Brooke's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated Brooke's first birthday with some friends, and John's family even came from KS! It was such a fun day... making things sparkly and sweet for Brooke's Winter ONE-derland  =) 

This girl tore into her cake! She absolutely loved it. Meanwhile we're all laughing at her, and she just kept looking at us like, what's so funny???

Our precious friends and family... what a blessing it is to have people that love and celebrate our girls with us!

12 Months Old

Can't believe our Brooke is 1 year old! I still feel like she's my little baby girl... and yet watching her, she seems to be growing up at warp speed. She has so much personality! She is full of joy and happiness, with quite an adventurous spirit. Seeing her discover new things and figure out how stuff works is so much fun. We love you Brookie, and are so very thankful God sent you to us!

At 12 Months Old, Brooke:

• has taken her first steps! She definitely still prefers crawling cuz she can move faster... but she'll take a couple of steps with some encouragement =) 
• cruises up AND DOWN the stairs all on her own - which can be handy, and not so handy at times! 
• wants to eat whatever we are eating no matter what it is 
• loves playing with her big sister! They are so cute - watching them make each other laugh is one of my favorite things 
• claps, loves peek-a-boo, and is quite the dancing queen 
• drinks from a sippy cup, but still has a bottle in the morning and at night 
• weighs 18.5 lbs and is 28 inches long

When her big goofy grin shows all her teeth, I think she looks 2 years old!

Taking her very first steps at Hoppy's house!



Silly girl

My makeshift "gate" is blocking her from going upstairs... and this is sneaky look she gives me after I've told her "no" because she attempted to climb over the green pillow



Such a big girl!

Family Pictures

Our dear friend Kristen, who has moved back to TX  =(  was here visiting and wanted to come over and take some pictures of us at home.  She encouraged us to just go around the house doing our favorite things together and she'd snap some pictures to capture a bit of our lives... 

Below is what resulted! An adorable group of pictures that are simple and natural - just us being us in our home. And I completely love them  =)