Brooke's camera.

We rarely eat dinner out with friends these days, we usually opt for lunch instead. So, apparently Brooke thought it was a special occasion enough to want to take our picture with her camera. My sweetheart and myself. We didn't intend to match, just all were obviously in the mood to wear turquoise!

A Daddy and his sweetheart.

If you don't stop to thank the Good Lord for the wonderful people in your life, please stop and do so! I am so blessed. To the point that I feel as though I would be throwing the world off balance if I were to dare ask for one more thing! Love to all my family!

School's out for summer!

School is officially out for summer, and Brooke is acting very relieved even though she was only going twice a week. She is turning out to be just like Steven and myself (go figure) in the sense that she loves to be AT HOME. There are lots of times I will tell her we need to run an errand and she will say "But, Momma I'd really rather just stay home." I think I might have even been a hermit in a past life, I could hang out in our own house for days on end without feeling the need to go anywhere. All of this said to intensify my excitement for our soon to be life in New Home, Texas. I am getting ancy and already day dreaming about our new home there.

ON to pictures. I love bartering on Craig's List when I can. I saw this cool toy box in awesome shape and ended up trading a few of Brooke's old outgrown outfits for this. I know in our new roomy house we will actually have room for this addition. The one problem thus far, Brooke won't let me put any toys IN it because she is always in it. It does have a great purple lid, that is stashed somewhere else in Brooke's room holding some other purpose I haven't been made aware of yet.

In preparation for our new small town life, Brooke and I went and toured the New Home school last week. They have a pre-k for 4 and up, and it is of no additional cost to us as soon to be New Home taxpayers. Brooke, I know will thrive in any situation or any school. She is very much a social butterfly and can make friends with even the unfriendliest people. MY problem with five day a week school, is.....well, ME! This will be MY last year of hogging her all to myself, MY last year of being able to decide what we do every day, so I am having a rough time letting go of that. I can see tons of pros and only a few cons.......but I will update you when a decision has been made. Oh yeah, the picture is of her all dressed up before we met the principal. No, she didn't take the beach ball in the school with her, BUT it did go in the car with us.

The rest of the pictures are just a fun day at the farm yesterday. Brooke and I love to go out there and spend time with Daddy and Uncle Bro. Growing up I never would have imagined how much I would crave being out in the middle of nowhere. It is so peaceful, and you can see for MILES! I can see our soon to be new house from the cotton fields where Steven spends so much of his time and it makes my heart do flips to know we will soon be there.

Brooke fell in love with the new barn cats. Precious little kittens that I hope will grow up to be great mouse detectives instead of coyote bait. Harsh sounding yes, but realistic!

Every year Uncle Bro and Daddy are sweet enough to save some of the garden planting for Brooke and myself. They do the majority of the planting with the tractor, but yesterday we got to help by planting tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers and two kinds of squash, right next to the corn, okra, peas and beans they had already planted. I cannot wait.....we love us some fresh veggies!

Daddy, Brooke and Uncle Bro on the golf cart loaded with tomato plants.

Stuff started falling off, due to Uncle Bro's driving so Daddy had to wedge himself on to hold it all in place. If you cannot tell, he HAS been working his butt off......in quite a literal sense!

Our farm diva. She loves being outside, but prefers to be in the shade. So, even being covered in sunscreen she walked around like this for quite a while. One lesson I learned, just because I don't mind dirt between my toes does not mean a little princessy girl will feel the same way.

Trying to decide if she was ready to stomp out into the field to help plant.

Nope, not yet. She sat like this for a while, watching us out in the middle of the field. Then she heard us all giggling and couldn't stand it any longer. She finally set the umbrella down and helped plant watermelon, squash and cucumbers. She was so proud!

Growing up way too fast.

As if I am not grateful for the many blessings in my life every single day, I still try to stop and sit back and just enjoy these blessings. The biggest and most obvious blessing in my life is my wonderful family. I have the hardest working husband of anyone I have ever even heard of, and I could not be prouder of him and his accomplishments. Then I move on to my angel baby girl. No, I don't always think she is acting like an angel, but I KNOW she is a true gift from God.

Yes, I am going through some quarterly sentimental feelings. Tomorrow will be Brooke's last day of her first year of preschool. Wow....she truly is growing up way too fast for my liking!

She is still 100% girly, always wants to wear dresses, accessories, lip gloss, painted nails, and is crazy frightened of bugs. She is officially 3 feet and 7 inches, yes you read right. She is still only 40 pounds, which is what she weighed at her third birthday as well. She is growing UP and has lost every ounce of fluff she ever had. She is very dramatic and still a Daddy's Girl. We were giggling last night while watching something on TV that said it is a threat when lots of mom's say "wait until your Daddy gets home" this cracked me up because if I were to ever say that I would get a very loud "YAY!"

Anyway, here are just some pictures to prove how grown up she is. Strutting her stuff in her Daddy's old cowboy hat.

This picture proves that procrastination is not the ONLY reason I don't always get as much packed as I planned that day. She is more helpful than she realizes, and yes I am being sarcastic.

This is her this morning. Grown up. She is once again wearing, what else, a dress with leggings.

I was teasing her about how long it took me to comb through that wild hair this morning. I think she must have had crazy dreams because it was very close to a fro when she woke up. This is the bashful acting giggle I get very often.

My precious angel. I am so thankful for every day I get to spend home with her.

Recital Video.....sort of.

So, the title is really deceiving here. I did not take any video personally at the actual recital, shocker I know and yes I learned my lesson due to the number of other parents breaking the rules I followed. :o( ANYWAY, Brooke re-created her dance recital last night on our back porch, so here it is for you. Sorry for me turning it in the middle.....if you cannot tell I don't video often! There is no sound, other than the wind in the background so you aren't missing anything.

It's beginning to look a lot like.......SUMMER!

One thing West Texas never seems to lack is beautiful days. If you can deal with an occasional wind storm you will be rewarded with the beauty to follow. It is finally starting to seem like summer in our part of the country and Brooke and I could not be more welcoming to this change! We have spent lots of time outside this week, and might even be jinxing it by saying I hope to get her pool out this weekend!

Brooke and I had a picnic/park play date with some friends at a different park this week. Brooke fell in love with this little bouncy airplane.

Just having fun!

Have you ever seen a more girly run?!

Brooke being chased by her good friend Brooklyn. Their girly imagination's were hilarious to listen to. They would take turns being the dragon and the princess. You guessed it, in this picture Brooke is the princess being chased by Brooklyn the dragon.

Yesterday morning as I was putting my makeup on, Brooke proceeded to put her makeup on right beside me. Although, I think she looks more like a hobo than a princess I couldn't tell her that! According to her she looked like her Granny.....hehehe.....hopefully you know my mother is NOT a bearded lady.

We had dinner outside because neither one of us wanted to get in out of the beauty of the day.

With her tummy full, she decided to chill in the shade in her sand box.

Which she kept doing for almost an hour.....

Such peaceful fun!

What we've been up to...

Just a few fun pictures during the chaos happening in the last couple of weeks.

Still 100% Princess! She was getting married in this outfit.

We kept Nipper for a week or so, and one lazy morning this is what I walked in to see. Please note the bruises on Brooke's sweet legs....poor child had to take after me in this sense.....I am always banged up!

Steven invited Brooke to ride in a tractor with him for an afternoon. She still loves the tractor, BUT one huge thing has changed now. She had to wear particular shoes, sunglasses, lip gloss, a dress and of course a flower in her hair before she could happily ride in the tractor....diva?!

Making memories. Such good father/daughter time for the two of them.

What I watched for an hour or so, following them from Slaton to the farm at approximately 12 miles an hour. The cutest thing is that Brooke and Steven were both jabbering the entire time, and Brooke kept wrapping her arms in a tight hug around her Daddy.....it was very easy to see she enjoyed it!

Everything Ballet.....

If you wonder where we've been. Well, this momma did not understand the full responsibility behind having a little dancer on your hands! Practices, fittings, rehearsals.....yes it took up an entire weekend! But, it was all worth it to see just how much fun Brooke had through it all. Brooke, myself and my mother sat at rehearsal from 1:30 to 6 Saturday and it wasn't even finished when we finally left. It was a long day, and my mother and myself were both exhausted but Brooke seemed to LOVE every second of it. She is not the least bit bashful on stage, and could not wait for her other turn to get back on it!

I was told we couldn't bring cameras to the actual recital, so these grainy pictures are from the rehearsal. The teacher Ms. Carol walking Brooke out to show all the girls where their places where on stage.

Practicing her 'Magic Tutu' dance. As I am typing this she is standing behind me humming this song and wearing a tutu I made her having another recital. She keeps patting me on the shoulder to ask me why I am not clapping. Ooops.

Prancing across stage. No, that is not the technical term.....but I haven't been a 'stage mom' long enough to know them all yet.

Doing her tap dance. I think she likes the tutu better, but the tap dancing better. She did a great job!

Boogie Woogying.

These pictures were taken by the dance school. I promise my child did not have a fake tan, although she looks rather orange. ;o)

Ballet.

Tap.

Brooke and her adorable classmates. She loved these little girls so much, and I adore all the mom's we were blessed with.

Whirlwind....

For those of you who aren't on Facebook or people we haven't talked to, well a LOT has happened in a very short time. As of this time one week ago, Steven, Brooke and I were in New Home, Texas 'just looking' at a house on the market because of so many friends asking us to go check it out. Um....now our lives will never be the same. We made an offer on that house Saturday evening. Sunday evening our offer was accepted, and we talked about needing a week to 'declutter' our house before listing it. Monday morning our realtor called and wanted to show it. With help from my awesome in-laws we managed to get it decently showable. A second person called Monday and asked to see it after another day of cleaning and decluttering, and apparently that work paid off! Monday night we had nearly a full price offer on our house. We gratefully accepted and within less than four days passing we had bought a new house and sold ours! This is now what I see when looking out our front door.

It has somewhat felt like a dream since it's all happened so fast. As it stands right now the closing date on BOTH houses is set for June 24th. We are in talks of possibly moving the closing on our new house up if even a day or so, so we won't be frantically moving stuff all in ONE day!

For those of you who don't know where New Home is, drive South down Slide for about 10 minutes and you will run right into it. We will still be doing business and working in Lubbock, so don't panic, we aren't going to be far away. But, I am very much looking forward to the small community life we have grown to love since we spend so much time around there. We already know most of the families in our new neighborhood, and will only be a few blocks from the school where Brooke will attend. Lots of excitement! None of it bittersweet yet, because I refuse to let my current neighbors get rid of me! ;o)

NOW, on to other things.....you know, more important things like BROOKE! It was really hard for this Momma to do it, but I put makeup on Brooke as requested by her dance teacher. Brooke LOVED it and has asked me to do it every single day since (several times a day at that).

As if she doesn't already look older than she really is....come on, MAKEUP! Of course, I think she is breath taking either way.....but here is my made up beauty. I will share her formal pictures when I get them!

I will personally deliver or email details, but you are all invited to her first dance recital. It will be Sunday, May 16th. So mark it on your calendar!