Long time, no post:(

Well, we finally got over the stomach virus and had a very busy December and a wonderful Christmas. Even though Steele was not feeling well Christmas morning, the best Christmas present I got was hearing his laughter when he saw his presents from Santa. His eyes lit up and he giggled. He loves his horse barn, tricycle and his "shootin" tent. He calls it a shootin tent because it looks camoflauge. He was so happy and has loved playing with his new toys. I can not keep his room clean from all the animals that Santa brought with his horse barn. Oh well, maybe one of these days. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family and friends this holiday. Here are some pictures from a great Christmas.

Steele and his horse barn

Riding his new tricycle! Daddy had to let the seat down so he could reach the peddles.

checking out his shootin tent

He loves this Lightning McQueen camera and thinks he is really taking pictures of everyone.

"Say Cheese Momma!"

Steele looking inside his stocking to see what Santa left in there.

Go away, go away!

I am wishing the stomach virus to go away from my house. It started with me before Thanksgiving, went to Steele, to JP, back to me, and now back to JP. It is not fun guys, especially when you are pregnant. I know this little guy is wondering what the heck is going on with mommy right now. So anyway, that is why there have been no posts. I did manage to drag myself to the Christmas parade last night just so I could see Steele's face. He was cold though but got warmed up by some chocolate chip cookies and then got wired. Today I took some cute pictures for the Christmas card with our awesome new Canon Rebel XS that was an early Christmas present from John Paul's parents to JP and me. It is amazing the difference from our old one. I am so glad Christmas is almost here, but starting to sweat because I haven't bought any presents. Must go shopping!!!

waving to Santa


after the chocolate cookies

Maybe My Lucky Day after Fryday...

MckMama is having another contest. MckMama is an awesome inspiration and has an amazing story from God that you can follow on her blog. I have been following (stalking) for a while now and praying for her and her beautiful family along the way. Today, I'm gonna try to win some goodies though. She is having a Fryday contest and how could I not enter with such a cute picture of Small Fry to look at. Just go to her blog My Charming Kids to check it out and maybe you can have a lucky day after fryday too. Have a great weekend!!!!

Sufficient Grace

I really feel God is leading me to write this post. I think that there are a lot of things that I don't get out and talk about much. I tend to keep most things bottled up inside and they all just spew out sometimes. Especially when you are 22 weeks pregnant and hormones are raging, I cry at EVERYTHING. The Lord has really been working in my heart lately though. My wonderful Gramps died in March of this year. He was an awesome man of the Lord late in his life and he was such an example for our whole family. In 2006 he was diagnosed with cancer in his nose. Eventually it spread to his mouth, lungs, etc. He was very strong throughout his whole battle. He lost his entire nose and continued to go out and especially to church with a bandage across his face. The last time he was in church was less than a month before he died, it was raining and cold outside and he told Nanny he wanted to go to church. This was a man who longed to get out on a cold, wet day and worship in God's house when he couldn't even sit in the comfort of his home and stay warm. Wow, what a man of God! It's hard not to wonder why God placed this battle on such a great man. Our pastor preached the best sermon at his funeral we could have asked for. It was so inspiring, yet I have still been going through terrible times trying to get back in a constant walk with my Lord. Our Sunday School class is doing a study right now on a book called The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordeiro. It is a wonderful book that focuses on growing our faith specifically through sitting at the feet of Jesus and reading his word and learning from the mentors he placed in the Bible to teach us.

Well today as I sat at the table doing my devotion and eating breakfast with Steele, God touched my heart so deeply. I was reading from 2 Corinthians 12. Paul was telling of a time when he asked for relief from a physical struggle that he was having and God told him this. 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Wow, God's grace is all we need. We may face cancer, sickness, hurt, war, and many many other things but God's grace is all we need. Christ's power in Paul, in my Gramps, in so many others was more important than for us to be relieved from whatever suffering we may go through. This just gives me a tiny glimpse of why my precious Gramps had to suffer like he did. It was because of Christ power in him that was shining to so many others and how did I not realize this until today. I think Gramps realized it though. I know he is in heaven with his Lord healed completely and I can't wait until I see him again someday.

Thanks for listening to my heart today. I don't usually express my feelings for all of blog world to see. I just really felt God leading me to post this.

Here is a pic of my Gramps and Steele when Steele was a baby.

Talking to Baby Brother

Steele's big thing right now is talking to Baby Bruuther inside my tummy. He has to lift up my shirt and talk to him at least once a day. Well, first thing this morning when he sat up in bed that's what he did. He lifted my shirt and said "What you doing, baby bruuther?" At that exact minute my stomach growled. Steele's face lit up and he said "Oohh, he pooted!" It was hilarious, I have been laughing about it all day. I couldn't help but share.

Playin' and Pickin'

Friday night we went to the mall to see Santa. I know, I know I can't believe it, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Which by the way, I am planning an I'm Thankful for ... post coming up soon. Steele was pumped about seeing Santa and telling him what he wanted for Christmas, a horse barn and a bicycle. That was until we had to wait in the line that wrapped around the new play place in the middle of the mall. Now don't get me wrong it is a really nice play place and my mom was awesome for standing in the line forever while I watched Steele play and we waited to see Santa. The only problem was when it was actually our turn to see Santa, my child was in complete hysterics because we had to leave the play place. He absolutely loved it. It has all these soft things to climb on, a slide, tunnels to crawl through, and children running everywhere. He had a blast chasing little girls around and climbing on everything. So after I got him out crying and screaming we were almost to Santa. But when we got to Santa, he had calmed down a bit and then the breaker to the camera and the lights around Santa blew. So we had to wait and wait again. By this time Steele was not interested in sitting in Santa's lap at all. So needless to say even though Gram waited in line forever, we got no picture with Santa :( But I did have my camera and took pictures of him playing.

I love this sweet pic of him!!

I also love these two of him being silly, he is such a mess. He loved the Christmas decorations at the mall and now I can't wait to put up our tree!!
So that was pics of him playin' in the mall Friday night and now pics of him pickin' on Sunday. Pickin' what you may ask?

No, not boogers, PECANS! We have 2 huge pecan trees in our yard and we have hundreds of pecans. Steele helped, well kind of helped pick up pecans Sunday afternoon. He would help for a while and then try to pour them all out again.

I Swear I Put Them On One At a Time!!

(Just for the record, these are not mine and I did not declare that they were all seperate when I bought them and now they won't come apart. There is no way they were seperate when someone bought them. Ha, Ha!)

I had a blast hanging out with my high school friends this weekend. We had a girls night at The Veranda in Starkville and I really needed it. I have not hung out and talked with some of these girls :( in way too long!! We had a great meal, great conversation (of course), and a lot of fun. Girls I love all of ya'll and I had so much fun Saturday night hanging out. I think we need to do it much, much more often!!

Me, Mollie, Emily Jo, Emily L.,Tara, Paige, Haley, Kathryn, and Nikki

Just for Fun

I saw this on Laura Tomlinson's blog and thought it would be a fun little post to do today.

1. Choose the 4th folder on my computer.

2. Choose the 4th picture in that folder.

3. Explain that picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

Here it is...

This is a picture of my wonderful mom and I at my awesome baby shower almost 3 years ago. Wow, and to think that I will be this way in just a few short months again. I loved the cake for that shower, it had a cute little frog on it:) I have wonderful friends who threw the shower for me! Love ya'll!!

I tag: Mary Lee, Sally, Emily, and Alison. Have fun guys!!

Disney on Ice

Thursday night we went to Disney on Ice. Gram took us again this year. Steele was in awe as you can see in this picture. He didn't move for quite a while when it first started.

Steele and CoCo had a great time eating pizza, trying on the fish hat that came with the (expensive) cotton candy, and just watching the show.

Monkey on Parade

My little monkey did not want to be still for the photo shoot I had planned before trick or treating. I wanted to get one good one of him with our fall scarecrow and pumpkin, but this year it didn't work out. He's still a cute little monkey!

Still not cooperating for the camera!

Steele and Jessica with their vampire teeth!


Steele and Daddy trick or treating. Honestly we didn't do a whole lot of trick or treating, more socializing!

Steele and his best friend Millie Kate at the Fall Festival! Are they cute or what?

It's a .......

Everything went great at the doctor on Monday and Baby Brooks #2 is a BOY!! Yayyyyyyy, I am super excited. Although I know deep down inside that I want a little girl someday, I knew and wanted this one to be a boy. I can just imagine he and Steele being best buddies and playing together. JP was a little disappointed, he said that he didn't know what he really wanted until he heard her say it was a boy, then his heart dropped. He has actually wanted a girl from before we wanted to start having babies. He is excited now though and says he has to find some more land to lease for hunting if we are gonna have 2 boys in the house. Steele on the other hand is anti-baby right now. Any time you ask him about his baby brother or baby at all he says "No!". I have a feeling that we are going to have some trouble from our attention loving only child.

Here are some stats from Monday:

19 weeks and 3 days

baby weighs 11 ounces

heartbeat was 154 beats/min.

my tummy measures 21 cm

all organs looked good

Steele said he was swimmin'

We have a big weekend. We've already tried out the monkey costume last night at Fall Festival. We are going to Disney on Ice tonight with Gram and Co-Co going too. Then we will don the monkey costume again Friday night to go trick or treating. Will post pics later! Have a great weekend!!

Baby Brooks #2

We go to the doctor Monday morning at 9:00 for a sonogram to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm really excited. I'm not very much on patience when it comes to things like this. I want to have everything ready in March when the baby makes its arrival. I'm not even sure what I think it is but I will vote too.

Please vote to the right on what you think Baby Brooks #2 will be!!

Marmie's Birthday and Scaaarryyy Pumpkins!

We went out to eat last week for Marmie's birthday and I took a few pictures of Steele with KK and Clare and Marmie. We had a great supper and a great time with our family.

Steele and Marmie

Steele and KK



Steele and Clare

Wednesday we carved Steele's first pumpkin. He wanted it to have a "scaarrryy" face so Daddy made it as scary as he could. Steele loved it. He helped clean it out and threw the seeds all over the carport. I don't know what the hands are for. Every time I would take a picture he put his hands up like this.

Wordless Wednesday cont.

Wordless Wednesday

The "Buffawo" Park

We went to the Buffawo Park, as Steele calls it on Saturday. Our main reason for going was to see the baby giraffe but we enjoyed all of it. Steele loves to sit in my lap while I'm on the computer. He was telling me about the pictures as I was editing them, so I think I will tell you in his words about our trip to the Tupelo Buffalo Park.

Steele: "See the zebra, buffawo, camel."

Steele: It's like a big buffawo!

Steele: Standing on the fence seeing the buffawo.

Steele: walking in the rocks

Steele: Cow not get out of the way! Get out of the way Lucy! Momma, cows name Lucy.

Steele: Camels name Joe.

Me: Tell me about Joe.

Steele: Joe bite you.

Steele: baby buffawo

Steele: This ones a lion. Lion stands up on the table. I see it.

Steele: I see a baby g-raf , big g-raf, and momma g-raf. Momma, wait it's a momma g-raf here. Momma, wait Steele Brooks baby g-raf. Momma you a g-raf?

Me: Am I a g-raf?

Steele: uh-huh

Steele (as he goes in the living room): Daddy, you a g-raf?

Daddy: No

Steele: Daddy, you the big g-raf in the piture on the puter.

Steele: G-raf eat out of Steele Brooks hand.

Steele: Yucky! Yucky hands.

Me: Why was it yucky?

Steele: It was yucky hands.

Me: Why was it yucky?

Steele: Not talking.

Steele: Steele Brooks eat wafers in the Buffawo Park.

Me: Were you playing in the fort?

Steele: Surely does.

(This is Steele's signature saying, he says it anytime you ask him anything, Sure does.)