What this time of year is about......

These literally re-melt my heart every year......our precious angel with Santa....

AND.....look how intently she is watching and listening to him! If all adults had that power over children!!

Love LONG weekends!

I WILL make myself get better about getting family pictures....I am determined! This post consists of the only pictures I took the entire long Thanksgiving weekend! My sweet in laws were here too, but sadly I couldn't prove it with pictures!

Brooke loves hogging her grandparents attention....either set! A little proof.

Every once in a while the camera will capture something priceless.....like this. They were actually aggravating and picking on one another, but I love this picture.....it looks like sweet cuddle time instead of the real noise that was happening! ;o)

And, whether the two of them realized it or not....this was Father/Daughter bonding time.....she was helping him organize a new Craftsman tool kit.....hehe.

Of ALL the toys this kid has she had more fun playing with Daddy's new socket set.....yep, she's Steven's daughter alright!

We added another new family member this weekend. A friendly elf from the North Pole which Brooke named "Sparkle".....he is an Elf on the Shelf who flies home every night to report to Santa whether Brooke is being good or bad. It is PRECIOUS to see her fascination with him, and yes, so far she has been UNBELIEVABLY good! This morning before school she spotted him hiding on the lamp behind her.....

And a close up of Sparkle......

You better watch out!

Today Brooke and I had our annual Breakfast with Santa experience.....I must say this girl and the grin on her face makes it all worth while! You will see the pictures of her with Santa himself when I get them, but here are a few fun ones to tide you over.

This year Brooke asked for a guitar. She then later added a skateboard, and if Mommy doesn't allow that then a Holiday Barbie.....she cracks me up, and knows me too well.

Coloring at the breakfast while jingling bells along with the singers.

Happy to be here!

LOOK who walked in! The best Santa I have ever seen, he is here every year and Brooke calls him the "REAL Santa" and thinks the rest of the Santa's are just people pretending to be Santa in order to help him. ;o)

I absolutely love the shock, awe and grins when she sees Santa. The way she looks at him is priceless!

This year they even brought some reindeer straight from the North Pole! Brooke was telling her Daddy about them and said "Daddy, I am serious they were REAL reindeer not fake ones!"

FYI - the socks were all her and she got tons of compliments on them.....

Another quote: "Momma, did you know they flew Santa all the way here from the North Pole? That's why they're resting."

SOOOOOOOO in the Christmas Spirit now!

Killing time while we were waiting on Nana to come shop with us.....no, this isn't our tree.....hopefully after Thanksgiving!

And, after we'd been there four hours already we stopped to decorate a cookie.....and of course EAT IT!

I know the Holidays are about lots of things....for all of which I am thankful. BUT, having a child to enjoy all the fun and tradition with is a dream come true!

New Signature Pose?!

I have no idea where this newest pose came from.....but it IS cute!

Last night after riding in the cotton stripper with her Daddy.......

And, this morning before school in her favorite dress that her Daddy ever so sweetly ironed for her because her Mom avoids ironing like the plague!

Even dull scissors cut hair...

Don't panic.....Brooke's first accidental or do it herself hair cut isn't THAT bad. I think it scared her a bit, then I think she thought I was going to get mad because I always tell her "keep your hair and skin away from the scissors" but as soon as I picked up the hair and checked out the 'damage' I giggled and said "it's not bad, that's why I tell you to be careful with scissors" she then changed her story to "that strand was bugging me is why I cut it".....hmmm....okay.

She has one strand of bangs....and they were long enough to still be clipped over, so whew!! Yes, I am weird....I am adding the hair to her baby book! She is getting a real hair trim tomorrow, so now she is acting big and saying she wants her hair cut short.....well, you know how I am about long hair.....so we will see.

And, before bed.....there is a window of approximately 10 minutes. If I get her ready for bed after that 10 minute window it's all fussing and whining. Last night I timed it perfectly and she was my sweet little baby....if she only understood how much her Momma actually enjoys the baby cuddling time!

This is my attempt at getting in the Holiday Spirit.....I am starting a lot slower than normal this year. I do not feel ready one bit for the Holidays.....but, I am starting.....and naturally I have to start with fun, girly things for my little ELF!

She came by it honestly.....

This morning at 6:45am I hear "Momma, could you come here please?" so I groggily walk into her room to be asked "What on earth is taking you guys so long to wake me up this morning, I need to get ready for school?" I had to remind her that we don't normally even wake her up until 7, but I guess that is reminding us how much she enjoys school!

Lately her comedic streak has been showing. She does anything she can to make you laugh, rather it's coming up with the silliest (not really funny but you end up laughing anyway) jokes, making faces....or just being blatantly honest, which seems to crack me up the most. This orneriness is what she comes by honestly. Her Daddy has it....I admit I have it....and we both come from generations of orneriness.

Sometimes her honesty embarrasses me....like when she decides to tell a strange woman at Target that she needs to shave her mustache....or when she asks strangers why they didn't take better care of their teeth....yep, I try my hardest to explain how she needs to tell ME in my ear before blurting a question out.

To a lot of people I would be considered girly. I wear make up, I take care of myself and try to dress nicely.....but to my DAUGHTER I am not girly enough. If I ever wear brown I get told I need to not wear that anymore and that it doesn't look girly at all. I get asked why there is no sparkle in my wardrobe.....yep, she calls it a wardrobe already. On the rare occasion I do wear a dress or a skirt (averaging about once a year at this rate) I get asked if I am getting married again....

A few silly things that made me laugh....there are so many, but of course I get on the computer and forget them all!!

She picked up a screw off the floor and showed it to me. My response "I wonder where that came from?" her response, "uh hello Momma, I just got it off the floor" yep that was SO what I meant.....

She argues with ME and only me about anything. If anyone else says it's not true she stops and goes on, but if I say it she keeps on arguing. Yesterday she was telling me that the singer Michael Jackson is her classmate Jaxon's older brother. When I said he absolutely is not, she said "Hello Momma, they both have JACKSON in their name" oh, why didn't I think of that....?!

I will add more as I can rethink of them later....just know I laugh a LOT and am very thankful for her sense of humor and for the Good Lord making sure I am keeping mine too!

Crafty.

I love trying to be crafty. I also love being able to help support or trade with other crafty mommies. Brooke now has several beautifully handmade hats or ear warmers. Some were made by her Nana, and some were made by a friend of ours that lets us trade our crafts for her crafts....love it all! This time I even got a little something for myself!

The entire month of November you are supposed to tell about what you are thankful for. My family is my number one thing I am thankful for, I am richly blessed!

I kept a little for myself.....

I only donated 10 inches of the length I grew this time around.....so I did selfishly keep some for myself this time. ;o)

This is not the best 'after' picture, but you would never guess here in West Texas that the WIND is blowing so badly that I had to tie my hair back in order to make it out of Wal-Mart safely!! Now to see what Brooke thinks of it.....I told her why I was donating my hair, she liked that idea....but her one request was that I keep mine at least as long as hers so I wouldn't have a "Mommy Hair Do" her wording not mine! ;o)

She's BACK!

I am very happy to report that our ornery angel is back after the icky tummy bug hit her Sunday. I made her stay home from school yesterday to help her get her strength back, so we had an entire day of watching movies, playing, coloring, doing crafts and of course painting fingernails and toenails. She kept asking if I would take her to school to at least let her say Hi to her friends. She was ecstatic and even got ready early this morning so she could rush the block to school to see the people she missed yesterday.

Showing off her fingernails and jewelry of course....

I wanted to share the only pictures I took the entire time my parents were here. I am horrible I know.....but hey....two is better than nothing right?!

Showing off her dress Granny made her.....she even wanted to sleep in it that night.

I was trying to get them all to look, but the Red Raiders were already stinking up the screen so this is what I got instead.... :o(

Sometimes flowers just make your day....especially when a sweet Daddy/Hubby brings us a fresh, hand picked flower that he spotted while carrying on his crazy work day....thank you Steven....we still love it and take turns smelling it!

Pretty Special.

Just some more cute pictures of our Kitty Cat for Halloween. She made a mask at a Halloween Party this weekend, so last night for trick or treating she was a "vampire Kitty" since several of her friends were vampire bats, vampire bunnies, etc....this is her interpretation.....ROAR!

And before the party Sunday evening.

Anyone that knows Steven, knows he's pretty special.....but to a certain little girl he is the MOST special person in the world! Remember that Steven and Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to the most amazing, caring, hard working person I know.....we love you and are so proud of the man you are....gray hair and all!