The holidays - 2 months later

So I'm making an effort to post things sooner that 4 months after they happen! And so really I'm doing quite well since it's only been ALMOST 2 months.

For the holidays this year we went up to Oklahoma to spend time with Daniel's family the weekend before Christmas. It was a little different this year as his grandmother was in the hospital after a fall that broke her hip which led to the discovery of a blocked artery- both of which are now fixed thank God! She's home and got a lot of rehab and work to do so I'm sure she (and we) would cherish prayers for healing! We were glad to have some time to visit with Mumo and let Brooklyn keep her entertained with her yoga and ballet moves. Brooklyn even did PT with Mumo and the therapist one of the days we were up visiting. There was lots of toe tapping and marching going on in that hospital room!

All of the adults enjoyed helping and watching our littles eat make and decorate cookies together (minus  little Reid- he spent that time opening all the doors in BeBe & Grandad's house!). The kids seemed to enjoy it as well we think!  ;)

I love Hay-Hay and Brooklyn's "before and after cookie dough was taken away" faces. Priceless!

We opened gifts on Christmas eve-eve and then Christmas eve morning Brooklyn came downstairs at BeBe and Grandad's to discover that Santa had made an early stop for her at their house!

She was so excited to take her "Monies" to "H-E-B! H-E-B!"
(too many trips to the grocery store with mommy I suppose)

With tons of food in our bellies and a car with more gifts that we knew what to do with, we headed back to Texas on Christmas eve morning for Christmas round 2 with my family. Christmas Eve was just us and my parents and brother (his little was sick so she stayed home with my SIL). We enjoyed the Christmas eve service at my parents church and then had dinner at their house afterward before leaving Santa cookies and milk and putting B to sleep.

Who ate all the cookies?

Someone was excited about her new "PANT-O-WEEN!"

Christmas day brought a better feeling little niece, more presents and my big sister and her family all the way from Washington!! We spent the next few days enjoying museums, movies, games and watching the three cousins play together.

This. This is why we moved back to Texas. All of these pictures and memories and meals and conversations with Grandparents and parents and siblings and nieces and nephews. Showing Brooklyn God's great love through the importance we place on, the respect we have for, and the love and care that we show for our family. Celebrating the birth of our Savior and celebrating the special bond we all have as a family- that's what it's all about for this house!

Just some videos...

Brooklyn's personality is really starting to show in this toddler stage.

She's strong-willed, wants desperately to be independent, she's kind and loving, and loves to make people laugh and be silly. When she feels something she really feels it and you usually don't ever have to guess what kind of mood she's in.

We've captured a few of her little quirks and new tricks on film so I wanted to share them here.

She loves singing! A few of the toddler top charts for Brooklyn are "La Bamba", "He's got the Whole World", "Skidamarink" and "Twinkle Twinkle". Below is B singing "Jesus Loves Me" and her ABC's in the bathtub!

Her first time using a fork (correctly) a few months ago

There are more but three will do for now haha!

Partytime!

Brooklyn's 1st birthday was the week before last and we celebrated it the weekend of the 12th. We had a small party of just family because really what 1 year old has friends (probably a kid whose parents aren't hermits)?

 My parents and brother's family came and my sister and her family Skyped in from Washington, and Daniels' parents came from OK as well as his sister and hubby from the DFW area and we got to Skype with his other sister and her family (who had a sick 3 month old that weekend).

I was worried about Brooklyn being overwhelmed by people and gifts and food like she did a little at Christmas. She was a bit clingy to mommy and daddy (turns out she was cutting a tooth over Christmas) which isn't fun when relatives want to love on you and you are usually an easygoing friendly baby. However for the birthday festivities she did wonderfully, opening her presents, letting people hold and play with her and having a blast being the silly happy girl she is.

We did a bit of an elephant theme since that seems to be her favorite animal lately. And since we sold several items prior to moving back to Texas we had to do a little improvising on seating since we have yet to even think about living room furniture ha ha! I of course used the party as an opportunity to try some pinterest projects. I made her (a little too) fluffy highchair tutu and her party hat (which turned out looking like Buddy the Elf's hat). The banner, cupcake toppers, and food labels are courtesy of Grins & Giggles and her adorable bib is from Butuza Baby Designs.

We had lots of food and sweets and more presents than Brooklyn knows what to do with, but more importantly we got to share such a special day with the people who are most important to us, people that love and pray for our little girl as much as we do and we are so blessed to have such incredible families.

Checking In

Here's what we've been up to in November via my iPhone picture/video dump....Enjoy!

Trip to Houston complete with swimming, a stop to see Granny on the way, and some weird yelling/hand motion discovery on the way home.

Stuffed animal wrestling, Baylor basketball, and more animal wrestling

 

Falling asleep in the car, learning to stand up and falling asleep in the car again

Meeting President Starr, beating the crud out of the #1 team in the country and more standing. 

Here's a super amateur job of some of the videos I took at the end of the game. I'm video editing challenged.

I can't believe she's almost 1!! :(