Ringing in 2012

New Year's Eve is always a fun event. Blake's brother hosts a family get together at his house and we all come prepared to eat yummy food and enjoy spending the evening together. It's a 5 hour drive from our house to his, and we had been telling Brooke that as soon as we got there we'd go swimming at the hotel. She was jumping up and down she was so excited! Sadly, I forgot my camera so all you get are some pics from my cell phone.Waiting for the elevator...Brooke had her floatie and was all ready to go!
She went back and forth from the pool to the hot tub for 3 hours! Thanks Honey (Blake's mom) for swimming with her!

Funny story from the pool: Brooke started playing games with her cousin Skylar. He is almost 13 and was a really good sport about it. Skylar pushed another one of her cousins into the pool so Brooke, following his example, went up to Karson (who is 4 mo. younger than Brooke) and pushed him into the pool too. I think all the adults were feeling a mix between shock and laughing. Luckily, Karson is a little dare-devil and didn't seem to mind the unexpected push into the pool. I went up and had a talk with Brooke about not doing that, but it was pretty hard for me not to laugh.

After swimming it was off to Kent's house. The cousin's did a gift exchange. Amelia got Brooke a 4 ft cardboard clubhouse that you color and then set up. It will be a fun project to work on when the baby comes and we aren't going anywhere :) and a giant horse-purse. Brooke has already named the horse "bullseye" and calls herself "Jessie-cowgirl" and rides the horse around the house. We set off fireworks (Brooke was only slightly afraid this time instead of petrified and crying like she was over the 4th of July) and the cousins played and played. I stuffed myself sick on sushi (don't worry, I didn't have any that had actual raw fish in it), Jeannie's awesome guacamole dip, Steph's yummy jalepeno and artichoke dip, sugary sweets dipped in chocolate fondue, and the best coconut cake ever! (Steph, I need that recipe!) Before I knew it, it was 11pm and Brooke and I were off to bed. We had such a good time, as always.

Here are Brooke and Karson giving us some New Year's entertainment:

And this has nothing to do with New Year's, but I have been wanting to post it for a while. My brother and sister-in-law got Brooke this cute winter gear:A bunny snow-hat with matching pink gloves. She looks adorable in it, but we had just watched A Christmas Story so I couldn't help but being reminded of this:

Happy 2012!