Valentine's Day and My Birthday

We had a great weekend celebrating Valentine's and my birthday! My birthday fell on a Monday, but luckily it was President's Day so Collin and I both had the day off!

We kicked the weekend off with family dinner at Baja! That seems to be our go to restaurant for celebrating and it never fails us! Afterwards, we all came back to our house. The night ran a little long and I found these two snuggled up in bed watching cartoons. :)

We started Valentine's day off with heart shaped pancakes and church. Our little Valentine was looking extra cute :)

Then she came home and got to try on her Valentine's present from us.... new shoes! (why does she look so big here!!)

We were pretty lazy that evening and ordered take out from a little Italian place in the neighborhood. It was perfect and all three of us devoured it.

The next day we were so lucky to spend my birthday away from work!! All I wanted was to do something fun as a family, so we did a little shopping for me :) and then took Brooke to an aquarium, and she loved it! She stayed pretty interested the whole time. 

After the aquarium it was naps and regrouping for a birthday date night!

 We dropped Brooke off with Katie and went to Capital Grille. SO yummy!!!!

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Things I Love About My Girl

Well, everything. But to name a few:

Although it's a struggle that she will not nap in her crib, I love the snuggles. I understand its just a phase, and I will soon miss it.

I love when she is off playing by herself, she always comes and gives me a kiss or a hug periodically.

I love that she will usually sleep in until 8-8:30am :)

I love when she pops around corners and yells "ahhh!" like she is trying to scare me!

I love watching her peak over the couch at the door every evening, waiting for her daddy to come home.

I love how excited she is to see and play with her cousins.

I love how she waves at everyone she sees. It breaks my mama heart when people ignore her :(

I love how after I get her dressed, she struts off to her daddy for him to tell her how pretty she is.

I love her slobbery, open mouth kisses.

I love opening up the back door of the car and seeing her huge grin from her car seat. She's always so happy to see people!

I love how she walks with her hands behind her back. She's a goofball!

I could go on and on, but I just love being her mama! 

Brookie Lately {14 Months}

Just a quick little 14 month update on our girl! She is becoming more of a toddler every day!

She can say: Hi, Uh Oh, Mama, Dada, Papa, Mickey (once), and probably some others that I cant think of right now. 

She learned to shake her head no, and says no to everrrryyything now!!

She is into everything and on the verge of taking off running any day now. 

She learned to do fist bumps just this past weekend.

Her gestures are so dramatic!! I can't wait for her to start talking.. I think she will be quite the animated kid!!

Here are a few pictures of our silly girl :)

We are starting to work on her only getting her paci during nap time and bed time. She's pretty much fine with it being out of sight, out of mind.  

I was determined to keep her awake until she was SO tired, and maybe she would nap in her crib. Well, that didn't work!

She looked so cute here and I was snapping all kinds of pictures, and then...

 ...she got tired of it and turned around! ha!

 

She sat here for a good 20 minutes watching cartoons. I thought she was going to fall over asleep!

I am so, so thankful for my days with her

This past weekend, we said goodbye to Collin's sweet Grandma. I am so happy I was given the opportunity to know her. Her wit and humor were unlike any other 94 year I knew.. although she was the only 94 year old I knew!! She lived a long and wonderful life, was loved by SO many, and went quickly. If only we could all be so blessed. She will be missed!!

Christmas 2014

July 2015

Christmas 2015

It's so sad how fast the holidays go by. As soon as Halloween comes, the rest just flies by!

Brooke is such a little joy through out the holidays, and I know each year will just get better and better!!!

We kicked off Christmas with a day full of baking!! We may have over done it, but it was fun! :)

Of course we had to put cookies and milk out.. even if Brooke was long asleep already ;)

She got pretty good at unwrapping gifts!

She loves her little chair! She was pretty comfortable for a while after she opened it :)

Snuggling

Christmas Eve dinner at Copeland's!

This right here is my happy place

We started a fun tradition of making the dessert featured on the Christmas Southern Living magazine. I think we nailed it ;) 

The boys set the table while the girls prepared our big Christmas dinner :)

After dinner, we left for Amarillo. Collin's grandma was not doing very well, so we left late Christmas night and got to Bushland as soon as possible. We are so very happy that she is doing much better now! She has a long ways to go, but thankfully is progressing.

Also while in Amarillo, they were predicting a giant snow storm. The wind was howling, and snow was falling, but I don't think it was quite what they were expecting. There were some big snow drifts that made for fun sledding!

Brookie walked away from this Christmas with a steal! She is loved and spoiled by all!!

We are all ready to bring on 2016!

Twelve Months

 At twelve months, Brooke was 20lbs 11oz (44%), 30.5 in (88%), and HC was 18.25 (85%). 

She is learning new things everday! She was taking 5-10 steps around her first birthday, and completely took off walking over Thanksgiving. There is no stopping her now!

She has had a bit of an ongoing sleep regression in the last month or so. She wakes up hysterical in her crib until we get her and bring her to our bed. The girl has some lungs and will cry for hours in her crib. She knows how to work the system! ;)

Currently, she loves giving herself kisses in any reflection she sees (mirror, window, oven), she loves waving at anyone who walks by, and fake coughing for attention.

She has learned to respond to "how big is Brookie?" by throwing her hands up in the air as we tell her "sooo big!" This is something my mom used to do with all the kids, and it melts my heart! Collin is also working on her throwing her hands up in the air for "touch down!" ;)

She is understanding a lot of simple commands like 'walk to daddy', 'take a drink', or 'go get your paci'. It is amazing to watch their minds grow and develop. Everyday brings something new!

 

Snack time can be exhausting :)

Over Thanksgiving, we got to meet our newest niece, Scarlett! She is so sweet and TINY! You forget how little newborns are! :(

This picture makes me laugh, because now anytime Brooke sees a flash go off, she instantly smiles for the camera!

 

We are excited to celebrate Christmas with our sweet girl, and can't wait to share all the fun!