Brooklyn's First Haircut

Brooklyn got her first haircut at 2 1/2 years old!!

The set up:

Keys to succes = Mr. Potato Head, Dora and a cup full of blueberries

The Barber:

My Mom

The Before Pic:

Oh, don't those straggly (is that a word) ends just drive you NUTS?!?

And after?

Drastic, huh?  =)

I'm not kidding when I say this is LITERALLY all of the hair we cut off...

It is all in just that one corner, but really has made a difference when her hair is dry.

Thanks Mimi!!

And, for the bonus pic...

Happy Monday!!

Stock Show 2011

It feels like Eddie is ALWAYS on-call on weekends lately, so when he found out he had last Saturday off, he wanted us to have some plans to get out of the house and DO SOMETHING!

So...I called my friend, Brooke, to see what they were doing and it just so happened that it was the weekend of the Stock Show in Ft. Worth.  So we went!!

We had a great time even though Eddie looks miserable in the picture above.

And again in the picture below...

Brooklyn LOVED the petting zoo.

Loved it a little too much in my opinion...

Yes, that is a picture of a cow LICKING her face...much to my horror and disgust!!

And her hand.  I was outside the petting zoo with Chandler or I would have never allowed the "licking" part to happen.  YUCK!!

But she had the time of her life and that matters more than cow germs, right?

And, of course, Chandler enjoyed the Stock Show experience, too!!



And as for a bonus pic???

Chandler's hair is long enough to make into a tiny baby ponty tail!!

5 Months Old!

My children go through ages and stages I wish I could bypass and some that I wish I could freeze. I definitely want to FREEZE the Chandler at the age she is now!!

She's finally starting to take better naps!  She had a relapse in her night-time sleeping, but is on a road to recovery.  She wakes up once around 3, eats and goes right back to sleep.  She should probably be sleeping through the night by now, but honestly???  I kind-of enjoy that sweet quiet time with her and I've gotten used to getting up at that time so it doesn't leave me sleep deprived.

Seriously, this is the child you want to do a photo shoot with!!  It doesn't take much at all to get her to smile or giggle.  She LOVES to take her bath, loves to eat, loves her carseat.  The first thing she does when I wake her up from a nap is smile!  I have no hesitations in taking her anywhere because she is pretty low-maintenance!

What does she NOT like?  Ummm...having her nose wiped?  (and, of course, normal baby stuff - being tired, hungry, etc)  She has gotten very "grabby" (grabs everything in sight) and is still VERY vocal.

Don't know if you can tell in the pictures, but her hair is still thin, straight and light brown (although her Dad would call it blonde).  Her eyes are still very blue and she is ALL CHEEKS!!  We laugh that everything she eats goes straight to her cheeks! 

She likes her excersaucer and ADORES her sister!!  Brooklyn often removes Chandlers hands from the toys and pushes them out of the way, but Chandler doesn't care.  She loves any opportunity she has to be close to and entertained by her sister.  I often find Chandler with her eyes locked on B and just grinning.

And, on occasion, Brooklyn loves her back!

Happy 5-Month Birthday, sweet Chandler!!

We love you!

Brooklyn and Barney

Brooklyn got tickets from Santa to see one of her favorite television characters LIVE in concert!

Barney!!

And he also brought tickets to her friends, Addisyn and Alexa, so we all got to go together!

We had great seats...just about 10 rows back from the stage!

No surprise, Brooklyn LOVED it!

She loved it so much I could not keep her in her seat!

Have you ever been in a car or room full of people where music is playing and when the chorus comes on EVERYONE knows it but you?  OKAY, maybe that just happens to me, BUT that is how I felt about Mr. Knickerbocker!

Only it feels even more strange, when that "group" of people included my 2-year-old daughter!! 

 Not only did she recognize the song in the first few beats, but knew the hand motions as well...and I was pretty sure I had never heard the song in my life!!

Brooklyn had a blast.  Of course, she would have preferred to actually be on-stage with Barney (you know how she LOVES her costume people), but this was the next best thing.

And I loved getting to share this experience with her! 

Sitting Pretty

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a sitter!!

Last week, at 4 1/2 months of age, Chandler started sitting up all by herself!

And, since she is sitting, I decided it was time to move her to her high chair!

No complaints from her!

And, just as a bonus, here is a picture of her from our walk the other day.

New Years 2011

Although Eddie and I tried our hardest to find a sitter for New Year's Eve, we probably enjoyed our evening much more with our "Plan B."

Plan B:

We invited our friends, the Wyatts, over for a low-key evening at our house.

I CANNOT choose 1 outtake on these so I HAVE to include all 3!

I tried to get Brooklyn to hold Chandler, but of course, she'd have no part of that!

She DOES love her little sister...but on her own terms...

We practiced the countdown several times with the girls, then we gave them their horns and had the "real" mock count-down before we put them to bed.

OK.  Apparently we should have given them the horns after we counted down because they were all so mesmirized by them that they wouldn't participate in the countdown.  AND THEN for the grand finale, they didn't even have the lungs to make the horns blow.  =(

After the kids went down, the adults enjoyed steak, twice-baked potatoes, green bean bundles, rolls and salad!

On China in the formal dining room!  Almost as good as a fancy restaraunt, right?

And then followed that up with a friendly game of Scattegories!

And I won't say who won, but only that they aren't photographed in the picture above.  =)

 After we finished our super-late dinner and game, there was only about 15 more minutes until the New Year so we all made it despite having 4 very little ones!!  Pretty perfect Plan B!

New Year's Day

The girl's played inside.

And outside.  (Here's a look at B's new playset!!)

The guys watched football.

And Brooklyn made it her New Year's Resolution to be "Paci-free" in 2011.

(More on that later...)

And she decided that after 4 1/2 months, it was finally time to hold Baby Chandler.  To my knowledge, this is the first time that she has EVER held her!!  And even seems happy about it!

Although, I can't say the same for Baby Chandler!  =)

Cheers to a Happy 2011 and for all that God has in store!!