Saturday, December 31, 2005

Brooks Christmas

After a week in the great north of Walker, MN we thought we better share a few photos with all of you ... so here's more than a few to tide you over until we decide on our favorite family photos. As you'll see from these photos and the ones posted earlier, we are very blessed to have such wonderful families.






Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Photos from Groth Christmas

I'm way behind in my final prep before we leave to go up to Walker, MN for Christmas, but I wanted to get a few photos out here yet this week. Here are a few photos from when we were together with Tami's family this past Sunday. Keep an eye out for the great sweaters Grandma Karen made!

Believe it or not this is only a fraction of the photos ...














Friday, December 16, 2005

Moving forward ... Christmas tree is in the Great Room this year

Moving forward ... Christmas tree is in the Great Room this year

Below are some photos of the girls in front of the tree. This year the tree is in the Great Room instead of in the Living room because we knew it wouldn't be long before Nessa would help herself to the tree if it was in the area she's been learning to crawl in.

And now she is indeed one step closer to actually crawling as she's moving forward now. Some may even call it an army crawl but she's mostly still using her arms to pull herself forward. The good news is that the more she can get to where she wants to be the less frustrated she gets. She's not always able to get to what she wants yet though so we still hear a bit of that frustrated, "help me" cry. We sit there and cheer her on and then later wonder where in the world we're going to put things now! :-)



It's beginning to look

a lot like Christmas ... and here's a few photos to show it.



Thursday, December 15, 2005

Ford is Evil...

We don't like to use this space much for ranting, but...

The Ford Motor Company is evil for taking the Peanuts theme song (actual title: "Linus and Lucy") and using it as background music in their most recent set of ads. That song represents childhood, and innocence, and (although it has been used in other Peanuts specials shown throughout the year) the Christmas season, and to hear it during a car commercial makes me want to scream. I know that other beloved songs have been turned into commercial soundtracks over the years, and I have been duly annoyed each time it has happened, but this is beyond the pale. We need to let Ford know how egregious their behavior is. I am hereby calling for a boycott of all Ford products until Ford removes the offending commercials from the air and takes out a full page ad apologizing for them in every daily newspaper in the country. (Having once owned a Ford vehicle, I know that their products aren't that good anyway, so it's not like this is a major sacrifice or anything.) Let our voice be heard!

Friday, December 02, 2005

8 months

of smiles and snuggles ...


Nessa is 8 months old today. Our lives are so much richer today than they were before Nessa Rose Brooks joined our family. We love watching her grow and express herself more each day.

I'll keep the updates short this month and simply say that Nessa has simply done more of the stuff she started last month and since practice makes perfect she's getting pretty good at it. :-)

Nessa roles and pivots all over the living room. She usually manages every direction except straight forward when she tries to move though so we're still waiting for actual crawling -- and that's okay with us.




She continues to eat more table food and is fond of her Os as well as chicken, pears, frozen bananas, and pumpkin pie.

Nessa is continually curious and more than a little cautious around other people so she often appears more sober when we're with others. Her smiles still light up our home and brighten our days frequently though.




Nessa , we love you!!!

Remembering Quinn

Usually this blog is reserved for events and photos specifically about our family but this week my heart has been heavy with the news of another mom loosing her baby and today I've found others remembering her son, the mighty Quinn, online and decided I wanted to do the same. Quinn was a 15 month old special baby with special needs and special joys. Today is Quinn's funeral.


Nothing I could say could say it better than his family has said it. You can view his dad's blog at: http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/ and see his funeral notice and guestbook at: http://tinyurl.com/786lb

Green diapers

Environmentally safe that is (or safer anyway).

You all know that I love having soft cloth diapers on Nessa, but I also want to do my bit to support anyone trying to get poop where it belongs (not in our landfills) so for those of you who want to check out the new FLUSHABLE diapers go to http://www.gdiapers.com/ and read all about it. I've emailed back and forth with the owner and he seems great and the product really is innovative. We may even be ordering some to use while traveling in the future.