catching up

lots going on around here and no time to blog

kellen had his birthday party a week late due to sickness and a funeral

the pics from the party are on a friend's camera

someday i will get them on my computer

i intend to blog about the party

*****

my poppy died january 16th

we attended his funeral the 19th

he is greatly missed!

i intend to post a blog honoring him and his life

began one last week

but the tears started flowing when i pulled up pictures

maybe next week it will be easier

*****

anna turned 11 months last week

she is changing very quickly at this age

finally got two teeth

3.5 months after her brother got his first tooth

thought they would never come

she has figured out how to scoot forward on her belly

by grabbing the carpet and pulling

while lifting her booty off the ground

kinda looks like an inch worm

i intend to post pics of my sweet pea at 11 months

*****

this has been the winter of sickness

as soon as the kids get over one thing

they catch another

anna is currently on antibiotics for her first ear infection

kellen is in the last stages of a cold

he woke up this morning with a stomach bug

wondering if there is something i should do

or cease doing to stop this cycle

*****

our house has been on the market for one month now

four lookers

no buyers

anxiously awaiting the time when tandon can switch jobs

and be much more present in our home

trying to be content and trust

it's hard

*****

wondering what the weather is going to do this week

forecast for ice and 8-10 inches of snow

winter is my favorite

minus the sickness

maybe we should move to omaha

i hear they get lots of snow

Family Celebration

We celebrated Kellen's birthday yesterday evening with our family of four. A farm party is planned for next weekend with Kellen's church friends. These are 'practice' farm animal cupcakes--pictures of the real thing will be posted next week.







Kellen has been asking for a trumpet ever since he saw the marching band at the Christmas parade. Which is really funny because I often tease Tandon that Kellen is going to be in the marching band in high school rather than on the football team. :-)

Our future marching band member!

I think we may have missed our calling as a family. The S Family Musical Performers--Anna on the maracas, Tandon on the trumpet, Kellen on the drums, and I could join in on the piano. What do you think? :) Should we change our plans and move to Branson?

We ended the evening with Kellen's favorite foods. Note to self--next year use a $1 box of Craft macaroni and cheese rather than go to all the effort of making it from scratch. Apparently Craft does a better job. :)

Happy Birthday Kellen!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kellen!

I cannot believe you are turning three years old today, THREE! It seems like just yesterday that we welcomed you into this world and our lives changed forever. What a great third year it has been.

Your language has exploded! Grandma and Grandpa joke that you went from talking in single phrases to talking in paragraphs. :) It is NEVER quiet in our house, unless you are sleeping and sometimes even sleep doesn’t stop you from talking.

Your confidence has grown both in your physical abilities and your social skills. I sometimes worry, as I watch you interact with your peers, that we role-played a little too rough to help you master the social setting with your rowdy friends, although Daddy assures me that’s not possible. :)

I have no need for a GPS as long as I have you in the backseat. You always know where we are and where we are going—blows my mind sometimes!

You are into guns, puzzles, books, swords, farm animals, and music.

You became a big brother at the beginning of this year, which I thought would rock your world. But it didn’t seem to phase you; Anna just fit into our routine and you share your time and love with her. I’m excited to watch your relationship develop and change over the years. I pray that you will be life long friends!

You are still sensitive and tender hearted. You don't like to rock the boat and are very receptive to correction.

You seem interested in Spiritual things and don’t want to go to bed without reading from your Bible and singing hymns. (That may not have anything to do with the Bible though. Haha!) You have easily memorized the first few catechism questions and a handful of verses. Our prayer is that these truths are taking root in your heart!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kellen Brooks--I love you more than words can say!

New Year

Off we go into a new year! And this year promises to hold lots of excitement for our family.

As I've mentioned in the past, Tandon's work schedule is far from family friendly, which is not something we want long term for our family. For a long time now we have been praying that God would open wide a door for Tandon to make a job change that would both provide for us financially and also allow us to attend church and have dinner together on a regular basis. Having just bought our home in Northwest Arkansas, Tandon has been searching for jobs in this area only. However, God answered our prayer in an unexpected way. The company that Tandon worked for when we got married approached him in mid December and asked if he would like to run one of their stores. They are opening stores in Houston and Omaha in 2011 and we were given the choice on which location we want. The position would be managing a contractor sales store so the hours would not be evenings or weekends. The company is openly Christian and uses hardwood sales as a platform to share Christ with contractors that they build relationships with. All of these things are very appealing to us--M-F hours, contractor sales as opposed to Suzy Homeowner, and a Greater Purpose to go to work every day! After prayer and council we have made the decision to put our house on the market and move to Omaha, Nebraska as soon as we can get a bite on the house.

This is all totally crazy!! However, Tandon and I both have no doubt that God has been working out the details for this job situation and He will continue to work out the housing details.

In thinking through the past year we have asked ourselves--why did God allow us to buy a house in NWA when He knew this job opportunity was right around the corner? Maybe it was so that He could show us even further His hand in this situation. Don't know?? But we have complete confidence He will bring the right buyer at the right time.

We would appreciate your prayers right now. Specifically for a buyer for our house, peace that God is in fact in control of the timing of our move, wisdom as to how to handle the move if the house doesn't sell in a timely fashion, and a sense of security for Kellen (His response when I told him we were going to move was, "Let's not do dat." He has no idea that this move will mean more than just leaving our house but also our friends and church. It's going to be hard on him!)

We are ringing in the new year with an abundance of change, a sense of peace, and an excitement for what God has in store for our family.

"O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to your name; for you have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness." Isaiah 25:1

WHY?

I thought maybe we had been blessed to skip this phase.

But I was wrong.

It has begun.


Why is Christmas over?
Why did I toot?
Why are there balls in this toy?
Why did I get that for Christmas?
Why is there a sign in our yard?
Why is Elmo on my bed?



Hoping and praying this doesn't last long. Surely he will figure out rather fast that: I DON'T KNOW!!

Christmas in Oklahama

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Monday, December 27th. It was a fast and furious trip but well worth the effort. My mom and dad are in Oklahoma right now caring for my terminally ill grandfather so it was kind of a strange celebration. But we were able to sneak away and use my uncle's hotel room to spend some time together as a family.

As always happens when I'm with my family, I took pictures with everyone else's camera but not mine. I only got this one fuzzy picture on Tandon's phone of Kellen in his Goliath outfit. Maybe someday life will slow down and I can get someone to email pictures to me. By the way, Goliath has always been and continues to be Kellen's favorite Bible character despite everyone telling him that David was the real hero of the story. Oh well! Goliath was much more exciting than David. :)



We were able to spend some quality time with Mema that evening. And Poppy woke up a couple of times while we were there and lit up when he saw the kids. Glad we were able to see everyone, even if it wasn't a "typical" Christmas celebration.