trying to be like daddy

brooklyn had fun playing with daddy's tie while he took a nap one afternoon. she is such a daddy's little girl!

brody is five!

another star wars birthday party for brody

the birthday boy

best brody face captured on camera EVER!

brodys favorite colors are orange and green

he loves everything star wars and legos

he is such a fun boy and such a good little boy. he is always trying to do nice things for his mom and dad. he will clean up his room without me even asking or pick up all the toys in the family room at night by himself.

not my homemade cinnamon rolls but they will have to do today

brody is very meticulous. everything has a place or spot where it belongs. if brooklyn doesnt put it back right..oh no! he loves little toys and gagets to play with. he has multiple boxes were all his little treasures are kept. i love it!

brody has multiple "friends" they are his stuffed animals. he loves each and every one of them. he only gets to sleep with three otherwise he would sleep with all of them every night. it drives me nuts that he has so many and i cant get rid of any but he loves it and all i can do is smile with stuffed animals in every inch of his room.

brody woke us up bright and early sunday morning to open his presents. he could hardly wait! he loved all of them especially his DS which i am sure you can tell by the picture above. he wanted another star wars birthday theme despite my protests. mom cooked him cinnamon rolls, bacon and eggs for breakfast. we then were off to church. after church we relaxed and he played with his birthday toys. we cooked a low key dinner and just spent the evening enjoying each other. daddy and brody really just played the DS while brooklyn did my hair. we sang happy birthday with his star wars cake and the weekend was over. back to work for daddy and back to real life for mom. we had fun celebrating with our big boy. he is the apple of our eye. we love you brody.

sandia peak tramway

so one of the many fun things we did in albuquerque is ride on the longest tram in the world!!! it was beautiful! that really doesnt describe it at all! since brody's birthday was on a sunday this year we thought we would do some celebrating on saturday to make it a little more fun for him. he loved riding up the tram and hiking around with josh at the top. poor brooklyn had a high fever the night before and that day so she was feeling pretty lousy. mommy stuck around with her enjoying the views. we ate new mexican food for lunch (yes it is different than mexican) and then went back after the tram for some naps. later that night we finished off celebrating by going to chuck e cheeses for dinner and fun. i think brody had a pretty fabulous day! we sure did!

the holbrooks

oh the holbrooks how we love them! they were so kind to take josh in for a week and then accommodate me and our kids for another week while we were in albuquerque. we played and played together. the kids had so much fun staying at their home and had a hard time when we moved into our apartment we rented for the next couple of weeks. we did so many fun things while we were there...we went to the aquarium, the botanical gardens, the park a couple of times, the zoo, swimming, and on our last night there we all went to dinner in old town. heather took me in when we moved to virginia and she literally got me through some tough times after having brooklyn. when they moved i went to say goodbye to them at their house and i drove away in tears. i would miss my friend. she is such an amazing friend and i am so lucky to have her in my life. we had so much fun catching up but really it was like we were never apart we picked up right where we left off. thank you so much to them for letting us stay with you and invade your home. josh will be back for his interview and who knows maybe we will be there in may?!

brooklyn is three!

birthday girlie

is three now

her favorite color is pink and purple

her favorite princesses are ariel and bell

she is quite the teaser and loves to tease everyone especially her daddy. she calls him goober tounge and loves to try and tickle him.

she tried to blow up the balloon but it shot out of her mouth...she thought it was funny!

she wont let us cut her hair because she wants to be rapunzle

her cute bell "cake"

singing happy birthday

she is quite the hair dresser and loves to do barbies hair, dolls hair, and mommy hair...we think she will be a hair stylist someday

brody gave her a rapunzel purse which she loves

she loves to sing songs and oftentimes i find her singing songs to herself while she plays with toys. the songs are only songs she knows because she makes them up as she goes.

she still takes a nap (unlike brody at age 3) and she still needs it otherwise we have a grumpy girl for the rest of the night. brooklyn is a morning girl...her happiest time of day is right when she wakes up. and of course that is mommy's worst time of day. but i still love her even if she wakes me up at 6:30 AM.

she absolutely adores her brother and will do anything and everything for him. she is so good to him. he really is lucky to have her for his sister. she is also such a outgoing little girl. she gets so sad when we go to the gym and tells me "no one played with me today...i asked them to but they didnt" i have to tell her that sometimes other people are shy...she doesnt understand how that could possibly be.

arriving in arizona the night before brooklyn's birthday made me a little anxious. how was i going to pull off making it a fun day for her?! i brought all her presents with us but as far as a birthday party was planned...i actually had one planned in virginia with friends. well thank goodness for grandma. karen took over planning her a fun birthday breakfast with all the family before we would drive to meet daddy in new mexico. i was so grateful and touched that all of josh's family would come to celebrate last minute with us. it made my day and of course made brooklyn feel very special. all she wanted was a bell cake for her birthday so we just plopped bell on top of her strawberry and whip cream waffel and she was set. she loved it and of course loved all her presents. when we were flying to arizona i was talking to her on the plane about her birthday. i asked her if she was excited to get her presents? "no!" what do you want most on your birthday? "i just want my daddy!" she had missed josh so much. she cried daily and it was hard to console her. well she got what she wanted for her birthday...HER DADDY! after breakfast and getting all ready we started driving to new mexico. poor scott and josh had worked all night so they were driving on little to no sleep. we met josh a little over halfway and then i drove the rest of the way while josh slept. we were thrilled to see our daddy! brooklyn ended up having a wonderful day thanks to josh's loving family. they took such good care of all of our needs and more. thank you karen for making brooklyn's birthday special. happy birthday baby! we love you so much and are so grateful you are in our family!

hurricane irene

josh left for new mexico to start our first of three away rotations in orthopaedics. the first few days were rough because we missed him so much, but both josh and i thought the kids would get over it. well we were WRONG! they cried everyday for daddy. especially brooklyn, she had such a hard time with her dad gone. i tried to keep the kids busy doing our last of summer fun things. we went to the zoo, we went to the beach, we went swimming at the Y, we went to the library, we went to the park, but nothing seemed to be helping. well after almost a week being without josh, news of the hurricane started to really rise my fears. i prayed and felt comforted but still i just needed josh. i wish i were stronger, but i need my man in my life. after many emotions, i still got everything prepared for what this hurricane might bring. on thursday scott called and asked how i was doing. trying to not cry, i told him i was okay that i had gotten everything prepared. he asked about evacuation information but really where we live if they order an evacuation there is no place to go. the only way in and out of virginia beach is by bridges or tunnels which they close if winds get too high. well we were expected at the time to have 110 mph winds. the roads were already jam packed up everyone leaving. the gas stations took forever to get through to get gas. the grocery stores were running out of bread and water. it was very scary to be seeing all of this and hoping that we would be safe. well scott came to my rescue and offered to fly us out on friday. the hurricane was supposed to hit us saturday. i was more than relieved, i cried and cried tears of gratitude while i quickly packed up the rest of us and got the house cleaned for our morning departure. we were going to fly to arizona where we would stay the night and then scott and karen would drive me and the kids to meet josh halfway to new mexico on saturday. it really was all a blur now that i think of it. my heart is still so full of thanks to scott and karen and my parents for helping us escape the storm. yes, everything was probably going to be fine but it was so wonderful knowing we would be safe. our flight was great, the house got locked up and keys were given to our friends who were going to watch it. scott and karen were amazing to do so much to take care of us. they truly are my other mom and dad and i feel so blessed to have them in my life. my heart is so full of humility and thanksgiving for all they did for us. and on saturday they took care of everything and more (especially making brooklyn's birthday special) getting us to see josh. luckily, our house was one of the few that didnt lose power. we had friends come and stay at our house while their power was out for three days. the winds only reached 75 mph. we had parked josh's car at our friends house and luckily they moved it because were it was parked a huge tree fell there. our big tree by our house didnt fall over but a big tree down the street did smashing a car. we were blessed and protected. thank you thank you to scott and karen and my parents for taking care of us. i will forever be indebted to you.