Catching Up

My where has the time gone???? Life sure has been crazy this past year. It is now time for the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo for 2010 and the last post was for the rodeo of 2009! I need to catch up.

I read a friend of mine's blog and felt the need to update this blog for my baby girl. As a mother, I want to create things and write down things to cherish memories and incidents that Brooklyn can know about herself later on down the line that she won't otherwise remember. I built this blog to document Brooklyn and how she was growing for families out of town, out of state and friends to keep up with but after reading a friend's blog, I want to do this for Brooklyn. I want her to be able to pull up this website and look back at how she grew up, what was going on in life, what she looked like, the odd outfits mom would put her in, all the good things in life.

So to Brooklyn, I am catching up...

Brooklyn Nicole Ruff

3 years and 8 months!!!

Brooklyn, you are mommy's heart and soul. You are so precious and one of a kind. Your personality is one that I can not explain. But you bring me such joy, happiness, love, warmth, hope, and a lot of laughter. You have really gotten into danacing and love to shake your booty. There is a saying, "shake what your momma gave you!" Well honey, this isn't the case for you because momma didn't give you your little booty you have, you can thank your daddy for that one. :-) You also love to sing!!! You have the sweetest voice a mother has ever heard. You sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, your ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, Father Abraham, but your favorite songs for 2009 were Big Green Tractor by Jason Aldean and All The Single Ladies by Beyonce. You are into all the girly things! Barbies, baby dolls, all the Disney Princess, My Little Ponies, shoes, dress up clothes, makeup, dresses, coloring, and we can not forget about the stickers.

(You dancing one night to your own song that was in your head and words momma couldn't understand)

Right now, one of your favorite things to do is ask questions. You have come up with some really mind boggling questions. Some of your questions you have recently asked:
*Momma, what does Jesus do?
*What do puppies do?
*What do Momma's do?
*What do babies do?
*Why does God make it rain?
*Why are there people?
*Why do we cry?
*What do flowers do?
*What is love?
When you ask these questions, every answer that comes out of my mouth is followed by a "what else momma?" Two or three answers do not cut it for you and usually lead into more questions. Your mind is a spinning wheel all the time. You take in everything! I remember you coming home one day and saying, OMG mom! I have a 3 year old that says OMG!!! What has this world come to when we talk in text lingo?!?!?!




Right now, A&M isn't doing so good in football but it is still very much a family tradition. I am sorry honey, your pedigree is A&M!!! Your great grandfather, Grandpa; Bapu and Gdad, your daddy, momma lived there (didn't get the chance to go to school there but it is still a dream of mine), and Aunt Katie went to school down there. We are crossing our fingers for Aunt Molly. You are very proud of this jersey because your Gdad gave it to you and you wear it with pride. Of course, we aren't saying you have to go there but it sure would be fun!!! :-)

Brooklyn, mommy is going to end for today. I will post pictures of Christmas and some more that I might have lingering on my camera at a later day. But before I go, Mommy wants to tell you that you are my first baby. You won't understand this till you have a child of your own (Bapu used to tell me this all the time but I understand now) but you will always be special to me. You held a lot of first in mommy's life and those first can never be replaced. I will always look at you like my baby and will always want to rock you and hold you and make the hurt go away. You have filled my life with so much joy! Your smile alone makes my heart swell. Mommy will love you your entire life, unconditionally. You are one of a kind and you are my Brooklyn Nicole! I will protect you with everything that I am. I love you baby, for ever and ever!
Momma

1st Rodeo Trip

Brooklyn's first rodeo trip, I wasn't sure what to expect from her. I knew she would love seeing the horses and cows but wasn't sure if she would sit and watch the rodeo. Well, she absolutely loved it!!!!! She loved everything about the rodeo. The food, the animals, the rides, the rodeo clowns and of course, her best friend Kyler.

Like every REAL cowgirl, you have to have the get up. No cowgirl is complete with out boots, number 1, tight fittin jeans number 2, a sexy button up and a real cowgirl belt to go along and tie everything together. She was the hottest little cowgirl I have seen in a long time.

The first thing we did when we got there was take her straight to the petting zoo. Brooklyn is pretty skitish around strange animals and I wasn't sure she would want to go in when it actually came time to walk in the gate but man she was a pro!!!! She took the food that the lady gave her to feed the animals and she walked right up to all of them and feed almost every single animal that was in there.

We had to wait for her friend Kyler to get there so we decided to walk down to the carnival because what 2 year old doesn't spot the huge carnival lights! I wasn't sure about letting her go on any of the rides at first so her and I went down the sack slide. I think I was more nervous being up there and getting ready to come down than she was (mom is a little afraid of heights!). It was a blast coming down the slide. You fly down those things!!!

When at the rodeo, you must ride the ponies! If you know Brooklyn, you know that her favorite color in the world is PINK!!!! The girl can not stay away from the pink. I know, girly colors and it drives mom up the wall. She had to love the color that mom does not like at all. Oh well, the things you do for your kiddos. When we got to the pony ride, there was a white shetlon pony that had been spray painted pink in her mane and tail. Brooklyn was dying to ride the pink pony. She was beside herself wanting to get on the pony. As you can tell she was ready to climb over the gate and not wait her turn in line.

When it was our turn to get on the pony, guess what??? The pink pony had been worn out and was being taken off the ride because she was getting chin splints. No good!!! It took major coaxing on mine and Daralyn's and a little help from Kyler telling her that the pink princess pony was hurt and she needed to go lie down. When we convinced her of this, she settled for a little brown and white spotted pony.

I am a horrible mom and didn't get any pictures of Brooklyn watching the rodeo. I was into it myself. It has been years since I have been to the rodeo and I have missed going so much!!! But Brooklyn sat in amazment and watched everything go on. She enjoyed the rodeo corn dog, good ol' lemonade, and tried cotton candy for the first time in her life and guess what?!?!?! The child did not like it at all!!! She couldn't get it out of her mouth fast enough!!! Weird, I know. But all in all it was a good time.

We made it through Christmas....now we begin a New Year

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed your family and the food!!! I hope the New Year holds great things for you all.

We started out this Christmas season with a trip to the Parade of Lights in downtown Ft. Worth and Brooklyn had a blast. All she kept saying was, "Mommy look at the towers!!!" She was amazed at the tall buildings in downtown. I had a feeling that I might have been sheltering her from the outside world from her sheer amazement at the "towers." But when you live out in the country and it takes an hour just to get somewhere, you tend to just stay home.

Does this look like a face of happiness or what?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Now let's skip ahead a couple of weeks.....Christmas Eve!!! What an anxious night Christmas Eve is for everyone!!! I don't know if the anxiety for the parents is worst or the kids. I remember starring out the window seeing a red flashing light being told that it was Rudolph (of course what our parents and aunts were showing us was a radio tower...who knew). We would gather together as a family at my mimi and papa's house and have dinner and we kids would just dance around the adult table waiting on them to quit talking and let us open up our presents that had been staring at us the whole night. It was torture!!!! But now that I am a mom with a toddler, I couldn't wait for her to wake up and run into the living room and see what Santa had brought her. We were so proud of what we had gotten her and hoped that she would like it. It is such a fun filled night for both parents and kids.

We did our usual family Christmas with my grandmother at my aunts house. Through the years, our family has multiplied by the dozens and my grandmother's house just doesn't hold all of us. So off to my Aunt Becca's house we went.

Because our families have gotten so big in the last years, we have turned the tradition of present giving into were we all just get my grandmother something. Well, Brooklyn couldn't stand that Mimi was the only one getting to open presents, so she insisted on helping her.

Just a couple of pictures of the family........

These are some of the great grandchildren. We are missing Trip, Cannon, and the newest addition to the family, Trot!!!

We are all so grown up now!!!!! This would be all the cousins, minus Matt and Shannon and Justin. Don't we look like a fun group?!?!?!

And now for the fun pictures....Brooklyn on Christmas opening presents. She was so sweet and cute. Every present she grabbed, she would ask if she could open it. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them!!!!! It was cute.

Enjoy!!!!

Seeing them for the first time, wondering which one she will open first.



Doesn't she look so sweet?

Her with all of her presents........

I hope everyone got what they wanted and I wish you all the best in the new year!!!!!

Her Royal Highness Queen Brooklyn!!!!!

This year for Halloween Brooklyn was so into the princesses that she had to be one. So we talked with some family and found out that my cousin had the perfect costume for her. Princess Jasmine!!! She had so much fun playing the roll.

As every Halloween with our family, we start off the night with pictures of all the great grandchildren. We let them see each other's costumes and of course the mom's and the grandmother's love to come and drool over our cute little babies and us mom's make them stand their and take 1000 pictures knowing they are ready to go get the candy. But we are about memories!!!!!

The 3 Princesses!!!! Princess Jasmine, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty (L to R)

We tried to get a good group picture with everyone looking but if you look in the background, the small little skunk is running of, Brooklyn has just noticed that Tripp (the skeleton) had a scary mask on before we made them take pictures so she is a little stressed out being around him, Chloe is so over taking pictures, and Hannah is trying to figure out what is going on behind her. But we got them all together and enjoyed the memories of our kids being together.

As the holidays are approaghing, I would like to send out a Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope you enjoy this time with you families and make many many memories. Fill those bellies with good food and take lots of naps in between football games.

Stay tuned, there will be many many more post to come.