Plymouth Orchards, Fall 2008

Annual trip to the apple orchard, with friends!

Brandon, Toni, Lainey, David and Griffen New.

Owen, on the wagon ride, mesmerized by his new stampers

Landon and his buddy, Brandon

My girls, Toni and Dawn

Rylie, modeling the hay bales

It was Griffen's birthday, so we celebrated with him and his family

Me and Owen

My kiddo's and the annual orchard prop spot!

My idea of the perfect way to end a perfect, fall day! SLURPEE'S!!! YUM!

Soccer boy!

Soccer, Fall 2008

Landon was able to go to KY. this summer and spend a week at soccer camp with my cousin Kevin. Kevin is the organizer for the camp and told Landon that if we could get him down there, it would be free for him to attend. My dad was nice enough to drive him down for the week. They stayed with my dad's brother and his wife while they were there. Landon had such a nice time.

This is Landon's 4th year playing. Summer camp really helped him out. He's been using his feet to pull off some amazing moves. He has assisted and scored in every game this season. He's finally building up stamina and is pretty fast on the field. I would say he's finally enjoying it! Go Dragons!

His first game, playing in the pouring rain for over an hour...such a good sport!

Rylie turns 10!

September 29, 2008

I always knew that the double digits would hit us sooner or later, but boy!.. I was not prepared for our baby to turn 10! I still can't believe it. I remember buying her very first outfit when I found out that I was pregnant with a baby girl...10 years ago. Rylie is such a good kid and we are so proud of the young lady she is turning out to be. She still loves everything girly, although, this year her skirts and tights have been replaced by jeans. She is still very passionate about any kind of mammal, insect or reptile, whether it be puppies and kittens or snakes and spiders. She has a passion for all of them! She's doing great in school and participates in Jr. Girl Scouts, swimming, softball and church. She can't wait to turn 12 (I say, slow down!) so that she can help at church with the little kids. Her favorite color is green, of any shade. We recently re-did her room in polka-dots. Her request was that at least some of them were green. It turned out cute and it was all her idea. I think she's proud of it. We love you, Rylie!

Rylie and her new dress. She took in homemade chocolate chip cookie bars for her class. She had enough left over to share with some teachers, which I remember being very exciting.

Some of Rylie's friends from school came over to celebrate...

Me and my girl...

Nathan and his little girl...

Ahhh...summer!

Happy Birthday to Owen, Papa and Landon!

Every summer since 2000, my dad has had to share his birthday with Landon, and then Owen came along and now it's the 3 of them. Owen's is July 29th, my dad's is July 31st and Landon's is August 1st. So, within 4 days, we've got 3 birthdays to celebrate. This year, however, I decided to have the boys' early because we would be in Alabama with Nathan for their birthdays. Although it hasn't been said, I'm pretty sure my dad will feel a little lonely without them this year, which is also disappointing for us. He loves them so much!

We invited a few close friends and our good friends from Georgia were in town, so they were able to be a part of it. Landon was especially excited because his " special friend" Harper, from Georgia was there! We had it at the park across from my parents house and were lucky enough to get one of the pavilions. We had great weather, except for the 5 minute downpour that we had. Again, lucky to have the pavilion! The boys were happy to get a few gifts to open and money for our upcoming Disney trip, in 2 weeks.

I made croissants the night before with turkey or ham. We also had watermelon (as you can see in the photo above), potato salad and chips. Cupcakes topped off the party! Overall, we had a nice day!

My dad and Owen

Landon and Owen

My niece, SofiaGriffen, Owen's buddy, and Owen

Brandon, Jeff, (Landon's buddies) and Landon

Owen and my niece, Simone

Harper and LandonHollyn, Hudson, Hailey, Harper, Rylie, Landon and Owen

Rylie donates her hair

Rylie Donates Her Hair June 2008

Rylie heard from a friend over a year ago that you could cut your hair and donate it to Locks of Love. Once Rylie knew that she could do a good thing for someone who was in need, she didn't hesitate. It didn't surprise me because that's just how she's always been, very compassionate. So, we began the process of growing it out, making sure that we kept it trimmed up enough so that there were no dead-ends. It didn't take long before we had at least 10 inches (which is the requirement) to donate. We made an appointment with my life-long friend and hair stylist, Marissa, and had it done. Once we got it washed and into a pony tail, we discovered that she had a full 12 inches to donate. One little snip and the process began. Boy, she has thick hair! Rylie proudly held up her pony and offered a huge smile. She says she feels like a new woman and can't wait to grow it back out and donate it again! We are very proud of her and hope that her beautiful hair will help someone else feel beautiful too.

Mother's Day 2008

When Rylie asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day this year, I told her jokingly that I wanted a back massage and someone to come and clean my house. That definitely would be nice, right? Since I knew that Nathan was in Alabama this year I knew that the kids were on their own with trying to make this a nice day for me, which was fine, but I knew it would be interesting. Anyhow, after I told Rylie about my Mother's Day wishes, she informed me that her gift would be much better than that. When I woke up this morning, Rylie came downstairs with 2 gifts. One was an obvious flower in a pot...ha! and the other one looked like a CD wrapped up. I knew that she didn't have time to go shopping with anyone in order to help pick me something out, so I was curious to see what was inside. It was a CD. Only this one was had a decorated cover with her school photo on it and it was decorated by her. Inside was a list of the songs that were on there. Apparently her teacher does this every year for the mom's. I thought it was a great idea! She asked if we could listen to it, but seeing that I had just woken up, I asked her if we could wait just a few minutes until after we ate breakfast, but she insisted that we listen to just the first one. So, we did. She put the CD in the player and ran out of the room! I wasn't sure why she ran, but then I quickly discovered why. The first song wasn't a song at all, it was Rylie speaking.. She said the following:

Dear Mom,
Your the best mom in the wourld. (I'm spelling this the way she did as well!) Thanks for being there for me when I'm hurt. I will never for get all my BirthDays I've ever had with you. When I whent to camp last year on my birth Day I cood not stop crying because I missed you so much! I'm really glad your my mom! I'v really notesed that when Daddy leaves your there for me. I will always be your little girl. Thanks a lot for TRYING to help me with my homework. thanks for helping with school activitys and church activitys. thanks for ceeping me healthy. Your the best at a lot, so I'll give you 3 thinks that I like the best. one is your cooking. my faveoret thing you cook is your home made spagety, my secont faveoret thing is your really kind and sweat, my last faveoret is you can be realy funny. You make me feel good in many ways because your nice and I love you mommy. Thanks for beleving in me when I don't beleav I can do some thing. happy Mother's day. Love, Rylie

I'll admit it, I was totally crying! Following that message was the first song. As I was listening to it I knew I'd heard it before, but couldn't figure out where...and then, it hit me! It's by Boyz II Men and it's called A Song For Mama. When my Aunt Lois passed away from cancer 7 years ago (almost to the day) my cousin Luke had sang this song at her funeral. I wasn't able to be at the funeral, but when I went down later that fall, my cousin played it for me in the car when we were driving to visit her grave site. Listening to this song again today for the second time really made me realize a few things. Most years, Nathan is involved with buying my gift and saying it's from the kids. Thos have always been great things, but honestly...this year was my favorite of all years. Years from now, I will be able to sit and listen to the words that my daughter wrote herself and relayed to in a special message to me. How priceless is that? Rylie and Landon both decorated a pot at school and planted a flower just for me. I can plant those with them and look at them everyday to remember how precious these days are and how fast my kids are growing! Mother's Day is not about how much money someone spends on you or if you get breakfast in bed, or a clean house or even a massage! It's a reflection of the relationship that you have spent years forming with these blessings that God has called children. How often do I stop to think about what an amazing gift that God has entrusted in me? I get to be their mom! I get to listen to them laugh and watch them smile. I get to be their cheerleader at their games and help them learn. I get to be their friend and their teacher. And, one day, when they are older and go out into this scary world alone, I will hopefully be the one that they will still come to when they need something. And if I'm lucky enough they'll think I'm still cool enough to hang out with. I will never get these days back, but I hope that I am doing enough now to make sure that our relationship is still just as strong years from now. I can just be there for them when they need me, listen to them, pray for them, help them, hug them, care for them and make sure they know that...THEY are the best gifts that I have ever received!

Getting started...

Getting Started...

Well, I'm finally doing it! Creating a blog, that is. I've thought about this for a while now, but have never felt like I would have the time to sit down and do it, but after years of failing to write in my kids' journals, I decided now was the time to put my thoughts down.

Things around the Brooks household have been crazy since November of last year. The day after Thanksgiving my mom got a call from her doctor with news that none of us were hoping for. She had colon cancer. She went into surgery the week before Christmas and had about 2 feet of her colon taken out and came home Christmas Day with about an 18 inch incision down the middle of her stomach. Her faith in God has been the one thing keeping her spirits up and keeping the rest of us calm. She has had a long recovery, but so far, so good. During that time, when I was suppose to be helping her out, I ended up in the hospital myself having surgery on Jan. 4th. Five days after Christmas I fell on some ice and broke both bones in my right wrist, completely dislocating the bones. I had a metal plate and 8 screws placed. The morning after my surgery, Nathan called me at the hospital and told me that his Granny had passed away. We knew that she wasn't doing well. We would've loved to have been there with the rest of his family, but there was no way that either of us could've gone. Nathan was on a field service job and had been home for 2 weeks during Christmas break. He had to go back to Alabama two days after my surgery, leaving me with three kids (one in diapers, mind you!) and no one to help. I knew he had no control over this and I know that if he could've stayed he definitely would have. Still, it wasn't easy. I went in on April 22nd for my last follow-up for my wrist and it looks like I've still got about a year before I will see the results that I want, but for the most part, I'm doing really well.


Softball for Rylie and Baseball for Landon started a few weeks ago. This is Rylie's second year playing. She's 9.5 years old now and this year started fast pitch for the girls. She was very overwhelmed at first, but I thinks she's starting to feel more comfortable. Landon has played tee-ball for 3 years and this was his first year of pee-wee. He was so excited because instead of using the "tee" to hit off of, they got to use a pitching machine. Two days after my final orthopedic surgeon appointment and one week before his first game, Landon fell off of his friends bike and broke his arm. I couldn't believe it! These kids just keep adding more to my plate and I'm full!!! ha! He has been in a cast now for almost 2 weeks. He's so full of energy and he has not let this hold him back...at all! He goes back in a week and gets another cast put on that will be below his elbow and then 2 weeks later he will get that one off and hopefully be done! Just in time for summer!

Our kids...

Rylie is going to be 10 this year. I'm really having a hard time with the double digits! She's really a great kid. I tell her all of the time that her brain must be full of sunshine and rainbows. Although, she can be very dramatic and quite terrible to Landon, she is kind, compassionate, positive and completely comfortable in her own skin. She doesn't care about things that most girls her age care about. She thinks boys are dumb and doesn't feel the need to be someone she's not just to impress someone. She's pretty independent. She loves Science and History and likes to be involved wherever she sees an opportunity. She's a huge animal fanatic. I remember when she was 5 years old and she cried b/c our neighbor took a worm out of our yard to go feed to their turtle. She was so mad and didn't think it was right for this person to steal our worms and didn't want to see it die. That's our Rylie!



Landon will be 8 this summer. He is our goofy, wild man! He is very athletic and loves video games. Although he's very smart he says he hates school, but I'm sure it's only because he'd rather be at home with me or with his friends. He spends most of his time riding his bike, skateboarding, playing video games and running around outside, doing whatever. Out of my three kids, he's probably the most like me...which kind of scares me. He hates to be alone and never thinks before he leaps. He reminds Nathan and I often that we are ruining his life, which is usually because he doesn't get his way or because we laugh when he's being a brat. He tries to get away with what he can, but if he gets caught he feels terrible about it. However, he is probably our most sensitive and is very loving and caring. He's always been "my little guy", but for the past year or so he's been consumed with wanting to be with his friends and I think I'm losing my position as his favorite person. He enjoys pushing Rylie's buttons each and every day, which is usually the result of many daily arguments and me rolling my eyes and telling them to knock it off!


Our little guy, Owen, will be 3 in July. I can't believe how time flies! He's talking up a storm and has such a personality! He's really, really funny! I think he's going to be our "class clown." He loves Buzz Lighyear and Disney Cars. We've been potty training for awhile now and he has the concept down, but I'm not confident enough to take him in public yet without a pull-up. He has tons of expressions and gets excited easily. He's very smart and full of energy. It's pretty hard to get him to sit still (unless he's watching Buzz or Cars) and he doesn't like being being hugged or kissede, unless he offers. He plays very independently and listens pretty well, for the most part, but he also likes to test me. The other day I lost my voice completely and he wanted to know where my "sound" went. I whispered to him that I'd lost it. He looked around and told me that he'd go find it for me. So cute!

Nathan is currently working in Alabama. He comes home every 3rd weekend and stays between 2-4 days at a time. It's been really hard on all of us, but somehow we survive and we are just so thankful that he has a well-paying job during such hard times in the U.S. The kids and I will go down once school is over and spend the summer with him. We've done this twice before. Once in Alabam and once in St. Louis. He has an apartment there and a pool. The kids and I usually hang by the pool while he works or go to the park and then we get family time when he comes home. We've been where is he four years ago, so we're familiar with it and I know how to get around to most places. Nathan and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary on July 11th. It would be nice to be able to go somewhere, but we're trying to save up for a family Disney trip in February.

Well, I guess that's it. Longer than I thought I'd be. I'm off to pick up the kids from school and then off to one of Rylie's softball games. I'm kind of hoping it gets rained out because it's a half an hour away today and I don't really feel like driving there tonight. I love watching her play, but I don't enjoy having to entertain Owen.