CHRISTMAS!

We were able to make it out to Utah for the Christmas Break. We were out there for almost 3 weeks and we loved being with family again. Here are just a few of the pictures from Christmas.


One of my favorites!

Christmas with the Woodworth's

I love Brooklyn's face in this picture because she was so excited for this...

A baby!

Brooklyn had a lot of fun playing with her cousins and grandparents.

Christmas with the Gibson's





Brooklyn was extremely spoiled by all of our family. Although, I have to admit, she wasn't the only spoiled one! Tyler and I made out pretty well too! We bought another suitcase to bring home all of our loot!

While we were there, it snowed and snowed and snowed. I haven't seen the snow so piled up so high since I was a kid! It was fun to see, but once we got back to Michigan, all it did was snow and snow and snow... I'm kinda tired of it. Oh well, guess I better get used to it because we still have another 3 months of it!! All snow aside, it was a fun and exciting trip.

First Pony-Tails!

Yay! Brooklyn's hair FINALLY fits into a Pony-Tail! Hopefully, she won't get called a "boy" anymore!

It was really hard to get the pictures while she was moving, so I had to stick her in the high chair to actually see the Pony!

Thanksgiving

I know it's kinda late for this post, but better late than never, right? I WILL catch up... one post at a time!

This year was the first year I've EVER had to cook anything for Thanksgiving. We decided to have our own little Thanksgiving together as a family. (Which was good, because we both got colds. Luckily, they didn't last forever and we were better by the time the weekend was over. It was nice to have a few days to lounge around and not worry about anything.)

I have a new-found love for cooking. So, I was REALLY excited about cooking this whole big Thanksgiving Dinner. And, I was quite impressed with how my Turkey turned out.



It tasted as good as it looked and smelled! It was really fun to spend the time together. I was quite happy with my finished product of everything!

Unfortunately, we were so excited to eat, that we didn't take any pictures of us, just the food. But we had a GREAT time and I had as much fun preparing the meal as I did eating it!

Happy Brooklyn

Brooklyn is such a happy baby. We were at the mall the other day and as we are walking through the halls, Brooklyn was sitting in her stroller watching all the people go by. When anybody walked passed her, she would wave her little hand and say, "H-i-i!" And it's not just the mall- the grocery store, church, play groups... She is the most social baby I have ever seen. No stranger anxiety here! She really makes every one who comes in contact with her feel special.

Some of my friends have asked, "Is she always this happy?" And my answer is... YES! And here are some pictures to show how happy she is. (Most of these are just after naps.)

My Little "Helper"

I love watching Brooklyn grow and learn how to do new things. She is becoming more of a "little girl" and less of a "baby" every day. She is so good to help me around the house.


She cooks,



does the dishes,



picks up her toys,



and cleans! She is such a good "helper."


So, what do Tyler and I do while Brooklyn takes care of things around the house?



We do puzzles! We've been working on this one all week!

Halloween Fun

I've been told that holidays get to be a lot more fun when there are kids involed. This year we have found that to be true. We dressed Brooklyn up as "Our little Pumpkin" and had a blast at all of our Halloween Parties!



First we went to the Halloween Party at our Church. It was the first time Brooklyn had seen other kids dressed up and I think she was facinated by how different everyone looked!



Then we went Trick-or-Treating at Tyler's school. It was so fun to see all the kids lined up as they walked down the administration office getting candy. Brooklyn's favorite was the little box of Nerds. (They make noise when you shake them.)



Next was the Halloween Party at our apartment complex. We went had dinner, roasted marshmallows and went on a haunted hay-ride. The party was so fun!



After all those parties we were to tuckered out to go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night. We stayed at home with our traditional chili and had a good time with some friends.

Brooklyn loved her costume so much! She kept wanting to put her Pumpkin pants on and wouldn't let me put on her PJ pants! And first thing this morning, she tried to put the whole outfit on again by herself.

We hope everyone else had as fun as we did on HALLOWEEN!

Grandma and Grandpa Gibson Come to Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Gibson came to visit this last week. I'd say that Brooklyn was SPOILED, but that wouldn't even begin to describe the fun she had! I guess you could say that Tyler and I were a bit spoiled too. :0) We LOVE visits from family!

Our little social butterfly HATES to miss a party! Brooklyn spent the first night in the same room as Grandma and Grandpa. Needless to say, Grandpa didn't get much sleep that first night!



Grandma and Grandpa's air mattress bed was a perfect trampoline!

Brooklyn slept in Mom and Dad's room after that first night! She knows we are party poopers and actually went to sleep.

We took a little road trip to Kirksville, Missouri to see Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Brendon. When Steph had told me that they lived in the middle of nowhere, I didn't realize how middle of nowhere it actually was! We drove through miles and miles of country and through twisty, turvy, up and down, roller coaster highways to get to their house.

Brooklyn was a real trooper. Throughout all the twists and turns and ups and downs she sat in her car seat in the back saying, "Wooo!"



(She also learned to say, "Cheese!" when the camera gets pulled out and she makes this funny face!)

The 10 hour drive was well worth it! We got there just in time for Brendon's birthday! We had a yummy Birthday dinner, fun games of Spades and my new favorite, Ticket to Ride, and lots of catching up and bonding.

Brooklyn loved playing on the stairs

Grandpa was trying to catch up on email, but just wasn't able to take his attention away from Brooklyn... or was it Brooklyn demanding attention from Grandpa? I can't remember.

Then we had a long 10 hour drive back to Michigan.

Fortunately, we got to play with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple more days before they headed back to Utah. Unfortunately, most of that time was messing with car problems that we were having. But it was still SO fun to have some time with them!

Bye everyone! Thanks for the fun trip! We miss you already and can't wait to see you all at Christmas!!