thank you, easter bunny

brooke had a great weekend celebrating easter.  she seems to love any holiday involving lots of candy :)  my girl has quite the sweet tooth!  her two favorite easter gifts - her very own Hello Kitty cell phone and Peeps.  yum :)

Our New House

we're 60 days away from owning this great home in snoqualmie, washington!  we put an offer on a house on thursday and reached an agreement with the seller by the end of the day.  now, if only selling our house is this easy, we'll be in great shape!  our new house is a great home on a corner lot with awesome views of the mountains outside our front door and a kids' park/plaground right across the street.  it's a huge house with lots of room for guests, so we hope to have a lot of visitors : )  we think we'll be very happy here for a couple of years.

seattle bound

we took our first trip to seattle as a family a couple of weeks ago to get acquainted with the great city we'll be living in for a couple of years.  this is a picture of us at pikes place market - one of the most famous landmarks in seattle.  we had a great trip.  brooke did fantastic on the long flights and really enjoyed getting to know seattle.  we had a great realtor, nancy, who became brooke's fast friend when she gave her a new baby doll upon meeting her.  we saw some great neighborhoods and great houses.  now we just have to play the waiting game... not much we can do right now but let the anticipation and excitement build since we're not moving until summer.

look, it's uncle carl!

so, brooke loves her uncle carl!  they are buddies.  we've noticed that occasionally when we're riding in the car, brooke will yell out "uncle carl!"  i finally put it all together and figured out that she thinks the guy in the verizon ads is uncle carl.  kevin and i find this hilarious!  think of it from brooke's point-of-view... she's riding in the back of a car, looks out the window and sees a picture of uncle carl on a billboard.  from a distance, you totally get it... dark hark, dark glasses, fitted jacket... it is uncle carl!  

naked dance party

last month my book club had our annual holiday party.  we always invite spouses and this year we included all the kids.  it's amazing how we've multiplied in the past couple of years!  there were kids everywhere.  three of the oldest kids - owen, reese and brooke - turned the festivities into a naked dance party.  i started changing brooke into her PJs when suddenly she looked into the other room and exclaimed, "they're getting naked!"  off she ran to join owen and reese, and they all danced the night away to kevin and samir's jam session...

pigtails

is it just me or are little girls in pigtails one of the cutest things on earth?  brooke is FINALLY into hair accessories so I'm taking advantage of this in case it's temporary!  mom could use some practice getting them to look even, but brooke is none the wiser : )

what a difference a year makes : )

So, we took Brooke downtown on Saturday evening for some good 'ole Christmas Cheer.  Macy's has a ton of stuff going on for the holidays - Santa repelling off a roof, fireworks, cookies & storytime with Mrs. Claus, etc. - and there were tons of people downtown.  This alone was nice to see in Cincinnati.  Brooke enjoyed the repelling Santa Claus until he started doing tricks and flips down the side of the building, and then she said "I don't like that!"  Then the fireworks gave her a big startle, so we headed into Macy's to see Santa.  I've been trying to get Brooke psyched up to sit on Santa's lap, but I knew I hadn't completely convinced her.  She'd go back and forth saying "I want to sit on Santa's lap" and then the next sentence out of her mouth would be "I don't like sit on Santa's lap."  So, as you can see in this picture, Brooke didn't want any part of Santa.  Luckily this was a free Santa Claus visit where you take your own pictures, so not much was really lost.  Brooke started screaming the second we got to the front of the line.  There was NO WAY she was sitting on his lap.  She did manage to hand Santa her favorite Christmas book "Santa's Jolly Belly" which you see Santa displaying in our photo.  He was a good sport!  Thankfully, Brooke liked Mrs. Claus a lot better.  Right after this experience we took her to the children's department for storytime with Mrs. Claus.  There were tons of kids huddled around Mrs. Claus, and they were passing out cookies.  Enough said.  Redemption! After our adventurous night out on the town, Brooke awoke the next morning saying "I sat on Santa's lap."  Kevin and I said "you didn't sit on Santa's lap!"  To which Brooke replied "I cried."