little while. That "something" can be so random at times. Cassidee's "something" was her hat she wears when she goes swimming. She woke up one morning, saw it on the table, wanted to wear it, and didn't take it off for an hour or so.....

Trying to sit in her Bumbo seat--- that she hasn't sat in or cared about for 3 or 4 months.....
She even ate breakfast while wearing her hat!
Jeremy and I took Cassidee to the zoo one day. She can make just about every animal noise--and if she doesn't know what it makes she just growls! Here, she and daddy are checking out the monkeys!
I loved how she squatted down like this to look at the ducks.

Cracking up at those silly birds!
She enjoyed pressing the button that made the pig snort--Cassidee is an excellent pig snorter herself!
Cassidee knows exactly what to do when you say "Cheese!"

Notice they are all wet? Yup, we got caught in a fast moving storm. Luckily we stayed inside during most of the rain and didn't get toooooo soaking wet walking to the car!

This is the only picture I have of Cassidee on July 4th, and even it is fuzzy for some reason. We had a wonderful 4th---hamburgers with my parents and Jeremy's parents at our house. A trip to the Dump in Dallas and IKEA in Frisco. We finished off the night with fireworks in Lewisville. Aren't her two piggies on top sooooo cute!!!????
Finally, the CDR pictures. For those of you who don't know, Jeremy volunteered a week out there to be the camp nurse. He had to learn to be a little more sympathetic than he would normally be at work---especially to the little kids who had tummy aches or hurt legs. The only major injury of the week was a group leader going to the ER for stitches in his eye after an Indian Day mishap in the creek. We had sooo much fun!

Here is Jeremy and Cassidee on her very first morning to wake up at CDR. She is wondering what that annoying bell that woke her up is......

Getting "crafty" with her Aunt Kelsey! Yup, we carried that paci with us most of the day..... Oh, and notice her boyish looking jersey? We tried to find her clothes for each themed day out there. Monday was Killi Olympics. Her jersey might have been more appropriate for International Sports Day, but oh well!
Playing with the Pee-Wee Puppets with Daddy and Ty. I think Cassidee made a new friend in Ty that week!
Andy is pushing her in her stroller.....they stop and chat with Uncle Spencer.
We ventured up to horse hill. I wanted a picture of her on one, but she wasn't having any of that.
Daddy and Cass on Sadie Hawkins Day. She gave him a ruler that she painted on for him. It said, "No Sadies date will ever measure up to my daddy." So sweet!Cassidee is enjoying a popcicle with Aunt Kelsey and Rachel Neal. Good thing she is wearing her swim suit. She got a little messy so we sent her back down to the pool to wash off!
But at the pool Cassidee had more fun moving the campers shoes to different places!
Notice her camo for Capture the Flag Day? :)
She and Daddy rode the 4-wheeler a few times.
Roselyn and Rachel came to visit us for Wednesday night church---sorry Rach, you didn't even get to go to church......

I LOVE this picture. Roselyn looks completely disgusted at the fact that Cassidee may give her a kiss!!! Roselyn should be happy that Cassidee is still talking to her after the Sunday incident. Check out Rachel's blog for Cassidee and Roselyn's last encounter at camp!!!

Cassidee helped Kelsey's cabin sweet the pavilion one day!

And, Cassidee's name is officially in the Rec Hall now. She painted it herself and I added her name and the date later.

And she really didn't paint over anyone's name in the process---I don't think....
Oops, bad idea.....she decided to taste the paint that got on her hand.....YUCK!

Enjoying a little canteen break!

Hamming it up for the crowd outside the Crafts Hall! Ha, Ha, look at me! I'm not being modest at camp!!!!

Thursday night's BBQ on a bun wasn't cutting it for C, so she had ramen noodles in a boat instead!

Walking around the Rec Hall during the boring Indian Day stories!

"You want me to take your canteen order?"

"Okay, here is your order!"

Cheukawaka dance party on the canteen porch. Cassidee can break it down with the best of them!

Thanks for sticking with all the pictures to this point. We're home and trying to recover from our week. We have sweet Reagan's b-day party this afternoon, so I"m sure I'll have tons more pictures to post pretty soon!!!

We are so blessed!

I would like to start with a huge thank you to each of you who have said kind words or lifted our family up in prayer this last week or so. We are extremely lucky to have such wonderful family and friends and we appreciate the concern and love that each one of you have shown to our family during this difficult time. Thank you to our family for taking care of Cassidee for us. That was one less thing to worry about!

I have to throw out a HUGE shout out to my wonderful husband. With absolutely no prompting on my part, he is the one who took care of all our "business" last week. He let me call and tell anyone that I wanted to, but he called all of our family, our friends and church friends, and the teachers at my school to let everyone know what happened. He made sure that I was resting, that I had food to eat, and that I didn't have to "deal" with anything all week. He took me to IKEA and Rooms to Go to go furniture shopping---to get my mind off things---which are generally places he would like to avoid. All of this to say, Jeremy was completely amazing last week. I, of course, think he is great on any given day, but he went above and beyond for me last week. I am so appreciative of all that he did/does for me (and Cassidee)

I love, love, love you, Jeremy Broom!

And, just to let you know---Jeremy, Cassidee, and I are out at Camp Deer Run all this week. Jeremy is the nurse (he prefers "Doctor") at camp this week. Cassidee and I just tagged along for the fun of it. Cassidee had a rough time on Monday--loud kids, hot weather, allergies....but today she was wonderful. I think she is really going to like it out here. Janelle has been hanging out with us also, and I think that Cassidee has made a new friend. We are enjoying getting to know her a little better! We'll have some great pictures to post when we get home on Friday....especially ones of Cassidee and her daddy on their first Sadie Hawkins date together....

One more thing in this long, boring post and I'll let all you avid readers off the hook---

My sister Kayla got engaged last night!!!!

I won't be able to talk to her until Sunday. She, her boyfriend/fiance Camron, his parents, and his sister and brother-in-law are on a cruise. Camron popped the question last night before they went to dinner and Kayla called my mom with the news. I am sooooo happy and excited for them! Jeremy's glad there will be another boy in the family!!!

Congrats to the future Mr. and Mrs. McCandless! We love you!!!

Please pray for our family

I usually leave all this computer stuff to Kendra but today she needed a little help. As many of you know, last week we went to the doc and found out Kendra was pregnant. We shared our excitement of another unexpected pregnancy with you all, and we began our planning process. Early this morning Kendra started feeling funny and by the afternoon she was having some difficulties. We went to see the doc and unfortunatly he confirmed what we had already anticipated. Kendra had a miscarriage. I know her heart is broken right now but I am amazed at the courage and strength she has displayed. This whole process has been a roller coaster for us. Our plan now is to get back to normal ASAP. This is not the end. There will be more Brooms to come. We will never know exactly what happened but as with all trials we will grow. All we need are your prayers and encouragement.
-Jeremy

Boston and NYC--Broom Vacation 2007

**FYI**You may want to read the previous post to catch up on the latest news going on in the Broom Family household......

Okay, now for pictures from our Boston and NYC trip. Jeremy says it was not a "vacation" because we were way too busy. We were gone for a whole week. From Thursday to Sunday we were in Boston. We took a bus tour, a whale watching tour, a Fenway Park tour, and a tour of some random cities outside of Boston because I got us on a commuter train instead of the subway......Anyway, back to the trip.....

We saw some very cool (very old) fire stations.

I'm so burned out on baseball right now, but Fenway is one of the coolest places I've been. The game was awesome and they make Rangers games seem sooooo boring. They are great fans up there!!!
The "green monster" or "the wall" as they say up there.
This was one of the whales we saw on our whale watching tour. That was really neat to go on, also.
Make Way For Ducklings!
I bought that book for Cassidee and I took pictures of the statues to put inside the book for her.
Of course we ate at Cheers!
We got to NYC on Sunday and stayed there until Thursday. We went to NBC Studios. We took the tour of that--really interesting--and then we hung out on the street where they film the Today Show. We didn't get to see anyone from the show come outside.

Rockefeller Center
ESPNZone--one of the best places we ate. There were 12 TV screens on the wall. Jeremy was in heaven.......
But he was a little stuffed when we left!

We went to a Mets game. It wasn't as good at the Red Sox game, but they actually won the night we watched them!
The Hershey's Store---smelled like chocolate inside---almost made me sick at my stomach. I didn't like the smell of chocolate when I was preggo with Cass either......
We stopped in some fire stations and fire museums up in NYC. They are very proud of their firemen up there!
Their trucks are neat to look at! Very patriotic!
In the 9/11 tribute museum there were lots of quotes up on the walls. I remember Pres. Bush saying this and wanted a picture to remember it.
The museum actually brought tears to my eyes a few times. The displays of items found at the sight were unreal. A set of car keys, a subway pass, a fireman's helmet.....tears.......
Yes, it is just a big hole in the ground. Funny, people are working all over the place with big cranes and bull dozers down there---I don't know what they were doing, though.
Jeremy got to experience the wonderfulness of being a daddy with a daughter. He got to go in the American Girl Store and help me buy a baby doll for Cassidee. I have a doll from here and I figured she needed one too. All he kept saying was, "That doll is $45? That diaper bag is how much?" :)
We had the most fun in Times Square. We ate TONS of good food there!


Of course we went to the Statue of Liberty. Jeremy was jealous that I had gotten to walk up in the crown a long time ago and we couldn't do that anymore. I don't know if it is a 9/11 thing, but we only got to go as high as the observation deck of the pedistal.

FAO Swartz---so fun! Get outta my way kids, I wanna play the piano!!!
To make up for me having to go to so much baseball stuff, Jeremy took me to see Mary Poppins. He was less than thrilled to go sit through it, but when it was over he actually said that he really liked it!
On the last day we were there, we took a tour of Yankee Stadium. We aren't really Yankee fans, at all, but since they are tearing the stadium down we figured we should go while we could. For $5 you could get your name on the scoreboard. Of course we put the name of our favorite little pumpkin up there so someday she can say her name was in lights!!!
When we got home Cassidee was sure happy to see that we hadn't left her forever!!! Due to a pregnancy craving I made some brownies at 7:30 in the morning---yup, I was really craving them. Of course I gave in and let her lick the bowl---and no one give me a hard time about the raw eggs.....whatever!
She had pretty much licked the whole bowl clean and gave me her normal sign for when her bowl is empty.........."more".............



Have a great week!!!!!!!

**Add us to the list....**

We have had a whirl-wind of a week this past week......well, actually the last couple of weeks. Jeremy has been working over-time like crazy lately, it seems. Then, a week ago, Jeremy and I left Cassidee in Texas with her grandparents and we went on vacation to Boston and NYC. We had a WONDERFUL time but couldn't wait to get back home to hold our baby!
A day or two before we left on our trip we found out we were pregnant with #2. Another unexpected--but great-- surprise! So, we'll be having another baby Broom around February and it and Cass will be about 22 months apart. We are shocked and thrilled all at the same time. Say a little prayer for Jeremy that he stops "chuckling" about it and comes to term with the fact that another one's coming! :)
I'll get my pictures downloaded onto my computer soon so you can see pictures from our very fun trip!

Having the time of her life!

I love summer! And, I think Cassidee is catching on quickly to the greatness of summer as well. She has had her fair share of sweet treats and fun-in-the-sun lately. Her own chocolate shake, a trip to the grandparents, some cake, some fun at the lake and a new camp chair are some of the things she has enjoyed in the past week!!!

By the end of the summer she'll either be worn out or completely spoiled to this lifestyle!

Here she is enjoying MY chocolate shake from Sonic. Who knew one little bite would turn into this. When I tried to take it from her she actually growled at me.....

Yummy bite!
Jeremy's not a big fan of the let-Cassidee-do-it-herself method. In fact, if you know him at all you know that not only did it drive him crazy that it was all over her..........it drove him more crazy that she got the back porch dirty.........oh, get over it, Jeremy!
Enjoying a bite or two of cake at Grandaddy's house
But don't worry, she still remembers to brush her teeth after all those sweets!
Chillin' in her new "camp" chair in her new Dora pajamas.........I didn't know kids stated their clothing preferences so early---but when we were at Wal-mart picking out P.J.'s, she told us exactly which ones she wanted!
We got to spend an afternoon at the lake with some other firemen and their families. Luckily, I really didn't have to watch Cassidee too much---there were plenty of babysitters ready to play with her.
Here she is with sweet Haley who is going to be a great mommy someday. She even changed Cassidee's diapers for me!!!
C is getting some attention!
All that pool swimming makes you tired and hungry. Chillin' in her chair, again, and enjoying the yummy fish and french fries!

Cassidee hopes that everyone's summer is off to as fun a start as hers is!