my first christmas

12/24/2009 - 12/25/2009

Brooke's first Christmas could not have been any more fun! I love the age she is at; I swear it made Christmas all the more funner!

We spent Christmas Eve lounging around the house before we headed over to my parent's house for our annual tradition of sleeping over and enjoying each other's company. My brothers were both home for the holidays and B just had them wrapped around her finger! One of my early gifts for Christmas from Myka was Rock Band, which I have been wanting to get for MONTHS! So we spent the evening eating, opening up one gift, putting the baby down for the night, starting (and finishing) a bottle of Patron and Sauza and rocking out to Rock Band. I'm not sure how my mom, Myka or I didn't get sick, but we managed it fine. It was great :)

Then Christmas morning started early with B waking everyone up, opening gifts, breakfast with my mom's family, opening presents at my grandparents and then

diaper wipe queen

12/23/2009

This is what happens when you turn your back and have a little one that knows how to open up her wipes:

She's too smart and too cute for her own good!

Welcome

I am (among many things)
a wife,
mommy,
daughter,
sister,
granddaughter,
niece,
cousin,
friend,
student,
teacher,
acquaintance,
housewife,
transcriptionist,
blogger,
secretary,
chef,
planner,
writer,
photographer,
gardener,
shopper...

But most importantly, first and foremost,
I am
ME.

Independent,
passionate,
opinionated,
loving,
accepting,
forgiving,
sensitive,
creative,
unstoppable,
beautiful
little ol' me.

And without ME, I am none of the above.

This is my journey.
My life.
My passion.
My destiny.
Come along for the ride.
Stay awhile.
Say hello.
Enjoy the scenery.
Welcome

Little Miss Girly Girl

12/23/09

a few months ago I went to my first birthday party for my friend julianne. when i was there, the face painter did a pretty face painting on me and bedazzled my ears with pretty press-on earring. once my mama saw them, she was hooked. even daddy admitted that i looked darling with earrings.

so the day before christmas eve, mommy got it in her head that she wanted to get my ears pierced THAT day. Daddy was totally on board. so off we went to brave the mall in the effort to get my ears pierced.

Ahhh, it feels like a massage

Getting my ears prepped

Earring #1. I sat so still until I realized what was going on.

And then Daddy had to restrain me because there was no way this lady was gonna pierce ear #2!

Mommy and Daddy thought I was only going to have 1 earring because I would not let the lady pierce ear #2.

But eventually she got it. Here's my pretty ears.

And I barely cried at all. I definitely did scream for a second though to make it known that I was NOT a fan.

Now I look even more like my mommy! :)

Playdate with the Townsends

12/16/09

One of my mommy's bestest friends, Ashley, came into town right before Christmas and Mommy could barely keep her excitement contained. You would have thought Christmas came early! This would be her first time visiting with Auntie Ashley in almost FOUR years. And if that's not enough to get you excited, Auntie Ashley had twin boys three months before I was born and this was the first time we were going to meet. Boy was I nervous! Needless to say, we were all excited.

Here are some pictures my Mommy captured. Not only does she like to blind me, but she likes to blind other kids as well ;)

Here's Kyle, sizing me up.

He still didn't know if he liked me being around.

C'mon Kyle, I promise, I'm a sweetie! :)

I made mommy laugh because even though I'm too lazy to try and walk, I was so excited I tried to get up and run around with Kyle and Kody. I guess you have to walk before you can run :)

Hey! Isn't that my shoe? And are you debating throwing it at me?

Hey Kody...you're a cutie

Going in for the kill!

Brookie's first kiss ;)

Daddy wasn't too happy to see this pic. :(

Even though the next two pictures look like a WWE Smackdown, nobody got hurt. I was just so excited that I started climbing Kyle so that I could stand up and play too.

Protective brother Kody was NOT happy and looks ready to pounce. Maybe he wants another kiss? ;)

After getting scolded by mommy for being a bully, I decided walking wasn't for me and kept to my original method of mobility.

And soon everyone was involved...

And, we're OFF!

Kody: "See Brookie, this is my blankie."

Brooke: "Yea, yea, I've seen it all before"

Sometimes I forget that books are for reading, not eating.

Mommy was happy I was finally playing nicely.

Are you guys going home yet? It's my nap time!

Play time

Mommy says I'm a girl after her daddy's heart

Daddy's future pool shark

Vroom, vroom.

You would think that mommy would have remembered, after taking over 200 pics, to get a picture with Auntie Ashley, but nope. She forgot. Sometimes she's so scatterbrained. She even forgot to get a nice pic with all us kiddies. Oh well, maybe next time :)

The Cucumber Thief

12/09/2009

What do you get when you go grocery shopping and leave your groceries on the floor for a couple minutes?

The following:

Is anyone looking? If I give this angelic smile, no one will care.

YUM.
Who says you can't eat plastic and cucumber skin?
How can you get mad at this face Mommy?
The end product.

visiting santa

As much as B loved the holidays, there was one thing she surely did NOT love and that was Santa. Per the advice of some mommy friends, we found a store that had Santa there for the day, paid $20 and got a bunch of family pics with Santa and ones with B. The greatest part...there was no line. YAY!

Here's the roll of pictures from B's visit with Santa. It does a good job of explaining how she felt :)

And if that wasn't enough, my mom got it all on video. :) C'mon, what kind of mommy would I be if I didn't get it on video :) I love it!

getting ready for xmas

B was stoked for Christmas. She loved everything about it...except the BIG guy of course. (more on that in the next post!) :) We put up our Christmas lights before Thanksgiving and boy did she love it! Add in a mini, decorated tree that we bought and boy, was she in heaven! Anytime she saw anything decorated in lights, whether it be a house or a tree, she would point and attempt to say "TREE!" or "ZAT?!" So much fun! Seeing her excited definitely made the holidays so much more fun!

here's the little girly 12/19/09

man, i suck at keeping this thing up to date nowadays! BOO! well, here's to a new year and hopefully getting caught up because i have lots to share :)

Happy 2010.

I can't believe it's a new decade. When did that happen? I still remember the whole Y2K business and the (almost) pandemonium that caused.

While I love the thought of a "New Year," I've never understood all the excitement in it. It's just another day isn't it? I don't get it. The day is not much of importance to me other than to signify another year/number coming and going. But even that seems so mundane as I try not to focus so much on "time." I mean who cares if it's 2004 or 2010? All it does it date and age me and who cares as long as I'm alive and living. And what does a New Year really do? Does it wipe your slate clean of all past sins and transgressions? No. Does it make all those illnesses, failures, etc, go away? No. Does all your good luck from the previous year fly out the window because the clock struck midnight? Of course not. So I don't understand why, as the year comes to an end, everyone feels the need to say, "I can't wait for this year to be over" or "Next year will be better." Because isn't today linked to yesterday and tomorrow linked to today? And just because a day/year changes doesn't mean that the next day/year is automatically doing to be better. Maybe idealistically it would, but let's face it, these people who are saying "Next year will be better" were more than likely, saying the same thing at the start of 2009.

So let's make today. This day. This moment, the best it can be. Honestly, that's all we can do. Because life happens and some things will inevitably go wrong. And some things will fall into place. But whether these moments are good or bad, we honestly will never get them back.

So, that being said, Happy 2010. May life treat you well.