Merry Christmas!

Brooklyn sleeping with Grandpa! They were worn out!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We just returned from St. Louis where we were able to celebrate our first Christmas with Brooklyn! We had a great time and even had a white Christmas as we were leaving this morning. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with loved ones on such a special day! Here are some events of the past couple days!

This pretty much sums up how awesome our Christmas was! Sammy boy loves him some Cat in the Hat!

Brooklyn can't figure out if she wants to read or play with her horses

"You're crazy if you think I'm sharing any of my presents with you, Mom!"

"I'm stylin' and profilin', fool!"

Snuggling with Great Grandma WAY past our bedtime!

Our first Christmas with Brooklyn!

Sammy boy!

She'll be a St. Louis fan just like her mom!

An Italian "My first Christmas" onesie from Uncle Bubba Joe!

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

Santa!

I brought Brooklyn to see Santa yesterday and she did great! She was such a pretty girl in her Christmas dress and there wasn't any crying this time! I can't wait until next year! Santa with a 16 month old is going to be interesting! We went to see Santa when he was at North Park mall in Dallas.

Nice digs for 'ole St. Nick!

Don't go too far, Mom!

We also let her open one of her first presents the other day. She was mesmerized with the pretty wrapping paper!

It was her first Christmas stocking. So exciting!

Back from an extended hiatus!

Well it's been a while! We've been having so much fun around here I've had no time to update the blog! Brooklyn and I spent a couple weeks in St. Louis and this weekend and last we've been up at the lake! Don't worry, we've been staying out of the water! Next weekend we'll be back up in St. Louis for Christmas!

Brooklyn had her 4 month appointment on Monday. She is oh so close to doubling her birth weight and has grown over 5 inches! She got her 4 month shots and didn't even shed a tear! What a big girl! One of the most exciting things (for me at least) that she started doing last month is sleeping through the night! So nice! It's crazy how good I feel after 5 hours of sleep, even when it's 4 in the morning! She's also learned to roll from stomach to back and back to side. She can roll onto her stomach from her side, but not all in one smooth motion. She's been drooling and blowing bubbles like crazy. She can sit by herself with her arms supporting herself and I personally think it's hilarious when she falls over. Typically she falls forward onto her face. Don't worry, we practice on the bed where it's soft! Brooklyn also started sucking her thumb...or entire fist and putting everything in her reach into her mouth. And she's also talking like crazy! I finally downloaded Picasa on this laptop so I created some collages to show all the new things Miss Brooklyn Gal has been up to lately! Enjoy and I'll try to not stay away as long next time!

Memory card error!

Brooklyn and I spent last week up in St. Louis an took lots of pictures! Unfortunately...I turned it on Friday morning to take pictures of her with her first Build-A-Bear and apparently the memory card has been corrupted! Bummer! It only has 1500 pictures on it beginning in 2006! Luckily we have most of the pictures downloaded on to the computer except the ones from this weekend. The guy at the camera store says that you should reformat your memory card every time you download your pictures.

Well this weekend we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my family (including my brothers who came in from Italy and school in Arkansas), went to the Zoo and showed Brooklyn off to the Pink Flamingo camping club! Brooklyn also started doing several new things. She's been successful at getting her thumb into her mouth, rolling from her back to her side, tracking people who are all the way across the room and holding her head up in sitting. And last night she slept in her own bed in her own room and did great! Hopefully we'll get the camera working correctly and we'll be able to post some pictures from this weekend and of all the fun happenings around here!

Getting Baptized!

We had Brooklyn Baptized this weekend. My family came down from St. Louis and my best friend drove 13 hours with her husband to join in the celebration! It was a perfect ceremony. Brooklyn smiled the entire time even when the priest was rubbing oil on her head and pouring cold water on her!

Mom and Dad getting Brooklyn dressed

Ready for the big ceremony

Listening intently to the priest

Brooklyn was Baptized by Fr. Tom at All Saints

Taking it all in

This little girl loves swimming and anything to do with water!

My mom made Brooklyn's Baptism outfit!

Brooklyn's Godparents, Katie and Chris

After the ceremony we went to Jason's Deli.

Brooklyn can't wait to start eating real food so she can have some of those cupcakes!

3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

This weekend we had our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. We had a great turn out and lots of fun and delicious food! There were some impressive pumpkin carving skills demonstrated as well!

Here is Brooklyn on her first hay ride bringing the bales from the garage to the front door!

The Queen "B" has arrived!

One of the scrumptious apple pies!

There were lots of great carvings. This is the one that my mom did for her two grandkids.

Sammy was Spiderman and Brooklyn was a Sweet Pea for Halloween.

Here is Katie's pumpkin for Miss Brooklyn. (She's Brooklyn's Godmother)

Brooklyn has been going to sleep around 6:30 each night, so she wasn't able to go trick or treating with Sammy. But she did wake up for a few minutes to get her outfit on and take pictures with Spiderman! She was not happy about it though!

Thanks for the Halloween costume, Aunt Jan and Uncle Bruce!

Muscle man getting ready to go get some CANDY!

Busy weekend!

This weekend we packed our Saturday full of fun things to do! It turned out to be a beautiful day, so we were able to do all of our outdoor activities. We started the day bright and early by walking a 5K at the Race for the Cure. Before the race started we took a picture of her in the pumpkins at North Park mall.

Decked out head-to-toe in pink

Brooklyn was the hit of the entire event! She had cheerleaders screaming for her, other participants cooing over her and a random man take her picture! Greg carried her in the Baby Bjorn and she loved it!

She fell asleep for a little while and then was able to wake up in time to dive head first into the finish line! Look at that determination!

She was getting ready for the Longhorn game before the race.

We came home and she changed into her Texas outfit to cheer on the Longhorns against OU in the Red River Rivalry. We both took a nap during part of that game. But in our defense, we were up earlier than usual that morning and we knew Texas would pull it off anyway! After the game we went to Mass and then headed up to the FC Dallas game. It was Brooklyn's first game and first time eating at Rudy's! It was a little cold, but she was bundled up and had a good time watching FC Dallas beat the Colorado Rapids.

She's too busy watching the game to look at the camera.

She even got her picture taken with the FC Dallas dance team after the game!

We also tried out the Bumbo with Brooklyn and she's loving it! She holds her head up very well! Soon she'll be walking and hopefully helping me with the cleaning around the house. OK, maybe not!

Today Greg joined us for lunch so we could go back to North Park to take more pictures among the pumpkins. They have the craziest looking pumpkins there!

She's able to stand and support her weight. She just needs a little help with the whole balance thing!

This is my favorite picture of the afternoon. What is she doing with her mouth?

This is Greg's. She's getting ready to water the pumpkins.

Another wedding!

We made the trip down to Houston this weekend for Andrea and Jason's wedding. Andrea played soccer with Greg and I at Hendrix. It was another mini-Hendrix soccer reunion! We had lots of fun! It was Brooklyn and my first time to Houston. The weather was nicer than I expected given that that is all anyone seems to talk about when you mention Houston. Well, that or the traffic. And the traffic wasn't too bad either, but it was the weekend. Anyway, we had a great time and Brooklyn got to meet more of her honorary aunts, uncles and grandparents! She did great during the full Catholic Mass...it's what we've been working up towards with the previous weddings she's been to. That's crazy that she's been to 3 weddings already! What a go getter!

The fam with Leah who took our awesome maternity pictures! Brooklyn is fake sleeping in this picture!

Snuggling with Dad after the wedding. She was cold and tired and ready to go back to the hotel to sleep!

Brooklyn getting some good lovin' from the bride! She's counting down the days until it's her turn!

Greg and I went to the reception by ourselves so that Brooklyn could get some sleep and not lose her hearing from the loud music. I think with as many weddings as she's been to we need to invest in some baby Bose noise cancelling headphones!

Me and all the Hendrix soccer girls at the reception!

This picture is from today. I'm trying to have her wear all of the little baby outfits that she hasn't worn yet before she outgrows them. And she is about to outgrow the cute little shoes too, so I had to get a picture! Look at that sweet face! You can just imagine what she's thinking!

"You realize that I can't walk yet, right? OK, as long as we're on the same page here."

This weekend we've got lots planned! Race for the Cure, Texas/OU weekend and an FC Dallas game. And that's just Saturday! Yikes! It's a good thing I put in my two week notice at work the other day!