The After-Party

We celebrated Kevin's birthday the day after Christmas.  He of course had to go to work, but we had a yummy dinner of Christmas leftovers, and his new favorite ice cream (Dreyers S'mores) for dessert. 

Ellie was turning one on the 28th, but since they were leaving for Utah on the 27th, we let Ellie open her gifts early.

Brooke had one more present that she hadn't opened, and it was a hit, literally :)  She understands the concept of hitting the ball, and does NOT like assistance in swinging the bat.  This is now an outside toy, don't worry.

Papa getting in some last minute snuggles with Ellie.  He has jumped into his Grandpa role quite nicely :)

Brooke helping NayNay feed Miss Ellie.

We had the whole family here for a total of 13 hours I think.  Kimberly and Josh flew in on the 27th at about 1:30 in the morning.  I was sleeping peacefully by that time, but Jeffrey stayed up with my parents watching old VHS tapes that my parents recently had converted to DVD.  Once everyone was awake on Saturday, we sat down to enjoy breakfast together and just talk!  Honestly, it was very refreshing to get to know Josh a little better and see him interact with my sister.  After breakfast, we just lounged around the house together until Jeffrey, Madi, and Ellie headed off to Utah to finish their holiday vacation.  

For lunch, Kimberly wanted to go to Whataburger.  She has coworkers in Denver I guess that told her she HAD to try it, haha.  I don't think it is that great, but I sent them (with Dad), to go give it a try.  They thought it was pretty good, so maybe I just order the wrong thing. And of course, they had to take pics in front to document the adventure.

That evening, we all headed to Ft Worth for dinner and to show Josh a little bit of what Texas is all about, besides Whataburger :)  We intended to walk around the stockyards, but when it was 30 degrees outside with freezing winds, we opted for a drive-by instead.

Sunday we headed to church, but went home after Sacrament meeting to prepare a nice dinner before Josh had to board a plane back to Denver.  It was seriously a revolving door around her.  Dad grilled another tri-tip and some sausage, and it was another tasty meal together.

Brooke was not feeling the Sunday pics, but Kimberly wanted a picture anyways :)

We started this puzzle Saturday afternoon, and were able to finish it minutes before Josh left for the airport.  I definitely didn't pull my weight on this one, but I was okay with that.

We then celebrated Dad's birthday on the 30th.  Crazy to think that he is 57 years old.  Sounds kinda young to me though, considering that a lot of my friends' parents are much older.

Kimberly also left on Dad's birthday, so it was down to our little family and Mom and Dad. We enjoyed a few more days together until they had to go home as well.  It was really strange when everyone was gone!  We loved hosting this year, and would be open to doing it again if everyone was willing to come back :)

Christmas Festivities

Christmas Eve happy moments: making and decorating sugar cookies, cooking, watching Elf, building Brooke's retro kitchen (we're talking 4-5 hours here!! the amazon reviews were no lie), and reading the Christmas story in Luke.

The not-so-happy Christmas Eve moments: Brooke's horrible temper tantrum right as we were about to sit down to dinner.  I had never (nor since), seen a tantrum quite like this from our sweet girl.  Apparently she didn't want to come sit down for dinner, and she was screaming and threw herself on the floor.  I quickly took her to my room to try to get her to calm down, but it only made things worse.  She didn't want me to hold her, but she didn't want me to walk away.  I don't think she KNEW what she wanted, or needed, but it was not pretty.  I honestly was so upset with her behavior, on Christmas Eve no less :(  Before going in my room, I had told my family to please start dinner.  Well, after 10 minutes or so in my room, Brooke had calmed down, so we tried to go back out.  When we were nearing the dining room table, she lost it again.  And nobody was eating, which made me frustrated. I told everyone to please eat while the food was hot, and Kevin and I both went to our room to try to figure Brooke out, haha.  He was trying to hold her and make her calm down, which wasn't working, so we finally walked away and I honestly can't remember how long it took for her to pull herself together.  We finally joined the rest of the family for dinner, but my nerves were a mess, and Kevin felt bad because Brooke wouldn't even go to him anymore.  So, after dinner we bathed Brooke and put her to bed in hopes that she would be her happy self on Christmas morning.

Christmas Morning:

Brooke loved her new kitchen from Santa, and her pots/pans and fridge set from my parents.

In the afternoon, Jerry and Bev came over to join in on the celebration.  The Peacocks weren't able to come because Kinley was throwing up all night, poor girl! The men (with Brooke) were grilling the tri-tip.

Sitting down to a delicious meal, and thankfully, Brooke wanted to eat dinner and was on her best behavior.

Opening a few more gifts: Play food from the Peacocks to go with her kitchen, and a fun train set from G + G Meador.

We really had a beautiful Christmas with both sides of the family. With the exception of what we lovingly refer to as "Brooke's Christmas Eve Episode", the holiday went perfectly. Most importantly, we were able to think about the Savior and his role in our lives.

Merry Christmas Brookie Bear :)

making memories

Did I mention how great it was to have family at our house for Christmas??  Well, it was great just to wake up and have so many people I love under the same roof.  

Jeffrey celebrated his 27th birthday while they were here.  They went on a movie date while we watched Ellie (who was already asleep...easiest babysitting job of all time!), and then we had cheese cake when they came home.  My brother is a HUGE fan of my mom's cheesecake, so that is what I made.  Kevin has become quite the fan too, so it became a joke the whole time we had family at our house.  I made cookies and toffee for the young women, and Jeffrey and Kevin would say, "These are good, but not as good as cheesecake." You had to be here, but the constant talk of cheesecake was pretty amusing.

Although Kevin had to work a ton during the holidays, he made an effort to hurry home each day, and we still managed to make the best of the time we had together.  I love this picture because it shows the love he has for his little girl.  And of course he had his go pro camera out to get some footage of Brooke.

The camera came with us to the park as well :)

My parents flew in really late on Saturday night, the 20th. Brooke had been super cranky that afternoon, so she went to bed early! About 10:30, she woke up, and was WIDE awake.  Like, squealing and jumping in her crib.  So, I went upstairs to try and rock her, and she kept saying "Hi" to me, and poking my eyes and saying "eyes", OVER and OVER.  So, I decided that maybe we would go downstairs for a bit until NayNay and Papa arrived.  Maybe Brooke knew that they were coming, and didn't want to miss it :)

Waiting and waiting with Aunt Madi until they arrived!  I was so happy that Brooke went right to them.  You never know how kids will react.  She saw them in October at Kimberly's wedding, and we FaceTime a lot, which seemed to help.  She recognized them right away :)

After hugs and snuggles with Brooke, we all headed off to bed since we had church at 9am the next day.  Kevin went to his meetings, then came home to bring us the truck so we could all make it to church.  He stayed home with Brooke, who had been sick. But don't worry, I still had a quick Sunday picture with my man.

After church pictures...

I mentioned this in the last post, but we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Dallas Zoo together.  Uncle Jeffrey wanted a picture with the girlies.  I love seeing him with Ellie, and also seeing the love he has for Brooke. He's a keeper.

I can't say enough about my parents.  I really love them so much and appreciate all the effort they make to be with their family, despite the fact that we live in different parts of the country.  I am seriously hoping they can move to Texas sometime soon.