Brooke's Blessing

Brooke was blessed on October 30, 2011. We were so lucky to have so much family around, but we were also sad at the family that wasn't able to make it. My sister and her family live in Georgia and my brother and sister-in-law live in Tennessee and they weren't able to make it.Our family (as usual Lydia was wiggly and didn't want to pose- good thing she is so cute).Brooke and meBrooke and Justin - I posted two of them because the second picture of her looking up at him is so precious.We were able to get pictures with everyone that came.

My parentsJustin's parentsGrandma Norma and Grandpa DickGrandma Stirling
Grandma Stirling and Justin's uncle LloydJillian and BradyClayton, Michelle, and AriannaBrandon, Stacey, Trey, and LeviStephanieMy extended family - McKel and AlexAndee and JakeDan and SherryRandee and LeeMore pictures of cute little BrookeWe are so grateful for everyone coming and supporting us and we feel blessed to have such wonderful families!!

Weekend of Brooke's Blessing

Lydia was a big helper in getting the house cleaned and goodies made to have company come after Brooke's blessing. She's not the best at cleaning up the toys. She seems to pull them out faster than we can put them away! However, she loves to help me make cookies.Justin's family came up to support us with Brooke's blessing. We were able to hang out a lot which was a lot of fun. Lydia enjoyed pushing Arianna around in her car. She is slowly getting better at sharing.Here is Brooke with Clayton and Michelle, followed by a cute pose from Stephanie!We all went to McDonald's for lunch. Trey was so helpful in watching Lydia and playing with her. I told Stacey that I was going to keep him because he was so handy to have around.Lydia and Justin were able to go swimming too. The Parkers and Langstons stayed at a hotel (his parents and Stephanie stayed with us). I stayed out so I could take care of Brooke. Lydia loves water and had so much fun swimming.Justin also loves the water and thoroughly enjoyed himself!Isn't she just so darn cute?We also went out to dinner with his family. Lydia was teething again and teething is extremely hard on her, so we ended up leaving dinner early and going home to get her ready for bed since it was past her bedtime anyway. It was really nice having all of Justin's family up an being able to hang out.

Lydia's Horse

We were at Cal Ranch with my parents and my dad got this horse down off the shelf for Lydia to ride. Well, she loved it! She was rocking back and forth so fast and just smiling and giggling. After awhile, my dad tried to take her off the horse so we could put it back. Lydia didn't want to get off and held onto the handles and wrapped her legs around the horse so when my dad tried to pick her up off of it the horse lifted off the ground too. She did not want to get off. She loved it. My dad finally got her off of it and put the horse back onto the shelf and then Lydia tried to climb the shelves to get it. Needless to say, my dad decided that if she loved a horse that much how could he not buy it for her.She loves it! She rides it every day and also tries to lead it around the room. It is so cute watching her with it. It makes a horse noise and also sings a song and she pushes the button over and over and over again. She loves it!! I can't wait until we can get her a real pony!YEE-HAW!!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken on October 13. We were going to have them done the same day as Brooke's newborn ones, but the weather was bad and we wanted to do them outside so we postponed them a week. We are glad we did too because it was a perfect day for pictures when we did them.Lydia would only hold still in this picture if we let her have the flower.Dad and his two girls.
Me and the girls.
Me and JustinLydia doesn't really like to hold still or to be in one place longer than ten seconds. We bribed her with M&Ms to get her to hold still and look at the camera. Luckily, our photographer was able to get some in between Lydia's wiggles.We don't have any of just Brooke because we had done her newborn pictures the week before. We also tried to get a few sister pictures, but Lydia is too wiggly. Lydia didn't really have much of a chance to be anything but wiggly because both Justin and I can't hold still either. Maybe one day we'll get a good sister picture!

Brooke's Newborn Pictures

Brooke had her newborn pictures taken on October 6, 2011. She was two and a half weeks old when they were taken. We had someone from our old ward in Eagle Mountain take them. It was really cold so Brooke wasn't the most cooperative with them so we only got a couple of really cute ones. It is fun having them though and seeing how much she has already grown and changed. They get big so quickly.I love this one of her on the piano bench. It makes her look so little.Her hair got messed up when I put her dress on her, but these pictures show how long it really is.This is what her birth announcement looked like.Brooke is such a good baby. We love having her in our family and we know that we are truly blessed to have her here.