LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

Who hit the fast-forward button? Has it really been 3 months since I last updated? Geez. I promise I had have good intentions of keeping this thing current. It’s more important now than ever because we're moving out of state pretty soon and, unfortunately, away from my family. So this will be a great tool to keep everyone in touch with what we're up to. :)

What's happened since I last updated? My photos remind me of the timeline of events, haha. This is going to be one helluva entry. But it’s better than me spamming ya’ll with a million entries for each separate event, right? ;)

We had an ice storm in January. Ice/snow is always exciting for us here in midwest Georgia, because we don't see it often!


My backyard






Valentine's day was great in the Brooks house. We surprised the kids with little treat bags... candy, stickers, a card, and a stuffed animal. They love little surprises!





Jeremiah and I got a date night for Valentine's. I would have been happy with an evening alone with him, but he made it even better by surprising me with a BEAUTIFUL heart-shaped diamond necklace, a nice card with a wonderful note written inside, and a rose. ♥ I had already surprised him with a Nook and cover for Valentine’s day, a few weeks earlier. :) We had a great dinner at Houlihans, which has pretty much become our 'special place' to go whenever we have a date night.





I was in dire need of a haircut. Every year I get it chopped short, then grow it out the rest of the year, and then chop it off again. Not this year! I chopped it all off in January 2010, but for 2011 I decided to grow it out. But I had to get something done to it, it was looking plain, so I got the ends trimmed and added some layers. Not a major change, but noticeable enough (for me at least!).

January 2010


February 2011: Before


February 2011: After


Several of my friends on LJ were doing this, so I made one of those accent videos. Was fun! ^_^ I liked getting to hear everyone's accents. My still pic makes me look like a crazy person. No bueno.



March 16 was our 5 year anniversary! Hooray for milestones. We celebrated by having our first night completely alone, sans kids, since Joley was born 3.5 years ago. My aunt kept Joley overnight for us, and we traveled up to Atlanta to go to Medieval Times. The show was awesome, we had the best time, and afterward we went to see a movie, I am Number Four (I won't bother posting about much of a disappointment that movie was, after reading the book), and then had a great night at a hotel. It was so relaxing, being able to wake up on our own. No alarm clocks. No screaming kids.

Ready for our big night out!




Drinky








It's now mid-April which means we're only a few weeks away from Jeremiah's graduation! He doesn't care to go through the ceremony, but we're having a graduation party for him the following weekend. I'm pretty excited because this is a huge milestone for this family. Jeremiah has worked super hard the past 3.5 years. Going back to school while maintaining a job and family (especially with 2 young kids!) is no easy task, but he's done it and succeeded with flying colors. I'm so proud of him. Now it's close to my turn to return to the classroom. Eeeep! I'm pretty excited about starting this new chapter of our lives. A little scared, but mainly excited.

Caleb is in his 7th season of soccer and doing well. He seems to enjoy it still, but once we move I'm going to ask him if he'd like to consider any other activities. That's always been a possibility here too, of course, but he's always just stuck with soccer. I'm not into watching professional sports, but I love seeing my little man play. :) I sure do hope he grows up and looks back on these moments as fondly as I do.






Caleb turned 7 years old 2 weeks ago. My little April Fool. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 7 years already. The past 7 years have flown by so quickly… what if the next 7 years fly by just as fast? Or even faster? I was told once the kids start school, the years REALLY fly by, and thus far that’s been true. In another 7 years Caleb will be a teenager (eeep!) and starting high school (double eeep!). I don’t even want to think about that. I feel old enough as is. But to celebrate Caleb’s big day, we had a party here at home. He got a bunch of cool toys from family and friends, and even some awesome new clothes. And then that evening his buddy Nick stayed the night. Jeremiah and I took all the kids out for bowling, and then to Blockbuster so they could pick out a movie to watch that night. Since we invited 30+ kids to Caleb’s party and only 1 showed up, we felt bad for him and decided to go ahead and let Caleb put his birthday money towards what he really wanted - a new Nintendo DS. He wanted the DSi XL since it has a huge screen and can take pics and all, so we let him get that. He was so excited and seems to really enjoy it! It’s weird to think of my baby being 7 years old already. Three more birthdays and we’ll be in the double digits! I’ve been a mom for 7 years. That’s nearly a decade! That blows my mind!



I made cupcakes to bring to his school on his actual birthday. He wanted cookies & cream cupcakes. They were delicious!




Enjoying cupcakes at lunch at school.


My baby and me!


The banner I made for his party. He picked out a “camouflage” theme.












His cake was awesome!


Opening gifts










Pinata time!




Caaaandy!


Nick and Caleb playing with Caleb’s new Nerf toys!


Caleb, Nick, and Joley playing Mario Kart


Pin the Tail on the Donkey


On the way to bowling


Bowling




Yesterday we had a free afternoon with nothing planned. Caleb’s been having a great week at school so I took the kids over the Chill for some ice cream. It’s one of those self-serve frozen yogurt places. We love it! They had a “mint chocolate cookie” flavor that tasted like those girl scout cookies! Delicious. Joley kept talking about the Easter bunny, randomly. I remembered they have the Easter bunny at the mall, to visit with and take pics with, so I mentioned it to the kids. Of course they wanted to go. Joley was all excited, talking NONSTOP about seeing the Easter bunny. Then of course, once we got there she freaked out. But she saw Caleb get in the bunny’s lap, so I decided to sit her in his lap despite her hesitance. She screamed “No!” and then as soon as her butt hit his lap, she looked up at him and said “Oh hi Easter bunny!” and was all chatty and happy. So it was just like this: “No! No! No! No! No!.. oh hi Easter bunny!” I wish I had gotten video, it was hilarious! Caleb was acting like he was too old for that mess, but still sat there for Joley’s sake. Of course I bought the pictures, it was too cute. Plus Joley hates being photographed, so I take any opportunity to get a photo of her smiling instead of screaming “No pictures!” LOL! I bought a super cheap package, but still got several prints. Perfect idea to send one to family members inside an Easter card!



Aaaaand that brings us current! Whew! Hopefully I won’t get too terribly behind again. :)