Our version of a MasterCard commercial.

A brand new Princess Bicycle from Nana and Paw - no charge to parents.

Hand me down bicycle helmet - no charge to parents.

One Craftsman wrench to adjust the bicycle - been in the toolbox so long I forgot it's pricing. The knowledge she's getting from her Daddy - priceless....until she's a teenager and thinks it's useless, ha!

Watching smiles from family members and a precious little girl as she enjoys every second of it - of course priceless.

BUT, even more so.....watching her wonderful Daddy turn into a kid again....and hearing them giggle as they race down the street.....

TRULY PRICELESS!

I really do not know who laughed harder....Steven, Brooke or the rest of us standing around wondering how he fit those big ole feet on those tiny peddles!

Christmas Morning!

I will have to admit that I was the first person to wake up on Christmas morning....and I could not go back to sleep from all of the excitement! I drove Steven NUTS, and finally begged him to go wake Brooke up at 8:15!

All groggy eyed....but reading the note Santa left her. Notice Cooper checking for leftover cookies.

The only thing she asked for, for a while anyway, was a Strawberry Shortcake Remote Control Car with the doll, so she was thrilled when she saw it! Notice Cooper in the background....STILL checking for cookie leftovers.

Cooper has never liked.....or rather has usually ATTACKED remote control cars, so I was very curious to see his reaction to Brooke's newest toy.

This picture will show that he very quickly lost interest in it and resumed snooping through all of her new stuff.....gotta check it out and make sure it's safe of course!

Happy Camper? I think so!

Our very spoiled (in a good way of course) purple princess, playing with her new doll house in what else....ear muffs!

Christmas Eve

Growing up, we always opened presents on Christmas Eve and has stuff from Santa on Christmas morning. Steven opened it ALL on Christmas morning. Well, with my parents here Christmas Eve and his parents and brother coming on Christmas morning we sort of did it all.

Christmas Eve snuggling with Grandad....Macy is keeping an eye on the situation.

Our big girl sounds out words very well (when SHE wants to of course), and she knew which present went to which person....fun, fun.

With every single present she opened she followed with this reply: "OH, it's exactly what I wanted!" Too precious!

Handing out other presents.

Some of our loot.

Sweet puppies, Cooper and Macy. They don't know they are dogs and we love them that spoiled!

Grandad always can find a way to make us giggle!

Polar Express 2010

Last night we had another great experience on the Polar Express. It really doesn't matter how WE feel about the night, what matters is the joy you see coming out of your child as she is experiencing it!

Brooke with Santa on the Polar Express!

My angel!

Her smile could not have been much bigger or more genuine.

Brooke with our sweet conductor!

The two loves of my life!

A sweet family pic!

After a few of these.....

This was at the house before we left. Yes, even her pj's have to be super girlie!

We had a great time. Most importantly, Brooke seemed to LOVE it....isn't that why we do it?!

Quite a helper.....no really!

This girl LOVES helping her Daddy. And a lot of the time she really isn't helping much, but we would never tell her that. This particular day she was actually very helpful. Steven raked up all of our leaves in our backyard....and more importantly our pecans, so we could pick the pecans up out of piles instead of the random way they fall on the ground. At first Brooke was messing up Steven's piles with the rake, but she very quickly figured out how to make her own piles of leaves.

She had to wear her Cowgirl boots and hat to go outside....reasoning, no telling.... ;o)


Working hard!

We have a couple of pecan picker upper things (no, not a technical term) and she picks them up with her hand and puts them in it....clearly, not the intended use but hey when she's helping we are not going to nitpick how she's helping!

We share EVERYthing.

Brooke fell in love with her Daddy's new boots for an entirely different reason than I did.....

Thankful for OTHER people's cameras!

Yesterday marked the end of Brooke's first semester of school. The end of another six week period, which means all of the kids that didn't get in too much trouble got to go to Jumpin' Jungle in the mall as their reward for being good. I took a bunch of pictures and after looking through them they were all useless.....blurry, dark, or the back of my own child's head....so thanks to Kayleigh's mom for sharing these awesome pictures she took of Brooke!

She RARELY smiles like this for ME, and I do think she gave Edie a hard time but she finally got an awesome shot! Love this picture of my sweetheart!!

Funny side note. You will notice her New Home Elementary shirt....which she did NOT want to wear because it was "just so plain Mommy" yes, she is a hand full when it comes to clothing options....but I let her pick out some ribbon and I very quickly sewed it around the edges so she would wear it happily. The next day at school I was told by her teacher that a couple of the girls in Brooke's class were throwing tantrums because Brooke always got the pretty shirts. Oops and haha all rolled into one. Apparently THOSE girls haven't learned how to work THEIR Mommies like Brooke has! ;o)

Taking a break from all the jumping! Yes, she picked out the leopard print leg warmers.....

Running from Edie's camera (on tippie toes of course). Glad you caught her anyway!

Hmmm....I guess I could let her take my picture. See sweet Kayleigh in the background.

I Hope she didn't catch me on camera! Running from Edie again!

Whew! Two hours of non stop jumping will wear you out!

Thanks Edie for sharing your pictures with me!

Brooke's Christmas Party

I am pretty positive that this time of year is by FAR the most hectic for every human being. Parties galore, shopping, festivities, cookie/craft making, etc, etc, etc! I won't bore you with words....at least many of them. This week was Brooke's Christmas party at school, so here are a few pictures that make me smile.

Brooke's favorite part, the cookie with chocolate on it of course! She IS my child after all (I might have picked the chocolate off and left the cookie, wink, wink)!

They all had to bring a game and got to pick a present to open. She was very lucky to get a game she didn't already have....and yes, she is now constantly saying "ANTS IN THE PANTS" just because she thinks it's a funny name.

That evening we went to a Christmas program, so I told her to go chill for a bit on her bed because I knew she would be up later than normal. When I walked in to check on her this is what I found....her lying there reading, with what else, her reading glasses.....

Winter....where?!

Please do not think I am complaining about our super warm Fall/Winter so far.....because the second I say something about the unseasonably warm weather it is bound to change. Brooke's still been dealing with typical drainage, therefore a cough.....but I think I found something that worked and she has been feeling well enough to do this sort of stuff.....after her homework in the hour we have before the sun goes down!

In typical Southern style she manages to say "I'm going Faaaaast" and turn the word fast into a three syllable word that I cannot even replicate just yet.

This picture is to prove several things: it is actually supposed to be Christmas time, Brooke is still growing like a weed, and if you folks that are buying her clothes for Christmas have bought her anything smaller than a 6x....well, expect to see more tummy shots like this one. This shirt is a 6, and her cute little tummy showed every time she wiggled. Yes, I am sewing something on it so she can actually wear it again. I have to put darts in all of the 6 pants for her because she is still tall and thin, but that is fine by me! Gotta keep that long body covered up!

Happy December folks!

A before, some after's and one ornery girl.

And not exactly in that order.

Brooke is learning all sorts of new things from her friends at school. Insert new picture pose....yep, gotta love the tongue sticking out that she all of a sudden thinks is hilarious. This particular picture she said was for her "grandpa's" so there you have it. You were being thought of today Grandad and Paw!

Funny note, the shirt says the sweetest princess and she poses like this.....yep.

This one is really random and won't amuse you all as much as it did me I am sure. Brooke asked to watch cartoons, my automatic response was "once your toys are picked up" and when I walked in to inspect her room I saw her handy new storage area for her little princesses.

Steven had a little time off this past week and one of the wonderful things he did was get rid of this GOLD stuff in our entry way. This pic was right as we were moving in....notice how much our princess really has grown in a mere 5 months.

And a few after shots. I am no photographer.....but I LOVE it. Love that the gold is GONE and I finally got to hang some family pictures!!

It is amazing how changing the color on a wall can make a place feel more like home. Thank you Steven!