A Look at the Last 5 Months!

Wow! Has it really been 5 months since I've posted? To give you a quick look at our last 5 months...

Sept- really busy!
Oct- really busy!
Nov- really, really busy! Happy 1st Brooke and Happy 30th Carlton :)
Dec- a relaxing kind of busy! We finished so much of our Christmas preparation in Nov. that we were able to just enjoy our time together in December! The least stressful Christmas ever!! :)
Jan- enjoyed being lazy! It was a really nice change of pace! It was so nice to just spend time with the family and not worry about "what needs to be done".


Our sweet baby girl is 14 months old now and is all grown up! So I'll start the pictures with wrapping up her "first year pics."

Our last post ended with Brooke's 9 month pictures (Aug 20), but many people commented they didn't scroll down far enough to see anything past her "crawling" video, thinking that was it.

So here they are again.

10 months

(Sept 20)

oops...these look more like Spring pictures!
But still so cute :)

11 months

(Oct 20)
more pumpkin patch pictures of both kids to come later in the post

12 months

(Nov.20)

Happy Birthday, our sweet, beautiful baby girl!

12 month stats:

Height...27.75 in (12%)

Weight...21 lbs, 7 oz (55%)

** The height I listed in my last post for 9 months was wrong.

At her 12 month appointment, they figured out they measured her wrong at 9 months.

So, no, she wasn't actually up to 40% in height.

We started September out with going to Dallas to visit my family.

This is a picture of us with my brother, Ben, and his girlfriend, Lauren.

While in Dallas, we went to Amazing Jake's. Mason had a blast.

This is a picture of him rockclimbing. No fear!

Brooke and Mommy at Amazing Jake's.

Beautiful, blue eyes!!

We also visited my sister, Tieise, and her family.

We got to meet her new baby boy, Keegan. He has already changed so much!
Back home...Mason's first day of Pre-K.

At the beginning of the fall semester, Mason was promoted to the boys' "kindergarten to 1st grade" class in gymnastics. He still loves gymnastics and is continuing to improve.

He does floor, pommel horse, vault and bars.My two favorite boys!! Both so handsome :)

Mason's Fall 2009

School Pictures

(4 1/2 years old)

The first picture is his

"I'm up to something look."

I love that they captured that!

I took lots of pictures to come up with the perfect picture for Carlton and Brooke's birthday party invitation. This was taken in October, so Brooke was 10 1/2 months.

Pumpkin Patch

Such a sweet big brother

Happy Halloween.

Mason was Iron Man and Brooke was an angel.

Fall Festival at our church. This is Mason's friend, Ella.

He's not too sure what to think right now!

We put up Christmas lights a little early this year so we wouldn't have to do it after hosting the big birthday weekend and traveling for Thanksgiving.

Brooke put a bulb in her mouth and Mason thought it

was hilarious that her cheeks lit up.
Brooke loves BATHTIME!

Carlton turned 30 on Nov 19 and Brooke turned 1 on Nov 20, so we had a father/daughter birthday party. Family came from all over Texas and stayed for the weekend to celebrate.

Mason helped to plan the party. He was positive that a pinata should be a part of every party and he also made party hats for everyone.

Oops! Is this picture out of order? Days before her birthday, Brooke started standing on her own. You can see here it didn't last for long each time!

Thanksgiving in Dallas

The day after Thanksgiving, we celebrated Christmas with my family.

This is my brother making his entrance.
Hoping it's a new tradition for Uncle Ben.

Mason and Brooke with his cousins, Michaela (15), Christian (8), Sarah (6) and Keegan (5 mo).

For those of you that don't know them, these are my sister's kids.

We also celebrated Michaela's 15th birthday that day.

The cake (candles lit) nearly slid right into her lap!

Back at home.

Mason's first SNOW!!

Brooke slept through most of the heavier snow, but that was good b/c Mason and I could play and not worry about her being too cold, etc.
As you can see, Bailey loved the snow too! She laid out in it (or under it) all day.

Our snowman :)

It lasted about 5 minutes. After I took this picture, we came inside for a snack. I guess Bailey decided she was ready for a snack also. She knocked it over and ate the fruit on his face.

Dancing to Christmas music! Mason loves Transyberian Orchestra. He said he'd only dance to "cool" songs. December was so much fun and simple this year. Nothing we had to get done (thankful we had already done everything!), so we just hung out and had fun together.

We took Mason to the Galleria to see the big Chrismas tree. He was in complete awe of the entire mall. I wish I had a video to show you of his reactions. Totally worth the trip just to see his face light up from all the decorations and hustle and bustle!

Since it was a special trip, we let him do the trampoline bungy thing.

Brooke's first haircut...the "bad bang cut of 2009!"

The stylist got a little scissor happy. Bangs way too short and crooked :(

We didn't really want bangs on her (Carlton doesn't like them on her at all), but it was the only option for a girl who constantly takes her bows out.

She did pretty well. No squirming or crying so no excuse for being crooked :(

She's cute no matter what hairstyle she has!!!!

Mason attends the Visual and Performing Art Center's Pre-K. He is involved in two programs. One is the actual pre-k (two days a week) and the other (one day a week) is a program that focuses on a reading curriculum, taught through the arts. This is a picture of his "end of semester" program from the reading program. Mason is the Lower Case "e".

Art Galleries followed each program. The pic on the left represents his work from the "pre-k" program. And the one on the right represents his work from the "reading" program. Art is one of Mason's first loves, so we were very happy to find this preschool for him. This is his second year.

We took the kids to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens in Galveston.

Brooke is our little "food stealer". Here, she stole the dog's bone...right from Bailey's mouth!

She has done this often enough that Bailey now knows to go straight outside with her bones.

Merry Christmas!

These next two pics were taken at our church.

Carlton's parents and his sister came in from Austin to celebrate Christmas with us.

I love the way she is looking at her big brother!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Each Christmas Eve, Mason helps us bake and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus.

Then we sing "Happy Birthday" and eat the cake on Christmas Day.

We like that this tradition reminds Mason of the reason for the season.

Christmas Morning

2010

She's walking!! Brooke took her first two steps on January 6th and started officially walking on January 15th, 5 days short of 14 months. She still has a wobbly walk, and i am glad because it is just too cute! Mason never did that. He went straight from first steps to running.
And she finally found her exit.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Sorry it was all at once!!!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a blessed beginning to 2010!