A WARM Easter!

This is the first Easter weekend in Brooke's lifetime, and only one of a few in MY lifetime that has been pretty enough to actually hide the eggs OUTSIDE! It was a beautiful Spring day (translation: windy), and we could not have enjoyed it more. We had Steven/Daddy here all day and we took advantage of that for sure.

Brooke sorting through stuff from the Easter bunny first thing Sunday morning.

Moving right along to decorating eggs. Notice how Brooke was dressed for the occasion, Eeyore shoes and all.

Tickling Daddy's nose with Eeyore's ears, and basically just enjoying lounging all over him.

My favorite Easter bunny. Brooke made this at school.

And she's off hunting eggs! Yes, I missed several hours of picture taking in there.....but hey, we DID enjoy our day!

Hunting eggs is hard work!

We hid, rehid, and she even hid the eggs. We played, cooked out and just enjoyed the beautiful day. The last picture of this post is one tuckered out little girl. If you look closely at this picture you might even be able to see sweat and dirt.

Being a girl is so much fun!

I hear SO many mom's of boys say their clothing and accessories are so boring. Well, I love having a little girl who loves to dress up, and get all dolled up. I have become cheap in the sense that I cannot stand the idea of paying a lot for what I know I can make for nearly nothing! Two of the items I am referring to are in this picture. One, of course is the huge flower on her head. She loves wearing flowers (and bows) in her hair, so the cheaper way for us to both enjoy this is for me to make them (or should I say purchase dirt cheap flowers elsewhere and glue them myself). Two, is the flip flops in this picture. She LOVES flip flops (another thing she gets from me 100%), but the cheap little plastic ones hurt her feet. So, wrap them in ribbon for comfort, add a bow and rhinestone to make them look super cute and all is well!

A closer look.

Our Angel Singing.

Yes, I forgot to mute the music player below again. So, before you click on these videos please scroll down and pause the music so you can listen to the REAL music.

Brooke loves the Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty more than any other princess.....this week anyway. She constantly sings the song from that movie "Once Upon a Dream" and dances, or swings while she is singing it. I wanted to capture this, and of course the one time I record it she stops to ask me the words. Like I remember them.....ha. Anyway, enjoy my precious angel singing.....and if it doesn't make you smile I will be shocked!

I have another one I am trying to upload, so hopefully you will be hearing more very soon.

Huntin' Eggs.

Today at Brooke's preschool was Easter Egg Hunt day, and she was a little bit excited. I posted this picture for two reasons, one so you can see the shocked look of excitement on her face when Ms. B said it's time for the Easter egg hunt and two, so you will know what she's wearing so you can pick her out in the rest of the pictures.

I never understood the term 'herding cats' before today. Try getting ten 3 or 4 year olds to do anything at the same time is pretty miraculous, but walk in a straight line when they can SEE Easter eggs, well that was near impossible even with us mom's helping. Here is Ms. B mixed in with the class. You can see Brooke off to the right hand corner running.

Lined up ready to run get all of the eggs.

And they're off!

I made the smart alleck comment to one of the other mom's about how I wonder if Brooke is going to manage to get all of the purple (her favorite color) eggs. As soon as they were off Brooke passed any egg that wasn't purple. I finally had to tell her to grab anything around her to remind her green, orange and yellow were okay too.

They had tons of fun, and yes Brooke has been on a sugar high this afternoon. Oh they joys of holidays!

Happy Last Day of March.

From our little "monster".

Scary, don't you think?

A walk in the park.

After letting a beautiful afternoon pass us by yesterday, I decided to make sure to find a way to enjoy the beautiful weather while we have it....especially since it might rain or snow again tomorrow. I asked Brooke if she would like to pack a lunch and go to the park, then play afterwards. Of course, you can guess her answer.....it was a very animated, jumping up and down "YES, YES, YES!" Then of course she asked me about it every 5 minutes until lunch time today.....some day I will learn to not bring it up until I, myself am ready!

Just some fun pictures. We had the park ALL to ourselves, and I could completely get spoiled by days like this one. Here is Brooke, fake smile and all ready to go!

Eating lunch is so much fun when you have scenery to watch! There were only a few walkers out today, barely a breeze, and the only sound other than an occasional passing car were the birds and ducks.

And she's off! The first time she has EVER had this park all to herself. I, as a paranoid mommy, LOVED every second of it. I even acted like a kid myself and showed her how to use the equipment she didn't know how to use! Yes, another reason I am glad no one was there....no witnesses!

Brooke, taking in the warm day and me, taking in the beauty of this child I was blessed with.

For those of you who haven't seen Brooke in person lately.....there is not an ounce of baby fat left.....ANYWHERE. She is officially a tall, slender young girl. And, while I love every phase....I do hate to admit she isn't a baby anymore!

Playing Tic Tac Toe.

This was huge for her. Last summer she fell off a slide pretty high up and the rest of the summer she would NOT slide down by herself. I think because we were there alone, no pressure from me, she did it.....a NUMBER of times and became much more confident and giggly as the tries went by.

She was SO impressed that her momma knew how to swing.....man, if she would only stay that impressed with her parents....HA!

I asked her to pose for me before we left and this is the smart alleck pose I got!

Spring is in the Air! For today anyway!

80?

This past weekend we ventured on a little day trip down to Carlsbad, NM. My grandparents live there and the family threw my grandmother an 80th birthday party. Age has never mattered to me. I tell people who worry about their age that it's far better than the alternative. It's just a number that reminds you that you are still alive and kicking. But, for some reason when key people in my life hit milestones, such as EIGHTY.....wow....it makes you stop and realize how time truly does fly.

Brooke, naturally, loved the idea of a birthday party. I think she might have sang louder than anyone else in the room. And, she seemed to have been one of the only people happy to wear a party hat. The picture shows she got into my Granny Mildred's lipstick before the party. The hot pink lips you see below are after lots of wiping and cold cream to get a lot of the excess off.....yikes, powerful stuff.

I am currently fixing a box to mail to my sweet mother. She sent ALL of the party hats and worse....the party HORNS home with us. I know it was all in good intentions, because Brooke's birthday party is so near.....but, UGH....not my favorite noise these days.

Can you believe this beautiful woman is 80 years old?! I cannot at all. Every female in our family, and lots out of our family.....love the idea of looking this good at 80! This is my sweet, wonderful, amazing Granny Mildred. A woman I definitely strive to be like.

I threw this one in because I handed the camera to Steven and asked him to just take pictures. I had no idea I would be in any of them. I wish now I had thought to stop and get the family together for more 'together' pictures. Since I didn't, here I am acting like I am helping while visiting with my cousin Donna and her momma, my Aunt Shelia.

My Dad, a very proud Grandad with his two Grand daughters, McKenzie and Brooke. Cohen was running around enjoying time with his boy cousins.

This picture was taken at my request. An updated four generation picture. I only have two before this one. One of which I am still the size of a Volkswagon, right after Brooke was born and the next one was at Brooke's 1st birthday party and she wasn't exactly enjoying herself in the picture. I like this one much better.

Brooke's favorite part of the party, well besides singing and cake. The piano in the corner of the room.

The only other person I saw with a party hat on.....and that was due to some coaxing from Brooke of course. Doesn't my sweetie pie look thrilled?!