The Brooker Family

11/22/2011

Anniversary Trip

Bear and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary today on November 22, 2011 and we just arrived back from a fun anniversary getaway! Each year we go on a trip to celebrate our anniversary and we alternate who plans the trip. Well, this year it was my turn to plan the getaway. I decided we would go down to Captiva Island to South Seas Resort. We had never been there before, so we were both excited to go. It was special to take Marlee with us to celebrate our anniversary too. We stayed busy the whole time on this trip because South Seas Resort has so many activities to offer. I would definitely recommend it, especially for people with kids. We played in the fun pools, spent lots of time at the beach, went bike riding, shopping, walked around looking at all the big yachts, ate very good, and enjoyed just being together as our special family of three. I have lots of pictures from our trip...enjoy :) Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband...it has been an amazing 3 years and cheers to many more years together!

When we arrived in Captiva, we had lunch at RC Otter's...it was very yummy!

Marlee loved cooling off in the pool!

Daddy and Marlee swimming together :)

What Marlee thought of the helmet she had to wear on the bike :(

Marlee figured out quickly how to take her helmet off and once it was off, she enjoyed her bike ride. :)

Marlee loved sliding down the slide :)

Marlee loved playing with the beach sand.

My loves watching the sunset! I love this picture of them! :)

I caught her...eating sand!!!

Our Anniversary dinner at The Bubble Room...YUMMY!!! :)

Marlee always sits in a restaurant high chair like this...one leg in and one leg out :)

Marlee is like her Mommy and Daddy and likes red velvet cake!

Marlee loved crawling on the beach!

We had lunch at The Island Cow before heading home :)

11/20/2011

Sunday afternoon with Papa

This afternoon Bear and I took Marlee out to my parents pasture to spend some time with Papa (my Dad). Marlee loves being outside, riding the buggy, and looking at the cows out at the pasture. Papa and Marlee have so much fun together and she always leaves with dirt from head to toe, but I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

We love you Papa! :)

11/19/2011

Emerson's 2nd Birthday Party

This afternoon we attended Emerson's 2nd birthday party! It was a carnival theme and her Mommy did a great job with incorporating that theme into everything! It was precious! There were tons of games for the kids to play with tickets and prizes, a bounce house, a guessing game, face painting, popcorn, cotton candy, corn dogs, hot dogs, chips, and cupcakes decorated with yellow and white marshmallows on top to look like popcorn! It was all just too cute! Marlee enjoyed playing some of the games...but most of all enjoyed crawling around, watching all the kids, and playing in the sand box. Thanks for inviting us Emerson to your fun birthday party, we had a blast! We love you sweet girl!

Playing the ping pong toss :)

Emerson and Marlee eating cheetos...their favorite! :)

Playing the football toss with Daddy :)

Heagan and Marlee sporting their new cool glasses :)

Marlee having fun playing with the Mega Blocks!

Marlee loved the sand box!

Happy Birthday Emerson! Your party was so much fun!

Brannan's Baby Shower

My best friend, Brannan is having a sweet baby girl (Auburn), due January 3rd and today her sisters hosted a baby shower for her. Marlee, GiGi (my mom), and I attended and showered Brannan and Auburn with lots of love and a few special gifts :) Her sisters did a really good job on all the PINK decorations and yummy food. We had a fun morning visiting with friends and Marlee can't wait to meet her new friend Auburn!

11/17/2011

Daddy's Home

Daddy's home from his seven day hunting trip and we are happy girls! We missed him. :( Marlee was very excited when Daddy got home and reached straight out for him. Daddy's girl :)...I am sure in a couple of years she will be going on one of those hunting trips with Daddy.

Dinner with Big Granny

When Bear is out of town, Marlee and I usually catch up with my grandma one evening, Marlee's Great Grandmother, who we call Big Granny (she is really big...haha...you will see this in the picture...we have just always called her that because my great grandmother, her mother, was Little Granny) and go out to dinner with her. Marlee loves Big Granny and Big Granny is very fond of Marlee too! Sweet memories :)

Butter Baby

Marlee and I were in the kitchen and I was cooking dinner..she was playing with some toys. I went and opened the refrigerator to get some sour cream out and left it open since I would be putting it right back. Well, Miss Marlee decided that she would crawl over to the refrigerator and help herself to the butter. She got the container out, opened it all by herself and went to eating it! I knew that she liked butter because in restaurants she likes it on bread that I will give her to chew on...but I didn't know how much she liked butter. Paula Deen would be so proud of this butter baby!

11/16/2011

Gator Girl

Our sweet Marlee is a TRUE Gator Girl...she still thinks they are # 1 even though they are having a tough football season! We bleed blue and orange in the Brooker household! :)

Going for a ride on Grandma's John Deere buggy

I take Marlee over to my Grandparents house about once a week to visit to with them. Marlee loves going to Grandma's and playing with her toys and I love the yummy lunch she always fixes me :) Most of all though, Marlee loves going for a ride with Grandma on her John Deere Gator. Grandma even bought Marlee some boots to wear on the buggy. Marlee's cousin Easton is usually there when we go and he loves buggy riding too. We usually ride through the groves, visit the pecan tree, and check the train track for Thomas the Train. Such fun times and fun memories...thank you Grandma for always being such a fun Grandma!!! :)

11/12/2011

TAYLOR SWIFT

Marlee LOVES and I mean LOVES Taylor Swift! Whenever she hears her voice, she stops anything she is doing and crawls to the TV to watch her. It really is amazing...I started picking up on it about six months ago and couldn't believe it! I would tell people and not that they didn't believe me...but you know...maybe didn't fully believe me...until they saw it with their own eyes. She just hears Taylor's voice and is captivated! Well, for Marlee's birthday...her GiGi surprised her with Taylor Swift concert tickets!!! Who would have thought that Taylor Swift would be coming to Tampa to the St, Pete Times Forum to preform on Marlee's birthday weekend! We were so excited!!! We knew Marlee would love the concert but we didn't know how long we would stay...you know a 1 year old can get bored with stuff pretty quickly. We hung out inside by the food vendors while the warm up acts were on and let Marlee crawl around. My friend, Cristy was at the concert too and brought her daughter and visited with us while we were all waiting for Taylor to preform. Well, at 8:31 p.m. we went to our seats and got ready for Taylor! We had amazing seats!!! We were so close...and Marlee could really see everything, which was perfect! Taylor sang from 8:31 p.m. - 10:45 p.m. and Marlee was engaged the whole entire time! We never left our seats! She would dance and clap and watch...everyone around us was commenting on how they couldn't believe how into the concert she was. Taylor just won "Entertainer of the Year" and I can see why...she puts on a fabulous show! Thank you GiGi for such a wonderful birthday present!

Marlee in her DIVA Taylor outfit!

Watching the concert!

We were so close...it was awesome!

There was a big screen right to the side of us and Marlee would watch it from time to time!

Marlee dancing!

Taylor preforming Marlee's favorite song...Mean

Still dancing!

Marlee had her first taste of pizza at the concert!

Clapping for Taylor!

Her stage was beautiful!

Taylor flying over the audience!

11/11/2011

Marlee's 1st Birthday November 11, 2010

I can't believe our baby girl is 1 year old today! Marlee turns 1 on 11-11-11! How neat is that of a birthday date! It seems like just yesterday that she was born! I know that sounds philosophical but really it does. You never know how quickly times flies until you have a child of your own. Anyways, Bear was gone hunting in Kentucky, so we bought some good ole Publix cupcakes and went to GiGi and Papa's for lunch to celebrate this BIG day, since we had her fabulous birthday party last Sunday with her special cousin Mary Kate to celebrate with everyone. Easton was at GiGi and Papa's so, he helped us sing "Happy Birthday" to Marlee and enjoyed a yummy cupcake with her. He also helped her open her presents. We then went home for a quick bath and loaded up with GiGi and headed to Orlando to the Millenia Mall. Santa Claus was arriving on the rooftop of the mall at 6:45 p.m. and we wanted Marlee to see this special event for her birthday. It started at 6 p.m., with festivities benefiting the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital. There were Christmas characters walking and bouncing around, food samples being passed out by mall food vendors, music, lights, and LOTS of people. Marlee enjoyed people watching and hearing the music. The characters were fun to look at...you will see why in the picture. :) At 6:45 p.m., a loud boom went off and Santa came jumping out on the rooftop with lots of smoke. Marlee could not take her eyes off of him. Then fireworks started going off, which she loved and to top it all off...SNOW started falling! It was so neat and I can honestly say Marlee was having fun with all of this excitement! :) YAY! We then headed to Bin Fin Seafood for a yummy dinner...Marlee loved their bread and butter. They were so nice and brought out a PINK (Marlee's signature color) Ooey Gooey Cake with pink icing drizzled on the cake and a strawberry...and a pink candle to celebrate her special day! She loved the strawberry and GiGi and I loved the ooey gooey cake! Marlee had a great first birthday all in all...but we sure did miss Daddy being with us :( but that's ok...we are hoping he brings us home a big 11 point to hang on our wall for Marlee to point to when you say "Where's the Buck?"