She's here!

Grandpa Richard and Grandma were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in Salinas an hour earlier than expected. Thanks Denny and Jenny for the ride. Brooklyn was tired but managed to pull out her energy reserves to mingle for a bit. Of course Val's mom took her first but was kind enough to let Richard hold her a bit. Brooklyn thanking Grandpa for her Tigger rattle.

Brooklyn with her Great Grandpa Rey

Grandma Sandy was more than happy to help out with the nighttime feeding.

Eating out

Our first stop in California was Sacramento to visit our good friends Denny and Jenny.After getting the grand tour of Roseville we stopped at Applebee's for some grub. This was Brooklyn's second time eating out and first time in the restaurant high chair. She ate sweet potatoes and behaved wonderfully.

California dreamin' on a such a winter's day

Brooklyn is rip roaring and ready to go see her California grandparents. This will be her second flight out there. She is going to need a frequent flyer card. We are looking forward to seeing our west coast family and friends.

She can't hide her excitement.

Get your animals ready for some love, Brooklyn Love, that is.

Get your throwing arm ready Grandpa Richard! I am ready to play ball.

Goodbye snow, hello sunshine!

Actually we looked up the weather and it looks like it may rain all week. Here is Brooklyn all bundled up and ready to go with mom to get the mail. Sometimes she even gets to hold a letter. You just got to be sure it is not important as it usually arrives with a bit of saliva on it.

A little more Christmas....

Since our first year being married we have bought a customized ornament with our name on it. Andy has always been on it since he was part of the family. With the arrival of Brooklyn we decided to remove him. But it is not all bad news for Andy, we bought him his own ornament. Sorry we couldn't figure out why the picture was rotating.

the tree

Not quite as good as the Griswold's but not bad for out first year with Christmas lights. Not too much but it is a good start. This was another after Christmas deal Val got last year. Hopefully we can add to it a little more next year.

Have a Holly, Jolly, Christmas!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we broke out the Christmas decorations. This year we are putting up a medium/large size fake tree. Val scored a great deal on it last season after Christmas. We would consider this our first Christmas tree in the house even though last year we had a 3' fake tree. This time last year we were moving into our house and had boxes every where. Funny that the 3' tree last year was top priority. As for this year, Val was ready to put the tree up weeks earlier but Charlie nixed the idea. As for Brooklyn, this is her first Christmas and seemed to enjoy watching us in action.

Brooklyn got to check out the Christmas towels while mom decorated the house.

Along with our tree, Val found some garland to decorate our railing. Add a touch of lights with some red bows and....PRESTO! We thought it turned out well.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....

We were able to find Brooklyn a stocking that coordinated with the two we already had. Andy's stocking is the one on the right if you couldn't tell.

Here is the final product. Unfortunately Brooklyn's bedtime came before we were able to finish. So far just the Val and Charlie but we still plan to take one of all three of us in front of the tree. Stay Tuned!!

Hi, my name is Brooklyn and I am a shopaholic.

This past week was Brooklyn's first time shopping out of her car seat. She seemed to really enjoy sitting up and looking around.

Big Girls

This past weekend while we celebrated our two for one holiday extravaganza, Brooklyn got to spend time with her older cousins. She really seemed to enjoy watching them in all the craziness. It won't be long before she is partaking in it.Brooklyn test driving Sophia's Christmas gift while Maura cheers her on.

This was a little reminiscing for Sophia as the excersaucer used to be hers. Thanks cousin Sophia for letting us borrow it!

Brooklyn got to play dress up in the make shift house with Maura. She is the prettiest princess we have ever seen.

Mema Love supervising the action.

Mom and Julie took Brooklyn out to see the puppies. We don't think she was quite ready for them as she didn't like them too much. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.

Christmas in November

Did you get a picture of that?

We celebrated Christmas early so that everyone could be together. The whole gang was there this weekend. We even had a couple new additions to the Love Clan, Julie and Jason. They came up for Thanksgiving and were there for some of the Christmas festivities as well. We enjoyed having them there and hope we didn't scare them off. They got to experience a little of the COUNTRY life. :)

John and Jason putting together the domino display. This picture doesn't quite do justice to the anticipation in the household. The fun got started around the time our nieces and nephew were taking baths. We wanted them all to see it so each had to wait around in anticipation. We basically had to ban them from getting close to the table. One wrong move and it would have all come tumbling down and Jason and John would have lost all their hard work. There were a few close calls, but needless to say, the kids were able to hold out and they all got to see the Domino Rally fall into action. They really enjoyed it and as soon as it was over they all yelled "DO IT AGAIN". We all chuckled and said maybe next time.

Anna, notice we edited the picture :) Maura is rockin in that nice black dress.

Straight into the mouth.

Brooklyn getting a taste of her Baby Einstein DVD.

Brooklyn opening her Christmas gift from Papa and Mema Love.

Yeeha!

All the kids got a pair of boots for Christmas which they were able to wear later that day in a picture for their grandparents. Only a few weeks before we get to see how they turned out.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at The Love Ranch. It was a full house-full of delicious food and people. Lot's of menu items to choose from. Almost too many, cause the turkey barely fits on the plate when you get to it. What a FEAST! Val loves the Broccoli/Rice casserole and Charlie loves it all.

Must be the fresh air.

Here are the beautiful Love sisters, Liz and Anna. Can you believe these two lookers have two kids a piece. Wow! (Obviously Anna is baking child number three)

Brooklyn met her Great Grandma Carmen on Thanksgiving. Brooklyn did awesome this weekend with all the noise and new people.



Puppies!
Olivia and Maura spent much of their weekend playing with the new litter of pups.

Beep Beep!

Get off the road, Brooklyn is coming! Here is Brooklyn riding her car around the kitchen. Her favorite part is going in reverse.

Live from Olathe...

It is Brooklyn Paige!

Hot off the Press!

I caught her!

The little sneakster. I saw her roll over from her stomach to back in her crib today. This is the first time we have witnessed the act.

Sitting Pretty

Brooklyn is officially sitting up! We are very proud of her. While she still falls eventually, she doesn't seem to mind and just rolls over onto her belly and goes on about her business.

She LOVES her links.


Here she is with her book.

Warm and Toasty

BE CAREFUL DAD IT'S HOT!

With the weather getting colder everyday, Brooklyn has a new favorite activity. When Daddy gets home, they sit by the fire and bond.

Sweet as Candy

No news or exciting stories today, just Brooklyn being Brooklyn.

Happy Five Months Brooklyn!!!

Today is Brooklyn's five month birthday. Time has really flown by and we are amazed at how fast she is growing. With every passing week, sometimes day, she is doing something new.

She is a mouth fart champion (we call this motor boating), sometimes laughs, and has a smile that brightens your day.




One of her favorite activities is going in the exersaucer. We had to raise it this past weekend as she is getting so tall.

Thanks Aunt Anna for loaning me the exersaucer, I love it!

Jump, jump, jump around!



Here she is enjoying her jumperoo.

Meow...

She smiles whenever Andy comes around. Sometimes, with supervision, we even let her pet him. We would not be surprised if "cat" is her first word.

This past week, Brooklyn started rolling over in her sleep. One night this past week I was shocked to discover her upside down. Somehow she ended up the opposite direction.
She has been rolling from back to stomach since she was 11 weeks old. However, she has yet to roll from her stomach to back. With that said, we honestly don't know if she ever will. She has no interest in doing it and might even be crawling first.








After a few episodes during her first bath experiences, Brooklyn has grown to enjoy bath time.

Chilling like a villain. Thanks Grandma Sandy for the hat. Charlie wants one in his size, different color preferably. She is getting so big!







Yummy! Green beans! We have started Brooklyn on a couple vegetables this past weekend. While we think she prefers the sweet potatoes, she ate the green beans like a champ. I guess she takes after her Dad!

Brooklyn can now sit up unassisted for a short time until she gets excited and falls over. We are still working on the balance.