Christmas, Round 2

We spent Christmas with Charlie's family down in Osceola. When we arrived home, there was snow everywhere! Osceola had a couple inches while our house survived a blizzard. You can kind of see in the picture the house across the street-the snow is all the way up the their front door, there are steps up to that door under all that snow!

Saturday night, when we arrived home, we let Brooklyn open up the rest of her Christmas presents. She was real excited to unwrap an Elmo doll. It sings and dances the Hokey Pokey.

She unwrapped her new shirt from Uncle Ryan and wanted to put it on immediately.

One of the coolest presents was a book. Not just any old book but a voice recorded book. Her Grandpa and Grandma Nelson recorded their voices reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. Being that they are so far away, she can now hear their voice whenever she wants.

Brooklyn test riding her new rocking horse. We were blessed with many fabulous gifts this year, thank you to everyone!

Our Little Helper

Brooklyn loves to help out around the house. Whether it is closing doors or pushing the buttons on the washing machine, she is eager to participate. In the last couple weeks she has taken a liking to sweeping. She will go and get the broom or swiffer out and just start sweeping.

It is a little big for her but she handles it pretty well.

After getting back from California over Thanksgiving, we decorated the Christmas tree and decided to go ahead and get the miniature one out as well for Brooklyn. It is her tree and she is allowed to take her ornaments on and off her tree. It is working pretty well as she leaves the big tree alone. We were surprised on how much help she was decorating the tree. She was able to hang quite a few ornaments on the trees by herself. :)

Brooklyn hanging an ornament on the tree followed by some good old high fives.

A California Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed out to California to visit Valerie's parents. It had only been two months since Brooklyn and Val's trip but Charlie had not been out since March. The weather was fabulous while we there which doesn't always happen in Monterey.

Brooklyn's sleep schedule was a bit off while we were there. She was waking up around 5:30 AM! She was still on Central time:) With her getting up so early she fell asleep on peoples laps a couple times. Here she is with Grandma. They were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Brooklyn woke up a couple times to clap for the parade only to lay back down and go to sleep.

Getting some quality time with Great Grandpa Rey on Thanksgiving.

Grandpa Nelson is always willing to share his favorite type of cookie with Brooklyn. Here she is enjoying her Oreo. By the time she was done, it was all over her-including her toes!

The Friday following Thanksgiving, Val's sister and her family came down to visit. Above is Brooklyn with her cousin Autumn enjoying a ride on the bike together. Brooklyn is three days older.

Autumn pushing Brooklyn and cousin Coral.

Look Grandpa!

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Monterey. This was Brooklyn's first trip to the beach. We have visited and looked at the beach before but this was the first time she experience touching the sand. She LOVED it! It was a real joy to see her so happy.

Brooklyn was a bit leery of the sand at first but within minutes she was picking it up and sharing with Grandma. Eventually the sharing turned into throwing it at Grandma:) Brooklyn was smiling ear to ear and laughing so hard.

Throwing the sand.

We also attended the local Christmas parade. Brooklyn was frightened at first by the motorcycles but enjoyed the rest of it. She was clapping and smiling at the acts going by. There were some entertaining groups.