Meant To Be

Anyone that knows our family knows that Parker is....a handful.  He is the sweetest, funniest, most affectionate wild boy I know!

But being his Mom can be difficult. I often feel like I am doing everything wrong. People have always told me that God gave him to us because we are the perfect parents for him. When told this I would think to myself, "what do I know?" "what do I have to offer this child?" "I feel so unequipped". I knew that God gave him to us because His design is perfect, but I honestly hadn't seen how I was better equipped to be his Mom.

Until today.

He had a really bad time at the dentist this morning and I was able to talk him down and he got the fillings done. I went back knowing what to say and how to say it to calm him down. 6 months ago he and I both would have been frustrated with each other and both would have ended up crying! (True story, this happened at a new church we went to visit. Best Mom day ever. Not)

Thanks to counseling, Parker is learning how to control himself and I am learning how to handle situations better by understanding him better.  God has shown me in the past couple of months how to be the Mom to Parker He always had planned for me! There are still days I feel confused, but the nights I go to bed feeling like a total failure are less and less. So, Yay for that! :)

I still get really frustrated with people when I feel like they are judging him or us as his parents because he has a difficult time controlling himself. I want people to see the hilarious tender hearted boy he really is under all that crazy energy! But for now, I will be proud of him because he is doing well in, and enjoying gymnastics. I will be thankful he is finally bathing himself without whining. (I may just kiss his counselor for that one!) I will be joyful that he likes school and is controlling himself during class. (And that he has a teacher that is truly God sent!) I will be thankful we do not yell in our house anymore. I will be optimistic that we will have more "good" days than "bad" ones. And when I see all the greatness in him, others will too.

Mothers Day Poem

I mean, really. How can you not love this kid? :)

Spring Break! Woo Hoo!

Spring Break has been great so far! I promised myself and the kids we would do 3 things everyday.

1. Do bible study and an activity from this book



It is awesome.

2. A craft. I have a plethora of activities pinned on Pintrest and thought this week would be a great time to do some of them. So yesterday we did this







































The finished products:
Not much sun today but you get the idea :) Ava's is on the left and Parker's is on the right. Ava liked this a lot more than I thought she would. She spent a long time trying to fill in all her empty spaces and saying "Excuse me!" to any beads she had to push out of the way. You can go here to see how to make your own. I changed mine by adding ribbon. I just love them!

I actually planned out all of our crafts and bought all the supplies we would need this past weekend. I know, I know, you can pick yourself up off the floor now :)

3. I am going to clean, organize and decorate 1 room each day. This is the best way for me to tie up all the loose ends in each room. Getting pictures and curtains hung usually takes me months (sometimes years) but not this time! I am almost done decorating the house!

We got to spend some time playing in the backyard yesterday before it rained and I got a few "model" poses from the kids. Enjoy.






Happy Tuesday!
The Brooks Family

no facebook = rebooting blog

Ok, folks! For all of you that are bummed Stephen and I cancelled our facebook accounts I will TRY to blog here as much as possible so you can keep up with our lives and look at pics of our crazy familly :) I will post about Ava's 2nd birthday later this week.

29 weeks, glucose test & aching joints!

Well, I am into my 29th week, 9 weeks to go! Here is a picture of my ever growing belly. And a shot of me at 29 weeks with Parker.


I had my glucose test last Thursday, it's a test they do to check you for gestational diabetes. You have to fast and drink this sugary orange drink then wait an hour then they draw your blood. Well, my glucose level was 162, normal is under 120. So now I have to go back this Thursday and take the 3 hr glucose test. This time they take my blood every hour for 3 hours. I am REALLY not looking forward to this because last week I was getting really sick at the end of the hour so I have no idea how I'll feel after 3 hours! Thankfully my mother-in-law is coming up to watch Parker for me so he doesn't have to go this time.

I have my monthly OB appointment today. These have been going well, nothing much to report. At some point I'll start going every 2 weeks then weekly but I'm not sure when that starts.

I've been feeling pretty achy and sore. My hips and knees hurt at night despite sleeping with a special pillow. Thankfully it works it self out after I am up for a while!

Parker is being as cute as ever. He is very into swaddling his stuffed animals and taking care of them. He actually got a baby stroller this weekend at a yard sale and has been pushing Elmo around in for days! I think he'll take to this big brother thing very well. He actually got to feel the baby move this weekend too. I think it freaked him out a little!

We have our tour of the hospital and Parker's sibling class scheduled. He isn't allowed to do the tour with us so he has to take the class to get a tour but I think it'll be fun. They teach the children how to swaddle (we got that down!) and how to hold a baby and be safe around them. It should be fun! We also have the baby shower scheduled so that means we need to register soon. I've had fun going to Target and looking around, I can't wait to get that scanner in my hands!

Until next time!

25 weeks

Here is my 25 week picture with Parker and baby girl.

I have an OB appointment on Tuesday. I'm a little nervous because at my appointment last month I had lost a pound so that's a weight gain of 4 lbs so far. It's got to catch up with me at some point! I know I have a 10 lb gain coming! LOL I also have to take Parker with me to all of my appointments now so that should be interesting. Wish me luck!

Plans for this weekend are to have Parker stay with Mom and Dad so we can go see Harry Potter. (YAY!) We're also going to set up the bunk beds, get the changing table/dresser/hutch combo from storage, get our living room chair from storage and take our love seat and 2 tv stands we are using for storage in Parker's room to the dump. Hopefully we can get a lot done while Parker is at his Granny and Papa's house!

Update you later!

It's a Girl!

We found out June 24 that Parker is getting a little sister. Name TBA after birth! :) Below are some ultra sound pictures.





I am 25 weeks today. Only 13 to go!!!! Things are going well. I can really tell that my ribs and stuff are stretching out so that's pretty uncomfortable. She is also REALLY low and constantly on my bladder. I can feel her kick all the time (mostly at night) which is really cool to know she's doing well in there.

I went part time last week so now I am off Tuesday's and Thursday's. I really had a great time. I ran errands, did stuff around the house, took Parker to the pool, took naps. Pretty much exactly what the Dr ordered! IT made work much more enjoyable the days I was there too! I really feel so blessed and hope this helps to balance out my life some.

We have decided to stay in our townhouse for another year and the reorganizing and purging has begun! Mom came up and did a yardsale with us a couple of weeks ago and we got rid of a lot of stuff so that helped. Parker has inherited the bunk beds that my sister Sandy and I had when we were teenagers and that my nephew Ian has had the past few years. They still have to be put up and mattress bought but we have time. He is really excited about getting his "Super Hero Squad" sheet set. Geez, Boys! :) On that note, we (actually Mom) bought the baby girl bedding!!!! I had picked this out when I was pregnant with Parker (and obviously didn't need it) and Toys R Us had it on clearance for $60.00. So we ran out and snatched it up. I love, love, love it!




Since the kids will be sharing a room all we got was the 4 piece set with the blanket, sheet, dust ruffle and bumper. The light pink part is a really thick courdaroy and the blanket is fleece lined. So great for a fall baby! I haven't decided what to do about the mobile. It is not on clearance anywhere and the cheapest I found it online is $30. Not sure it it's worth it our not...

As always I am bedind on posting my belly pictures. Below is my 21 week picture with Baby Girl and with Parker.




I'll try really hard to post my 25 week one tomorrow!
Bye!

20 weeks and counting!

Today i am 20 weeks (over half way there)! I have my C-section scheduled for October 13th at 7:45 am (at 38weeks). I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are!

Things are moving right along. My belly is ever expanding, heartburn and backaches continue but it'll be fine! I have started having charlie horses again which occur in the middle of the night in my calves so I have to wake Stephen up to help massage them out. He is such a good sport! Not many men could go right into massaging at 2:00 am when there wife is whimpering in pain, I guess it's old news for him b/c it was the same when I was preggers with Parker!

I still haven't gone part time at work yet and don't know when that will happen. We need to train the new girl but she hasn't been in much yet. I'm crossing my fingers for July!

The hunt continues for a new place to live. I have given up the search and past it to Stephen. He is doing a great job finding stuff in our price range, they have just been too small or run down. We're going to look at another place today, so we'll see. We've talked to our rental company about staying here. They said they would replace the carpet and that was one of my major issues. We would have to be creative with our space and organizing and get rid of some things but it would work. So at least we have that option!

Parker is still excited about the baby and is as cute as ever. When I am getting dressed in the morning he likes to play the "drums" on my belly and he gives it kisses and lays his cheek on it. It is so sweet! I hope he'll be as sweet to his little sister or brother once it's here!


I'm a little behind posting my belly pictures but here is my 17 weeeks photo with baby # 2 and with Parker. Enjoy!