House Update & Thank You

First of all, I wanted to thank all of my great friends for keeping us in your prayers while we are in house "limbo." I truly appreciate your concern and just for listening to me vent!

Well...we will know tomorrow afternoon if the deal is 100% approved..that is the lady who is buying our house's loan will either go through or not by tomorrow. IF it goes through, the builder whose house we are buying has been so great and will let us move in our big stuff on Saturday. Then, we'll stay with my parents until we close on either Monday or Tuesday. So some pressure has been lifted off our shoulders by God letting us buy a house from a great builder who is willing to help us out. If it doesn't go through, we will be back to square one.

So, please continue to keep us in your prayers that it will work out according to God's plan and that I will eventually learn to let go of my constant need to be in control and let God work. It's so hard for me! But I want to so badly! Love you all.

Summer 2009

We have had a fantastic summer! Ben and I have bonded even more with our sweet baby. Here is most of our summer in a nutshell:

We started the summer off with Brooks's first busted lip. Both Brooks and I were hysterical. Brooks lost a lot of blood-most of which ended up on my clothes- but he was better soon with the help of his first popsicle.

Helping Daddy cut the grass is definitely a favorite pasttime. He doesn't exactly appreciate being told when it's time to stop playing with the lawnmower and come inside the house!

Brooks was visited frequently by my Mom whose name got changed from "Grams" to "GiGi" because Brooks can say "GiGi" and cannot say "Grams." Brooks ALWAYS drives GiGi's car when she comes to visit.

We watered the flowers-a lot! He is slightly obsessed with flowers-he might just be a future florist!

Brooks at the University of Alabama's Recreation Center where Ben had team camp there in June. There were about 2o hoops in one area-Brooks was in heaven!

Sporting a popsicle face

Brooks fell in love with sidewalk chalk, but he wanted to eat it! He got his first spanking over not minding and hiding behind the house and a deck chair to sneak a bite. The spanking didn't go so well...he laughed at me! I admit that I then laughed too.

On the pier with his MawMaw at Lake Guntersville. We went to Scottsboro for our annual family reunion at the end of June. Brooks had a blast.

On the way to Brooks's first airplane ride. We went to Ohio to visit Ben's parents-Brooks's Nana and Pops- for 8 days. Brooks slept the whole plane ride, so it was an easy first trip going there. He didn't sleep on the way back, but it was easy nonetheless because Brooks was awesome and content to sit in my lap. Brooks had a great time in Ohio and bonded instantly with his Nana.

I mentioned that he's obsessed with flowers, right? These are Nana's flowers and Brooks was drawn to them as soon as we got there.

Hanging out on Nana and Pops's deck...near the flowers of course.

Brooks with Mommy and Aunt Erin (Ben's sister) before baby Campbell was born. We were sad that we didn't get to see baby Cam before we left but we are so glad she is now here and healthy! Congratulations Aunt Erin and Uncle Scott!

Brooks was the life of the party! He waited until everyone in the room clapped for him after he made a basket before he attempted another shot! He's definitely a ham! My mom said he gets this from me, but even though she claims I did tricks for anyone who would watch when I was Brooks's age-I don't believe her.

Brooks just had to help his Nana water the flowers, and she was glad for his help too! :)

Stepping out onto the deck while posing for a picture. He's getting used to Mommy snapping away.

Nana and Pops took us to Price Park to feed the ducks. Brooks LOVED the ducks. "Duck" is a new word he learned to say at the beginning of the summer. He said it over and over while watching his favorite friends. (He learned to say some animal sounds while in Ohio-"moo" for a cow, "bach" for a chicken, and "me" for a kitty. He still can't say "quack" for a duck though-hasn't quite master those tricky "q" words. He also learned to say "peas" for please and how to say "shhhh" ) Then, he totally relaxed while Daddy pushed him in the swing...didn't really want to get out either!

We all enjoyed Nana and Pops's pool! Brooks loved it so much that he wanted his good pal "Elephant" to join him in the water! Elephant needed a good bath after his dip in the pool. Brooks was brave and blew his first bubbles in the pool...a future swimmer like his Mama for sure!

Brooks discovered Nana and Pops's cool closet and thought it was HILARIOUS to play peek-a-boo in it. Mommy and Daddy thought it was HILARIOUS when he accidentally came out wearing Nana's brown dress shirt!

Thank you Nana and Pops's for a great trip! We have lots of good memories from our visit!

We are sad as our summer winds down and Mommy and Daddy head back to work. But we will cherish it always and look for so many more good times as Brooks grows up-despite the fact that we don't want him to grow up! We love you Brooks!!!

House?

Before yesterday's events happened, we were scheduled to move into our new house in Killen on Friday, July 31-the Friday before school started. I have been working like crazy to get my room ready at school and to get what I could packed into boxes. BUT...yesterday morning, the plan fell through. There is still a smidget of hope that we can work things out but as of now we are waiting to see what will happen with the lady who wants our house and as far as we know she does still want it. So....we'll see. It hit kind of hard with both Ben and I for the first couple of hours after we heard the news, but we are fine now. We just have to be patient and have faith that something will work out!

To all my Brooks fans, I will post pictures of the summer very soon...as soon as I can get my memory card reader to work-or else buy a new one!