Basically Brooks

Since we've been home together for two weeks, I thought it'd be really fun to update everyone on what some of Ava's new top sayings are. They are random. They make no sense. But they always make us laugh! 1. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. 2. Actually.... (most of the time it end with "that's mine") 3. I'm not mad. She must be the funniest child on earth. These past two weeks have been such a blessing. We have had countless hours of family time and I wouldn't have had it any other way! Even though I have the best job ever, I'm kinda wishing we could have just a little bit more time off together! (Christmas Break is just a sneak peek of summer break!)

Today is an exciting day for us! It was the first day we didn't have to wake up to our alarm clock. It started out with Ava waking up a little to early for a Saturday, so we all climbed into our HUGE full sized bed and slept for almost two more hours. Ava woke up and she and I spent several minutes talking and laughing and whispering "secrets" like "wake Daddy up." We giggled and laughed so much and the whole time we were just being silly and lazy, I couldn't stop thinking of how blessed we are. I hate when I realize how many things I take for granted. I am so so so excited about having the next two weeks off together as a family. I think the #1 best thing about being a teacher and being married to a teacher is our breaks off together. We LOVE doing everything together! I am so fortunate to be married to someone I can't stand to be without! Our plans for Christmas Break include finishing up our Christmas shopping and wrapping, taking naps every

I've been caring for my sweet, sick baby today. Even though I've been thrown up all over multiple times today, I just can't help but reflect on my sweet child. Therefore, I have come up with a list of things I love about Ava. (This post will have to be continued over several posts because it's crazy how wonderful she is. These are just some things I've been thinking of since about 3 o'clock this morning. I love how she..... 1. falls asleep each night. (Talking and singing like crazy, covering me up with her blanket, a letting her feet plop down hard on the bed, over and over.) 2. dances. (It's a little provocative, but totally cute.) 3. calls suckers "popasicles". 4. talks about the people she loves when we are laying in bed. 5. says yes...which for the longest time came out as "nes," and now has developed into "nest." 6. tells me and Kyle not to look at her when she is about to do something wrong. 7. sings a song an

Wow! It still feels insane to say that our little girl is two years old now! We just can't believe how fast the past two years have flown by! We have cherished every moment with her and truly enjoy parenthood. It is a beautiful gift from God. I've been terrible about updating things lately, and have literally been meaning to do a birthday post for about 3 weeks now. Better late than never though! Ava's birthday was on a beautiful Saturday and we had her party at our house in the back yard. Lots of family and friends came out to celebrate. I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the story telling! The spread. Mmmmm.... Tastefully Simple Beer Bread (made with Sprite), veggie tray, apples with caramel dip, chips, cheese, olives, crackers, meatballs four types of dips.....I could eat like this every day! (And then I'd be on the Biggest Loser). The gift table. Enough said. The beautiful birthday girl. Let's get this party started. It's time to get

We have had a new addition to our little home. His name is Whitman Nash Brooks and he is the sweetest dog I have ever been around. Let me tell you the story about this sweet little dog and how he became a part of the Brooks family. For Fall Break, and to celebrate my sister's birthday, we went on a little trip to Nashville. Our main purpose was to 1) eat at Chipotle and 2) take Ava to the Nashville Science Center. For some reason, I woke up way early on Saturday and went ahead and got ready, got everyone else to get up and get ready, and we headed to breakfast and then the Science Center. It opened at ten and we got there at nine. A few minutes after we parked, a huge truck and trailer pulled in, and the trailer had a dog on it and said Nashville Humane Society, Mobile Unit. I got out and asked if there were really dogs in there and if I could take a look around. I went in and there were three wild puppies and one little white dog, named Whitman, that looked at me pleadingl

The lyrics to this song are simply beautiful. We are sitting on the couch, playing with Ava, and spending some quality time together and Kyle has this song playing and it just makes me want to cry....so beautiful. I promise my posts aren't just going to be song lyrics from now on, but I wanted to share this sweet song! Its always been a mystery to me, How two hearts can come together, And love can last forever. But now that I have found you I believe, That a miracle has come when God sends the perfect one. So gone are all my questions about why, And I've never been so sure of anything in my life Oh I wonder what God was thinking,when he created you. I wonder if He knew everything I would need, Because he made all my dreams come true. When God made you, He must have been thinking about me. I promise that wherever you may go, wherever life may lead you, With all my heart I'll be there too. And from this moment on I want you to know, I'll let nothing come between us, and

I have always loved this song. It is just simply beautiful. I was listening to this song, by Ginny Owens, this morning and I really listened to the words, and the song became so meaningful to me. We have gone through a lot in the past few months, and I know that the Lord has a lot more in store for us. Things are always changing and always will, but the one thing that will remain the same is God's love for us. We have to trust that He has a perfect plan for us, and that everything we are enduring, or everything we will endure is for His perfect plan. While it seems bad now, in the end, it works out for the best. I never in my life thought that the mess we were in a few months ago would turn out so perfect. We are so happy, and to God be the glory! Take a moment to read these beautiful lyrics and listen to the song on YouTube. I hope that it touches your heart as much as it has touched mine! The pathway is broken And The signs are unclear And I don't know the reason why Y

Hey everyone! I've been anxiously waiting the day that I could let everyone know that I found a job! I'm going to be a third grade teacher at an awesome school! I'm so very excited and I have lots to learn in the next three weeks! I feel like the last three months have been such a roller coaster for Kyle and I. Yes, I say Kyle and I because a job loss does not just affect the person who loses their job, it affects the whole family. We have learned so much during the past three months. We've learned how to be strong when the other is weak, we've learned that we have a lot of prayer warriors/friends, we've learned so much about patience and prayer, but MOST importantly we have learned how the Lord can take a not so fun situation like job loss, and make that a blessing. Kyle and I have grown so close to the Lord throughout this time, and closer to one another as well. The Lord has richly blessed our marriage in the last few months and has provided in every way. We

As most of you know, Ava's been using the potty for many months now. We wanted to take things slowly so we could get her acquainted with the potty and she's been going on it every day for a while. This week, however, was the big week! This was the week that we say bye-bye to diapers and hello to big girl panties! This was such a big step, but we were down for the challenge. We used Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training Method. This lady is known as the Queen of Potty Training, and I must say, the title fits! She had five boys and she used this method with all of them and it worked like a charm! Let me tell you a little about the past few days.... Day One Ava woke up when she was ready to, at about 7:00 (I think). We ate breakfast together and kept telling her that she was gonna have a great day and that she is such a big girl. After breakfast we got a trash bag (Kroger bag) and went on a hunt to find any kind of diaper in this house. We found them in her room and diaper bag an

Ava started sitting on the potty when she turned 1, thanks to my sister. She thought it'd be a good idea to just introduce her to it slowly, so when Mandy would babysit her, she'd put her on the potty right before bath time. She went potty in December, for the first time....I think. Anyway, this past month we've gotten a little more serious about it. She will tell us when she needs to go, and we rush her to the potty. I'm one proud mommy! Take a look at her potty chart at the beginning and now! (She likes to pile them up in the same place, there's a ton of stickers on there!) Once things settle down (my WKU class is over) we plan on using the 3 day potty training method to get all this diaper stuff over with!

I am so thankful to have an Almighty Father who has made promises that will never be broken. I've been reflecting on some of these verses and have found them so encouraging during this time of trouble. Yesterday, our pastor said that there are mountains and there are valleys in our life. When life is good, that's when you're on the mountain, and when life gets tough, that's when you're in a valley. The good thing about both the mountains and valleys, is that God is in both of them. You just have to seek him. I wanted to share some of God's promises with you. Perhaps you are in the valley as well. I pray that these will encourage you and help you to persevere through whatever journey you're on in your life. *Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6) (I read a paraphrase of this verse online and it said "My goodness and mercy will chase after you all your l

I just have to take a moment to brag on my husband. He's really great and deserves to hear about it every now and then! ;) Ok. So, the past few weeks have been some of the hardest in my entire life. I have totally been knocked off my feet with this job loss junk. It really stunk to tell him about it all, to see him upset (not at me...I didn't do anything wrong!), sad, worried, and out of it (literally). This is how we both felt three Friday's ago. It was like the life had been sucked out of us. We were both really mad and really upset. We would go from crying to staring at each other, and then we'd go back to crying and then staring again. We were both very weak for about a full week. But....we have slowly picked ourselves up off the ground, and are moving on. It's ok to be upset about a life changing event like this. However, we have learned that moping around doesn't make us feel any better and it definitely does not make our situation change. It&#

I'm getting a little irritated about my meal plans! I feel like I make the same things all the time! So, I'm asking you to leave a comment on my blog telling me what some of your family favorite dinner recipes are. Here's the criteria.... 1. Quick 2. Easy 3. Tasty Let's see what you have to say! Please leave a comment on the blog instead of FaceBook, so that my other blog readers (who aren't FB goers, can try out your ideas as well!) Thanks Everyone!

I'm sure most of you know this by now, but if not, let me update you on the last week of our life. Last Friday, I found out that I will no longer have a job at my school. I'm devastated about this. I have been assured that it has nothing to do with my teaching or anything other than money. Which stinks pretty bad too. On the first day of school next year, I would be tenured. If I get a job in the county, I can still get tenure, so that is a positive. As of right now, mine and Ava's insurance will be cancelled in June, and it is soooo pricey for us to get on Kyle's plan so, I'm praying through this situation. Things are so uncertain right now, and that is scary. However, I put my trust in my Almighty Father, and I am trusting that He will provide as He has done all these years. Remember a few posts back? One called....The Good News? That bad day was referring to this news. In that post I said that there are 3 things I know for sure: 1. Jesus loves me, 2.

Many years ago, before Kyle and I were married, we volunteered at our church in the three year old classroom on Sunday mornings. We loved teaching those sweet kids and always had a good time on Sunday mornings. We had a curriculum that taught the Gospel and how awesome Jesus is. We sang songs that taught them about Jesus too. While outsiders may read that and think...you cant teach three year olds too much when you only see them for an hour once a week. Well, to those of you who think that, you are way wrong! I've seen God work in the lives of those kids and it is amazing! Over the past couple of years, we have been able to watch so many of those children profess that they love Jesus Christ and have asked Him to forgive them of their sins, and be Lord of their lives. Each time I see one of those sweet kids step into the baptism pool, tears well up in my eyes, and I feel so much happiness in my heart. As expecting parents, and new parents, it was a daily prayer that the Lord would

Kyle and I are so blessed to be teachers and get the opportunity to have breaks from our jobs throughout the year. We decided that for this Spring Break we would take a mini vacation to Nashville to take Ava to the zoo, and go shopping at some great places! We had a blast! We stayed in the airport area and took little trips all around Nashville. We left on Sunday after church and headed out to the zoo. We had a good time, but boy was it hot! Ava enjoyed it, but I think as she gets older she will like it even more! We saw the elephants and girraffes, exotic birds and apes, tigers and alligators! Oh My! While we were looking at the anteaters, Kyle heard a rustling in the trees and lo and behold there was a real life snake hanging right next to his head! Kyle's #1 fear is snakes and I thought he might pass out, but he didn't! He just walked away really, really fast! We told some park employees, but they said they weren't going to do anything about it. Scary! That evening, w

Ever have a really good day where everything seems to go smoothly. No frustrations, no drama, no worries, and then BAM....bad news hits you like a ton of bricks? Or maybe like a dump truck carrying a ton of bricks? We've all had those types of days and today was like that for me. I've wallered around in self pity, doubt, sadness for a good hour and then I remembered that there is good news! (Why don't I remember the good news before I get sad?) Here's the good news.... 1. Jesus loves me. 2. God has my life planned out. 3. His plan is perfect. I've gotta keep repeating this to myself! There's lots of other good news too! For example... 1. I have a loving husband and a precious daughter...the two people on this earth who I love most! If I really had the time I could list about a million other pieces of good news, but the ones mentioned in this post are gonna keep me going. So thankful I chose to follow Christ. He's blessed me in countless ways.

This daughter of ours is the number one best thing that has happened to us since we got married! I say it all the time, and I can't say it enough....I love this girl! Her personality is growing and growing each and every day. She's really funny! She's learning how to see how far she can go before getting in trouble. She taught herself this week how to get on the love seat and laughs and giggles so much when she finally makes it up to the seat. She loves to stand on the love seat and completely understands that she's not allowed to do it. But, she does it anyway...and when we start counting to three she throws herself down and just laughs and laughs! Funny, huh? Some people think it's an attitude, and while we should probably be getting frustrated about that, we cant help but laugh because she's so stinking cute! She's growing up before our very eyes! I can't believe she will be a year and a half next month! I don't know where all the time has gone. I

We just got home from the doctor because Ava's cough was much worse. He let me know that now she doesn't just have RSV, she has an ear infection in one ear, fluid in her other ear, and bronchitis. He gave her an antibiotic, ear drops, and a new cough medicine that works for 12 hours. We are going to keep doing everything else we've been doing and of course praying for her to feel better soon. Just thought I'd give you readers out there an update.

Our poor, poor baby has tested positive for RSV. We are so sad, but thankful that she got it when she was older versus when she was younger. If she would have had it when she was really little she would've had to be put in the hospital. Kyle stayed home with her one day this week, my dad and step mom watched her the next day, and I'm home with her today. Her cough sounds terrible. The doctor said she felt that the worst was over because her chest sounded good and all. She gave us instructions to give her some medicine for her cough called Corzall , tylenol and ibuprofen for fever and pain relief, Vaporub at night, nasal spray and suction all day long, and have her sleep with a cool mist humidifier. So we've done all that for about three days now and I feel so discouraged that her cough is not any better. Although I don't understand why she's not doing better, I am so thankful to know that God is in control of this situation! He is perfect and holy and able t

Having so many days off of work has really given me a lot of time to reflect on just how blessed I am. How blessed WE are. The Lord is good, all the time, and I just want to kick myself when I sit still and realize how He has impacted our lives, and how ungrateful I am. I think about all the complaining I do on a daily basis and I realize that there is nothing to complain about. The Lord has blessed me with an amazing husband who I have so much fun with. He's blessed me with an incredible baby girl, who makes me smile and makes my heart melt. He's blessed our family with health and has provided for us financially and physically and every other way. I should constantly praise Him and glorify Him and tell others about Him. But I don't always do this, and it's frustrating. Many times I get caught up in worldly things and routines and schedules and that's not good. I'm really trying to change. I am so thankful to have a Christian husband who can encourage

Today is our 13 th snow day and tomorrow is number 14. I love spending time at home with Kyle and Ava, but I'm really sad thinking about how many days of our summer break will be spent making these snow days up. Yesterday we all three bundled up and headed out to the doctor's office. I knew for a fact that Ava had a sinus infection and Kyle went to make the call. Before he did, he said he really thought I should see the doctor as well. I do not like going to the doctor! I try not to complain too much when I don't feel well and just try to let my body fight off any sickness that may come. However, I had told Kyle that I had a lot of tight, pressure in my chest and it really hurt to breathe. My whole body was achy too, and he knew that wasn't a good sign. I started to worry that I had pneumonia . So, Kyle went ahead and made a doctor's appointment for all three of us. (His ear was hurting badly.) We were seen pretty quickly at the doctor's office. Ava

Ava is growing up wayyyyy too fast! In the past few weeks she has learned a lot and seems to have gotten funnier as the days go on. Let me update you on our funny girl! Goodbye! Ava has said bye-bye for a long time now, but lately her goodbyes have become so much cuter! We will tell her to say goodbye to someone and she starts waving and saying bye. Instead of it coming out bye, it's more like bah, bah, baaaaahhhhh , and she continues saying bye for a very long time after whoever has left. She is soooo southern when she says bye! I love it! She thinks it is funny for us to smell her feet and then she will smell own and says shew, shew like they really do stink! She's taken it a step further now. We will be sitting there and instead of smelling our feet, she starts to try to put our toes in her mouth! Yuck! How do you teach someone that it's not nice to put someone's toes in your mouth!?! She thinks it is so funny when we ask her to give us a kiss. She will run away,

I am so happy to inform you that so far so good when it comes to our New Years Resolutions! I am really proud of ourselves! We have done excellent with not going out to eat. Since the beginning of the year we have actually gone out to eat 1 time. We went to Ruby Tuesdays with a great couple. We still ate pretty healthy, even though I splurged and ate some fries. I did not feel good after that so in the future, I may just stick to a salad or another healthier side item. When we were in TX a few weeks ago, Kyle's sister Karen's mother in law did bring dinner to us one night....Olive Garden and one other day while we were there we had another dinner from a cafe that we love down there. But I'd say that three dinners not made by us is pretty good for the first month, plus it's hard to not eat out when you are traveling. I've been taking salads to school every day and I truly love them! I try to make them exciting by using different toppings and low cal/fat free

The stomach virus entered the Brooks home for the first time in a very long time, and it took on the ladies of the house last weekend. I seriously do not know where I would have been without my husband! Let me give you a rundown of our sickly weekend. (Read with caution, I've tried not to give too many details!) It all started on Thursday. I picked Ava up from school, and her teacher let me know that she just didn't know if Ava felt very well. I knew she was snotty that morning and figured it was the start of another sinus infection. I took her home, we played, ate, gave her a bath, and we put her to bed at her normal time. We were all sleeping soundly til we heard her coughing and crying at around 3:30 Friday morning. We both ran to her room and saw her laying there, looking pitiful, with throw up all around her and on her. She's never thrown up before, so it made me really sad. I had one moment of gagging, and then Kyle reminded me that I can not do that, and we

Weird title, huh? Well, last week we loaded up the van and went to Nashville for a day of fun! We started off our morning grabbing a quick breakfast at McDonald's (which I planned to get this.....) But ended up getting this... and this.... and because I gave up diet cokes last the week before.... I got this to drink instead... I know, I know.....heart attack in a sack! I love bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and it was just begging me to order it, so I did. And I regretted it to the last crumb. And still do. After a short drive down I-65 we were in Nashville, and our first stop was my all time favorite store...Ross. I was super sad because everything was sooo picked over. However, as I was surveying the goodies in the kitchen aisle, I found this little treasure for only six bucks! Isn't it awesome?!? At the bottom you put your lettuce and toppings, then comes the ice pack to keep everything nice and cold. In the lid there is a special container that holds 4 tbsps of salad

Wow! I can not believe that 2010 has come and gone and we are now welcoming a brand new year! Time really does fly! We rang in the new year with some of our most special friends! Our small group! Boy, I don't know where we'd be without them! We had a great night! We had a potluck of Italian food, salad, and dessert! We finished off the night by playing games like Things, Scribblish, and your good old fashioned Charades! It was a blast, but I'm not gonna lie...I missed putting Ava to bed and it was terribly hard to stay up that late, but still....so much fun! Kyle and I are really excited about making some positive changes in our lives this year! He hates making resolutions and normally never does, but this year is the exception! Here are our resolutions! Rebecca's Resolutions 1. Say so long to diet cokes and any other type of soda. 2. Continue exercising a minimum of 3 times per week. Kyle' Resolutions 1. Be more honest (not that he lies or anything, but