Brooklyn's Birthday

Let me explain... no, there is too much... let me sum-up...

First, there was the loot...

Then there was the beach...

... with Grandma and Grandpa, too... (who, by the way, hadn't been to a beach in over 20 years!!! They had forgotten what they'd been missing.)

Then, there was some beach bumming... ;)

Then there was the party...

And, of course, there was cake!

My little 1-year-old going on 20 already...

We had a blast, but nobody had as much fun as Brooklyn did today. I will follow up with more pics and possibly some video.

Easter

First of all, I started a new tradition for Easter this year... homemade sticky cinnabuns for breakfast! That's right, I made sticky buns from scratch, and they were sinfully delicious. We also enjoyed our first Easter with Brooklyn, and since she is walking now, we absolutely had to have our own little Easter egg "hunt" in our yard. Here is the video of her walking around "hunting" for her eggs with her little Easter basket that her G-ma sent her from Texas. It's a little long, but I know a few of you will enjoy it all.

Afterwards, I helped her open her eggs to find her little snacks.

One of those snacks was pink peeps. She really liked it!

The flower I got her for Easter. It is going to be a tradition of mine to give her a flower on Easter.

Cool Baby

Brooklyn loves glasses and is always reaching for my or Matt's glasses when we are wearing them (thankyou contacts!!!), so I gave her one of my old pairs of sunglasses to play with and she tried to put them on her face. I think she is just so smart! With my help, she finally got them on and I HAD to take a picture, or two.
:)

Thanks Michelle!

Michelle, my sister, made some beautiful bows for Brooklyn and sent them to us. (Thanks Michelle!!) They are so dang cute! She also sent us a box full of clothes for 12 month olds, which was greatly needed. (Thanks again, Michelle!) Brooklyn just loves all her new clothes! Here are some pics of just a couple of the new clothes she got and of the bows Michelle made.


She did have one of Michelle's bows on with this outfit, which matched just perfectly... but she's finicky about when and where she will wear a bow. This was the Easter basket one of her Grandma's sent her this week. She gets the idea of putting the Easter eggs she finds on the ground in the basket, but she just dumps it all out after just a few and starts all over again... we'll need to work on that before Sunday. :)

Our little weekend trip

Brooklyn and I went to visit my little sister Shantel in Raleigh, NC this past weekend. We left Friday and got back on Monday. Our trip there was a little adventurous as we ran into some major traffic due to a tornado that had just touched down ahead of us. We were lucky to have left when we did and stopped when we did or we would have been caught in the path of the tornado. It ran up the highway we were on stripping trees and throwing branches into the roadway (which is what caused the traffic) and even knocked over a couple of trucks. We made it safely, but much later than planned.

We had a great time at Shantel and Andrew's place and enjoyed a quiet and relaxing weekend with them. They had a beautiful park just a few yards from their place and we had a great time walking the 2 mile trail and checking out the ducks, geese and turtles, which was Brooklyn's first time to see real ducks. She also got to bathe in a big tub, which she thought was SO much fun. She laughed while "swimming" from one end to the other, over and over again. It was pretty cute.

Matt missed a whole lot of Brooklyn, as he had to stay home and even work the whole weekend. Unfortunately for him, she even started "walking" while we were away. But I at least got it all on video for him to watch... and for the rest of you. :)

Shantel and Andrew, thanks for having Brooklyn and I over for the weekend and making it so much fun. I hope to see ya'll again soon... and I hope you enjoy living in Texas again. We love you!

Eating out on our way there.

Looking at the geese at the park.


Standing on a bridge at that same park. Very pretty place!

Bathtime in a BIG TUB and having LOTS of fun!

Look who's "walking"!!