Happy Birthday Jesus!

The God who opens the womb, giving the gift of children, became a child growing in the womb of a woman.

The One we depend on for everything became dependent on human parents.

The One who holds the universe in His hands was held in the arms of Mary.

The One who created the first woman was born of a woman.

The Ancient of Days became a newborn.

The Helper became a helpless baby.

The Creator became a creature.

(I read this from a friend's blog and had to share. Just love it!)

Merry Christmas! Let's celebrate the birth of our Saviour! Happy Birthday Jesus! We thank you for all our many blessings - and praise you for your miraculous life, love, and sacrifice.

Thanksgiving 2009

I am sooo behind on my blogging, but I couldn't forget to include our Thanksgiving festivities. We spent Thanksgiving with Matt's dad and step-mom in northern IN. We always have so much fun visiting them and of course Brooks loves to see Grandpa, Nonna, more cousins, aunts & uncles! On our way, we stopped at Arnold's Drive-In as usual. On our way into town, we stopped to see Granny Miller. She was so surprised and happy to see us! She is always so gracious and thankful. That evening, we were blessed by a visit from Uncle Tim & Aunt Sondra. So happy to see them and thankful they took the time to come see us!

For Thanksgiving dinner, Bobbie made her delicious steaks along with the sides we all love - sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, etc. I've never been a big red meat girl, and really didn't like it until I was pregnant - which is when I craved red meat. I blame my newfound liking to steak on Brooks. Dinner was wonderful! Bobbie is the hostess with the mostess!

The next morning we had our usual breakfast at Essenhaus - but just the 3 of us this time. Sooo good! We also had to visit the mall - I really enjoy the Christmas hussle and bussle at the mall. Some people hate it, but I love it! Didn't do any buying, but enjoyed ourselves anyway.

We visited one of Matt's childhood friends, Justin, and his family. Justin and Erin were in town from CO and we don't get to see them often since Matt & Justin both moved away after college. We had a short visit, but good to see them, as always.

Unfortunately, our trip up north was cut short by Brooks' sleeping escapades, or lack thereof. For some reason, he would wake up every 2-3 hours. Thought maybe his teeth were bothering him , but Tylenol didn't even do the trick. So, in order for mama to get some sleep, we decided to come home early - after only 2 nights. The fact that we were leaving for FL the following week contributed to our decision to leave. The sooner we could get home and get Brooks' sleep back to "normal" the better. (Funny thing is, he has slept great since, EVEN in FL! Who knows!) That little stinker! :)

Enjoy some photos from our lovely Thanksgiving 2009...

Our delicious dinner

Brooks & Granny

Brooks with Uncle Tim & Aunt Sondra

Jaden teaching Brooks how to play piano

Justin & Matt with Logan & Brooks

Brooks opening his very First Christmas presents from Grandpa & Nonna

8 Months

My beautiful baby boy is 8 months old today! Unbelievable! We are so very blessed and thankful for him. He has brought so much joy and love to our family. He's only been here for 8 months, but I'm not sure what we did before him. It's as if he's always been with us. He is so much fun - a bundle of laughs, giggles, coos, and babble! He hasn't started crawling yet, but probably will any day now. I'm not worried or rushing him - I kind of like being able to leave the room without looking back wondering where he is off to or if he is following me. Enjoying it while it lasts! :) Here are some recent pics of him. By the way, according to our scale at home, he is weighing 20 lbs!

What a beautiful little smile...

The look on his face here is priceless...


Daddy & Brooks on his 1st Halloween

Brooks' Dedication

Brooks was dedicated to the Lord on October 25th, 2009! This most important day was incredibly special and we will remember the celebration forever. We are so thankful to our families who were present to share in our joy and praise. And we are so thankful they committed to join us in lifelong prayer for Brooks and our family. The verse we chose for Brooks is below - this is our prayer for him:



For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1:9-12

Our family with Pastor Jeff

Such a special day...you are our gift from the Lord, Brooks. May you follow Him all the days of your life. He is our comforter, our deliverer, our provider, our joy, our strength, our Saviour.
We all love you and will pray for you continually - may you seek Him in all you do and love Him with all your heart.

Brooks & Tay-Tay!

We were able to visit Charity & Tatum a few weeks ago. They are so cute together. Not quite old enough to interact much, but they're getting there. When we first put them next to each other, they barely looked at the other. Then after a few minutes they were grabbing each other and we eventually had to separate them! They may be little, but they sure have a mean "grab"! Ha, ha!

Tatum has her cute little hand on Brooks

I think Brooks was wanting to kiss her here :)


Now he wanted to eat her hands!

Ah, sweet Tatum lovin on Brooks

7 Months!

Brooks is 7 months old today. Can't believe it. He has been changing so much lately. Sometimes I look at him and see such a "big boy"! He is so much fun and so easy going. This past month, he had his first trip to a pumpkin patch/fruit farm. And he also caught his first cold. :( He was congested for about 2 weeks and his cough is still lingering. Sleep was quite challenging for him at first, but he is much better now. He was such a trooper through it all. Didn't hardly fuss at all, except at night when he couldn't sleep. And thankfully he never developed a fever. Here are some pictures of this past month...

Checking out his bat

Love it when he makes this face...

First Bites!

Well, it's been a while since lil Brookser had his first bites, so I better let you all know how my little one likes his new taste of food. He loves it! We offered his first food, sweet potatoes ( a mommy favorite!), and he didn't bat an eye! He acted as though he'd been eating this stuff all along. And let me tell ya, he has liked everything we have fed him. No funny faces. No refusals. Just eat. Ha! Hopefully this means that our little guy won't be a picky eater like his mama and daddy were! :) Here are a couple of our favorite pics of him having his first bites, and his first try at a sippy cup!

Patiently waiting for his first bite

6 Months...

Brooks is 6 months old! I can't believe that in another 6 months he will be 1 year old! WOW. We are so incredibly blessed by the amazing gift of Brooks. We thank God constantly for him, he is the sweetest blessing. He is such a good boy - smiling all the time. His deep laughs crack us up! We can't wait to hear what his voice sounds like and for us to hear his deep little voice say "mama" or "dada". My heart will just melt all over again and again. As it does every single day. The doctor advised us to go ahead and start Brooks on some baby food! Yay! As I'm posting this, he's already had his first bites, but that will be in a blog all by itself.

Enjoy some pictures of his 6 month checkup...17lbs and 27 1/4 inches long...

Brooks didn't take his eye off of the nurse while on the scale!

Sitting in daddy's lap while the dr listens to his lungs


Brooks & Mommy waiting for the doctor

Go Irish!

As many of you Notre Dame fans know, today ND plays Michigan and daddy & Brooks are way too excited. We had to take a picture of the two of them this morning before our walk to the bakery. I'm sure today's game will be the first of many more games to come that they will watch together! Brooks' ND onesie was a gift from Tim & Sondra last year before he was even born. For those of you that don't remember, I did a blog about his first ever outfit with a picture of it. It was hard to imagine our little one in it, and is so special to actually see him in it now. Go Irish!

P.S. Daddy didn't want me to post this until ND won today, but I disagreed - this picture is way too cute for words! :)

How He Loves

Recently I heard a song on the radio that brought so much emotion up inside of me. You know how you can hear something one day and you don't think a whole lot about it, but then the next day, it touches you so differently or more intensely? Scripture will jump out at me one day and the next I can read the same exact Scripture and have it mean so much more. Holy Spirit, I'm sure. Well, while I was driving along my merry way the other day, I heard this song and started crying - very unexpectedly since it wasn't the first time I had heard this song.

Since I was a young girl, I have wanted to become a mommy. My mom had always told me that the love you have for your children will be indescribable and like nothing you have ever imagined. She was right. The love I have for Brooks is so amazingly wonderful, beautiful, abundant - words cannot express my love for him.

And when I heard this song, it made me really think much deeper about the love God has for us. He loves us much more than we can imagine - much more than I could ever possibly love Brooks. We will never be able to know the depth of His love here on earth. This is something I have always known, but don't always take the time to really reflect on God's love. Sad, but true. This song is so special to me - yes because the Holy Spirit spoke to me through it, but also because it describes so eloquently the depth of God's love.

I hope you are able to feel the words of this song as I did. After reading below, if you haven't heard the song, I encourage you to click on the link below to hear it. Beautiful, beautiful, song.


He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AIF_ieVre0

5 Months...

And here we are again...at another birthday...Brooks is 5 months old today! I so cannot believe how fast time is flying. It feels like my little boy should still be a newborn and he is getting bigger and bigger as each day passes by.

At around 4 1/2 mths, Brooks started sleeping 10-12 hrs at night. It took me by surprise and I thought it was just a "phase" or a "growth spurt" at first. But he is our little sleeper. Although, when he started sleeping so long at night, he doesn't take 3 hr naps anymore! Only 1-2 hr naps in the morning and afternoon and sometimes in the early evening he'll take a cat nap of 45 min. He has a bedtime still of 9-9:30. It's so crazy how like clockwork, he'll get really sleepy and want to go to bed at the same time every night. How does he know what time it is? And he'll rise around 6:30-7:30. Sometimes if mama is really sleepy, I'll put him in bed with me and we'll have morning cuddle time. He will just lay there next to me for almost an hour talking, cooing, and playing. My eyes will be half closed, but I enjoy every single minute of it. It is just one of the many thousands of moments that I hope to remember forever. It is so special and I am so thankful to share those times with him.

Brooks displayed his first little "stranger anxiety" moment. It was quite a little one, but felt huge to me. So far since Brooks was born, during church Matt will hold him during worship and then I will hold him during the service. Just recently, he has gotten a little more verbal and may disturb those around us so I end up walking him around the back of the sanctuary. He's so good, but mama needs to learn and listen to the sermon, so I reluctantly agreed to see how he does in the nursery. I was uneasy with handing Brooks off to a "stranger", even though I know of the couple who were taking care of him, Jacob and Kris. So Matt suggested taking him while I got a bagel and coffee. Matt said that he handed Brooks to Jacob and Brooks looked at Matt, then back at Jacob, and then back at Matt with his lower lip puckered out ready to cry. Thankfully, it never turned in to a cry. But let me tell ya how happy I was that it was Matt to see that and not me! I would have caved and taken my baby boy with me into church. It helped knowing that Brooks was only going to be in the nursery for 45 minutes since we got to church late. Will someone please tell me that this part of parenting gets easier?! It's probably difficult for me since I had such a difficult time as a little girl with the whole "stranger" thing. I was attached to my mama's hip until I was about 7 years old!

Brooks has discovered his voice...it's so funny to hear him coo and talk just making noises to hear himself! And the other day, we had him laughing for over 10 minutes straight! It was too funny - and oh how he loves playing peek-a-boo.

Enjoy some recent pictures of our little bundle of joy!

4 Months Old!

Brooks is 4 months old as of a week ago. He is changing so much every single day. At his Dr.appt. on Tuesday, he weighed 15lbs 11 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long. He is in the 75th percentile, so he's not THAT big of a boy! :) He has been sleeping great for a while now, so thankful for that. He goes to bed around 9:30 and wakes at 4 or 5 for breakfast and then back to sleep until around 7 or 8. He also takes a 2-3 hr nap in the morning and a 1 hr nap in the afternoon. Sometimes he naps longer, but I think he's starting to take shorter naps the older he gets. He has been able to roll over since he was around 3 1/2 mths, and does it all the time! One of the funniest things he does now is the relationship he has with his friend the bird on his bouncy seat. During our dinner time, we'll usually put Brooks in his seat so he can be next to us. After a few minutes of playing, he grabs a hold of his bird and argues with it! He won't let go for anything and starts to get mad after a while. It is so funny. We will have to get that on video. He laughs, giggles, smiles, talks to us, and loves to cuddle. He is definitely a physical, touchy baby, which I love. I love it when he is eating, he will rub his fingers on my arm. And when he is falling asleep on me, he will rub his fingers on my face or mouth. So precious! I just melt! Here are a few recent pictures of our little Brookser...

Brooks & Mommy waiting for Dr.Evans

Brooks & Daddy

Brooks' First Swim & Visit with Tatum

Brooks & Tatum

We went to Indianapolis to visit friends last weekend. It was the first time Brooks has swam and he had his 2nd date with one of his girls, Tatum. She is such a doll baby. Can't wait until they are a bit older and interact more with each other. Brooks liked the water and enjoyed his first swim so much! Here are a few pics of our wonderful time with the Humphrey family...so glad they got to see Brooks for his first swim! :)

I love his face in this picture...I think he's ready to get out!

This is such a common expression on Brooks' face

Charity & Tatum