A couple more lessons worth sharing.

Yep, being taught by a four year old on a regular basis again. I really think I have learned more important lessons since I have been out of college!




I have learned at some point in parenthood you will end up convincing your child to do something you have been telling her NOT to do since day one. Insert me cramming my own child in our doggie door. Yes, you read right. Ever since she started crawling it was always "Brooke, we do not go out that door....you are not a dog." But, when Brooke and her Momma are outside in nothing but swim suits and Daddy manages to 'accidentally' lock us out.....Momma begs Brooke to let me help her through the door so she can let us in. If she wouldn't have agreed to me cramming her in the door sideways I would have had to walk my swimsuit wearing self around the alley, busy side street at 5:00, and into our garage. Yes, Brooke is my hero!

And my latest lesson learned, I haven't even begun to appreciate yet....it might take a while. I have learned that my cell phone IS safer in my four year old's hands than it is......let's say for grins.....stuffed in my bathing suit top.....as I hop in the pool.....and approximately 30 minutes later as I decide to stand up I finally hear it "blub, blub, bleep" and realize what happened it is already far too late to take it apart and dry it out. Yes.....I was without a cell phone for days, which was punishment enough.....but I decided to share my story to make Steven feel as though you guys laughing at me is also punishment. ;o) It was so far gone that the phone place couldn't even transfer my contacts.....WOW.....that is going to take a while.

In the midst of the move....

On the exact same day I posted to our blog about Brooke being satisfied with our tiny pool, a very sweet Daddy came home with one we can all enjoy. Never before have I had any desire to own an above ground pool, BUT now I can say it was worth every penny and I have enjoyed it as much as a certain little girl. It has been awesome to be able to pack until my fingers hurt, then go out in our own backyard and chill in this pool.

I have always been told that as a mom you have to 'pick your battles' with your child. Fashion tends to be one of those battles I choose not to fight....it's all opinion anyway, so even though this was a 100 degree day, I totally let Brooke go visit our new Post Office in New Home with leg warmers on. And I completely giggled at all of the people (all two of them) that saw her and proceeded to look at ME like I was off my rocker. What a way to get people in our new small town to notice us new folk! ;o)

We took time away from moving this weekend to go to our sweet neighbor Aiden's birthday party at a really cool pool here in town. I was thrilled Steven went with us because he is not timid at all in the water, so he and Brooke went down all the slides together and with her Daddy right behind her I saw her slowly loosening up in the water.

Posing on the alligator....gotta love it!

Fashion, part 2. Last night while we were packing, Brooke was in her room digging through the boxes I had already packed but hadn't sealed. She found some red thick pantyhose and put them on herself, with her black dress shoes and wore them all evening. Stylin'!

To acknowledge all of the sweet people who have offered to help entertain Brooke during our move. I have to say Thank you very much, but I want to explain why I am not jumping on all of the offers. Steven and I both want Brooke, and even our dog Cooper to be a part of this move and not be confused by what is going on. I don't want us to move Brooke's stuff out of her room one morning and just walk her in her new, set up room that evening. I want her to help decide where to put things, see her stuff being set up, and just all in all being a part of the big day. So, thank you again very much for your wonderful offers......but we selfishly still want Brooke there with us to see it all unfolding! We have enlisted the help of Brooke's wonderful grandmother's to help keep her safely involved and out of the way of moving furniture.

Another lesson learned.

This parenthood thing is tough! Brooke manages to teach me some really good lessons on a daily basis, so I will share a few of the easier to type about lessons.

I mentioned to Facebook followers the morning I got out of the shower to discover Miss Brooke had scaled our computer desk, gotten out a roll of stamps and proceeded to stick approximately $35 worth of stamps all over our real estate paperwork. I was not even aggravated about the stamps, because I could peel them off and reuse them. I was aggravated about the fact that she had to climb in an office chair with wheels on top of a desk to get them, and my thoughts of what could have happened took me straight to the emergency room! Lesson learned, just because she looks like she is six doesn't mean she's going to act like she is six and I still have to treat her like the toddler she is!!

To all of my curly haired friends who gripe about the humidity and the frizz. Well, I have never had this problem, so I have never had to deal with it. And now that my daughter has TONS of this curly hair, I think the frizz is quite precious. So, I don't know what you're griping about....hehe.

Look how those frizzy curls frame her face. Love them! She is singing, and growing......

This pool is smaller than the one she played in last year, but our bigger one is somewhere packed neatly away awaiting transfer to our new house. Another lesson learned recently. Just because I think the pool is tiny does not mean that she cannot have TONS of fun in it! Kids do not seem to care the size of the pool, as long as they can get wet, eat popsicles, splash and run around. So, I am learning not to worry about things as much, she will find a way to have fun in any situation.

Note more frizzy, precious curls.....and modeling of swimsuit #1. I always get her long tankini's so she is covered, but so she can wear the same one all summer long and also to ease potty breaks. The suits from last year do show a hint of the belly, but they work for our backyard just perfectly!

Her new and favorite swimsuit. Imagine this, it's PURPLE. My side note here is will you look at those going on forever legs?! I got told by four different people this morning alone that she does NOT look four.

Our dog Cooper knows better than to stay still while Brooke is around. I think he still has flashbacks from certain clothing articles being placed on him. But, my in laws dog Nipper hasn't learned to run just yet. Here he is investigating....thinking about giving her sugar.

Brooke still has to wear a flower or a bow in her hair. Many mornings I try to get away with a simple pony tail or wild pig tails like the one's in the picture, and every single time she gets a flower and puts it on herself.

I know, I could have posted a later picture with her wet hair out of her face. But, once again I am enjoying the beauty of those frizzy curls. I still don't see why you gripe about them. ;o)

Here is the 'after' picture anyway.

We have been loving the heat, or should I rephrase and say finding ways to make the heat as much fun as possible!

Our big move is about two weeks away! We are seeing things pack up and disappear!

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.