December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas wasn't quite what we had planned due to the weather. We had a very nice weekend planned in Stanberry with the Nickell family, but apparently mother nature had a different plan. We still had a very nice, quiet, relaxing Christmas filled with food, movie watching, a lot of book reading, and even more Candyland playing. Brooke was very excited about Santa this year and loved getting all her presents. We are still sad we didn't get to be with the rest of the family but are enjoying some, "forced relaxation!" Meanwhile, these are the best Christmas pictures I have for now!

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)
Helping daddy write a note to Santa
Excited with her stocking presents
Posing in her new pajamas (not a great picture but the best I could do!)

Drawing Snowmen

A few weeks ago our Parents as Teachers teacher came over and taught Brooke how to draw a snowman. She has enjoyed drawing them since. Below is the one she drew on her easel yesterday. (Hers is in purple, in case you can't tell!) Please ignore mine...I was keeping it simple to show her the steps..and I'm not an artist!

Baker Brooke

Brooke got this adorable apron and baker's hat from her G. Aunt Mae and G. Uncle Alan. She was very enthusiastic to wear it while helping me bake cut-out cookies. She was a big help and looked adorable while helping!

It was very helpful to have the apron on...she was covered in flour!

December 18, 2009

Happy Hanukkah!

Brooke had a great time celebrating Hanukkah with everyone!


She also had a great time dancing to the Hanukkah music she got as a present. See the video below! (It is a compilation of a few videos)

just some good pictures...






December 17, 2009

How to make Hanukkah cookies....

First you smash the dough...

Then you roll it...

Next you cut out the cookies...

Then decorate them with sprinkles...

Finally, put on a cookie sheet and bake!

Brooke had a great time making cookies (and eating them) with Grandma Barb!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is Grandpa Stuart's birthday! We were in St. Louis last weekend to celebrate his birthday and Hanukkah (Hanukkah post coming soon!) According to Brooke, he turned 5 today! I'm sure he will agree with that. The logic was: she is going to be 3 on her birthday, so mommy must be 4 so Grandpa must be 5! I like that thinking! Brooke had a fun weekend celebrating. We went to dinner Saturday night and when dinner was over, out of no where, Brooke looked up and announced, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA!!!!!!" It was adorable!



Hope you had a great birthday, Grandpa, We love you!!!

December 09, 2009

Snow days...

We got about 8-10" of snow over the last 2 days so Brooke was very excited to get out in play in it! It was about 12 degrees when we went out to play so we didn't stay out long but she had fun! It was a very pretty, fluffy snow so we couldn't make a snowman. We couldn't even really make a snow ball!


The dogs had fun too and Brooke had fun throwing snow at them!

More stories...

Addendum to the best friend story:
Brooke continues to talk about how I am her friend or best friend. When we ask her, what about daddy? her response is, "He's just my daddy!" "Mommy's my friend, but daddy's just my daddy!"

Bananas:
Brooke LOVES bananas. She would probably eat 2 a day if we let her. Grandma and Grandpa Nickell know this so always have bananas for her at their house. One time Grandpa said, "I think there's a banana here with your name on it". He proceeded to show her a banana with her name actually written on it. This has happened a few times. The other night at dinner (here) Brooke was eating a banana. She said to Jason:
"Grandma and Grandpa Nickell always have bananas with my name on them....
I wonder if they write it on there?!?!"

Really???? She figured THAT out? Great! We're never going to get anything by her!!!

December 05, 2009

You make me laugh!!

It seems like everything that comes out of Brooke's mouth these days is funny or adorable! She is constantly talking about something, but the things she says never cease to surprise us. Here are just a few examples! It always sounds funnier/cuter when you hear her 2 year old voice say it, but I had to at least try to share some of them. Sorry, I've been bad about pictures (didn't take a single one on Thanksgiving!) but hopefully these stories will make up for it!

Scene:
Brooke has her new t-shirt on that has a picture of a dog and says "my best friend"
Brooke: What do these letters say, Mommy?" (this is her new question whenever she sees writing on things)
Mommy: It says my best friend. Are Macie and Bo your best friends?
Brooke: No, Mommy, YOU are my best friend!
(She is so sweet, I about cried when she said this!)

Scene: driving home from daycare
- Brooke was very excited to show me their new blocks when I picked her up and how they had rearranged the classroom
Mommy: I like your new classroom, its very nice.
Brooke: Sooo...What do you think of our new blocks?
(It sounded like a question an adult would ask!)

Scene: In the kitchen, getting ready to go play after dinner
Brooke: I'm going to be a vet, daddy!
(she was referring to her dress up vet stuff, but it was still funny (scary?) to hear her say it!)

...and my favorite....
Scene: the three of us in the family room, one of the dogs made a weird noise in the kitchen...
Jason: What was that??? (referring to the noise the dog made)
Brooke: That was me tooting!

November 22, 2009

Weekend in St. Louis

Last weekend, Brooke and I went to St. Louis for Aunt Jen's baby shower. In between 2 very long drives, we had a fun weekend and enjoyed a very nice baby shower. Brooke even got some presents of her own!

Getting ready for the baby shower

Giving Aunt Jen the present Brooke picked out (and then she took it back!)


One of the presents Brooke got: princess dress up things..including earrings! She had to add my shoes to complete the outfit!

November 08, 2009

Some Random Pics...

These pictures are a few weeks old, but I had so many others with wedding pictures and Halloween, I figured I'd save them for when I was in need for some new blog updates...

Helping daddy rake leaves
(this was when it was much cooler out!) and this is not even a fraction of the leaves that were in the yard!

Practicing...this was after she had given the baby a bottle, is currently rocking her, and then proceeded to put her to sleep. She's going to be a great big sister!


Brooke LOVED to be swaddled when she was a baby. I think we swaddled her until she was 6 or 8 months (way longer than most people do). Her blanket was loosely covering her when she went to bed and this is how we found her when we checked on her! We often find her like this and aren't quite sure how she gets her self so tightly wrapped up!


November 01, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Flower girl dresses make great Princess Halloween costumes! Brooke was thrilled to get to wear her dress again. She was not so thrilled with carving the pumpkin. She didn't want to get her hands dirty! But, she did LOVE the pumpkin seeds that I roasted! She enjoyed trick-or-treating too, although we never actually got her to say "trick-or-treat." She did say thank you though! After EVERY house we went to, she would say, "I got candy!" and then later it changed to: "I have LOTS of candy!" She was pretty excited with the candy!

Our little princess

Aunt Arianne came to trick-or-treat with us!

The princess in her chariot



Eating candy when we got home!

October 27, 2009

Flower Girl!


Uncle Jason and Aunt Clarissa's wedding was 2 weekends ago, but there were so many pictures it took me a while to get organized.

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS JASON AND CLARISSA! The weekend was wonderful and the wedding was beautiful.

Brooke had a great time and did awesome as the flower girl. She keeps saying, "we had so much fun at that wedding!" Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Our beautiful little flower girl.

Family pic

One of my favorites!

Okay, so I couldn't just pick a few, here are some more favorites from the weekend and if you want to see even more, click on this link for the whole wedding weekend album!



October 21, 2009

Melanie's Bat Mitzvah

Two weekends ago, we went to Kansas City for our cousin Melanie's Bat Mitzvah. It was a fun family weekend and Melanie did a wonderful job! Brooke loved staying in the hotel and had a blast dancing at the party!

Brooke in her "pretty dress" and new hair bow. Apparently, I've been depriving her, as this is the first time in 2.5 years I've ever put a bow in her hair and she LOVED it! She wore a bow to daycare everyday that next week. She loves to show people her pretty bow and look at in the mirror!

Brooke and Melanie

Brooke and all the cousins!

Below is a slide show of Brooke dancing at the party. As you can see from the pictures, she loved it! She was not intimated at all by all the other kids on the dance floor and we couldn't get her off of it...she had a blast!!!

October 07, 2009

Little Gymnast!


We have been going to "big and little" gymnastics for a little over a month now. Brooke took a few weeks to warm up to it but now she gets excited every Wednesday to go. Its hard to take pictures because most of the stuff involves my help but I was able to get a few good ones. She really enjoys all of the activities but seems to like the balance beam stuff the best. She loves to volunteer to show how to do the activities (as you can see from the videos). I couldn't decide which video to put up so I put them all..they are short though!



October 04, 2009

Grandparents and Singing

Grandma and Grandpa Nickell came to visit for the day today and Brooke had a fun day playing with them. They brought her a new hat (with Grandpa's vet clinic logo on it) and she wore it all day. She loves her hats! It was a beautiful day out so we went for a walk and she enjoyed looking at all the leaves changing colors.


Brooke has a new thing where she likes to make up songs. Below is a video of her singing one of these songs. You can't really understand what she is saying but it's pretty funny. We can't usually understand her either, but she apparently has something to sing about!