Christmas in Stanberry

We had a wonderful long weekend in Stanberry for Christmas. Brooke doesn't quite understand the meaning of Christmas yet, but she knows who Santa Claus is and she knows about getting presents. She also understands lighting the candles for Hanukkah and then getting presents. (She gets the present thing!) Here are a few highlights from her weekend....

Presents! She woke up Christmas morning and looked at them and said, "they're ALL mine!" The day after Christmas, after we ate breakfast, she said, "I open presents!"

Cows! Grandpa and Daddy took her on a ranger ride to go see the cows..she is still talking about it!

Running! She had a blast playing with all of her Boyer cousins and exclaimed, "I running, I running!" as they ran all over the house!

Jewelry! This was just one of many times trying on jewelry with Grandma and Aunt Arianne.

Biscuits! She had fun helping Grandma bake biscuits (and enjoyed eating them too!)

Flying! She went "flying" with Uncle Jordan many times (we didn't get a picture of it though)

Great Grandparents! Brooke enjoyed seeing both sets of Great Grandparents and even understood that she has multiple Grandmas and Grandpas!

She was done taking picutres by this one! (I hope that isn't foreshadowing to a future eye roller!)

As you can see, she had a great weekend! There are many more pictures on this link. Brooke started calling Jason, "Dad" this weekend, instead of Daddy. Its a little sad to hear her say, "Hi, Dad" or "I eating, Dad"...too grown up! There was snow on the ground when we got to Stanberry which melted while we were there. Brooke noticed that the snow was gone and asked where it went. Someone told her that Jay (Jordan's dog) ate it. She remembered that and on the way home tonight when she didn't see any snow in Manhattan, she exclaimed, "Jay ate all the snow!" I guess that's easier to understand than the concept of melting!

Dancing Queen

Brooke got a music set for Hanukkah tonight. (cymbals, tambourine, maracas, triangle, etc...She likes to play her music and dance. You can't see Jason accompanying her with the tambourine and maracas) but you can see her moves!

Happy Hanukkah

Brooke got a play kitchen for Hanukkah from here Grandma Barb and Grandpa Stuart . We set it up last night after Brooke went to sleep so she could be surprised with it this morning. She was very excited to see it and loved playing with it all day. She made Jason and I pretend meals all day today! We lit the candles for the first night of Hanukkah and gave Brooke her first present: her horse! She was unsure at first and immediately announced, "I no ride it." She warmed up pretty quick as you can see in the video. She named him, "Nay".

Playing with her Kitchen

St. Louis Visit/Hanukkah

This past weekend we went to St. Louis to visit friends, family and celebrate Hanukkah. Our visit was sadly cut short by pink eye at the beginning and bad weather at the end, but we were happy to still get to spend some time with our family and friends. Brooke had a great time playing with her Aunt and Uncles and of course Grandma and Grandpa. She was also very excited to meet Gabriel and see his parents, Stacey and Josh.
Here is a picture of Brooke with the majority of her gifts...a Georgetown Hoya's hat and Harvard Elmo from Uncle Jason, a scarf that Aunt Jen made her and a computer from Grandma and Grandpa! She was also very excited about her new books, her legos (from Uncle Dave of course), her little people house and her shopping cart.

Here is a slide show of some other pictures from the weekend.


Here are a few pictures from our visit with Stacey and Josh.

Weekend Fun

Hanging Christmas lights with Daddy

Playing with my friend, Olivia

My True Colors!

This doesn't really need explanation. Grandpa Stuart took these pictures and made this collage. As he said, it captures Brooke's personality perfectly!

Christmas Spirit

Brooke had fun helping us put up the Christmas tree this weekend. Every time she walks into the family room now, she points to it and says, "Whoa!" Today she started clapping when she was sitting in front of it playing. Last night when she was going to bed, I told her she got to stay home with Mommy tomorrow (I'm off work today) and I asked her what she wanted to play. She responded, "I go shopping!" I guess she thinks that's what we do on my days off! Daddy loved that! Today I was explaining to her about Hanukkah and Santa bringing her toys. I asked her what toys she wanted and she said, "I want fishy, pink." When I asked what else she said "purple one, too". So I guess she wants pink and purple fishys in case anyone needs a gift idea!

Helping to hang the ornaments

Checking out the work

Trying to get a posed picture in front of the tree! (easier said then done!)